Unraveling
“I don’t think ultimately that the Europeans will let the euro unravel, but they are going to have to take some decisive steps,” Mr. Obama told a $40,000-a-plate fund-raiser at the NoMad Hotel in New York, according to Bloomberg News. “And I am spending an enormous amount of time, trying to work with them. The sooner that they take some decisive action, the better off we are going to be.” (NYT, 7/31/2012)
Saving the euro. So that's what he's been doing!
Silly Season
Democrat Elizabeth Warren admitted today it was “silly” for her to say that Wall Street execs are behind her because she can rescue capitalism. (BostonHerald.com, 7/31/2012)
Warren has still not walked back her claim to be 1/32nd Native American (or was it 1/48th?). Nor has she clarified how it is that she provided the moral underpinnings of the Occupy protests. Nor has she retracted the words which Obama parroted in his now infamous "You didn't build that" fiasco.
And why are Republicans dancing in the aisles? Maybe because of this:
Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful Elizabeth Warren has been given a primetime speaking slot at the Democratic National Convention. (BostonHerald.com, 7/31/2012)
Culture Club
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney angered Palestinian leaders on Monday when he suggested here that the Israeli economy had outpaced the economy of the Palestinian territories in part because of advantages of “culture.”
Palestinians said that Romney had ignored the long-running Israeli restrictions on crossings from the Gaza Strip and West Bank, which they say are an enormous drag on trade. The Romney campaign disputed media accounts of Romney’s remarks. (Washington Post, 7/30/2012)
The Post and the balance of the state-controlled media have a huge interest in belittling Romney on foreign policy. It allows them to NOT talk about the U.S. economy. Hence we get endless coverage of Romney's comments about British preparedness for the Olympics (when, in fact, the security firm hired by the British government admitted it had not hired everyone it had promised to). And now we will get endless coverage of the Palestinians and culture. Once again, however, Romney is right and he should not step back from his remarks.
The Palestinians can whine all they want about border crossings, but the ugly truth is that their "culture" as currently evidenced justifies strapping suicide vests to their children. As we have said before, the Palestinians need a Gandhi. But they get Yasir Arafat and his successors. Hundreds of millions (billions?) of dollars have made their way to the Palestinian cause over the decades. Money that could have built infrastructure, hospitals, schools. How much of that money went towards guns and explosives? Yes, "culture" explains it.
Formality
Former President Bill Clinton is set to play a central part in the Democratic convention, aides said, and will formally place President Obama’s name into nomination by delivering a prime-time speech designed to present a forceful economic argument for why Mr. Obama deserves to win a second term. (NYT, 7/29/2012)
Here RedStateVT presents the likely internal dialogs of the respective parties:
Clinton: I can't believe it! First this guy steamrolls over Hillary instead of waiting his turn, then he screws the whole thing up. How many times did I have to say it: "Triangulate.!" Now they want the Big Dog to come in and save his behind!
Obama: I can't believe it! When am I going to be free of these people? I put Hillary in State to keep them quiet and now all I hear is that she is a rock star. And don't get me started on the other one. First he says extend the Bush tax cuts, then he keeps talking about how everything was so much better when he ran things. If I hear "triangulate" one more time I am going to punch him out!
Doctor Doctor
The Obama administration has sought to ease the shortage. The health care law increases Medicaid’s primary care payment rates in 2013 and 2014. It also includes money to train new primary care doctors, reward them for working in underserved communities and strengthen community health centers.
But the provisions within the law are expected to increase the number of primary care doctors by perhaps 3,000 in the coming decade. Communities around the country need about 45,000. (NYT, 7/28/2012)
An entire article devoted to the growing shortage of doctors and the wondrous efforts of the Obama administration to ease said shortage. Not one word - not one - on the surveys that say that Obamacare is causing enormous numbers of doctors to consider leaving the field. Already in Vermont, with its mad dash for government run health care, doctors are leaving the state and difficulties have arisen in trying to recruit new doctors.
Provisional
A provision most likely to disenfranchise voters is a requirement that people show photo identification to vote. Millions of Americans don’t have these forms of ID, and many can’t easily obtain them, even when states say they’ll offer them free, because getting the documentation to obtain the “free” ID takes time and money. (Charles M. Blow, NYT, 7/27/2012)
Just when RedStateVT thought that it had solved the voter ID issue by suggesting that Obama pay for picture IDs, along comes Blow to tell us it will not work. We are not sure what the problem is, but it sort of sounds like maybe even given free IDs, Blow's constituents don't have the time. How about this then? If you do not want to take even the slightest responsibility for participating in this democracy, then you don't get to vote. Still the best line about Blow's columns (might have been James Taranto): 'They are used as punch lines for other writers.'
Conjured
The tragedy of the Obama Presidency is that it ignored the supply side: the producers, the risk-takers, the salary earners who put in 50 and 60 hours a week to get ahead. They have been battered by Washington, and no matter how much government tries to conjure growth with more spending and easier monetary policy, businesses won't produce and workers won't work if government threatens to confiscate returns. (WSJ, 7/27/2012)
"Confiscate returns." What a great expression! RedStateVT has believed for a while now that businesses have been standing pat, waiting for a more friendly government. Meanwhile Obama has believed that the inherent greed of capitalist business owners would eventually cause them to begin hiring and spending, spurring the economy and generating more tax revenue for him to redistribute. Guess who is winning?
Meanwhile, the following article reminds us of how Obama and Liberals target certain businesses for the sole purpose of raising revenue for their programs. Tanning salons, cigarette manufacturers or medical device companies, the objective is to pick on an industry without strong political connections or that manufactures or provides a disagreeable (to the Left) product or service.
An Indiana-based medical equipment manufacturer says it's scrapping plans to open five new plants in the coming years because of a looming tax tied to President Obama's health care overhaul law. Cook Medical claims the tax on medical devices, set to take effect next year, will cost the company roughly $20 million a year, cutting into money that would otherwise go toward expanding into new facilities over the next five years. "This is the equivalent of about a plant a year that we're not going to be able to build," a company spokesman told FoxNews.com. He said the original plan was to build factories in "hard-pressed" Midwestern communities, each employing up to 300 people. But those factories cost roughly the same amount as the projected cost of the new tax.
"In reality, we're not looking at the U.S. to build factories anymore as long as this tax is in place. We can't, to be competitive," he said. Company executive Pete Yonkman first revealed the scuttled plans in an interview with the Indianapolis Business Journal. The company later confirmed the decision to FoxNews.com. The Affordable Care Act imposed a 2.3 percent tax on medical devices beginning in 2013. It is projected raise nearly $30 billion over the next decade. (Foxnews.com, 7/27/2012)
Violated
Before the vote this week, the Energy and Commerce Committee released a report on the Solyndra fiasco for taxpayers, noting that the department's decision to allow other private investors to have their financing paid back before the government's guaranteed loan would be repaid violated the law. (WSJ, 7/27/2012)
In a Republican administration, Solyndra would be the lead story on the news every night. As would Fast and Furious and the White House intelligence leaks. Instead, we get "Mitt Romney offended the Brits."
Speaking of which, Rush Limbaugh reminded us of the backdrop to Romney's comments on British preparedness for the Olympics. A week or two ago, the private security company contracted by the British government for the games admitted that it had not been able to hire all of the personnel it had expected to. A reasonable person would, therefore, conclude that they might not be "prepared."
Which is what Romney said.
Which apparently was offensive...to the American media we guess.
Reconciliation
In some ways it seems as if Mr. McCain remains unable to reconcile the rightward lurch he took two years ago with his clear desire to continue to put his stamp on myriad issues — at times bridging partisan divides — to burnish his legacy. (NYT, 7/26/2012)
An interesting linguistic trick often used by the Liberal media: a Republican politician will take a "rightward lurch." What will a Democrat politician do who - let's say - decides to embrace gay marriage? If you thought he took a "leftward lurch" you are wrong. He "evolved."
Erstwhile
As for Poland, it was stunned by Obama’s unilateral cancellation of a missile defense agreement signed with the Bush 43 administration. Having defied vociferous Russian threats in order to help us defend against Iranian missiles, the Poles expected better treatment than to wake up one morning — the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland, no less — to find themselves the victim of Obama’s “reset” policy of accommodation with Russia. So much for protection from Russian bullying, something they thought they had finally gained with the end of the Cold War. (Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, 7/26/20120
Why Romney is going to Poland.
Mythology
...the notion that the president was not born in the United States remains at the epicenter of the anti-Obama mythology. Here is the conspiracy that would have had to exist if Barack Hussein Obama II were not born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on Aug. 4, 1961: First, the local newspapers would have had to have been in on the scheme, because they ran notices of his birth among all the other local births that week.
...
While living in Jakarta from ages 6 through 9, young Obama temporarily took the last name of his stepfather, Soetoro, for school purposes. He was listed as a Muslim on school documents because students were listed in the religion of their fathers. (David Maraniss, Washington Post, 7/27/2012)
The Washington Post titles this article by Maraniss, author of a current Obama biography: "The right's contemptible myths."
Let's review just two.
Maraniss claims that the (contemptible) birther myth is dispelled by the fact that BHO II's birth announcement ran in the Honolulu newspapers. Maraniss apparently has not read Jerome Corsi's book entitled "Where's the Birth Certificate?" If he had, he would have learned - as Corsi tells us - that in those days in Hawaii anyone could walk into a newspaper office and report a birth. No proof of birth was required. The newspaper simply printed what someone told them.
The second (contemptible) myth is that Obama is a Muslim. Well, we don't think that he is, but for heaven's sake! Given what Maraniss himself tells us - that Obama was listed as a Muslim on school records - is it so outrageous, is it so contemptible that someone might think this?
RedStateVT Resolves Voter ID Controversy
The voter identification issue (a.k.a. Republican voter suppression) is a ridiculous topic, even by the low standards of Liberals. Notwithstanding people of color represented in every walk of life - a black President, Attorney General, congressmen, CEOs, generals, coaches, athletes, movie stars, millionaires, billionaires, etc. - we are somehow supposed to believe that poor blacks and minorities are going to be too intimidated to go to the polls if they are asked for a picture ID. This is the image promulgated by Liberals abetted by race-baiters like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton who have staked their entire careers on this static view of society. We wonder, by the way, what Jesse Jackson, Jr. - who, we suspect, grew up with white friends and attended top schools - thinks of his Dad's view of social equality. He might think that Dad is old fashioned.
The Liberal argument that blacks are going to be intimidated to the point that they will not vote is outrageously insulting....to black people. It is a stereotype as unjust and racist as any out there and Liberals are the ones saying it.
The second piece of the Liberal argument is that Voter ID laws are unnecessary because voter fraud is so rare as to be practically non-existent. Thanks to the Breitbart crew, however, we have footage showing the ease with which anyone can walk in, claim to be someone else, and get a ballot. Meanwhile the only voter intimidation we see is of the New Black Panther Party menacing a polling location. Predictably, Liberals ignore these tidbits, a.k.a. evidence.
So, RedStateVT will solve the problem. Obama will wave his magic wand and decree that everyone who wants one, can get a free picture ID courtesy of the government. Obama will even pay for bus fare for anyone needing it to go and get the ID (the cost of which having been put forth as an huge obstacle by Liberals).
Could Obama do it?
Of course he could having already spent billions on various pet projects and mandated which laws he will and will not enforce. With the solution to a pressing social issue so obvious and so easily solved, the question is whether Obama will take these simple steps. Our guess is that he will not. Why? Because voter suppression is not, in fact, a problem and shamelessly portraying Republicans as racists is too important to his re-election effort.
And Counting
That leaves 11 members of the European Union that do not recognize gay marriage or registered partnerships. (NYT, 7/25/2012)
The New York Times takes a break from writing about transgender issues and returns to strictly gay themes - their first love if you will. (Three new gay stories today!) And what do we learn (in a confusing and poorly written piece)? Well, that eleven of twenty seven countries of the European Union are not on board for gay marriage. We mention it only because Liberals are continually touting how advanced and civilized Europe is on issues ranging from gays to guns to the death penalty.
Letting Go
Just like Mitt Romney, Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett is a capitalist who seeks to maximize profits at the companies he buys. And just like the firms backed by Mitt Romney's Bain Capital, companies in the Berkshire portfolio sometimes have to let people go to maintain the health of the business.
But while President Obama has attacked Mitt Romney for his work at Bain, the president has hailed Mr. Buffett as a financial sage, relied on him for economic advice, hosted him at state dinners and even given him a Medal of Freedom. (James Freeman, WSJ, 7/25/2012)
We see (another) great Romney TV advertisement here!
Proven
This was a chance for Mitt Romney to show that he could be a better international leader than President Obama, who has already proved himself in that field. (New York Times editorial, 7/24/2012)
Obama has proved himself in foreign policy? Really, did we miss that memo? RedStateVT notes a new trend from the Obama re-election campaign (which, of course, includes the staff at the New York Times). They just say very debatable stuff about the last four years with no equivocation and no supporting arguments. Hence we get: "Our (economic) plan worked" and "(Obama) has already proved himself in that field." It is as though they are trying to slip it in without us noticing.
Believer
In his speech Tuesday, Mr. Romney cast himself as an “unapologetic believer in the greatness” of the United States while characterizing Mr. Obama as a leader who has “given trust where it is not earned, insult where it is not deserved, and apology where it is not due.” (NYT, 7/24/2012)
Wow. That's a pretty good line.
Fearful
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says he fears that Republicans would do to labor unions at a national level what they’ve sought to achieve in the states should Mitt Romney win the presidency and the GOP control Congress come next January. (MSNBC.com, 7/25/2012)
A Republican sweep? What does Labor know?
Around The World
Today, people are coming from around the world to Serbia for sex-change operations, which are now subsidized for Serbs by national health insurance...In Britain, where the procedure costs about $15,000 and is covered by the National Health Service, 143 such operations were performed in 2009, according to British news reports. (NYT, 7/23/2012)
Our future under Obamacare.
Running On Empty
Discussing his economic policies at a fundraiser in Oakland, California, last night, President Obama, told supporters that “we tried our plan — and it worked.”
“We tried that and it didn’t work,” Obama said of Mitt Romney’s proposed tax cuts and spending cuts, which he dismissed as a Bush-style “top down” economic policy. “Just like we’ve tried their plan, we tried our plan — and it worked,” he added later in the speech. “That’s the difference. That’s the choice in this election. That’s why I’m running for a second term.”
Obama made these comments in Oakland, where the unemployment rate was 13.7 percent in May 2012. The national unemployment rate is 8.2 percent — up from 8.1 percent in May — for the second straight month. (Washington Examiner, 7/24/2012)
The Romney team wakes up every day with a new gift courtesy of Obama: "The private sector is doing fine," "You didn't build it," and the latest, "We tried our plan - and it worked." If the Republicans lose in November it is their own fault.
Secrets
One of Barack Obama’s largest campaign bundlers is also the leader of a secretive Democratic money machine.
Kelly Craighead, who has pledged to raise at least $500,000 to Obama’s reelection campaign, serves as president and managing director of the Democracy Alliance, a group of wealthy Democratic donors founded in 2005 with seed money from left-wing billionaire George Soros.
The Alliance serves as a clearinghouse that connects donors to endorsed organizations—such as the Center for American Progress and the pro-Obama Super PAC Priorities USA—without threat of disclosure. The Alliance is not listed in any phonebook, and does not disclose its donors or endorsed organizations. (Washington Free Beacon, 7/24/2012)
The Washington Free Beacon scoops the Washington Post on this story of rich Democrats funneling money to Obama Super PACs. Just kidding! The Post was NEVER going to write the story.
A RedStateVT Exclusive
ABC News is investigating reports today that Aurora, Colorado shooter James Holmes was active in Republican party politics and had expressed admiration for Mitt Romney. One source told ABC that Holmes was rumored to be a supporter of the party's "War on Women." Other sources - who spoke on the condition of anonymity - said Holmes favored voter ID laws, development of the XL pipeline and deficit reduction.
Easy A
The latest shootings will almost certainly lead to efforts to tighten gun laws. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence issued a statement that laid the blame on lax gun laws: “The horrendous shooting in Aurora, Colo., is yet another tragic reminder that we have a national problem of easy availability of guns in this country.” (NYT, 7/20/2012)
A real life scene of murder and mayhem is tragically played out directly in front of graphic simulated scenes of violence of the kind served up regularly by Hollywood. The juxtaposition be damned, Liberals see the problem as guns and not the ongoing and relentless degradation of the culture. It is not, they say, the constant exposure to violence that must be tempered for that would offend the Hollywood elite who lend their prestige and financial support to the Liberal agenda. No, they say, the problem is access to guns.
Off Topic
Elizabeth Warren has been so prodigious in raising money for her Senate campaign in Massachusetts that she is on track to become the top fund-raiser for the Senate this year, as well as one of the top Congressional fund-raisers of all time. (NYT, 7/20/2012)
An entire article on the Elizabeth Warren - Scott Brown race in Massachusetts and not one single reference - not one - to the controversy over Warren's claims to be Native American. In Liberal Land, if the media does not report it, it did not happen.
The Great Beyond
The argument between left and right is about what you do beyond infrastructure. It’s about transfer payments and redistributionist taxation, about geometrically expanding entitlements, about tax breaks and subsidies to induce actions pleasing to central planners. It’s about free contraceptives for privileged students and welfare without work — the latest Obama entitlement-by-decree that would fatally undermine the great bipartisan welfare reform of 1996. It’s about endless government handouts that, ironically, are crowding out necessary spending on, yes, infrastructure. (Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, 7/19/2012)
The philosopher-king gets to the heart of the debate over "You Didn't Build It."
London Fund-Raisers Put Romney in a Scandal’s Glare
(New York Times headline, 7/20/2012)
Ten paragraphs later we read this......
But Democrats may be loath to draw attention to Mr. Romney’s donations from big banks like Barclays. Employees of the bank have contributed $34,800 to Mr. Obama and his joint effort with the Democratic National Committee. (Mr. Obama does not allow registered lobbyists to bundle for his campaign.)
This month, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. attended a fund-raiser in Park City, Utah, co-hosted by Mark Gilbert, a top executive at Barclays, who has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Mr. Obama’s re-election bid.
So what would have been a more honest headline if the New York Times was an objective newspaper? Perhaps something like:
LIBOR Scandal Complicates Fund Raising for Candidates
(RedStateVT headline, 7/20/2012)
Helpless
It won’t help him win many votes this year, but it should be noted that Barack Obama has been a good foreign policy president. He, Vice President Joseph Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the rest of his team have created a style of policy making that is flexible, incremental and well adapted to the specific circumstances of this moment. Following a foreign policy hedgehog, Obama’s been a pretty effective fox. (David Brooks, NYT, 7/19/2012)
This quote is excerpted from the Fiction section of the Times. With images still fresh of Hillary Clinton's motorcade being pelted with tomatoes, we get the storyline that Team Obama has got the foreign policy thing covered. To which we would note the following representative list: Obama stiffs Eastern Europe on missile defense and gets nothing in return from Putin, Obama stiffs America's most erstwhile ally Israel and gets nothing in return from the Arab world, Obama has largely been a bystander in the Arab spring after failing to support Iranian street protests ("leading from behind" doesn't count). Further, name one foreign leader that 'Obama the Fox' has bonded with in the way that Reagan, Bush and, heck, even Clinton did.
Burdens
A small number of people protesting abortions at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Burlington kept a wary 35-foot distance from the building’s entrance Wednesday morning.
...
Under new guidelines, the ability of opponents of contraception and abortion to communicate their messages “is not unduly restricted or overburdened,” the resolution states. (Burlington Free Press, 7/18/2012)
So let's take an informal survey. Since the beginning of time, what percentage of Planned Parenthood protesters do you think are opponents of abortion only, what percentage are opponents of contraception and abortion and what percentage are opponents of contraception only?
The correct answers are 100%, 0% and 0%.
So why does the Free Press mention contraception at all? Of course it is to paint these protesters as religious zealots.
Press Coverage of Vacation by Democrat Governor of New York and Republican Presidential Candidate
After the picture of his 30-inch catch prompted interest in his angling, the governor told an Albany radio station, WGDJ-AM, “I love being outside, and it’s just a great way to spend quality time.” He called the striped bass a “beautiful fish,” saying he preferred it over bluefish, fluke and porgies; described his preferred technique (trolling with umbrella rigs) and location (the Shinnecock Inlet); and was so detailed in his explication that the publication City and State likened it to “reading that chapter of ‘Moby Dick’ about different kinds of sailing knots.”
In the interview, Mr. Cuomo said he usually made the two-hour trip back to his Westchester County home rather than stay over on Long Island at his brother’s house. Sometimes, he will drive his prized 1968 Pontiac GTO convertible. (NYT, 7/18/2012)
While Americans across the country expressed continuing concern about the economy, Mitt Romney gathered his family and relatives at his lakefront estate in tony Wolfeboro. On tap were lavish meals and non-stop watersports on the Romney's extensive collection of boats and jet skis. Some members of the Romney clan could be seen playing croquet on the mansion's manicured lawn, while others enjoyed badminton. One local resident was heard to say: "This is all financed by the money he made shutting down companies and outsourcing jobs." (Representative News Report of Romney's July 4th vacation)
Free Ride
This isn't even Obama's only such revelatory comment of the past week. Politico.com reports that the president, in an interview with WTOL-TV of Toledo, Ohio, let the mask slip again when asked about the ObamaCare mandate tax. "It's less a tax or a penalty than it is a principle--which is you can't be a freeloader on other folks when it comes to your health care, if you can afford it," he said. (James Taranto, WSJ, 7/18/2012)
We love the comment that others have made how some of the previously aggrieved "uninsured" are now "freeloaders."
Fault Line
A long-awaited report on the Fort Hood shooting faults the FBI for numerous failures in the run-up to the massacre that left 13 dead, concluding that agents' assessment of Maj. Nidal Hasan was "belated, incomplete and rushed" -- and suggesting political correctness played a role in the bureau's decision not to investigate him more thoroughly. (Foxnews.com, 7/19/2012)
Well of course political correctness played a role! Liberals will not allow law enforcement to profile potential Muslim terrorists. So law enforcement does not do it. So Muslim terrorists commit acts of terror. And law enforcement is faulted for not stopping them.
And Americans die.
Presidential Campaign Recap
President Barack Obama and his photogenic wife Michelle took in a basketball game with daughters Sasha and Malia. The First Family was a picture of domestic bliss, highlighted when Barack smooched Michelle on the arena's "Kiss Cam." The audience roared its approval for such an extended period that on-court officials were forced to temporarily delay the resumption of the game. The President was invited to shoot free throws at halftime and hit nine out of ten causing announcers to ponder what would have happened had Obama followed his love of basketball and pursued a pro career.
Meanwhile, Mitt Romney continued to defend his record at Bain Capital where he is alleged to have committed felonious acts, pillaged the coffers of companies he invested in and outsourced jobs to Third World sweatshops.
Imagine
Imagine if you will that President George W. Bush was discovered to have been overseeing a secret CIA-sponsored program of assassinating Islamic militants. Bush's involvement went so far that he was personally picking the targets of these assassinations. You know what the reaction would be: an immediate call for Congressional hearings, demands from Bernie Sanders for Bush's impeachment and wall-to-wall ceaseless news coverage.
And yet we have Obama - not Bush - pulling the strings on these drone strikes and ..... that's right, deafening silence. (Don't get us wrong. We support drone strikes on Islamic terrorists!)
Correction
A company that plays a critical role in New Jersey’s corrections system, running halfway houses as large as prisons, has had such severe financial difficulties over the last four years that it contemplated filing for bankruptcy in 2010, according to newly disclosed documents.
Senior executives at the company, Community Education Centers, even feared at the time that they might not have enough money to pay workers, the documents show.
Community Education’s senior vice president, William J. Palatucci, is one of Gov. Chris Christie’s closest friends and political advisers, and Mr. Christie has long championed the company. (NYT, 7/16/2012)
The 10th article in the New York Times front page series on a company that NJ Republican Christie "championed." Now where is that article about the intelligence leaks out of the Obama White House........?
Supposedly
Suddenly we're supposed to believe that Hillary Clinton is a great secretary of state. (Bret Stephens, WSJ, 7/16/2012)
Good article by Stephens on an issue that we have thought about as well. What exactly has Hillary done? Having said that, we find ourselves developing a bit of a soft spot for Hill. (Wait! Who wrote that?) No fan of Hillary is RedStateVT, but she would have been far more preferable than Obama. Hillary learned her lesson on healthcare and likely would not have touched that rail. Also, Hillary would have learned from Bill the value of compromise. The Obama approach, of course, has been 'never mind the mid-term elections, let's double-down.'
The Campaign To Date
RedStateVT has been asked to weigh in on our impressions of the Romney campaign to date. Actually we run counter to the prevailing conservative critiques which see him as too passive and exhort him to "hit back harder" at smears from Team Obama (e.g. Romney might be a felon!) Further, we do not believe that he is simply "playing out the string" trying to avoid a mistake and waiting for the election to come to him. Instead, we believe that he is taking a patient approach. Romney has made two mistakes which we will talk about, but this stage of the campaign has modest goals: remain positive, create some buzz about the VP selection, make the obligatory stops (e.g. NAACP), raise money, and relentlessly remind voters that the campaign is about Obama's failed stewardship of the economy. Check, check, check, check and check.
At the same time, Romney or his surrogates have countered every charge that the Dems have thrown at him. If it feels as though Romney is taking it on the chin sometimes, that is only because the media magnify the Team Obama talking points while downplaying (or ignoring) anything too negative to Obama. Example: relentless front page coverage of Bain Capital on the one hand versus Diane Sawyer finally having to do a story on Fast and Furious the day AG Holder is held in contempt (and the best part is that she had to explain what the scandal is all about to the viewers who had never heard about it from her network!) Remember that Republicans always have to run against the Democrat opponent AND the (non-Fox) media.
Romney's strategy has forced Obama to go negative early, thereby turning The One into just another Chicago-style politician. All Romney has to do at this stage is remind voters that the Obama story was that he was a different kind of politician, a uniter. Well he ain't, and the people are seeing that.
Shortly, we believe, Koch money will start flowing and the campaign will get really hot. Stimulus waste, Solyndra, the XL pipeline, Fast and Furious, intelligence leaks, Obamacare...they will all hit the airwaves in a relentless assault the likes of which we will not have seen before. And Obama's numbers - which honest people will say are breaking even at best - will tank.
What about Romney's mistakes? Well, the muddle on whether the insurance mandate under Obamacare was a tax was a giant-size goof-up. Notwithstanding Justice Roberts' incomprehensible ruling, he did give Romney that as a gift. Romney can recover, but should not have put himself in that position. Second, Romney violated a cardinal rule of campaigning: never get photographed on ANY type of watercraft, unless it is military in nature.
Peek-A-Boo
They are supposed to be among Wall Street’s most closely guarded secrets: changes in research analysts’ views, up or down, of a company’s prospects. But some of the nation’s biggest brokerage firms appear to be giving a handful of top hedge funds an early peek at these sentiments — allowing them to trade on the information before other investors get the word. (NYT, 7/15/2012)
So now the all important question. Will Obama return the campaign contributions received from prominent hedge fund managers? If not, why not?
Double-Up
This fact is so obvious that there can only be one conclusion drawn when we hear the pronouncement, "Corporations aren't people"—that it's doublespeak. That is, when people say that corporations aren't people, what they really want to say is, "Business is evil." (Jack and Suzy Welch, WSJ, 7/15/2012)
Great point by the Welches echoing one that RedStateVT has often made. Businesses employ people, pay them salaries and benefits, and provide goods and services that people desire. And Liberals speak about them as though they were criminal enterprises.
Storyline
"When I think about what we've done well and what we haven't done well," the president said, "the mistake of my first term - couple of years - was thinking that this job was just about getting the policy right. And that's important. But the nature of this office is also to tell a story to the American people that gives them a sense of unity and purpose and optimism, especially during tough times." (Barack Obama)
We first heard this idea of "telling stories" several years ago at a Harvard Business School seminar. It was touted as a means for CEOs and senior business people to be more effective leaders. No doubt it comes from the same mindset that encouraged Al Gore to dress in "earth tones" and Howard Dean to embrace his "metrosexuality."
Without You
Without Penny Pritzker, it is unlikely that Barack Obama ever would have been elected to the United States Senate or the presidency. When she first backed him during his 2004 Senate run, she was No. 152 on the Forbes list of the wealthiest Americans. He was a long-shot candidate who needed her support and imprimatur. Mr. Obama and Ms. Pritzker grew close, sometimes spending weekends with their families at her summer home. (NYT, 7/15/2012)
Now they tell us?
Exhibition
The way Obama managed the Israeli-Palestinian issue exhibited many of the hallmarks that have defined his first term. It began with a bid for historic change. But it foundered ultimately on his political and tactical misjudgments, on a lack of trusted relationships and on an outdated view of a conflict that many of his closest advisers imparted to him. (Washington Post, 7/14/2012)
Great editorial in the Wall Street Journal.....wait.....a news article? In the Washington Post? Is it Backwards Day?
Hilltop
It doesn't matter a hill of beans when Romney left Bain. The discussion ought to be, when is Obama gonna leave the White House? What Romney did with his money is not my concern. What Obama is doing with our money is my concern. (RushLimbaugh.com, 7/13/2012)
We don't quote Rush enough. That has to change!
Welcome To California
Bill Delaney’s two little girls spend three nights a week with their fathers, at the home Mr. Delaney shares with his husband in San Francisco. The other nights, they stay with their mothers, a lesbian couple who live nearby.
The girls have four parents — a result of a kind of nontraditional family arrangement that has become increasingly common. But officially, California, like most other states, recognizes no more than two legal parents.
That limit could soon be lifted.
A bill moving through the California Legislature would allow judges to recognize more than two legal parents for a given child, opening the door for alternative families to seek legal recognition of their relationships. (NYT, 7/13/2012)
Opponents of gay marriage are criticized for questioning where things end if it is legalized. Now we have the answer courtesy of California: It doesn't end. Rewrite the foundations of civilization and you get chaos.
Believers
But most voters also believe that his (Obama's) policies have hurt more than they've helped. Overall, by a 50 percent to 42 percent margin, voters trust Mitt Romney more than the president when it comes to managing the economy. (Rasmussenreports.com, 7/13/2012)
Which makes even more hilarious Obama's recent comments that Romney does not understand the 'full scope of the economy.'
Need To Know Basis
The first thing you need to know is that America wasn’t always like this. When John F. Kennedy was elected president, the top 0.01 percent was only about a quarter as rich compared with the typical family as it is now — and members of that class paid much higher taxes than they do today. Yet somehow we managed to have a dynamic, innovative economy that was the envy of the world. The superrich may imagine that their wealth makes the world go round, but history says otherwise.
To this historical observation we should add another note: quite a few of today’s superrich, Mr. Romney included, make or made their money in the financial sector, buying and selling assets rather than building businesses in the old-fashioned sense. Indeed, the soaring share of the wealthy in national income went hand in hand with the explosive growth of Wall Street. (Paul Krugman, NYT, 7/12/2012)
So Krugman wants to talk about how wealth is created? OK, let's discuss. How have some prominent Democrats "created wealth?" He invokes the Kennedys whose fortune - as we know - came from the illegal bootlegging activities of the patresfamilias. Ooops! Let's pick another wealthy Dem at random. How about John Kerry? What did he do to create wealth? Why he married a rich widow! Ooops again! Shall we continue? Nancy Pelosi? Her husband. Harry Reid? Whatever happened with that investigation into his Nevada real estate deal? Jon Corzine? Why he is one of those financial sector types that Krugman disparages.
Peculiar Terms
President Barack Obama, who has no business or economic qualifications whatsoever, accused rival Mitt Romney in a CBS interview of being unable to grasp "the economy as a whole." Success and profit in the private sector, Obama said, were only part of the economy: "[A]s president, my job is to think about the workers," he said, defining his role in terms peculiar to the world of community organizing and Big Labor. (Joel B. Pollak, Breitbart.com, 7/13/2012)
These Breitbart protegees are just outstanding and serve the memory of their boss with great distinction.
Fringed
That's why the conservative-fringe idea that Barack Obama was never vetted is silly; while it's always possible that something else might be out there, Obama survived a general election campaign against John McCain and a tough primary fight against Hillary Clinton (and several other seemingly competent campaigns up through Iowa, as well). Indeed, a lot of the story about Obama is a complaint that already-reported items have, for some Republicans, inexplicitly failed to get voters to reject him. To a large extent, even the fringe Obama vetters know that the 2008 campaign functioned to produce information about Obama. (Jonathan Berstein, Washington Post, 7/12/2012)
A Washington Post opinion writer that we have not followed...until now. Berstein defies reality by stating that because Obama went through the primary and general election process he was fully vetted. This is preposterous. Obama was not and there were two reasons why he was not. First, Team Obama locked down what they did not want the public to know (college transcripts, passport records, relationships with controversial figures like Bill Ayers and Jeremiah Wright, etc.). For heaven's sake, notwithstanding a longstanding controversy about where he was born, it took four years for Obama to release his birth certificate... AFTER he was president! This is a fully vetted candidate? Second, aided by a supine media, anyone who dared ask questions about Obama was tarred as a racist. Nice try, Berstein, your column is a joke.
(And, by the way, the correct word is "inexplicably," not "inexplicitly.")
Shine A Light
Organized labor spends about four times as much on politics and lobbying as generally thought, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis, a finding that shines a light on an aspect of labor's political activity that has often been overlooked...The hours spent by union employees working on political matters were equivalent in 2010 to a shadow army much larger than President Barack Obama's current re-election staff, data analyzed by the Journal show. (WSJ, 7/10/2012)
Must read article that expands upon a point made by Ann Coulter in a recent column. Who knew that Democrats had a secret army working on their behalf? An army that expects its efforts to be rewarded with the spoils from the public till.
Restoration
Some Democratic-led states are increasing taxes, saying that it is more important to try to restore the services that were cut — and some of the 657,000 state and local government jobs lost — during the downturn. (NYT, 7/10/2012)
And, yes it is true, those jobs equate to union dues paid to Democrats.
As The Crow Flies
Mr. Holder's wallowing in a Jim Crow metaphor to score political points is a discredit to his department, to the rule of law, and to the nonracist country that 45 years after the Voting Rights Act made him its chief law enforcement officer.(WSJ, 7/10/2012)
Of course, the real reason that Holder is ginning up the voter ID issue is to increase African American voter turnout in the face of an "enthusiasm gap" faced by Obama this time around.
Extremities
Some of the weather extremes bedeviling people around the world have become far more likely because of human-induced global warming, researchers reported on Tuesday. Yet they ruled it out as a cause of last year’s devastating floods in Thailand, one of the most striking weather events of recent years.
...
The findings, especially the specific numbers attached to some extreme events, represent an increased effort by scientists to respond to a public clamor for information about what is happening to the earth’s climate. Studies seeking to discern any human influence on weather extremes have usually taken years, but in this case, researchers around the world managed to study six events from 2011 and publish the results in six months.
Some of the researchers acknowledged that given the haste of the work, the conclusions must be regarded as tentative. (NYT, 7/10/2012)
You have to read this bit of pseudo-science to believe it. Man-made global warming caused THIS event, but not THAT event. And because the public is just dying to know they rushed to get us an answer....which may not be accurate.
Overwhelmed
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney drew jeers from black voters Wednesday as he criticized President Barack Obama and pledged to repeal the Democrats' health care overhaul.
Romney told the annual meeting of the NAACP that backing him over the Democratic incumbent, who won their overwhelming support in 2008, is in the best interest of their families. He acknowledged his Republican Party doesn't have a perfect record on race relations, but pledged during a sometimes rocky speech that, if elected, he would work with black leaders to put the country back to work. (NYPost.com, 7/11/2012)
Good for Romney! A weaker politician would have stood in front of the NAACP and pandered. Romney said what he believed and took the heat.
Open Doors
Two years after the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision opened the door for corporate spending on elections, relatively little money has flowed from company treasuries into “super PACs,” which can accept unlimited contributions but must also disclose donors. Instead, there is growing evidence that large corporations are trying to influence campaigns by donating money to tax-exempt organizations that can spend millions of dollars without being subject to the disclosure requirements that apply to candidates, parties and PACs. (NYT, 7/7/2012)
"Groups Shield Political Gifts of Businesses" screams the New York Times headline. Twelve paragraphs into the story the Obama re-election team author working for the Times briefly mentions political spending by unions...and then promptly pivots back to political spending by businesses.
Black And Blue
A woman in a blue chiffon dress poked her head out of a black Range Rover here on Sunday afternoon and yelled to an aide to Mitt Romney. “Is there a V.I.P. entrance? We are V.I.P.” (NYT, 7/8/2012)
The New York Times writes an entire 'news' article mocking Mitt Romney, his Hamptons fund-raiser and his donors. Meanwhile, the candidate with whom they coordinate their news coverage dines with George Clooney, Sarah Jessica Parker and Wall Street hedge fund managers. It's sad really, because the Times no longer even attempts to hide their bias.
Pivotal
The president then pivoted to longer-term economic trends, which he said have deepened inequality and put at risk the future of the middle class. Lengthening the frame of reference allows Mr. Obama to argue that the problems of today are not principally his fault, but the result of a Republican philosophy practiced by the Bush administration and advocated by Mr. Obama’s challenger, Mitt Romney. (NYT, 7/6/2012)
"Lengthening the frame of reference." What could that possibly mean? Oh, of course, blame Bush!
Remaining
The economy remains the most important issue to voters. Health care is second, government ethics and corruption third. Just 31% give the president good ratings for handling the economy. That’s down from 41% at the beginning of May. (Rassmussenreports.com, 7/7/2012)
Forget the polls that show Obama ahead by three or four points. They are instruments of the Obama re-election effort. (Sample question: if it could be proved conclusively that Mitt Romney was the Antichrist, who would you vote for? a) Barack Obama or b) The Antichrist) RedStateVT believes that Obama faces an enormous uphill struggle to win. Here is why:
1) Carville was right...it IS about the economy and the numbers above are a disaster for Obama.
2) More than half of the country opposes Obamacare and neither his victory at the Supreme Court nor all the wonderful goodies that the health care law will supposedly bring will change that.*
3) Obama has lost the independents who elected him in 2008. The mid-term elections, Scott Brown and Wisconsin are all harbingers.
4) The basis of Obama's attacks on Romney, class warfare ("He's a rich guy") have been tried before against George Bush and they did not work.
*White House officials have repeatedly underestimated opposition to the health care law. They predicted that public support for the law would grow as people learned more about it. They minimized lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the requirement for most Americans to carry health insurance. They predicted that states would embrace the opportunity to insure more of their residents by expanding Medicaid and creating insurance exchanges, but a number of states have balked. (NYT, 7/7/2012)
Truthful
In truth, Chrysler and General Motors did go bankrupt. What the Obama administration did (and this actually began during George W. Bush's lame-duck period) was to intervene in the normal bankruptcy process so as to advantage political interest groups, most notably the United Auto Workers, at the expense of taxpayers and corporate bondholders. (James Taranto, WSJ, 7/6/2012)
Outstanding point by Taranto!
Paint By Numbers
Teachers unions, however, have painted themselves into a corner by insisting that spending is the best predictor of educational performance — increase financial inputs and cognitive outputs will rise. In the past 50 years, real per pupil spending nationwide has tripled and the number of pupils per teacher has declined by a third, yet educational attainments have fallen. Abundant data demonstrate that the vast majority of differences in schools’ performances can be explained by qualities of the families from which the children come to school: the amount of homework done at home, the quantity and quality of reading material in the home, the amount of television watched in the home and, the most important variable, the number of parents in the home. In Chicago, 84 percent of African American children and 57 percent of Hispanic children are born to unmarried women. (George Will, Washington Post, 7/4/2012)
A(nother) stunning indictment of Teachers unions and, quite frankly, the Liberal mindset. Such mindset which always insists that their solutions would work if only we would "double-down" on them. Poverty...more welfare. Economic malaise...more stimulus. Failing schools...more money to teachers.
And also a reminder of what happens when traditional family values (you remember, the things that have sustained civilization for thousands of years) are eroded.
Set Them Free
In just five months, the Obama administration has freed schools in more than half the nation from central provisions of the No Child Left Behind education law, raising the question of whether the decade-old federal program has been essentially nullified. (NYT, 7/6/2012)
Recall who was a primary sponsor of No Child Left Behind? Why it was "the Lion of the Senate." None other than Ted Kennedy! A fact that the New York Times conveniently ignores.
Waived
The waivers appear to follow an increasingly deliberate pattern by the administration to circumvent lawmakers, as it did last month when it granted hundreds of thousands of young illegal immigrants a reprieve from deportation. The administration has also unveiled policies to prevent drug shortages, raise fuel economy standards and cut refinancing fees for federally insured mortgages. (NYT, 7/6/2012)
Are Liberals outraged at Obama's power grabs? No, likely not, as long as they advance their objectives.
Foreigner
While the visit could distract from the Republicans’ main line of attack against Mr. Obama, the economy, it is an opportunity for Mr. Romney, who as a former governor has little foreign policy experience, to play the statesman. (NYT, 7/2/2012)
The New York Times repeats a line that they first used about Bill Clinton when he ran for president: 'as a former governor, he has little foreign policy experience.' Oh, wait, they never said that!
Here's a question. Who do you think would be better on foreign policy: a former governor who was also a CEO and ran the Olympics or a former community organizer?
Felines
President Barack Obama called Wall Street executives "fat cats," criticized their bonuses and tried to raise their taxes. The financial-services industry, in turn, has directed a stream of complaints toward the administration, fueling perceptions of a rift between the president and a key 2008 donor group.
But, defying expectations, the securities and investment industry has remained an important part of the Obama fundraising effort. Mr. Obama and the Democratic National Committee raised more than $14 million from the securities and investment industry through the end of April, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. Mr. Obama's campaign alone raised $361,000 from the industry in May. (WSJ, 7/2/2012)
As RedStateVT has told you repeatedly, far from being the geniuses that they would have you believe, Wall Streeters are among the least intelligent people on the planet.
No Question
As more than one conservative has pointed out, the integrity of liberal justices who reliably line up for whatever outcome is desired by the Democratic Party goes unquestioned. Indeed, the definition of integrity assumes one direction. (William McGurn, WSJ, 7/2/2012)
Well put.....
Specifics
Today, specifically, the youngest potential voters are more likely than their older peers to think it is important to protect individual liberties from government, the Harvard data suggest, and less likely to think it is important to tackle things like climate change, health care or immigration. (NYT, 7/1/2012)
There is hope for the younger generation after all!
Maneuvers
Public sector unions have such an image problem that some Democratic politicians are maneuvering to maintain their distance, even though union war chests and foot soldiers are often pivotal to their victories. (NYT, 6/21/2012)
So it is true after all. Union workers and union dues fuel the Democrat Party....which, in turn, rewards them with ever more generous salaries and benefits funded by the taxpayer.
Vital Signs
President Barack Obama has attacked Gov. Mitt Romney's record in the private equity industry as CEO of Bain Capital. But ten years ago, as he struggled to raise funds for his long-shot U.S. Senate campaign, then-State Senator Obama decided to embrace the private equity industry and its wealthy Chicago political donors. At one point, Obama even sponsored a resolution in the Illinois Senate calling calling private equity firms like Bain "the best opportunity for long-term economic vitality" and for "the creation of jobs." (Breitbart.com, 7/2/2012)
Karl Rove and the Koch Brothers are just going to have a field day running the ads showing Obama speaking out of both sides of his mouth on executive privilege, health care taxes, venture capital, campaign finance, the unemployment rate and a whole host of other things.
RedStateVT Dissects the "Goodies" in Obamacare
Proponents of Obamacare talk often about how people will like it better once they come to understand what is in it. In particular, they mention several provisions that they say should prove very popular. RedStateVT will analyze and explain several of these provisions; aka the "goodies."
First, Obamacare requires that insurers provide various things (check-ups, screenings) for FREE. Who doesn't love FREE? But as RedStateVT has explained in the past, sadly, there is no such thing as FREE. Doctors are not providing these services pro bono and insurers are not absorbing the cost. Who pays? Why you, the consumer. How can this be given that Obama told us that they were free? (He also told us the insurance mandate was not a tax, but we'll leave that one aside for now.) It is quite simple really. The insurance company will raise your premium to pay for the cost. So consumers will bypass their insurance deductible for these goodies, but pay for them via higher premiums. As usual, Mom and Dad were right when they said that nothing in life is FREE.
Second, let's look at that wonderful provision of Obamacare that allows children to stay on their parents' insurance plan until age 26. Cynically we might say that given how Obama has mismanaged the economy this is a mercy clause for kids who - notwithstanding a college degree - cannot find a job. In reality, of course, it is merely a way for Obama to ensure that insurance premiums are collected for these kids - who being young and healthy might otherwise forgo buying insurance. Unless they rebill the added premiums to Junior, however, it is probably going to be Mom and Dad who pick up this expense. So just when the young 'uns are done with college and ready to leave the nest - much to the relief of their parents - Obama gives them reason to hang around longer on the family payroll. Parents should be outraged. We are.
Finally, we will take a quick look at another goodie - the "No Pre-existing Conditions" provision. As with much of Obamacare, it is a canard. For responsible people who have maintained health insurance coverage there is no reason to fear not being covered due to a pre-existing condition. When moving from group coverage to group coverage or group coverage to COBRA or COBRA back to group, or COBRA to individual, pre-existing conditions exclusions do not apply. The only requirement is that you maintained health insurance coverage. This eliminates the problem of people letting their coverage lapse and then signing up when they become ill. So now, because insurers cannot turn away people who sought coverage only when they became ill, insurers will raise rates and EVERYONE will pay more.
Sadly
No wonder Roberts looked so sad when he entered the chamber Thursday. He also knows that the palm fronds usually precede the crucifixion and it’s only a matter of time before his worshipers become his tormentors yet again. (Kathleen Parker, Washington Post, 6/29/2012)
It took all of three days for the New York Times to go after the savior of Obamacare, Justice Roberts (see below). And why not? He has proven that he can be gamed.
Yet, while they upheld the law’s mandate for individuals to buy insurance under Congress’s taxing power, the chief justice joined the four other conservatives to reject that provision under the Constitution’s commerce clause.
That rejection underscores the aggressiveness of the majority’s conservatism and marks a stunning departure from the long-established legal consensus that Congress has broad power to regulate the economy. (NYT editorial, 6/30/2012)
Chief Justice Roberts may have thought that he could buy off the Liberal media with his tortured decision on Obamacare, but not so. Instead, Liberals now believe they have him on the run and their strategy of relentless public pressure will continue.
While they are at it, NYT editors also take the time to remind us that the Court is made up of five conservatives and four "moderates." We thought they employed a fact-checker....
Six full terms after Justice Samuel Alito Jr. joined the court, the five in the majority have redefined judicial conservatism. The contrast in style and philosophy with the moderate minority is pronounced... (NYT editorial, 6/30/2012)
