RedStateVT Presents the Worst of 2013

Here it is! Our annual list. Happy reading.

President Obama
Readers may be surprised to learn that Obama does NOT appear every year on RedStateVT’s annual list. (See, we are an objective blog!) “If you like your health plan, you can keep it” will go down as one of the biggest (maybe THE biggest?) presidential lies of all time. Of course, “I didn’t set a red line” was a good one as well….


Obamacare
Twenty thousand pages of sheer madness. 


Kathleen Sebelius 
“Hold me accountable for the debacle. I’m responsible.” 

Done.  We hold Sebelius accountable for the debacle.  Then she does not even have the decency to resign!


Wendy Davis
Urged on by Dems, Davis seeks to build a race for Texas governor (and a national profile) on a filibuster of modest requirements to abortion in the state. For example, the abortionist has to have an affiliation with an area hospital. In case, you know, something goes wrong. 


The Kardashians
Everything that is wrong with America encapsulated in one dysfunctional family. Wait; don’t we say the same thing every year?


Gay
No doubt as Gay looks back on 2013 it has much to be happy about. In fact, it was a marvelous year. Same sex marriage is out of the closet and well on its way to national legitimacy. But as always, Gay overplayed its hand. In 2014, this may come back to bite Gay on the backside. Average Americans who – like RedStateVT – believe that people should be free to love who they love are nonetheless getting fed up with the vilification of anyone who dares to disagree with Gay.  Fundamentalist Christians, Jews and Muslims all live by a moral code passed down for hundreds (if not thousands) of years. Society is better because of their focus on morality, charity and fellowship. What to do about their rejection of homosexuality? How about stop talking about your sexual preferences all the time?

As usual, Coulter gets it right:
The first time someone stands up to a bully and the sky doesn't fall, the tyranny is over. The gay mafia was out of control, drunk with power. This time, they got their wings clipped. (AnnCoulter.com, 12/31/2013)


Chris Matthews
Matthews makes the list for one action and one action only. (Yes, we ignore the daily nonsense he spews because it is expected.) We cannot, however, ignore his infantile and fawning interview with President Obama last month.  It was journalism at its most embarrassing. 


Hillary Clinton
Hill makes the list for one issue and one issue only: Benghazi. The death of brave Americans should never be politicized and never callously dismissed.  She did both.  “Who cares what caused it?” goes down as one of the most abominable utterances by any U.S. public figure…ever. 


Detroit Democrats
It took decades, but through hard work Democrats registered their biggest score. 

They killed a city.


Peter Shumlin and Vermont Progressives
Here is what Shummy and the Progs focused on in 2013: decriminalizing marijuana, assisted suicide, closing Vermont Yankee (with its 650 jobs and cheap, reliable power), single payer healthcare (no info on how to pay for it), drivers licenses for illegals, taxes on soda and more taxes.  In short, a grab bag of fringe Lefty issues. 

Too bad they did not spend any time figuring out how to attract more companies to the state and grow the job base. 

Formal Drift

The Idea Man
“I am sure that I will have even better ideas after a couple days of sleep and sun.” (President Obama, 12/20/2013)

"Oh God help us." (RedStateVT, 12/20/2013)


Undone Deal
However incoherent these fixes may seem, they send two messages, loud and clear. The first is that although liberal pundits may think that the law is a done deal, impossible to repeal, the administration does not believe that. The willingness to take large risks with the program’s stability indicates that the administration thinks it has a huge amount to lose -- that the White House is in a battle for the program’s very existence, not a few marginal House and Senate seats. (Megan McArdle, Bloomberg.com, 12/20/2013)

Good reminder that the "Obamacare is the law of the land" defense from Dems is, well, not exactly accurate. 

It is also important to note how each "delay" or "fix" of Obamacare creates embarrassment for Dems and their media supporters who five minutes earlier were earnestly defending the very things that Obama had to postpone or unwind.


Doubtful
In a year-end press conference, Obama was asked to identify the worst error of his administration this year. “There’s no doubt that when it came to healthcare roll-out, even though I was meeting every other week or every three weeks with folks … the fact is, it didn’t happen in the first month, the first six weeks, in a way that was at all acceptable,” he replied. (Newyorkpost.com, 12/20/2013)

So Obama was meeting every two or three weeks with the team responsible for what he himself calls his most important initiative? 

Is he kidding? In the business world, such meetings would be at least once a week. Not that Obama has a clue about how the business world works....

We take some solace that Obama is finally being asked the type of question that the Legitimate Media peppered George W with repeatedly. 


With Conviction
Gov. Deval Patrick’s convicted drug dealer cousin was among eight people whose hefty sentences were commuted yesterday by President Obama, who cited a disparity in penalties for crack cocaine. (Bostonherald.com, 12/20/2013)

So THAT'S why Patrick and his wife had that dinner with the Obamas right after the election.


Cliff Dive
Ginger Chapman and her husband, Doug, are sitting on the health care cliff.

The cheapest insurance plan they can find through the new federal marketplace in New Hampshire will cost their family of four about $1,000 a month, 12 percent of their annual income of around $100,000 and more than they have ever paid before.

Even more striking, for the Chapmans, is this fact: If they made just a few thousand dollars less a year — below $94,200 — their costs would be cut in half, because a family like theirs could qualify for federal subsidies. (New York Times, 12/20/2013)

One of the heretofore untold consequences of the mess that is Obamacare. But, it is actually worse. Assuming a deductible of (conservatively) $5000, the Chapmans could end up paying more like 17% of their pre-tax income for health care. 

Thank you Liberals. Hard-working middle class people get screwed so that you can provide federally subsidized insurance to others. 

Parlor Games

Laugh of the Day
Look, people who know me well will tell you I’m not really a partisan guy. (Matt Miller, Washington Post, 6/19/2013)

What has RedStateVT been saying for years? We can never have an honest debate in this country if Liberals refuse to admit that they are....Liberals. (You will NEVER hear a Conservative deny that they are a Conservative.)


Surrealism
Mr. Obama returned this week to Berlin to give his long-promised speech laying out his plans to rid the world of nuclear weapons. His idea is to remove those weapons initially and primarily from American hands.
....
Mr. Obama is literally pleading with Moscow to strike another arms deal, which underscores the surreal nature of his vision. He handed the Kremlin reams of classified data about American missile defense, supposedly to allay fears that U.S. defenses will weaken Russia's nuclear deterrent. Invoking executive powers, the Pentagon and State Department rebuffed requests by Congress to specify the information shared with Russia to see if it might have jeopardized U.S. security. (WSJ, 6/21/2013)

President Obama cements his reputation as "the worst negotiator of all time."