Obama

Poll: “Generic Republican” Bests Obama by Five

Mark Noonan162 Comments

From Rasmussen:

…The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely U.S. Voters shows the generic Republican with 47% of the vote, while the president picks up 42% support. Four percent (4%) prefer some other candidate, and seven percent (7%) are undecided…

Not the poll numbers of a man who just won a political battle.  Obama is severely damaged political goods.

He can (and likely, will) bounce back from this – and 2012 will be the hardest fought campaign in American history (possibly in world history).  Obama and the liberalism he leads and personifies will not go out without a fight.  No matter how bad things get, they will go after us with all they’ve got.  They will ask and give no quarter.

But, still, anyone who is worried that a robust, conservative message can’t win against Obama is nuts…any coherent alternative can beat him.  Better if its conservative, but the main thing for the 2012 GOP candidate is to not be Obama, just as for the Democrats the prime thing was to not be Bush.

We can beat him and his Democrats – and not just beat them, but crush them down so low that for 20 years they won’t be able to trouble us.  We can win the power necessary to restore American liberty and greatness…all we have to do is fight it out and never quit.

Obama Just Isn’t Liberal, Enough

Mark Noonan21 Comments

From The New Yorker:

…Of course, invoking the Fourteenth Amendment has always been a long shot, a last refuge. But Obama’s seeming refusal to hold it in reserve (“like the fire axe on the wall,” in Garrett Epps’s words) is emblematic of his all too civilized, all too accommodating negotiating strategy—indeed, of his whole approach to the nation’s larger economic dilemma, the most disappointing aspect of his Presidency. His stimulus package asked for too little and got less. He has allowed deficits and debt to supersede mass unemployment as the emergency of the moment. He has too readily accepted Republican terms of debate, such as likening the country to a household that must “live within its means.” (For even the most prudent householders, living within one’s means can include going into debt, as in taking out a car loan so that one can get to one’s job.) He has done too little to educate the public to the wisdom of post-Herbert Hoover economics: fiscal balance is achieved over time, not in a single year; in flush times a government should run a surplus, but when the economy falters deficits are part of the remedy; when the immediate problem is what it is now—a lack of demand, not a shortage of capital—higher spending is generally more efficacious than lower taxes, especially lower taxes on the rich…

And now the Carterization of Obama is complete…well, except that he hasn’t had his Killer Rabbit attack.  You see, I remember this – back in 1980 when I was gleefully reading over the liberal angst about Carter’s defeat, there were liberal opinions that Carter’s failure was that he wasn’t liberal enough.  Had he spent more, taxed more, cut defense more, negotiated with our enemies more…had he just gone full blown in to the most extreme liberalism possible, it all would have worked out.  There is a bizarre disconnect from reality in our “reality-based community”…the unwillingness to ever admit that liberalism can get it wrong, or even be unpopular.

One does have to wonder – that was written by Hendrik Hertzberg.  He’s a well-educated man:  at least, his credentials say so.  But does he really believe that there was in what FDR did a stark contrast to what Hoover did?  Does he further believe that what FDR did worked?  Hoover spent bags of money trying to fix the economy (little remembered is how in 1932 FDR ran on a balanced budget platform).  FDR just spent bags and bags and bags.  Hoover didn’t fix the depression, neither did FDR.  Yet here we are in 2011 and here is Mr. Hertzberg, certain that the lesson of the past is that you have to go flat out in spending…don’t do what Hoover did!  And Obama, in Hertzberg’s view, is being too Hooverish and not channeling his inner-FDR.  But Hoover did what FDR did and both FDR and Hoover failed utterly.  How do you get that ignorant about history and yet graduate from the Ivy League and become a commentator for The New Yorker?

Furthermore, a little blogger like me is supposed to stand in awe of all this…that I don’t have an Ivy League diploma and don’t have an editor to carefully review what I’ve written, and so I should accept as from on high such pronouncements.  But that is absurd – I can see what is plain as a pikestaff, Hertzberg, by the evidence in his article, would have difficulty finding the balls on a bull.  There is making a mistake – I’ve done that; I’ll do it again and again, too…but there is a huge difference between “mistake” and “obtuse”.

Never mind.  As long as liberals really think that it is a lack of liberalism which makes for liberal failure, it works out mostly to our advantage.  True, it came back to bite us in 2008 – never imagined someone as leftist as Obama could even get nominated, let alone elected…but everything, I guess, really is possible.  It is highly likely that we will correct 2008’s error in 2012…and Hertzberg and other liberals will then proclaim not a shift to the right to regain America’s trust, but a further shift to the left because those darn morons, the voters, just don’t know what’s good for them.  We should be able to keep the Democrats out of the White House for 20 years on that.

HAT TIP:  Commentary

Debt Deal Done, Fake Crisis Averted

Mark Noonan11 Comments

Hot Air has the details – it mostly works out to a defeat for the left as it looks like they didn’t get tax hikes, didn’t get as much new debt ceiling as they wanted and were prevented from gutting defense.  The deal was done because, in the end, Obama saw his approval rating cratering and wanted to stop the bleeding – some times you do have to let a crisis go to waste.  Especially when you made one up out of whole cloth.

The real budget crisis comes in 2015 or so if we don’t significantly cut spending by then.  While Obama is President, we won’t be able to do that – so the whole solution to our real budget crisis is to get Obama out of the White House in 2012.

Syrian Army Crushes Rebels

Mark Noonan11 Comments

From Bloomberg:

Syrian soldiers stormed Hama and other flashpoints of unrest, leaving at least 121 dead, an activist said, as President Bashar al-Assad’s forces sought to reassert control on the eve of Ramadan, when protests are likely to intensify.

Tanks shelled Hama, Syria’s fourth largest city, where at least 100 people were killed today, said Mahmoud Merhi, head of the Damascus-based Arab Organization for Human Rights.

Three people died near the city of Daraa, and fighting in other areas raised the toll to 121, Merhi said…

Why is the Syrian government doing this?  Because they know that the one nation on earth which can enforce decency won’t act…or, even if we did act, then under Obama we would act with sufficient speed and power to affect the outcome.  Get used to this boys and girls – because Obama has abdicated America’s leadership role, the world now belongs to whomever is willing to be the most evil.  This massacre in Hama is just a slight foretaste of what is to come.  Tyrants around the world are watching events and getting ready grab what they can and settle scores…all in the knowledge that Obama is more likely to condemn a US ally than an enemy.

The world is becoming a very dangerous place…and to help you sleep better, the word is that the Democrats want 50% of all spending cuts to come out of defense, alone.

 

Budget Deal in the Works

Mark Noonan61 Comments

From the AP:

Officials say the White House and Republican leaders in Congress are making significant progress toward a last-minute agreement to avoid a default threatened for next week.

These officials say the two sides are discussing a plan to raise the debt limit by about $2.4 trillion and enact spending cuts of a slightly larger amount in two stages.

The deal under discussion would also require Congress to vote on a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, but not require its approval.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the discussions.

Ed Morrissey over at Hot Air surmises that, finally, Obama is actually willing to state what he wants – what he will sign.  In other words, we’re finally getting a White House plan for the debt.  All this time we’ve been pretty much working in a void because Obama never indicated what was actually acceptable to him…and it seems that Reid had actually  signed on to the GOP plan, at Obama’s behest, only to be told at the last minute by Obama that he wouldn’t sign it.

My feeling is that Obama was hoping that the looming crisis (which is entirely fake, by the way) would force the GOP to cave and they’d go ahead and either give him a “clean” debt ceiling increase through 2013 or, at least, go along with some tax hikes.  As it became clear that GOP would give him neither of these things – and as Obama’s approval rating has cratered through this mess – I think that someone finally got Obama to realize that he had to defuse this manufactured crisis…make it go away before the worst of all things happened:  Tuesday arrived and the world didn’t end.

For our side, we’ve done well – we’ve laid down the marker for future budget negotiations and demonstrated conclusively that the GOP – at least in its TEA Party element – will not back down from a fight.

“Never let a crisis go to waste” was Obama’s watchword from day one…even if he had to make up a crisis.  But now Obama has learned that dishonesty can only carry you so far.

Youth Vote Abandons Obama

Mark Noonan6 Comments

From Michael Barone over at the Washington Examiner:

…there has been big movement among whites. In 2008 they were 51 to 40 percent Republican. In the first half of 2011 they were 56 to 35 percent Republican — more Republican than Southern whites were three years ago.

The most noteworthy movement among whites has been among voters under 30, the so-called Millennial generation. Millennials voted 66 to 32 percent for Barack Obama in 2008 and identified as Democrats rather than Republicans by a 60 to 32 percent margin.

But white Millennials have been moving away from the Democrats. The Democratic edge in party identification among white Millennials dropped from 7 points in 2008 to 3 points in 2009 to a 1-point Republican edge in 2010 and an 11-point Republican lead in 2011…

The Obama kool aid just isn’t cutting it, any longer.  The kids were wowed in 2008, but now they’ve got years of experience with Obama’s reality…and being stuck in mom’s basement with a stack of unpaid student loans isn’t helping matters.

No, 2012 will not go like 2008.  Obama can still win if the GOP nominates a weak candidate, but the glory days of Obama are over.  He’s damaged goods – just another hack politician trying to sell people a line.

Will Someone “Primary” Obama?

Mark Noonan6 Comments

Certainly the Hillary supporters can say that – though if Hillary had won, then Obama supporters would be all “I told you so”, because Hillary is just as much a liberal as Obama and would have pursued the same economic policies…though she might have done better on the whole health care issue, given her past lessons-learned.

But can it happen?  Can there be a serious, Democrat challenger to President Obama?  Andrew Malcolm over at the Los Angeles Times points out some salient facts:

…Strong support among liberal Democrats for Obama’s jobs record has plummeted 22 points from 53% down below a third. African Americans who believe the president’s measures helped the economy have plunged from 77% to barely half.

Obama’s overall job approval on the economy has slid below 40% for the first time, with 57% disapproving. And strong disapprovers outnumber approvers by better than two-to-one.

Those are the sort of numbers which indicate a primary challenger is coming – and as Malcolm points out, Vermont’s socialist Senator, Bernie Sanders, has called for just that.  Trouble is, it just can’t happen.  Even if you are a super-liberal Democrat who is upset that Obama hasn’t been sufficiently leftist (given how socialist he’s been, we conservatives now wonder just how commie a Democrat would have to be to please the Democrat base), you just have to know that (a) you can’t take the nomination away from Obama (the Democrat party is firmly under Obama’s control and even if someone started to do well with the voters, the Democrat leadership would ensure that Obama got the nomination, no matter what) and (b) even if you did by some miracle beat Obama for the nomination you’d go down to crushing defeat in November as Obama supporters (especially among African-Americans) took revenge for you knocking off their guy.  And not only would you not win the Presidency, but the fact that you divided the party would mean a crushing GOP victory all the way down the ballot.

So, no, there won’t be a Democrat primary challenger for Obama – not unless it is entirely a fringe candidate who won’t even get to 10% of the vote.  There will be no replay of Ted Kennedy’s 1980 challenge to Jimmy Carter.  The Democrats are stuck with Obama – they know that in the end it is better to lose with him at the top, if it comes to that, than to divide the party in a quixotic attempt to oust him…they’ll still lose, but lose even worse.

This is the wages of foisting a lie upon the American people.  As I pointed out on September 22nd,  2008:

…Obama is the “Un-Named Democrat” – the stealth candidate who can be all things to all men without being anything concrete to anyone. You want someone who will heal racial divisions? Obama. Re-unite the people of the United States? Obama. End the campaign in Iraq? Obama. Reverse global warming? Obama. Make foreigners love us? Obama. If there’s something about the past 8 years which has gotten on your nerves, Obama is the guy to fix it…not that he’s told you how he’ll fix it…

And he never did tell us how he’d fix it.  He just kept speaking in broad, uplifting generalities while a host of minions (including the MSM) went forth to tell the people that Obama was The One…that his “narrative” was so good, that he was so good looking, that he was so well-spoken…and he’ll fix it all.  Don’t vote for tired, old, white McCain…vote for energetic, young, black Obama.  Come one, just do it – it’ll be great.

But it was all a lie.  Obama wasn’t a post-racial healer; he belonged for 20 years to a racist “church” headed up by a mountebank of the worst order.  Obama didn’t want to re-unite us; he was pledged to “spreading the wealth around” which implies setting one group against another.  Obama couldn’t make foreigners love us; they didn’t hate us because of who was in charge, but because of what the United States is.  On and on – each bit of the Obama narrative false from start to finish.  And now Obama has been in office for two and a half years and people can see that it was a false narrative…but now Democrats can’t get rid of him.  They are lashed to the mast of the SS Obama and if he goes down, they go down with them.

And it serves them right – nothing better in the world than the operation of justice.  Lies brought the Democrats victory in 2008, and those lies will bring them defeat in 2012.

Remember That “Arab Spring” Thing?

Mark Noonan10 Comments

Ain’t quite working out as hoped – from The Daily Star:

The Syrian army consolidated its grip on the hotbed city of Homs on Sunday, activists said, as embattled President Bashar al-Assad sacked the governor of a flashpoint province 48 hours after massive anti-government protests.

Security forces also rounded up hundreds of civilians in Damascus and made a spate of arrests in the town of Sarakeb in the northwestern province of Idlib near the Turkish border, activists said…

Meanwhile, the war in Libya goes on with no end in sight, Egypt heads towards a Moslem Brotherhood government, Iran gets closer to building nuclear weapons and The One – who by “smart diplomacy” was supposed to restore our image – looks ever more weak, flabby and foolish in foreign affairs.

The world is getting ever messier due to the lack of firm leadership in the United States.  There is no policy, just a series of knee-jerk reactions. Bomb Libya to save civilians, but don’t liberate them…meanwhile, don’t bomb Syria to save civilians because … heck, I don’t know:  what is our rationale for not bombing Syria?  Are we still holding to Hillary’s assertion that Little Assad is a “reformer”?

The world works when America wields overwhelming power directed towards clear, achievable ends.   Obama doesn’t know this – I suspect that no one in his foreign policy team knows this.  2012 really can’t get here fast enough…

Poll: Obama Enjoys Modest Lead Over Perry, Bachmann

Mark Noonan53 Comments

From Rasmussen:

…A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that President Obama would enjoy a modest 44% to 39% lead over Texas Governor Rick Perry. Given that choice, 10% would opt for a third-party candidate and eight percent (8%) are not sure.

A separate survey shows that if Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann is the nominee, Obama holds a 46% to 39% advantage. In that case, seven percent (7%) would choose a third candidate and eight percent (8%) are not sure…

Any of you Democrats out there can be happy that Obama is in the lead, but anyone out there who knows politics understands that this is deadly news…outside of us news and politics junkies, probably not half the American people know who Perry or Bachmann is while Obama has 100% name recognition.  Also, any incumbent who is polling under 50% is always in danger – for Obama to feel safe about 2012, he’d have to poll 52% or so against the best known GOPer…and that is Romney, who bests Obama in this poll, 43% to 42%.

The usual caveats – it is way early and just about everything can change over the next 16 months.  Of course, they can also change for the worse as far as Obama is concerned.  The key here is for every last person in the United States to cease thinking of Obama as unbeatable…someone we’d better tailor our candidate to in order to have a ghost of a chance of beating him.  He’s beatable – by anyone.  He could also win against anyone, so don’t look for some sort of perfect candidate either on ideological or marketing grounds.  Look for the person you think will make the best campaigner and the best President…that is whom we must find and nominate.  And then get out there and fight like mad.

After that, it is all in God’s hands and it will be as it will be.

Obama’s Fat Cat Donors Come Through

Mark Noonan15 Comments

The Billion Dollar Man is making his way – and selling himself completely.  From Politico:

About 40 percent of President Barack Obama’s record-breaking $86 million second-quarter fundraising haul came from big-money bundlers, according to a POLITICO analysis of donors listed on Obama’s campaign web site.

No fewer than 27 mega-bundlers managed to collect at least $500,000 for a joint account run by Obama’s 2012 campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

That exclusive circle included marquee fundraisers like Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, Hollywood titan Jeffrey Katzenberg, DNC treasurer/personal finance guru Andrew Tobias and former New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, who was CEO of Goldman Sachs before entering politics.

That group chipped in a minimum of $13.5 million, according to records. In addition, $21.4 million was bundled in amounts of between $50,000 and $499,000…

Thank goodness Obama is fighting for the poor and middle class; if that weren’t the case, all this millionaire and billionaire money would be worrisome.  And we know he’s going after the millionaires and billionaires because he says so – whenever he talks taxes, he’s sure to mention that millionaires and billionaires must pay their fair share.  So, it is amazing that the millionaires and billionaires keep coming through for him…I mean, after all, Obama is promising to tax them more.  In fact, his proposals for taxation always call for hitting those millionaires and billionaires who make more than $250,000.00 per year….

Hey, wait a minute…how many years would you have to work to become a millionaire at $250,000.00 a year?  Four years…if you didn’t spend a dime on anything.  And how many to become a billionaire?  Four thousand years…  You know, now that I think about it, it seems kind of strange that Obama would say a millionaire makes $250,000.00 a year…and downright stupid to think that a billionaire makes that much.  Could it be…?  No!  It couldn’t be that!  It couldn’t be that all Obama is doing is talking about taxing the rich while really taxing the middle class and that is why the millionaires and billionaires are pouring money in to his campaign.  That couldn’t be the case, could it?