ADMINISTRATION SOURCES SAY PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA PLANS THIS WEEK TO NAME CIA DIRECTOR LEON PANETTA TO REPLACE DEFENSE SECRETARY ROBERT GATES, AND GEN. DAVID PETRAEUS, NOW RUNNING THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN, WOULD TAKE THE CIA CHIEF'S JOB.http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/top/all/7539013.html
The officials all spoke on condition of anonymity because the changes are not final.
The changes would probably take effect this summer. Gates has already said he will leave this year….
Neither will have any problem with confirmation, but I do remember Moveon.org’s General Betray us campaign.
Obama’s 2012 campaign strategy
Jim Messina, who is running Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign, told supporters in an Internet video released yesterday that they will have to “scratch and claw” to get the U.S. president re-elected.http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-26/messina-gives-sneak-peek-at-obama-s-2012-re-election-strategy.html
“We have to act like an insurgent campaign that wakes up every single day trying to get every single vote we can,” Messina said in the video, which was described as a “sneak peek at 2012 strategy.”
Messina, who earlier this year resigned his position as deputy White House chief of staff to manage the campaign, LAID OUT TACTICS THAT HE SAID HAD WORKED IN 2008, including expanding the electorate to register more voters than Republicans. He said CAMPAIGN WORKERS SHOULD RECONNECT WITH PAST SUPPORTERS THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA SITES, ALONG WITH USING MORE TRADITIONAL METHODS SUCH AS CALLING VOTERS ON THE TELEPHONE AND KNOCKING ON THEIR DOORS.
“We’ve got to assume every single day that we need to build something new, better, faster and sleeker,” he said in the video message e-mailed to supporters and posted on Obama’s campaign website. “Republicans are going to be fired up to take on President Obama…..”
This sounds less like a campaign strategy than a pep talk before a football game. “We are going to have to act like the underdog. We’ve got to be better, faster and sleeker than team X. We have to scratch and claw to win this game. They are fired up for us.” Hope and change and vague promises aren’t going to cut it this time.
Now here is a campaign tactic
We have an election coming up. We also have $5/gallon gasoline and $5/loaf bread coming up. I DO NOT EXPECT THE REAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE TO FALL, ALTHOUGH THERE WILL BE FRANTIC ATTEMPTS TO MAKE IT LOOK LOWER, LARGELY THROUGH STATISTICAL MANIPULATIONS based on the definition of unemployment: if you’re not looking for work, you aren’t unemployed even if you have no job and never again expect to find one. As more give up looking, the unemployment rate goes down. And since the unions do not intend to lower their wages and perks, and the states are out of money, there will be “furloughs” among public employees including teachers. YOU CAN MANIPULATE THOSE NUMBERS SO THE “FURLOUGHED” ARE NOT UNEMPLOYED. It promises to be an interesting summer, but it will end with $5/gallon gasoline and $5/loaf bread. Look for the price of a can of beans to get higher….http://jerrypournelle.com/view/2011/Q2/view672.html#Monday
What? Politicians lying? Who could ever have seen that coming.
Campaign tactic number two: FEAR
Faced with a fork in the road, President Obama and the Democrats have decided to take it, trying to do two things at once: REKINDLE THE GLOW OF THE 2008 RAPTURE, AND RECAPTURE THE RAGE OF THE TOWN HALLS A YEAR LATER, AND UNLEASH IT, THIS TIME FOR THEIR SIDE.http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/2011/04/ryan-being-boosted-obamas-opposition#ixzz1Kj3tCUJX
Phase one is not going brilliantly, as one can run on Hope and Change only once in one's lifetime, and AFTER THAT CHANGE MEANS VOTING ONESELF OUT OF OFFICE.
Phase two -- the hope that the MEDICARE-CUTTING PLAN ADVANCED BY HOUSE BUDGET COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN PAUL RYAN WILL KINDLE THE RAGE-IN-REVERSE THAT OBAMACARE ONCE DID -- may also be problematic.
It worked before, but, as Jonah Goldberg points out, ALL SORTS OF THINGS THAT WORKED BEFORE HAVE CEASED DOING SO SINCE OBAMA TOOK OFFICE. There have been mutterings, but, so far, few signs of mass outrage. Why not?
First of all, there's NO SENSE OF AN IMMINENT THREAT. In 2009, people correctly saw that Democrats were going to ram health care through regardless of anything, which only increased the frustration.
Today, there is NO CHANCE OF RYAN'S PLAN PASSING BEFORE 2013 AT THE EARLIEST, and it would not pass in its present form in any case. It is stage one of what will be a long conversation, with many adjustments and alternative theories. Plenty of time to weigh in before then.
My own personal opinion is that while the “experts” see Obama as the favorite for reelection, they seem to think the American public has no short term memory. If the election were held today, Obama would lose it and I don’t see anything coming up that will change that.
Gallup: Seniors Most Favorable To Ryan Budget
A NEW GALLUP/USA TODAY POLL CONTAINS A COUNTERINTUITIVE FINDING: THE AGE GROUP MOST RECEPTIVE TO HOUSE BUDGET CHAIR PAUL RYAN'S PLAN TO DEAL WITH THE BUDGET - SENIORS..
The poll finds 48 percent of seniors (those 65 and over) support Ryan's plan over President Obama's plan, while 42 percent back the president.
That's the highest total among the age groups tested - a 47 percent plurality between the ages of 50 and 64 backed Ryan, and a 45 percent plurality of those between 30-49 backed Ryan. But young voters overwhelmingly sided with Obama by a 23-point margin, 53 to 30 percent.
OVERALL, 44 PERCENT BACK OBAMA'S PLAN, WHILE 43 PERCENT SUPPORT RYAN.
Republicans hold a double-digit lead over Democrats in public perception of which party would do a better job dealing with the federal budget, according to the survey. 48 percent prefer Republicans, while 36 percent prefer Democrats in Congress.
The poll, conducted between April 20-23, surveyed 1,013 adults and has a four percent margin of error.
http://hotlineoncall.nationaljournal.com/archives/2011/04/gallup-seniors.php
I remember a song from the sixties with the line, “The old rules are rapidly changing…” I think the Democrats are suffering from Future Shock.
Stump rhetoric may hamper compromise
PRESIDENT OBAMA’S FIERY CAMPAIGN RHETORIC COULD MAKE IT DIFFICULT FOR HIM TO NEGOTIATE AND COMPROMISE WITH REPUBLICANS BACK IN WASHINGTON.
As Obama travels to New York City on Wednesday for another round of fundraisers and red meat, Republicans are blasting the “campaigner in chief” for blurring the lines between campaigning and governing.
After fighting with a liberal base Obama needs to turn out in 2012, the balance between governing and firing up Democratic supporters adds another challenge — especially when Obama needs to work with House Republicans to get anything done.
Since announcing his reelection campaign, OBAMA HAS SHIFTED BETWEEN OFFICIAL EVENTS AND FUNDRAISERS, ALTERNATELY EXPRESSING HIS HOPES FOR BIPARTISAN COOPERATION ON REDUCING THE DEFICIT AND BLASTING REP. PAUL RYAN’S (R-WIS.) BUDGET PLAN AS “FAIRLY RADICAL….”
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/157893-obamas-rhetoric-could-make-compromise-tough
This may not work out for Obama. He came into office by claiming he would change the tone in Washington. This however looks like it is business as usual. It may attracted his base but it is bound to turn off a lot of independents.
The Problem with high priced Oil
It's about time the administration began taking on the ogres of the left's imagination seriously. ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER HAS FORMED THE "OIL AND GAS PRICE FRAUD WORKING GROUP TO FOCUS ON ENERGY MARKETS" TO EXPOSE THE SPECULATORS, THE GOUGERS AND THOSE FAT CAT MILLIONAIRES. And if we can't confront make-believe distractions with "working groups," well, we are surely a nation in decline.
But of course, Holder will find the biggest frauds right in his administration, which -- as a matter of policy, as a matter of faith -- BELIEVES THE PRICE OF FOSSIL FUELS OUGHT TO BE EXTORTIONATE AND HAS DONE ALL IT CAN TO ENSURE IT.
The left's "energy" initiatives of the past decade -- the entire purpose of energy policy, in fact -- have been aimed at ARTIFICIALLY DRIVING FOSSIL FUEL PRICES UP TO INCENTIVIZE THE BITTER CLINGERS TO EMBRACE THE GOVERNMENT'S UTOPIAN ENERGY SCHEMES. No secret has been made of it. In 2008, candidate Barack Obama was asked by CNBC's John Harwood, "So could the (high) oil prices help us?" Obama: "I THINK THAT I WOULD HAVE PREFERRED A GRADUAL ADJUSTMENT." SUDDEN SPIKES ARE BAD (POLITICALLY SPEAKING), BUT GRADUAL PRICE SPIKES? HELPFUL. That same year, current U.S. "Energy" Secretary (then just a zany professor) STEVEN CHU CLARIFIED THAT "SOMEHOW WE HAVE TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO BOOST THE PRICE OF GASOLINE TO THE LEVELS IN EUROPE."
http://townhall.com/columnists/davidharsanyi/2011/04/27/why_isnt_obama_celebrating_high_oil_prices
The real problem with high priced oil is the extra money is going to the suppliers rather than the government. Expect Obama to propose a gas tax hike to help balance the budget.
Oil and Obama
Take a look at this chart:http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/thanks-to-obama-gas-jumps-in-a-flash/
http://www.metalprices.com/pubcharts/PublicCharts.aspx?metal=cl%20nymex&type=C&weight=&days=60&size=s&bg=EDF2F8
It’s the price of a barrel of crude oil over the past 5 years.
See that big peak in the middle? That was the last oil spike, in the summer of 2008. Notice how the price hit a high point, then fell off a cliff afterward?
THE DAY CORRESPONDING TO THAT PEAK, AN ALL-TIME HIGH OF $145.16/BARREL, WAS JULY 14, 2008. BY SOME STRANGE COINCIDENCE, THAT WAS THE VERY SAME DAY THEN-PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH LIFTED, BY EXECUTIVE ORDER, A FEDERAL BAN ON OFFSHORE OIL DRILLING…..
Funny how that works. Speculators go away when you start to actually try to find oil.
What Professor Obama Doesn't Understand
President Obama's self-congratulatory "economic recovery" is way too little, way too late. BY HISTORICAL STANDARDS FOR THE AMERICAN ECONOMY, WE SHOULD BE IN THE SECOND YEAR NOW OF A BOOMING ECONOMIC RECOVERY. Instead the economy is still struggling to get off the ground, and WHAT IS BOOMING INSTEAD IS PRICES AND INFLATION.
If you listen to what President Obama is saying in his reelection campaign, which is already underway in his town hall tour across America, the reason for this is clear. PRESIDENT OBAMA DOES NOT UNDERSTAND THE BASICS OF ECONOMICS. What he says repeatedly is that increased government spending is the foundation of economic recovery and growth. But the economic reality is that incentives for increased production are the foundation for recovery and booming growth.
As a result, what we are witnessing is a historical reenactment of the 1970s, if not the 1930s, with the same throwback economic policies that caused the dismal economic downward spiral of those years. But this is not all that President Obama doesn't understand. HE ALSO DOESN'T UNDERSTAND THE BUDGET, TAXES, BUSINESS, THE ENERGY AND OIL MARKETS, AND EVEN HEALTH CARE…..
http://spectator.org/archives/2011/04/27/what-professor-obama-doesnt-un
Ideology trumps IQ in Obama’s mind. Welcome back to the Carter years.
The sensitive left
Those smarmy elitists at Gawker.com have outdone themselves in an article belittling a bill just passed by the Texas state legislature. IT SEEMS THAT TEXANS, THROUGH THEIR ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES, HAVE DECIDED THAT ANY STATE-FUNDED UNIVERSITY THAT HAS A STUDENT CENTER PROMOTING ALTERNATIVE SEXUAL LIFESTYLES MUST ALSO HAVE A CENTER DEVOTED TO PROMOTE "TRADITIONAL VALUES." That would seem pretty even-handed to most observers.
But not to the sneering leftists at Gawker! To Hamilton Nolan and the editorial staff there, THE PASSAGE OF THIS BILL IS AN OUTRAGE TO THEIR DELICATE SENSIBILITIES. Mr. Nolan's parenthetical description of what might constitute traditional values in Texas: (beer, barbecue, date-rape,(and) cow-f***ing) is as insensitive and bigoted as one could imagine from the dark underbelly of our media elite.
Why is it anymore absurd to establish a student center for traditional American values than it is to have publicly funded centers for lifestyles most Americans consider to be immoral? Especially with reports indicating that homosexuals really only constitute somewhere between 2 and 3% of the American population….
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/04/gawker_shouldnt_mess_with_texa.html
What you have to understand is that according to the left you can’t have men only clubs, white’s only clubs, scholarships for whites only, etc because that would be bigotry. But you can have women only organizations, black, Hispanic, etc clubs and scholarships because that would be fair. You can have affirmative action where one minority group is given special consideration while another (Asians) are systematically discriminated against because too many of them are good students. Welcome to what the left describes as a “just society.”
Worldwide Communist movement
While CLAIMING THE AMERICAN FLAG REPRESENTS RACISM AND DISCUSSING TODAY’S PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT’S EFFORTS TO DEFEAT AMERICA BOTH AT HOME AND ABROAD, including on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan to help their international “comrades,” Communist Tony Pecinovsky pulls the mask off today’s Progressive Movement in two new exclusive Big Government videos of a University of Missouri course offering, already much in the news….
http://biggovernment.com/driehl/2011/04/26/college-course-us-flag-is-racist-how-to-defeat-america-in-iraq-and-afghanistan/
You can skip the music (first 41 seconds). Kind of reminds me of the “Flat Earth Society.”
Electric cars and reality
....When it comes to electric cars, that age-old saying — "YOUR MILEAGE MAY VARY" — NEVER RANG TRUER.http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/04/25/6530514-electric-cars-meet-the-real-world
"It's almost a game to see what you can do to get the best mileage out of it," Wojtanek said of his Volt.
Wojtanek told me he's changed his driving style to boost the Volt's efficiency. QUICK STARTS OR STOPS ARE KEPT TO A MINIMUM. IT ALSO HELPS THAT MOST OF HIS TRIPS ARE SHORT JAUNTS AROUND BOCA RATON, which provides plenty of opportunities for charging up between drives. Pretty much THE ONLY TIME THE GAS ENGINE TURNS ON IS when the 55-year-old commercial actor (and retired airline pilot) TAKES A TRIP TO FORT LAUDERDALE OR MIAMI. THE ROUND TRIP TO MIAMI IS 98 MILES, and generally the GAS KICKS IN AFTER ABOUT 40 MILES OF ALL-ELECTRIC DRIVING. "Forty-three miles is about the best I get on the battery," he said....
If you don’t have a lot of long trips and you have a lot of money, this could be the car for you.
Massachusetts House votes to restrict Public Employee Unions bargaining rights
HOUSE LAWMAKERS VOTED OVERWHELMINGLY LAST NIGHT TO STRIP POLICE OFFICERS, TEACHERS, AND OTHER MUNICIPAL EMPLOYEES OF MOST OF THEIR RIGHTS TO BARGAIN OVER HEALTH CARE, saying the change would save millions of dollars for financially strapped cities and towns.
THE 111-TO-42 VOTE FOLLOWED TOUGHER MEASURES TO BROADLY ELIMINATE COLLECTIVE BARGAINING RIGHTS FOR PUBLIC EMPLOYEES IN OHIO, WISCONSIN, AND OTHER STATES. But unlike those efforts, the push in Massachusetts was LED BY DEMOCRATS who have traditionally stood with labor to oppose any reduction in workers’ rights....
“It’s pretty stunning,’’ said Robert J. Haynes, president of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO. “These are THE SAME DEMOCRATS THAT ALL THESE LABOR UNIONS ELECTED. THE SAME DEMOCRATS WHO WE CONTRIBUTED TO IN THEIR CAMPAIGNS. The same Democrats who tell us over and over again that they’re with us, that they believe in collective bargaining, that they believe in unions. . . . It’s a done deal for our relationship with the people inside that chamber.’’
“We are going to fight this thing to the bitter end,’’ he added. “Massachusetts is not the place that takes collective bargaining away from public employees.’’
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/articles/2011/04/27/house_votes_to_limit_bargaining_on_health_care/
Perhaps now the hard core leftist who think this is a plot by the Republicans and that a crisis doesn’t exist will realize it does.
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