Our #1 tells of a Steve Jobs conversation with President Barack Obama. #2 talks about Obama’s Ohio troubles. In article 3 we get a look at Occupy Oakland and see a digression into the Lord of the Flies. Story 4 asks the question if his foreign policy victories will help President Obama in the upcoming election. #5 is a must read talking about a new book the details Obama’s extra-legal actions. #6 is a TNR story warning about the OWS effect on Democratic chances in the upcoming election.
1. Steve Jobs Conversation with Barack Obama
Jobs, who was known for his prickly, stubborn personality, almost missed meeting President Obama in the fall of 2010 because he insisted that the president personally ask him for a meeting. Though his wife told him that Obama “was really psyched to meet with you,” Jobs insisted on the personal invitation, and the standoff lasted for five days. When he finally relented and they met at the Westin San Francisco Airport, JOBS WAS CHARACTERISTICALLY BLUNT. He seemed to have transformed from a liberal into a conservative.
“YOU’RE HEADED FOR A ONE-TERM PRESIDENCY,” he told Obama at the start of their meeting, INSISTING THAT THE ADMINISTRATION NEEDED TO BE MORE BUSINESS-FRIENDLY. As an example, JOBS DESCRIBED THE EASE WITH WHICH COMPANIES CAN BUILD FACTORIES IN CHINA COMPARED TO THE UNITED STATES, WHERE “REGULATIONS AND UNNECESSARY COSTS” MAKE IT DIFFICULT FOR THEM.
JOBS ALSO CRITICIZED AMERICA’S EDUCATION SYSTEM, SAYING IT WAS “CRIPPLED BY UNION WORK RULES,” noted Isaacson. “Until the teachers’ unions were broken, there was almost no hope for education reform.” Jobs proposed allowing principals to hire and fire teachers based on merit, that schools stay open until 6 p.m. and that they be open 11 months a year….
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/20/steve-jobs-biography-obama_n_1022786.html?1319148475
I guess Jobs was telling Obama about what would really create jobs.
2. Obama’s Ohio Troubles
OBAMA’S APPROVAL RATING IN THE STATE IS ONLY 43%, WITH 52% OF VOTERS DISAPPROVING OF HIM. He’s very unpopular with independents at 39/57, and even with Democrats his approval has dropped to a worrisome low of 73%. He’s in particularly bad shape with white voters (37/57) and men (38/58).
A HEAD TO HEAD BETWEEN OBAMA AND ROMNEY WOULD BE A TIE AT THIS POINT, with each candidate getting 46%. Those numbers are worse for Obama than they appear to be on the surface though- JUST 18% OF THE UNDECIDED VOTERS APPROVE OF THE JOB HE’S DOING. When those folks make up their minds they’re not very likely to end up in Obama’s camp. Romney has an 11 point advantage with independents and pulls 12% of the Democratic vote while losing only 4% of Republicans to Obama.
http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2011/10/obama-struggling-in-ohio.html
Obama is done. There’s no way for him to be reelected.
3. Occupy Oakland Devolves into “Lord of the Flies.”
THE NEXT THING HUGHES KNEW HE WAS IN A HEADLOCK, THEN HE WAS BEING PUNCHED, AND THEN HE WAS ON THE GROUND AS A LARGE MAN BEGAN TO CHOKE HIM.
This happened as Hughes, a substitute teacher and Occupy Oakland resident, tried to keep a larger man who also lived in the camp from threatening a woman there. Finally, after another threatening incident involving the same individual, the occupiers had had enough:
About 3:30 Tuesday afternoon, A GROUP OF ROUGHLY 50 PEOPLE GATHERED BY THE MAN’S TENT AND TOLD HIM HE HAD TO LEAVE. Some were speaking calmly. Others weren’t. It was then that the man pulled out a large kitchen knife and threatened the whole group…IT WAS ONLY WHEN SOMEONE PICKED UP A PIECE OF WOOD AND CRACKED HIM ACROSS THE HEAD THAT THE ORDEAL ENDED.
Self-realization dawns on at least one of the occupiers:
“AT SOME POINT, WE HAVE TO RECOGNIZE THAT WE CAN’T CONTROL EVERYTHING,” said Boomer Frank, a 24-year-old tent resident and ad hoc camp organizer. “I’m anti-authoritarian, but we need to acknowledge that some things are out of our control.”
If only they could apply that lesson a little more broadly, e.g. to the police, to the economy as a whole even. Appropriately, it’s the cops who patrol the camp that get it. One officer compared the scene to “Lord of the Flies.” His supervisor was even more insightful:…
http://www.verumserum.com/?p=31000
You probably could have predicted this. This isn’t the TEA Party.
Will Obama's foreign policy success help?
4. Will Obama's foreign policy success help?
President Barack Obama delivered on another foreign policy promise on Friday with plans to pull the last U.S. troops from Iraq. But in a re-election campaign all about the weak U.S. economy, he may not get much credit.
Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, radical Islamic cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi -- these are all dead U.S. opponents that Democrat Obama can claim a measure of credit for getting.
Now add to that Obama's announcement on Friday that the eight-year war in Iraq is ending, fulfilling a campaign goal he made in 2008 when he declared the conflict a misguided mistake by his Republican predecessor, George W. Bush….
I don’t think it will help. If he were a Republican running with these war successes, he would shore up support of his base. As a Democrat, he probably loses some support from the base for these victories. Among independents I think this area doesn’t matter. Their job does.
6. Above Democracy and the Rule of Law
In 2010, the American people delivered a stinging rebuke to President Obama. The 63 seat Republican gain in the House was a New Deal size landslide, harking back to a time when America was choosing a fundamental change of course. In the Senate, Republicans came back from a minority unable to even mount a filibuster to within three seats of the Democrats, after some party infighting fumbled away a couple of quite possible wins.
For Democrats, THAT DOES NOT BODE WELL FOR A 2012 ELECTION WITH 23 DEMOCRAT SENATE SEATS AT STAKE, AND A FILIBUSTER PROOF REPUBLICAN MAJORITY POSSIBLE BY WINNING ONLY HALF OF THOSE. The people elected these Republicans in 2010 to stop the emergent Obama agenda, not to cooperate in its advancement.
But President Barack Obama refused to heed the people and change course. The election results only changed the means by which he has pursued the most left wing policies of any President in U.S. history. RECOGNIZING THAT HE COULD NO LONGER ADVANCE HIS AGENDA THROUGH CONGRESS, OBAMA PIVOTED TO MAXIMIZING THE VAST REGULATORY POWERS OF THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH.
For example, since cap and trade legislation obviously no longer had any prayer of getting through Congress (even the overwhelmingly Democrat Congress of 2009-2010 wouldn’t pass it), OBAMA SAID AFTER THE ELECTION, “CAP AND TRADE WAS JUST ONE WAY OF SKINNING THE CAT; IT WAS NOT THE ONLY WAY. IT WAS A MEANS, NOT AN END.” Sometimes this pivot has involved ignoring legal rulings, breaking agreements with Congress, and exceeding statutory authority….
This is the real scandal of the Obama Administration. The Obama Administration is lawless flaunting the law and the courts.
The New Republic: Democrats Beware! Occupy Wall Street Could Sink Obama’s Re-Election
… THE CATASTROPHIC MISDEEDS OF BANKERS SHOULD HAVE BEEN POLITICAL GOLD FOR DEMOCRATS—the strongest case for a robust regulatory state one could make; an opportunity to corner Republicans into defending banks that have inflicted so much misery. But the Democrats’—or rather Obama’s—strategy strangely didn’t point in that direction. At best, we can describe Dodd-Frank as a marginal step in the direction of reform. And in the course of the ongoing battle over implementing the law, the legislation will likely be reduced to a marginal half step. When the Obama administration whispered that it had some qualms with Wall Street’s behavior, the bankers acted as if they were being led to the gallows—a response that SPOOKED THE ADMINISTRATION INTO REFRAINING FROM ANY FURTHER FORAYS INTO POPULIST RHETORIC AND PROVOKED IT TO SEND ENVOY VALERIE JARRETT ON PEACE-MAKING MISSIONS TO WALL STREET. It is, indeed, maddening enough to make you rush to the barricades…
http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/96498/occupy-wall-street-liberalism-obama-2012-democrats
I guess TNR thinks this is not the left’s TEA Party but rather is a net deficit for the left.
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