The debate approaches

AAA HMS Obama

What we know about Obama and what we don’t know about Romney

We know what Mr.Obama is and what he stands for:

(1) He is for apologizing to the rest of the world for our freedoms of speech and for our power and prosperity.

(2) He is an indolent President who has not even submitted a budget for three and a half years;

(3) He loathes the oil and gas sector of the society.

(4) He wants to make as much of the country as possible dependent on the federal teat.

(5) He unequivocally believes in unilateral nuclear disarmament.

Univision breaks story on Fast and Furious

Although Democrats seem to think they own the Hispanic vote, Univision, the Spanish Network first actually did a thorough interview with President Obama and now has broken a story on Fast and Furious which the MSM seems to treat as radioactive.

Obama and the Truth:  Strangers in the night?

President Obama has a habit and that habit is failing to tell the truth.  But he has gotten by with it all of his life and it now is just who he is.

In another article, Hugh Hewitt gives you the “tells” of when Obama is about to dissemble the truth.  The first tell is a pattern of "ahs" and "uhmms" which are as embarrassing as they are revealing.

What did Obama do when America was attacked by terrorists?

This is a powerful ad.

Is Sweden a Socialist Success Story?

From 1980 through 1997, Sweden's government spent more than all other advanced economies as a fraction of GDP.  It peaked at 68% of GDP in 1993, an all-time record for advanced economies.

And how did that "socialism" work for Sweden?  Its economy grew only 1.4% per year from 1980 to 1993, when the U.S. was growing 3.0% per year.  And over those last five years, 1988-1993, it stopped growing altogether -- 0% growth.  It fell farther behind the U.S: from 81% as rich to 72% as rich.  Its debt grew to 70% of GDP.

In short, government spending in Sweden had the effect that free-market types always predict: slow growth and high debt.  Government spending does not stimulate; it stifles, and it sticks our kids with the bill.

Where have all the Manufacturing jobs gone?

They’ve gone unfilled. 

The consultant company Deloitte surveyed the industry and found 600,000 perfectly good jobs going unfilled because of a lack of "soft skills."

BTW, soft skills include getting people who can pass a drug test. 

Harvard educated Killer sentenced to life without parole

A Harvard educated professor at the University of Alabama who killed three colleagues and who the MSM tried to associate with the Tea Party has been sentenced to life without parole for these killings.  Rather than a Tea Party member, Amy Bishop was described lifelong liberal who was obsessed with President Obama. 

DNC spokesperson predicts Romney will win Denver Debate

"Mitt Romney has had a lot more time to debate, the president has not debated in the past four years in terms, of a campaign debate. I think the president will hold his own, but he's not known for sound bites. And these are 60 second, 90 second responses."

Not to mention Obama won’t have his teleprompter there.  

They are also trying to inoculate the President’s performance raving about how good Romney is in debates as well as indicating

The Problem with Polls

If, as even left-wing think tanks agree, Democratic voter registration is in decline, why are pollsters assuming that the electorate will largely resemble the messianic “hope and change” outpouring that elected Barack Obama? And if they are wrong about the turnout model, does that mean their forecasts showing the president cruising to re-election are also incorrect?

Ohio is not alone. An August study by the left-leaning think tank Third Way showed that the Democratic voter registration decline in eight key swing states outnumbered the Republican decline by a 10-to-one ratio. In Florida, Democratic registration is down 4.9 percent, in Iowa down 9.5 percent. And in New Hampshire, it’s down 19.7 percent.

So the polling models have a greater percentage of Democrats in them while the number of Democrats is declining.  Go figure.

Hugo Chavez endorses Obama

Venezuela's Hugo Chavez gave a surprise endorsement to Barack Obama on Sunday - and said the U.S. leader no doubt felt the same. "I hope this doesn't harm Obama, but if I was from the United States, I'd vote for Obama."  When he said the US leader no doubt felt the same, he was saying Obama would endorse him (Chavez) as well.  This makes two endorsements from Communists (or former communists) as Vladimir Putin also endorsed Obama.

Ten Questions Obama should answer at the Debate

I found these questions to be excellent.  Here’s an example of just one of them.

Can you today guarantee that Iran will not have acquired a nuclear weapon by the time you finish a second term in office?

Economist pick Romney

Nine of 17 top economists surveyed by CNNMoney picked Romney when asked who's election would help the economy grow more. Only three picked Obama. 

But the remaining five made no pick, with several suggesting neither would provide much of a lift to the sagging economy. 

"Obama doesn't really understand business and Romney doesn't really understand how to govern. So pick your poison," said Gary Rosenberger of EconoPlay, one of those surveyed who refused to give a pick.

Obama’s foreign policy coming apart

It was just a few weeks ago at the Democratic national convention that Obama confidently declared that “al Qaeda is on the path to defeat and Osama bin Laden is dead.” And yet, on the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, al Qaeda struck again against our lightly guarded consulate in Benghazi, where ambassador Chris Stevens was murdered — an attack, it now turns out, the United States had ample reason to suspect was coming.

Especially bothersome were the Egyptians chanting that there are 1 billion Osamas.  We may soon be asking, “who lost North Africa.”

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s cameraman seeks political asylum

Another embarrassment for the Iranians as Hassan Gol Khanban, who was part of the 140-person entourage that accompanied the Iranian president to New York, has announced via his New York City-based lawyer, Paul O'Dwyer, that he is seeking asylum in the U.S.

Is Soros panicking?

It appears George Soros is spending big time trying to keep Mitt Romney from beat Barack Obama in November. 

The Libertarian Case for Mitt Romney

We have a younger Obama on tape, saying that welfare recipients and “the working poor” are a “majority coalition.” And don’t fool yourself into thinking that by “welfare recipients” he just means the huddled masses getting their “Obama bucks” and food stamp billions and disability checks. Under Obama, Wall Street is a welfare queen, too. So is our banking system. Half our domestic auto industry is on the take, too. Obama has gutted work requirements for individual welfare recipients, and gutted the profit requirement for big business and big banking and big finance.

The masses won’t give up their checks, and the crony capitalists won’t suffer any competition. The squeeze is on, and you’re in the middle of it. That’s the Permanent Progressive Majority.

This squeeze fundamentally transforms what America means, and what it means to be an American — from citizen to subject. It took a century to take us this far along the Progressive path to a Technocratic State of high-tech feudalism, but we’re almost at the end of the line. Another four years is probably all that’s needed to get there.

Foreign Affairs and Obama

I guess that means Obama’s statue is coming down

Shouting ”Allahu Akbar” and ”F— America,” the mob, many of whom were masked, marched on the embassy and began to attack. 

This occurred in Jakarta, Indonesia, where Obama gained his international experience that he touted in his 2008 run for the presidency.

Mother Jones catches Romney telling the truth

“There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what…who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what…These are people who pay no income tax. Forty-seven percent of Americans pay no income tax…And so my job is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.” Mitt Romney

Here’s the worst part, it’s true. 

Deregulation:  The Democrat lie

Here’s Dr. Thomas Sowell’s column on how the Democrats like to blame deregulation for things they actually caused.  The biggest lie is about what caused the economic meltdown (hint: it wasn’t the failed policies of Bush, but the failed policies of a number of Democratic Presidents and the Democrats in congress).

Calls for Resignation?

"Under your leadership there have been numerous errors in judgment that have led us to where we are.… We hear a lot of happy talk and rosy scenarios, but because of the administration's strategic blunders -- and frankly the record of incompetence in executing -- you are presiding over a failed policy."  Hillary Clinton August 2006

Should Hillary now take her own advice and resign as Secretary of State?  Doesn’t this fit what she charged Rumsfeld with six years ago? 

Prof forces student to pledge to vote for Obama

Early last week Professor Sharon Sweet at Brevard Community College (BCC) allegedly told students to sign a pledge that reads: “I pledge to vote for President Obama and Democrats up and down the ticket.”

University administrators said they learned about the incident late Thursday afternoon and launched an investigation, after they received a phone call from a concerned parent.

This person should not be teaching.  She’s too dumb to be doing that.  Anyone who thinks they could get away with this is dumber than dirt.

Justice Department Teams up with Media Matters

The HolderJustice Department has been shown in email obtained through the Freedom of Information Act to have collaborated with Media Matters in an attempt to quell news stories about scandals at Justice.  What a surprise!

Obama loses Key Democrats for Tax Hike

It seems the there are enough sane Democrats in the Senate to possibly avoid the fiscal cliff we are coming to.  If nothing is done there will be automatic spending cuts and Obama has threatened to let all of the Bush Tax Cuts expire and everyone in the country would have higher taxes.  

“Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois is floating a six-month extension of current rates combined with budget cuts so lawmakers have time to reach a grand bargain deal early next year.”

With the release of Bob Woodward’s new book The Price of Politics, Obama has been exposed as the cause of the failure of the last grand bargain.   I don’t think the Democrats want to risk being blamed for another one. 

Is this what you get for being more respected?

Cairo has issued international arrest warrants for eight Americans—seven of them Coptic Christians from Egypt—who are allegedly involved with the anti-Mohammad video everyone’s rioting over. The prosecutor’s office also issued a warrant for Terry Jones, the Koran-burning nutjob in Florida, just because, and says if convicted the defendants may get the death penalty.  

I think Obama’s foreign policy is starting to look like his domestic policy.  Neither is working.

New Hampshire Debates

What’s new Today

Our #1 and #2 stories give you opinions on last night’s debate.  #3 story has a video showing Newt landing a big haymaker on the moderators to loud applause.  #4 looks at the Debate on Sunday on Meet the Press.  #5 looks at the tyrannical tendencies of the current occupant of the White House.  #6 is a more philosophical look at what is TRUTH.  Finally #7 talks about the Chump Effect and how the press seems to be set up to be chumps. 

1.   Saturday Night Republican Debate:  Romney the Winner:  ABC News the Loser

The big winner tonight was Mitt Romney for one simple reason: No one laid a finger on him. Romney repeatedly turned his fire on Obama while all the non-Romneys fought with each other. Paul called Gingrich a draft dodger. Perry called Paul a hypocrite. Paul called Santorum a big-government conservative. And Romney just stood back and watched it all. Whenever the moderators asked him to join the fray he demurred and turned the discussion toward Obama.

He even went after the moderators for asking a “silly question” and when asked to criticize his rivals said everyone on the stage would do better than Obama. The irony is that that was Gingrich’s role in the debates a few months ago — now Romney has appropriated it.

The big loser tonight was ABC News. We’re at war, the economy is in the tank, Iran is building a nuclear weapon, and ABC was obsessed with … contraception and gay marriage. They spent a good 15-20 minutes on those topics, while failing to ask a single question about Obamacare, the debt, entitlement reform, or other several other pressing issues….

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/287479/big-winner-romney-big-loser-abc-news-marc-thiessen

Failing to ask about Obamacare, the debt, entitlement reform, etc. shows ABC is in the tank for the Democrats. 

2.  Kristol:  Summary of the Republican Debate

…Rick Perry is heading toward the exits gracefully, Jon Huntsman somewhat less so. Ron Paul will stay around, but his kookiness and unpleasantness have got to be wearing thin . . . I hope.

That leaves Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, and Rick Santorum.

Newt was on good behavior, and had a great moment when he attacked the moderators—but it's hard to see how he turned his declining fortunes around.

Romney did pretty well. His high watermark was dealing with the ridiculous contraception question. This was something he couldn't have prepared for, and his series of responses gave one a (hopeful) sense that the “real” Romney is actually better than the painfully artificial and well prepared one we usually see. Indeed, when Romney went out of his way later on to offer us his well prepared vision thing, it fell flat.

Santorum did well, getting stronger as the night went on. His explanation of why he disliked Romney’s talk about the “middle class” was strong, as was his discussion of Iran and of his economic plan.

The conventional wisdom about the debate will be that no one really laid a glove on Romney, who’s allegedly cruising to the nomination unless very soon derailed, so Romney is tonight's winner….

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/and-then-there-were-two_616178.html

It seems from the two stories, Romney did well.  No surprises. 

3.  Newt Turns Tables on ABC and MSM

One of the biggest applause lines of the night was when Newt Gingrich, responding to a long (and embarrassing for the moderators) line of questions trying to pin candidates down on gay marriage, contraception and gay adoption, responded as follows:

http://legalinsurrection.com/2012/01/pigs-fly-new-hampshire-debate-tweets-of-the-night/

Click the link and watch the video.  Newt gets a huge applause from the audience.  This is really bad news for the Democrats.  Their screed that the right is bigoted is not only nonsense, but is something waiting to be exploited by the right. 

4.  Meet the Stress

I’m watching the special edition of Meet the Press hosting the last debate of the GOP presidential candidates before Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary. Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich have landed some haymakers on Governor Romney — roundhouse rights that pack something of a wallop. Governors Perry and Hunstman have acquitted themselves decently. Governor Romney has done a good fending for himself without punching back. He exhibits an exemplary demeanor and a quick wit. I’ve thought this a weak field, but I was wrong. Our A team is on the bench, but this is a respectable field. Watching the candidates this morning, you nevertheless have to be concerned that Obama is the principal beneficiary of the candidates’ exercise of their skills at this point.

Despite all the talk of needed reforms in these debates, there is an elephant in the room. Yesterday in the ABC/WMUR/Yahoo debate it was ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, the debate’s moderator. This morning in the NBC/Facebook/Union Leader debate it is NBC’s David Gregory, the host of Meet the Press and moderator of this debate. They are remorseless hacks…

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2012/01/meet-the-distress.php

I heartily agree with the author about the hacks they have hosting the debate.  They keep asking the candidates to disagree with each other and to take offense at what someone else has said. The are like radio talk shows with the class. 

5.  The New Authoritarianism

 “I refuse to take ‘No’ for an answer,” said President Obama this week as he claimed new powers for himself in making recess appointments while Congress wasn’t legally in recess. The chief executive’s power grab in naming appointees to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the National Labor Relations Board has been depicted by administration supporters as one forced upon a reluctant Obama by Republican intransigence. But this isn’t the first example of the president’s increasing tendency to govern with executive-branch powers. He has already explained that “where Congress is not willing to act, we’re going to go ahead and do it ourselves.” On a variety of issues, from immigration to the environment to labor law, that’s just what he’s been doing—and he may try it even more boldly should he win reelection. This “go it alone” philosophy reflects an authoritarian trend emerging on the political left since the conservative triumph in the 2010 elections.

The president and his coterie could have responded to the 2010 elections by conceding the widespread public hostility to excessive government spending and regulation. That’s what the more clued-in Clintonites did after their 1994 midterm defeats. But unlike Clinton, who came from the party’s moderate wing and hailed from the rural South, the highly urban progressive rump that is Obama’s true base of support has little appreciation for suburban or rural Democrats. In fact, some liberals even celebrated the 2010 demise of the Blue Dog and Plains States Democrats, concluding that the purged party could embrace a purer version of the liberal agenda. So instead of appealing to the middle, the White House has pressed ahead with Keynesian spending and a progressive regulatory agenda

http://www.city-journal.org/2012/eon0106fsjk.html

Obama and the Progressive are dangerous to individual liberty.  They are the face of progressivism.  The next step you may see is fixing elections.  If the voters are too stupid to appreciate all they do, they may have to bypass them.

6.  What is Truth?

We frequently criticize MSM journalists for distorting the truth. But what is "truth"?

When Pilate asked that question, he was probably being ironic and didn't expect an answer. But philosophers have written piles of impenetrable books attempting to answer him. So far, there has been no consensus -- perhaps because we have been arguing about different types of "truth."

As in Dante's Inferno, "truth" can be divided into nine levels of ever-increasing deviation from "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." To use an artistic analogy, the topmost level 1 corresponds to the real subject, level 2 to a photograph, level 3 to a painting, and so on until the bottom levels, which correspond to cartoons or vicious caricatures.

1. The highest level, "truth-1," would be a complete and absolute comprehension of the reality of any object -- which (because of the connectedness of all things) would require an absolute comprehension of the universe. It is plausible to assume that this could be provided only by the Maker of the universe. Some of us believe that Pilate asked the right person, but, unfortunately, the occasion did not allow time for a full answer -- which Pilate (or we) could not have comprehended anyway. Therefore, we must reluctantly abandon our quest for truth-1 in this life.

2. Far below lies truth-2: the sum total of all the observations and experience that we acquire in the course of our lives. Unfortunately, there are as many truth-2s as there are observers. If a ring of people stands around a statue, each will see only part of it, and each will see something different. We tend to be like the blind men touching the elephant in the old story -- each feeling a small part of the elephant and thinking it to be the whole truth. Therefore, we strive to pool our observations into a collective truth-2 by literature, media, and personal communication.

3. Even truth-2 is an ideal, seldom if ever achieved in this world….

http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/01/a_provisional_anatomy_of_truth.html#ixzz1irrp67Hs

An interesting if esoteric article about truth but it does explain why we argue so much in politics.  Truth can be very different depending on each of our visions of the world.

7.  The Chump Effect

Lots of cultural writing these days, in books and magazines and newspapers, relies on the so-called Chump Effect. The Effect is defined by its discoverer, me, as the eagerness of laymen and journalists to swallow whole the claims made by social scientists. Entire journalistic enterprises, whole books from cover to cover, would simply collapse into dust if even a smidgen of skepticism were summoned whenever we read that “scientists say” or “a new study finds” or “research shows” or “data suggest.” Most such claims of social science, we would soon find, fall into one of three categories: the trivial, the dubious, or the flatly untrue.

A rather extreme example of this third option emerged last month when an internationally renowned social psychologist, Diederik Stapel of Tilburg University in the Netherlands, was proved to be a fraud. No jokes, please: This social psychologist is a fraud in the literal, perhaps criminal, and not merely figurative, sense. An investigative committee concluded that Stapel had falsified data in at least “several dozen” of the nearly 150 papers he had published in his extremely prolific career…

…The conclusions that Stapel drew were large indeed. One thing he liked to demonstrate in his studies was the exploitive nature of democratic capitalism. Last year, the New York Times reported on a typical Stapel study, called “The Self-Activation Effect of Advertisements.” It proved that advertising for cosmetics and fancy shoes “makes women feel worse about themselves,” as the Times put it. Another study, released at the end of the scandal-ridden year 2009, was called “Power Increases Hypocrisy.” Quite a timely little study it was. Stapel and his colleagues’ research revealed that powerful people were more likely to be “moral hypocrites.” And which powerful people did the researchers have in mind? “Politicians [who] use public funds for private benefits while calling for smaller government” and CEOs “accepting executive bonuses while simultaneously asking for government bailouts.”

http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/chump-effect_610143.html?nopager=1

No wonder he was successful.  His phony conclusions were catnip to a left wing press.  What great stories these “experiments” made.