Things turn against Obama

What’s new Today

Our #1 story looks at Obama from his speeches and his budgets and tells you what it tells us of Obama.  #2 looks at 2008 and points out the Achilles’ heel in his victory.  It seem 77% of his majority came from 3 state with just 104 electoral votes.  #3 is really bad news for Obama.  Gallup has taken their poll and found unemployment in February will be 9%.  #4 is more bad news for Obama with 18 indicators that economy is in the tank.  You’ll see these numbers more as the fall approaches.  #5 looks at how Obama simply disregards the law.  #6 shows how America is growing in our domestic oil production while #7 is an Obama ad that makes you ask is it racist?  Finally we find that Germany and it’s leap to be the solar capital of the world has lost it about 99 cents out of every dollar invested. 

1. The Real Obama

President Obama’s budget for 2013 is pure Obama. How do we know? Paul Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman, was once asked how to become a budget expert. “You have to read the budget,” he said. To know Obama, it’s similar. You have to read the speeches and look over the budgets….

…I’ve gleaned his views from the two budgets and from the “reducing the budget” speech in April 2011, the address to a special session of Congress on jobs in September 2011, the speech at Osawatomie, Kansas, last December, and the State of the Union address last month. Here’s what the president not only believes but is committed to:

(1) America is an unjust and deeply unfair country. ..

(2) A looming debt crisis? Forget it. Obama hardly mentioned the deficit or the national debt in the State of the Union, though his budget has a $1.3 trillion deficit, and the debt is rising past $16 trillion into a fiscal danger zone. If he’s worried, he hasn’t let on in any serious way.

(3) Government spending is better at spurring the economy than private investment….

(4) Tax reform should flush loopholes and special breaks out of the tax code, broaden the base, and raise tax rates for the well-to-do. This isn’t bipartisan tax reform in which cutting income tax rates for everyone is one of the most important aspects—far from it.

(5) When the rich get richer, the middle class and poor get worse off…Obama doesn’t believe in a growing economic pie.

(6) Conservative, free market economics is a plague. Obama describes it as an economic system that tells Americans, “You’re on your own.” In his view, it consists of cutting taxes for the rich and gutting regulations of every kind.

Even worse, Obama said at Osawatomie, “it doesn’t work. It has never worked.…

(7) Medicare and Medicaid are not big problems...

http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/real-obama_630040.html

This article spells it out pretty well.  Obama’s has identified the wrong problems, has the wrong solutions and is wrong on just about every proposal he’s made. 

2.   2008 Election:  Not as big a win for Obama as it looked like

…In 2008, Obama won the popular vote by about nine and a half million votes. However, roughly 7.2 million of that margin came from huge wins in California, New York, and Illinois - states that he's going to win in pretty much any imaginable scenario. His massive margins in these states distorts the results of national polling by giving Obama a massive stash of surplus voters (equal to about 5.3% of the vote in 2008) who cannot shift a single Electoral Vote. If, instead of looking at the national vote, you look at the margins in swing states it becomes clear that the 2008 result was actually much closer than it looks at first glance.

If we begin using the 2008 map with the 2012 distribution of Electoral Votes, the initial Electoral Vote count would be, as mentioned above, 359-179.

Moving 1657 votes from the Democratic to the Republican column in Nebraska gives the Republicans the vote from that state's Second Congressional District and makes it 358-180.

A swing of 7089 votes in North Carolina gives us 343-195.

Switching 14,196 votes in Indiana changes the final result to 332-206.

118,225 voters in Florida would give that state to the GOP, putting the count at 303-235.

It would take only 131,112 votes to give Ohio to the Republicans, putting us at 285-253.

117,264 Virginians makes it 272-266.

And, finally, 73,281 votes would be enough to give Iowa (and the White House) to the Republican with 272 Electoral Votes to Obama's 266.

In this scenario, by the way, Obama would win 8,624,332 more votes than the Republican nominee, giving him a victory in the popular vote of 6.57%...

http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/02/obama_faces_fearful_political_geography_in_november.html#ixzz1n0lhnEr4

This is another major problem for Obama.  I didn’t realize how close Obama actually was in the country if you eliminate California, New York and Illinois.  76% of his victory total came from those three states. 

3.  Gallup:  Unemployment for February 9.0%

Unemployment in the U.S. rose to nine percent in mid-February, up from 8.3 percent a month earlier, according to a new Gallup survey. The polling company said this suggests that it is “premature” to assume the economy will not feature prominently in the 2012 election season.

Gallup figures typically provide an indication of what the government will report at the end of the month.

“The U.S. unemployment rate, as measured by Gallup without seasonal adjustment, is 9.0% in mid-February,” Gallup said in its mid-month unemployment survey, released on February 17. “The mid-month reading normally reflects what the U.S. government reports for the entire month, and is up from 8.3% in mid-January.”

Gallup said the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) would likely report a rise in the official unemployment rate in early March, when it publishes its February figures.

Gallup’s mid-month figures are not seasonally adjusted, and so may not predict the official unemployment rate precisely. However, because Gallup and BLS both conduct their unemployment surveys at the same time – in the middle of the month – Gallup’s early figures can provide a barometer of where the official rate is likely headed…

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/gallup-finds-unemployment-climbing-nine-percent-february

This is actually what the unemployment rate in January should have been.

4.  18 Signs the Economy is in trouble

The following are 18 statistics that prove that the economy has not improved since Barack Obama became the president of the United States….

#1 Today there are 88 million working age Americans that are not employed and that are not looking for employment. That is an all-time record high.

#2 When Barack Obama was elected, the percentage of unemployed Americans that had been out of work for more than 52 weeks was less than 15%. Today, it is above 30%.

#3 There are 1.2 million fewer jobs in America today than there were when Barack Obama was inaugurated.

#4 When Barack Obama first took office, the number of “long-term unemployed workers” in the United States was approximately 2.6 million. Today, that number is sitting at 5.6 million.

#5 The average duration of unemployment in the United States is hovering close to an all-time record high.

#6 During the Obama administration, worker health insurance costs have risen by 23 percent.

#7 Since Barack Obama has been president, the average price of a gallon of gasoline in the United States has increased by 90 percent.

#8 Since Barack Obama has been president, home values in the United States have declined by another 13 percent.

#9 Under Barack Obama, new home sales in the U.S. set a brand new all-time record low in 2009, they set a brand new all-time record low again in 2010, and they set a brand new all-time record low once again during 2011.

#10 Since Barack Obama took office, the number of Americans living in poverty has risen by more than 6 million.

#11 Since Barack Obama entered the White House, the number of Americans on food stamps has increased from 32 million to 46 million.

#12 The amount of money that the federal government gives directly to Americans has increased by 32 percent since Barack Obama entered the White House.

#13 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the percentage of Americans living in “extreme poverty” is now sitting at an all-time high.

#14 When Barack Obama first took office, an ounce of gold was going for about $850. Today an ounce of gold costs more than $1700 an ounce.

#15 Since Barack Obama became president; the size of the U.S. national debt has increased by 44 percent.

#16 During Barack Obama’s first two years in office, the U.S. government added more to the U.S. national debt than the first 100 U.S. Congresses combined.

#17 During the Obama administration, the U.S. government has accumulated more debt than it did from the time that George Washington took office to the time that Bill Clinton took office.

#18 The U.S. national debt has been increasing by an average of more than 4 billion dollars per day since the beginning of the Obama administration.

Oh, but Barack Obama is promising that things will be much better very soon. Barack Obama is pledging that 2 million more jobs will be added to the economy in 2012.

http://www.mrconservative.com/2012/02/2016-18-statistics-on-obama/

18 reasons Obama will be defeated in November. 

5.  Obama’s disregard for the Law

The willingness of the White House to exceed the Constitutional powers of the President and assert authority beyond that directed in federal statutes is starting to show up more frequently. In the past week on American Thinker, John F. DeLeo documented President Obama's deliberate expansion of the United States' Export Import Bank to turn it into a lender competing with ordinary banks, rather than a prudent facilitator of American companies' ability to engage in foreign commerce.

Obama's willingness to take over companies and bully lenders into giving up their priority rights to be paid their capital back was evident at the beginning of his term, in the cases of the GM and Chrysler bailouts. The other day, he moved unilaterally to change the defense capability of the nation by decreeing the destruction of hundreds of nuclear weapons to a level far below that the Senate authorized in a recent treaty with Russia. Also Joe Newby of the Spokane Examiner reports that on Thursday, House Speaker John Boehner told radio talk show host Laura Ingraham that he has "great concerns" the President may be overstepping his Constitutional authority in bypassing Congress on laws regarding mortgages and student loans.

Under the radar, another very current Obama move is seeking to create applicable law in the field of coastal zone regulation, respecting the oceans and the Great Lakes. The common law and Constitutional tradition of the United States provides that states own and govern the natural resources under public waters in their territory.  Nevertheless, since 2010, when he created an Ocean Policy Council, Obama has directed that the federal government agencies conduct themselves according to United Nations "sustainability" doctrine and treaties not ratified by the Senate of the United States. The fruition of this effort is imminent, and it will put a federal roadblock on coastal zone development by imposing requirements not contained in existing statutes such as the Clean Water Act. The Republican leadership in Congress has complained to no avail. The deadline for public comments on the Draft Implementation Plan closes in a few days, on February 27th. I hope interested states and companies will point out the overreach, but most are not focused on the issue….

http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/02/all_hail_obama.html#ixzz1n0nmrmRW

Obama is seeking to rule rather than to govern.

6.  Oil succeeding despite Obama

This is one of those articles that, after your read it, your eyes are bugging out of your head.

An incredible oil boom is underway, destroying the government's measely estimates for production and getting the US to the point where we will soon challenge Saudi Arabia for the world's biggest producer.

Houston Chronicle:

The United States' rapidly declining crude oil supply has made a stunning about-face, shredding federal oil projections and putting energy independence in sight of some analyst forecasts.

After declining to levels not seen since the 1940s, U.S. crude production began rising again in 2009. Drilling rigs have rushed into the nation's oil fields, suggesting a surge in domestic crude is on the horizon.

The number of rigs in U.S. oil fields has more than quad­rupled in the past three years to 1,272, according to the Baker Hughes rig count. Including those in natural gas fields, the United States now has more rigs at work than the entire rest of the world.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/02/oil_production_in_us_skyrockets.html#ixzz1n0pDfjB1

This despite the fact that the federal government has cut back on the land available for drilling.  This boom is happening on state and private land. 

7.  African Americans for Barack Obama

Here’s an interesting political ad by President Obama calling for African Americans to support him.  I wonder what would be said if a Republican set up a website and had a message, White Americans for (name).  Do you think that would be considered racist? 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BdjoHA5ocwU

8.  The benefits of solar in Germany

The skeptical environmentalist himself, Bjorn Lomborg, reports at Slate that despite the fact that "Germany once prided itself on being the 'photovoltaic world champion,'" now "Germany is cutting solar-power subsidies because they are expensive and inefficient." These statistics are incisive:

"Moreover, this sizeable investment does remarkably little to counter global warming. Even with unrealistically generous assumptions, the unimpressive net effect is that solar power reduces Germany's CO₂ emissions by roughly 8 million metric tons-or about 1 percent - for the next 20 years. To put it another way: By the end of the century, Germany's $130 billion solar panel subsidies will have postponed temperature increases by 23 hours.

Using solar, Germany is paying about $1,000 per ton of CO₂ reduced. The current CO₂price in Europe is $8. Germany could have cut 131 times as much CO₂ for the same price. Instead, the Germans are wasting more than 99 cents of every euro that they plow into solar panels."

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/02/germany_surrenders_on_solar_power.html#ixzz1n0q3WeMW

Another liberal fantasy bites the dust.  Solar may be a fuel of the future, but a distant future. 

My favorite pointing pictures

What’s new Today

Our #1 story tells the story of a mom charged with child endangerment.  #2 has Lawrence O’Donnell claiming things that reviewing fails to substantiate. 

1.  Parenting Is Now Child Abuse

A bratty 10-year-old got suspended for the fifth time from riding the bus and his mom punished him -- not by giving him a car ride to school, no punishment at all -- but by making him hoof it to school 4.5 miles. I say good for her -- consequences equal incentive to change behavior.

Actually, bad for her because she's now considered a child abuser. Marilisa Kinney Sachteleben writes on Yahoo.com:

As per ABC News, Mom was charged with child endangerment and faces one year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Let's unwrap the child abuse charges. KAIT says walk to school was longish (4.5 miles). A compassionate, public-spirited (or nosy, bored) bank security guard spotted the lad trudging to school and called the police. The tween boy implored the officer, "Please sir, don't take me home or my mother will beat me." So very Dickensian.

It was also coldish, 30 degrees, though in my home state of Michigan, that's a balmy spring breeze. Kids walk daily through cold and snow in our area. Stores also sell inclement weather apparel in kids' sizes, (Nequavion was wearing such a garment). Anyway, the concern wasn't weather as much as stranger danger or injury, said officer Lyle Waterworth. He encourages other helpful citizens to call the police when they see kids walking alone….

http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2012/02/19/parenting_is_no.html#.T0EExDg3MPQ.twitter

Hmmm, is a child walking alone child abuse?  I think it is in the nanny state of the liberal establishment.  But is driving the kid to school or having them take the bus when they are overweight also child abuse?   Makes you wonder.

2.  Lean Forward ad most false

Lawrence O’Donnell’s new “Lean Forward” ad for MSNBC takes on the GI bill passed during World War II to take care of soliders returning home from war. In the promo, O’Donnell described the bill as “the most successful educational program that we’ve ever had in this country” even though its opponents referred to it as welfare. But according to Politifact, that statement is not accurate….

http://www.mediaite.com/online/politifact-rates-lawrence-odonnell-lean-forward-ad-mostly-false-for-comments-about-gi-bill/

I find that many of the “facts” that the left puts forward aren’t really facts, but wishful thinking by the left.  In this case saying that opponents of the GI Bill called it welfare is simply nonsense.

Keystone Back On? This an other things you may not know

What’s new Today

Our #1 story gives you the top 10 reasons to vote Obama out of office in November.  By now you know that the payroll cut has been extended, but there is a lot more in that extension.  Read about it in #2.  #3 relates a story from England that may be coming soon to the USA.  #4 contradicts the left’s view of themselves as the gentle side of the political spectrum.  #5 gives you a clue as to why unemployment is going down.  We are rapidly going nuts. 

1.  Top 10 reasons to elect anybody but Obama

While Republicans are locked in a brutal battle over their presidential nomination, let us not forget that anybody the GOP picks will be far superior than the current resident at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Not convinced? Here’s the evidence:

1. Mountain of debt

To say that President Obama spends like a drunken sailor is an insult to drunken sailors. From the stimulus bill and auto bailouts to Cash for Clunkers and green jobs, President Obama’s spending reached epic proportions with annual trillion-dollar deficits. Any of the remaining Republican nominees would turn off the spigot of red ink.

2. ObamaCare demise

As long as Obama remains President, the Patient Affordability and Protection Act (ObamaCare), has a chance of remaining the law of the land. Not so with a Republican in the Oval Office, as all the candidates would seek an end to the healthcare law. As long as Obama holds a veto pen, he can stymie conservative legislative efforts to reduce its scope….

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=49597

As one “drunken sailor” said on a link, he took offense at the comparison.  He said, “When I ran out of money, I stopped spending.”

2.     Look At All The Other Junk Stuck In The Payroll Tax Cut Extension

This week our leaders in D.C. extended the payroll tax deduction for another ten months. The new law also extends Unemployment Benefits, and it allows for a continuation of the old payouts to Doctors for Medicare reimbursements. The cost of the legislation is $110b for the rest of the year. There are some minor offsets to this expense in out years. (We will never see those offsets.)

This legislation should have been easy to draft because it was just an extension of what had been agreed to, two months ago. But that’s not the case. H.R. 3630 is 386 pages long. The Bill includes some interesting things:

.

*The Keystone Pipe line is a “go”:

The President, acting through the Secretary of State, shall grant a permit relating to issuance of permits with respect to certain energy-related facilities and land transportation crossings on the international boundaries of the United States for the Keystone XL pipeline project.

There is still “wiggle room” on the pipeline. Obama can nix the deal, but he has to do it over the next 60 days, and he has a tough obstacle:

The President shall not be required to grant the permit if the President determines that the Keystone XL pipeline would not serve the national interest.

Obama cannot make a strong argument that the Keystone XL pipeline is not in the national interest. And he knows it. Therefore, I conclude the pipeline will happen. The president folded on this one. Environmentalists will be unhappy.

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*There is a new provision for eligibility for unemployment benefits. In the future, some states will require you to pee in a cup:…

http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/simple-extension-2-reduction-payroll-taxes?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+zerohedge%2Ffeed+%28zero+hedge+-+on+a+long+enough+timeline%2C+the+survival+rate+for+everyone+drops+to+zero%29

This is a very interesting article because there is a lot more in this bill.  I guess we have another one where they needed to pass the bill in order for US to find out what was in it. 

3.  The Racists Right and the Scientific Left

The mother of a seven-year-old boy was told to sign a school form admitting he was racist after he asked another pupil about the colour of his skin.

Elliott Dearlove had asked a five-year-old boy in the playground whether he was ‘brown because he was from Africa’.

His mother, Hayley White, 29, said she received a phone call last month to say her son had been at the centre of a ‘racist incident’.

She was then summoned to a meeting with Elliott, his teacher and the deputy head of Griffin Primary School in Hull….

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2103175/Boy-7-branded-racist-asking-schoolmate-Are-brown-come-Africa.html#ixzz1mn63TQoG

This happened in England, but is very representative of how the scientific left sees the racists right.  They are all for scientific inquiry unless you cross one of their taboos.  Ask a question (a scientific form of inquiry) and if you ask the wrong one they will try to stigmatize you and condemn you. 

4.  Death Threats? Ho Hum!

Sometimes I miss the good old days–what was it, a year ago?–when liberals were in favor of civility. Remember when talking about “targeting” a Congressional district could get you accused of murder? Things were a lot more genteel back in 2011.

On Thursday, Charles Koch authorized employees of Koch Industries to reveal the contents of “hundreds of e-mails that the Kochs and employees have received in the last year, some of them containing death threats.” The Wichita Eagle, Koch Industries’ home-town newspaper, reported:

“I hope you all DIE,” one e-mail, received last year, said. “You people are ruining our country, and all for $$$.” “Choose your expiration Date, Brothers…” said another. “The Koch brothers will DIE!!!!!” said another.

There were hundreds more — some from Wisconsin, where the Kochs were accused of aiding Gov. Scott Walker in his disputes against unions. Most of them were signed with what appear to be real names, many contained obscenities, and some Koch employees said these messages had made them nervous. …

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2012/02/death-threats-ho-hum.php

Anger and threats are only news as long as they are representative of the right according to the left.  Just more hypocrisy by the left.

5.  Unemployment Driving People Nuts?

Standing too many months on the unemployment line is driving Americans crazy — literally — and it’s costing taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars.

With their unemployment-insurance checks running out, some of the country’s long-term jobless are scrambling to fill the gap by filing claims for mental illness and other disabilities with Social Security — a surge that hobbles taxpayers and making the employment rate look healthier than it should as these people drop out of the job statistics.

“It could be because their health really is getting worse from the stress of being out of work,” says Matthew Rutledge, a research economist at Boston College. “Or it could just be desperation — people trying to make ends meet when other safety nets just aren’t there.”

As of January, the federal government was mailing out disability checks to more than 10.5 million individuals, including 2 million to spouses and children of disabled workers, at a cost of record $200 billion a year, recent research from JPMorgan Chase shows.

The sputtering economy has fueled those ranks. Around 5.3 percent of the population between the ages of 25 and 64 is currently collecting federal disability payments, a jump from 4.5 percent since the economy slid into a recession.

Mental-illness claims, in particular, are surging….

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/pain_brings_gain_taZkGOAUhXALmhEEyMpmqJ#ixzz1mpeYfpGH

The percentage of people in the workforce has slipped by 2.3%.  This would account for .7%.

Reagan up, Obama down

What’s new Today

Our #1 story shows that much to the left’s chagrin, Reagan is considered the best president since World War II beating FDR and Second in history only to Lincoln.  #2 looks at the dogma of the left and reveals what the most important thing is for the left (hint it’s a lack of moral scrutiny for X).  #3 is one of those telling signs that the press won’t mention.  It appears that Obama is not on his way to a $1 billion campaign.  In fact, he probably won’t come near what he raised in 2008. 

1.  Reagan Voted Best President Since World War II

In advance of Presidents' Day, Ronald Reagan gets America’s vote as the best chief executive since World War II, according to a new poll, while George W. Bush finds himself being ranked as the worst.

Twenty-five percent of Americans rank Reagan as the best president in a survey conducted by The Harris Poll. Franklin Roosevelt was ranked second-best with 19 percent of the vote.

On the flip-side, George W. Bush and Barack Obama were neck-and-neck for the "Worst president since World War II" title. Twenty-seven percent of respondents said Bush was at the bottom of the pack, followed closely by Barack Obama with 22 percent of the vote.

Richard Nixon was ranked as the worst president since WWII with 10 percent.

One-third of respondents say Abraham Lincoln is the best president in U.S. history. Lincoln was followed by Reagan and George Washington.

Here are the complete survey results, including percentages. Totals may not add up to 100 percent because of rounding.

Best President Since World War Two:

* Ronald Reagan, 25 percent
* Franklin Roosevelt, 19 percent
* John Kennedy, 15 percent
* Bill Clinton, 12 percent
* Dwight Eisenhower, 4 percent
* Harry Truman, 4 percent
* Barack Obama, 4 percent
* George W. Bush, 2 percent
* Jimmy Carter, 2 percent
* Lyndon Johnson, 1 percent
* George H.W. Bush, 1 percent
* Richard Nixon, 1 percent
* Gerald Ford, 1 percent
* Not Sure, 10 percent….

http://www.masoncountydailynews.com/news/national-news/24339-poll-ronald-reagan-named-best-president-since-world-war-ii

This certainly won’t make an liberals day.

2.  Sacred Dogma of the Left

…But what is it that motivates those on the left? Why do they care so deeply about the kind of insurance coverage Catholic employers provide? It’s not as if NARAL and Planned Parenthood devotees are heavily represented in the workforce of Catholic institutions. And you don’t see petitions from leftwing pressure groups calling on the church to provide better dental and vision coverage, or mental health benefits. Which would, as a pragmatic matter, be much more helpful for more of the workforce than the contraceptive mandate. No, for the left, the fight isn’t about social justice or the proper scope of the state. It’s about the contraceptives. It’s about sex.

The upheaval of the 1960s was a many-splendored thing, but it produced one permanent orthodoxy for liberalism: an absolute commitment to sexual liberation. As it aged, the left compromised on every other counter-cultural idea from that period—from pacifism to socialism to anti-materialism. The hippies stopped dropping acid and got high-paying jobs in the tech sector. They got married and stopped questioning authority and sent their kids to good schools. They enjoyed lower tax rates and spent their money at the Apple Store and Le Pain Quotidien. But to this day “the central dogma of the baby boomers,” as David Frum once wrote in these pages, is “the belief that sex, so long as it’s consensual, ought never to be subject to moral scrutiny at all.”…

http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/sacred-dogma-left_630047.html

This makes sense.  It explains the support of gay marriage, Bill Clinton’s Monica Lewinsky tryst, Planned Parenthood, etc. and it’s fundamental hatred toward Christianity as it actually has morals that interfere with this belief of theirs.

3.  Obama fundraising down

President Obama’s campaign raised far less money in January than it did during the same month four years ago, suggesting that it may have an increasingly difficult time matching his record-shattering financial numbers from 2008.

Obama raised $29.1 million in January for his reelection campaign and the Democratic National Committee, according to disclosures filed Friday.

That number is notably lower than the $36.8 million he raised for his primary campaign in January 2008, even without any help from the national party. Obama’s campaign itself raised $11.8 million last month, disclosures show.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obamas-fundraising-tally-shows-downturn/2012/02/17/gIQAshmeKR_story.html

It appears that the $1 billion campaign the Obama campaign was talking about was a pipe dream and this help explains why he suddenly isn’t only accepting Super Pac money, but he is sending his surrogates to help out in the fundraising for them.