Tag: Romney

Election 2012: Class Warfare: United We Stand…Divided We Fall

On By kingsjesterIn Politics3 Comments

The other day, the 44th President of these United States, Barack Hussein Obama, inadvertently gave voters another insight into his decidedly Marxist political Philosophy, when he said:

This country doesn’t just succeed when just a few are doing well at the top. It succeeds when the middle class gets bigger. Our economy doesn’t grow from the top down — it grows from the middle out. We don’t believe that anybody is entitled to success in this country,” said Obama. “But we do believe in opportunity. We believe in a country where hard work pays off and responsibility is rewarded, and everybody is getting a fair shot and everybody is doing their fair share and everybody is playing by the same rules.

Remember what Jar Jar Biden said about those of us struggling in America’s Middle Class?

Vice President Biden said Tuesday that the middle class has been “buried the last four years” — a practically gift-wrapped gaffe that Republicans immediately grabbed to hammer President Obama on the eve of the first presidential debate.

Biden made the remark at a campaign stop in Charlotte, N.C., in the course of slamming Republican tax policies which Democrats claim would cut taxes for the rich and hike them for the middle class.

“This is deadly earnest,” Biden said. “How they can justify — how they can justify raising taxes on the middle class that’s been buried the last four years. How in the lord’s name can they justify raising their taxes with these tax cuts?”

Mitt Romney, it turns out, couldn’t agree more with the first part.

He tweeted: “Agree with @JoeBiden, the middle class has been buried the last 4 years, which is why we need a change in November #CantAfford4More.”

Running mate Paul Ryan echoed, saying at a rally in Iowa that “we need to stop digging” and elect Romney.

The last post I wrote was about the magical 7.8% Unemployment Rate, that just happened to appear one month before the most important election in our lifetimes.

While over at my favorite Conservative Website, hotair.com, I had a poster tell me

Right now Mitt is doing well and its better to focus on getting him elected than distractions from the WH, real or imaginary.

This struck a nerve with me, because, quite frankly, even though I have a wonderful job now, I continue to struggle with paying bills after a period of being under-employed. I replied,

The entire country and Internet were buzzing about this yesterday. To those who are out of work, or under-employed, and don’t know how they are going to pay their bills from month-to-month, or provide for their family, the Unemployment Rate is not a distraction. it is a reality.

A drop in the Unemployment Rate, one month away from the most important election in our lifetime is not a “distraction”. It is Chicago Politics…at it’s finest.

Now is not the time for squishiness, nor political niceties. This is a war for the future of the greatest nation on Earth.

Now, there are those of you who are reading, that believe I’m bloviating.

No. I’m being factual. In Professional Wresting Parlance, this is a “Falls Count Anywhere Match…No Holds Barred”.

As Bill Flax wrote back in March on americanthinker.org, Obama’s political philosophy speaks for itself,

Every fiscal policy from sundry stimulus programs to tax credits is steeply progressive. Obama champions wealth-redistribution and punitively taxing the affluent, even as political reality prevents implementing his complete agenda. Still, spending relentlessly rises long after the recession’s end, propelling government dependency to record heights. Meanwhile, regulatory impositions grow ever more invasive, further extending Leviathan’s lurching grasp.

The administration’s rhetorical assaults on business and repeated allusions to Republicans or the rich as “enemies” betray Marxist moorings. To Obama, profits represent not satisfied customers, but swindles; businesses are “greedy” until proven innocent. Acquittals come via campaign contributions or penance to progressive causes. Those who cooperate obtain ObamaCare waivers and lucrative public contracts; those who won’t get vilification from the presidential bully pulpit.

…But the Breitbart footage showing Obama supporting Derrick Bell’s racialism highlights the precise hue of the president’s Marxist perspectives. Professor Bell has been nicknamed the “Jeremiah Wright of the academic world.” Bell’s Critical Race Theory, the pinnacle of political correctness, applies Marxism to culture, as orthodox Marxism antagonized class differences.

Whereas Marx proffered that the pivotal hinge was economic, as explained here, cultural Marxism, aka political correctness, features other factors. It’s still victims and villains, but the culprits extend beyond capitalists and bourgeois to whites, men, Christians, and other “privileged” parties. Western culture’s prey are racial or religious minorities, women, and those behaving in ways previously considered anti-social.

Obama perceives society through lenses skewed by this modern version of Marxism. Obama’s proposals inevitably leverage left-wing radicals or government organs to redistribute wealth, power, or caches of moral superiority under pretense of combating prejudice. Power shifts from private to public — or from parties previously seen as oppressors to those whom progressives deem oppressed.

…The apologies, the appointments, the executive orders, the spending priorities — all embody untrammeled political correctness. The consistent thread knitting this Marxist quilt is anti-traditional America, which, as the president haughtily scoffs, was founded by “men of property and wealth.” Obama borrows from Marx, who thought government an instrument protecting the rich. Marx found faith, tradition, and patriotism impediments preventing the proletariat from recognizing their class interests.

The desensitization and placating of the Middle Class, as it was in classic Marxist Theory, is a key element, of Obama and his Party’s Re-election Campaign, as it was in the 4 years of his presidency.

By taking the ambition of the Middle Class away, by offering a “safe and comfortable” cradle-to-grave Nanny-State, “Uncle Sugar” Federal Government, they are buying American voters by giving them bribes of free Obamaphones, paychecks for not working, free food, etc.

Unfortunately, as Mitt Romney alluded to recently, there is a great percentage of American voters who will buy and be content with this “Mother’s milk”, instead of yearning for the thrill and the challenge of the hunt for American Individual Success and Freedom.

Mitt Romney also said,

…And the American people are the greatest people in the world. What makes America the greatest nation in the world is the heart of the American people: hardworking, innovative, risk-taking, God- loving, family-oriented American people.

The will and exceptionalism of the American people will be the way out of our woeful economic plight, not Obama and his Administration’s benevolent bribery.

And, that’s what I’m counting on …one month from today.

7.8% Unemployment: Figures Lie. Liars Figure.

On By kingsjesterIn Politics2 Comments

The hot topic right now, is  a fortuitous lower Unemployment Rate that miraculously appeared in yesterday’s Jobs Report.

Noel Sheppard of newsbusters.org has the story:

The unemployment rate decreased to 7.8 percent in September, a number certain to impact the presidential race.

Pundits have been saying for months this number had to drop below 8 percent for it not to be a hindrance to President Obama’s reelection chances.

The economy added 114,000 nonfarm payrolls in the month according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics with gains in healthcare, transportation and warehousing.

Truly shocking in the report was that the number of unemployed people dropped by 456,000 to 12.1 million.

Maybe more shocking, total employment, as measured by the Household Survey, rose by 873,000 in September to 142,974,000, the biggest one month jump since June 1983.

As such, total employment now stands at the highest level it’s been since December 2008 before Obama was inaugurated.

But even more mysterious is the divergence in the two surveys done by the Labor Department.

The Household Survey showed a gain of 873,000 people employed in September – resulting in the surprise drop in the unemployment rate – while the Establishment Survey only showed a rise of 114,000.

Here’s an interesting fact:

At least two economists at the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) have contributed to President Barack Obama’s campaign. Harley Frazis of Bethesda, MD, has contributed at least $2,000 to Obama and $9,000 to the Democratic National Committee over the last three election cycles. During his time at BLS, Harley has published a number of papers including his most recent, “How to Think About Time-Use Data: What Inferences Can We Make About Long- and Short-Run Time Use from Time Diaries?”

Stephen Phillips of Washington, D.C., has contributed at least $270 to Obama during the 2012 cycle. According to his LinkedIn profile, Phillips served as an economist at BLS between June 2009 and July 2012. Phillips was responsible for examining the impact of Obamacare on Healthcare North American Industry Classification System indices. Phillips was also assistant coach for a girls’ high school tennis team in 2010.

To say that yesterday morning’s jobs report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics is being met with skepticism is an understatement.

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis appeared on CNBC yesterday morning, where they actually asked her if the books were cooked.

Solis called the charges insulting and “ludicrous.”

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former economics adviser to John McCain and the former head the Congressional Budget Office, calls the numbers “implausible.”

“Sept. unemployment rate fell to 7.8 percent due to an extraordinary – but implausible – estimate of 873,000 #jobs in household survey,” said Holtz-Eakin on Twitter.

“The report presented a slew of contradictory data points, with the total employment level soaring despite the low net number,” said CNBC’s Jeff Cox.

The Washington Post’s Neil Irwin adds, “Weird that payrolls are exactly on forecast but household survey is far better.”

And the Wall Street Journal warns that these numbers should be taken “with a grain of salt.””The big jump in the household survey is certainly a welcome sign. But take this data with a grain of salt, especially considering the volatile reputation this data point holds,” writes the Wall Street Journal.

“No way in the world these numbers are accurate,” said Ed Butowsky of Chapwood Capital Investment on Fox Business. “Somebody needs to do an investigation. … Investigate these numbers.”

The Republican Candidate for President agrees.

“This is not what a real recovery looks like,” Mr. Romney said in a statement, pointing to what he said was a downward trend of job-creation. “We created fewer jobs in September than in August, and fewer jobs in August than in July, and we’ve lost over 600,000 manufacturing jobs since President Obama took office.”

The Bureau of Labor Statistics‘ key jobs survey said the economy added 114,000 new jobs in September, and BLS said the unemployment rate dipped to 7.8 percent — a drop of three-tenths of a percent.

That means the rate is now back down to what it was in January 2009, when Mr. Obama took office, inheriting a recession from President George W. Bush.

BLS also revised July and August job numbers upward by a combined 86,000, suggesting a slightly better jobs picture over the summer than was reported at the time.

The jobs news comes just two days after Mr. Romney seemed to be gaining momentum from a strong debate performance.

The Republican presidential nominee loses a major talking point from the campaign trail, where he regularly talked about the streak of consecutive months the unemployment rate had remained above 8 percent.

Mr. Romney on Friday said the jobs picture is still bleak — particularly because of the millions who have dropped out of the market altogether.

“If not for all the people who have simply dropped out of the labor force, the real unemployment rate would be closer to 11 percent,” Mr. Romney said in his statement. “The results of President Obama’s failed policies are staggering — 23 million Americans struggling for work, nearly one in six living in poverty, and 47 million people dependent on food stamps to feed themselves and their families. The choice in this election is clear. Under President Obama, we’ll get another four years like the last four years. If I’m elected, we will have a real recovery with pro-growth policies that will create 12 million new jobs and rising incomes for everyone.”

A Cleveland , Ohio businessman summed up America’s economic problems in one sentence:

Potus stopped to meet people waiting for him, where he did the requisite hand-shaking, high-fiving and the rare baby-holding before going on to chat with proprietors at Turczyk’s Meats and the adjoining Larry Vilstein’s, Christopher Bakery and Edward Badbuster & Son. He then asked the proprietor at Rolston Poultry how business was going. “Terrible since you got here,” the man said. Pool could not get close enough to the Rolston Poultry man to get his name or political affiliation. Potus didn’t appear amused by the sentiment.

Hang in there, sir. Things will get better after we throw the Manchurian President out of OUR house.

C’mon, November 6th!

Presidential Debate #1 – Excuses, Excuses

On By kingsjesterIn Politics3 Comments

You’re President Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm). You wake up yesterday morning, with a ringing in your ears from a world-class chewing out from your wife, near hysterical over the possibility that  her free lavish vay-cays are about to go bye-bye.

And, on top of that, your posterior is sore from the butt-kicking that Mitt Romney gave you last night.

So, what do you do? You have personal appearances today. Do you go out all humble and apologetic, promising to do better in the next debate?

Oh, heck no. You erroneously claim that the guy who beat your butt at the first debate last night, was not Mitt Romney, but his doppelganger.

I think Barry’s been hanging out with the Choom Gang, again.

The New York Times reports that

President Obama and his team woke up here [Denver] on Thursday morning confronted by the realization that he lost his first debate by passively letting Mitt Romney control the conversation. Then the president and his advisers resolved to do what he himself did not the night before.

Under fire from fellow Democrats, Mr. Obama came out swinging, accusing Mr. Romney of lying to the American people about his plans for the nation. “I met this very spirited fellow who claimed to be Mitt Romney,” Mr. Obama told 12,000 supporters during a lakeside rally. “But it couldn’t be Mitt Romney, because the real Mitt Romney has been running around the country for the last year promising $5 trillion in tax cuts that favor the wealthy. The fellow onstage last night said he didn’t know anything about that.”

He said the Mr. Romney of the debate wanted to put more teachers in classrooms and claimed not to know companies get tax breaks for outsourcing jobs. “The man onstage last night, he does not want to be held accountable for the real Mitt Romney’s decisions and what he’s been saying for the last year,” the president said. “And that’s because he knows full well that we don’t want what he’s been selling for the last year.”

The vigorous assault on Mr. Romney suggested just how worried Mr. Obama’s campaign has become. The president’s advisers concluded that he had lost his first debate by not pressing Mr. Romney enough. After a series of late-night and early-morning consultations, the Obama team decided to try to correct that Thursday with a more aggressive stance, including the rally rhetoric, a new television ad and a conference call questioning Mr. Romney’s truthfulness.

David Axelrod, the president’s strategist, called Mr. Romney an “artful dodger” whose debate comments were “devoid of honesty,” “rooted in deception,” “untethered to the truth” and “well delivered but fraudulent.

“Not surprisingly, what we learned is he’ll say anything,” Mr. Axelrod said. “That makes him effective in the short term but vulnerable in the long term.” He added, “He may win the Oscar for his performance last night but he’s not going to win the presidency.”

The Romney team, feeling rejuvenated, fired back. “In full damage-control mode, President Obama today offered no defense of his record and no vision for the future,” said Ryan Williams, a Romney spokesman. “Rather than a plan to fix our economy, President Obama simply offered more false attacks and renewed his call for job-killing tax hikes.”

In trying to turn the tables on Mr. Romney, the president’s team was hoping to salvage a debate performance widely criticized by Democrats and Republicans alike. Aides described Mr. Obama as out of practice at debating and said he made a conscious decision not to bring up some of the campaign’s favorite attack lines of recent months, a decision they left little doubt disappointed them.

Well, boys and girls, ol’ Uncle KJ believes that there is a different reason:

The Emperor has no clothes!

That is to say, Obama has never been tested like this before.  Sans teleprompter, he was out there naked, as it were, armed only with his wits, and grasp of the duties of his job.

In other words, it was a dog’s world last night, and Scooter was wearing Milkbone underwear.

Now, sit back, and ol’ Uncle KJ will tell you a Bedtime Story:

In 2004, Illinois State Senator Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm) decided to run for The United States Senate.

Obama had to run against Blair Hull in the primary and then Jack Ryan in the general (both multi-millionaires).

Besides Obama being able to garner unlimited campaign funds from his Uncle George Soros, as the campaigns entered their closing rounds, the news broke (was leaked) to media outlets that both Hull and Ryan had “personal scandals” in their past. The timely release of this news wiped out both of their campaigns, leading to an easy victory for Obama in the primary and then in the general election.

The New York Times Magazine revealed that David Axelrod, Obama’s chief political and media adviser, may well have been behind the leak of the story that doomed the Hull candidacy as the primary reached its home stretch.  

As he has shown over the years, Axelrod was right at home operating in this gray area, part idealist, part hired muscle. One can not bring up Axelrod’s name  in certain circles in Chicago without the matter of the Blair Hull divorce papers coming up. Approaching the 2004 Senate primary, it was clear that it was a two-man race: the millionaire liberal, Hull, leading in the polls, and Obama, who was the figurehead of an impressive grass-roots campaign. One month before the vote, The Chicago Tribune “just happened” to reveal, at the end of a long profile of Hull, that during a divorce proceeding, Hull’s second wife filed for an order of protection. This revelation proceeded to erupt into a full-fledged scandal.  This scandal destroyed Hull’s campaign and handed Obama an easy primary victory.

The Tribune reporter who wrote the story later admitted in print that the Obama camp had “worked aggressively behind the scenes” to push the story. However, a lot of folks in Chicago believe that Axelrod leaked the initial story. They will tell you that before signing on with Obama, Axelrod interviewed with Hull. They also point out that Obama’s TV ad campaign just happened to start at almost the same time. Axelrod swears up and down that “we had nothing to do with it” and that the campaign’s television ad schedule was in the works for a long time.

Axlerod’s explanation?

An aura grows up around you, and people assume everything emanates from you.

What happened to Obama last night?

He wasn’t able to eliminate Romney through the dirty tricks which he and Axlerod used back in Chicago, forcing him to face Mitt man-to-man in an honest and fair debate.

Hence, the smirking look on his pompous puss, which showed the world that Obama would rather have been anywhere else than at that debate last night.

The Emperor had no clothes…and no clue.

Getting Ready for the Big Show

On By kingsjesterIn Politics1 Comment

So…here we are…the day when the 44th President of the United States of America, Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm) and Republican Candidate Mitt Romney square off in their first National Debate.

Channel 9 News reports

The presidential candidates are leaving the heavy lifting of campaigning to their running mates as they spend one more day preparing for their first debate, scheduled for Wednesday night.

President Barack Obama is in Henderson, Nev., for a strategy run-through ahead of the debate in Denver. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is set to spend most of Tuesday in debate prep at a Denver hotel.

He told supporters at a rally Monday night that he would get America working again.

In Iowa, Romney’s running mate, Paul Ryan, is set to visit three towns during a bus tour.

The Wisconsin congressman will be in Clinton, Muscatine and Burlington on Tuesday. Vice President Joe Biden has two campaign events scheduled in another swing state, North Carolina. He’ll be in Charlotte and Asheville.

This debate could, if you believe the polls, actually make a difference in the outcome of the election.

According to NationalJournal.com, Obama and Romney are in a dead heat:

President Obama and Mitt Romney are deadlocked among likely voters as they prepare to square off in their first presidential debate, according to the latest United Technologies/National Journal Congressional Connection Poll.

The survey showed that voters remain resistant to either Obama or Romney holding full control of the federal government.

Obama and Romney each pulled in 47 percent support in the poll among likely voters. It is among the narrowest margins of several presidential surveys published ahead of the debate this week. Other polls have shown the president with a slim lead. In this survey, while the race is tied among likely voters, Obama has a 5-point lead, 49 percent to 44 percent, among registered voters.

The survey was conducted Sept. 27-30 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.

Romney led in the poll among independents, 49 percent to 41 percent, with both candidates winning more than 90 percent support from their respective parties. The survey had Obama winning 81 percent of the nonwhite vote and Romney carrying 55 percent of white voters.

In estimating the turnout on Nov. 6, the poll projects an electorate that is 74 percent white, 11 percent African-American, and 8 percent Latino. The likely-voter party splits are 36 percent Democratic, 29 percent Republican, and 30 percent independent.

The estimates are similar to the 2008 turnout, when, according to CNN exit polling, 74 percent of voters were white, 13 percent black, and 9 percent Latino, with Democratic turnout at 39 percent, Republicans at 32 percent, and independents at 29 percent.

Of course, that was before Tucker Carlson and The Daily Caller aired an Obama video, circa 2007, on Hannity last night. What was so special about the video, is that Obama had a Hillary “no ways tard” (tired) moment, affecting a homeboy attitude and dialect that would make the Rapper “Fifty Cents” proud.

Per FoxNews.com:

In June 2007, then-Sen. Barack Obama told a mostly black audience of ministers that the country’s leaders “don’t care about” New Orleans residents, suggesting the city was neglected in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina because of institutional racism, according to a video uncovered by The Daily Caller.

In the address, delivered during the upswing of the Democratic presidential primary season, candidate Obama specifically criticizes in outspoken terms the decision not to waive a federal law known as the Stafford Act that requires communities hit by disasters to match 10 percent of federal aid.

“When 9/11 happened in New York City, they waived the Stafford Act. … And that was the right thing to do,” he tells the crowd at Hampton University in Virginia. “When Hurricane Andrew struck in Florida, people said, ‘Look at this devastation. We don’t expect you to come up with your own money. Here, here’s the money to rebuild. We’re not going wait for you to scratch it together, because you’re part of the American family.’ “

Obama, echoing rapper Kanye West’s infamous anti-Bush remarks a couple years earlier, then argues that New Orleans was treated differently, suggesting the reason was that the city is mostly black.

“What’s happening down in New Orleans? Where’s your dollar? Where’s your Stafford Act money?” Obama says. “Makes no sense. … Tells me that somehow the people down in New Orleans they don’t care about as much.”

The speech was reported on at the time, but the Daily Caller said it had obtained clips from the speech that had never aired. It posted what it said was the complete speech on the website.

FoxNews.com asked the Obama campaign to comment on the the Daily Caller report and the video but has yet to receive a response.

By January 2007, nearly a year and a half after Hurricane Katrina hit, the federal government had committed $110 billion to relief efforts in areas hit by Katrina through a variety of programs, including Community Development Block Grants, funding for the Corps of Engineers and Small Business Administration loans, according to a report that May by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic and Statistics Administration.

But at the time of Obama’s speech, there were still concerns about federal response to the disaster under the Stafford Act, which governs relief efforts. The Federal Emergency Management Agency was unwilling to waive the law’s 10 percent local match provision for aid, like it did after the Sept. 11 attacks and other hurricanes.

“One reason cited for FEMA’s reluctance to waive the 10 percent match in New Orleans is concern about corruption,” the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies said in a 2008 report on the relief efforts.

That report also noted that then-Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco was pushing in early 2007 for a federal law eliminating the 10 percent match. The House passed the bill, but it stalled in the Senate and President Bush had threatened to veto it.

The video of Obama’s 2007 speech, surfacing barely a month before the presidential election and the night before Obama’s first debate with Republican rival Mitt Romney, could complicate Obama’s efforts to avoid a politically risky debate over race that partly ensnared him during the 2008 race. Four years ago, his fiery pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, became a political liability over videos that showed Wright making controversial statements.

Obama, after initially defending him, eventually was forced to condemn Wright publicly, and the controversy prompted Obama to deliver his much-heralded 2008 address on race in Philadelphia.

Wright reportedly attended the 2007 speech, and in the video obtained by the Daily Caller, Obama is heard calling Wright “my pastor, the guy who puts up with me, counsels me, listens to my wife complain about me. He’s a friend and a great leader. Not just in Chicago, but all across the country.”

The Daily Caller also highlighted a segment in which Obama questions federal priorities in transportation spending.

“We need additional federal public transportation dollars flowing to the highest-need communities. We don’t need to build more highways out in the suburbs. If we have people in the cities right now who want to work but have no way to get into those jobs, we’ve got to help connect them to the jobs that exist,” Obama said. “We should be investing in minority-owned businesses, in our neighborhoods, so people don’t have to travel from miles away.”

Yeah, I know. Big surprise: Obama’s a Black guy.

The only problem is:

He’s supposed to be the President of all Americans. In fact, he’s supposed to be our biggest cheerleader…not our biggest critic.

The President of the United States is supposed to pick us up.

Not put us down.

Obama: 14 years later…Still Redistributing

On By kingsjesterIn Politics4 Comments

Well, the Romney Campaign struck back hard yesterday, as the Obama Campaign and their lackeys, the MSM, tried to land crippling blows to Mitt, because of his “47%” Speech from May.

FoxNews has the story:

A newly released audio recording purports to feature a young Barack Obama saying he believes in government “redistribution” — a comment that Mitt Romney quickly seized on to claim his opponent thinks “the government should take from some to give to the others.”

The tape, posted on YouTube, was a throwback to the web video that emerged in 2008 showing Obama telling “Joe the Plumber” he wants to “spread the wealth around.”

This recording purportedly was from a 1998 conference at Loyola University. In it, the young Obama tells the audience he believes there has been “a propaganda campaign against the possibility of government action and its efficacy.”

“I think that what we’re going to have to do is somehow resuscitate the notion that government action can be effective at all,” Obama says. “I think the trick is figuring out how do we structure government systems that pool resources and hence facilitate some redistribution — because I actually believe in redistribution, at least at a certain level to make sure that everybody’s got a shot.”

The broader context of the talk is unclear. But Romney, who on Tuesday faced criticism about some of his own comments in a secretly recorded video, pointed to the Obama recording in arguing that he and his opponent have sharply different views on government.

Romney said there’s a “great divide” in the country.

“I know some believe the government should take from some to give to the others,” he told Fox News. “I think the president makes it clear in the tape that was released today that that’s what he believes. I think that’s an entirely foreign concept.”

Romney, for his part, has endured a wave of criticism from Democrats over a video showing him speaking at a private fundraiser back in May. In the video, Romney could be heard saying the 47 percent of people who don’t pay federal income tax “believe they are victims” and will support Obama “no matter what.”

Romney defended his comments in the interview with Fox News on Tuesday — and then cited the Obama recording to underscore his point that he and the president come at the job with two entirely different philosophies.

“Frankly, we have two very different views about America,” Romney said. “The president’s view is one of a larger government. There’s a tape that just came out today (with) the president saying he likes redistribution. I disagree.

“I think a society based upon a government-centered nation where government plays a larger and larger role, redistributes money, that’s the wrong course for America. … The right course for America is to create growth, create wealth.”

Republican Party Chairman Reince Priebus also flagged the YouTube link on his Twitter account, with the comment: “TELLING !”

The Obama campaign has not responded to a request for comment. But Obama hit back at Romney during a taping of the “Late Show” with David Letterman, disputing that Americans who aren’t required to pay federal income taxes are “victims” and taking issue with Romney’s comment that he didn’t have to worry about those voters.

“My expectation is that if you want to be president, you have to work for everyone, not just for some,” Obama said.

Uh huh. That would be just fine and dandy, Scooter,  if the “everyone” you were talking about, were Americans.

However, your socio-economic philosophy, from the getgo, has been out of touch with mainstream America. Remember what you said in 2008 to Joe the Plumber?

Here’s a report from ABC News, from October 2008 to help you remember, Mr. President:

Outside Toledo, Ohio, on Sunday, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., was approached by plumber Joe Wurzelbacher, a big, bald man with a goatee who asked Obama if he believes in the American dream.

“I’m getting ready to buy a company that makes 250 to 280 thousand dollars a year,” Wurzelbacher said. “Your new tax plan is going to tax me more, isn’t it?”

Obama said, “First off, you would get a 50% tax credit so you’d get a tax cut for your healthcare costs….. if your revenue is above 250 – then from 250 down, your taxes are going to stay the same. It is true that from 250 up – from 250 – 300 or so, so for that additional amount, you’d go from 36 to 39%, which is what it was under Bill Clinton. And the reason why we’re doing that is because 95% of small businesses make less than 250. So what I want to do is give them a tax cut. I want to give all these folks who are bus drivers, teachers, auto workers who make less, I want to give them a tax cut. And so what we’re doing is, we are saying that folks who make more than 250 that that marginal amount above 250 – they’re gonna be taxed at a 39 instead of a 36% rate.”

Responded Wurzelbacher, “the reason I ask you about the American dream, I mean I’ve worked hard. I’m a plumber. I work 10-12 hours a day and I’m buying this company and I’m going to continue working that way. I’m getting taxed more and more while fulfilling the American dream.”

“Well,” said Obama, “here’s a way of thinking about it. How long have been a plumber?”

Wurzelbacher said 15 years.

Obama says, “Over the last 15 years, when you weren’t making 250, you would have been given a tax cut from me, so you’d actually have more money, which means you would have saved more, which means you would have gotten to the point where you could build your small business quicker than under the current tax code. So there are two ways of looking at it – I mean one way of looking at it is, now that you’ve become more successful through hard work – you don’t want to be taxed as much.”

“Exactly,” Wurzelbacher said.

Obama continued, “But another way of looking at it is 95% of folks who are making less than 250, they may be working hard too, but they’re being taxed at a higher rate than they would be under mine. So what I’m doing is, put yourself back 10 years ago when you were only making whatever, 60 or 70. Under my tax plan you would be keeping more of your paycheck, you’d be paying lower taxes, which means you would have saved…Now look, nobody likes high taxes.”

“No,” said Wurzelbacher.

“Of course not,” said Obama. “But what’s happened is that we end up – we’ve cut taxes a lot for folks like me who make a lot more than 250. We haven’t given a break to folks who make less, and as a consequence, the average wage and income for ordinary folks, the vast majority of Americans, has actually gone down over the last eight years. So all I want to do is – I’ve got a tax cut. The only thing that changes, is I’m gonna cut taxes a little bit more for the folks who are most in need and for the 5% of the folks who are doing very well – even though they’ve been working hard and I appreciate that – I just want to make sure they’re paying a little bit more in order to pay for those other tax cuts. Now, I respect the disagreement. I just want you to be clear – it’s not that I want to punish your success – I just want to make sure that everybody who is behind you – that they’ve got a chance at success too.”

Looking back on the country’s reaction yesterday, Romney’s speech is not costing Romney anything. In fact, in a CNBC poll yesterday, 75% of those who responded, agreed with Mitt.

As far as Obama’s wish to “share the wealth” , we’ve all heard that political philosophy before:

From each according to his abilities to each according to his needs

Karl Marx

A Mistake in Communication? Or, a Stealthy Trap?

On By kingsjesterIn Politics6 Comments

Well…Conservatives (including this one) have been waiting for Mitt to shoot straight with the American people…And he did.

The question being asked today is: was this a good thing or a bad thing?

The New York Times has the story:

Mitt Romney described almost half of Americans as “dependent upon government” during a private reception with donors this year and said those voters were likely to support President Obama because they believe they are “entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it.”

The blunt political and cultural assessment by the Republican presidential candidate offers a rare glimpse into Mr. Romney’s personal views as the campaign enters its final 50 days. Liberals quickly condemned the remarks as insensitive, and Mr. Obama’s campaign accused him of having “disdainfully written off half the nation.”

The recordings surfaced even as Mr. Romney sought to retool his campaign message amid internal campaign sniping and calls from Republicans outside the campaign for him to be more specific about how his policies will fix the nation’s economy.

The video clips raised the possibility that his campaign would once again be sidetracked by Mr. Romney’s own words, a problem that has plagued the former Massachusetts governor since his hard-fought battle with Republican rivals during the nominating contests earlier this year.

The video of Mr. Romney making the comments was posted on the Internet Monday afternoon by Mother Jones, a liberal magazine, which said it had obtained the recording and had confirmed its authenticity. The magazine said it was concealing the identity of the person who took the video and the location and time of the recording.

The New York Times is unable to confirm where or when the clips were taken. The author of the article on the Mother Jones Web site, David Corn, said the video was taken after Mr. Romney won the Republican nominating contest, but he declined to comment further.

The video was apparently unearthed with help from James Carter, the grandson of former President Jimmy Carter. Mr. Carter, who lists “oppo researcher” on his Twitter bio, told New York Magazine that he helped find the videos and get them to Mr. Corn at Mother Jones. He is credited with “research assistance” on the Mother Jones Web site. Mr. Romney has repeatedly compared Mr. Obama to Jimmy Carter, suggesting both were failures.

In one video segment, Mr. Romney described how his campaign is writing off “47 percent of the people” who will vote for Mr. Obama “no matter what.” He adds that those people “are people who pay no income tax” and says “so our message of low taxes doesn’t connect.”

Mr. Romney said that “my job is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”

Yes, what Romney said was the cold, hard truth. But, there were better ways he could have said it.

Romney communications director Gail Gitcho issued this statement in response to the release of the original speech: 

Mitt Romney wants to help all Americans struggling in the Obama economy. As the governor has made clear all year, he is concerned about the growing number of people who are dependent on the federal government, including the record number of people who are on food stamps, nearly one in six Americans in poverty, and the 23 million Americans who are struggling to find work. Mitt Romney’s plan creates 12 million new jobs in four years, grows the economy and moves Americans off of government dependency and into jobs.

Back on February 6, 2011, Fred Thompson wrote the following article for The New York Daily News:

Today, America remembers President Ronald Reagan on the 100th anniversary of his birth. It should come as no surprise that Reagan is a personal hero of mine and it should also come as no surprise why this is the case. I’m honored to share a similar story with our 40th President, one which saw two boys from small towns eventually find their way to Hollywood and Washington – although not quite in the same order and not quite with the same results.

But while our paths were different, having a taste for what he experienced has given me a more profound respect for Reagan’s ability to captivate and connect with the American people, an art that has been largely lost to the politically correct posturing and strategic doublespeak of today. Yes, some of his political success derived from his training as an actor. After all, all politicians are actors in some form or another.

But not all actors make good politicians and certainly the reverse is true as well. More than most Presidents, Reagan’s success was tied directly to his ability not just to speak to the American people, but to communicate with them. Entire books have been written on Reagan’s ability to communicate, but his reputation as The Great Communicator boils down to three basic traits: he was simple; he was clear; he was sincere.

Let’s not confuse “simple” with “simplistic.” Reagan was by no means simplistic. To the contrary, he communicated wide-reaching ideology and complex policies in terms people could understand. For instance, Reagan summed up his approach to the Cold War as, “we win, they lose.” His detractors called it naive, but that simple phrase communicated volumes about Reagan’s philosophy and strategy when it came to facing down the Soviet Union.

And Reagan’s message wasn’t meant only for American audiences but for international audiences as well. When Reagan called the Soviet Union the “evil empire,” the political establishment in Washington howled – but those trapped behind the Iron Curtain cheered. Reagan’s message was for all who hunger for freedom and as leader of the free world, Reagan understood that he spoke for them.

It was for that reason that Reagan insisted, despite the objections of his own State Department, to keep a line that will echo across the ages: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” The State Department famously removed the phrase from drafts of Reagan’s speech – repeatedly. Each time, Reagan reinserted it, because he knew it would be heard by the whole world.

Allow me to preface my closing remarks by saying: I want Romney to be our next President.

If this speech was some sort of stealth campaign, designed to beclown the Obama Campaign and their sycophantic Media Lackeys, then , congratulations, Mitt…well done.

If it was a comment given under the illusion of privacy, then all I can say is he needs to learn from the 1980 Campaign of Ronald Reagan:

In order to achieve the landslide victory which we all hope that he will have, as Ronaldus Magnus achieved, Romney needs to be a UNITER, not a DIVIDER.

We have one of those living at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave already.

Middle East American Embassies Attacked. Obama Heads to Vegas.

On By kingsjesterIn Politics3 Comments

Americans are in danger in the Middle East…and Obama has voted “Present”…again.

WTOP.com has the story:

Intelligence experts and U.S. government officials are starting to view the attack in Libya that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others in Benghazi as a coordinated attack.

Congressman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., went as far Wednesday to say the attack had all the hallmarks of al-Qaida.

“This was a coordinated attack, more of a commando style event. It had both coordinated fire, direct fire, indirect fire,” Rogers said following an intelligence briefing on Capitol Hill.

Other sources, including officials at the Pentagon and the State Department, are also discussing the possibility that it was a planned operation, and some say several developments support the possibility.

The incident does not appear to be a random mob scene, but rather an opportunity that militants seized, sources say. The attackers used a rocket-propelled grenade, a weapon not traditionally carried by protesters, but commonly used by terrorists.

The attack is believed to have come in two waves. The first wave got inside of the compound, and a second wave penetrated a secure location inside the building. This development raises questions about how the attackers knew the location of that secure facility, sources say.

They also knew that Obama had outsourced the security of the Embassy to Libya. That worked out well, didn’t it? Well, better late than never, I guess:

WSJ.com reports that:

The U.S. responded to the assault by dispatching two Navy destroyers, dozens of Marines, federal investigators and intelligence assets to Libya to protect Americans and help hunt the suspected religious extremists who carried out the attack late Tuesday.

And, as I write this post, news comes of more unrest outside the Egyptian Embassy:

Egyptian security forces have used tear gas on a raging crowd of demonstrators near the US Embassy in Cairo. Several dozen people have reportedly been injured as the police dispersed the stone-throwing demonstrators.

Riot police have managed to push a group of several hundred protesters back in Cairo’s side streets near the embassy.­

Some of the protesters have been injured, state news agency MENA reported, giving no further details. Witnesses reporting the incident on Twitter said as many as several dozen people may have been injured.

The incident comes just a day after some 2,000 demonstrators gathered around the US embassy, while a group of the most conservative protesters tore down the American flag and replaced it with a black banner bearing the traditional Islamic message, “There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is His Prophet.”

Four participants in Tuesday’s demonstration who had climbed the wall of the embassy were arrested and transferred to the prosecutor’s office. Police are still looking for others involved in the incident.

“Arab Spring” is in full bloom. How absolutely lovely:

The American embassies in Algeria and Tunisia warned of more protests Wednesday, following attacks by protesters in neighboring Libya in which the U.S. ambassador and three embassy staff were killed.

Ambassador Chris Stevens and the three other Americans died in an attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi by armed protesters angry over a film by a California filmmaker that ridiculed Islam’s Prophet Muhammad.

In an emergency message, the embassy in Tunis warned Americans to avoid crowded places, saying that even gatherings “intended to be peaceful can turn confrontational and possibly escalate into violence.” The embassy in Algiers had similar advice.

The Algiers embassy said unspecified groups were using online social networks to organize demonstrations “to protest a range of issues” there Wednesday. The statement out of Tunis cited “media reports” indicating protests were planned, but said the embassy remained open.

So, what did the Leader of the Free World have to say Wednesday morning, before he jetted to Las Vegas for a Campaign Fundraiser? I’ll give you a clue: It was positively…uninspiring:

Every day all across the world, American diplomats and civilians work tirelessly to advance the interests and values of our nation. Often, they are away from their families. Sometimes, they brave great danger.

Yesterday, four of these extraordinary Americans were killed in an attack on our diplomatic post in Benghazi. Among those killed was our ambassador, Chris Stevens, as well as Foreign Service Officer Sean Smith. We are still notifying the families of the others who were killed.

And today, the American people stand united in holding the families of the four Americans in our thoughts and in our prayers.

The United States condemns in the strongest terms this outrageous and shocking attack. We’re working with the government of Libya to secure our diplomats. I’ve also directed my administration to increase our security at diplomatic posts around the world. And make no mistake, we will work with the Libyan government to bring to justice the killers who attacked our people.

Since our founding, the United States has been a nation that respects all faiths. We reject all efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others.

But there is absolutely no justification for this type of senseless violence. None. The world must stand together to unequivocally reject these brutal acts. Already many Libyans have joined us in doing so, and this attack will not break the bonds between the United States and Libya. Libyan security personnel fought back against the attackers alongside Americans. Libyans helped some of our diplomats find safety, and they carried Ambassador Stevens’ body to the hospital, where we tragically learned that he had died.

Campare and contrast that to Republican Presidential Candidate, Mitt Romney, who, by the way, has supposed to have been receiving daily foreign intelligence breifings from the White House, but has not.

I’ll hand it to Mitt. He acted more like a U.S. President than Obama did:

Americans woke up this morning with tragic news and felt heavy hearts as they considered that individuals who have served in our diplomatic corps were brutally murdered across the world.

This attack on American individuals and embassies is outrageous. It’s disgusting. It breaks the hearts of all of us to think of these people who have served during their lives because of freedom and justice and honor.

We mourn their loss and joined together in prayer that the spirit of the almighty might comfort the families of those who have been so brutally slain. Four diplomats lost their life including the US ambassador. And, of course, with these words, I extend my condolences to the grieving loved ones who have been left behind as a result of these who have lost their lives in the service of our nation and I know that the people across America are grateful for their service and we mourned their sacrifice.

America will not tolerate attacks against our citizens and against our embassies. We will defend also our constitutional rights of speech and assembly and religion.

We have confidence in our clause…in America. We respect our constitution. We stand for the principles our constitution protects.

Regarding our present CIC, who, as I write this post,  is either chowing down on Wagu Beef and arugula, or rolling craps at his fundraiser in Vegas…

Former Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin nails him to the wall…again:

It’s about time our president stood up for America and condemned these Islamic extremists. I realize there must be a lot on his mind these days – what with our economy’s abysmal jobless numbers and Moody’s new warning about yet another downgrade to our nation’s credit rating due to the current administration’s failure to come up with a credible deficit reduction plan. And, of course, he has a busy schedule – with all those rounds of golf, softball interviews with the “Pimp with the Limp,” and fundraising dinners with his corporate cronies. But our nation’s security should be of utmost importance to our Commander-in-chief. America can’t afford any more “leading from behind” in such a dangerous world. We already know that President Obama likes to “speak softly” to our enemies. If he doesn’t have a “big stick” to carry, maybe it’s time for him to grow one.

Ouch. That’s gonna leave a mark.

This malignant tumor overtaking the Middle East, known as “Arab Spring”, is the fault of one President Barack Hussein Obama, and his hench-woman, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. 

Their lack of spines and their quest to appease the Muslim Brotherhood, has brought us full circle, back to a Foreign Policy situation eerily similar to 1979.

God help us.

It is Time for Romney to Kick It Into Gear

On By kingsjesterIn Politics3 Comments

If you surf the Internet and read the political pundits, all you see is concern and “wringing of hands” at Mitt Romney’s supposedly ineffectual Campaign Strategy.

For example, The New York Times reports that

…With some nervousness apparent among Republicans, Mr. Romney’s campaign rushed out a memo on Monday stating that any post-convention polling lift for Mr. Obama was “a sugar high” that would not last the next few weeks, let alone to Election Day.

Even as one of the first post-convention polls by a major news organization, from CNN and ORC International, showed Mr. Obama with a slight gain, 52 to 46, over Mr. Romney, within the poll’s margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. The two campaigns agreed that readings right after the conventions can be ephemeral and that the race was likely to remain competitive until the end.

“There is no doubt that we come out of the conventions in better shape than we went in,” said David Axelrod, a senior strategist for Mr. Obama. “But as I’ve always said, the structure of the race is such that it was close before and it’s close now.”

Neil Newhouse, Mr. Romney’s pollster and the author of the memo released on Monday said, “Voters are on a Bill Clinton sugar high that’s simply not going to last — polls taken right now probably don’t reflect the reality of where this campaign actually is.”

Still, Mr. Newhouse’s comments and memo reflected the sense on both sides that in what had been stubbornly static race, Mr. Obama had, indeed, established some sort of uptick in support following his convention in a way that Mr. Romney had not, though Mr. Romney’s aides said he had helped himself among important segments of the population.

Mr. Newhouse said that the Republican convention had worked to improve Mr. Romney’s standing, in particular among female voters.

“What we feel we got out of our convention was an improved image for the governor, and some specific attributes that people associate with him,” Mr. Newhouse said.

The full force of Mr. Romney’s first major general election advertising push, which began late last week, has yet to sink in, he added.

Rush Limbaugh, as he always does, had a logical explanation on his show yesterday, for all this consternation over Romney:

Folks, this is so predictable. The campaign to depress you and to dispirit you is underway, and it’s at full bore. It’s going 150%. These people have a disaster of a convention they’re trying to turn into the greatest convention ever. Obama is pitied. I can’t tell you all the theories. I’ve got people depressed ’cause they think the new iPhone isn’t gonna have anything in it. I’m surrounded by it. And I’m here to tell you, it is September the 10th. There’s two months to go. There’s no way this is over. There is no way.

I’ll give you another example. TheHill.com had a poll last week. I don’t have it here in front of me. But it was a devastating poll to Obama. The Washington Post and ABC News poll was devastating to Obama. Just last week, on Tuesday at his convention, TheHill.com poll had 52% thinking the country’s headed in the wrong direction, Obama’s bad for the country. It was horrible. The polling data from last week, Tuesday of the convention, was absolutely disastrous. And now all of a sudden it’s done a 180 in a week and all that last week doesn’t matter, and now TheHill.com has a poll out. Guess what they say? Guess what they went out and asked people? Do you think you’re not being played and set up, you know what? This election it is not about Obama. It’s not a referendum on Obama. Oh, no. This is a choice between two men. Why, they went out and they polled the exact theme of Obama’s speech, which was Jimmy Carter’s speech of 1980, which Pat Caddell says, hey, I recognize that; I wrote it.

So now it’s not a referendum on Obama. It’s a choice between two guys, which means, of course, whatever Romney says matters. I’m here to tell you, folks, you have got to stay bucked up. The effort to depress you and keep you home, I’ve never seen it like this before in my life. I have never seen this intense an effort by the Democrat machine, including the pollsters, and it’s sucking in a lot of our media. A lot of conservative media’s getting sucked in by this. They’re buying it ’cause they get caught up in the bubble that is the world as created and defined every day by the mainstream media. Their lives hinge on polling. And of course the polling, if you look carefully, you can find flaws.

The polls are just being used as another tool of voter suppression. The polls are an attempt to not reflect public opinion, but to shape it. Yours. They want to depress the heck out of you, and they want to suppress your vote.

Hopefully, Mitt is about to kick his campaign in gear. Maybe, his appearance yesterday in Ohio will provide us with a clue.

Cincinnati.com has the story:

MANSFIELD [OHIO] — Mitt Romney’s campaign speech here kept getting interrupted as several hundred people cheered repeatedly, raising the noise level as their voices echoed off the cinder block walls and cement-floored wharehouse of PR Machine Works, Inc.

Keeping to his standard stump speech, Romney hammered at President Barack Obama’s policies, saying, “We don’t want another four more years of the last four years.”

Playing off Obama’s campaign theme of “Forward,” Romney said, “Forwarned is better than forward. We’d see more years of high unemployment. We’d see more year of massive deficits. … We’re forewarned. We’re not going to re-elect this man.”

Romney, the Republican nominee for president, appeared with U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Terrace Park, as well as the president of the company, Mark Romanchuk, who is a Republican candidate for the Ohio House.

The business, a machine and parts fabricator, was started by Romanchuk’s father in 1964 in a Mansfield garage. That provided the opening to the Romney message that Americans build their businesses, a criticism of Obama’s slip in a speech where he said businesses didn’t grow without government help. PR Machine Works has a history of government contracts with the military.

With all my heart, I truly want Romney to be our next President. While I’m not all that enamored with all of his past political viewpoints, he is certainly a step in the right direction, and an improvement over the Manchurian President.

At least then, we’ll actually have a President who loves the country he’s supposed to be leading.

A Convention of Moderate Excitement

On By kingsjesterIn Politics5 Comments

Did the Romney Campaign attempt to be , shall we say, a wee bit cheeky, during a Rules Committee Meeting for upcoming Conventions, last Friday?

Businessinsider.com has the report:

The GOP convention doesn’t officially start until Monday, but trouble is already brewing between presumptive nominee Mitt Romney and Republicans who are concerned by his campaign making an aggressive power play to control the party.

The drama Friday centered around a contentious meeting of the powerful Rules Committee, where Romney’s campaign lieutenants, led by his legal counsel Ben Ginsberg, pushed through several changes that would give Romney broad authority over the Republican nominating process.

According to one source who was at the meeting, the saga ended with former New Hampshire Governor John Sununu, the committee chair, hightailing it out of the building before committee members could submit dissenting minority opinions, or “minority reports.”

In an interview with Business Insider Friday night, Maine’s newly-elected state committeewoman Ashley Ryan, said that committee members opposed to Romney’s plan drafted two minority reports immediately after the meeting, stating their position against the changes. Republican Party rules stipulate that people have one hour to submit a minority report after a meeting of the Rules Committee, and that it must have the support of at least 25 percent of the committee.

“The rules say that you have an hour after the meeting, but within 15 minutes, we couldn’t find [Chairman Sununu] anywhere,” Ryan, a Ron Paul supporter and member of Maine’s delegation, said. “Finally, we asked an RNC official if they had seen former New Hampshire Governor John Sununu. He said, ‘John Sununu! Everyone’s looking for him! But he left the building.'”

The details around Sununu’s Friday dip are still foggy, and it’s unclear if he ended up receiving the minority reports after all. Convention officials have not yet responded to our email asking for comment.

Earlier on Friday, Ginsberg and other Romney loyalists tried to neuter the threat of a minority report by raising the threshold of support to 40 percent.

BuzzFeed’s Zeke Miller reports that the attempt was forcefully shot down as overreach, even by committee members who voted for Ginsberg’s other proposals, including one that would force states to select delegates based on the results of their primary or caucus, and one that would allow the Republican National Committee to change the rules established at the convention.

“It’s important to make the rules four years in advance, before we know who the favorites are,” Ryan said. “If the national party can just change the rules, what’s the point of having a Rules Committee at all?

Indeed. On top of that, even though we all know that America has to fire our Manchurian President, a lot of us are still not all that thrilled over the GOP Establishment’s choice, as foxnews.com explains:

No matter when the Republican National Convention officially starts, it still marks perhaps the best chance for party leaders to ratchet up what has until now been bridled enthusiasm for Mitt Romney — as he and President Obama compete for the last of the undecided voters in a very tight race.

The balloons and confetti are set to cascade inside the Tampa Times Forum when Romney accepts the nomination, as planned. And party leaders have assembled Romney’s most ardent and passionate supporters to make their case on stage about why Romney is the best choice in November to lead the country.

“This is a huge opportunity to capture the attention of the American public and keep them focused for several nights,” said Juleanna Glover, a Republican strategist and co-founder of the Washington-based Ashcroft Group.

The biggest threat to that undivided attention will almost certainly be Tropical Storm Isaac, which has already postponed the election start from Monday to Tuesday and is projected to make landfall later this week along the northern Gulf Coast states.

Glover suggested the challenge for the Romney team will be to refrain from trying to re-invent the candidate or going over the top, instead generating enthusiasm through trying to reinforce that Romney is a leader, a church-goer and a family man.

Their biggest challenge may well be in convincing Romney, a former Massachusetts governor and private-equity manager who through the entire election cycle has argued his mission is to fix the economy not win a popularity contest.

The mantra even wore off on some of the Republican Party’s most influential leaders, including House Speaker John Boehner, who in July said: “The American people probably aren’t going to fall in love with Mitt Romney.”

Boehner also said Romney, who founded the Bain Capital private equity firm, “was going to do a great job even if you don’t fall in love with him.” But the perception was already largely in place and has, at times, remained there.

Just last week, Romney vowed in The Wall Street Journal that he won’t be part of the celebrity-style culture often favored by politicians.

Voters, Romney suggested, are most interested in hiring a fix-it specialist for an ailing economy. And when he appeared before crowds at campaign stops, he doesn’t think, “What can I do here to portray myself in a way that would be appealing to the public?” Romney told the paper.

Romney’s favorability rating is now at 46 percent, according to an averaging of polls by the Real Clear Politics website. It was as low as 21 percent according to a CBS-New York Times poll in January and as high as 50 percent according to a CNN-Opinion Research poll this month.

If  Romney would act more like the fella appearing in front of his hometown crowd on Friday, cracking a joke about his birth certificate, and embrace Reagan Conservatives, instead of marginalizing us, that would certainly help his popularity numbers.

I’m just sayin’…

Obama: Of Bad Spelling and Ignored Sovereignty

On By kingsjesterIn Politics4 Comments

Have you ever heard the old spelling riddle about the Buckeye State?

What’s high in the middle and round on both ends?

Evidently the 44th President of the United States never has.

The hill.com has the story:

President Obama needed a do-over to spell “Ohio” correctly on the campus of Ohio State University this week.

Although Obama and several students at a campaign stop Tuesday morning at Sloopy’s Diner on the campus of OSU tweeted out photos of the president correctly posing as the “I” in Ohio, another student supplied a photo of a spelling mishap to Mitt Romney’s campaign.

The photo, tweeted by Romney’s Ohio communications director, Christopher Maloney, shows Obama and three students all a little confused about how to spell the state’s name, with Obama holding his hands up in what seems to be an “H” and as the third letter.

“A word of advice to @BarackObama: It’s ‘O-H-I-O’ that has 18 electoral votes, not ‘O-I-H-O,’ ” Maloney tweeted.

The Washington Post incorrectly reported the photo was doctored, but Maloney told The Hill it is authentic. He said the photo was passed along to him directly by a student. There were several photos being taken by students at the diner.

More from The Hill:

♦ Obama’s Charlotte convention lacks star power of Denver

♦ Tropical Storm Isaac puts GOP convention organizers on alert

♦ Joint Chiefs head ‘disappointed’ by ex-officers anti-Obama video

♦ Akin says Ryan asked him to exit race, slams GOP ‘party bosses

♦ Soros trumps Exxon over payments to foreign governments

♦ Romney’s GOP convention bounce: How high will it go?

♦ Obama to campaign in swing states during GOP convention

“I’m sure President Obama would like a do-over of his first term as well,” Maloney added. “Ohio isn’t going to let that happen.”

Neither the White House press pool nor local reports such as the Columbus Dispatch noted the original spelling error, suggesting the confusion was brief. The pool report from the stop reads:

As he greeted another group of young women, Obama posed for a photo with three students pantomiming the O-H-I-O of Ohio State. Obama put his hands up as the letter “I.”

According to a Texas judge, if Obama somehow gets re-elected, we’ll have a lot more to worry about than just bad spelling.

DFW.CBSlocal.com reports:

A Texas leader is warning of what he calls a ‘civil war’ and possible invasion of United Nations troops if President Barack Obama is re-elected.

Lubbock County Judge Tom Head is convinced that Mr. Obama winning a second term would lead to a revolt by the American people and he’s is pushing a tax increase for the district attorney’s office and the Lubbock County Sheriff’s Office. He says the money is needed to “beef up” it’s resources in case President Obama wins the November election.

In the event of civil unrest Judge Head said he’s concerned the President would hand over sovereignty of the United States to the U.N. and that the American public would react violently.

“He’s going to try to hand over the sovereignty of the U.S. to the United Nations, what’s going to happen when that happens?” Judge Head told FOX 34 in Lubbock.

“I’m thinking worse case scenario,” Judge Head explained. “Civil unrest, civil disobedience, civil war maybe…we’re not just talking a few riots or demonstrations.”

The West Texas judge’s proposed tax increase is to help the sheriff’s office hire a law enforcement large enough to protect the county and to drive away the invaders.

“I don’t want rookies,” Head said flatly. “I want trained, equip and seasoned veteran officers to back me.”

The republican judge said that he himself will meet the enemy, “in front of their armored personnel carriers” to tell them they are not welcome, and has the county sheriff to back him up. “I don’t want U.N. troops in Lubbock County,” he said.

Tom Head, a graduate of Highland Park High School, has been a county judge since 1999.

The judge is not quite as crazy as you might think.  Back on May 31st, townhall.com reported that

The latest threat to U.S. sovereignty is the United Nations’ Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST) that is being pushed by the Obama administration. LOST rises from the dead every few years. For more than thirty years, the United States has refused to become a party to LOST for good reasons. But this could be the year that the United States surrenders its sovereignty over the seas to an international body if Obama gets his way.

Under this treaty, the U.N. would have control over 71 percent of the Earth’s surface. This would be a huge step towards global governance. The Senate may vote to ratify the sea treaty as early as next week. President Ronald Reagan rejected LOST back in 1982, stating it would grant the U.N. the power to tax U.S. companies and redistribute wealth from developed to undeveloped nations.

For the first time in history, the U.N. would have the authority to collect taxes from U.S. citizens. The thought of global taxation should send goose bumps down the spine of every American.

Well, luckily, that didn’t happen. But the fact that it could have, is unthinkable.

America is a Sovereign Nation of Free People, blessed by God since its founding. We are not some third-rate European Socialist country, As Mitt Romney made very clear yesterday.

The presumptive Republican Candidate spoke at LeClaire Manufacturing in Bettendorf, Iowa, yesterday, and said that…

It is free men and women that drive our economy. Freedom is what makes America work. And President Obama, bless his heart, has tried to substitute government for free people–and it has not worked, and it will never work.

C’mon, November 6th!