Running on Empty: The Cliché Candidacy of Barack Obama
The last few weeks have been disastrous ones for the Obama re-election effort. The evidence for this is in several areas, including public opinion surveys. The Rasmussen daily tracking survey, one of the very few to use a likely voter screen at this point in the cycle, now has Mitt Romney leading Obama by five points. A new Fox survey of registered voters has Obama with his lowest approval number to date at 42%, trailing Romney head-to-head by 2%.
On the issue front, the Obama team has suffered many severe blows. It turns out that several members of the Supreme Court, maybe even a majority, think the issue of the constitutionality of the individual mandate in ObamaCare is a serious one. The liberal commentariat from Jeffrey Toobin to Linda Greenhouse, caught in their tight cocoon that ignores alternative views, had assured themselves before the Court took up the matter that the constitutionality of the mandate was a trivial concern. After a few days of oral arguments, during which the Obama administration’s lawyers were badly outclassed by the attorneys for the states challenging the law, public support for the law dropped to its lowest level and support for the Supreme Court rose.
Some of this, ironically, may be a response to the perception that the president was both bullying the Court and appallingly ignorant of the history of judicial review of acts of Congress by the Supreme Court. For a president who graduated from Harvard Law School, served as editor of the Harvard Law Review, and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School, his statement suggested he either missed a lot during his three years at Harvard or, worse, assumed the White House press corps was so ignorant (or so in the bag for him) that he could say anything on the subject and it would pass muster, as was the case for the most part in the 2008 campaign. If the Court throws out the mandate, or perhaps the entire law, in late June, the signature achievement of the administration will be gone, or at least badly disabled. A case can be made that the president’s attack on the Court may make it easier for the Court to rule against the law.
Last week’s disaster was an obnoxious attack on Ann Romney by 35-time White House visitor Hilary Rosen, who said of the “presumptive” Republican nominee’s wife: “She never worked a day in her life.” The dismissive and disrespectful comment drew quick responses from David Axelrod, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, and the president and first lady. They all said that the wives of candidates are off-limits and that raising children is hard work that should be respected. With one stupid comment by a DNC advisor who, for the record, might have been taxed under the “Buffet rule” for her seven-figure earnings as head of the Recording Industry Association of America (after which she chose to stay home with her partner for a time to raise her adopted kids), the hypocrisy was glaring. For the Obama campaign, the reaction the comment received was a signal of great danger to their effort to create and widen the “gender gap” with their oft-repeated charge about the Republicans’ “war against women.”
After the suspension of Rick Santorum’s campaign last week, Mitt Romney’s five-year fight for the GOP nomination for the presidency seemed to have successfully concluded. Romney has had a difficult time during the primary season connecting with the blue-collar base of the Republican Party and with social conservatives. After Rosen’s cheap shot, the social networking sites were ablaze with angry men and women rallying behind Ann Romney. A Washington Post online poll showed 97% supporting Romney and 3% backing Rosen. As a result of Rosen’s “gift,” the Romney campaign may have achieved more in narrowing the gender gap and solidifying Romney’s support level with conservative voters than it was able to achieve with many months of trying to sound acceptable to them in debates and campaign speeches.
The reaction to the Rosen attack, which was also part of the persistent and broader class warfare theme of the Obama campaign (the real message was that Ann Romney is an idle rich woman), may not only help insulate Ann Romney from future attacks but should also enable her to be more of a spokesperson for her husband, helping to humanize him in the process. If the Obama campaign was concerned that Ann Romney was going to be a big help to Mitt Romney’s fall campaign before this incident, that problem is now greatly magnified for them.
There is increasing evidence that the only theme on which Obama plans to run his campaign this time is that the rich are not taxed enough and that if they were, everything would be just grand and all the vital “investments” (translation — increased federal spending) needed over the next ten years would be paid for. The corollary is that Mitt Romney is very rich and needs to pay a lot more in taxes.
There may never have been a presidential campaign so chock-full of poll-tested clichés as Obama’s. A Gallup poll shows that the “Buffet rule,” which would raise about 1/300th of the annual Obama deficit, is so far a crowd-pleaser. But is it enough to get voters to cast a ballot in November for the president, or will the unemployment rate, gas prices, the deficit, and ObamaCare matter a lot more?
The president’s aides have already walked back Obama’s absurd statement that the Buffet rule would be enough to “stabilize our debt and deficits over the next ten years.” There may be a reason we have never seen the president’s transcripts or SAT scores. Did he score poorly in math? Many Democrats and liberal pundits have admitted that the upcoming vote in the Senate on the Buffet rule this week is a “gimmick” to win one day’s new cycle and get some vulnerable Republicans on the record opposing it.
We can also expect to see and hear more of all the following poll-tested gestures or comments over the next seven months:
- Obama running up the stairs to speak to a crowd with his sleeves rolled up. (It’s good to know he is rolling up his sleeves to solve America’s problems.)
- “This is a make-or-break moment for the middle class.” (If we adopt the Buffet rule, it’s a good bet it will be a “make” moment).
- “Everyone needs to pay their fair share.” (Everyone except for the half of all Americans who do not pay any income tax and will not be asked to by the president.)
- “The rich need to pay their fare share.” (Presumably 10% of taxpayers paying 70% of all income taxes, greater than their share of income, is not a fair share and needs to be substantially higher.)
- “Corporations need to play by the rules.” (Of course, we presumably need more of them.)
- “All Americans should get a fair shot.” (At what exactly is unclear — opportunity to succeed, or an opportunity to share in the fruits of the labor of others? What is Obama’s plan for those who get a “fair” chance to compete, and fail? )
- “We need to build an economy that can last.” (All countries have economies that “last,” even Greece. The test is whether the economy is growing, and if so, whether that rate of growth is sufficient. Is Obama concerned about growth — the size of the pie — or only about how a pie of whatever size is distributed?)
The Obama approval numbers, other than for a post-Bin Laden bump, have stayed in a narrow range for over two years. There is nothing the president is saying now that he has not said many times over. Many Americans appear to have tuned him out. The Obama campaign brain trust may have concluded that the only path to victory is by pandering to a collection of ethnic groups and interests. Hence, the class warfare theme to activate the left-wing base, the offhand comments about the Trayvon Martin case to show blacks he is with them, the lawsuits against Arizona to please Hispanic voters, and the delay in the Keystone pipeline to keep the environmental lobby and contributors happy.
The broad post-racial, no-blue-state, no-red-state jargon is history. Now it will be constant attack (against those who have been the “winners” in America and are not paying their fare share) and consolidating the various Democratic base groups. If Mitt Romney, and others like him, would just pay more in taxes, would America then have an economy built to last? Would the middle class then have their “make” moment?
Can this babble sell in America in 2012 ?
>>Can this babble sell in America in 2012 ?
It sold in 2008, but it may indeed be stale now.
I bet Obama tries crying. Seriously. It worked for Hillary.
But it didn’t help Ed Muskie….
In a fair fight, Obama would go down in all but the bluest of blue states (NY, IL, CA).
But it is not a fair fight. Obama has the Demoratic Media Complex on his side. *PLUS* the vote is rigged.
26 states will have their electronic voting machines “counted” in Spain by a company whose owner is an avowed socialist, and who donated millions to Obama in 2008.
Check it out [I am in no way associated with this website, just passing on the shock.] http://www.westernjournalism.com/spanish-company-will-count-american-votes-overseas-in-november/
I ask: What can we do about this rigged vote? Ahead of time?!
you are leaving out one other key component, perhaps THE key component – voters. Liberalism cannot survive without a massively uninformed population and we have no shortage of the ignorant in this country. In addition, there is the growing looter class, the ones with NO federal liability who neither want to take some on nor see the harm of further burden shifted to others.
A govt that takes from Peter to give to Paul can always count on the support of Paul, a wise man once said. The number of Pauls is close to eclipsing that of the Peters.
Uninfirmed. Misinformed. If we agree with the commonly-cited estimate that 20-25% of the voting public self-identifies as “liberal,” we still see that in the RCP polling averages Obama is still getting a 45% job approval rating. And the fact that Romney is supposedly 5 points ahead in Rasmussen still mean that something on the order of 20% of the voters (who presumably do not self-identify as “liberal” are still in Obama’s camp. Are most of these people going to make the kind of analysis this article does? Or are they going to sleepily acquiesce to the media-generated mythic creation they fell for in 2008? The fac6t that Obama has been so bad and lies so consistently and so profoundly about just about everything, yet still enjoys the approval of close to half the population is deeply disturbing. And yes, it is partly their being uninformed, but very much also attributable to them being deliberateyl misinformed by the media, which I say accounts for at least 20% of the vte going to Democrats nationally.
Polls are one thing. Voter turn out is another thing altogether. Voter enthusiasm could be the swing factor. I have no doubt as to the enthusiasm of the ABO crowd. (“Anybody but Obama.”) He alienates the people who are traditionally right on so many levels. Now will those 45% who approve of the job he is doing, based mostly on optics and that he is a personable guy, convert into enthusiasm and voter turnout? I can see how it could for the liberal base, but the big question is how the independents who on a telephone call, on very slim, inattentive evidence, are willing to support him (because they do not want to sound racist?) are going to convert that feeling into turnout. If they stay home, or ultimately decide that liking him as a human is not enough to convince them to vote for 4 more years, then the polls ultimately, as skewed through the electoral college, might mean very little. Too soon to tell, but most of these polls come through the MSM and we know how impartial they are to reporting anything political. Alot of polls proved disastrously wrong in Bush’s second election, if I recall.
i’m still expecting a staged ‘assassination attempt’ right before the election.
Now that would be interesting. Can you imagine if like everything else this administration has touched or played with they screw it up too in the form of
say-not using blanks in the attempt?
What makes you think they’d use blanks? It would be more politically beneficial if someone was hit. Imagine a staged Reagan style scenario, just everyone is wearing vests and someone else in the group is the actual target. Unless the story spilled, they could spin a grand narrative off of that.
That was a tv movie in the late 80s. Had the woman from Crocodile Dundee in it.
You know, going off on these kinds of scenarios does nothing for the conversation.
Ooh! Fake assassination attempt! Better than being moved to tears over possible plight of his beloved country under a President Romney.
But yeah, I think the emo angle is the one they’ll play.
The only assassination attempt they would absolutely need to win this one in November was the one on Andrew Breitbart, and it was successful.
I don’t know if I’m kidding or not. Really, I don’t.
Obama only received 53% of the vote as an unvetted potential first black president hope and change stop the seas from rising Messiah intellectual genius out of Harvard running against the weakest republican candidate imaginable. And only 53% of the vote? Now that the cat is out of the bag and he’s shown himself to be a certifiable Marxist with an abject record of failure in every sphere of operation with only a phony tax the rich class warfare scheme for 4 billion dollars a year of tax revenue in a nation with 15-and-a-half trillion dollars of debt to run on for reelection. If this sells in America in 2012 then maybe America is no longer America and us patriots need to find somewhere else to live, but I see a continuation and a completion of the 2010 midterm rejection. Afterall, we’re still Americans, aren’t we?
Anything can be “sold” to a person paid good hard cash to vote for the person promising to send them more good hard cash every month for the rest of their wasted lives. This is not usually called “selling” anybody anything. If you honestly wanted to find the word in the dictionary for this type of economic exchange, look between “briarwood” and “bric-a-brac.” (Spoiler alert: The word you will find is “bribery”). As long as those contributing nothing to the federal tax pie while eating up or wasting more than their fair share are allowed to vote to keep it up, we are in trouble. My Grandfather was a West Point career officer and through the world wars he refused to vote for his Commander in Chief, believing it beyond his pay scale (some type of conflict of interest I could never figure out). But take away the conflicts of interest in the voting rolls, and exclude all federal employees and those who can’t prove they pay taxes, and those living off the federal government without contributing anything in exchange, and the Democratic party as currently organized would disappear to the cheers of all rational people. Then we could start advancing the minority victims of the Democrats to give them a meaningful vote and a hopeful future and start pursuing real progress. Won’t happen of course but as an intellectual exercise it gives real satisfaction and I don’t doubt it would work, and be far more successful than our current race off the debt cliff, that when the Bourbons tried it in 1789 led to the Terror and then 20 years of the Napoleonic wars (16,000,000 dead). The 20th Century was even worse.
I’m just trying spread a little hope Mr. Burke. I’m as skeptical as the next guy and I understand the power of the almighty dollar, but until the final ballot is counted I’m giving the American people the benefit of the doubt. It ain’t over ’til the fat lady sings.
If you are talking about limiting the franchise, I suggest you should look to the distribution of powers. As little power as possible should be vested in the House, which would control the purse. As much other power as possible would be vested in the Senate and presidency. Then every citizen could vote for the Senate and president but only net taxpayers could vote for the House.
What about white men who often are denied “a fair shot” when less qualified minorities are hired or promoted?
No politician will ever bring up this UNfair shot law, so I guess it’s left to a conservative plant Obama accidentally calls on in a staged Obama meet-and-greet the people moment.
It’d be funny to see the TelePrompTer President stutter and stammer because this “eloquent” Prez isn’t so good on his feet.
He’s going to call in sick to every debate with Romney. Of course, the MSM moderators will give Oblunder a list of the questions in advance, and O will ignore and sidestep Romney’s counter-arguments, so perhaps he will show up to one.
” The Cliche Candidacy of Barack Obama.”
“Cliche Candidacy” has a wonderful anti-Obama campaign ring to it. I so wish cliches didn’t work so well on the stupid.
His new Slogan is the Dope that Hopes you will still be stupid enough to vote fer ME, well we’ll won’t we now!
Sorry for the liberals but only a fool would pull the lever for this clown this year. The guy that thinks in his own mind that he is the third or fourth best president ever compared to who?
He is in for a surprise and it will be in November when he loses to a landslide worse that Reagan and Carter in 1980 an election that was called within 30 minutes of the pools being closed CST at 7 p.m.
Yep One big ass mistake is now over and done, and the first officially mostly Black President has blown it for most other Blacks regarding the chance to become president.
Failure or Incompetent or Lazy in Chief is Barak Obama! What a failure he is!
Give it time, as the pressure mounts the vicious side of the Marxists will come out publicly.
The OWS crowd was out in force in NYC on Saturday going Black Bloc. This arm of the Democrat party smashed windows with pipes and caused other mahem. Even some business supporters are turning against these thugs. You can get more in depth info on it at The Blaze.
There will be more cliches coming from Van Jones and the OWS supporters as their DNC movement implodes publicly.
Anti free market and anti petroleum development has consequences folks! We are all paying big time for the anti economic sanity policies of the Dems.
“Can this babble sell in America in 2012 ?”
Yes it can, unfortunately–and the reason is demographics.
Obama’s coalition is multicultural–nearly all the blacks, nearly all the gays and lesbians, 2/3 of the Hispanics–and the size of that coalition keeps growing, year after year.
The long term trend is this: The percentage of white voters in America declines by about half a percent each year. Black and Hispanic voters are replacing them. Blacks are now 13% of the electorate, and Hispanics are about 11%. (Asians and others make up the rest.)
That’s bad news for the GOP, which hasn’t done well with minority voters. (George W. Bush was the only Republican presidential candidate to get more than about one-third of the Hispanic vote.)
In 2012, only 72% of the voters will be Caucasian–a 16 point drop from 1980, when Reagan won. Reagan won 56% of the white vote. With today’s ethnic mix of voters, Reagan would have lost the election.
To win a 51% majority of all voters with just one-third of the Hispanic vote, Romney would have to win 0.48/0.72 = 67% of the white vote. That’s a tall order. No Republican candidate has ever won anything close to two-thirds of the white vote.
After all this noise about “war on women” and “war on stay-at-home moms,” the GOP’s fundamental problem is that it doesn’t appeal strongly to minority voters, at a time when minority voters are now 28% of the electorate, 16 points higher than in 1980. The GOP can’t just write off 28% of the voters and expect to win elections by capturing a majority of the remaining 72%. That job is mathematically nearly impossible.
Another favorite platitude of the Obama and the Demoncats recently is how Republicans have gone so far to the right. I’m still waiting to hear specifics but I imagine they’re talking about extreme, right wing insanity like trying to avoid national bankruptcy and enforcing laws.
With only one Republican president in the last 60 years (at least) being a real conservative, I guess it’s about time we try it again. Worked pretty well last time.
Now if we could only find a candidate. Maybe 2016.
The GOP should stop trying to take a defensive position on “tax fairness”, and propose a “Stuffit rule” to counter the “Buffett rule”. How about a GOP bill that limits the top tax rate of ANY taxpayer to the top average “effective tax rate” paid by those with incomes over $1 million? IRS figures, on 2009 returns puts that average “effective tax rate” for incomes over a million at about 25%. Where the “Buffett rule” would impose a minimum income tax of 30% on incomes of $1 million and up, the GOP’s “Stuffit rule” would a impose a maximum income tax cap that guarrantees EVERY taxpayer, no matter what his income, pays no more total federal tax than 25% of his income. That sounds more like the kind of “tax fairness” that most Americans could get behind.
…the best defense is a good offense…
All Romney has to say to the “Buffet proposal” is that you could literally take all of the money away from all of the very rich people in America and it wouldn’t even put a dent into the $16 trillion debt we now owe. And even if you could do that, then what? We would be living in a Marxist society where everything goes to the state and there would be no private property. Because if the government can come for the rich people, what makes you think they will stop there? Why won’t they come after the middle class after that, taking everything away from them as well? Obama, like all socialists and Marxists, wants just one poor class of people that is totally dependent on the government for literally everything, from cradle to grave. If this isn’t the biggest wake-up call that this man has to be stopped, I don’t know what is. Obama wants us to be just like the social-welfare states in Europe, and we all see how well they are doing, especially in Greece. November will prove to be the most important election in our nation’s history. This election will decide whether or not we remain a free republic, or if we go down that road to failure the Europeans are already on. Never has one election ment so much to this nation. Never.
#3 don’t pay income tax…..
I’m tired of this nonsense. You pay INCOME TAX on EARNINGS(W2)!!!!
If you’re living on savings, SS, and other untaxable funds….you are “paying your fair share”. I agree the tax code is a horrible mess, however quite making it sound like 40% are on the “dole”.
Don’t forget though the Earned Income Tax Credit that many of these people get; so, in effect they are really not paying any income tax (or paying a ridiculously reduced amount). AFAIC, the country has wandered way too far into income-redistribution territory. It’s high time it all be turned around, as this is not what our country is supposed to be all about.
It’s not nonsense. 40-some percent pay no income tax. You’re probably talking about Social Security and Medicare, which in theory, you get back when you need it in old age. Sort of like a pension. And like Bobcat said, with the Earned Income Credit, a large chunk actually pay negative income tax — they profit from the tax code, as in they get a refund of more money than was withheld. Look it up.
But it doesn’t stop there, low-income people have access to a huge number of government services that the rest of us get to pay for — food stamps, WIC, free school lunches, housing assistance, college tuition, and literally at least a hundred others. So yes, they really are “on the dole” in staggering numbers.
Go here for a taste of what is available to them … but not available to those of us who “don’t pay our fair share”!
http://www.usa.gov/Citizen/Topics/Benefits.shtml
“For a president who graduated from Harvard Law School, served as editor of the Harvard Law Review, and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School, his statement suggested he either missed a lot during his three years at Harvard or, worse, assumed the White House press corps was so ignorant (or so in the bag for him) that he could say anything on the subject and it would pass muster…”
Did he really graduate from Harvard? Was he really the editor of the Harvard Law Review?
“There may be a reason we have never seen the president’s transcripts or SAT scores. Did he score poorly in math?”
Did he ever take the SAT?
I am not asking these questions rhetorically. I know of no other POTUS whose past records of this nature were so carefully hidden. I suspect that perhaps they are not hiding a damned thing. I suspect that our current POTUS is nothing but a complete & utter fraud.
I agree with you. I looked at a picture of him on townhall.com this morning and said to myself, “Who is this man?” I think he’s an impostor and I do not believe he is eligible to be president.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwhKuunp8D8&feature=player_embedded
Excellent article.
“Can this babble sell in America in 2012?”
It could – if the economy was humming along, but unfortunately for Obama (even though his policies to make it fail are intentional) it’s sputtering like a old car in dire need of a tune-up, er. . . excuse me, re-charge.
Attacking the opposition is the only thing the Obama campaign can do. He cannot run on his record. He cannot avoid issues, hide his background and be protected by the media like he did in 2008. Espousing ‘hope and change’ now when the only changes we’ve seen are nightmare deficits, record unemployment, disastrous foreign policy, record high gas prices, failed bailouts & stimulus packages (re: Solyndra), a terrible energy policy (when Steven Chu is fired, America will get jiggy), and more.
No question Obama will get the bulk of the minority vote, but that may not be enough.
And Mitt & Ann Romney both have good hair. I’m betting their coifs will carry them to the WH.
I always get a horse-laugh when I hear Democrats praising the merits of “the middle class” and claiming to be the sword-and-buckler champions for this group. I may not know much but for the last forty years the atttitudes of the Democrats and their hand-maidens in the media (and academia) can, only with charity, be described as “dismissive” toward the middle class.
Haven’t we been lectured for years by our academic and media betters (and Democratic pundits) that the middle class is hopelessly regressive in terms of sophistication, taste and “iifestyle”? Haven’t we been told since the halcyon days of the 1960′s that the middle class (with it’s clinging to “Guns and God”)is the source of most of all of the bigotry. sexism, prejudice and general bad acting that affects our culture? Doesn’t virtually every play, motion picture and popular song pumped out by our lefty-riddled (and Democratic Party supporting) popular culture express it’s withering contempt for “middle class values” and see them as a prison from which any enlightened individual must make his escape? (See any “serious” motion picture dealing with the middle class from “The Graduate” to “American Beauty.”)
Yet – Suddenly the Democrats are slobbering over the middle class like a puppy over a ham bone. They want to “rebuild” the middle class. What? Really? They want to rebuild a much-despised culture of garden gnomes, suburban “sprawl”, beer-and-backyard-barbecues, Rotary Club meetings and the novels of Dean Koontz? Haven’t we been told how irrdeemably God-Awful this stuff is for the last four decades? Sure – The Democrats are the spokesmen for the middle class – As long as it is convenient.
As a lifelong, card-carrying, ID-chip-implanted member of the middle class I have only one thing to say to those who want to “rebuild” the middle class: just leave us alone and let us rebuild ourselves. It’s what we do best.
Packaging or repackaging a Presidency has always been ongoing effort. The effort is not to convince everyone but enough of the right sort of people. Don’t see any reason why Obama can’t convince the same population set yet again.
Great piece. I am soooo tired of hearing this same old divide and condemn stuff. When one takes a step back from the intensity of his ignorance (or as I prefer his ideology…that’s what is really at work here). Have you ever seen such a divisive POTUS? I have not in my lifetime. Theodore White wrote a book some time ago called ‘Breach of Faith’ (?). The Nixon era book’s basic premise is Nixon violated what most citizens expect from their President, that is honesty and an effort to approach the ‘common good’ for all the ‘folks’. This POTUS frankly is toxic in that regard. I hope the ‘office’ of the president will not be permanently tarnishe by this man. Semper Fi.
Someday some reporter will ask the president exactly how he defines “fair.”
As usual we are forced to only guess his interpretations and his ever increasing transparency of his agenda. Does this still sell to his base?
Meanwhile we get to suffer through his red herrings at the beginning of the weekly newscyles which seem designed to distract from the hard issues. “Buffet Rule, war on women, millionaires and billionares, defending the middle class, dissing the supreme court,race relations,birth control, green energy, etc. . .”
As long as we’re in a recycling mood, can we bring back “Where’s the beef?”
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a president whose rhetoric matches his lack of action. He proposes a lot, but he never puts it into writing.
Ah well, soon the streets will be filled with the OWS hordes and civil disobedience.. We can expect orchestrated racial incidents, and perhaps riots. And demonstrations in support of the gay/lesbian/transexual crowd.
I have a proposal: let the 10% of taxpayers who cough up 70% of federal income taxes declare a work moratorium. Tune in, turn on and drop out for one year. Live off their savings and enjoy a little rest. Let the 41% who pay nothing chew on that for a while. Tell the 99%er activists figure out by themselves how to subsist without handouts. Let Sandra Fluke pay for her own contraceptives and abortions. Just a thought. A happy thought.
Carla,
John Galt would agree with you. The reason the economy isn’t turning up is because of the headwinds created by the one and his progressive hench people in Congress and the various agencies created by Washington. If productivity were intentionally withheld even more than it is being restricted now, you would see a slide right back into technical recession. I say technical because any observer knows that we are still in recession growth is so pathetic.
there is a silver lining to the coming election campaign
The oval office occupier fully believes he is brighter then any of his advisers and will likely campaign listening only to himself
The fact that he has demonstrated not to be very bright, has total disdain for all who disagree with his marxist agenda and when knocked off message comes across as a stuttering fool will contribute to his defeat
The real problem for the left is understanding that while they hired the first affirmative action potus who has turned out to be an unmitigated disaster, to borrow from vp Cheney
do these same idiots trying to prove they weren’t racist almost 4 years ago, hasve to courage to fire the occupier for his massive failures and try and undo the damage he has done in the 3 plus years he has infested the oval office
The only hope (sorry for having to use the word ‘hope’) for Obama’s campaign is the tried-and-true Madison Avenue ad strategy of selling a “NEW AND IMPROVED” Obama, saying (lying) that he’s learned from his mistakes, won’t repeat them, and will listen to the American people, that he’s fine if the SCOTUS overturns Obamacare, that he’ll get America working again, etc. You know, like ‘NEW & IMPROVED’ Tide, All-Tempa-Cheer, Charmin, Mr. Clean, or Head & Shoulders. On the other hand, a ‘NEW & IMPROVED’ Obama might go over like New Coke. There’s certainly some risk.
However, given Obama’s bent for attacking his opposition and touting red herrings (as JED points out), he won’t try a ‘NEW & IMPROVED’ strategy. He’ll continue his ways of doing just the opposite of what he said he wouldn’t do in 2008.
“The Obama campaign brain trust may have concluded that the only path to victory is by pandering to a collection of ethnic groups and interests.”
Oh, contraire. Crisis, baby, crisis — that’s the path! Start looking for them, though the ones coming will surely test the powers of our predictive imagination.
To Lawrence of lutz #11 comment; well said! I’m retired and on SS and am not on welfare! I was raped by taxes for 48 years and paid my share, more than my share. I saved and never took a nickel from state or local government. I served nine years USN/USMC and now see the country going to hell, devisive, and racist from the top.
Vote Obama out!!!!
Various attempts by prognosticators to dictate our reality in America is laughable, and amounts to a daily dose of depression pills; only the pills work to make us more depressed! As each day passes, attempts are made to steal our future and it seems there is a sense of hopelessness about it … reinforced by prognosticators as inevitable. Well … I say ENOUGH is ENOUGH!!!! Unite or Die!!
We DO have a future … so let’s coboy-up and get with it!! Whiners not allowed!
I think they’re will be a staged war on AMERICA just to stop the ELECTION to give OBAMA time to finish off our country with the ELITE’S plans.
Given the two facts that 1) the Obama campaign will use race propaganda, and 2) the Hispanic vote will be increasingly important, I’m surprised that the Republicans have not used the recent shooting incident to point out the ‘racist’ attacks by the Justice Department, administration officials, and the leftist media on a Hispanic who was (arguably) defending himself from an attack by a black youth. Perhaps they’re waiting for the fuller story to come out that corroborates the self-defense line?
Spanish Company Will “Count” American Votes Overseas In November.The American advocacy group Project Vote has concluded that SCYTL’s internet voting system is vulnerable to attack from the outside AND the inside, a situation which could result in “…an election that does not accurately reflect the will of the voters…” Talk about having a flair for understatement!It has also been claimed that SCYTL CEO Pere Valles is a socialist who donated heavily to the 2008 Obama campaign and lived in Chicago during Obama’s time as Illinois State Senator. Unfortunately, given what is known about the character of Barack Obama, such rumors must be taken as serious threats to the integrity of the 2012 vote and the legitimate outcome of the election.http://www.westernjournalism.com/spanish-company-will-count-american-votes-overseas-in-november/
“Can this babble sell in America in 2012 ?” Mr. Baehr’s article ends on the key question. I’ve seen a number of videos in various places that, in great comedic fashion, at least to those so inclined, demonstrate a monumental ignorance about all things historical, economical, political about America and required in order to vote intelligently, among a disturbing number of otherwise attractive, personable young Americans. We’re supposed to laugh at this. How funny! The Founders must be rolling over and over.
Maybe many of these folks, content in their ignorance, won’t vote. The classic irresponsible cop out, “My vote won’t make a difference.” One can only hope. “Then again perhaps a disturbing number believe that pulling the ‘D’ lever every four years makes them responsible, patriotic Americans.
“Did you vote?”
“Yes.”
“Good job.” They’ve been hearing that phrase all their uneducated lives.
It worked in 08. Will it work again in 2012? By my reckoning, based on three years of absolute incompetency, Obama’s popularity rating should be in the toilet, not at 42%, albeit allegedly falling.
And then there’s the issue of massive voter fraud, a hitherto, BO (before Obama), ACORN, the Gore Bush fiasco in 2000 and the recent revelation about outsourcing the voting tabulation process to a Spanish company. What could go wrong here? Where to begin?
Gepetto #28 above: “And then there’s the issue of massive voter fraud, a hitherto, BO (before Obama), ACORN, the Gore Bush fiasco in 2000 and the recent revelation about outsourcing the voting tabulation process to a Spanish company. What could go wrong here? Where to begin?”
Don’t forget the voting machines the SEIU “serviced” in Nevada. In North Carolina, my 86-year-old mother-in-law had enough snap to notice her straight Republican vote was recorded as a straight Democratic vote. She tried again, same result. She pointed it out to the presiding judge, who gave her a paper ballot and said he’d have it looked at. I’m sure that was at the top of his to-do list, right after he tossed her paper ballot in the trash can.
According to Gallup: “Americans favor the so-called “Buffett Rule” mandating a minimum 30% tax rate for those making $1 million or more per year, by 60% to 37%. Majorities of both Democrats and independents favor the policy; Republicans oppose it.”
I wonder how many of those favoring tax increases on the rich are among the ~50% of Americans who pay no tax. I also wonder how many of them know the percentage of taxes already paid by top earners. According to the Wall Street Journal, the top 1% already pay 40% of the taxes and the top 15% pay 75% of the taxes.
The 2012 choice will be between Freedom and Free Stuff, and we all know who is the Free Stuff President.
We need to say it loud and long–the Buffet Rule is a way to drive out private investment in favor of government investment. They don’t want us to make our own money–only the government should be in the business of creating millionaires and billionaires and Obama and his cronies are the best judges of who deserve that largess. That way they can control the wealth of this country and pick and choose who gets the fat government contracts. Everyone else will have “jobs” that exist only to facilitate the enrichment of the Democrats’ cronies. It’s the next step to socialism.
This.
This was the cliche candidate in 2008. The Won had zero record, so of course the press loved him. He now has has a record of 3.5 years of the worst economy in generations. And his only solution is more government.
How any sane person would vote for this guy is beyond me.
Apr 16, 2012 1:22pm Cheers! Photos Show Embattled GSA Official Enjoying Wine and Soak in Spa Tub at M Hotel During “Pre-Conference” Meeting
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/04/cheers-photos-show-embattled-gsa-official-enjoying-wine-and-soak-in-spa-tub-at-m-hotel-during-pre-conference-meeting/
Articles like this assume the voting public is rational and informed.
Obama and his handlers aren’t making that mistake.
He’s already figuring on losing 99.9% of that voting block.
That’s why they rigged it to get Romney as the opponent. Mormon, fat cat, Romneycare, vulture capitalist. The poor schmuck won’t know what hit him.
But Romney’s handlers knew long ago. They never wanted to win. They just want to make sure they have their spot at the feeding trough.
So don’t get too worked up about it. As soon as they knocked Gingrich out, the election was decided. Four more years, as planned. Rove will make a quadruple fortune this time.
Barack Hussein Obama Will Win Re-Election (Part One)
As difficult as it is to concede, barring a disaster or intercession by an almighty power, President Barack Hussein Obama will win re-election on November 6th. The final vote tally will be far from a landslide but a sufficient proportion of the electorate will ensure the president serves another disastrous term.
That prediction is based on a variety of factors not the least of which is the widely-held expectation that Obama and all the president’s men and women will wage the dirtiest campaign since the populist Andrew Jackson beat the Democrat-Republican John Quincy Adams in 1828.
Obama will also win on a populist platform predicated on calculated distortions and misrepresentations supplemented by his hole cards of racial and class warfare and he will be bankrolled with a billion dollar campaign treasury.
However, the principal reason he will emerge victorious is not the nefarious tactics he and his minions will employ but that he has locked up various constituencies which will cast Democrat ballots because they almost always have and despite compelling reasons to vote otherwise.
Those constituencies in order of Democrat allegiance:
. African-Americans. Understandably, blacks chose a fellow, if semi, African-American in 2008 because, well, because he was almost black. If I were a black man, I would have supported him simply because of his race and centuries of oppression and disenfranchisement. However, the second time around, I would have supported the candidate who would best serve the interests of the country.
Thirteen percent of the electorate, fully 96% of blacks, voted for Obama four years ago versus 43 percent of whites. While the 96% was anticipated, the 43% reflected the amazing number of “white guilters” who felt it was time for a minority presence in the White House regardless of his lack of qualifications and experience as belated recompense for the enslavement of Obama’s forebears.
In spite of the fact the president has done as little for blacks–aside from hiring them in record numbers and for highly visible positions–as he has for other races, the African-American community is a sure bet to go for Obama in 2012 by margins approximating 2008 particularly but not exclusively due to his politicizing the tragic death of Trayvon Martin.
Chalk up around 13% for Obama.
. Jewish Americans. Jews are by nature and history liberal since they have been discriminated against even longer than blacks. They have endured oppression and slavery for thousands of years, and have been Democrats for as long as there has been an America.
Nevertheless, there is ample cause for Jews to abandon their loyalties to the Democrat Party this year , . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=21640.)
If the republicans can get the Spanish vote, the leftist vote for Obama won’t carry the day in the electoral college. The popular vote, concentrated at the coasts (e.g. in Cal and the Northeast which are going left no matter what) will not matter if the electoral vote follows the Bush pattern. Why do you think Obambi is going after the women vote? Nothing else except his base, which he does not need to coddle, seems to be working. Any analysis that does not go state by state on electoral numbers is meaningless. Presidential elections are decided in only few states like Florida and Ohio. Gore screwed up Florida by deporting Elian Gonzales, a child, at gun point, against his domestic family’s wishes and he lost the Spanish vote in Florida. (Hence the Fla Supreme Court Dems allowed Miami Dade not to recount the Spanish neighborhoods — which caused the US Supremes to read the Florida statutes and confirm no court could do that — victory to Bush). Here Zimmerman is Spanish and being railroaded by the Blacks. Florida is lost to Obama too, I would bet, unless the Jews really want to vote for the son of an Muslim who was educated in Muslim schools in Indonesia and seems to lean that way. Now only a few more states to analyze but I would say it is way too early to predict, but I don’t think the Black vote is going to swing this election all that much, particularly if they are demoralized. I worry more about fraud.
I have full faith in the american voter to do the worst thing possible for themselves by believing the BS spewing out of the white house. I will not be moved from this conviction until proof is provided after November 6th.Romney is a weak horse and we all know it so get out that nose clip folks, its 2008 all over again.Without a Palin to sweeten the scent this time that is.
Hold your nose at this my friend; the next president gets two supreme court picks. The stakes are high for November.
Edmund Burke: “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”
I hope the voters don’t believe the bs flowing from the White House. Obama doesn’t. He knows it’s all in one teleprompter and out the other.
You call them “cliches”.
We call them shameless, unmitigated, bald-faced LIES.
Barack Hussein Obama Will Win Re-Election (Part Two)
Part One of this very mini series examined some reasons why Barack Hussein Obama is virtually guaranteed to win his re-election bid.
My opinion–which I pray to God is wrong– was based on the probability of Obama conducting the dirtiest campaign in over a century, his faux-populist platform setting class against class and race against race, and plans to spend a billion dollars or more to fool the American people into giving him four more years.
However, that prediction was made not as much on those factors as on the fact Obama has locked up various constituencies that will cast their ballots for more of the same no matter what the president has done to the country to date or what else he will do before November 6th.
Most African-Americans, Jews, and homosexuals will vote for Obama seven months from now, giving him some 17% of the electorate.
So, too, will a sufficient number of Latinos and those still suffering from the malady of white guilt to give him the 270 electoral votes he needs to be “flexible” in order to accomplish his goal of changing America into a land that would have caused the Founding Fathers to retch.
In addition, many Republican conservatives will choose to shoot themselves in both feet by staying home on Election Day and thereby help re-elect the president out of pique that Mitt Romney isn’t conservative enough or because he has flip-flopped on issues almost as often as Obama.
. Latinos. Due to Obama’s policies and those of his immediate predecessor, George W. Bush, with regard to illegal immigration, hispanics in America now constitute 16.3% of the population, over 50 million people, an estimated 11 million of whom entered the United States illegally.
Regardless of which president is most responsible for the illegal influx, the reality at this point is that they are here and only an unprecedented, massive, federal deportation program will change the situation, and that’s not going to happen under any administration.
Legal or illegal, with notable exceptions Latinos are an industrious, hard-working, religious, and fundamentally conservative group, characteristics that should classify them as Republicans yet 67% voted for Obama in 2008.
The reasons for that majority are multiple and complex but boil down to the successful Democrat Party effort to make hispanics, legal and illegal, feel at home in the U.S., feel that Democrats care and will take care of them, feel they should vote for Obama because Republicans don’t make them feel at home and won’t “take care of them.”
According to a recent poll from the Democrat campaign, 73% of them will vote Obama in November, adding as many as 10 points to Obama’s tally for a total of 27%.
. White Guilt. The “white guilters” are the wild card in the coming election. They consist of Caucasians who were torn in 2008 over the long-ended horrors of slavery, felt guilty that some white guys like Thomas Jefferson owned slaves, and sought absolution for the sins of their long-dead forbears by voting for the son of Marxists.
White guilters rarely admit . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=21745.)
pretty sure there will be massive and systematic voter fraud. there is some tech way of manipulating the voting machines as odummy tried to do in honduras to get the marxist back in power there. you can bet the farm, the fix is in. if we manage to fix the voter fraud problem, he will not relinquish power peacefully. when it is all over, i don’t think there will be so many of us. our biggest enemy yet may be the ones who will try to placate our enemies to keep the peace. that has always been a bad play.