October 4th, 2011 by John Feehery
The Hermanator - Herman Cain
The Hermanator is now tied with Rick Perry for second place in a new Washington Post poll in the Republican race for the White House.
That doesn’t surprise me much. A very good friend of mine who describes himself as a moderate independent Republican kind of guy pinged me on Facebook about Cain. He said he would vote for him if Mr. Cain survives the primary process down in Texas.
And for many folks out there, Herman Cain is more than just a successful pizza guy. He is the embodiment of the American dream.
Unlike Barack Obama, Cain believes deeply in the concept of American exceptionalism. He worked hard his whole life, and he has been successful at just about everything he has done.
Where Obama preaches collectivism and class envy, Cain preaches self-reliance and individual liberty. Where Obama has nothing but contempt for free-market capitalism, Cain believes strongly in the power of the marketplace.
He turned around Burger King, made Godfather’s Pizza a huge success, and helped to stop Hillarycare in the mid-nineties. Read more...
Tags: America, American exceptionalism, Barack Obama, Burger King, Cain, Coca-Cola, Congress, Democrats, Economy, election, free-market capitalism, Godfather’s Pizza, Herman Cain, Hermann Cain, Hillarycare, individual liberty, Morehouse College, Obama, Politics, President Obama, Presidential election, Republican race for the White House, Rick Perry, Secretary of Commerce, self-reliance, the American dream, The Hermanator, Washington Post poll, White House
Posted in Government, History, Liberal Media, Media, Politics, Presidential election, Promises, Theory, election, medicare | No Comments »
October 3rd, 2011 by John Feehery
In 1977, Randy Newman had a hit with his song, “Short People”, with the immortal line, “short people, short people, short people have no reason to live.”
Newman later said that the song was about prejudice, but if you were a short person, that distinction was probably lost on you.
Substitute fat people for short people, and you have the campaign song against Chris Christie. That’s because many liberal commentators have already said that the New Jersey governor is too fat to run for President. How’s that for insightful and penetrating analysis.
Christie is a big guy with a big personality. And should he run and then become President, he would be the biggest guy to be President since William Howard Taft.
Taft was the fattest President in United States history, but his girth didn’t necessarily hold him back. In fact, Taft was simply the fattest in a string of fat Presidents, including Grover Cleveland, William McKinley and Teddy Roosevelt. (Yes, despite his reputation as a great adventurer and outdoorsman, T.R. weighed in around 230 pounds.
Taft and Roosevelt were also the last two Presidents to have mustaches. Coincidence? I don’t think so. Read more...
Tags: America, Bill Clinton, Chris Christie, Conservatives, Eugene Robinson, fat people, Grover Cleveland, Haley Barbour, Mike Huckabee, Mike Kinsley, Obesity, over weight, Politics, Presidential election, Randy Newman, Teddy Roosevelt, too fat to run for President, William Howard Taft, William McKinley
Posted in Bad Decisions, Government, History, Politics, Presidential election, Theory, election | No Comments »
September 29th, 2011 by John Feehery
It used to be that waivers were a bad thing.
It was bad to be put on waivers if you were in the NFL or played Major League Baseball. That meant you were out of a job.
Now, waivers are a good thing.
The Obama Administration announced that it was going to give waivers to the states of No Child Left Behind.
Too many states can’t meet the requirements of NCLB, so they are begging the Feds to give them a break.
If there is one thing that Mr. Obama and all the Republicans running for President agree on, it is that they don’t really love that landmark law legislated by John Boehner and Ted Kennedy and signed into law by W.
It’s too hard. Let’s give the states a waiver.
That, of course, begs the question: If the law is so bad, why don’t you just repeal it. Good question.
Mitt Romney promised that the first thing he would do if elected President would be to give waivers to all 50 states to the health care law signed by Mr. Obama. Read more...
Tags: America, Barack Obama, Congress, Congressional laws, Democrats, Government, John Boehner, Major League Baseball, Michele Bachmann, Mitt Romney, NFL, No Child Left Behind, Obama Administration, Obamacare, Republicans, Rick Perry, Social Security, taxes, Tea Party, Ted Kennedy
Posted in Bad Decisions, Bailouts, Economy, Financial Crisis, GOP, Government, Laws, Presidential election, Promises, Theory, election, taxes | 1 Comment »
September 28th, 2011 by John Feehery
I was talking to a Democratic friend of mine this morning, and he told me to expect the President’s people to go after Mitt Romney on the jobs issue. “There is a lot more that hasn’t come to the surface,” he told me confidently.
I’m sure there is. There is always more on just about everybody. I wish we knew more about Obama before the American people elected him three years ago.
The issue that my friend talked to me about had to do with Romney’s time at Bain Capital.
Bain Capital is a private equity firm that buys undervalued companies and turns them around so they can become profitable. They have had a lot of success. You can wake up with a Bain Capital company (Sealy), check out the weather (they own the Weather Channel), get a cup of coffee and a donut (Dunkin Donuts), go to the store and buy some running shoes to work off the donut (Sports Authority), buy some office supplies (Staples), grab a burger (Burger King), buy a present (Brookstone), catch a movie (AMC Entertainment), and then get home in time for dinner (Domino’s Pizza). Read more...
Tags: America, Bain Capital, Barack Obama, Congress, Democrats, Economy, election, Government, Mitt Romney, Politics, Presidential election, private sector, public sector, Republican, Republicans, spending, taxes, Ted Kennedy, Washington, White House
Posted in Economy, Financial Crisis, Government, History, Laws, Politics, Presidential election, Promises, Theory, election, spending | No Comments »
September 27th, 2011 by John Feehery
Craig Fugate
In an Administration full of disasters, one appointment stands out…in a good way.
When my wife worked for the State of Florida office, she told me about this guy who headed up the Florida’s disaster response unit. She told me he was awesome, that he knew what he was doing and that he was a really great guy.
I’ve never met Craig Fugate, but he is Obama’s best staff pick by far.
I was thinking about disaster response this week because Congress was flirting with political disaster – as it often does – by not coming to an agreement to fully fund FEMA.
Eventually FEMA came to the rescue by divulging that it had some extra money in the bank, and the crisis over a government shut-down was averted.
Fugate knows a thing or two about crises.
When he was the head of Florida’s version of FEMA, his state got regularly pounded by huge hurricanes and tornadoes. He got good at helping people recover and organizing quick responses. And he developed a pragmatic philosophy. Help first and help quickly, worry about the technicalities later. Read more...
Tags: Charlie Crist, Craig Fugate, FEMA, George W Bush, Hurricane Katrina, Jeb Bush, national disaster, Politics, President Obama
Posted in Government, History, Politics, election, national security, spending, tragedy | No Comments »
September 27th, 2011 by John Feehery
“And so tonight — to you, the great silent majority of my fellow Americans — I ask for your support.”
In November of 1969, Richard Nixon uttered this line in a televised address to the nation, explaining his plans in Vietnam.
At the time, the nation was enveloped in social, economic and racial turmoil. Nixon was speaking to the folks in the country who were respectful of authority, preferred order to chaos, disdained the revolutionaries and distrusted the intellectual elite who were attacking the pillars of American society.
The silent majority came to mean the white middle and lower middle class of America, and Nixon’s phrase came to be seen as a way to polarize an already polarized society.
But the phrase still has some uses.
The Republican Party has been embroiled in revolution from the so-called Tea Party Patriots.
These Tea Party Republicans were the first to embrace Sarah Palin. They gained inspiration from Glenn Beck back when Beck was the man. They held large protests around the country and on the National Mall. They targeted Republicans in primary fights in the midterm election, and successfully took out Bob Bennett, the senator from Utah; Mike Castle, the favorite to win the Delaware Senate seat; and Lisa Murkowski, the sitting senator from Alaska (who ended up winning the general election in a daring third-party challenge). Read more...
Tags: Bob Bennett, Buchanan, bush, Bush II, Chambers of Commerce, Dole, Glenn Beck, Herman Cain, Jeb Bush, Jon Huntsman, Kiwanis Clubs, Lisa Murkowski, majority, McCain, Michele Bachmann, Mike Castle, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Politics, presidential campaign, Presidential election, Reagan, Richard Nixon, Rick Perry, Rick Santorum, Robert Taft, Sarah Palin, Tea Party Patriots, Tea Party Republicans, Vietnam, white middle and lower middle class
Posted in GOP, Government, History, Liberal Media, Media, Politics, Presidential election, Promises, Reviews, Theory, election, speeches, spending, taxes | 2 Comments »
September 21st, 2011 by John Feehery
I was working out at the gym this morning (I know, miracles never cease), and I looked over briefly (I know, you don’t believe me), at the television and saw one of the hosts interviewing Rachel Maddow.
I am not the biggest Rachel Maddow fan in the world (ok, I am not really a fan at all) and I immediately assumed that the topic of conversation was on the President’s decision on “don’t ask, don’t tell”, an issue that apparently is important to the MSNBC host.
According to the headline blaring at the bottom of the television screen was “Is Obama losing his base?”
Interesting question, given that the previous day, the President struck a blow for some of his most passionate supporters by going through with change in a long standing military policy.
I will make this observation.
The President is not losing his base (if that is true) because he is moving to the middle. He is losing his base for largely the same reasons that he is losing the middle and losing the rest of the country.
Sheer incompetence. Read more...
Tags: America, Barack Obama, Conservatives, Democrats, don’t tell”, Economy, election, Gibson Guitar, Government, Msnbc, NRLB, Obama, Obama Justice Department, Obamacare, President Obama, Presidential election, Rachel Maddow, Republicans, Ron Paul, Ron Susskind, Sarah Palin, the Obama Administration, “don’t ask
Posted in Bad Decisions, Bailouts, Economy, Financial Crisis, Government, History, Liberal Media, Media, Politics, Promises, Theory, Unemployment, bad news, election, health care, spending, taxes | No Comments »
September 19th, 2011 by John Feehery
The Washington Post had this to say about a crucial voting bloc: “American Catholics are the ultimate swing voters, switching between Republicans and Democrats alike. Representing approximately one in four U.S. voters, Catholics make up the largest single religious voting bloc in American politics.”
Catholic voters voted big time for Barack Obama in the last Presidential election, despite the fact that Mr. Obama is staunchly and aggressively pro-choice.
Catholics voted for Mr. Obama over Mr. McCain by a nine-point margin (54 percent versus 45 percent), a turnaround from 2004 when Catholics supported President Bush over Sen. John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat, by a five-point margin (52 percent to 47 percent).
Politics doesn’t often come in Mass, but it did this past Sunday in the least expected way. Although from the very beginning I should have thought something was up. Read more...
Tags: America, American Catholics, Barack Obama, Catholic church, Conservatives, Democrats, Department of Health and Human Services, health care, McCain, Obama Administration, Politics, President Obama, Presidential election, pro-choice, Republicans, The Washington Post
Posted in Bad Decisions, Government, Politics, Promises, bad news, election, health care, poverty | No Comments »
September 15th, 2011 by John Feehery
Just as the former producer of the Jerry Springer Show arrives in Washington, the former Real Housewife of Washington D.C. leaves the nation’s capitol to take up with a former rock band star.
Coincidence? I don’t think so.
Somewhere up in the heavens, God is getting a good chuckle.
Congressman-elect Bob Turner’s claim to fame before he decided that he wanted to make a splash politically was as a television producer. He most famously produced the show that consistently exhibits for all to see the tawdriest aspects of American society. Springer is especially good at exposing cheaters on national television. I don’t know how they are able to get these folks to appear on their show, but some people just want to be famous, no matter how they get there.
Michaele Salahi is a perfect case in point. She and her husband famously crashed President Obama’s first state dinner, which caused a minor and quite enjoyable little scandal in D.C. That little event brought great shame and more importantly great fame to the Salahi family. The other “Real Housewives” were jealous of her notoriety, and threw her under the bus consistently on the show (which I must admit, I watched on occasion). But Michaele is now getting the last laugh. Read more...
Tags: Anthony Weiner, Barack Obama, Bob Turner, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, Democratic National Committee, Democrats, Government, Isreal, Jerry Springer Show, Jewish voters, Michaele Salahi, Neal Schon, New York’s 9th District, Republicans, White House
Posted in Economy, Financial Crisis, Government, History, Media, Politics, election, spending, taxes | 1 Comment »
September 14th, 2011 by John Feehery
They said that if I voted for John McCain for President in 2008, poverty would increase in America.
They were right. I voted for John McCain, and poverty has increased in America.
Of course, the shocking statistics about poverty in America are not a laughing matter.
Although, as Robert Rector points out at the Heritage Foundation, if you are going to live in poverty, America is a pretty good place to do it.
I was shocked to find out that when the Census Bureau makes its determination about who is poor and who is not, they don’t count the housing assistance, the food assistance and the Earned Income Tax Credit Assistance that most poor people get. If you add in all of those numbers, the poor here are much better off than the poor just about anywhere else in the world.
My friend Paul was riding the bus the other day and he overheard a conversation from one individual who was talking on a cell phone. Read more...
Tags: Census Bureau, Democrats, Earned Income Tax Credit, Heritage Foundation, John McCain, middle class, minimum wage, Obama, Politics, poverty, Robert Rector, welfare reform
Posted in Bad Decisions, Economy, Financial Crisis, Government, History, Politics, Presidential election, Promises, Theory, Unemployment, bad news, election, poverty, spending, taxes, welfare | No Comments »
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