Posts Tagged ‘Politics’
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 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 26th, 2011 by John Feehery
Ping-Pong is a wonderful game, requiring skill, finesse, great hand-eye coordination, and at times, power.
Ping-Pong is a different game in the Congressional sense.
When one legislative body ping-pongs back a piece of legislation to another legislative body (like the House jamming the Senate) it can be both exhilarating and frustrating at the same time.
Last week, the House served up a continuing resolution plus some additional disaster assistance money to the Senate before leaving for its break for the Jewish holidays.
The Senate, which hoped to also break for the week, is not at all happy with what the House served up.
But to be successful in jamming back the House, the Senate has to act as one. The rules of the Senate make it awfully hard for that body to act quickly on anything if there is a disagreement between the political parties.
And on this package, there is intense disagreement.
The Republicans want to pay for disaster assistance. The Democrats don’t like how the Republicans paid for it, especially their efforts to isolate a particularly bad political scandal that is currently afflicting the Obama Administration. Read more...
Tags: America, Barack Obama, Congress, Conservatives, Democrats, House of Representatives, John Boehner, Obama Administration, Ping-Pong, Politics, President, Republican, Republicans, Senate, Senate Minority Leader McConnell, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Senate Majority Leader, White House
Posted in Economy, Financial Crisis, GOP, Government, Laws, Politics, spending | No Comments »
September 22nd, 2011 by John Feehery
It has been a long time since the girl from Ipanema captured the imaginations of the American people. But Brazil these days is more than just a bunch of pretty women and nice beaches. In fact, for American workers (especially those in the aerospace industry and helicopter manufacturing) Brazil has been a jobs life-line.
Among the top ten American trading partners, Brazil stands as the only country that the United States has had a trade surplus with for the last two years. Of the top ten products that have been sent to Latin American countries from the States, three of them have been component parts for either aircraft or helicopters.
To say that Brazil is on a roll would be an understatement. “Rio”, a new animated movie put out by Fox Pictures, is not only a hit; it also puts the iconic Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro in a flattering light. Rio beat my hometown of Chicago for the right to host the Olympics in 2016, a coup for all of South America, and Brazil will also play host to the World Cup in 2014. Read more...
Tags: America, Barack Obama, Boeing, Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, Economy, Embraer, European Debt Crisis, Forbes Magazine, Honeywell, Ipanema, Politics, President Obama, QGA Public Affairs, Rio de Janeiro, Tim Geithner, U.S. Air Force, United Nations, United States, World Cup
Posted in Economy, Financial Crisis, Foreign Relations, Government, Politics, Theory, national security, spending | 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 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 »
September 12th, 2011 by John Feehery
I turn the television on first thing every morning. Never again, will I wait until I hear what is happening in the world from somebody else. September 11th did that to me.
This anniversary is handy because I remember pretty clearly what my life was like ten years ago. I was working hard as a Congressional staffer. I was single, and childless. I didn’t really think too much about mortality, because when you are in your mid-thirties, you think you will live forever.
Plenty of people in their mid-thirties saw their lives snuffed out overnight a decade ago, and if that doesn’t inject some urgency into living each day as it could be your last, nothing will.
I am a decade older and maybe a decade wiser, but I am not sure if that sentiment is widely held about me or about the country. As a country, I’m not sure if America has really learned anything. We can’t figure out how to get our economy started. We can’t figure how to feed the hungry and get the obese to eat a little less. We still aren’t sure if we will accept a little more risk in our life in exchange for more freedom. And the rest of the world baffles us if we even think twice about it, which most of us rarely do. Read more...
Tags: 9/11, America, Economy, Government, Politics, taxes
Posted in Bad Decisions, Economy, Financial Crisis, Government, History, Politics, Theory, bad news | No Comments »
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