Posts Tagged ‘Ron Paul’
Obama and His Critics
Sep21
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.
Let me explain. The President’s policies are not working. We are going broke spending money we don’t have on programs that don’t work. The unemployment rate is still terrible. Economic growth is terrible. Consumer confidence is terrible.
The Obama Administration is going out of its way to destroy jobs with silly and stupid regulatory actions. Obamacare scares the hell out of small business owners. The NRLB is actively trying to stop the construction of a new airplane manufacturing plant in South Carolina. The Obama Justice Department is closing down a Gibson Guitar manufacturing company because of a stupid EPA rule.
The liberal base is made up largely of three groups: African American voters; women voters (in particular single women); rich people.
What has Obama done for these three groups? Unemployment with black Americans is at record highs, a fact that Obama never talks about, ever. A new book from Ron Susskind details how the Obama Administration really feels about the ladies. And Obama spends every speech talking about how evil rich people are.
No wonder he is losing his base.
A new poll just came out that shows Sarah Palin is just 5 points behind Barack Obama if she chose to run for President.
Sarah Palin?
Other polls show that just about any of the announced Republicans would beat Obama right now, including Ron Paul.
The President probably thinks that everything is going to be all right, and maybe that is true. Maybe the economy will come storming back and maybe people will start listening to Mr. Obama, after largely tuning him out for the last year and a half.
Maybe. But I doubt it.
I still think there is a possibility that the President will face a serious challenge from a serious challenger in his own party. His incompetence will catch up to him sooner rather than later.
The Reagan Library Debate
Sep8
By John Feehery
Rick Perry walked into an ambush at the Reagan Library last night, as he took hits on his record, on his rhetoric, and on his philosophy. John Huntsman revived his campaign with a sparkling performance. Newt Gingrich took on the role of Spiro Agnew by once again attacking the media for asking questions about the differences between the candidates (which I thought was the purpose of the debate). Michelle Bachmann joined Herman Cain in the irrelevance caucus. Rick Santorum scored a good hit against Perry, which eliminated his chance to be named to the ticket by the Big Texan. Ron Paul went where no Republican has gone before on the libertarian scale.
And Mitt Romney won the debate.
The line of the night was Perry’s Ponzi scheme claim, an utterance that will live in infamy in 30-second commercials from every anti-Perry organization on the planet for the next six months.
The second best line came from Romney: “I don’t want to eliminate Social Security. I want to save it.”
If this primary choice comes to that one debating point, Perry is finished. Old people vote in Republican primaries and they like Social Security. Even most Tea Party Republicans want Social Security to stick around for a while. In fact, most Tea Partiers believe that Social Security is not a government program at all, but a savings account that they have already paid into (with interest).
It reminds me of the sign seen at one of the big rallies: “Keep the government’s hands off of my Medicare.”
Romney looked pretty strong. He didn’t come off as smart as Huntsman, who must be kicking himself right now for hiring Jon Weaver. Weaver is not a big fan of the modern Republican Party as it currently stands, and he lets his disdain of the party faithfully shine through all too often. That means he has positioned Huntsman to be the moderate at the Tea Party, a truth-teller, a lecturer, a “leader”. Well, you can’t be a leader without followers.
Weaver helped fire-up John McCain through many years of the Arizona Senator’s many attacks on the Republican establishment. That is all well and good, as long as you attack from the right, but attacking from the center makes it awfully hard to eventually lead the flock.
Romney took some effective shots at Perry, defended his Massachusetts record ably, and mostly allowed the moderators and the other candidates to do his dirty work for him. It was an effective strategy and it delivered Romney the victory.
Romney was the winner, Hunstman a close second. Everybody else lost. Perry got kneecapped. Bachmann started her fade. The rest didn’t make much of an impact, except for Newt, who showed once again how much he hates the media.
