April 30th Presser Could Be High Point Of Obama’s Second Term

May 1, 2013 2 Comments

Did you catch Obama’s press conference yesterday? It’s been a long time since we’ve been subjected to such a boring, seemingly pointless press conference from a President. Some have suggested Obama is channeling Clinton’s worst day in office back in 1995. Clinton declared in 1995 that the President is still relevant and Obama yesterday threatened to take his marbles and go home before declaring that his demise has been exaggerated. For Clinton his second term never really got any better. In looking at Obama’s potential during the next three and a half years, it just doesn’t look very good. His press conference yesterday didn’t help him one bit.

What was the point of yesterday’s surprise press conference? It didn’t seem to have a theme or purpose. Obama gave boilerplate answers to every question, focused on the same issues he’s been yapping about for months if not years. The most interesting point he made is that he admitted Obamacare was having trouble being implemented. Sure, he blames those rogue states (seven of which have Democrat Governors, including Illinois) which haven’t joined the exchanges. This is the first time that Obama has admitted problems with his signature legislation in such a big event. Surely that wasn’t the point of the press conference. No President is going to hold a presser to tell them his big claim to fame is failing.

So what was the point of yesterday’s press conference? It’s just not clear. Chalk it up as a big mistake from the gaudy magnificos running the PR end of the Obama administration. Those guys usually don’t make mistakes. Through four plus years and two campaigns Obama’s PR team has done an excellent job of thinking out events and having a purpose to everything Obama does. That Obama screws stuff up and shifts focus away from where the PR team would like to go doesn’t take away from his team’s stellar PR record. Yesterday was a big mistake for them. They sent a disinterested President out before the press with no real purpose in mind.

Obama is facing the cold reality that he is losing power by the day. This happens to every President who wins a second term. They come into the second term on a high from an electoral victory only to discover that their own party is trying to distance themselves and prepare for the next Presidential election. The papers are already full of speculation on who will run in the Democrat Primary, which begins in earnest in two years or less. The public becomes weary and tired of second term President’s, they’re not able to whip up public support like they used to. Especially when they harp on the same old subjects over and over again. The disengaged public wonders why after all these years the President didn’t fix the problems he’s complaining about. The details of why he didn’t don’t matter to the disengaged.

With the public tuning out the President and the President inspiring nothing at all, it should come as no surprise when Congress ignores the President. Not just Congressional Republicans, who have long bucked Obama. It’s the Democrats who will cause Obama the most problems. Red state Democrats are already distancing themselves, fearful of another 2010 style landslide next year. Obama has pinned all his hopes on winning back the House next year, which at this point is highly unlikely. What does he expect to do even if he did win? He’ll have a Democrat Congress but the party will be focused on picking his successor to the Dem nomination. In other words, a Democrat Congress will take its cues not from Obama but from the new nominee. Before the nominee is picked, you’re looking at a divided party that is unlikely to pay much attention to Obama. April 30th 2013 could be the high point of a second term downward cycle for Obama.

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Tax Day 2013: When Will We Say Enough Is Enough?

April 15, 2013 5 Comments

It’s tax day here in America. We can expect an onslaught of local news stories about last minute tax filers and the post offices that service them. All propaganda to take focus away from what’s really going on today. No tax in the history of this country has been worse for freedom than the income tax. This tax allows government to be involved in our personal lives like no other tax. In fact, there are cases out there that admit that all of our income belongs to the government, it’s only through the benevolence of Congress that we are allowed to keep any. A quick read of the 16th amendment suggests the court interpreted it correctly.

President Obama released his tax returns over the weekend. How did we get to the point where we expect the President to release his personal tax information? Obama’s taxes are really none of our business and he should feel no obligation to share them with the world. Since he did, we can note that despite qualifying for the highest income tax bracket he only paid 18% of his income in Federal taxes. Not surprisingly Obama isn’t cutting a check to the Treasury in order to pay his “fair” share. Like everyone else, Obama paid the most he was required under the law. Rather than lead the way for evil rich people, Obama only paid the bare minimum.

Obama’s 2014 budget is largely dead on arrival. It includes any number of tax increases, he’s back on his corporate jet tax kick again. Obamacare kicks in next year along with its individual mandate tax. Some of the taxes for Obamacare are already in place, including the medical device tax that most of the Senate tried to repeal. (interestingly the media never reported this) This year 80% of the country saw a tax increase, it hit the middle class more than anything else which is why we’re seeing a dip in consumer confidence and spending.

As a nation, Federal tax freedom day isn’t until April 20th. Meaning we as a nation are working for the Federal government from January until the middle of April. That’s before we start working for the state and local governments who all have their hands out and their police force waiting in the wings to take our money by force. At what point do we say enough is enough? Obama and the Democrats clearly don’t think we’ve hit enough yet, the President has any number of tax increases he would like to push through. Democrat governors are passing tax increases left and right. At what point do we the people say enough is enough, especially as we watch the utter incompetence with which government spends our money?

Tax day gives us the opportunity to ask these questions. Unfortunately so long as we have a vast underclass being fed off the government teet we’ll have a significant number of people who don’t think we’re being taxed enough. We have 45 million plus on food stamps, millions on housing subsidies, welfare and other government handouts. We have millions added to the social security disability roles, just in the last few years we’ve seen substantial increases. These people don’t pay taxes in any significant way, for them there is no enough. They’re net takers. FDR paid people with tax money to vote for him, Obama has done the same. It’s going to be very difficult for Republicans to win so long as the vast underclass is being paid by government while not paying anything into the system.

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Long Term Economic Weakness A Near Certainty

February 1, 2013 10 Comments

The economy is a mess as the numbers we’ve seen lately tell us. Earlier this week it was reported that fourth quarter GDP dropped 0.1%. Back in 2007 the AP declared a quarter of economic decline was a sign of a recession. These days the AP whines that economic “jitters” are competing with Obama’s progressive agenda. Yesterday the government reported an increase in new unemployment claims of 38,000. Reuters tried to soften the number claiming it’s within a range for “job growth.” It’s a pretty substantial gain over the previous week to believe we’re looking at any kind of serious job growth. January unemployment increased to 7.9% with 157,000 new jobs. As usual during the last four years, not enough jobs to cover population growth.

This is all the Republicans fault of course. The media, Democrats and Obama administration all blame the GOP for poor economic news. They’ve done away with blaming Bush, now it’s just generic “Republicans” that are to blame. Harry Reid bloviated that the GOP needs to stop “bad mouthing” the economic recovery. Citing statistics is a sign of “bad mouthing” in the world of Democrats. We can’t have any of that because it might undermine the ability of the left to force through gun control and amnesty for illegals in the next 24-48 hours.

Everything Obama wants to do has to be done immediately, or so he’s been arguing. The less debate the better for him. Bad economic news ruins his ability to force though his progressive agenda, perhaps as much as Republican opposition in the House. None of this economic news is particularly surprising, which is why Obama is pushing so hard right now. His second administration is likely to be dominated by the economy. Obama’s tax increases on 80% of Americans is having a profoundly negative effect on the economy. Obamacare kicks in soon with the cheapest acceptable plan costing $20,000 per family according to the IRS. Can’t afford that? You’ll be taxed around $2,000.

We have massive economic problems and we don’t have a President or a Congress capable of tackling them. We have a mounting national debt that is projected to hit $20 trillion by the end of Obama’s term. We continue to have $1 trillion annual budget deficits. Taxes are crippling the economy, making it more difficult for middle class Americans to be upwardly mobile. The President and his party were re-elected by an underclass of people dependant on government for just about everything in their lives. Obama pays lip service to getting the long term unemployed back on the payrolls, all while increasing the number of people on social security disability more than any other President in history. It pays to have a dependant underclass when you’re a Democrat.

Our nation is facing a bleak economic future. Britain is entering a third dip recession, Europe generally is slowing down. China is slowing down. The US is facing its slowest economic recovery since the Depression. So slow, it’s not even a recovery anymore. Obama has no real economic plan, he lives in a fanciful world where he plays dictator to business, Congress and the masses of Americans. It’s a dream world that doesn’t exist but one that results in Obama offering nothing to fix the problems we have. We have a Congress that can’t deal with the lunatic in the White House and can barely deal with each other. As a group, Congress doesn’t have any solutions either. We’re in for a rough four years. One wonders if the American dream of upward mobility really is dead.

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After 40 Years And 55 Million Deaths, The Abortion Holocaust Continues

January 23, 2013 4 Comments

Yesterday Roe v. Wade turned 40. What does one say about the murder of nearly 55 million innocent lives? Nearly 40% of the babies killed have been black. Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, would have been proud. Abortion is nothing more than an extension of the eugenics movement, embraced by progressives all over the world until faced with the horror of Hitler’s gas chambers. Eugenics is making a comeback on the left with “climate change” usually being the catalyst. Truth be told, eugenics never went away. In this country alone over 20 million black babies have been murdered while we turn the other away calling it a “choice.”

The left is completely disingenuous in their gun control demands, all based on “protecting” children. If the left wanted to protect children, they would oppose abortion. Instead they support the murder of over 1 million babies a year. The number of deaths at Sandy Hook Elementary School is little more than a days work for a Planned Parenthood “doctor.” The left is pushing a culture of death on this nation, it begins with abortion. But it doesn’t end there. Sarah Palin’s notorious attack on Obamacare’s death panels is the next wave in the progressive culture of death. We have, at least for the moment, lost the abortion fight. With 40 years of abortions killing 55 million babies, how can we pretend we’re close to victory?

The next battle is going to be over end of life healthcare and care for terminally or mentally ill children. In Japan one high ranking government official wants the elderly to just “hurry up and die.” In Britain thousands of old people are sentenced to death by NHS every year. The argument for killing off these old people is the same as the argument for killing the unborn. They’re a financial cost to society and taxpayers. They contribute nothing while costing a small fortune. The left collectively become fiscal hawks when it comes to killing off the young and the old.

This is what happens when we start living in the collective that Obama is pushing. When taxpayers foot the bill for endless welfare and healthcare, people who use too much become expendable. In fact, they have to be eliminated in order to keep the system going for those who still contribute enough and/or are capable of keeping those in power in office. The unborn won’t contribute or vote for at least 18 years. The old have already contributed but are no longer capable of it and won’t be around long enough to matter.

This is the culture of death pushed by progressive, collectivists like Obama. The country goes right along with it because we have left our historic Christian faith. We’ve lost touch with the values our ancestors just a couple generations ago were taught. We’ve replaced the Christian faith with progressive secular humanism. The end result is that our society exalts celebrity, government and faux “education” while it murders 55 million unborn children in 40 years. We pretend to be terribly sophisticated and civilized to the point that it’s galling. Meanwhile we elect politicians who are setting up the next wave of death via socialist healthcare. We’re a decade away from the government cutting off funding for old people, dying or otherwise.

We Christians cannot hope to change our culture via government or law. The only way we can change the culture is through the church. We must get ourselves into God fearing churches that focus on sound, historic theology. We must invite our friends and neighbors to join us at church on Sunday. We must pull our children out of the godless government schools, we can no longer pretend like our kids are a light in the darkness. They’re no such thing, they’re impressionable covenant children. Most importantly we must pray to our Lord that he would call our nation back to Him. No amount of human action will change things for the better, that can only happen through God.

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Consumer Confidence Dips As Middle Class Faces Tax Increase

December 25, 2012 2 Comments

Consumer confidence is at its lowest point since July. Holiday sales are nowhere near where they were forecasted. Much to my dismay it isn’t a sudden conviction concerning the unscriptural holy day of Christmas that is keeping people from the stores. It’s unemployment, which continues to top 8%. It’s the fact that most of the new jobs created have been part time work. It’s the fact that beginning in January the average American will have $200 less in their paycheck thanks to Obama’s refusal to negotiate with Republicans. Despite all the media hype about an improved economy, no one is buying it. The economy hasn’t improved at all, the rank and file are voting with their wallets.

The fiscal crisis is only part of the problem. Government spending is completely out of control, forecasted to increase 55% under Obama’s plan. A 55% increase in government spending cannot be offset by the paltry $80 billion a year tax increase on the rich Obama wants. It can only be paid for with more debt or massive tax increases on the middle class. Obama’s tax increases will hurt an already fragile economy but they’ll barely make a debt in our annual $1 trillion budget deficit. In fact, most of Obama’s proposals wouldn’t make a dent in the deficit. Remember the corporate jet tax Obama touted last year? That $100 million in revenue really would have made the difference this year!

The economy is facing the first wave of Obamacare taxes and mandates next year. This has also killed consumer confidence as companies threaten to make full time employees part time in order to avoid Obamacare. It has causes the thousands of middle class Americans who would be subjected to the Obamacare individual mandate tax to cut back substantially. No one is sure how Obamacare will play out, we seem to be learning more about the bill and its regulations as the days go on. What seems to be happening out in the private sector though is that this bill is having a negative impact on the economy all while not insuring a single extra person.

As we prepare to enter 2013 there are plenty of people predicting American decline. We’ve been in a decline economically for the better part of five years. There’s an argument to be made that American economic decline really begins on 9-11. For young professionals, of which I’m one, the decline has been going on since then as jobs have dried up and opportunities to move up in jobs have become few and far between. Most under 35 professionals have little hope of achieving what the previous generation achieved economically. College graduates in the last five years have been more likely to take up residence in their parents basement than in their own home or apartment. The end result of a decade of mediocre economies that have only gotten worse is weak consumer spending and decline for the country.

We’re getting to the point where there is legitimate concern as to whether America can ever be the economic power it once was. There is legitimate concern whether we could see economic growth like we saw for much of the 50′s and 80′s. We don’t seem to be on the brink of an economic revolution like the tech revolution in the 90′s (created by investments made in the 80′s thanks to Reagan’s tax cuts). Will we ever see 5% growth again? Why should we expect consumer confidence to increase when jobs are scarce? Why would anyone imagine a massive holiday spending increase when Americans are facing a massive tax increase in January? There is plenty to be concerned about heading into next year. Perhaps we should be more concerned with the long term. In a decade does anyone believe we’ll be in a better economic situation than we are now? It doesn’t matter who is elected in the future, the answer appears to be no.

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Obama Administration Manipulates Unemployment Numbers

December 8, 2012 15 Comments

At this point the unemployment rate shouldn’t even be believed anymore. According to the government it now stands at 7.7%. Of course to get to that low number the government had to drop 350,000 people from the labor market. This seems to be a monthly occurrence during the last year. It’s hard to believe that 350,000 people every month drop from the labor market. The government alleges 146,000 new jobs were created in November. That’s nice but it doesn’t even keep up with the 150,000 jobs needed due to population growth, to say nothing of replacing the millions of jobs lost during the recession. The fact is these are not very good economic numbers.

The private sector isn’t doing very well despite all the rah rah talk from the media. During the last 5 months 73% of the jobs created weren’t in the private sector, they were created by government. Around 850,000 new jobs have been created since June, 621,000 of them in government. Which means of course that actual new jobs created by the private sector don’t even hit 250,000 since June. Growth in the private sector is slow, things are not as great as the media is portraying them. The government is manipulating unemployment numbers all while creating jobs for itself and pretending they’re private sector jobs.

The economic outlook of the country is only going to get worse. Obamacare is already effecting how businesses are hiring. In some cases Obamacare is causing businesses to cut back on the number of hours their employees work so that the business isn’t hit with Obamacare taxes. In other cases smaller businesses aren’t hiring because they don’t want to be saddled with massive Obamacare taxes. Millions of middle class Americans are getting ready to be hit with the Obamacare individual mandate tax regardless of what happens with the fiscal cliff negotiations. All is not well in the private sector despite all the rosy rhetoric from the press.

The fiscal cliff negotiations aren’t helping matters at all. What we’re going to see in the next few weeks is a lot of cash shift in the marketplace with businesses handing out dividends early in anticipation of a tripling of the dividend tax in 2013. We’re going to see upper income Americans shift their investments around so they can avoid 2013 taxes. Tax exempt investments will suddenly go up in value because of the pending fiscal cliff. It appears the Republicans are going to cave on at least a portion of the tax cuts for the wealthy, removing at least $80 billion from the private sector. Likely it will remove a lot more because of investment shifts, which in the past tend to favor tax exempt government bonds.

The private sector is not in good shape. We have major private sector problems, most of which have been created by government. Great Britain increased taxes on the wealthy to 50% and a year later they’re going to cut them because it destroyed their economy. The same is going to happen here, increasing taxes isn’t going to help create jobs. When the government has to manipulate unemployment figures by removing 350,000 people every month from the labor market and when 73% of new jobs are government jobs that ought to be a clear indication that not all is well in the private sector. Obama is setting up another recession via government policy but we’ll pretend it isn’t happening as his government creates jobs for itself and manipulates workforce numbers.

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Obamacare’s Attack On Religious Freedom Headed To Supreme Court

November 29, 2012 4 Comments

The next court battle over Obamacare will focus on religious freedom. This week two cases before Federal courts have shown us that it’s likely the Supreme Court will ultimately decide this issue, perhaps in the next term. The Supreme Court ordered the Court of Appeals to hear a religious freedom claim as part of Liberty University’s Obamacare challenge. Meanwhile a Federal Appeals panel has issued a temporary injunction against the enforcement of the contraception mandate as it applies to a privately held Missouri business. The Obama administration’s attack on religious freedom via Obamacare is almost certainly headed to the Supreme Court.

The Obama administration’s contraception mandate, which requires employers to provide free contraception via health insurance policies, is a direct attack on religious freedom. The Constitution prohibits the Federal government from restricting the free exercise of religion. One of the basic beliefs held by any number of Christians, from Roman Catholics to generic evangelicals, is that contraception is sin. As such requiring a church or other religious organization to pay for contraception via a health policy restricts the free exercise of their religion. The same could be said of a business, especially a sole proprietorship or closely held corporation.

To listen to the Obama administration any opposition to the contraception mandate is a “war on women.” (all other opposition to Obama policies are simply “racist”) The real war here isn’t against women, it’s against religious freedom. No one is suggesting a ban on contraception. There is no law on the books or even proposed which would prevent a woman from walking into Wal-Mart and purchasing a $5 month’s supply of birth control pills. The issue here is who is going to pay for those pills, because there’s nothing stopping a woman from getting them in the first place. Griswold v Connecticut enshrined that right, for better or worse, in the 60′s.

What is at stake here is religious freedom. Can the Federal government order a church to spend their money on that which they find evil and sinful? Can the Federal government require by law a church to violate the basic tenants of their faith? The issue here isn’t women and their ability to obtain birth control, the issue here is religious freedom. If the answer to those two questions is yes, then we have no religious freedom in this country. After all, if the Federal government can force a church to pay with its own funds for things it finds evil, what can’t the Federal government order a church to do?

This issue extends well beyond the issue of contraception and don’t think the Obama administration doesn’t know it. Contraception is the easy case for them because it’s generally popular. But if religious freedom is lost here what is to stop the Federal government from ordering churches to marry homosexuals or ordain women in violation of their beliefs? Make no mistake, that’s the real goal here. Obama lost at the Supreme Court concerning the application of Federal employment discrimination law to clergy during his first administration. If he wins the contraception mandate, the left will have precedent to attack religious freedom on other matters.

This is a monumentally important issue because it decides the fate of religious freedom for the next generation. We shouldn’t allow ourselves to get caught up over the specific issue of contraception, it’s only a means to an end for the left. Contraception doesn’t matter, it’s a non-issue. What matters here is religious freedom and whether or not we will have in the future a church free from government intrusion. How the Supreme Court rules on this matter is anyone’s guess, I wouldn’t trust Justice Roberts at this point. We can only pray that the Court protects the religious freedom we the people granted ourselves in the Constitution.

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The Myth Of Barack Obama Exposed

October 8, 2012 4 Comments

We conservatives and Republicans must admit that its been amusing to watch the left freak out over Obama’s loss in last week’s debate. If Romney would have lost, the GOP wouldn’t have made any excuses for him. Perhaps some may have grumbled about the liberal moderator but most of us would have been pointing fingers. Yours truly would have said I told you so. The Ronulans would have waxed poetic about Ron Paul. You would have seen pundits put together lists of people who might run in 2016. A Romney loss would have resulted in a completely different set of partisan complaints.

The latest excuse from the left, since handkerchief-gate didn’t stick, is that Obama is bored. The left wonders now if the President really wants to be re-elected. Obama has in the past acknowledged that he’s lazy, which makes the left’s attacks on John Sununu last week all the more ridiculous. The issue isn’t so much that Obama is bored, it’s that Obama knows he isn’t very good at his job. He doesn’t enjoy his job. He wants to be a dictator, not the President. Back at my old blog I suggested several years ago that Obama has a very 2nd grade view of the Presidency. He believes that the President gets to just tell everyone want to do and they have to do it because he’s the President. Unable to get people to do what he wants them to do, Obama doesn’t enjoy his job much.

In all the excuses the left has come up with they ignore the fundamental problem of Obama’s re-election campaign. His record is dreadful. He promised to cut the deficit in half in his first term, instead he ballooned it up to $1.6 trillion the first two years before Republicans forced it down to $1.1 trillion the last two years. He said he would be a post-partisan President then during his first week in office he told Republicans to get lost during Stimulus negotiations because “I won.” He followed that up by pushing through Obamacare without a single Republican vote. He didn’t even try to court liberal Maine Senators Collins or Snowe. He said he would be post-racial then six months into his term he declared that a cop “acted stupidly” by arresting a black Harvard professor who was legitimately arrested. He’s followed that up by making incendiary remarks about the Trayvon Martin case. These issues aren’t forgotten by people, they’re as much part of Obama’s record as anything else.

The economy is at best struggling. The fake unemployment rate might be below 8% but the U-6 rate is remains at 14.7%. Orders for durable goods are down substantially as are inventories. Manufacturing is slowing down again. Meanwhile gas prices have doubled in Obama’s term and are going up. The Stimulus failed, Obamacare is set to raise taxes on the middle class. In fact, taxmageddon is less than two months away and Obama hasn’t offered any solutions nor has he tried to negotiate a solution. The middle east is on fire, it’s becoming clearer by the day the White House covered up the truth about the Benghazi attack. No wonder the University of Colorado election forecast shows a Romney victory.

The left makes excuses for Obama because to admit he’s a failure does two things to the left. First it requires admitting that left-wing policies don’t work. Second, and perhaps more importantly, it means shattering the myth of Barack Obama. Obama is supposed to be the smartest man in the world, the great savior of America. Instead he’s turned out to be the Wizard of Oz, nothing but a weak man hiding behind a curtain. Romney exposed Obama last Wednesday and the left can’t handle it because it forces them to acknowledge all of Obama’s weaknesses. The myth of Obama has been destroyed and the left knows that nearly 70 million Americans watched the bubble burst.

This of course doesn’t mean Obama will lose. Quite the opposite in fact. For everything terrible Obama is as President, he’s the opposite as a campaigner. His campaign is better run and better organized than his White House. He seems to enjoy giving stump speeches, perhaps because its an opportunity to tell people what to do while being fawned over. Even if he doesn’t really care about being President, his campaign is run well enough, and Romney’s is run poor enough, for him to easily win re-election. Still, the left is in panic mode because they fear the myth of Obama has been exposed. The more it is exposed the less likely he is to win re-election.

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1st Presidential Debate Review

October 4, 2012 2 Comments

Obama’s debate performance last night began with a cold, distant happy anniversary to his wife. It didn’t get much better from there. Romney actually had a funny line when wishing Obama a happy anniversary. His performance would only get better. Last night was 90% of the debate performance any Republican hoped for from Romney. He was knowledgable, he didn’t back down, he took control when he needed to and he came off as a likable enough person. Obama on the other hand was cold, distant, he looked at the floor a lot and did everything Democrats hoped he wouldn’t do. Folks, we have ourselves a Presidential race.

Jim Lehrer “moderated” last nights debate. His six or so questions all sounded like they came from second graders. Tell me Mr. Romney do you and Obama disagree on the economy? Having said that, the back and forth last night was great. I like this format a lot more than the joint interview “debates” we usually have. Lehrer interrupted Romney a lot more than he interrupted Obama but was roundly ignored by both candidates. If we’re going to be stuck having dinosaurs like Lehrer moderate debates they should at least ask a dumb question and then take a sleeping pill. Good job Jim.

Romney hammered Obama on his failures as President. He was great on the economy, he mentioned the drop in middle class income, the deficits, the taxes. Taxes actually became a big issue last night with Obama claiming the Romney plan would decrease taxes $5 trillion. Obama would be right if Romney didn’t also say he would cut or eliminate deductions. Romney is going for tax simplification, which is a term he unfortunately didn’t use. Nevertheless when one candidate says his plan is revenue neutral and the other says it’s a $5 trillion cut one of them is way off. In this case it was Obama because to throw the $5 trillion figure around he has to ignore Romney’s pledge to cut or eliminate some deductions or tax breaks.

Romney did a serviceable job attacking Obamacare. One thing he needs to mention is all the middle class taxes that will increase under Obamacare. He needed to say ‘Mr. President you said in 2008 you would raise middle class taxes yet you did under Obamacare’ and go from there. Romney seems hellbent on defending Romneycare, which he almost has to at this point. He has a legitimate argument in the 10th Amendment. Still, it’s an unenviable position to be in defending Romneycare. One point Romney did hit home is that 20 million middle income families will lose their health insurance thanks to Obamacare. That’s going to hit home with a lot of people. One issue that is likely to come back and be discussed more is the 15 member rationing panel for Obamacare. Obama spent quite a bit of time defending it, Romney attacked it soundly. The more people know about this rationing board the less they’re going to like about it. Romney wants people to make their own decisions, Obama wants government to make our decisions for us.

The one question that really showed us the difference between the candidates is when they were asked what the role of government is. Obama paid lip service to national defense and then launched into a bunch of big government ideas. Romney talked about government defending liberty and freedom. He quoted the Declaration of Independence and expounded upon government’s duty to protect life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It became clear throughout the debate but especially at this point, Romney trusts people a lot more than government, Obama trusts government.

Obama’s only score on Romney is that he accused him of not providing enough detail. That’s been one of Romney’s problems all along. Romney did a decent job of deflecting, claiming he’s offering broad principles and will allow for negotiation between Democrats and Republicans in Congress. Romney’s response is an obvious rebuff of Obama’s policy which has been to ram things through a Democrat Congress while ignoring Republicans. Romney must think that bipartisan rhetoric will be well received by independent voters. He may very well be right. Still, where are the details Mitt?

I happened to catch a clip of David Axlerod after the debate. He couldn’t bring himself to praise Obama’s performance instead saying he likes Obama’s policy positions. Between that and the gloomy looks on George Stephanopolous’ and Diane “they have pharmacy’s in Iowa” Sawyer’s faces it was clear Romney won last night. Will this translate to anything in the polls? My guess is that it might translate into a point or two. What it will absolutely do is energize the Republican base while at the same time demoralize the Democrats. What that means on November 6th remains to be seen.

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1st Presidential Debate Preview

October 3, 2012 17 Comments

Now that we’ve gotten over the silliness of Hannity, Carlson and Drudge, we can start focusing on tonight’s Presidential debate. This is a make or break night for Mitt Romney. He either lands punches on Obama and wins this debate or it’s all over. There could be no better topic for him tonight than domestic issues. The topic alone will allow Romney to attack Obamacare and Obama’s economic policy all while presenting his own alternative vision. These debates aren’t so much debates as they are joint press interviews. In that format, Romney had best come out swinging otherwise Obama and the media will tag team him and the race will be over.

If Romney can’t beat Obama on domestic issues then he shouldn’t be President and he shouldn’t have been the GOP nominee. No doubt the moderator will spend 20-30 minutes on Obama talking points like contraception. You know, issues that aren’t relevant but allow Obama to not talk about the economy for a few minutes. Which of course means every minute Romney discusses the economy will be even more important. He has to hammer home the pathetic 1.3% second quarter growth as unacceptable. He has to point out the 13% decline in orders of durable goods last month. He has to talk about unemployment and the lack of new jobs. He has to hammer Obama for his poor handling of the economy and not allow him to get away with blaming Bush.

Obamacare is sure to come up and we all know how unpopular Obamacare is with the voting public. Romney needs to hammer away at all of the absurd tax increases Obamacare will provide us with. He needs to explain what his alternative is. He needs to tell the public why it would be better for us to be able to buy health policies over state lines. He needs to attack Obama for raising taxes on 6 million middle class Americans, averaging over $1,000 thanks to the Obamacare tax. If Romney can’t make these points tonight, he’ll never be able to make them.

Prepare to be disappointed tonight. Even though debates tend to aid the challenger over the incumbent the fact is we haven’t seen a debate really matter since 1980. There have been “moments” since then but nothing that changed the race. Presumably neither candidate will pull an Admiral Stockdale and ask ‘who am I and what am I doing here.’ Absent some bizarre moment like Al Gore in 2000 getting to within a couple of feet of Bush during their last debate while looking menacing, we won’t even remember this debate by the weekend much less years later. If that’s the case Obama wins hands down. Think about it, do you remember anything from the 2004 debate or the 1996 debate? The less you remember about tonight this weekend, four years from now or sixteen years from now the more likely it is Obama wins.

At this point I don’t believe Romney has what it takes to beat Obama. He has all the issues lined up perfectly for him but he isn’t the sort of candidate who will lay them out with a sunny optimism. For whatever reason, when Romney talks about a sunny future for America it comes off as a show. He believes it but he just isn’t the sunny optimistic type and so it comes off as a put on. But we need a sunny, optimistic candidate tonight to defeat a President who has utterly failed at his job. Romney isn’t up to the task. His best bet tonight is a draw, which he’ll get if he can fend off Obama’s absurd Bain attacks. Unfortunately anything short of a win dooms his campaign.

UPDATE: Ed Morrissey has a post up about what Romney needs to do to win. He makes some sound arguments. In the end, we need to know what a Romney administration will look like. If we don’t know by the end of tonight we’ll never know because the public isn’t going to elect someone who can’t articulate what they’re going to do as President.

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