Good bye and good riddance Obama

[martinbsmithjr]

This piece by Wes Pruden is a good summary of where Obama is at the moment:
ANALYSIS/OPINION

Is this how a presidency falls apart, not with a resounding thud but with a whine, a snivel and a whimper?

Repossession of homes proceeds at a record pace. The Federal Reserve projects only weaker growth and higher unemployment. The sheepish Europeans cool their schoolgirl crush on Barack Obama. Ditto the Muslims, who had expected Mr. Obama to lead wholesale conversions to Islam, with conversion of St. Patrick's and National cathedrals to mosques soon to follow. The Pentagon warns that it can't pay its bills. The war in Afghanistan, no longer on George W.'s watch, looks headed toward Kaput City. Everybody is as angry as ever about the health care reform, the wasteful and ineffective stimulus (and Son of Stimulus) and Al Gore's scheme to require that naughty old sun to change its spots. Bill Clinton is called back to the White House and told to arrive with a big bottle of his magic "feeling your pain" pills.

There's serious talk of a presidential primary challenge to Barack Obama by Hillary Clinton. The last time a Democratic challenger tried this, Teddy Kennedy took on Jimmy Carter. Mr. Carter famously predicted that "I'll whip his ass," and did, leaving Teddy as the only man who ever got his nether cheeks whipped by Jimmy Carter, who is rumored to still be alive. Together they gave us Ronald Reagan.

The Democratic panic augurs well for the November congressional elections, but we're talking Republicans here, so you never know. If anybody can turn a sure thing into a humiliating disaster, the Grand Old Party knows how to do it. Bold consistency has not been a Republican trait since Abraham Lincoln visited war on the land, reluctantly freeing the slaves as a convenient afterthought. Nevertheless, for the Democrats, unhappy days are here again.

House Democrats are particularly incensed, sounding as if they want to write off the president as an irredeemable ingrate. Nancy Pelosi, who hadn't been heard from in weeks, took on Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, for his perfectly obvious but wounding remark this week that the Republicans "could" take back the House in November unless the Democrats mount "a strong campaign." Retorted Rep. Bill Pascrell of New Jersey to The Washington Post: "What the hell do they think we've been doing the last 12 months? We're the ones who have been taking the tough votes."

It's just now dawning on congressional Democrats that the president is prescribing more of the poison that has the president and his party a bilious shade of sick-room green. They're finally figuring out that Mr. Obama is working on a plan to transform America into something that most Americans clearly don't want, hence his spectacular fall from voter grace. This "new America" designed to a community activist's specifications may not be exactly what a lot of Democratic congressmen want, either, but they're being asked to swallow the president's deadly potion, anyway.

Some of the remaining true believers among the Democrats look to the example of Ronald Reagan for comfort and consolation, noting, correctly, that his failure to clean up quickly Jimmy Carter's malaise led to congressional losses midway in his first term. But the comparison is far-fetched. As anyone who knew Ronald Reagan would tell you, Barack Obama is no Ronald Reagan. Mr. Obama, smooth and eloquent though he on occasion can be, reassuring us that "it's morning in America" would be no reassurance at all. Actor or not, the Gipper believed his lines.

Mr. Reagan, a son of the heartland, celebrating America as a nation forged in the melting pot, understood America in a way that Barack Obama, who boasts that he is descended from "generations of Muslims" and seems puzzled that this evokes no applause at home, never could. Mr. Obama has never been more eloquent, or sounded more like his heart was in his message, than in Cairo where he apologized for America's "sins" against the Muslims. Ronald Reagan never sounded more like his heart was in the message than in Europe singing a familiar hymn to America's virtues and its sacrifices on behalf of others. Mr. Obama was raised in the third world and through no particular fault of his own never absorbed the words and music of "morning in America."

Mr. Obama's dilemma is that he can't change the why and wherefore of his fall from voter grace. The coalition he put together two years ago would fall apart if he tried. The remnants of that coalition - the feminists, the naifs in the faculty lounges, the blacks - want him to be just as they imagined he was. His misfortune is that almost nobody else does

[ragman]

Yes, that seems to sum it up pretty well.    

[rykat]

Yes it does -one problem no leadership, no candidate in the Republican Party for 2012. Counting OTO out in 2012 would be a huge mistake regardless of what takes place this November. A 7% unemployment rate and the usual pack of lies could put him right back in. The Progressive movement is far from dead - beware!
Dont give me the line of shit about Palin, Gingrich, etc. there is NO leadership and if Romney does get out of the bushes there will be no candidate

[azbob]

We'll see after November.  Some one must start showing leadership and a commitment to conservative values!

[ragman]

By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

The Massachusetts Legislature has approved a new law intended to bypass the Electoral College system and ensure that the winner of the presidential election is determined by the national popular vote.http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/07/mass_legislatur.html?p1=News_links

This is seen by some as a means to get OTO reelected by focusing on the large coastal and Northern cities.  Even if it goes to the Supreme Court and is found unconstitutional it may be too late because he would already be reelected.       Ry is right ..."Counting OTO out in 2012 would be a huge mistake regardless of what takes place this November." 

[clover]

I don't quite understand how electing public officials by popular vote or electoral vote would make any difference whether Obama runs and gets elected in 2012.  He won the popular vote handily in 2008.   

[martinbsmithjr]

http://www.sec.state.ma.us/ele/elepdf/eleccoll.pdf

[clover]

"Whichever party slate wins the most popular votes in the State becomes
that State's Electors -- so that, in effect, whichever presidential ticket gets
the most popular votes in a State wins all the Electors of that State. [The
two exceptions to this are Maine and Nebraska where two Electors are
chosen by statewide popular vote and the remainder by the popular vote
within each Congressional district]."

back to the popular vote.

[martinbsmithjr]

Will Washington's Failures Lead To Second American Revolution?
By ERNEST S. CHRISTIAN AND GARY A ROBBINS
Posted 06:30 PM ET
The Internet is a large-scale version of the "Committees of Correspondence" that led to the first American Revolution — and with Washington's failings now so obvious and awful, it may lead to another.

People are asking, "Is the government doing us more harm than good? Should we change what it does and the way it does it?"

Pruning the power of government begins with the imperial presidency.

Too many overreaching laws give the president too much discretion to make too many open-ended rules controlling too many aspects of our lives. There's no end to the harm an out-of-control president can do.

Bill Clinton lowered the culture, moral tone and strength of the nation — and left America vulnerable to attack. When it came, George W. Bush stood up for America, albeit sometimes clumsily.

Barack Obama, however, has pulled off the ultimate switcheroo: He's diminishing America from within — so far, successfully.

He may soon bankrupt us and replace our big merit-based capitalist economy with a small government-directed one of his own design.

He is undermining our constitutional traditions: The rule of law and our Anglo-Saxon concepts of private property hang in the balance. Obama may be the most "consequential" president ever.

The Wall Street Journal's steadfast Dorothy Rabinowitz wrote that Barack Obama is "an alien in the White House."

His bullying and offenses against the economy and job creation are so outrageous that CEOs in the Business Roundtable finally mustered the courage to call him "anti-business." Veteran Democrat Sen. Max Baucus blurted out that Obama is engineering the biggest government-forced "redistribution of income" in history.

Fear and uncertainty stalk the land. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke says America's financial future is "unusually uncertain."

A Wall Street "fear gauge" based on predicted market volatility is flashing long-term panic. New data on the federal budget confirm that record-setting deficits in the $1.4 trillion range are now endemic.

Obama is building an imperium of public debt and crushing taxes, contrary to George Washington's wise farewell admonition: "cherish public credit ... use it as sparingly as possible ... avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt ... bear in mind, that towards the payment of debts there must be Revenue, that to have Revenue there must be taxes; that no taxes can be devised, which are not ... inconvenient and unpleasant ... ."

Opinion polls suggest that in the November mid-term elections, voters will replace the present Democratic majority in Congress with opposition Republicans — but that will not necessarily stop Obama.

A President Obama intent on achieving his transformative goals despite the disagreement of the American people has powerful weapons within reach. In one hand, he will have a veto pen to stop a new Republican Congress from repealing ObamaCare and the Dodd-Frank takeover of banks.

In the other, he will have a fistful of executive orders, regulations and Obama-made fiats that have the force of law.

Under ObamaCare, he can issue new rules and regulations so insidiously powerful in their effect that higher-priced, lower-quality and rationed health care will quickly become ingrained, leaving a permanent stain.

Under Dodd-Frank, he and his agents will control all credit and financial transactions, rewarding friends and punishing opponents, discriminating on the basis of race, gender and political affiliation. Credit and liquidity may be choked by bureaucracy and politics — and the economy will suffer.

He and the EPA may try to impose by "regulatory" fiats many parts of the cap-and-trade and other climate legislation that failed in the Congress.

And by executive orders and the in terrorem effect of an industrywide "boot on the neck" policy, he can continue to diminish energy production in the United States.

By the trick of letting current-law tax rates "expire," he can impose a $3.5 trillion 10-year tax increase that damages job-creating capital investment in an economy struggling to recover. And by failing to enforce the law and leaving America's borders open, he can continue to repopulate America with unfortunate illegals whose skill and education levels are low and whose political attitudes are often not congenial to American-style democracy.

A wounded rampaging president can do much damage — and, like Caesar, the evil he does will live long after he leaves office, whenever that may be.

The overgrown, un-pruned power of the presidency to reward, punish and intimidate may now be so overwhelming that his re-election in 2012 is already assured — Chicago-style.

• Christian, an attorney, was a deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury in the Ford administration.

• Robbins, an economist, served at the Treasury Department in the Reagan administration.

[clover]

I don't know why you don't post links to your opinion pieces, unless you don;t know how to do it

Just to help you out......here's the link

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/542171/201007301823/Will-Washingtons-Failures-Lead-To-Second-American-Revolution-.aspx

Seems we read the same publications

[bethieb]

Popular or Electoral does not matter if we don't start screaming bloody murder about the election fraud in the USA.  Independent and even Dem and Repub candidates get shut down if they don't bow and serve the corruption already in place for the past several decades of what has literally become Federal Imperialism.   For example, Ron Paul (R-TX) won the vote in several of the primary election polls, by all exit poll accounts, yet the official results were opposite.  He was not allowed to participate in many of the debates, and was summarily subjected to ridiculous ad hominem attacks by 'mainstream corporate owned media.'   That is only one example on a national election level, it happens all over in every election from city council seats all the way up the line. 

You have to admit that the Obama administration is virtually the Bush administration, although he has taken a more in your face approach to imperialistic overreach. 

[deadserious]

 For example, Ron Paul (R-TX) won the vote in several of the primary election polls, by all exit poll accounts, yet the official results were opposite. 

Here's a history of what went down here in Nevada.

http://jasonsouthwell.com/shame-on-the-nevada-gop
http://jasonsouthwell.com/nevada-gop-cant-reconvene-convention
http://jasonsouthwell.com/an-author-and-pundant-blogs-about-overhearing
http://jasonsouthwell.com/the-nevada-republican-convention-may-reconven
http://jasonsouthwell.com/outcome-of-the-nv-gop-state-convention

[clover]

Party politics is the problem in America.  They would willingly join together to prevent the formation of viable 3rd parties.  They've had it their way too long.  There is hope though.

The Top Two Act effectively does away with the traditional party primary.  Instead, all candidates for a given office, except that of President, would be listed on the same primary ballot and the top two vote-getters in each primary race, irrespective of party, would go on to compete in the general election.

http://caivn.org/article/2010/08/04/top-two-open-primary-faces-first-legal-challenge

[Laurie]

As long as its not the Obama type of "hope"   

[clover]

I-872 lawsuit
In the wake of Proposition 14's victory, its opponents are said to be considering a "long-shot" lawsuit against it. The legal strategy is partly based on a federal lawsuit that will be heard by a federal court in Seattle, Washington, in November 2010. That lawsuit is a challenge to Washington State's Top Two Primary Act, I-872. The basis of that challenge is an earlier judicial ruling that upheld I-872, at least temporarily, on the grounds that contrary to the assertions of opponents, voters do not think that the candidates whose names they see on November general election ballots in a state with a "top two" election system are Republicans and Democrats.[4]
In March 2008, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled, in a lawsuit seeking to nullify Washington's I-872 that the plaintiffs in the suit, the Republican and Democratic parties, had not proved that the law would violate their rights. The political parties said that voters would, in fact, assume that the names they saw on November ballots were nominees of the political parties. The nation's highest court said that this claim was "sheer speculation". However, two years later, in 2010, with empirical evidence now available to help the courts discover what voters do, in fact, believe about the partisan affiliations of the names they see on November general election ballots, the plaintiffs in the Washington State case have gone back to the federal courts with this new evidence which they claim proves their earlier assertion about what voters believe.[4]

http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/California_Proposition_14,_Top_Two_Primaries_Act_(June_2010)

The "hope" is to eliminate partisan politics, sponsored by the 2 parties that promote it to benefit themselves, and not the American people.

You can bet that when these two parties are on one side, the american people are on the other