The American Spectator : Thank You, Barack Obama

Adam Smith| 9.14.09 @ 1:01PM

Uh, Ben. The Repblicrats have done nothing but enable the Demicans for the last twenty years.

We need a new party that represents taxpaying citizens, not special interests. You thoughts on this disgusting race baiting, class warfare machine of deception that is running the White House & ruling via decree through the shadow Czar government....are spot on.

You comment about Joe Wilson's "outburst" is way out of line & you show yourself to be as big a tool as the Bush's, John McAmnesty, Mike Hucksterbee, Bob Dole & the rest of the jokes your party has given us.

It's time to stand up for what is right in this country. You Republicans need to grow a set or get out of the way with your milquetoast accomadation. Act like an opposition party or die the obsolete death you deserve.

Your gloating given the pukey Republican record is out of line.

Rich| 2.3.10 @ 8:36PM

Thanks Ben best thank you note I have ever read keep up your fine writing

C. Cameron| 2.4.10 @ 12:29AM

Uh, Mr. Smith; satire is wasted on you. Mr. Stein gives plenty of stabs at the "Republicrats", if you would only multitask and pay attention while sharpening your pencil.

Carpenter| 9.14.09 @ 1:08PM

Thank you too, Mr Stein. You have expressed our thoughts very eloquently.

mike reichek| 9.14.09 @ 1:16PM

www.goooh.com ... the possible answer to the fact that neither the Democrates or Republicans are properly serving the hard working electorate of the great nation.

Jim O'Brien| 9.14.09 @ 1:40PM

Joe Wilson's "outburst" was not a "disgrace". If other Republicans had any courage they would echo Wilson by identifying Obama as a Socialist Liar. They might even collect some donations in the process. Republicans (such as George W.) have tried so hard to please the left, that they have lost the right. The Republican Party doesn't even defend the Constitution. Democrats are socialists, and Republicans are fake capitalists. Tweedle dum, and tweedle dee.

Gary G Husted| 9.27.09 @ 8:41AM

That's a great way to put it. Republicans trying so hard to please the left they lost the right. If Republicans had nominated a conservative rather than McCain. We would not have the President we now endure. Even the buffoon McCain came close.
I think we have to take the Republicans back to conservatism. I,m afraid a third party would fragment the conservatives. Guaranteeing the liberals control.

Jim Richels| 3.17.10 @ 3:39PM

Dear Jim O'Brien.

Joe Wilson's outburst was very much a disgrace. No where in recent politics have I seen a more disrespectful display to a US President by members of Congress. Whatever your beliefs are, whether you agree or disagree with him, he is still our President.

If the president of the company you work for said something in a meeting you didn't disagree with, would you call him a name in front of your co-workers?

If you were in the armed forces, and your commander gave an order you thought was wrong, would you shout "You Lie!" in front of your entire squad?

No. No you wouldn't.

Ask yourself why you wouldn't.

And now ask yourself why does Joe Wilson's outburst translates to "courage" for you.

It amazes me to this day how many conservatives have flat out no respect for The President Of The United States. They say it's not racial, but so much hypocrisy from older white men tell a different story. Actions speak louder than words.

Oldefarte| 9.14.09 @ 1:46PM

Thank you, Ben Stein, for telling THE TRUTH, THE WHOLE TRUTH, AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

iwinbensteinsmoney| 4.11.10 @ 1:02PM

WRITING IN ALL CAPS DOESN'T MAKE WHAT YOU SAY ANY LESS DUMBER!!!!!

SEE WHAT I MEAN???!!!!

crazed weasel victim| 9.14.09 @ 1:47PM

Thank you Ben Stein. If I didn't know any better, I would think that you are really trying to get Obama to mend his ways. Nice try - he is hopelessly hard-wired.

Also, in addressing Obama, you cited "...fibs so immense that you have embarrased yourself..." Come on, at long last, have you ever seen any evidence that He is capable of embarassment.

Lastly - what about Obama's growly statements to Honduras after they performed a constitutionally correct procedure to evict their idiot in chief? This, in contrast to his groveling to those that would do us harm.

Nervertheless - thank you for those purifying rays of truth which you did provide.

iwinbensteinsmoney| 4.11.10 @ 1:08PM

You:

"Also, in addressing Obama, you cited "...fibs so immense that you have embarrased yourself..." Come on, at long last, have you ever seen any evidence that He is capable of embarassment. "

I am sad for every English teacher out there and for anyone that had to read this. Leave no semi-literate, infantile troll behind!

Adam Smith| 9.14.09 @ 1:54PM

Jim, you are right on the mark.

All the Republicans have done is act as the party of appeasement & "let's just get along so they don't call us racists" since I was in high school many moons ago.

The Republicans are a bunch of ninny's and will continue to avoid the real issues in the hope of "can't we all just get along".

The real disgrace is guys like Stein who use their platform in such a pathetic, smug (god knows why) & gloating manner.

Get rid of the abortion activists, & the kooks like Huckabee & the slimy self serving Newt G. & maybe the party has a chance. As it is now, the Republican party does not even know what true conservatism is.

Bush & Bush were prime examples of why I ditched these spineless blobs long ago.

Independent & staying that way along with millions of other fed up real conservatives.

Stein can wax poetic all he wants about this "opportunity", but the sad fact is the Republicans WILL find a way to blow it, yet again...

Eugenia Stern| 2.3.10 @ 9:10PM

Why do you need to offend people that disagree with your point of view? Why can't you just discuss the issue instead of calling others some awful names. This does not bring anything new to the table other then it shows your anger and lack of intelligence. Discuss the issue and provide evidence to your point of view. Then you might elicit a legitimate response. Offending others is not difficult. Try for a change a different approach.

Kind Regards,
Eugenia

iwinbensteinsmoney| 4.11.10 @ 1:10PM

Ouch. You were just owned by someone named Eugenia. Eugenia Stern.

S.L. Toddard| 9.14.09 @ 1:54PM

For Nick:

"This is the paradox of the tea-party movement and other right-wing protests fueled by genuine citizen anger and fear. It is true that the federal government embraces redistributive policies and that middle-class income is seized in order that "someone else benefits." But so obviously, that "someone else" who is benefiting is not the poor and lower classes -- who continue to get poorer as the numbers living below the poverty line expand and the rich-poor gap grows in the U.S. to unprecedented proportions. The "someone else" that is benefiting from Washington policies are -- as usual -- the super-rich, the tiny number of huge corporations which literally own and control the Government. The premise of these citizen protests is not wrong: Washington politicians are in thrall to special interests and are, in essence, corruptly stealing the country's economic security in order to provide increasing benefits to a small and undeserving minority. But the "minority" here isn't what Fox News means by that term, but is the tiny sliver of corporate power which literally writes our laws and, in every case, ends up benefiting.

It wasn't the poor or illegal immigrants who were the beneficiaries of the Wall St. bailout; it was the investment banks which, not even a year later, are wallowing in record profits and bonuses thanks to massive taxpayer-funded welfare. The endlessly expanding (and secret) balance sheet of the Federal Reserve isn't going to fund midnight basketball programs or health care for Mexican immigrants but is enabling extreme profiteering by the very people who, just a year ago, almost brought the global economic system to full-scale collapse. Our endless wars and always-expanding Surveillance State -- fueled by constant fear-mongering campaigns against the Latest Scary Enemy -- keep the National Security corporations drowning in profits, paid for by middle-class taxes. And even health-care reform -- which supposedly began with anger over extreme insurance company profiteering at the expense of people's health -- will be an enormous boon to that same industry, as tens of millions of people are forced by the Government to become their customers with the central mechanism to control costs (the public option) blocked by that same industry. That's why those industries are enthusiastically in favor of reform: because, as always, they will benefit massively from it.

This is what is so strange and remarkable about these tea-party protests. The people who win when government acts aren't the poor, minorities or illegal immigrants -- the prime targets of these protesters' resentment. Their plight only worsens by the day. In Washington, members of those groups are even more powerless than "middle-income Americans." That's so obvious. The people who win whenever the federal government expands its power are the ones who, through their massive resources and lobbyists armies, control what the government does: the richest and most powerful corporations. And yet -- in an extreme paradox -- those are the people who are venerated by the Right: they simultaneously spew rage at what's happening in Washington while revering and defending the interests of the oligarchs who are most responsible."

http://www.salon.com/opinion/g.....index.html

Marc Jeric| 9.14.09 @ 2:02PM

Well, Bush was a wimp who tried to please our commies and sozies and eco-nazis. After Clinton cut the defense budget in half and so produced those vaunted budget surpluses, Bush was faced with the jihadists and two necessary wars. Also, he had the majority Democrat congress for his last two years - which was the direct cause of this ongoing recession (it started 10 months after Pelosi and Reid took control).

JP| 9.14.09 @ 2:18PM

This is not the same GOP of 1994, or for that matter 1979. I would say half of the GOP Senate Caucus would love to sign a compromise for both ObamaCare and Cap and Trade. Another third are torn between getting along and getting re-elected. The GOP is dead, fractured, and leaderless. Only inertia keeps it going.

Conservatives, Independents, and Libertarians could form another party, but that would mean President Obama would get a 2nd term -maybe. One never knows; President Obama is only through 7 months and already he has alienated most of the independents, most of the conservative Democrats, and there are stories out there that he is beginning to lose the under 30 voter -a group he carried by almost 40 points last year.

Doorgunner| 9.14.09 @ 2:23PM

Thanks for the most self-contradictory Greenwald column ever, Tarded!

"But the "minority" here isn't what Fox News means by that term, but is the tiny sliver of corporate power which literally writes our laws and, in every case, ends up benefiting. "

Especially with a Democratic strangle-hold on the Federal Government.

Oh, and that noted constitutional scholar can't omit the obligatory "racist" smear, can he?

"The people who win when government acts aren't the poor, minorities or illegal immigrants -- the prime targets of these protesters' resentment."

Tim| 9.14.09 @ 2:38PM

If the Republican Party of 2008 rises from its grave I may go Democrat...

Adam Smith| 9.14.09 @ 2:50PM

Ben Stein:
"A rescue party led by the Republicans will, sooner or later, look mighty handy to the voters. "

This just cracks me up. The Republican party gave us Bush 1, then decided they wanted a third & fourth term for Bubba Clinton, so they ran an inept moron from one of America's other political dynasties, in Bush jr, then some addled old fool who sticks a LaRaza officer & Mexican national in his inner campaign circle & has amnesty in his running platform, who is so clueless about finance & economics it's scary...

And to top it off the fellow "conservatives" attempt to make a joke out of Ron Paul, maybe the only guy who cares & has the brains to help fix things? Lame.

When Guiliani was asked who he thought won the debates (after he dropped out), he immediately came back with "Ron Paul, no question". This from the same guy who tried to marginalize him on the stage.

I usually enjoy Stein's writing, but he needs to get a grip on reality. What is really needed is change in the corrupt 2 party electoral college system. Without that, we will continue to have the same conflicts we do now, with the real public good & interest coming in a distant second place on the real list of priorities for both parties.

The Republicans are just the lesser of two evils at this point to many Americans.

C. Cameron| 2.4.10 @ 1:26AM

Mr. Smith, everything you point out that is wrong with the Republicans vs. Conservatives
is true, but we are stuck with the 2-party system. Yes, ideally it should be replaced, but that doesn't reflect reality. A socialist wing of the Democrat party hijacked the *whole* party riding on the coat-tails of disgust with Bush II. They were and are organized and better focused than the conservatives of the Republican party
ty, and they succeeded in getting their empty suit elected. For better or worse we're stuck with the 2-party system. Yes, it sucks, but conservatives had better grow up and work to take back the party and get on with defeating these socialists or else they may succeed in changing the country into something none of us will want to live in. Quit bitching work to fix what is broken in the Republican party. Obama's Czars are serious about how they want to change America and Conservatives need to quit the in-fighting work within the framework we have. If you don't like the way things are going, work to change it. We don't have the luxury of waiting for someone else to do it. Why do you think they're trying to change so many different things so fast? They, the left-wing of the Dem party, is trying to get their agenda passed before the rest of the country wakes up and realizes what has happened. No 3rd party has ever been successful, right or wrong, and we had best see that and accept it and move on. The socialists have realized it and they're way ahead of us right now.

jane| 9.14.09 @ 2:57PM

Your party has nothing to stand on. GWB spent billions and billions of dollars on a war that should never have been started, is responsible for the deaths of thousands of our own soldiers and soldiers from other countries and hundreds of thousand nameless Afghanis and Iraqi civilians.

Your party is so full of hatred that at these "tea party" rallies people hold up signs comparing our new president to Hitler, telling him to go back to Africa and rallying against taxes even though, you know, they say they love America. So we shouldn't have schools, firefighters, police officers or sidewalks or all sorts of good things that taxes help pay for?

Your party is the joke. You fucked up. Big time. Everyone knows what a joke you are except that extreme side that is left. Everyone with an ounce of sense in their head is laughing AT you. Your party is the one that crumbled. Your racist, ignorant and desperate to get back into power even though the only way that will happen is if you actually step up and find your sanity once again and stop being so completely insane and actually open up your minds to new ideas.

The only reason GWB gained so much momentum was because of the 911 attacks that he was pretty much responsible for as he completely ignored intelligence that TERRORISTS MIGHT USE PLANES and people rallied up with him because he used, as you Republicans always do, fear mongering and acting as if we wouldn't be safe unless they were in office even though it was under THEIR WATCH that we were attacked because he simply told Clinton's staff "You covered your asses" and ignored the memos.

GWB screwed this country royally, and Barack Obama is trying to salvage it. I don't agree with all his moves. I wish he'd be a little more insane himself and put people like yourselves in your place and not give a damn about what you think, but sadly, he does. Because unlike his predecessor - he's an intelligent man. A good man. And he's going to be an amazing president.

Republican since Nixon, you say? Figures you'd rally behind that insane racist.

Rich| 9.21.09 @ 12:57PM

Obama is "going to be an amazing president"!!!
Sorry to burst your bubble JANE but I think the chances of that are about ZERO.
It is true Bush was not exactly great but at least he was somewhat genuine. Obama reminds me more and more of a really slimy used car salesman whenever I hear him speak.
I think some of what Adam Smith wites on here is correct. The only person on either side who seems genuine and has an actual plan is Ron Paul. I dont agree w/ everything he says but he has actual ideas and cares about the country. He is not just another same old politician wrapped in a different coating.
If your country (I am Canadian) would ever allow a REAL third party to challenge I think he could actually make a difference. Its unfortunate it looks highly doubtful that a third party will ever take shape.
You are right though, the GOP is simply the lesser of two evils.

iwinbensteinsmoney| 4.11.10 @ 12:45PM

So you say that Bush was not exactly great. Sounds like a euphemism for interminably stupid. If anyone was a slick car salesman, it was GW trying to sell us that war with unsubstantiated reports of nuclear weapons and ignoring the economy and public access to healthcare.

Bush ran on a down-home approach to politics and aw-shucks-what me worry? populism. His advisors like Karl Rove knew how to spin his simplistic, uninformed manner into a way of appealing to so much of the population that are now teabaggers.

He was hardly genuine much less "somewhat genuine". A genuine jerk is still a jerk. Try consoling a friend who lost a brother in a meaningless war and then you won't use the word genuine so, dare I say, liberally.

bigtom| 9.23.09 @ 6:11PM

Did someone forget to take their "meds"?

iwinbensteinsmoney| 4.11.10 @ 12:48PM

i guess "you" did. please stop using quotations unnecessarily. i bet you were air quoting with your hands when you were repeating this witty bon-mot to someone at a ribshack.

Marilyn| 9.25.09 @ 9:51PM

I might have listened to you if you had left out the obscene language.

iwinbensteinsmoney| 4.11.10 @ 1:19PM

You should try it. Maybe someone will actually listen to you. Of course then they'll go back to whatever it is they're doing.

Brad | 9.14.09 @ 3:05PM

Mr Stein,

I'm in awe that you have stooped to the low treading bottom suckers of the left. You of all people should be able to see, Mr Stein. It's not about the party anymore. Your article does nothing but gloat on your parties mistakes and sing "nana nana boo boo" to the left that they got in more trouble than you. It's sickening to see this type of behavior. It's not left or right, Dem or rep anymore. It's about truth and lies, right and wrong. Weed the corruption from your own party before you point fingers at the other. It's a sad day in America when this type of behavior is on the forefront. Stop the corruption and stop it now! I'm only pointing fingers at the corrupt ones no matter their color, race or party.. and you should be doing the same.

S.L. Toddard| 9.14.09 @ 3:13PM

The people who are leading them -- Rush Limbaugh, the Murdoch-owned Fox News, Glenn Beck, business-dominated organizations of the type led by Dick Armey -- are cultural warriors above everything else. They're all in a far different socioeconomic position than the "middle-income Americans" whose anger they're ostensibly representing. Their principal preoccupation is their cultural contempt for various groups (illegal immigrants, the "undeserving" poor, liberals) and their desire to preserve the status quo whereby the prime beneficiaries of government policies remain themselves: the super rich and the interests that control Washington. It's certainly true that many of these protesters are driven by the standard right-wing cultural issues which have long shaped that movement -- social issues, religious fears, cultural and racial divisions, and hatred for "liberals" as Communist-Muslim-Terrorist-lovers. For many, all of that is intensified by the humiliation of being completely thrown out of power, at the hands of the first black President. But much of it is fueled by the pillaging of the corporations and Wall St. interests which own their government.

That's what accounts for the gaping paradox of these protests movements: genuine anger (over the core corruption of Washington and the eroding economic security for virtually everyone other than a tiny minority) is being bizarrely directed at those who never benefit (the poorest and most downtrodden), while those who are most responsible (the wealthiest and largest corporations) are depicted as the victims who need defending (they want to seize Wall St. bonuses and soak the rich!!). Several months ago, Matt Taibbi perfectly described the bizarre contradiction driving these protests:

"After all, the reason the winger crowd can’t find a way to be coherently angry right now is because this country has no healthy avenues for genuine populist outrage. It never has. The setup always goes the other way: when the excesses of business interests and their political proteges in Washington leave the regular guy broke and screwed, the response is always for the lower and middle classes to split down the middle and find reasons to get pissed off not at their greedy bosses but at each other. That’s why even people like [Glenn] Beck’s audience, who I’d wager are mostly lower-income people, can’t imagine themselves protesting against the Wall Street barons who in actuality are the ones who fucked them over. . . .

Actual rich people can’t ever be the target. It’s a classic peasant mentality: going into fits of groveling and bowing whenever the master’s carriage rides by, then fuming against the Turks in Crimea or the Jews in the Pale or whoever after spending fifteen hard hours in the fields. You know you’re a peasant when you worship the very people who are right now, this minute, conning you and taking your shit. Whatever the master does, you’re on board. When you get frisky, he sticks a big cross in the middle of your village, and you spend the rest of your life praying to it with big googly eyes. Or he puts out newspapers full of innuendo about this or that faraway group and you immediately salute and rush off to join the hate squad. A good peasant is loyal, simpleminded, and full of misdirected anger. And that’s what we’ve got now, a lot of misdirected anger searching around for a non-target to mis-punish . . . can’t be mad at AIG, can’t be mad at Citi or Goldman Sachs. The real villains have to be the anti-AIG protesters! After all, those people earned those bonuses! If ever there was a textbook case of peasant thinking, it’s struggling middle-class Americans burned up in defense of taxpayer-funded bonuses to millionaires. It’s really weird stuff."

http://www.salon.com/opinion/g.....index.html

Bigtom| 9.23.09 @ 6:16PM

Judging from you and "Jane" there must be a world wide shortage of lithium that I haven't heard about. Try some "Haldol".

Alan Brooks| 9.14.09 @ 3:27PM

illegal immigrants?

but, just for starters, who owns the Mexican government? with you people it's always how bad America's oligarch's are, not other nations'

matt | 9.14.09 @ 3:34PM

unfortunately, all too true, and it will get worse. Pelosi's cutoff of support for Afghanistan, North Korea, the economy will all come back to haunt this president.

Adam Smith| 9.14.09 @ 3:35PM

Brad, just took a look at your blog.

You comment on Ben's smug fest (his accurate points are good on Obama) tone just bodes more disaster for the Republican party.

This is about right & wrong, not left & right.

Nero is fiddling & so far all the Republicans have done is help carry tinder.

Ron| 9.14.09 @ 3:36PM

Mr. Stein,
Love the article but would disagree only with Joe Wilson. While his timing of remarks was intemperate, and he rightly apologized for it, his commentary was absolutely correct. I wish others in the republican party would grow a set and actually stand up against the current administration. The current leadership is feckless wannabees that need to understand that the Tea Party movement is where they should be, not scavenging the crumbs and nibbling at the margins from the democrats. Stand for something GOP, not just "we disagree"

Dan | 9.14.09 @ 3:36PM

Jane--Wow, how do you maintain any level of consciencousness with only a tenth of a brain? Oh, and nice language by the way. You must be one attractive woman. The kind of mouth every guy wants to be around.
Clinton let the terrorist plan, over three years in the making, to be put into place. And had Bush "heeded the warning", what to do? Put in place all of the security measures that would have had people like you (term used loosely) complaining of the government taking our liberties! Yes, every Dumocrat voted for the war, and then Hillary claims "Bush fooled her". Wow, and she's Secretary of State. Scarry. Oh, and does this sound familiar? "Crisis, Catastrophe, Crisis, since the Great Depression, no turning back, crisis, catastrophe, etc., etc. But, of course, only republicans use fear to push their agenda.
Your savior is a fake. He is a talking suit, with no ability to lead. If he did, the Democrat House, and Senate, would have already passed a health care bill. As usual, it's all about politics and power. He was raised so high by media on it's knees, that he has a long way to fall. And he will. Unfortunately, the country will be dragged down with him.

Doorgunner| 9.14.09 @ 3:43PM

In the immortal words of Danny Ackroyd:

Jane, you ignorant slut.

And you, Toadard, when, oh when are you (and those tools Greenwald and never-had-a-real-job Taibbi) going to quit trying to sell that tired-ass Thomas "What's The Matter With Kansas" schtick. It's weak, man. I don't resent the rich; that's the self-interest, self-obesession, of Lefty turtle-neck twats like you.

And since you insist on parroting another's ideas, perhaps you'd care to defend one: please illustrate how these tea-party-types are diresting their "anger... is being bizarrely directed at those who never benefit (the poorest and most downtrodden)"? And if you give me that 'conservatives not wanting to charitably give to the need'y crap, I'm going to easily whip out studies that show you're not only wrong, but on the side of the stingy.

No One Important| 9.14.09 @ 3:46PM

Well said Mr. Stein. Well said.

Kudos and applause.

S.L. Toddard| 9.14.09 @ 3:54PM

"These protests, at their leadership level, are little more than Fox-News-generated events. That is notable in itself: it's extremely unusual (if not unprecedented) for a political movement in the U.S. to be led and galvanized by a "news" media outlet; that's usually something that happens elsewhere ("opposition television or radio stations" sponsoring street protests in Italy, Venezuela, Rwanda). Fox News and Rush Limbaugh are part of the class that has long controlled and benefited from Washington, and thus promote a view of the world based in the Douthat/Luntz "having someone else benefit": the Democrats are socialists coming to steal your money and give it to the poor, the minorities and the immigrants. As a result, citizen rage is directed towards everyone except those who are actually responsible for their plight.

If Fox News, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh were truly opposed to expanded government power, where were they when George Bush and Dick Cheney were expanding federal power in virtually every realm, driving up the national debt to unprecedented proportions, destroying middle-class economic security in order to benefit the wealthiest, and generally ensuring government intrusion into every aspect of people's lives? They were supporting it and cheering it on. That's what gives the lie to their pretense of "small-government" rhetoric. These citizen protests have a core of truth and validity to them -- it would be bizarre if citizens weren't enraged by what is taking place -- but that is all being misdirected and exploited for ends that have nothing to do with the interests (or even their claimed beliefs) of the protesters themselves."

http://www.salon.com/opinion/g.....index.html

Susan Mays| 10.28.09 @ 9:43PM

I beg to differ on this point. George W. Bush got plenty of critisism from Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Fox News commentators. Thank you.

S.L. Toddard| 9.14.09 @ 3:58PM

"but, just for starters, who owns the Mexican government? with you people it's always how bad America's oligarch's are, not other nations"

That's because we conservatives care about our OWN country, and aren't arrogant enough to assume to dictate to other countries how to run their own. The GOP ran Congress for a decade and the White House for eight years, yet they doggedly kept the border wide open for illegals, drug shipments and terrorists, just like the good Liberals they are.

Pingback| 9.14.09 @ 4:01PM

Twitter Trackbacks for The American Spectator : Thank You, Barack Obama [spectator.o links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

…Show more Shortened Links Linking to the spectator.org page http://bit.ly/3VGLnP info http://bit.ly/mkH0X info http://bit.ly/TgBAg info http://bit.ly/zxwkK info 6 tweets Tweet The American Spectator : Thank You, Barack Obama spectator.org/archives/2009/09/14/thank-you-barack-obama – view page – cached As a 64-year-old, lifelong fiscal conservative and Republican since Nixon, may I humbly thank…

S.L. Toddard| 9.14.09 @ 4:03PM

"While his timing of remarks was intemperate, and he rightly apologized for it, his commentary was absolutely correct"

I have come around to this opinion as well. It's time to stop treating our presidents like kings. Enough of this ridiculous business of referring to the President as "our" Commander In Chief, or fearing to criticize him in "War Time". If you are a civilian, he is not your Commander - he is your *servant*. And War Time in America, now that we have accepted the premise that we are an expansionist Empire, is *all the time*. Every president since Carter has been a "War President". That's the whole problem - war being the health of the State, and the State being the only true threat to Liberty on these shores.

S.L. Toddard| 9.14.09 @ 4:04PM

"And since you insist on parroting another's ideas, perhaps you'd care to defend one"

Not until you come up with a funny play on "Doorgunner" for me to use, a la "Toadard". "More-bums-sir"? That's too clumsy. Help me out over here.

Harvard Delenda Est| 9.14.09 @ 4:06PM

"maybe the "death panel" myth wasn't really a myth after all."

You wacky Republicans just don't get it. Obama care isn't about "death panels", it's really about "life panels", wherein faceless and unaccountable bureaucrats will decide not who shall die, but rather, who shall live. Obviously you people are too stoopid to comprehend this simple distinction. Better for you peasants to leave these things to the "experts". There are reasons you didn't get into Harvard.

Cicero| 9.14.09 @ 4:10PM

Ditto on everything except Joe Wilson's outburst being a disgrace. I'm fed up with the Right having to be on its best behavior at all times to curry the approval of the "elites" and the mainstream media, as if that approval will ever come. In the meantime, the shabbiest, vilest, most mendacious behavior by Lefties is conveniently overlooked by the erstwhile Guardians of Civility, and certainly would never be seen by them to reflect on the Dems as a whole.

Nice guys finish last, and as a conservative, I've had it with finishing last.

iwinbensteinsmoney| 4.11.10 @ 12:55PM

You're not Cicero and I'm sure you didn't study any of the Classics. You're probably not even a nice guy... but hey I'm sure you'll still finish last!

Sincerely,
A Guardian of Civility

Neer| 9.14.09 @ 4:11PM

For the truth and nothing but the whole truth, read Joe Conason's article in Salon, "Republican politicians have no empathy." It's a helluva lot more accurate and truthful than this crapola. The only thing that unites Conservatives is their selfishness.

C. Williams| 9.14.09 @ 4:11PM

Hard to argue with what you're saying, Ben. I'm a pretty conservative guy myself, but have come to believe that unless conservatives (sometimes known as Republicans) start fielding candidates who are true men of integrity, the pendulum won't stay on our side for very long.

This might mean that we have to get some of the "good old boys" off the ticket which itself could cause some problems, but I'd honestly rather vote for a principled moderate (maybe even a liberal!!) than for an "old-crony" conservative. Give me men and women of integrity!

Warrior | 9.14.09 @ 4:18PM

Doorgunner, great post!

cooperscopy | 9.14.09 @ 4:21PM

great column Ben. What the GOP couldn't do for themselves the dems are doing for them... Read the GOP's best friend...an older post at......http://cooperscopy.blogspot.com/

Tea Party (the originalP| 9.14.09 @ 4:29PM

Knowing that Obama is wrong and leading us off a cliff is one thing. Trusting the GOP do do better is another thing altogether. I'm not there yet.

Reginald Perrin| 9.14.09 @ 4:37PM

I have to agree with some of the commenters here that Mr. Stein seems more concerned with what is good for his party rather than what is good for the country. If he's been a loyal Republican since Nixon, Stein's loyalty must be to party, not principle, as the Republican party of Nixon really does look socialist compared to today's party (anyone remember that Nixon was responsible for abandoning the gold standard, for wage and price controls, the EPA and lots more besides?)
I am curious, however, why all those who now claim that voting Republican isn't the answer weren't just as vociferous in objecting to the policies of the Bush administration, that they now seem to find so objectionable coming from the Obama administration? And I would suggest that changing policy means winning elections, and neutering the federal government just doesn't seem to be popular with the vast majority of the American public.

WHATAJOKE| 9.14.09 @ 4:39PM

YOU ARE ALL RETARDED

SoCon| 9.14.09 @ 4:57PM

Run true conservatives in the upcoming elections and we'll win. Who wants democrat-lite when you can vote for the real thing?

Doorgunner| 9.14.09 @ 4:58PM

So Lamely ReToddarded,

A quote from you @ Chronicles Magazine in response to in response to Paul Craig Roberts

"2 Comment by S.L. Toddard on 9 September 2009:

The problem is that there aren’t ENOUGH photos like that. For most Americans our wars are things that happen on television, where they make themselves feel good cheering on our soldiers and waving their little flags. It is unreal – they have to make no sacrifices and are not inconvenienced in any way. It is right and proper that the true cost of these wars be shown directly to the apathetic, servile and gullible American people."

No Trolls| 9.14.09 @ 5:02PM

SL Toddard = LibReader/Jeremiah. Liberal trolls, both.

Doorgunner| 9.14.09 @ 5:02PM

Mr. Roberts article was about the AP publishing the photo of LCPL Joshua Bernard as he lay dying. And yes, this former Marine, current Guardsman, intended the Faulkner allusion.

I can't really be friendly with you anymore.

Doorgunner| 9.14.09 @ 5:02PM

Mr. Roberts article was about the AP publishing the photo of LCPL Joshua Bernard as he lay dying. And yes, this former Marine, current Guardsman, intended the Faulkner allusion.

I can't really be friendly with you anymore.

John Navratil| 9.14.09 @ 5:07PM

The GOP has left the conservatives behind. So, do the conservatives form a new party or reclaim the GOP?

A new party might empower a "center" government (implausibly assuming a shrinking Democrat party) or it might keep an, at best, center-left government in place for the next forty years.

A backlash may be good for the party's representative count, but it does nothing for principles. Nothing anti-Obama is necessarily pro-conservative.

Marginalize the party apparatus by contributing to conservative candidates directly, and reclaim the party from within.

Ken (Old Texican)| 9.14.09 @ 5:07PM

Ben,
Good article. Thank you. Your key phrase in my mind was: "field good candidates".

Dammit, if the Republicans cannot find good candidates (with our insistence heh heh) then our country sinks into oblivion and we Christians start praying: "...even so, Lord, come quickly!"

Very late at night, I worry that things might have to get much worse before the Toddards of the earth get their heads out of their prissy arses, and the so-called Liberals go "oops".

Ben, do you read Tom Clancy? Isn't there a finance guy left in this country that can get his arms around the basic truth of our economy and LET it thrive?
We at TEAM AMERICA have bet on "fielding" good men and women, and then supporting them to the nth degree.
"Conservative" is an OK label I suppose, but in reality we need "roll-backers". We do not want to conserve what we have in these days.

Keep on punching, Ben, and let's try to come up with some better labels.
Highest regards

Thomas E. Stubblefield| 9.14.09 @ 5:15PM

Very silly article Ben. Were you sleep deprived when you wrote it? What's this business about hugging? Who's fibbing now?

william bonney| 9.14.09 @ 5:19PM

Both of the major political parties need to be tossed out with the rest of the smelly trash. It is time to cast off this destructive government and take a real, clean, fresh start. Otherwise, our way of life is almost over. That 50% of the morons in this country continue to say that Obama is doing a good job should keep all sane people laying wide awake in bed at night.

Doorgunner| 9.14.09 @ 5:21PM

"...not talking only about the tough guy/ballet dancer Rahm Emanuel, who screamed like a jilted drunken sorority girl..."

Damn, that's pretty much every Lefty troll right there...

S.L. Toddard| 9.14.09 @ 5:40PM

"The problem is that there aren’t ENOUGH photos like that. For most Americans our wars are things that happen on television, where they make themselves feel good cheering on our soldiers and waving their little flags. It is unreal – they have to make no sacrifices and are not inconvenienced in any way. It is right and proper that the true cost of these wars be shown directly to the apathetic, servile and gullible American people."

I couldn't have said it better myself, Floorscrummer.

Meh. Needs work.

Brian England| 9.14.09 @ 5:43PM

Sounds like wishful thinking. . . I'm not seeing the "gleam of genility and good graces" in the Republican party yet . . . with Rep. Joe Wilson heckling the President during the joint session of Congress . . . Sarah Palin still tweeting about "death squads" . . . pictures of the President on signs defaced to look like Hitler . . . Glenn Beck being Glenn Beck . . . No, Ben . . . I'm not seeing that at all . . .

Pat Hickey | 9.14.09 @ 5:51PM

Ben,

This was a very nice note to our President. Given that he is going 24/7 for me and mine, as our Chief Funded Mandate Mandarin Manager is wont to explain at every given opportunity, your kind missive will delight and tickle the hard working young man.

Yep, with the 501(c) 3 Sandinistas from Chicago ( Val Jarrett/Billy Ayers/The First Lady and the Man Himself) remaking the Republic at so swift a clip, I am sure that your timely and thoughtful note of its effect upon all of helots will get President Obama to understand why the cow gobbles the cabbage.

Pingback| 9.14.09 @ 5:53PM

Grumpy Ant » Blog Archive » Democrats Should Pass Obamacare with No Gop Support « Pra links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

…Obama Paints Living Room Rather Than Visit … Barack Obama And Bill Clinton Hit Il Mulino After Wall Street Speech Kanye West Interrupts Barack Obama In VMA Mashup » MTV Newsroom The American Spectator : Thank You, Barack Obama Health Care: Confidential « Health News The great myth: bipartisanship (Politico) | 7KLnet News Escaping the Matrix: Bull Partisan Shit AMERICAblog News| A great nation deserves the…

Nobama| 9.14.09 @ 5:53PM

Get over yourself, BUSHITLER Brian. Suddenly, democrats have become the party of finger towels and polite pleasantries a la Emily Post. What a crock!

Adam Smith| 9.14.09 @ 5:53PM

So many trolls here from Koz...

Government employees (Acorn, or otherwise) I am sure. Racists & race baiters all.

Harvard has produced nothing but whack job America haters for many, many years now. The idea they are some kind of paragon of academic excellence is fantasy at this point. Every sleaze ball in washington came from Harvard or Yale (except those too truly stupid to work the race scam effectively).

When the ticket to Harvard (& editorship of the Law Review) is the amount of melanin in your skin and a properly cranky, resentful & entitled attitude ...that sheepskin ain't worth much.

You trolls are just perfect examples of the nasty, filthly leftists that will say or do anything to push your sick extortion agenda. Thieving scum.

iwinbensteinsmoney| 4.11.10 @ 11:41AM

You are making the ridiculous assumption that Mr. Obama did not merit admissions into HLS and then committed the even further egregious overstatement that he didn't earn his way up to Law Review Editor. While Affirmative Action, as an active policy, had an effect on then applicant Obama's admission to HLS, he was required to do not just well but excel on law school exams which are graded an0nymously.

Why would you assume that he wasn't qualified? By all accounts, he is an incredibly intelligent man and maybe one of the smartest Presidents that will ever sit in office. It's truly insulting that you would characterize the one symbol of hope our country has for the future as a "whack job America hater". I think that label applies to you a little bit better than the current Chief Executive of the United States.

You mad?

Harvard Delenda Est| 9.14.09 @ 5:54PM

"no one who has ever tried to get a Social Security problem corrected believes your fibs that your health care plan will not come between patients and doctors."

Q. If the liar truly believes what he is saying, can it really be called a lie?

A1. Who cares what a liar thinks or says?

A2. Ask Bill Clinton

iwinbensteinsmoney| 4.11.10 @ 11:48AM

Way to attack a President who hasn't been in office for nearly a decade. Hardly a topical way to add to a discussion about the current President in office.

FAIL.

Margaret| 9.14.09 @ 5:55PM

Floorscummer? Poor, very poor, Toaddard, Turddard. You're the real scummer here.

lol

iwinbensteinsmoney| 4.11.10 @ 1:23PM

Did you say REAL SCUMMER? Whoa!! Hold back on that verbal ammunition, Margaret! You might hurt someone and maybe even yourself.

Memento Mori| 9.14.09 @ 6:01PM

Thank you, Ben, for clearly and succinctly stating what all intelligent non-socialist-leftist-Marxist readers worry about this new president.

Oh, and to our Democratic friends - just wait until the next war starts - you'll barely remember those lazy days when y0u were shouting in the streets about global warming...

iwinbensteinsmoney| 4.11.10 @ 12:01PM

I like the way you just grouped "leftist" with "Marxist" and "socialist" in your statement about worrying about or new president.

Also, looking at a free presidential election as a war is incredibly prescient. Are you calling for a coup to overthrow the current administration? Maybe looking at everything in martial terms isn't the best way to solve problems in this country. Did you completely forget your last Great Republican Leader's gaffe of declaring war on Iraq? Even Republican leadership is shaking their heads over this horrible mistake which has cost so many young American lives for no other reason than the bloodthirsty and ill-informed ego of George W. Bush.

Please stop posting. And breathing.

Doorgunner| 9.14.09 @ 6:22PM

RETODDARD,

YOU DID SAY IT:

LW| 9.14.09 @ 6:23PM

This all sounds well and good, but I'm pretty sure I've heard Mr. Stein call it "unconscionable" that there are people in this country who don't have health insurance, and when specifically asked if he would support a government program to cover them, answering yes. So what's your plan to make sure everyone has access to health care in this country, Mr. Stein?

I agree that Barack Obama has seriously screwed up in serious ways, but that doesn't give the GOP any more credibility on this issue. The polls seem to reflect this.

myling| 9.14.09 @ 6:23PM

"... you have succeeded in reviving a party, the GOP ... "

WRONG! This is the work of average citizens, ... patriots.

The GOP has done squat.

Doorgunner| 9.14.09 @ 6:24PM

AS IN RIGHT HERE:

http://www.chroniclesmagazine......the-world/

Steph| 9.14.09 @ 6:25PM

So true about bureaucracy and Social Security! I have been trying to get a problem resolved for seven months now, and they agree with me every time I call and assure me it is being handled, but no check yet. I can just picture what will happen when your doc needs govt approval for your surgery, he will be told the surgery has been approved and the paperwork is being "processed". And then when he calls again...and again...

PCP Smoker| 9.14.09 @ 6:28PM

Hey scumbag
You were the guy wishing Obama success, remember? Guys like you no one needs.
Also, why do you keep bragging about a liberal corruptocrat like Nixon?

Spotty's Dad| 9.14.09 @ 6:41PM

Unfortunately we will have to endure some more of this Progressive nonsense. We are not yet at the point where enough people are saying "I can't take this any more."

iwinbensteinsmoney| 4.11.10 @ 12:11PM

I feel the same way about your foolish contribution to this discussion. Its like you haven't said anything to the point where I feel that "I just can't take this anymore". Keep up the bad work!

Daisy| 9.14.09 @ 6:45PM

30 million uninsured comprise about 10% of the American population: Insure the 10% without screwing up the insurance coverage of the other 90%.

Makes sense to me, otherwise ObamaCare is only about leftist power and control.

iwinbensteinsmoney| 4.11.10 @ 1:30PM

Anyone can just make up a statistic.

Watch and learn:

30 million idiots that agree with you comprise 10% of the American population. Cite some published statistics and you won't be bullshitting 100% of the readers that had the misfortune of reading what you wrote.

Convincing, right? Me use numbers, me so smart!

Brian Whipple | 9.14.09 @ 6:50PM

Dear Mr. Stein-

Reading your article reminded me of a time, years ago, when I was in a Las Vegas casino on the opening weekend of the NFL season. In the sports room there were two guys watching the team they had bet on lose, and they weren’t taking it well. At one point, the other team’s star player had the ball, and one of the guys yelled at the TV to his defense to “Break his f***ng leg!!!”
I agree with you that Obama has had multiple missteps so far in his administration, and his public approval is slipping as a result. I think this is a different issue, however, than a GOP revival. In football terms, Obama’s offense is now throwing incomplete passes and being called for penalties. That’s different from the GOP getting sacks or interceptions. I haven’t seen the GOP offense do any scoring, either.
The Republicans went from the party of limited government in 1994, to the spend-like-a-drunken-sailor party during the Bush 43 years. It isn’t like the GOP is back after the first few months of Obama.
A real GOP revival will depend on the GOP, not on hoping Obama will break his (political) leg.
Sincerely,
Brian Whipple

at: http://brianslens.blogspot.com/

Lucas Roebuck| 9.14.09 @ 6:56PM

Why is Huckabee a kook? He ran a fiscally sound (balanced budget), limited government Arkansas for 10 years. I was there and saw it first hand.

Conserv for Republicans| 9.14.09 @ 6:57PM

Third party candidates do not work and will only let the Democrats continue to keep offices. Anyone who claims to vote for one only lets this happen or is a radical leftist trying to divide the ticket for the gain of Democrats.

Jack Davis| 9.14.09 @ 7:07PM

Atta boy, Ben! You go, guy!

Charles Kirtley| 9.14.09 @ 7:17PM

The Republican Party is useless and should unite with their ideological older brothers, the Democrats. We need a new party that is conservastive/libertarian without being run by nut cases. Everyone says this is impossible, but it has been done before. Sign me up.

Ken (Old Texican)| 9.14.09 @ 7:21PM

Lucas,

Hucabee is a kook! and the Arkansas economy is killing chickens...whats to know?
Doorgunner:
I read your link.
Makes one wnat to puke doesn't it?
best regards

Phil Schwa| 9.14.09 @ 7:22PM

Ben, I'm having trouble getting my mind around the idea that a man as intelligent as you has resorted to using the "our badness is really goodness because your badness is worse than ours" ploy. All the "Us-vs-Them" 120-decibel verbal tennis in the world won't disguise the fact that BOTH sides have plenty to be ashamed of, and precious little to brag about. And when, exactly, did party loyalty become more important than public service and fixing problems?

The only face of the "GOP" I've been seeing lately is the "Gyrating, Obstreperous Psychotics" one -- and THAT will NEVER capture the hearts nor minds of mainstream America.

IF: the Republicans agree that healthcare has serious problems that need to be fixed, THEN:
Why haven't they done anything about it in the last decade?
IF: the GOP thinks Medicare (and other entitlement programs) are all screwed up, THEN: Why didn't they do something about that, either?!
IF: the GOP thinks laissez-faire capitalism is so great, and we therefore don't need to oversee the financial and business sectors, THEN: How do they explain how a lack of oversight and their push for deregulation did NOT have anything to do with the current financial fiasco?!?

As I see it, BOTH parties, and BOTH ideologies (conservative and liberal), are guilty of wishful thinking. But at least the Dems' version is more inclusive and less mean-spirited.

S.L. Toddard| 9.14.09 @ 7:27PM

"Harvard has produced nothing but whack job America haters for many, many years now. The idea they are some kind of paragon of academic excellence is fantasy at this point. Every sleaze ball in washington came from Harvard or Yale"

Or both?

George W Bush - Yale & Harvard
Rick Brookhiser - Yale
Dick Cheney - Yale
David Frum - Yale
John "Let The Eagle Soar" Ashcroft - Yale
Bill Kristol - Harvard
Alberto Gonzales - Harvard
Ben Stein - Yale

HGC| 9.14.09 @ 7:27PM

Ben Stein, thank you for a clear, and entertaining essay.

S.L. Toddard| 9.14.09 @ 7:33PM

"YOU DID SAY IT"

Yes, my good man - that was the point. Do follow along.

I've said much the same thing here and stand by it 1000%. Americans need to be shown the costs of our fun little wars, so they will be less careless and callous when Washington beurocrats blithely send our soldiers to some foreign hell-on-earth on the other side of the globe to have their arms, legs and heads blown off. Americans sit by, watch Two And A Half Men, stuff their faces and cheer their TV-wars - all the while entirely blind to the human cost. It's revolting in the extreme.

S.L. Toddard| 9.14.09 @ 7:34PM

Gah! *Bureaucrats*.

S.L. Toddard| 9.14.09 @ 7:36PM

"Floorscummer?"

Scrummer, actually. Not very good, is it.

Poor... mummer? Nothing rhymes with that username. I'm at a loss.

Ken (old Texican)| 9.14.09 @ 7:39PM

Phil
With all due repect, you are so full of it, you lying communist sob!

jack carlson| 9.14.09 @ 7:43PM

Absolutely! BHO is resurrecting the GOP. The only real question is: If he has done all this in just 8 months, will we be able to survive 4 years as a country?

To those dimwits who seem to think that the "tea parties" are orchestrated by the right-wing loonies, astroturfing, or Fox News propaganda, you had better get real. I have not seen this level of anger in this country since the Vietnam War! These protests are just the beginning. When citizens discover that the government is lying to them (and they are finding this out), "hell hath no fury" by comparison!

Stacey Shoemaker| 9.14.09 @ 8:21PM

Ben,
think again if you have come to the conclusion that the TEA party folks are GOP'ers, i assure they are not, they are a mix of various levels of classic liberal and traditional small "c" conservatives, individualists if you will. they make their own choices regardless of political parties.

Thatcher's Biggest Fan| 9.14.09 @ 8:30PM

Funny how GOP apologists weren't crying about socialized medicine when W and the GOP congress gave us the unfunded trillion dollar medicare drug plan. And then true conservatives took it on the chin again with "let's trade in our principles and reach across the aisle" McCain. Sorry, Obama has done nothing to revive my interest in GOP presidential candidates. But he has reiterated what we learned in the 90s - the best way to get the limited government many of us want is gridlock between a Dem president and a right-leaning Congress.

Margaret| 9.14.09 @ 8:34PM

Floorscrummer is even worse; you should have stuck with mine, Toaddard.

Brock| 9.14.09 @ 8:35PM

If Stein's father were alive he would slap Ben in the mouth so hard that his dentures would fracture. Ben...you lie!

SoCon| 9.14.09 @ 8:37PM

Fan, guess you WEREN'T reading American Spectator--Conservatives were furious with Bush for his spending. You're ignorant; a real Conservative would have known that.

bigfoot9p6| 9.14.09 @ 8:38PM

NBC/WSJ
Very Positive Somewhat Positive Neutral Somewhat Negative Very Negative
Demo 7/24-27/09 13 29 19 17 20

Rep 7/24-27/09 9 19 29 21 20

bigfoot9p6| 9.14.09 @ 8:39PM

Are these good numbers for you guys?

Thatcher's Biggest Fan| 9.14.09 @ 8:46PM

SoCon, which GOP medicare recipients have offered to give up their socialized drug benefit? I'd rather not pay interest on this socialist program in the future.

W was a borrow-and-spend dufus, who also gave us gems like No Child Gets Ahead and AIDS for Africa relief. Moreover, there was no interest in the party in replacing him with a real conservative in 2004 and then we got the atrocious McCain in 2008.

The GOP is a party of big government with low taxes, Dems are big government with high taxes. Only way to limit government is to have the two fight it out.

Extremely Extreme Extremist| 9.14.09 @ 8:58PM

Floorscummer? Yes, your namecalling needs some work, S.L. As an aid to your memory of junior high school, I offer the following rules:

1. Your insult should adhere as closely as possible to the original appellation. A zinger formed by changing or adding a single letter, a single syllable, or merely altering the spelling to reveal a play on words (rarely possible), is ideal. The more you have to change, the more forced and juvenile it generally sounds. But then, it's all juvenile to start with, isn't it, so there you go.

2. If you can't come up with anything that complies with the foregoing rule, at least make the insult rhyme with, or match the meter of, the original, have it be be pithy, and, ABOVE ALL, have it make some sense. Your goal is twofold: to insult your interlocutor, and to make it so other readers will instantly recognize the target of your wit. If the reader has to spend more than two seconds trying to figure out who you're talking about/to, you've failed.

That being said, "Floorscummer" is a clear loser of an insult. The meter and the rhyme are right, and the change from "Door" to "Floor" has real potential ("floor" being something low that gets walked on). But "scummer?" C'mon. If it were possible to cut it off at "scum," it'd be great, but you can't really omit that third syllable and still have people be able to recognize your target. But leaving it the way it is begs the question, what the hell's a "scummer?" You just went over the line into Overly Forced territory.

So why did you stop there? You were THAT close to a high-quality, witty, and painful insult and you blew it. Here it is: Floorscrubber. "Floorscrubber" succeeds wonderfully on every count except simplicity. Something like "Poorgunner" would have been best from a simplicity/ease-of-identification standpoint, but the amount of rhetorical blood drawn by calling a former Marine "Floorscrubber" is just too beautiful to pass up. Indeed, I'm not sure how it could have escaped you, to be honest, S.L. All I can say is, practice, practice, practice. With enough experience under your belt, you too can be feeding at the bottom with the best of 'em.

Hope this helps.

P.S. As a former Marine myself, it is my sincere hope that no other Marine has been harmed in the making of this post. We can differ, within bounds, over politics, but when the steel starts flying, I'll always have my brothers' backs. Always. Semper Fi, Doorgunner.

Todd Spare| 9.14.09 @ 9:25PM

Ben,

What is your contribution to making things better ??

Waldo| 9.14.09 @ 9:26PM

I really thought Obama was going to be a different politician. I believed it when he said he was not going to look back, but look forward and he was not going to get caugh up in this post partisan bickering. Since he was elected all he has done is look back and blame the previous administration for all our problems. In his speech on healthcare Wednesday he blamed the previous administration for a trillion dollar deficit, that was a lie. While the previous administration had a deficit of 295 billion, which is intolerable, that is nowhere near a trillion, which we now have. If we continue with the distortions and outright lies and the press is complicent in this distortion. How is the public to make an intellegent descision when it comes to voting. I guess that's why I was duped into thing Obama was something he wasn't.

pugpugmom| 9.14.09 @ 9:36PM

I concur the feelings of gratitude to POTUS, but I think that he has ignited the Libertarian party, not the Republicans. Republicans & Democrats are career politicians after their own agendas.

lila| 9.14.09 @ 9:45PM

Thanks Ben, you rock. I agree totally. I used to be a lefty and a Democrat. Then I saw the light eight years ago. I agree with everything you said.

whatcountry amilivingin| 9.14.09 @ 10:02PM

I went to the Wash. Tea Party and most of the people there were fed up with both Dems. and Reps. The Republicans can only get our votes if they start reading the constitution and putting forth real ideas and legislation that cuts the debt and frees our children from the slavery of paying for it.

KansasGirl| 9.14.09 @ 10:13PM

I won't rest until all the RINO'S are gone from the Republican Party. Mr. Stein, you are part of the problem.

William| 9.14.09 @ 10:21PM

Waldo, my sincere sympathies.

On the bright side, you are undeceived now.

Cindy Merrill| 9.14.09 @ 10:36PM

OK, So, We're going to get a health care plan shoved down our throats that is written by a committee whose head says he doesn't understand it, passed by a Congress that hasn't read it, but exempts themselves from it, signed by a president that also hasn't read it, and who smokes, with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn't pay his taxes, overseen by a surgeon general who is obese, and financed by a country that's broke.

What could possibly go wrong?

Jolo| 9.14.09 @ 10:40PM

lol, Richard Nixon's speechwriter talking about extreme positions

how'd that movie do by the way

Tom W| 9.14.09 @ 10:53PM

>>Marginalize the party apparatus by contributing to conservative candidates directly, and reclaim the party from within.

BINGO!

I stopped giving to my GOP state party last year, and the national a few years ago.

We need to support conservative candidates (no matter their party). Period.

Particularly with the neo-fascist in the White House, "moderate" "Republicans" are a luxury this country can no longer afford. And the party apparatus only cares about protecting the incumbent team of career politicians.

SoCon| 9.14.09 @ 11:00PM

Fan, you've got to be a liberal because you're such an idiot. You said Conservatives sold their souls to reach across the aisle--and that's a lie. Conservatives were very unhappy with Bush: Remember the Amnesty legislation? How about Harriet Miers? Conservatives also objected to Bush's profligate spending. And your retort is about old folks and their Medicare benefits?

You're talking about RINOs not Conservatives--get a clue.

Like I said, you've got to be a liberal because you're such an idiot!!

justin martin | 9.14.09 @ 11:13PM

but you can't really omit that third syllable and still have people be able to recognize your target. But leaving it the way it is begs the question, what the hell's a scummer Bailey Button Ugg Boots . You just went over the line into Overly Forced territory. So why did you stop there ugg boots sale ? You were THAT close to a high-quality, witty, and painful insult and you blew it. Here it is: Floorscrubber.

Thatcher's Biggest Fan| 9.14.09 @ 11:20PM

SoCon, you haven't been able to refute a thing I've said so you've resorted to personal attacks, and calling me a liberal.

Obama's pork bill had a lower price tag than W's Socialized Medicine Medicare Drug bill, yet there were probably 1000x more conservative editorials against Obama's plan. Very few called out Denny Hastert and Bill Frist for going along with W's crazy spending bills, and then the guy got re-nominated in 2004. GOP lost all credibility on limited government with its tepid response to Bush/Hastert/Frist raid on the treasury.

I also don't consider Libertarians or Ron Paul legitimate opposition, they've got their heads in the clouds. But conservative principles must come before conservative politicians. And it's become very clear the best way to slow the legislative process is with a Dem in the white house and a congress that won't go along with his agenda. GOPers Bush and McCain always want to make a deal and spend, because they'd rather not "look mean" than stick to principle.

Rod| 9.14.09 @ 11:23PM

I suspect that Obama is preparing to nationalize the "banks that are too big to fail".

Dr. Rick| 9.14.09 @ 11:35PM

Hell Ben, this is one of the most insulting articles I have ever read. Do you think that we are so brain dead that we will simply forget the Republican atrocities of the past eight years simply because our new president sucks too? You have the nerve to equate us to a friggin' video game that you can reset just because you and your cronies in Washington aren't getting the score you want? You want us to somehow forget that it was eight years of Republican fiscal irresponsibility and sheer political ineptitude that allowed Obama to grab control?

Who do you think we are, some memory-addled Democrats who, after having to suffer through a few years of GWB, had somehow conveniently forgot that Bill Clinton was a huckster and a degenerate ?

gliderpilot| 9.14.09 @ 11:47PM

For me, and I suspect for millions of others, cost is not the beginning and end of the healthcare debate; it is preservation of freedom. For some the issue is installation of centralized power.

Starting with Franklin D Roosevelt, Congress and the president have enacted several laws that run outside the framework of the Constitution, and the courts have failed to curtail this behavior. Law making has violated the “natural law” principle upon which the Constitution and Bill of Rights are founded. Natural law, as defined by the founders, requires that every individual citizen have unalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit to happiness. John Lock includes right to property.

Natural law focuses on individual rights; it does not focus on collective rights. Natural law does not balance rights as if rights come in a zero-sum package. For example, freedom cannot be diminished for one to enhance for another. Natural law requires that freedom be enhanced for all.

Legislators must, when preparing legislation, employ natural law guidance if law is to be in conformity with the letter and spirit of the Constitution.

We can ask, does the health care legislation being prepared meet the standard of natural law? We must conclude that it does not because it would diminish if not do away with freedom of choice of doctor, choice of treatment, and choice of method of payment for medical care.

leastof2weavils| 9.19.09 @ 12:41AM

gliderpilot, I think this is one of the best posts iv'e read in a long time. Thanks

Typical Whitey| 9.14.09 @ 11:56PM

Ben - great piece however, I agree with Joe Wilson: The Kenyan is a Liar.

Rod| 9.15.09 @ 12:00AM

"If you really do believe you can squeeze enough out of Medicare to pay for your health plan, maybe the "death panel" myth wasn't really a myth after all. "

How do you squeeze a program that has a $61 trillion unfunded liability?

Rod| 9.15.09 @ 12:07AM

"A rescue party led by the Republicans will, sooner or later, look mighty handy to the voters"

Once government healthcare becomes law, I doubt we can ever again have truely conservative government. I doubt we can ever again have a robustly productive economy.

Skip MacLure| 9.15.09 @ 12:08AM

Mr Wilson's outburst was spontaneous and honest...something the US Congress, both houses is sorely lacking....honesty. I think the great blunder here is that this is NOT a republican renewal....It's an American revolution. It's 1776 all over again without the gunpowder...so far anyway G-d willing. But don't for a moment think that it can't happen. The founders knew that a government that did not fear it's people was a government that would enslave it's people. That's what the second amendment was all about. Sound familiar? It should, because that's what Maobama is all about. The enslavement of the American people through over taxation, over regulation, over control of every single aspect of our lives from sperm (that don't get aborted) to worm( whether grandma wants it or not). Your hearing a lot from the chattering class about the uncivility of Representative Wilson in the 'hallowed' halls of congress. Why is it always the biggest liars that protest the loudest? Congress, both houses had best take heed....The American people are coming. We have remembered that we are a free people....the film of liberal Marxist lies has been dissolved in the light of the truth that is the declaration of independence and the constitution of this greatest country in the history of the world. We are coming. We will be not be denied. Joe Wilson stand tall. America stands behind you and civility be damned.
Semper Vigilans, SemperFidelis

Rod| 9.15.09 @ 12:10AM

"Oh, and there is so much more -- coddling Iran while it gets ready to nuke Israel,"
George Gilder wrote that once Israel is gone, Europe will be next.

Pingback| 9.15.09 @ 12:13AM

The American Spectator : Thank You, Barack Obama « The Inside Straight/Inside Minute links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

…and Republican since Nixon, may I humbly thank you? In the eight months or so since you took office, you have succeeded in reviving a party, the GOP, that many had left for dead. The American Spectator : Thank You, Barack Obama Ben Stein Share and Enjoy: September 14th, 2009 | Category: Ballew, Domestic Policy, Radicalism, The Outside Straight, politics Leave a Reply Cancel Name (required) Mail (will…

Danielle| 9.15.09 @ 12:14AM

The comment left by Adam Smith made me really revisit my feelings of disdain for most far left liberals, whom I consider to be extremist liberals. I'm a Republican woman and I am a student at The Ohio State University looking to pursue a career as a pharmacist. The absolute joke of an administration that Obama has assembled is making my future, and that of tens of thousands of medical students, a very bleak one. I've been working in the retail pharmacy field for nearly five years, and I can assure you that if Obama gets what he wants, we'll be a welfare wonderland, and the citizens will be in more of a financial burden than they are now. Eight months in office and where is our change, Obama? You came out, guns blazing, and you've accomplished...? Our troops are still overseas, our economy is still in shambles, and you're doing these high profile date nights with your wife. Those date nights are costing DC a lot of money, and you wonder why we're not coming out of debt. Your speech promoting education was wonderful, but you forgot to mention that students that pursue careers in health care may as well drop out and spare themselves the extravagant student loan debt they'll have, for with your health care changes, they'll not have a job when they graduate. Bill collectors don't stop knocking just because you're unemployed.

desertrat| 9.15.09 @ 12:15AM

couldn't agree more Mr. Stein....couldn't agree more! perfectly said!!

Rod| 9.15.09 @ 12:19AM

"But don't for a moment think that it can't happen. The founders knew that a government that did not fear it's people was a government that would enslave it's people. That's what the second amendment was all about. Sound familiar? "

The founders wrote that when a people is reduced under absolute Desposism, then it is their right and duty to throw off that government. The United States had a few hundred year run of good time inherited by the founders. But it takes intelligence and watchfullness to maintain that inheritance.

Jessicamcclain | 9.15.09 @ 12:20AM

Mr. Stein, Thank you. Thank you for allowing our party a chance to regain its diginty. Thank you for providing us a reason to maintain our footing in this battel with has only just begun.

As for those of you who feel that all Repubican's are racist hicks hiding behind our guns and our god, Please allow me one correction... His color has nothing to do with it. We recognise his post, and we will hold him accountable to it. We recognise his promises and we will home him to them. He chose to be the candidate of Change, how is that working for you so far? Nothing has changed, only now the shoe is on the other foot.

Loyalty to party is no longer the priority, Loyalty to one another and to our Constitutional rights are. It seems to me MR. Wilson was/is the only member of the government who recognises that fact.

Prehaps it is those who chant rasist and grow up who need to do some inner seaking of their own ...

Pingback| 9.15.09 @ 12:22AM

Article by Ben Stein | The Nuke Report links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

Article by Ben Stein | The Nuke Report The Nuke Report Honest News & Opinion About Nuclear Lighthouse Published Articles « Civil War Photos Article by Ben Stein Easy AdSense by Unreal Thank You, Barack Obama By Ben Stein on 9.14.09 @ 12:36PM Dear Mr. President: As a 64-year-old, lifelong fiscal conservative and Republican since Nixon, may I humbly thank you? In the eight months or so since you took…

McClung| 9.15.09 @ 12:27AM

Ok i agree with Ben here, Obama doesn't exactly show that he is trying to help us. I remeber everyone getting so excited that "hHe is pulling the troops out of Iraq and Bringing them home...." He brought them home for a week then sent them all to afghanistan. He didn't keep his word there... why should we believe that he will keep his word anywhere else??

And all I see this adam guy doing is calling names (Like 5 year olds do)... not defending anything.

Rod| 9.15.09 @ 12:28AM

Slavery is a creeping phenomenon. It starts blandly with a progressive tax, always justified by fairness or compassion. Then it progresses to full blown redistribution. Before the population realizes it fascism and socialism or perhaps dictatorship have taken over. The advance of despotism is characterized by magnification of small problems while the larger picture is hidden.

The Epicure| 9.15.09 @ 12:30AM

Well-put as always, Ben!
The Republicans, as well as the independents, the libertarian, the anti-Statists, have reawakened from their apparent defeat by the horsemen of the Apocalypse.
Question is whether the Republicans will go back to Big Government business-as-usual, or whether the new-and-improved Republicans realize that the key polarization today is not "Left" vs. "Right" ... but rather Statism vs. Liberty. If they revert to being the flip-side of the statist duopoly coin, then all will be for naught.

Thatcher's Biggest Fan| 9.15.09 @ 12:30AM

"It seems to me MR. Wilson was/is the only member of the government who recognises that fact"

But he did the typical limp-wristed Republican thing and started apologizing for telling the truth. He should have stood by his words, he was right! But the modern GOP is more concerned about public relations than principle.

Dave| 9.15.09 @ 12:31AM

It's sad when neither party truly represents the American people... if only there were more people like Ron Paul to show us what the Republicans COULD be

Pingback| 9.15.09 @ 12:37AM

Cnation’s Picks for 9/15/2009 : Conservative Nation links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

…she has Burris (D-IL) Casey (D-PA) Durbin (D-IL) Gillibrand (D-NY) Leahy (D-VT) Sanders (I-VT) Whitehouse (D-RI) Complete roll call vote here …………… Ben Stein: Obama single-handedly reviving the GOP American Thinker: 9/12 was a transformative event Front Page Magazine: Valerie Jarrett: The Next Van Jones Judicial Watch: Texas Gov. Deploys Rangers To Mexican Border doing the jobs the…

Rod| 9.15.09 @ 12:40AM

"But he did the typical limp-wristed Republican thing and started apologizing for telling the truth"

At least he insists he only apologized once.

Jessicamcclain | 9.15.09 @ 12:43AM

"But he did the typical limp-wristed Republican thing and started apologizing for telling the truth."

I belive he was apologizing for his lack of decorum, versus the actual comment; also, he has refused to apologize again to anyone including the congress as a whole, which leaves him higher in my book because he is not apologizing for the comment but the lack of decorum he shown.

gliderpilot| 9.15.09 @ 12:54AM

"Who do you think we are, some memory-addled Democrats who, after having to suffer through a few years of GWB, had somehow conveniently forgot that Bill Clinton was a huckster and a degenerate ?"
It makes no sense to look back.
Any government is no better or worse than we make it. We the people can, if we care enough, make this United States something to be proud of again. We can take back this nation. We can remake both political parties to our liking.

zion | 9.15.09 @ 12:56AM

reading thes e comments i conclude that this nation is more divided now than in my entire life, and i am quite old. this president is not an effective leader, a grea t leader does not divide, a leader unifies a nation. this contry has not had a strong leader in many years. i am 82 years old and do not see well, but i see enough to know America has fallen into corrupt and evil times, a darkness lurks behind the pris tine white columns of washington, and the uneasy and hateful remarks exchanged here are only a sign of worse things to come.

SoCon| 9.15.09 @ 1:00AM

Fan, you're wrong to conflate RINOs/GOP with Conservatives. Conservatives object to big spenders regardless of party--but Bush never took control of the financial and auto industries, and he never attempted a takeover of the American healthcare system.

It's obvious that there's no equivalency between Obama and Bush. Only a moron or a troll would disagree.

Yosemeti Sam| 9.15.09 @ 1:05AM

" ... We thought we were down and out, and now you have given us a fresh start...."

To early to celebrate.

Next years primaries for GOP candidates will be key - necessitating gauntlets of vetting, selecting and fielding true conservatives.

Let those primaries be real barnburners!

Marge | 9.15.09 @ 1:08AM

Either the GOP releases the extremes and rides this *New Right* movement absorbed by Independents/Libertarians through to 2012 - or bust.

Although honestly - never did I think there was a chance for a 3rd party win than now. The "New Righters" can run off with this all on their own and bring some Democrats with them. Moderate Americans from both parties - and they're many - have had enough.

SoCon| 9.15.09 @ 1:09AM

We need to elect a strong Conservative as president; George W is a good man but he was never a Conservative. I would never vote for a candidate like Obama over a Republican candidate. That's crazy and gutless.

We need better Conservative leaders! No more RINOs!!

Rod| 9.15.09 @ 1:13AM

"America has fallen into corrupt and evil times, a darkness lurks behind the pris tine white columns of washington, and the uneasy and hateful remarks exchanged here are only a sign of worse things to come. "

A large part of the population is statist economics and a large part is positive sum economics. Status economics believes that wealth is finite or nearly finite. According to this belief, redistribution is necessary to lift the poor. Wealth given to some must be taken from others. Redistribution generates class warfare. A centralized collectivized economy is the choice of the zero-sum economist.

Positive sum economics believes that the way to lift the poor is to lift everyone. Positive sum economics believes that a free, robust, capitalist economy grows wealth that benefits everybody.
The choice of the positive-sum economist is liberal capitalism.

Class warfare becomes palpable when the society is gravitating to socalism (zero-sum economics) and when segments of the population are fighting about what direction the country should be taking.

Nobama| 9.15.09 @ 1:14AM

McCain was not an extremist and he lost: He was the "Maverick who always reached across the aisle." Moderation didn't do much for him in 2008.

So much for the 'mushy middle'.

Missy| 9.15.09 @ 1:19AM

Good post, Rod. Democrats specialize in class warfare with envy as their tool; power and control as their goal.

If you teach someone how to fish, they'll never be hungry again. So much more hopeful, you know?

Rod| 9.15.09 @ 1:20AM

Bush will be remembered for his spending (about 1/8 that of Obama so far) and his statement, "I had to violate free market principles to save them".

FeralCat| 9.15.09 @ 1:24AM

If it sounds like Karl Marx, acts like Benito Mussolini, lies like Pinocchio and stumbles like Bozo the Clown, it's probably Barack Obama!!!

presto| 9.15.09 @ 1:32AM

Ben,

I always enjoy your columns, your TV appearances are fun and somtimes thought-provoking - and you give Shaq a run for his money.
I am a Democrat - fairly progressive but trying to be progressively fair as I age. What I am troubled by in your column here is not that I disagree with you because I often do that. What bothers me is that you seem positively gleeful that you might be right - Obama might fail on a colossal level - and he might utterly destroy life as we know it. Oh joy. What fun. You're right. We're wrong.

Where does that leave all us poor schmucks? You have the financial resources to survive whatever failures you think the president may have in store for us. Many of us do not have those resourses and we do not share your delight in failure.

Sweet dreams, dear Ben. We in the underbelly are scared.

gliderpilot| 9.15.09 @ 1:39AM

He may well destroy the country as we know it, or make it something unrecognizable - if we let him. If it happens, Ben will not escape it. But we can stop it from happening by applying sufficient political pressure on Congress.

Phil Schwa| 9.15.09 @ 1:53AM

Ken (Old Texican):
I was addressing myself to Ben, and I'm not keen to delve into an extended discussion/argument on line. But those were pretty strong words you used.

I'm no communist: I'm a Navy veteran, (born & raised & still living in Texas, too), who finally learned to read books other than those people *told* me to read, to try to understand (not necessarily embrace) the viewpoints of people from other cultures (both foreign and domestic), to try my best to think for myself and do the work to *earn* my honest opinions.

You called me a liar, but gave no specifics *at all*. In my experience, that usually happens when something I've said hits a deep nerve, and the person responding as you did is reacting more viscerally than logically.

Truck in peace, bubba.

Pingback| 9.15.09 @ 2:05AM

Tuesday’s Reading Room « scottwilder.com links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

scottwilder.com scottwilder.com observe…capture…share… Tuesday’s Reading Room Patrick Swayze, RIP (this is what my dad died from at 64 years old…sad) Obama is Single-Handedly Reviving GOP (anyone?…anyone?…bueller?) ACORN Housing Funds Cut (you might find it interesting that Kay Bailey Hutchison was unable to make it to vote to defund ACORN…maybe she was busy…

Rod| 9.15.09 @ 2:05AM

"IF: the Republicans agree that healthcare has serious problems that need to be fixed, THEN:
Why haven't they done anything about it in the last decade?
IF: the GOP thinks Medicare (and other entitlement programs) are all screwed up, THEN: Why didn't they do something about that, either?!
IF: the GOP thinks laissez-faire capitalism is so great, and we therefore don't need to oversee the financial and business sectors, THEN: How do they explain how a lack of oversight and their push for deregulation did NOT have anything to do with the current financial fiasco?!? "

At the risk of sounding partisan, a few facts need to be said: Republicans tried several times during the last 8 years to reform healthcare and were stopped by Dems in congress.

Medicare and Social Security were always the third rail- neither party would touch them.

The home loan market collapse is laid at the feet of Dems in congress, who insisted on the system whereby unqualified buyers got loans. Reps tried to reform it at least twice and were prevented by Dems.

Facts, no matter what party you subscribe to, are good to have.

Rod| 9.15.09 @ 2:23AM

By the way, president Obama is evidently preparing to nationalize the banks "that are too big to fail". Does that mean he intends to seize their assets (everybodys CDs) for making loans to unqualified home buyers, for union expenses, for ACORN expenses, and for laying the groundwork for takeover of government and the economy? Does it begin to feel like despotism is in store for America? Is dictatorship on the horizon? Today I heard from a source who has been reliable in the past that Obama is making deals with big communications networks to remove hostile radio talk show hosts from the airways.

Palin Power| 9.15.09 @ 2:23AM

Ben Stein is Sarah Palin's DICKLESS and BALLESS BITCH and PUSSY! Palin is a SUPERIOR conservative than Stein could ever be. She has SUPERIOR intellect and brains than Stein could ever have! Palin will become President in 2012 after PWNING Obambi and put all male POTUS to SHAME for they are ALL her DICKLESS and BALLESS BITCHES and PUSSIES!

Harrison_St| 9.15.09 @ 2:24AM

Adam Smith sums it up nicely for us real conservatives:

"Get rid of the abortion activists, & the kooks like Huckabee & the slimy self serving Newt G. & maybe the party has a chance. As it is now, the Republican party does not even know what true conservatism is.

Bush & Bush were prime examples of why I ditched these spineless blobs long ago.

Independent & staying that way along with millions of other fed up real conservatives. "

I'd add Hannity to this list too. We need a 3rd party for real Americans.

nysteeb| 9.15.09 @ 2:26AM

Remember how great things were before Obama took office? The deficit was only a trillion dollars or so, the war in Iraq was over and had "paid for itself", the war in Afghanstan was an astounding success, the Bush bail-out of the banks had transformed Wall Street--I could could go on and on. Yeah, that Obama has sure screwed things up. Let's bring back the good old days of the Bush/Cheney regime. Rise, Republicans, rise!

Phil Schwa| 9.15.09 @ 2:28AM

Rod:
Thanks for your input. And at the risk of *me* sounding partisan:

* How exactly did the Dems "stop" the Reps from doing those things when the Reps were the majority? Sounds like everyone wasn't on the same page, maybe.

* Dems may have insisted (wrongly, of course) on poor guidelines for Fannie and Freddie to follow, leading to their woes. But what about the MUCH larger problem of private lenders writing ALL KINDS of screwy paper based on little more than high hopes and science fiction that created the BULK of the financial mess? My point was more about that missing OVERSIGHT that allowed this crap (and, yes, the sloppy management of Fannie and Freddie, too) to happen. The real point being that Big Bidness has proven it will push the envelope too far if allowed (remember the S&L collapse?), creating all kinds of havoc in their headlong rush for extra gravy, breaking as many rules or laws as they think they can get away with. Until penalties for same become appropriate to the crime, and measures are in place to prevent blatant abuses in the first case, we're just going to see more of the same. In short, what I'm saying is that overly-greedy robber barons are to blame for the mess, and our elected officials let them babysit themselves. A few scumbags *helped* them do it. (My own state's Phil Gramm should rot in hell for his big, fabulous "deregulation" campaign -- pah!)

Being fair, though, equal blame must be given to all the ordinary citizen dullards who bought into the Culture of Greed, mindlessly and gleefully racking up debt for decades, and agreeing to mortgage terms that no half-awake village idiot would stand for. It's not the government's job to protect us from ourselves; but when stupidity goes CONTAGIOUS, we need to be protected from EACH OTHER!

Scott| 9.15.09 @ 2:40AM

Excellent post, Mr. Stein!

Obamaism is doing much to inspire the conservative portion of the nation to take to the field of battle in the ongoing American culture war.

I think that there are a growing number of conservatives, particularly from a Christian perspective, who are simply fed up to a point where they are approaching the breaking point. They are wondering aloud, in increasing numbers, "Can a Christian even vote Democrat?" as posted at http://firebreathingchristian......-democrat/

For non-Christians, this might seem like pure right-wing crazy talk, but for a large number of active voters in America, it's a question that, while often thought, is being asked aloud now more than ever.

Food for thought.

Nobama| 9.15.09 @ 4:31AM

I can handle my fellow Americans, it's the government that worries me. I don't trust big government and I want them OUT of my life!

Liberal social engineering led to the economic collapse--never forget that. Barney Frank and Chris Dodd were at the forefront.

They're kind of like a wolf in sheep's clothing; the velvet glove over the iron fist.

Halo| 9.15.09 @ 4:45AM

Frank, sounds like the only 'independent' reading you've done is the DNC talking points memo.

Republicans did try to stop Fannie and Freddie from making disastrous loans during the Bush presidency but were shouted down with cries of racism by Frank and the Black Caucus. The republican majority was not nearly as large as the one democrats enjoy now and look how tough it is for the democrats to slam ObamaCare through congress.

ACORN, Fannie/Freddie and liberal social engineering policies started our fiscal meltdown. It's foolish to pretend otherwise.

leastof2weavils| 9.19.09 @ 1:22AM

Good one. I would go even as far as to say,in light of the recent evidence of Acorn lawlessness, that Fannie/ Freddie , with the help of the left and quite a few happless RINOs were used to bring down the economy for the purpose of ushuring in greater stateism. Allowing the dems an oppurtunity to plant a false flag and protect us from the greedy Capitalists."Never let a crisis go to waste".

Tom| 9.15.09 @ 5:11AM

What an interesting dream you have Ben Stein ... they said similar epithets about FDR also, and we all know how that turned out. You Republicans have given the county so much pain, in the interest of small government, so-called individual freedom, and the "i've got mine, screw the rest of you" mentality since the 1980's, it ain't easily going to go back the other way .. no matter how much you pay the media to lie and obfuscate, how much you pay off government officials, or how much you try to brainwash the rest of us - there ain't enough of you now and you are dwindling fast as a party .. and good riddance to the party of Big Business. Hooray for the party of the people!

Dick C Normus| 9.15.09 @ 5:18AM

Ben is right on the money. How anyone can think that these huge deficits are good for us is beyond me. They need their heads examined.

JimT| 9.15.09 @ 6:11AM

Tom is breathlessly naive. "Party of the people" sounds great until it comes time to pay for everything. Personal responsibility is bad? Hardly. I'm sick and tired of being painted as uncaring just because I'm a conservative. I'll have you know that study after study proves that conservatives donate to charity at a much higher rate than "do as I say, not as I do" Lexus liberals.

Republican. Because not everyone can be on welfare.

moron| 9.15.09 @ 6:19AM

"Get rid of the abortion activists, & the kooks like Huckabee & the slimy self serving Newt G. & maybe the party has a chance." John Adams
Uh, the abortion activists and commies are on your side. As are your leaders, Pelosi, Hussein Obama, Van Jones commie czar, Reid, Schumer, Barney Frank on and on and on and on. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Jan Mancini| 9.15.09 @ 6:42AM

Now if we only had a candidate. WHO? Palin, Huckabee, Jindle, Pawlenty, Newt, Romney, How about Bachman, Maybe it is time for a woman. I don't know. THAT IS THE PROBLEM WHO? any suggustions

S.L. Toddard| 9.15.09 @ 7:43AM

"Here it is: Floorscrubber."

EXCELSIOR!!!! Merci, mon ami.

Ed Coyne | 9.15.09 @ 7:52AM

Mr. Stein,
I need to point out a typo that I'm sure you would want to correct. You used the term "its of gleam" and I know that you meant to include another word in that phrase. I don't know what that word is, but I'm sure that you do. I'll check back to see the correction.

Pingback| 9.15.09 @ 7:53AM

Ben Stein thanks Barack Obama | Chicago Daily Observer links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

Conservative 15 September 2009 No Comment [This article was syndicated via RSS from BackyardConservative. The views represented do not necessarily represent those of the Chicago Daily Observer.] His letter here. Obama job approval, RCP average. Plus, fact-checking the president on health insurance. University of Pennsylvania Professor Scott Harrington. His tales of abuse don't stand scrutiny. P.S. Kaus--That's it?…

Ed Coyne | 9.15.09 @ 7:54AM

Jan,
We're on our way to fixing the problem. It wasn't that we had no candidate. It was that we (our party) had no principles. We're getting them back. A principled candidate will naturally surface. Let's not try to force another mistake.

GringoBob | 9.15.09 @ 8:18AM

Obama IS ACORN and ACORN is Obama = ObamAcor

for all your Hope, Change and Trust needs - look nowhere else

the end .....

GringoBob - in the republic of Costa Rica - remember those days ?

Henceforth I will vote only for known and proven followers of 912
Glenn Beck - Fox news channel - Monday thru Friday - 5:00 pm EST

here is the Voting matrix = http://Group912.org

help stop the EPA = http://StopEPA.com

Grzmlyk| 9.15.09 @ 8:22AM

Hey turd: Maybe if you wore Depends we wouldn't be subjected to your demagoguery.

Again, every one of your liberal rants is simply off-the-shelf, idologically-fueled pabulum - but of course you think you're brilliant.

I tell you this sincerely: Your transgressions are many, your distortions myriad and your self-regard breathtaking in both its scope and its overreaching.

But the kicker is this: Anyone who actually types the word "meh" should be shot on sight.

Walden| 9.15.09 @ 8:33AM

I want to hear more about the Ballerina's drunken sorority-girl-like outbursts at Republican leadership. Anyone know where I can get some commentary on that?

Catherine| 9.15.09 @ 8:47AM

I like much of what Ben has to say, here and otherwise, but to give any amount of power back to this bunch of goons we've seen running the Republican Party[into the ground] for some time will just inflate their big, empty domes. They will once again conclude that THEY did something to earn this!

Kathleen Wilson| 9.15.09 @ 8:58AM

Thank you for stating the facts and only the facts. I am so scared for America.

S.L. Toddard| 9.15.09 @ 8:59AM

"I tell you this sincerely: Your transgressions are many, your distortions myriad and your self-regard breathtaking in both its scope and its overreaching."

That's nice. Unfortunately for you, your comments are nearly always irrelevant and substance-free, as these are. You do not make arguments - you *can not* make arguments - but instead dribble out puerile, meaningless tripe like this here. It is obviously because you do not have political opinions, you have *emotional attachments*. Because of this, when they are challenged, you have an *emotional* reaction and fling out silly insults and so forth, but never respond with arguments based on logic, fact or any understanding of political thought, current events or anything of the sort. It's okay - there is nothing wrong with going through life confused and fumbling around with ideas you're incapable of truly grasping. But we both - you and I - know that's what's happening, and in your frustration at your own inadequacy you choose to fling feces like a baboon or chimpanzee.

Either way, I think it's good for you to witness what it reads like when other people have ideas and disagree. Perhaps if you (pardon the pun) "ape" these behaviors you might develop the capacity to have ideas of your own.

If you need help, or would like me to explain to you any of the ideas expressed here by myself or any of the other adults please just ask - I would be more than happy to instruct you.

Karl Marx | 9.15.09 @ 9:10AM

Get it straight people, Obama is a Muslim, NOT a Socialist!

"[S]ocialists advocate the creation of a society that allows for the widespread application of modern technology to rationalize economic activity by eliminating the anarchy in production of capitalism, allowing for wealth and power to be distributed based on the amount of work expended in production, although there is considerable disagreement among socialists over how and to what extent this could be achieved."

Pingback| 9.15.09 @ 9:10AM

The American Spectator : Thank You, Barack Obama « WhatsNext links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

Spectator : Thank You, Barack Obama « WhatsNext WhatsNext September 15, 2009 The American Spectator : Thank You, Barack Obama Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 6:10 am The American Spectator : Thank You, Barack Obama. Share and Enjoy: No Comments » No comments yet. RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL Leave a comment Name (required) Mail (will not be published) (required) Website…

Jay| 9.15.09 @ 9:14AM

Actually, I don't know where Mr. Stein lives nowadays but I think he is out of touch. Even here, in conservative South Carolina, (home of the eloquent Joe Wilson), there are still a lot of people here who want health care reform. Mr. Stein spoke at Presbyterian College awhile back so he should have some idea that the educated youth even in highly Republican states are generally not in line with Stein's positions.

Plus, he doesn't address the fact that the Republicans are really cutting their throats by demonizing Latinos. They've alienated blacks and now they're going for Latinos. Someone might want to show them a demographic chart of projected figures for the next few decades. If they are smart, they will change their tune.

Catherine| 9.15.09 @ 9:33AM

Waldo, I'm pleased to that learn, you've learned, too late, that the emperor has no cloths but I'm curious, was the sun shining sooooo brightly during the campaign that you could not see this??????

Bob Miller| 9.15.09 @ 9:53AM

For some time now, half of our voting population, give or take a few percent, has been willing to vote for Democrats despite all the evidence that this is stupid. I blame the Republican Party for its ineptitude that led to this.

Darren| 9.15.09 @ 9:57AM

You're the best, Ben. I only hope that Obama doesn't make Republicans look good by comparison, but that Republicans truly see the writing on the wall and don't give us the same types of lies going forward just to get our votes. Conservativism will work if they just hold the line and put it into practice.

Glad the public is finally getting active and vocal. It's a shame that most of them are still shaking dirt out of their ears from when they had their heads buried in the sand during the campaign and could have changed the tide from the start.

Doctor Right| 9.15.09 @ 10:13AM

Obama represents the high-water mark of the American left. \

Despite his much bally-hooed intellect, it's his amateurish approach that has undone the Left. As Mark Levin says, he's an "immature, inexperienced ideologue". He doesn't understand economics. He doesn't understand civics. He despises the US Constitution and it's "negative rights", and he loathes his own country. But unlike the Left's smoother operators, he's not slick enough to hide it. Sure, it worked during the campaign, but campaign's are child's play compared to actually governing.

So Obama has unwittingly unmasked the American left for the rest of the public, the ones who didn't understand the Left's real agenda, and they don't like it one bit.

Together with Pelosi (a Stalinist), Reid (an apparatchik), and Emmanuel (a Chekist), Obama will destroy the Left and the Democrat Party. They might never recover.

AZGABOY| 9.15.09 @ 10:28AM

Ben, FIBS? FIBS? No, Barrack Hussein Obama doesn't tell fibs. Children tell fibs. The Hitler want to be Obama is an outright LIAR and doesn't care the audacity of the LIES. The GOP has had the chance to get its act together and do what was right for the American people, but has become very much the same as the Democrat Party. Spenders and self serving power hungry fat cats. The time has come that the American Citizen is FED UP with the drunken sailor mentality in DC (sorry Navy personnel for comparing you to members of Congress). The American People are on the brink of taking our country back. Come 2010, we are going to FIRE THEM ALL, Dems and Reps and REFOUND OUR GREAT NATION with true representation of the people.

Catherine| 9.15.09 @ 10:31AM

Jay, thanks to all in S.Carolina for sending Congressman Wilson to Washington.
Jan; As to candidate for future White House, my vote's for a Palen/Wilson ticket! Orrrr, a Palen/Bachman ticket, think about that - not only good one but HISTORIC FIRST WOMAN PRESIDENT and VICE PRESIDENT ALL IN ONE SWOOP WOW, make those who need sensation even happy!

Pingback| 9.15.09 @ 10:55AM

Thank You, Barack Obama | Republican Party of Door County links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

…had left for dead. And it only took eight months. Thank you, President Obama, and we’ll look for more. You truly are the gift that keeps on giving. Read more: http://spectator.org/archives/2009/09/14/thank-you-barack-obama Related posts: Listening to a Liar: Part II "Hubris-laden charlatans" was the way a recent e-mail from a... Listening to a Liar The most important thing about what…

S.L. Toddard| 9.15.09 @ 11:36AM

"As to candidate for future White House, my vote's for a Palen/Wilson ticket! Orrrr, a Palen/Bachman ticket"

Palin.

MJG| 9.15.09 @ 11:57AM

Thanks Ben; just to prove your point it seems that the new Senator from NY thinks that Acorn is doing just fine. WOW, here this week all Dems for local gov are in trouble, not one is ahead in any poll. I was always told that you never wake a gaint with a kick in the head. It starts now are you ready!

kay kennedy| 9.15.09 @ 12:03PM

hi this message is for "jane" i am a woman too but i don't know for sure if you are one but if you are you are an ignorant, leftest bimbo. what are you doing on the american spectator site anyway? this president that you love so much has the lowest approval rating of ANY president in history at this point in his presidency. what has he ever done that would even make him eligible for president? did he govern a state? no, he was a junior sentator who according to his collegues in the senate never got involved in any committees or showed any interest in anything but using his position to run for president. he was never there to vote for anything. always voting present because he was a coward and would not take a side on anything because it might not be good for his political future. i know some decent people voted for him but how misguided they were. the man is an evil lying bastard and i don't care if he is white or black... i am sick of people like you and your "open your minds to new things" rant and oh, how many times have we heard the old "we need taxes for police and highways" you dumbass, of course we do but this man has put generations to come into a debt they can never pay.. and the waste... hard earned tax payers who work to pay for the schemes of organizations like acorn. community organizer what a laugh . only in your warped view of american would that qualify someone to be president of the greatest nation in the world.....can't you get it thru your head - we don't want to be europe. we don' t want the pathetic healthcare system of canada or england. why to do you think they come here for treatment? why, because we have the greatest healthcare in the world. sure, we have cost problems but that does not mean you dismantle the whole system when 87% of the american people are happy with their healthcare. this is just a manure by this regime to federally fund abortion and weed out the elderly and pay for illegal immigrantsare. we are tired of you and your "hate america" crowd who want to dismantle the greatest nation in the world. and by the way, 911 might have happened under gw's watch but it was under the clinton "regime" that the terroists were building up and planning the attacks while clinton did nothing but look for his next blow job. i was raised to be a lady but sometimes you have to talk turkey to nut cases like you. and another thing you sure did not mind while gw and his policies kept your ass safe after 911. now you want to go and hang the C.I.A for keeping us safe. i have said it before and i will say it again, with this administration what made this country good is is now considered bad and what was bad for this country is now good. i wish people like you would just go away.........you elitist know it all........blah.... i spit on you.....

lisa| 10.6.09 @ 9:07PM

Ha ha ha ha ha 87% are satisfied really? So, all the people who can't afford their insurance premiums or have crap for coverage or no insurance is only 13% of the population? According to your figures, less than half a million people are in need of healthcare. Republican or democrat that figure seems wrong.

simontemplar| 9.15.09 @ 12:08PM

Toddard is not a conservative but a left wing crank who is either unemployed, retired, or works for move on.org. Yes, you are beginning to get on my nerves. Is anyone else out there getting sick of your arrogance, misdirection, fraudulence, and disruption?

Scott| 9.15.09 @ 12:18PM

Jane- you are poorly informed, have short term memory problems or both. Interesting that you blame GB for 911 when in fact your boy Clinton had 8 years to catch Bin-laden and GB only had 8 months. In fact, on two separate occasions the Government of Sudan offered to capture and extradite Osama Bin-laden. Clinton refused Both times.
Your new president will go down in history as a fascist, and will do more damage to the Demos than you can possibly imagine.

S.L. Toddard| 9.15.09 @ 12:24PM

"Is anyone else out there getting sick of your arrogance, misdirection, fraudulence, and disruption"

Interestingly, no. Not one person. I'm universally loved here.

Leastof2weavils| 9.19.09 @ 1:48AM

I don't understand most of the points that I think your trying to make, but I'm not that smart. Your sarcasm is quite good and makes me laugh.

MJG| 9.15.09 @ 12:29PM

If we add all students up to age 25 to our current health programs you can help about 20 millon people w/o health ins. Cost to do this" ZERO!"

kay| 9.15.09 @ 12:30PM

hi i am back and i apologize to jane. she has every right to express her opinion which is why this country is great. hey- i feel like kanye west. anyway, i apolgize to everyone for my language. i was not raised to behave like that. i am 50 years old and i have never posted before this but i have felt so overwhelmed by what is happening to our country i guess i had to vent. thanks for your time.

Pingback| 9.15.09 @ 12:43PM

Thank you, Barack Obama « Obama the President links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

…sensible, prudent professionals. And it only took eight months. Thank you, President Obama, and we’ll look for more. You truly are the gift that keeps on giving.” – Ben Stein More HERE: Thank You, Barack Hussein Obama – Ben Stein Leave a Comment No Comments Yet » No comments yet. RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI Leave a comment Click here to cancel reply. Name…

Robert - Coeur d'Alene| 9.15.09 @ 1:01PM

Ben, I've been a huge fan of your columns for a decade or so, but I have to agree with the first commenter. Gloating on behalf of the milk-toast accommodationist enablers in the Republican party is lame.

Conservatism and representative democracy, not the ineffective co-conspirators that are today's Republican party, are the real beneficiaries of Obama's arrogance and overreach.

Ceeport| 9.15.09 @ 1:51PM

@ william bonney| 9.14.09 @ 5:19PM

"Both of the major political parties need to be tossed out with the rest of the smelly trash. It is time to cast off this destructive government and take a real, clean, fresh start."

I'm thinking more states should adopt the Decline to State (DTS) affiliation designation on their voter registration forms. I believe it's only available in California now. This designation allows voters to register to vote without choosing a party affiliation. Some states allow registering as an independent, but that term is confused with the American Independent Party.

If more than 30 percent of the voting population in this country were designated as DTS, maybe that would signal we want change. It's easy to change your party affiliation. Here is one place to start:

http://beavoter.org/congressor.....ster_vote/

What do you think of this idea?

Ed Coyne | 9.15.09 @ 2:00PM

MJG,
Are you high? What would possibly make you think that there would be no cost involved in covering an additional 20 million people with health insurance? EVERYTHING has a cost, even in the Obama's "free ice cream" world.

MADMARV!| 9.15.09 @ 2:27PM

TAKE THIS COUNTRY BACK FROM THE POLITICIANS, AND CORRUPT CONGRESS!
WHAT DO THEY KNOW, AND WHEN DID THEY KNOW IT?
THEY HAVE THE AUDACITY TO TELL US, THEY MISREMEMBER OR MISPOKE? WHAT A JOKE!
VOTE THE WHOLE ROTTEN APPLE BUNCH OF GORE-UPPITY CARPETBAGGERS OUT!
TAKE OUT THE REST OF THE GARBAGE, FRANK, DODD, PALOSIE , RIED AND BURRIS TOO! IT IS PAST THEIR TIME!
TELL THEM AMERICA IS THROUGH WITH THEIR AGENDA, AND THEIR CORRUPTION AND LIES, TO COVER-UP THEIR CULPABILITY!
GO AFTER ALL OF THEM AS VIGOROUSLY AS THE LAW ALLOWS. THERE ARE CONSEQUENCES FOR THEIR ACTIONS. THAT IS THE LESSON LEARNED.
REMEMBER BEFORE ALL THIS BAILOUT STARTED, THERE WAS WORLDCOM, GLOBAL CROSSING, THEN ENRON, AND WITH THAT IN MIND:
THE GE FINACIAL MANIPULTION IN THE LATE 70′S AND EARLY 80′S THAT COST GE THE LOSS OF “ALL” GOV’T CONTRACTS FOR FIVE (5) YEARS.
THE ONLY WAY THEY GOT OUT OF THEIR BIND, WAS TO BUY RCA.
THAT WAS WHEN JACK WELSH TOOK OVER FOR GE!
WHAT HAS “GE” DONE FOR YOU LATELY? OR IS THAT TOO YOU? MSNBC?
OH THAT’S, WRIGHT, MSNBC, KIETH OBERMAN, RADICAL MADDOW, AND CATIE COURIC!
DID I LEAVE OUT MOVEON.ORG AND G. SOROS?
TIME TO WAKE UP! AND REMEMBER THERE ARE CONSEQUESNCES FOR THEIR ACTION, JUST LIKE MADDOF, THERE IS A PRICE TO PAY!
AND THEY WILL NOT LIKE IT! BUT THE TAXPAYER’S ( “we the people” ) will speak loud and clear Nov, 2010! (time t speak softly, with a “BIG STICK!”)
AND STICK IT TO THEM LIKE THEY ARE TRYING TO STICK IT TO U.S. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I SAY AGAIN, 2010 NEVER AGAIN! 2012 WITH RESOLVE!
I DO BELIEVE “ALL” NOT PARTISAN HERE, MEMBERS OF THIS CONGRESS, AND SENATE,THEY DO NOT OWN THEIR SEAT, THERE IS NO ENTITLEMENT FOR THEIR FAMILY,!
UNLESS YOU ARE A KENNEDY OR A CLINTON?
FOR THE SEAT IS OWNED BY THE POPLE!
CAN YOU DIFFERENCIATE BETWEEN A STATESMAN AND A POLITICIAN?
YOU SHOULD GOOGLE THE “Bilderbergers Club”.§
THEN GET THE NAMES OF THE PARTICIPANTS, AND FIND THEIR CONGRESSIONAL SEAT, OFFICE AND DISTRICT, PETITION AND PICKET OUTSIDE, WITH THE FACTS, DATES AND AGENDA THEY ARE FOISTING ON THE U.S.
“I DO BELIEVE THAT MEANS YOU TOO!”
FOR THE SUPREAM COURT NOMINATION, THEY ARE ALL READY TO PUT IN THEIR BERKLEY.ESQ
PRO LEFT, PRO ABORTION, PRO GAY RIGHTS, AND ANTI CHRISTIAN-HATE SPEECH AGENDA, WITH SO-TO-MY-OR.
DON’T BE SURPRISED WHEN, GINSBURG, APTLY NAMED, IF YOU REMEMBER THE GRENICH VILLAGE, PRO GAY AGENDA FROM THE 60’S?
ALSO, WILL TENDER HER RESIGNATION.
SO THE OBAM ADMIN WILL GET A TWO FOR APPOINTMENT!
THERE ARE CONSEQUENCES FOR THEIR ACTIONS. AND FOR THIS ADMINISTRATION TOO!
NOT JUST THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION!§

WHEN YOU CAN DIFFERNCIATE NO DIFFERENCE EXCEPT, A SOCIALIST AGENDA AND/OR A PRO-CONSTITUTION, PRO BILL OF RIGHTS, STATES RIGHTS DIFFERANCE?

THEN YOU MIGHT, I SAY MIGHT WANT TO CHANGE YOUR OPINION OF THIS ADMINISTRATION.

BUT, "IF" YOU STILL HOPE FOR MOVEON.ORG, AND GEORGE SOROS TO COME IN ON HIS PALE HORSE AND SAVE YOUR ASS, YOUR HOUSE AND YOUR WELFARE CHECK?
YOU ARE SOROS, MISTS-TAKEN!
2010! NEVER AGAIN!
TIME TO TAKE OUR COUNTRY BACK, NOT HAND IT OVER TO THE U.N.

WE DO HAVE MORE PROBLEMS TO SOLVE, WITH THIS ADMINISTRATION,
AND WITH THE TALIBAN, AND THEIR AGENDA, VS FREEDOM !
AND OF THEM, GETTING THEIR HANDS AND AGENDA IN CONTROL OF PAKISTAN!

DO YOU REALLY BELIEVE MR. OBAMA HAS MADE YOU SAFE IN YOUR BED TONIGHT?

MADMARV!| 9.15.09 @ 2:29PM

TO REP OF (STATE) BOTH HOUSE AND SENATE:
I WISH TO HAVE YOU PRESENT THIS AS A LETTER FROM A CONCERNED CITIZEN, FOR REFORM OF THIS GOVERNMENT TO:
BARNY FRANK AND THE REST OF THIS ADMINISTRATION! IF, THEY THOUGHT “TEA PARTY” WAS A MOVEMENT?
WELL, THEIR TERM LIMIT, IS UP IN 2010!
SOONER IF, OF THEIR PROSECUTION AND INDICTMENT BRING CONVICTIONS FOR THIS CONGRESS AND ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS. TIME TO SEND A CLEAR MESSAGE TO WASHINGTON! "WHERE THEIR COLLUSION AND CONSPIRACY", WITH THE ACORN AND THE SEIU, UNION ORGANIZATION’S ARE CONCERNED, WITH TACIT APPROVAL OF THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN AND DEMOCRATIC PARTY THAT IS WHAT, IS ACTIONABLE IN OVER 14 STATES NOW THAT ARE PROSECUTING THEM.
A VOTER RIGHTS AMENDMENT IS NEEDED NOT “JUST” FOR THE ABSENTEE BALLOTS OF WHICH 1/4 OF WHICH WE ARE NOW AWARE WERE NOT COUNTED. AND NOT JUST FOR THE MILITARY! TIME TO END THE FUNDING FOR VOTER FRAUD! SEND A BILL TO THE CONGRESS AND THE SENATE FOR VOTER REFORM NOW! HOLD ALL THESE "SERVANTS OF THEMSELVES" ACCOUNTABLE! MORE STATES ARE COMING TO THEIR SENSES, AND REAFFIRMING THE TENTH AMENDMENT! REMIND PALOSIE AND OBAMA, THAT "THE AMERICAN PEOPLE", THEY DO NOT WORK FOR THE FEDERAL GOV'T!
IT IS TIME TO CALL FOR THE RESIGNATION AND IMPEACHMENT OF THESE INDIVIDUALS IN OFFICE.
“IF” THEY HAVE ANY WRONGDOING, IE: "MALFEASANCE" IN OFFICE, THEY ARE ACCOUNTABLE! THE FEDERAL GOV'T WORKS, FOR THE STATES! AND THE PEOPLE!
AND THAT THEY, ARE ACCOUNTABLE TO THE "PEOPLE!" "NOT" THE OTHER WAY AROUND!
"WE THE PEOPLE" NEED TO TAKE BACK THE AUTHORITY, WE DELEGATE, THERE WILL BE AN ACCOUNTING,AND THAT DAY WILL BE ELECTIONS, IN 2010, THEN AGAIN IN 2012. TAKE HEART AND REMEMBER, YOUR VOTE, COUNTS, NO MATER WHAT ACORN, AND SEIU TRY TO DO, THEY WILL "NOT" PREVAIL. "WE THE PEOPLE" WILL HOLD THEM ACCOUNTABLE. WRITE AND PROTEST, AND PICKET OUTSIDE THEIR OFFICES, IN YOUR HOME STATE, JUST LIKE THE TEA PARTIES, YOUR VOICE DOES MAKE A DIFFERANCE, I THINK THEY HEAR U.S. LOUD AND CLEAR! ON APR 15TH, NOW GET OUT THERE AND MAKE "YOU" VOICE LOUD AND PROUD TO BE AN "AMERICAN" WITH "AMERICAN VALUES" AND KEEP YOUR INDIVIDUAL, RIGHTS AND DIGNITY INTACT! ACT! NOW! LIKE YOU KNOW IN YOUR HEART, IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO! WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE TO TELL YOUR CHILDREN, IF YOU WON'T STAND UP FOR THEM? YOU ARE THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE UN? "HE11, NO! WE WON'T" GO! AND WE ARE STAYING THE COURSE!
IMPEACH THEM NOW! THEN, PROSECUTE THEM TO THE FULLEST EXTENT OF THE LAW, IN ALL FIFTY STATES! TIME FOR “ALL” OF U.S. - TO TAKE A STAND, CONTACT YOUR CONGRESSMAN, AND STATES REPRESENTATIVE.
THEN, MAKE THE CASE FOR STATES RIGHTS AND VOTER REFORM, FOR THE SAKE OF THIS NATION!
TELL THE WANT TO CONTROL, GOV'T, "WE THE PEOPLE" HAVE CONTROL! AND IMPEACH THOSE;
WHO DO NOT FOLLOW THE LETTER AS WELL AS THE SPIRIT OF THE CONSTITUTION, AND OATH THEY SWORE TO UPHOLD!
THEN IMPEACH THOSE THAT PLAY FAST AND SHADY WITH THE "LETTER" OF THE LAW, AND ENFORCE THE LAWS WE DO HAVE FOR ANTI-CORRUPTION, MALFEASANCE AND WRONGDOING OF OUR PUBLIC OFFICIALS!
THEN PROSECUTE THEM "ALL" IN "ALL" FIFTY STATE JURISDICTIONS, AND LET THEM KNOW THAT "WE THE PEOPLE" ARE THE GOV'T THEY SHOULD FEAR!
NOT THE LAWYERS FOR ACLU! AND BOUNCE OBAMA AND FRANK, PALOSIE, RIED, DODD AND THE REST OUT ON THEIR EAR AND REAR!
2010! NEVER AGAIN! 2012! WITH RESOLVE! OUR, PROBLEM? SOLVED!

Jim Leslie| 9.15.09 @ 2:31PM

While I completely agree with your piece, I just cringe knowing Obama will remain in office for the next 3 1/2 years. Obama's in a game WAY over his head. I'm afraid we're in for a very bumpy and unpleasant ride during his tenure.

Independent Party Will Doom Us| 9.15.09 @ 2:38PM

Unfortunately, Mr. Smith, trying to fundamentally change things through independent party candidates will do nothing but keep the Obamatrons in power for another six years. We all know that Ross Perot's third party candidacy caused Bill Clinton to be elected in 1992. Independent candidates will only serve to keep Democrats in control of both houses of Congress and the oval office ad infinum. Quite the contrary Mr. Smith. To end the current out-of-control spending and unprecedented government-takeovers, we must find Republican candidates who have the same limited-government values of Ronald Reagan, in order to return the party to its fundamental roots that were completely destroyed by George Bush. Only through such republican candidates can we hope to stop this unprecedented power-grab by the democrats. Independent candidates will do nothing but maintain the status quo.

Shelly Hesse| 9.15.09 @ 2:56PM

To Adam Smith who is first in line with comments. The problem is that "conservatives" have grown a pair and are fighting back. Thank you Mr. Stein for you article. All of it.

Catherine| 9.15.09 @ 3:01PM

Toddard, don't misinterpret being ignored!

Independant Party will Doom Us, it is said; "Those who only see things as they are will never know what could be." And then there is that old addage about repeating the same old thing and expecting different results.
If you are going to go with that lack-of-thought that says no matter what the Republican Party does they are less of a problem than the Democratic Party, I ask; What is right/good about less of a bad thing?????

simon templar| 9.15.09 @ 3:11PM

toddard..apparently people prefer ignoring you rather than responding....and being loved is absolutely ridiculous which proves my point about your arrogance and self absorbtion.

Pingback| 9.15.09 @ 3:19PM

“Thank You, Barack Obama” | A JEW WITH A VIEW links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

…You, Barack Obama” This letter may resonate with anyone – whether American or not – who is concerned about Obama’s presidency. It comes via The American Spectator . Enjoy! Thank You, Barack Obama By Ben Stein Dear Mr. President: As a 64-year-old, lifelong fiscal conservative and Republican since Nixon, may I humbly thank you? In the eight months or so since you took office, you have…

Sue| 9.15.09 @ 3:28PM

Hilarious! Two programs heading for bankruptcy, Social Security and Medicare, given to us by Democrats who offered "utopia" in America, and they now need the Republicans to pull their butts out of the fire.

I say let them do their universal health care, pay off the unions, implement "card check," "cap and tax," and when they've finished we'll look like Mexico with the corruption to boot!

When we baby boomers can't get SEIU union members to get us off the bed pans because it violates the "work rules" we would have gotten to Democrat heaven and then Jane can come in and implement the "ending." The drugs will be compliments of GWB! Ahhh, political utopia for sure.

Independent Party Will Doom Us| 9.15.09 @ 3:36PM

Catherine, in all due respect, you seem to have missed my point. Although I firmly believe that the Republican Party is, in fact, MUCH "less of a problem than the Democratic Party", there is no way that independent party candidates will ever be elected to major offices in the U.S. -- and certainly not the presidency. The only thing that an independent party will do is split the "conservative" vote and give the election to the Democrats. As a result, we need to have Republican candidates who are philosophically close to Ronald Reagan's principles of limited government and reduced government spending. While Reagan was not totally in line with the latter ideal, the Republicans are so far ahead of the Democrats in this regard (no Republicans voted for the so-called "stimulus" bill) that the two parties cannot even be compared on this point.

MPR | 9.15.09 @ 3:48PM

Health care policy researchers are contradicting President Obama's claim that a government-run health insurance program would be self-sufficient and could rely on premiums, saying it's not possible to insure up to 30 million people with better coverage ... www.speakoutforfreedom.com

Grzmlyk| 9.15.09 @ 3:55PM

Hey, turd, I have some news that may upset you:

The only reason you are on this site is emotional need. The only reason you hold the views you do is emotional need. The only reason you regurgitate liberal dogma with such a pathological obsessiveness is emotional need.

Don't wanta burst your bubble, but it has nothing to do with logic or reason. Or intellect.

Now, given how much you've posted here of late, and the blatant desperation that bleeds through even your least original content, I'd say the emotional need has become pretty overpowering. Something is going on in the turd's life that seems to be upsetting him.

So what's wrong, sweetheart? What's going on in that twisted, ugly, totalitarian, toilet of a world of yours?

Is the Kingdom of One getting lonely? The sock puppets just not doing it for you anymore? Even your imaginary friends have left you? Even other turds are avoiding you?

Share your feelings with the group. Hey, therapy may have prevented Hitler!

We may be able to stop you before you do something rash, el turdo grande. Don't flush yourself down the toilet just yet.

I'm always here to help.

Aaron | 9.15.09 @ 4:08PM

After a journey of years through a landscape of devastation, past the ruins of great factories, the wrecks of powerful engines, the bodies of invincible men, we have come upon the despoiler, expecting to find a giant - we have found a rat eager to scurry for cover at the first sound of a human step. If Obama is the force we allow to beat us... then the guilt is our own.

Daryl Price| 9.15.09 @ 4:15PM

The 9-11 accusation that the Bush administration knew about it is outlandish. But....so to is President Obama is not a citizen, he is a Muslim, death pannels, health reform will cover illegal immigrants, and pay for abortions, White Water, Swift Boat , etc......With todays lack of investigative journalism....lies are thrown out ....and there are certain numbers that believe them. I guess some progressives, who started the 9-11 thing, learned from the masters.
Shame on President Obama for wanting to bring health insurance to the uninsured......for trying to get rid of pre-existing conditions, .....stopping insurance companies from dropping people when they get sick. How dare he try to get a public option to force out of control health insurers to check their greed.
President Obama does not claim that reforms to Medicare will pay for health reforms......it is one of many things that can be improved and bring savings. Everyone knows that the government run program -Medicare- runs well. There is some financial problems lately....like other institutions are experiencing during this recession, but efficiency wise it is way ahead of private insurance companies. President Obama also can pay for his health care reforms by getting out of the unnecessary war in Iraq, and rolling back the unethical tax break that Bush gave to the richest 1%.
Your statement about the government getting between doctors and their patients is absurd. Check the numbers and the facts. When you compare the track record of Medicare and private insurance companies.......all I can say is.....are you kidding me? Not only do insurance companies deny treatments if they are too expensive.....they will also drop you completely. I don't know of any examples of GOVERNMENT run Medicare ever doing that.
The coddling of Iran is actually an example of what normal, mature countries do through diplomatic relations. This is foreign to the Bush administration that was driven more by military weapons profits than actual dialogue. Keep things stirred up is much more profitable for the number one exporter of military weapons in the world....us.
The bail out you claim as a negative......happened to save us from a possible depression. Any real economist.....concurred with this move as well as the Bush administtation.
So your claim that President Obama has rejuvenated the republicans- who knows?.....it does not really matter. The majority of Americans see the republicans as the old negative party that has no solutions of their own......and are completely wrong in their criticisms.

Teri Belleau| 9.15.09 @ 4:23PM

Ben...I just love you! You have such a clever way of wording the obvious follies of this Administration and President! Keep up the GREAT work! I wish someone could find out if Obama really is the President...or just the mouthpiece of George Soros! I mean...he is the financial backer to ALL of Obama's Community roots & organizations. Certainly NO ONE, in their right mind that is, would listen to a word that comes out of that social idiots mouth...Hence...Barrack H. Obama...the smooth talking, radical, community organizer mouth piece. Just saying...

jr| 9.15.09 @ 4:32PM

Ben, you are usually a little more quiet and subdued in your critiques. But, of course, the past months has given many of us a shot of adrenalin to take on the comforts that the Dimocrats are trying to help us with. I wish to vouch for the comments made by anyone that the fraud and abuse savings in the health care area, specifically anything to do with Health and Human Service, includes Medicare and Medicaid, is completely false. That ruse has been used in every budget at least over the past 30 to 40 years. I invite anyone to check. It is also used to support the budgets of almost every Federal program. You Lie!

Catherine| 9.15.09 @ 4:49PM

Independent Party Will Down, I know what you were saying I've been hearing that same mantra for the last 2030 years, I repeat, doing the same thing over and over and over and over, and expecting different results - it's called insanity!

Dayrl Price; shame on those insurance companies trying to do what they are in business for MAKING MONEY. And thanks to the king for anointing himself the one to dictate all aspects of that business, the banking, the auto etc., etc., etc. The king has no desire to help anyone but himself and his court to all that money he doesn't want honest businesses to make!

Tony| 9.15.09 @ 5:04PM

Hey Jane, Where's your dick? You are just like every TOM , Dick and Harry liberal kuckelhead out there! Yeah, sure Bush was responsible for 9-11and Osama is a good guy right? We provoked him in his cave! What a joke! To boot, You Say Bush won re-eletion because of 9-11 and Mr Obama won because of the economy, WHICH, is and will be worse off in the future, because of his free fall spending! Wake UP! You drank so much cool-aid you're drunk!

Mike Bergsma| 9.15.09 @ 5:26PM

Wow, Ben's article has created a lot of passion out there. One response to some of the commentors, the TeaParty folks in my town are pure grassroots. None of their local leaders were involved in politics before and they have done a great job of making the voice of the middle class heard.

Catherine| 9.15.09 @ 5:48PM

Mike Bergsma, yes, so many [9-12ers] were not involved before so why do we want to somehow apply their activity to a party (Republican) whose opinion does not concur, why not a fresh start!
Look at the Chair of the RNC, surely not a staunch Conservative, MN State party just elected a Party Chair who is just part of the old corruption so why, why, why agree-by-association with this ilk????

Ken (Old Texican)| 9.15.09 @ 6:30PM

Catherine
Sorry, lady, the Republicans are not exactly what we want.
Do you think ANY third party would be exactly what you want?
...Of course not.
I will tell you one thing; never in my long life have we a better chance to nominate then elect a LOT of serious constitutionalists to congress and the Senate. Finally finally, the people have waked up to our situation.
We can cripple Obama's effort to create a dictatorship of the proletariat by electing solid men and women.
Will those men and women be perfect? Of course not, but the only party within which they can survive is the Republican party.
Once we get solid people elected though, we have to keep paying attention, and cheer for them when they do the right things.

will_in_sf| 9.15.09 @ 6:30PM

i am a right-leaning centrist and appreciate that president obama is a liar of clintonesque magnitude. however the republicans even now are hardly championing conservative principles. we do not need a new party that of course itself once it has actual power will just be taken over by special interests just as the other two have already been. we need the people of this country who pay taxes for all these welfare queens both individual and corporate to stand together enough to reclaim good governance.

the tea parties are a good start but they must be sustained to the point of bearing fruit especially in congress.

Vexorg the Unruly| 9.15.09 @ 6:37PM

Oh blow it out your barnyard epithet, "Adam!"

You libertarian crazies are worse.

Ferris Bueller| 9.15.09 @ 6:39PM

You were always my favorite economics teacher! I'm sorry I cut your class so much.

dka| 9.15.09 @ 6:40PM

Ben Stein, thank you for yet again another exellent article. Your eloquent note to B.O. however begs the question why you call Wilson's outburst a disgrace! It is not! When you come to the end of a line of lies, and lies, and lies, and all the other salient points that you have made, a person suffers either the rupture of a bloodvessel, or, as you so correctly called it, 'bursts out' with the truth. People have had enough with a Pravda like MSM, and Pravda so called papers. The only thing left thanks to a bunch of stupid people who voted for an empty suit are townhall meetings or contacting politicians. Little good that will do with this out of touch crowd.
Arrogance is covering that this WH occcupant knows nothing about governing, puerile in their manners they stomp their feet and call it "racism" if they do not get their way.
Racism to call him Hussein, community agitator, ooops, organizer, if you are against his health care, the corruption in his administration, everything falls under racism. If that is going to be the case, then I will be soon a racist, and proud of it, despite the fact that I have worked with minorities. But we are living in the age of 'the emperor has no clothes'. Wilson did us all a favor, thank you very much!

Ken (Old Texican)| 9.15.09 @ 6:43PM

Will in sf
You are precisely correct. See my post just above.
The Tea party "happening" is just that...an honest WHAT THE HECK by fellow Americans.
I am a member of T.E.A.M. AMERICA. www.myteamusa.org
We hope you will join us as we take apart this totalitarian monstrosity one bone at a time...hmmmmm perhaps several bones at a time.
We have access to more money than Soros, we have the truth as well as humans can understand it, and we stand for the constitution and smallest government.
You can get a glimpse of our thought at http://judgeroy.wordpress.com

Mike| 9.15.09 @ 7:08PM

You are one of my favorites. Conservatives will not rejoin the Republican Party until the likes of John McCain have been banished from membership. The conservative element in the US is much greater than the GOP admits or would like to believe. The Demos will be sandbagged if they believe that the failure to purge RINOS from the GOP will make eunuchs of conservatives.

brat | 9.15.09 @ 7:09PM

I actually wrote a while back that BO just might be the best thing to happen to America in a while. Thanks for agreeing with me, when many wanted to smack me...I have posted this and linked to you.:)

Catherine| 9.15.09 @ 7:19PM

Ken(old Texican) 3rd parties are not in-and-of-themselves a good alternative, and, yes they could as well be as polluted as the current two biggies. Is it posible we do not NEED any party affiliation???? We talk of acting outside the box, we have this marvelous tool (until the king takes it away) called the internet, it is a changing world!
My disenchantment with the GOP comes from many years of involvement, their "dictates" from the top of who can/can't, should/shouldn't be nominated, the hierarchy who prevents people from speaking (can we say Ron Paul 2008???), went they taught a grass roots agenda that they ignore, put up candidates because; "it is their turn" and more will have to be overcome in order for the masses to make waves. Soooo we'd need to fight that battle and then take on the next, why not skip that fight and move on to the latter????

Catherine| 9.15.09 @ 7:20PM

WE NEED SPELL-CHECK HERE!

taz| 9.15.09 @ 7:29PM

Since so many of you are blaming GWB for 9/11. I came across a 1984 calendar that was on stamps that were printed in 1959 to celebrate 100 years of oil. The Republic of Iran stamp looks eerily like the twin towers being threatened by an airplane. Now who was sleeping on the job? Yes, a post 9/11 view could change the way this is viewed but what about the Americans that were held hostage almost until Reagan's inaugaration. Who has been sleeping on the job? I believe the answer is ALL of us for how many of us no longer vote or really pay attention to the elected and what they are doing. There are too many elected that just keep getting reelected because they are on the ballot. It is time to send ALL elected officials out to pasture preferably in some other country. It is time that regular citizens can once again hold political office. The constitution is supposed to keep the country in control of we the people not your local bureacrat. The kindest thing 9/11 could have done was hit the capitol during a joint session like a certain book...

Louis Jenkins| 9.15.09 @ 8:00PM

Dear Ben:

I said in a post yesterday that "the next candidate for the GOP is already being decided upon in some dim lit smoke filled room," and he/she will at best be a poser conservative. The Republican leaders will serve up more of the same ol' same ol', and if their man or woman is elected due to the sweeping political backlash against the Obamanation, the change will be minimal. Only a glimmer of hope will be perceived by conservative movement, and after four to eight years, the march towards complete, unadulterated Socialism will continue. Revived Republican party? It is more of a whimper from a dying party, considering what I've seen. (Joe Wilson was the only GOP member who really got down to the truth last week, all the rest were so polite they wouldn't have took a breath if it didn't come and go naturally.) Those people in DC last Saturday were not Republicans. They were American Citizens and they were not happy with either party. Revive? They'd pull the plug on both parties if they could!!

fishlady| 9.15.09 @ 8:19PM

Thank you Ben. I think I love you! But we need to keep the pressure on. While it's true Obama is fueling this awakening, it is not just Republicans coming alive. It is AMERICA! We want to end this partisen nonsense and go back to the truths our founding fathers wrote so simply and eloquently in our Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and the Bill Of Rights. (The FIRST Bill Of Rights). Most Americans have never read those documents but it's not too late to educate them!

Liberal Breeder| 9.15.09 @ 10:06PM

Community Organizer in Thief is more like it.

Top Hat| 9.15.09 @ 10:12PM

Clinton is at fault for 9/11, liberal morons.

Clinton in office-----8 YEARS
Bush in office..........8 MONTHS

Clinton should have taken custody of Bid Laden 5 different times when he had the chance in the '90s.

whatcountry amilivingin| 9.15.09 @ 10:18PM

Remember Ben was one of the financial gurus (like Kudlow) who told us in early 2008 that the home mortgage default rates were miniscule and were nothing to worry about. Listening to him cost me a few bucks so I would take his political advice with a good deal of skepticism. The only thing I like about Ben these days is that the New York Times fired him. Way to go Ben! Starting to get your creds back.

Steve| 9.15.09 @ 10:20PM

Well put, but it still doesn't change the fact that the Repubs have no leadership or any on the horizon. Nor do they have any set of coherent ideas to rally around. They have no record of fiscal responsibility for years and years. They are mired in social issues that have nothing to do with the federal government. They are so hung up on illegal immigration that they support spending millions of dollars to confiscate private property to build a useless wall. They have a recent history of ultra-partisanship to rival that of Pelosi. I voted Repub from 1968 to 2002, but found it harder and harder to do so, so I just finally stopped voting. I'll vote Repub in 2010, but I'll have to hold my nose to do so.

Daryl | 9.15.09 @ 10:45PM

Catherine......no one is against a business making a profit. But when the profit comes at the expense of people's rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness...it has gone too far. Obvious examples: health insurance companies dropping people's coverage when they get seriously sick.....in order to make exorbitant profits. Or not covering someone because of a trumped up pre-existing condition....like acne (actually happened). Why do conservatives trust out of control corporations, that they have no control of ....more than their own government in which they can hold accountable every election?

Marcel| 9.15.09 @ 10:51PM

Because of the absolute stench of corruption in the democrat party; there's no way I could EVER vote for them.

Repubs better clean up their act.

Son of Taz| 9.16.09 @ 8:33AM

In my opinion, Ben Stein is the most lucid conservative writer alive today. He has an uncanny sense for putting everything in perspective.

If you haven't seen his documentary film "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed", I heartily recommend it. Here's a link to the trailer: http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2095120665/ . It's seven and one-half minutes and will be the best seven and one-half minutes you spend on the internet.

Pingback| 9.16.09 @ 9:37AM

Links 9/16/09 « The Chicken Coop links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

…are probably so tired of me posting links. I’m thinking I’m going to post a few of the better ones I read each day here on my blog and then maybe just link my blog on Facebook. Thank you, Barrack Obama I love Ben Stein! Community Service is not what made America great: Maybe I should send a link to the Social Studies teacher. In fact, I think I will! Love Him, Hate Him: Great blog post from…

Maggie Rudolf| 9.16.09 @ 9:57AM

Joe Wilson is anAmerican Hero. Jimmy Carter has called his remark racist. Does this mean that a black person cannot tell a lie (implying that only white people can lie)? The fact is, the President lied about many things so far in this administration and continues to do so.

Pingback| 9.16.09 @ 10:30AM

– Obama’s Revival of the Republican Party links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

…else has. The numbers from the 9/12 march, and at rallies across the country, have proved that this is more than a fringe contingent of the right. Despite what any media source would have you believe. Ben Stein writes: You have named men to office so wildly irresponsible, so extreme in their positions, so vulgar in their means of expression, that they have made the Republican Party regain its of gleam of gentility…

Robert| 9.16.09 @ 11:06AM

Twenty years of Obumma sitting at the feet of his deranged Leader Rev Wright are now belching back at America, the country he eagerly sought to learn to despise and to damn.

Pingback| 9.16.09 @ 12:21PM

Revealing His True Nature - Spectator.org | Online Trends links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

…- Spectator.org Revealing His True Nature - Spectator.org September 16, 2009 Easy AdSense by Unreal Reader Mail Revealing His True Nature 9.16.09 @ 6:01AM STUPID AND TACKY Re: Ben Stein’s Thank You, Barack Obama: Ben Stein pretty much nailed it in his condemnation of Obama on who he associates with but he appeared to leave out one very relevant statement by the “sainted” (at least by that great…

ATLmedia | 9.16.09 @ 1:43PM

This guy get paid by the word or what....

Catherine| 9.16.09 @ 3:15PM

Dayrl,
Many of the problems people have with their insurance/costs/etc. are due to that trustworthy government you mention, the members of who are bought and paid for by trial lawyers. Why do you not find distasteful when politicians (you know, those "servents of the people"and lawyers get rich over these issues but those taking a risk with their money (yes, that is what true insurance is) should not gain?
Do you realize how much of what is covered under what is called insurance but is actually pre-paid medicine is mandated by government?
If we had true insurance where one could shop for the coverage they wanted, choice of coverage, choice of deductable, choice of carrier(many states will not allow purchasing outside the state while state mandates have pushed up costs etc.), more medical savings accounts (not allowed in many areas) and other intrusions. If government would get out of the way and let the market work we'd all see costs go down.
Somehow I don't find free medicine covered under any part of the Constitution. Where is the right of those, where is the freedom of those, people paying the bill! What freedom do people have when the fruits of their labor are taken under threats of going to jail in order to pay for those who will not work for their own, yes I said won't, there are few and far between those who truely cannot afford what they NEED, not want, (hair pieces, face lifts, sex change operations and on and on and on) mandated by laws. Current laws prohibit any hospital from turning away patients (even those who are not citizens of our country!) and most pharmaceutical companies have programs supplying medications for those truely in need.
First and foremost where is it in the Constitution for the Federal Government to have any involment in making medical decisions for you?
Get Washington out of health care, restore Tort reform, and get over the idea that anyone breathing is due anything! If an insurance company then overcharges etc. they will soon be out of business as FREE people will buy where they choose! I as a human being have a conscience and a responsibility to myself to love my neighbor as myself, YOU or any government have no right to take my money and dictate who and what and where will get attention from which doctor, when and where!

Catherine| 9.16.09 @ 3:15PM

Dayrl,
Many of the problems people have with their insurance/costs/etc. are due to that trustworthy government you mention, the members of who are bought and paid for by trial lawyers. Why do you not find distasteful when politicians (you know, those "servents of the people"and lawyers get rich over these issues but those taking a risk with their money (yes, that is what true insurance is) should not gain?
Do you realize how much of what is covered under what is called insurance but is actually pre-paid medicine is mandated by government?
If we had true insurance where one could shop for the coverage they wanted, choice of coverage, choice of deductable, choice of carrier(many states will not allow purchasing outside the state while state mandates have pushed up costs etc.), more medical savings accounts (not allowed in many areas) and other intrusions. If government would get out of the way and let the market work we'd all see costs go down.
Somehow I don't find free medicine covered under any part of the Constitution. Where is the right of those, where is the freedom of those, people paying the bill! What freedom do people have when the fruits of their labor are taken under threats of going to jail in order to pay for those who will not work for their own, yes I said won't, there are few and far between those who truely cannot afford what they NEED, not want, (hair pieces, face lifts, sex change operations and on and on and on) mandated by laws. Current laws prohibit any hospital from turning away patients (even those who are not citizens of our country!) and most pharmaceutical companies have programs supplying medications for those truely in need.
First and foremost where is it in the Constitution for the Federal Government to have any involment in making medical decisions for you?
Get Washington out of health care, restore Tort reform, and get over the idea that anyone breathing is due anything! If an insurance company then overcharges etc. they will soon be out of business as FREE people will buy where they choose! I as a human being have a conscience and a responsibility to myself to love my neighbor as myself, YOU or any government have no right to take my money and dictate who and what and where will get attention from which doctor, when and where!

MG| 9.16.09 @ 3:53PM

Ben, even if we could find true conservatives, not the weenies we've had for 20 years, and people of character, what progress and puplic opinion improvement could they make? The media's lies of omission used with Obama, would turn into a 24/7 /365 bashing and smearing of any such leaders.

James | 9.16.09 @ 5:17PM

You're right about Obama. He certainly has helped the Republican Party. HOWEVER, the GOP should be WARNED. It also is being watched. We are tired of BOTH parties lying to us, spending us into a hole, ignoring the Constitution. Just because the Republicans do that less, or to a lesser degree, than Democrats, doesn't mean we're going to tolerate it much more from them either.

Faithful Americans are putting BOTH parties on notice.. shape up, or we're through with you. We won't let you wreck our great nation, no matter what party you're part of. So enough NEO-CON nonsense, and enough liberal treachery.

It's time once again to be Americans, and let the rest either like it, or leave it.

YoG| 9.16.09 @ 7:53PM

Thank you, Ben Stein! You have a lot to offer America in wisdom and perspective. Keep doing what you're doing!

Pingback| 9.16.09 @ 7:55PM

Ben Stein tells it like it is! « Callsign Snoopys Doghouse links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

…Blog Stats Spam 5,618 SPAM BLOCKED protected by WP-Spamfree A quick note to the peanut farmer. » Ben Stein tells it like it is! By Pubulis, on September 16th, 2009 The American Spectator : Thank You, Barack Obama By Ben Stein on 9.14.09 @ 12:36PM Dear Mr. President: As a 64-year-old, lifelong fiscal conservative and Republican since Nixon, may I humbly thank you? In the eight months or so since…

Pingback| 9.17.09 @ 12:36PM

Another Reason To Love Ben Stein…As If We Needed Another Reason! « Conservative Mama links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

Thinking With A Conservative Twist Home About Me Another Reason To Love Ben Stein…As If We Needed Another Reason! 2009 September 17 by Angela Below is a piece that Ben Stein wrote in The American Spectator. It is a thank you note to Barack Obama for all he’s done to revive the ailing Republican Party. It is a perfectly worded piece, which I think clearly sums up the frustrations and concerns…

Pingback| 9.17.09 @ 5:45PM

Obama’s confession « GOODNESS WORLD LIFE BLOG links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

NESS WORLD LIFE BLOG GOODNESS WORLD LIFE BLOG The Greatest Good, for the Greatest Number Home About Allan Erickson Obama’s confession . The famous Does Experience Matter video Thank You, Barack Obama By Ben Stein on 9.14.09 Dear Mr. President: As a 64-year-old, lifelong fiscal conservative and Republican since Nixon, may I humbly thank you? In the eight months or so since you took office, you…

Eric| 9.17.09 @ 8:13PM

"The idea that you can do a trillion dollar plus program with no new taxes and not add to the deficit and you swear that's true is all too much like your promise to..."

Uhhhh.... Didn't Bush do a $1 TRILLION+ program without paying for it? I think it was called the Iraq War, and I think you have your Presidents confused.

Pingback| 9.18.09 @ 2:26AM

Thank you, Barack Obama | PowerTowneDistro.com links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

Conservative Outpost: New - Unlimited Hosting at GoDaddy.com! September 18, 2009 Thank you, Barack Obama Filed under: Politics — Lew @ 2:26 am Sincerely, Ben Stein. http://spectator.org/archives/2009/09/14/thank-you-barack-obama Share and Enjoy: No Comments » No comments yet. RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL Leave a comment Name (required) Mail (will not be published) (required)…

Daphne| 9.20.09 @ 10:50AM

No matter what you say, it is amusing how obviously biased you are.

Jack Burn| 9.20.09 @ 3:56PM

" push us closer day by day to national bankruptcy"

I think his intent is to actually push us to national bankruptcy and to make the USA another Venezuela.

Nobama Bin Lyin| 9.26.09 @ 7:52PM

Wow! I love how we are all coming together in peace and harmony under the new Messiah. I'm glad someone was eloquent enough in teleprompter manipulation to usher us into a new era of civility where fairness, kindness & decency is applied to all because we are so precious in HIS sight. Mmm, mmm, mmm.Oh kumbayah everybody! Now lets all hold hands and smoke a joint while we suck our lover's wee-wee and hug a tree. And if our crystals and magnetic bracelets see fit to bless us maybe a spotted owl will come and poop in our nasty matted braids. Gosh, now I really do believe that you come from monkeys! I've been so blind all along. All this global warming had me so screwed up in the brain that I was still waiting, after all these years, for the ice age that Earthday promised me 30 + years ago. Thank you Messiah, can I have some money now?

Trackback| 9.28.09 @ 1:49AM

Homeowners Quote, on Homeowners Quote, links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

It is worth remembering that, as with a lot of things these days, homeowners insurance is a complex subject and finding the right policy for your own individual circumstances and budget can be extremely difficult unless you know what you are doing.

lisa| 10.6.09 @ 8:21PM

Seriously? Ya'll should listen to yourselves, trying to sound intelligent about the state of politics. Left wing liberal this, right wing conservative that. Obama's only been in office 8 months look at the mess we're in, where's the change? What happened to that? The Conservatives lost their way trying to appease the liberal dems...Has anyone here figured out yet that politics is just a game and all of us are the pawns whose lives get messed with? If you really paid atttention to anything other than your own partisan attitudes you would see that every bright-eyed newbie that comes to Washington (or any state capital) believes THEY are the one that will be able to make the MUCH NEEDED political changes, but the truth is they are powerless to make any changes at all, because the government is simply TOO BIG to run efficiently or change easily or quickly. In an effort to make eveything fair, the forefathers devised what we know as our government. Everyone who has been to school in the US should know how the 3 bodies work and should know that congress is too darn big to function reasonably. Does it make much sense to to have so many people trying to agree on things? Does anyone ever question WHY it has to take so long to legislation passed through congress, even simple stuff? The two party system is a dumb idea altogether. Both sides just fight with each other all the time and it filters into the population. We're a nation divided into liberals vs conservatives. We are always a nation divided because of our government. The best policy is in the middle. I have been hearing the same tired BS about capitalism and rich getting richer/poor getting poorer since I was old enough to learn about politics and one thing I know is that it's the same tune regardless of who is the party in power. If politicians actually worked for the greater good (meaning the people) and not for the lobbyists (big business), it seems there might be a chance for things to change. Healthcare has been an issue for a number of years and there is always a lot of talk, but nothing ever really happens. If something happened just once in Washington instead of childish partisan complaining on both sides of the fence....I hesitate to think of that momentous event, the capitol might colapse.

Gerelene Carpenter| 11.2.09 @ 6:05AM

Thank You Mr President
You have brought back the meaning of impeachment to all americans.

Augustus Schteranko| 11.15.09 @ 1:46PM

The problem with some people is that, when it comes to medicine which is one of the areas the jews manipulate, they don't want to be taken off the monopoly they have. Not only we shold have the health care reform but also the agrarian reform too, like Che wanted to do in Cuba.

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I’ll have a Poptropica full written walkthrough very soon, but in the meantime, here are some answers to some of the frequently asked questions about Mythology Island. Having trouble? Post a question in the comments and I’ll try to answer it!
Getting Hercules to Help You Poptropica

Hercules won’t help you until you have all five items from Zeus’ quest. Once you have the five items, bring them to Athena. Zeus will appear and steal them. The big jerk! Once this happens, talk to Athena and she will tell you that Hercules will help you. You’ll need to have the magic mirror from Aphrodite because Hercules doesn’t want to have to walk. He’s so lazy!
Getting the Hydra Scale poptropica

You can see how to do this in the videos, but basically you need to jump up when the Hydra is about to strike. He will rear one of his heads back to attack and his eyes will bulge out. poptropica
When this happens, jump up in the air and then try to land on top of his head. That head will get knocked out. When all five heads get knocked out, the Hydra will be asleep and you can click on him to get one of the scales. poptropica
I’ll have a full written walkthrough very soon, but in the meantime, here are some answers to some of the frequently asked questions about Mythology Island. Having trouble? Post a question in the comments and I’ll try to answer it!poptropica

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Vanessa | 5.18.11 @ 4:09PM

President Obama is a fine President He should get the respect and second chance like any other prior President. Call it race card or not. I did not hear all of this dis respect for him when He got this country out of a Major Depression. Now corporate milking cows are still wanting him out so they can continue to steal money from the companies. Using laying off people as a black mail tool. Companies are now making record profits so why are they not hiring. Just a pack of Lies!!!!!!

The American Spectator

Breaking News

Thank You, Barack Obama

About the Author

Letter to the Editor View all comments (334) | Leave a comment Leave a comment

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Doorgunner| 9.14.09 @ 5:02PM

John Navratil| 9.14.09 @ 5:07PM

Ken (Old Texican)| 9.14.09 @ 5:07PM

Thomas E. Stubblefield| 9.14.09 @ 5:15PM

william bonney| 9.14.09 @ 5:19PM

Doorgunner| 9.14.09 @ 5:21PM

S.L. Toddard| 9.14.09 @ 5:40PM

Brian England| 9.14.09 @ 5:43PM

Pat Hickey | 9.14.09 @ 5:51PM

Pingback| 9.14.09 @ 5:53PM

Nobama| 9.14.09 @ 5:53PM

Adam Smith| 9.14.09 @ 5:53PM

iwinbensteinsmoney| 4.11.10 @ 11:41AM

Harvard Delenda Est| 9.14.09 @ 5:54PM

iwinbensteinsmoney| 4.11.10 @ 11:48AM

Margaret| 9.14.09 @ 5:55PM