-
Foreign Policy as Farce
June 17, 2013 | 88 comments
-
How Not To Buy a Fighter
June 13, 2013 | 95 comments
-
Are We Being ImPrism’ed?
June 10, 2013 | 168 comments
-
Hot Times for Holder
June 3, 2013 | 111 comments
-
Obama Declares Peace
May 28, 2013 | 38 comments
Loose Canons
SOTU Sitrep
A State of the Union situation report — and there’ll be much for Mitch Daniels to respond to.
President Obama tried out his soul music falsetto last week at New York’s Apollo Theater and he sounded pretty good. It might help if he sang his State of the Union address, but not much.
It wouldn’t help because — from what we know of the man and from the trial balloons he’s floated in the gigolo media — Obama wants a season of confrontation, not a year of compromise. He wants issues, not accomplishments.
Obama’s tactic — angry words spoken calmly — has played well from the beginning of his presidential campaign four years ago. In his first meeting with the Republican caucus in the House three years ago, Obama answered Republican objections by saying, “I won.”
Since then, his rhetoric has only increased in temperature. His mantra is “we can’t wait.” His threat is that he will act without congressional approval if he can’t get agreement on his terms.
In the SOTU speech, according to a trial balloon in the New York Times, Obama will demand more “clean energy” investment, more taxation of “the rich” and — in a string of liberal code words — legislation aimed at “income equality,” which means taking wealth from the “rich” and giving it to the government.
It’s fortunate that Republicans chose Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels to give the response to Obama’s address. Daniels is a solid conservative and doesn’t speak in overheated rhetorical terms. Daniels sees fiscal responsibility as a moral issue. Last September, he told a CNN interviewer that our economic mess is an existential issue. Daniels said, “What’s troubling me most is it’s not just our economy at stake, I think it’s the whole American prospect.”
On national security, Daniels has demonstrated an understanding far deeper than that of Obama’s. Just a few days after the SEALs killed Osama bin Laden, he told a Fox News interviewer that bin Laden’s death didn’t mark an end to the war. When the interviewer argued with him, he said, “This was a very significant achievement, tremendously powerful from a symbolic standpoint. Operationally, I assume of some importance too. But with everyone else, I think we all accept that it’s just one real important moment in what will be a continuing conflict and continuing responsibility to the government.”
Daniels is in the right position at the right time to set the Republican path for 2012. Here are a few ideas he might use. Some are obvious, others less so.
Daniels will highlight the fact that the day of the State of the Union address is an unhappy anniversary. It marks 1,000 days since the Democratic-controlled Senate has passed a budget. He can make it clear that the House has done its job, and that voters’ anger at congressionally driven wasteful spending should be focused on the Democrats and their leader, President Obama. He can — and should — say that America’s economy can’t recover until Obama is out of office.
Newt Gingrich has started to make energy an issue. Obama’s action stopping the Keystone pipeline, coupled with his renewed call for investment in “clean energy” — see, e.g., Solyndra — comes at the time when Cuba is about to begin drilling for oil in international waters close to Florida. As the Washington Examiner reported Sunday, Repsol, the Spanish energy company, is about to begin drilling in international waters claimed by Cuba about 70 miles off the Florida Keys. And Canadian PM Stephen Harper has made it clear that if the Keystone pipeline isn’t built going south to the United States, it will be built going west and the oil will be shipped to China.
Daniels should make it clear that the United States is energy-rich, kept energy-poor only by Obama and his rent-seeking global warmist allies. He should promise that Republicans will work hard to thwart Obama’s energy depression and that if a Republican is elected to the presidency, will work with Harper to make sure that Canadian oil comes here and doesn’t go to China. This is a promise to Harper that Gingrich and Romney should make forthwith.
While everyone is focused on the Republican primaries, Daniels can look ahead to November when his party can not only hold the House but take over the Senate. To do that, as Daniels knows, they have to reach the social moderate/fiscal conservative people we used to label “Reagan Democrats.” If he speaks directly to them, Daniels can start building the coalition that will win across the board. There are two things he can do Tuesday night to begin that process.
First, though the unemployment rate is trending downward, it is still over 8 percent. People are hurting and Obama’s address will offer more empty promises, more spending, and a continuation of the oxymoronic “jobless recovery” we’ve been in for a year. Daniels should begin this part of his speech by pointing out that most of the “drop” in unemployment is attributable to people giving up on getting a job. From December 2010 to December 2011, about 1,478,000 Americans dropped out of the workforce according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Daniels can say that the reason for those people dropping out of the workforce is Obama’s no-growth policies. There’s a plethora of Republican plans to restore growth which will inevitably increase the number of jobs available and restore American productivity. Former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore, now head of the Free Congress Foundation, has an excellent plan which doesn’t require magic or miracles to pull off. Daniels can outline the best features of these plans and contrast them with Obama’s plans. If he does, it will resonate with the Reagan Dems. They know Obama’s promises of economic growth are hollow.
This year, both parties in Congress will be fighting with and against the Obama campaign on federal spending. The failure of the “supercommittee” and the resulting threat of sequestration of $600 billion in defense spending — on top of the $400 billion Obama has already cut — is disconnected from reality. Daniels should issue a strong call to prevent those cuts, whatever the final amount may be, from cutting muscle rather than fat. He can say that Republicans favor a thorough review of the Pentagon and intelligence community budgets to see what we can cut — the fat — while ensuring that we have the muscle to deter or defeat the threats America faces.
Obama’s State of the Union speech will be nothing more than a campaign speech. In earlier SOTU’s Obama has used his calm, angry words to attack the Congress and the Supreme Court. Daniels can and should mock him for it. Americans know that those in the audience cannot respond to Obama’s rudeness. When a president’s falsity results in a sitting Supreme Court justice mouthing “not true” in view of the cameras as Justice Alito did two years ago in Obama’s attack on the court for the Citizens United decision on campaign finance, it’s out of bounds. Obama will state more falsehoods this time, and Daniels should call him out on each and every one.
Last, and not least, the gigolo media are a legitimate issue in this campaign, a powerful one for Republicans as Newt Gingrich demonstrated just before the South Carolina primary. Daniels should capitalize on this by telling Obama’s amen chorus in the media that Republicans will gladly join that battle and hold them up to the ridicule they deserve every day from now until November 6. It’s a winner, governor, and a card you can’t be reluctant to play.
About the Author
Jed Babbin served as a Deputy Undersecretary of Defense under George H.W. Bush. He is the author of several bestselling books including Inside the Asylum and In the Words of Our Enemies. You can follow him on Twitter @jedbabbin.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (97) | Leave a comment
More Articles by Jed Babbin
More Articles From Loose Canons
http://spectator.org/archives/2012/01/23/sotu-sitrep
Follow us:
ADVERTISEMENT
Current Issue
- There’s Something About Cambridge
- Confessions of a Soft-Drinking Newspaperman
- Revenge of the Fruitcakes
The Spectacle Blog
Democrat Dan Maffei Blames Budget Cuts for Girl’s Rape, Mother’s Murder
Robert Stacy McCain | 6.18.13
SPONSORED LINKS
FLASHBACK TO: 1995
-
Pope Culture
A man of faith in a godless age is hitting Americans where it hurts.
-
Why the GOP Does Not, Like, Totally Suck
Mr. and Mrs. American Spectator Reader, let P.J. O’Rourke talk sense to your kids.
-
Dames at Sea
-
In the Absence of Guns
In Britain, defending your property can get you life.
-
The Metaphysical Martini
-
Counting the Costs of Clintonism
The debacle of this president’s administration is both a cause and a symptom of the decline of American values. Unless Congress impeaches him, that decline will go on unchecked. An eminent jurist surveys the damage and assesses the chances for the recovery of our culture.
-
Chuck McHagel
It won’t take long for conservatives to scratch this presidential wannabe off their 2008 scorecard.
-
The Legacy of Old John and Mother Fresh-Roasted
-
It’s the Best Time of the Year
The American Christmas, like the songs that celebrate it, makes room for everybody under the rainbow. Is that why so many people seem to be hostile to it?
-
The Bush Crack-Up
Was the President done in by the economy, or by the politics of the economy?
Clip of the Day
ADVERTISEMENT
Michael Tomlinson| 1.23.12 @ 6:36AM
Mitch Daniels' response will be a yawn.
Timothy L. Pennell| 1.23.12 @ 7:01AM
Yeah. Kinda like, your Stupid comment.
Go get'em Mike. 4 MORE YEARS. Only a Racist wouldn't want 4 more years of this. Right, dumb*ss?
This is what you get, when you let just anyone write comments on a site. You get dumb*sses, like Clint, DRed, fckewe, Alan (Please Sir, may I have another?) Brooks, and Mikey. You get all the Classy Guys, with all of their well documented Arguments.
I think the Latin Term is: "Clusterfukus Ignoramus". I'm not sure. My Latin is a wee bit rusty.
But, if it isn't?
It should be.
Jack in Wi.| 1.23.12 @ 7:33AM
Mitch Daniels is a midget and another Bush Republican. If he is the answer, what is the question? He is smart enough to know he should stay in Indiana.
Jacqueline| 1.23.12 @ 9:14AM
Hello Folks,
Here are more of the same old unemployed, disabled geezers talkin' trash.
If you're a masochist with nothing else to do today, you can read their hate-filled drivel.
All these old men can do is post, post, post. All day long they sit in front of their computers posting to AmSpec.
No wonder they're so angry. No social life. No job to define them. No nothing. Nothing exept AmSpec.
Pitiful.
Timothy L. Pennell| 1.23.12 @ 9:47AM
I'll give you the "Hate Filled" part. But, you got all of the rest of it wrong, you Fat Pig, Sore Covered, Wh*re. Get back under the Desk, where you belong.
Crusty| 1.23.12 @ 12:28PM
"under the desk"
That's where you were when you were working, oh so many years ago.
You knew how to suck up, didn't you?
Timothy L. Pennell| 1.23.12 @ 1:07PM
Okay, now. Back to your room. The Doctor will be right in.
Quartermaster| 1.23.12 @ 5:51PM
Daniels speech will be a yawner. And he is a Bush Republican. What's inaccurate there Mr. Pennell?
You really need help with your vocabulary, not to mention your Latin. Both mark you as a nekulturny.
Occam's Tool| 1.23.12 @ 8:02PM
Tim,
who do I medicate first? Jacky or Crusty the Clown?
Always happy to help a pal. QM, why you picking on Tim? Nekulturny ("not cultured" in Russian) is a deadly insult, you know. In olden days, that would be a duel challenge comment.
Occam's Razor| 1.23.12 @ 9:10PM
Occam's tool
Rhymes with fool
carnot| 1.23.12 @ 10:33PM
he's a Paulbot...man. they preach American "principles" and practice none of them.
Stammon| 1.23.12 @ 1:08PM
Hey Honey;
I've a wife, four kids, a farm and a job, I post now because I am up after working nights. What the hell do you do and why are you posting at this time? How about a little shut up time from a dumb c@#$&(@*#$!!!
Moe Blotz| 1.23.12 @ 3:54PM
Stammon, I know what you mean. The adrenaline takes awhile to wear off from the swing shift. By the time some of the pundits have posted their comments, you have completed a day's work. As for me, by the time 06.00 rolls around, I am often 350 miles or more up the road.
Stiff upper ~S~| 1.23.12 @ 2:54PM
Nah, some of us can still get it up AND use it without popsicle sticks and rubber bands. The American oil thing is a half baked idea. I think the OIL companies, those institutions that make 100 BILLION a year in PROFITS should pay for the construction, repair and maintenance of the whole pipe.
I also believe that Pro Sports teams, should pay for their arena's. Tax payer's don't get discount tickets, reduced price merchandise for their kids or a rebate when depreciation is amortized off the teams tax exempt taxes. (Sanctioned monopoly has it's privileges)
That said, just like the RED party makes the POST Office do with their pensions, the OIL Companies have to fully fund a complete disaster restoration fund 100% IN CASH, over the next decade and KEEP that money in Treasury bonds in perpetuity.
They will be 100% liable for ANY losses and damages within 7 miles of the pipeline itself or within 3 miles of ANY AND ALL RESIDENTIAL, COMMERCIAL OR GOVERNMENT PROPERTY along the entire pipeline OILSHED (all the flowing water within and downstream of) the pipeline) PLUS a 100% limit on punitive damages, in perpetuity. (Even after the pipeline is closed for lack of oil).
If we put this money to use as the Congress dis the Social Security set asides, we can fund the alternative renewable energy the world will need in 3 decades. if we don't, we will still be burning the petroleum we need for Plastics as fuel for cars.
Stiff upper ~S~| 1.23.12 @ 2:57PM
In other words, Big Oil needs to pony up more than BRIBES, they need to invest the FMV(fair market value) of ALL the property along the pipeline, double that and set it aside forever, before we allow them to profiteer one more time on the taxpayers of America.
carnot| 1.23.12 @ 10:35PM
ewwwww......it's the MBA wizard sporting a new moniker!
TrueBlue | 1.24.12 @ 2:20PM
That would work, if it wasn't for the fact that the government wouldn't let them even if they WANTED to pay for it. The idea of the oil companies paying for the pipeline aside (which I agree they should do btw) would you rather the oil go to us or China?
TrueBlue | 1.24.12 @ 2:38PM
Oil company profits are generally higher than $100 billion a year. Still I don't see why the anger at the idea that a private company turns a profit, that's kind of the point of having a business.
That said, the government (state AND federal) makes more money off the oil than the oil company does. On gasoline alone the companies only make 2-3 cents of profit per gallon, while the federal government is making upwards of 18 cents per gallon, and some states make closer to 30 cents per gallon in taxes.
Why should Congress fund renewable energy by the way? You seem to think the oil companies should be paying for everything they're involved in, yet you don't feel the same way about renewable energy? Where is the logic there? I have a better idea than their current system of funding bull%^&* renewable energy projects.
Grant a bi-annual prize to any company that can develop a COMMERCIALLY VIABLE form of alternative energy production of half the development cost. This will require the company to actually be able to maintain itself until it is able to come up with an actual working product rather than forcing taxpayers to fund endless dead-end research through grants based entirely on who is getting bribed in the government to back this or that company (Solyndra anyone?)
Cars weren't government backed, they were privately backed, created and marketted. People need to stop seeing the government as the purse for new inventions. Pay for your own dang projects and stop forcing me to pay for it with my tax money.
Stiff upper| 1.25.12 @ 4:14AM
Profit is fine, but for all the 'free market' crap... Exxon still wants taxpayers on the hook of the big investments. They want the pipe, they buy the pipe.
Why should every donut shop and hair salon pay taxes for the OIL pipeline? Unless they get troyalties fo EXXXON using OUR pipe.
Government TAX goes for roads and bridges. Oil's 7 % profit per gallon goes in their pocket.
The government should fund Renewables for the same reason they fund NASA and Biotech/Big Pharma. To START the research in a non profitable but necessary venture.
Stammon| 1.23.12 @ 1:02PM
Obama delenda est.
That's Latin enough for everybody.
Dean| 1.23.12 @ 1:16PM
Excellent comment! The same phrase occured to me a few weeks ago. Might make for a good bumper sticker!
Purp| 1.23.12 @ 1:58PM
You're just mad 'cause you know Obama has no real competition. Vulture Richie 1% Romney or Newt Grinch with thousands of mistresses and plans to mine the moon and light our highways from space with mirrors will not hold a candle to the President.
tsd| 1.23.12 @ 2:24PM
You can only compete with the current president if you are seeking the worst president this country ever had.... and if it were up to him, the last, as he would like to change it to a dictatorship with King Obama at the lead. Now if he gets his way all you panty wipe liberals can be so happy you helped with the "change". Look at the facts, in his own words; if the congress and the senate will not do as he says, he will do it himself! Even useful idiots like you should be able to see the plain truth!!!
Purp| 1.23.12 @ 7:08PM
As have other Presidents before him. The fact you don't like it, doesn't mean he doesn't have the authority over you.
Skippy| 1.23.12 @ 8:23PM
I got your f%#&!%g authority right here.
You and your mutt can kiss his authority goodbye next year.
Remember: authority is only effective when the subordinates comply.
tsd| 1.24.12 @ 7:46AM
This is where you moron liberals do not get it.... we have laws, he has no authority over me!! You with the jelly spine may choose to be ruled, but I can do as I please and take the consequences. Good luck on your little fantasy.
SGT Baker (native Coloradoan)| 1.25.12 @ 6:15AM
Damm straight!
Stiff upper ~S~| 1.23.12 @ 2:58PM
I LOVE the MOON mining boondoggle. Gingrich ought to run a pawn shop.
carnot| 1.23.12 @ 10:38PM
kinda of an extra-terrestrial Solyndra! you may be on to something!
Occam's Tool| 1.23.12 @ 8:05PM
TLP, I like you. But I think you were a little hard on the beaver---Mike is generally on the side of the angels. Perhaps he was thinking that, say, Chris Christie would be a better choice to give the Republican counterpoint. No snoozing there.
Jack in Wi.| 1.23.12 @ 7:19AM
The Party is in great ferment. The Bush, gang is done. Gingrich is the well paid lackey of the most extremist elements in Israeli politics. Obama will easily be re-elected. The only chance the party had for victory was for the Paul wing and the Romney wing to get together on a program of real change and peace. I don't see it happening now. Well this is the last campaign for the the Republicans. It seems that the party will end up like the Republican parties in New York and California, pale immitations of the Democrats. We seem to be headed to a one party, facist war state that will kill what little is left of the Constitution.
Timothy L. Pennell| 1.23.12 @ 9:54AM
My apologies. You're absolutely right. And, I, was absolutely Wrong.
Mitch Daniels' response WILL be a Yawn.
(I really should read these articles, before I comment on them)
TommyS| 1.23.12 @ 6:29PM
At least Daniels won't be speaking with a forked tongue.
vb| 1.23.12 @ 6:42AM
If there is one thing we need now it is a consolidated message delivered by someone outside the circular firing squad. I hope that Daniels and you represent great minds thinking alike.
Fred Farkel| 1.23.12 @ 6:48AM
I'll Be more interested in the Herman Cain/ Tea Party response. Daniels' response is likely to be Republican Establishment milquetoast.
Dan Rowan| 1.23.12 @ 3:58PM
Hello Fred, it has been a long time. How are Mark, Sparkle, and Fanny?
Skippy| 1.23.12 @ 8:25PM
They all ran off with Ferd Berfel.
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 1.23.12 @ 7:00AM
The White House joined Google+ this week to help highlight the SOTU. The Obama 2012 campaign had already joined.
Incredibly, the Romney campaign has already created a perch there. The Republican Party should also join before the SOTU and stream Mitch Daniels response.
Social media is a new and powerful force, perhaps more powerful than the old media in many ways.
Michael Tomlinson| 1.23.12 @ 7:07AM
Timothy L. Pennell -- YAWN!
Timothy L. Pennell| 1.23.12 @ 10:43AM
I deserve it.
Tommy Frisco| 1.23.12 @ 1:36PM
No, Timothy. You are anything but boring....and right 99% of the time. You must admit that Mitch Daniels is boring, though. I'll be surprised if the GOP rulers don't force him into the primaries soon. They love mediocre candidates.
Occam's Tool| 1.23.12 @ 8:09PM
The fact that you admit mistakes is part of your charm, Tim. My responses are going on the order I read these, which is why they may not make complete sense sometimes.
And, switching to Jack. Jack, since everything evil is the result of the Zionists and the Jews, and you keep up on this, when is it my time to fly to Bermuda to control the world's monetary supply? I have to book tickets, you see.
Michael Tomlinson| 1.23.12 @ 7:19AM
What you will NOT hear from Obama.
“It’s the economy, stupid” was 1992’s winning campaign slogan, and the message will be just as effective 20 years later. Obama is stuck defending an economic record far worse than George H.W. Bush‘s. The GDP grew an average of 4.3% over the first three quarters in 1992, while 2012’s growth is expected to be half that rate. Unemployment in October 1992 was 7.3%, while Obama has said that an 8% rate by Election Day is “possible.”
The unemployment rate when Obama was elected was 6.8%; today it is 8.5% — at least that’s the official number. The Financial Times writes, “. . . if the same number of people were seeking work today as in 2007, the jobless rate would be 11 percent.”
There are now fewer payroll jobs in America than there were in 2000 and now, 40% of those jobs are considered “low paying,” up 10% from when Reagan took office. The number of self-employed has dropped 2 million to 14.5 million in just six years.
Regular gasoline per gallon cost $1.68 in January 2009. Today, it’s $3.39 — that’s a 102% increase in just three years. (By the way, if you’re keeping score at home, gas was $1.40 a gallon when President George W. Bush took office in 2001, $1.68 when he left office — a 20 % increase.)
Electricity bills have also skyrocketed, with households now paying a record $1,420 annually on average, up some $300.
Some 48 % of all Americans — 146.4 million — are considered by the Census Bureau either as “low-income” or living in poverty, up 4 million from when Obama took office; 57 % of all children in America now live in such homes.
Since December 2008, a month before Obama took office; food-stamp use has increased 46 %. Total spending has more than doubled in just four years to a record high of $75 billion. In 2011, more than 46 million people — about one in seven Americans — got food stamps. That’s 14 million more than when Obama took office.
Median household income has dropped nearly 7 % in the last six years, taking inflation into account. What’s more, nearly 20 % of males age 25 to 34 now live with their parents (could that be Timothy L. Pennell?).
Low- and middle-income Americans 65 and older now hold more than $10,000 in credit card debt, up 26 % since 2005. The average age of the American car is 10 years; in 1990, it was 6.5 years old (by the way, in 1985, Americans bought 11 million cars; in 2009, less than half that, 5.4 million).
On the macro side, America’s annual budget has jumped to $3.8 trillion — and yet the United States brings in only about $2.1 trillion in revenue. The U.S. trade deficit for 2011 was $558 billion. America’s total public debt stands at $15.23 trillion; in January 2009, the debt was $10.62 trillion. Mr. Obama is on pace to borrow $6.2 trillion in just one term — more debt than was amassed by all presidents from Washington through Bill Clinton combined. The debt is rising by $4.2 billion every day — $175 million per hour, nearly $3 million per minute.
Jack in Wi.| 1.23.12 @ 7:30AM
Thomlinson: This country can never return to fiscal sanity, unless it gets out of these wars and closes up all the foreign bases and foreign aid. Then we have to cut deep into the Federal bureaucracy. The only guy who has a program to address the real problems of this country is Ron Paul. All the rest are more of the same.
Tom Osterman| 1.23.12 @ 9:32AM
To believe that, you have to believe that Obama has been jacking up defense spending until it gobbles up the lion's share of federal spending. Instead, Obama has been cutting defense spending and makes no secret that he plans to cut more.
It's not defense spending that's bankrupting the US, whether or not it should be cut.
carnot| 1.23.12 @ 10:44PM
bingo. entitlements + income redistribution.
Timothy L. Pennell| 1.23.12 @ 8:12AM
That's more like it.
Leave the One Liners to the Lazy Idiots.
ENOUGH ROPE| 1.23.12 @ 8:47AM
Obama is a traitor. That's a one liner that should become a widespread slogan to defeat Obama--the narcissistic psychopath and Marxist.
Nymph| 1.23.12 @ 10:36AM
Actually, it's still lazy posting. He copied most of this from an article in the Washington Post writen by Joseph Curl, titled "The truly dismal state of the union", without giving credit to the author. I knew I had seen this exact information earlier today. Nothing wrong with copying and pasteing usefull information, but you should give credit where credit it due.
Tim the Enchanter| 1.23.12 @ 12:06PM
Saw and read the exact same article at TWT. You're 100% correct.
Stiff upper ~S~| 1.23.12 @ 3:02PM
Thanks to irrational, self serving TAX CUTS IN A WAR ZONE and special interest deregulation of mass marketed, variable description investment securities. no one to legitimately blame, but the gun nuts. They should have shot Bush when they had the chance!
Occam's Tool| 1.23.12 @ 8:14PM
Mike: Tim apologized, and you two guys usually agree. Friends?
Timothy L. Pennell| 1.23.12 @ 8:02AM
So. Here comes the SOTU Campaign. Here comes "The Music Man", about to take to the Stage, one more time, for the 2012 version of: "Nothing up my sleeve.......PRESTO!"
"Ladies and Gentlemen. The President of the United States - Bernard Madoff."
That's who he is, isn't he? He's Bernie Madoff. Living in a Big House. Enjoying all of the Finer Things, life has to offer. Flying around in His and Her's Private Jumbo Jets. Eating the Finest Foods, cooked by the Finest Chefs. Sipping $1,000 Bottles of Wine, with the British Royals. And, doing it, with other people's Money.
He's already SPENT all of their money. And, when he wasn't using it for "Personal Pleasures", he was passing it out to his Supporters. Spreading it around to those who Watch His Back (UNIONS) through Phoney Stimulus Scams, and to his Money Men, through Bogus Subsidies, of their Green Energy Money Laundering Fronts. (Is it just me? Or are all of the Solar Panel Companies, owned by his BUNDLERS? And, whatever happened to WIND POWER?)
You don't like Madoff? Then, how about: Ponzi? He's Ponzi. He keeps Spending like a Drunken Navy, while Promising a Secure Cash Out at Retirement time, for one and all, confident that the SUCKERS (Taxpayers) will always be there, to keep his boat afloat.
You don't like Ponzi? Then, how about Barnum? P.T. Barnum. Probably the Greatest Con Man/Showman, the Country's ever seen.
Give the people what they want. A Sucker's born every minute.
"Step right up and see the Magic. Free School. Free Houses. Free Medical. Ya need a Job? No problem. I'm gonna get you that Job. And, I'm gonna TAKE IT, from that RICH S.O.B, over there. No. Not that one. Not that one. No, not that one, either. Those two are in my Cabinet, and the other one, and all those other Rich SOB's, over there, are my Donors, and the people I play Golf with, and go on Vacations with."
Now, add up those 3 together, and throw in one of those Medicine Show guys, and you've got His Majesty, His Highness, Dear Leader.
Add in a coupla Teleprompters and an Obediant "Talking Points Only" Main Stream Media, and you've got our President.
Hugo Chavez Obama.
I can't wait. I love the Circus.
Especially the Clowns, and the Illusionists.
Don't you?
Stiff upper ~S~| 1.23.12 @ 3:02PM
An Ozzy walks into a bar with a sheep under each arm.
The barman says, geeedaaaaay mate, are yaa sheerin.
The Ozzy replies, no Im gonnna fuck them both myself.
Deborah D| 1.24.12 @ 8:26AM
Timothy -- another one for the archives! You've perfectly captured our "dear leader."
Zbigniew Mazurak| 1.23.12 @ 8:19AM
This article is utter garbage, and by writing it, Mr Babbin has lost my last shred of respect for him. He's completely wrong. The GOP could not have chosen a worse spokesman to respond to Obama's SOTU speech than Mitch Daniels. He's a strident liberal on social, defense, and yes, even fiscal issues. The claim that "Daniels is a solid conservative" is not just false, it's insulting to every REAL conservative.
Babbin writes that:
"Daniels should issue a strong call to prevent those cuts, whatever the final amount may be, from cutting muscle rather than fat. He can say that Republicans favor a thorough review of the Pentagon and intelligence community budgets to see what we can cut -- the fat -- while ensuring that we have the muscle to deter or defeat the threats America faces."
He's wrong. Daniels should issue a call not just to prevent those cuts from cutting muscle rather than fat, he should issue a call to COMPLETELY STOP and reverse these cuts and prevent them from cutting anything. And the amount of budget cuts - the topline number - DOES matter. There isn't enough wasteful spending in the DOD's annual budget to pay for $487 bn in budget cuts. Not even close. Cuts to the tune of $487 bn - let alone $1.087 trillion - would INEVITABLY have to mean deep cuts in America's actual defense capabilities. There isn't enough fat in the defense budget to pay for that amount of cuts. Moreover, any savings made at the DOD should be reinvested in the DOD.
As for a thorough review of America's defense needs and its defense posture, where has Jed Babbin been for the last 3 years? Has he been asleep for all of that time? There ALREADY have been thorough reviews of that in recent times, both by the DOD and by outside organizations:
1) In 2010, the DOD conducted a Quadrennial Defense Review, a thorough examination of America's defense needs and the defense budget, from which the FY2011 DOD budget sprung.
2) Later, the Congressionally-appointed QDR Indep. Review Panel, co-chaired by Stephen Hadley and William Perry, conducted its own review. It found that America's defense spending, force structure, modernization programs, and deployments in Asia are woefully inadequate.
3) Later, in 2011, the Heritage Foundation conducted its own review, which came to similar conclusions, and even produced specific force structure recommendations for various regions of the world.
4) Then, the CNAS conducted its own review.
5) Myself, I've conducted a thorough and holistic review of the defense budget, based on open sources, and developed the largest DOD reform proposals package ever devised by anyone.
We have already had thorough reviews of the defense budget by four separate entities. The time for reviews is OVER. Now is the time for ACTION. Now is the time to PROTECT the defense budget from cuts, build the military of tomorrow, root out wasteful and fraudful expenditures, and reinvest the resulting savings in defense.
And don't count on Daniels to deliver either your message or mine, Mr Babbin. Daniels is an adamant opponent of a strong defense and supports deep defense cuts. He will likely support Obama's deep defense cuts, because he doesn't believe that a strong defense is needed.
The GOP should really be ashamed of him.
Stiff upper ~S~| 1.23.12 @ 3:13PM
If the DOD is so underfunded, WHY are we paying a premium to Dick Cheney and Blackwater, ET al?
If the DOD is as competent as the Dept of EDucation, why not abolish IT and outsource the defense of AMerica to Dick Cheney?
If 10 years of failure in the Middle East is NOT proof that "boots on the ground, John Wayne wannabe" strategies are useless, then explain why a black man could use a cell phone to take out the main target of the entire WAR from his BEDROOM?
Welcome to the 21st Century you reprobate, recidivist, repetitious renegades of wheel churning, tax wasting, anti American, political leprosy!!!!
For all the Kung fu films you bullshitting RED party machopunks watch.. haven't you figured it out yet? it's NOT the Big bad bunch that wins, it's the highly trained and sophisticated victor that the whole film is about.
Drones have no predators save poor maintenance and bad programming. You don;t have to feed them and yeah, I know you limp dicks get your hard from firepower, but a small drone delivered NUKE will end up taking out Fordo in Iran.
carnot| 1.23.12 @ 10:50PM
thus spoke the sage.....sharing his profound knowledge of weapons systems and modern warfare!
Stiff upper| 1.25.12 @ 4:29AM
I you read more than a McDonald's menu, I might have a chance at a conversation with you, ya impotent leper. Boeing bribed it's way into a tanker contract with a second rate rehash of the existing equipment. SO they get another bite at the apple?
THIS is billion dollar a day fraud, waste, call it what you will but considering that they we gonna offshore the modules rather than pay Americans to build it... That's as UnAmerican as business can get.
HOW much Improvement is the F-35 over the F-22? What other fighter can match the F-22? Do we need that many of them to protect us from guys who walk through an airport customs desk and take classes in American schools paid for by American subsidies?
That's how 9/11 happened and wasting CASH on the paleolithic war machines is just... so Republican.
Louis Jenkins| 1.23.12 @ 9:22AM
"Daniels should make it clear that the United States is energy-rich, kept energy-poor only by Obama and his rent-seeking global warmist allies. He should promise that Republicans will work hard to thwart Obama's energy depression and that if a Republican is elected to the presidency, will work with Harper to make sure that Canadian oil comes here and doesn't go to China. "
Well, the USA is energy rich. But Obama's latest commercial says we're only importing 49% of our oil(?). That's 49% too much. Instead he is putting public money into solar panels, companies that immediate turn toes up? He turns down the Canadian pipeline? This man is nuts. Tune up your car and make sure the tires have adequate pressure? Obama is insane!! I guess Obama's hood has spinners on their cars, and the tires are so narrow walled he thinks the tires are low. Energy keeps a nation going, and it is obvious that Obama doesn't want this nation on the go. Obama is creepy, and needs to be defeated this November.
carnot| 1.23.12 @ 10:53PM
it gets better! he borrows money from China.....hands it over to Brazil to develop oil reserves...and pays China interest so they can buy that oil! what a guy!
martin j smith| 1.23.12 @ 9:34AM
Actually those in ferment are the Romney and Ron Paul crowds who don't get no respect. But most Conservatives see perhaps some hope. The reason is this: Of the three primaries,Romney won one. And more important than that Newt counter attacked the MSM and thus Obama and the people loved it. That is crucial. The majority of voters do not back Romney and want a more aggressive leader to take the fight to Obama land the Socialists. The Daniels person giving the response to the SOTUS had better get the idea that the voters do not want a yawn. That will not help our side at all. Its not the "points" but the ideological divide and its consequences that count most. I hope Babbin that you understand that.
loulou| 1.23.12 @ 10:54AM
All I know is that the bland Mitch Daniels is in favor of states taxing internet purchases. Daniels represents the GOP elites well.
carnot| 1.24.12 @ 7:35AM
is it inter-State commerce?
Al Adab| 1.23.12 @ 10:34AM
Why should GOP Congressional members even bother to attend the SOTU speech? It will be nothing more than campaign rhetoric and a pile of - to be polite - baloney. The GOP should lay out its agenda to revitalize the economy, strengthen Federalism, stop suing the various States, eliminate the over-reaching health care mandate, fire the czars and build wealth rather than confiscate it. Lets get beyond this man and start proposing how to govern post-Obama.
Mimi| 1.23.12 @ 11:18AM
Yes... His campaign is about to get free air-time!
carnot| 1.23.12 @ 10:55PM
wellllllll.....yes!!!
JimP| 1.23.12 @ 11:14AM
Mitch Daniels huh? After hearing his name floated last week as a possible brokered convention nominee I am suspicious that HE will be speaking for the loyal opposition. Call me paranoid, but remember that just because I may be paranoid doesn't mean the Bushes aren't trying to steal the nomination.
Tommy Frisco| 1.23.12 @ 1:53PM
I share your concern, Jim. The GOP establishment seems to be ready to do anything they can to prevent Newt from winning the nomination. They are stupid enough to forcibly bring in Jeb Bush or someone even more mediocre than Mitt Romney. They will anything to protect their status quo.
JimP| 1.23.12 @ 2:52PM
That's my thinking too, Tommy. Mitch Daniels just doesn't have 'it' in my opinion. So I can easily see them floating Mitch out there and when no one takes the bait, then they offer up Jeb. My sense is if they do this, especially try to hand the nomination to Jeb, the GOP will be history like the Whig party. I will never vote for another Bush. Never. If they try to replace whomever the nominee ends up being I will likely not vote for President at all and let the chips fall where they may.
Tommy Frisco| 1.23.12 @ 3:21PM
I'm with you, Jim. The GOP rulers better start embracing their base. If they push us further into a corner, they're not going to like what happens next.
JimP| 1.23.12 @ 3:49PM
Despite what some say, I think we have the numbers to start a third party. Without the conservatives the GOP doesn't have enough members to get elected dog catcher basically. A third party would attract those 40% of people who consistently over decades identify themselves as conservative. Then the GOP diehards could have the party all to themselves. I'll have to start investigating the raw numbers to see if my impression is accurate. Hopefully it is because the GOP establishment is a waste of time and effort.
carnot| 1.23.12 @ 10:57PM
ummmm...who would be the candidate the 40% would invest their futures in?
carnot| 1.23.12 @ 10:56PM
well...that certainly is a responsible position to adopt!
Stiff upper| 1.25.12 @ 4:30AM
Jeb Bush gets a bullet. No votes, just a 30-06.
Mimi| 1.23.12 @ 11:15AM
"STATE OF THE UNION" ......Yawn ! Who wants to hear a DEMO campaign speech.
I think I'll put my RADIO on some classical music and get into and tackle AMERITOPIA !
Got my copy and the one I ordered for my son, the morning after the book got released...read excerps...be assured the LIBS get massacred...a bloodbath for sure!
martin j smith| 1.23.12 @ 12:37PM
Attendance is not required but a blistering response to Obama is,
Dick Nome| 1.23.12 @ 1:01PM
Herman Cain will provide it in the Tea Party response.
David| 1.23.12 @ 1:49PM
Dick, is Cain giving a response? If so, when and what media outlet is covering it?
Dick Nome| 1.23.12 @ 3:47PM
So far, it will only be on Tea Party Express' website. Remember, Tea Party is not a centralized organization. (despite what Clint thinks)
Who Knows?| 1.23.12 @ 2:33PM
What did Obama say in his SOTU speech last year, and who can even name the GOP responder, let alone what he said?
It seems to me that wisdom is expressed in assuming a transcendental attitude. In the field of politics, then, essential is awareness of the myriad non-sequiturs that are regularly passed off as important. Witness Gingrich.
That “idea man” has found his political ecological niche, as the many dumbed down voters can’t help themselves. Whenever he lurches into one of his pointed one-liners, it is invariably so sharp it penetrates the stupidity barrier surrounding “normal” high school “graduates”, and they are so impressed. Why, Newt is so SMART!
However, the complementary Greek phrase that rules today is, sine qua non. Yes, what is it that we can’t do without?
Civilized culture---law and order!
There is an ever ongoing war between MAD = mutually assured destruction and MAR = mutually assumed rules. The old fight twixt chaos and order is approaching a climax, it seems to me.
And, that’s why it behooves each person to adopt a transcendental attitude. Who’s in control? Why, we each must do our best to stay alive! And, so, paying attention to both the physical AND the mental realms, in an above-it-all mode, isn’t it obvious---too many physically FAT people AND/OR too many mentally FLABBY ones.
Face facts---we are a poll driven culture. For quite a while, I’ve resisted spending any time on forecasting polls. But, samples of ALREADY present physical and mental results do represent transcendental truths.
Pace the witty and brilliant Mark Steyn, who has nailed the demographic “bomb”, the percentages don’t lie---obesity is the rage! And, the recent votes for Gingrich, along with the election of Obama and his MAD pals in 2008, sure tell us a lot about the “mental” state of the union!
Ah---old movies!
I’m reminded of when James Bond is tied down in “Goldfinger”, with a laser beam moving towards his gonads, when he says, “Do you expect me to talk?” And Goldfinger says, “No, I expect you to die.” That’s what’s apparently coming, for fat and flabby America.
Even more personally “touching” was a scene from “Saving Private Ryan”. A German and an American are fighting hand to hand in a building, and the Kraut gets on top. He is able to slowly plunge his knife into the American, against his futile resistance.
Well, America---from a transcendental viewpoint, given the state of the union, one person at a time, I sure do wonder if it’s NOT ALREADY too late.
There’s a whole lot of stupid going on!
bill| 1.23.12 @ 2:39PM
Obama is "stupid socialist radical liar child-molester pervert incompetent loser."
Stiff upper| 1.25.12 @ 4:31AM
DOn't look in the mirror when you type bill. if you didn't, you would have typed Nigger instead.
Lance Sterling| 1.23.12 @ 2:50PM
Along with a rebuttal to the SOTU by a republican, there should also be a pre-SOTU heads-up by an articulate flame throwing republican, oh say Marco Rubio/Paul Ryan/Sarah Palin! Ya know, something to take the edge off the silly jive Obonehead will undoubtedly serve-up!!!
martin j smith| 1.23.12 @ 2:54PM
I agree with Lance Sterling -I like the preemptive mode a lot. But Establishment Republicans have not grown up enough to appreciate it.
Anthony| 1.23.12 @ 4:02PM
Just imagine if all of the Rs stood in unison during the SOTU and shouted "You Lie"!!!?
Of course, I'd suffer a major coronary if they did, but it might just be worth it.
Will Mitch Daniels be sitting on McCain's lap, as McCain moves his mouth for him?
Our Republican establishment; you can't tell the dummy from the ventriloquist.
SpiralArchitect| 1.23.12 @ 4:33PM
Time for a moderator in TAS before the reader base is completely reduced to these spam posting haters.
Occam's Tool| 1.23.12 @ 8:13PM
SA: part of the fun are the knives. Like Angelina Jolie once said: "you get drunk, you're in bed, there are knives---shit happens."
It's very cathartic for me to harpoon Clint and Jack, and to listen to their blathering replies. You, on the other hand, tend to be on the side of the angels. I also enjoy being a cheerleader for the good guys.
carnot| 1.23.12 @ 11:02PM
hmmmm...how about Agile Politics?
David| 1.23.12 @ 8:18PM
Shit guys, it is not too late for Santorum to be the nominee. He can beat Obama running as a conservative, and he will govern as such.
POST American| 1.23.12 @ 8:46PM
-----------------------FINAL WORD---------------------
4 decades on CFR-Globalist RED China
set up, sellout and full-spectrum TREASON OP
finishing us off ------THAT'S the 'State' of
the Union.
Again folks, RETRO-active IMPEACHMENT
of our last 4 CFR front op administrations.
Bush Sr./ the Clintons/ Bush Jr. and finally,
'Bar-Rockefeller' Obama ----
----------------HUAC/ Nuremberg 2012---------------
somnolence| 1.23.12 @ 11:03PM
Gingrich, Jeb Bush, Daniels, Christie------Four who I wouldn't walk across the street to vote for.
1ConservativeUSA| 1.24.12 @ 9:39AM
I like Mitch Daniels and I believe he will do a good job tonight.
However, the Republicans would really impress me if they would have selected Mark Levin. We need fire and a passionate articulation of conservative principles. There is none better to do this than Mr. Levin.
1ConservativeUSA| 1.24.12 @ 9:40AM
Apologies: "There is no one better..."
GHarper| 1.24.12 @ 2:05PM
It was disappointing to read the comments to this well written article. It however was more disgusting to spewed vitriol against Governor Daniels. As a former Reagan appointee, I can attest that Mitch has a much more Reagan than Bush political philosopy. Give the man a chance to espouse true Republican beliefs that can devastate the Obama faulty progressive dogma.
POST American| 1.24.12 @ 11:30PM
"Competition is a SIN."
-John D. Rockefeller
(shortly after the Rockefeller
Pennsylvania and Ludlow Colorado
coal field massacres)
"Communism is nothing more than
'CAP--IT--ALLLL-ism' without
competition."
-POST American
KEEP you eyes on ---FREE ENTERPRISE.
KEEP your eye on --unaccountable,
psychopathic, debt serf generating,
international ----USURY and the capstone
program of full-spectrum --EUGENICS.
In this the 11th hour of our 4 decades
on Globalist RED China economic transfer
and TREASON OP---
DEMAND accountability
And ALWAYS USE the REAL language
--------------USURY
------------------PLUNDER
-----------------------TYRANNY
----------------------------TREASON
--------------------------------EUGENICS
and -------------------------------------LIBERTY
"When your time comes
---WHAT WILL YOU DO?"
-'IKIRU'
Kurosawa's 1952 film
(the year we saved --SOME--
of KOREA from the Globalist
RED Chinese Halocaust)
NOW ----------WHAT WILL YOU DO?
------------------------WHAT?--------------------------
alicewolf| 1.26.12 @ 4:03AM
The country won't last until the election if we don't constitutionally remove this president from his post. The sword of Damocles that is hanging over our head, namely thermonuclear World War Three which Mr Obama aluded to in the SOTU speech in no uncertain terms, "all options are on the table", is recognized by Sec. Clinton, who was sitting listening to this hour long litany of self congratulation and prideful statements of future breaches of the Constitution, with a crumpled face full of fear and trembling. She is most likely the target of scorn and derision from the WH and is being trampled on left and right by Sen. Kerry who has turned into a fawning Obamaphile.
We are not amused.