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Campaign Crawlers
Battleground Virginia
Is Obama fighting for or against middle-class voters in the Old Dominion?
Tami Hurley stood beside Union Mill Road waving a sign in the hot mid-summer sun Saturday afternoon, awaiting President Obama’s arrival at Centreville High School. She was not alone. The Fairfax County businesswoman was one of more than 200 protesters who responded to the announcement of an “emergency rally” sent out by the Northern Virginia Tea Party. On her American flag T-shirt, Hurley displayed a pin that concisely summarized her situation in the Obama era: “Officially Screwed: Small Business Owner.” She explained that her family runs a heating and air-conditioning business that employs 14 people, a business that the Democrat’s administration seems determined to destroy.
“They’re going to increase all of our prices,” Hurley said, explaining that regulations enacted recently by the Environmental Protection Agency mandated a 40 percent decrease in the manufacture of R22, a refrigerant commonly used in air-conditioning systems. “Our price doubled in January, and we have to pass that along to our customers.”
The EPA’s mandate is part of Obama’s environmental agenda, enforcing an international anti-global-warming treaty called the Montreal Protocol. Hurley sees the president pushing a different sort of “climate change,” creating a climate that is hostile to free enterprise. “Obamacare is going to really hurt us, as well,” Hurley said, expressing a widespread concern among small business owners that the president’s health care program will impose costly mandates, decrease the quality of treatment, and require massive new taxes to fund it. Hurley pointed out that one of her young sons has epilepsy. Her son was also among the crowd of protesters who turned out Saturday in Centreville, waving a hand-lettered sign that said, “Obama = No Hope.”
Hostility to small business owners is unmistakably a matter of policy for the Obama administration, and Hurley is not deceived by the president’s rhetorical attempts to portray himself as a champion of the middle class. That was the central focus of Obama’s message during his recent campaign swing through Virginia, as he slammed his GOP opponent Mitt Romney as a greedy capitalist concerned only with defending the privileges of the rich. Inside the gymnasium at Centreville High, the president told his supporters that Republicans have only two ideas: “If we cut taxes trillions of dollars, mostly for those at the very top … that somehow that’s going to be good for everybody. … Their second big idea is if you eliminate regulations on oil companies or insurance companies or credit card companies or polluters, that somehow that will free up the engine of growth.” Deriding this as a “trickle-down” policy, Obama told the crowd: “We don’t need more top-down economics. I believe in a middle-out economics, a bottom-up economics. I believe that when hardworking Americans are doing well, everybody does well.… That’s why I ran for president — to fight on behalf of the middle class and those who are striving to get into the middle class.”
This drew applause inside the high-school gym, which wasn’t filled to capacity and where the audience was padded by the inclusion of some of the president’s supporters from Democrat-friendly Maryland, across the nearby Potomac River. Outside the gym among the local protesters, however, Obama’s “fight on behalf of the middle class” was described by Republicans as a fight against the middle class, particularly in affluent Fairfax County.
“This is Republican territory,” said Tim Hugo, the GOP delegate who represents Centreville in the Virginia General Assembly. “More importantly, these are the people who will take it on the chin with Obama’s tax increases. These are the job-producers, the dual-income families…. This is Ground Zero for the Obama tax increases.”
Of course, as the president makes sure to remind his supporters at every stop during his re-election campaign, he hasn’t raised taxes — not yet, not during his first term. But the massive costs of implementing Obamacare will have to be paid somehow and the president’s assertion that the program’s multi-trillion-dollar costs can be met by hiking rates only on “the rich” isn’t taken seriously by anyone capable of applying basic arithmetic to the equation. Alas, math-deficient liberals are a core constituency for the president, and even in Fairfax County, many people can’t quite seem to understand why Democrats’ something-for-nothing promises never work out as actual policy.
Obama carried Virginia in 2008 by a margin of six percentage points, in part because he won a surprising large share of middle-class voters who had become disillusioned with the GOP during George W. Bush’s second term. In 2004, Bush defeated Democrat John Kerry by more than a quarter-million votes in Virginia, which hadn’t been won by a Democrat since 1964. But in 2008, with Obama’s candidacy exciting a surge of new voter registrations and Republicans demoralized by Bush-era “brand damage,” John McCain lost Virginia by more than 200,000 votes. No other state saw such a dramatic shift toward the Democrats, except perhaps neighboring North Carolina. This year, however, North Carolina Democrats are in such organizational disarray — the state party leadership has been disgraced by a particularly lurid sex scandal — that few observers think Obama can compete in the Tar Heel State, even though the Democrats are holding their national convention in Charlotte. Thus, the president’s campaign strategists have concentrated additional effort on keeping Virginia in Obama’s column.
IF DEMOCRATS CAN’T DO the math necessary to understand basic economics, they are keenly aware of the political arithmetic necessary to re-elect Obama. Forcing Republicans to fight for Virginia’s 13 Electoral College votes means that the Romney campaign must divert attention from perennial battleground states like Ohio and Florida. Most early polls show Obama leading in the Old Dominion — ahead 47.5 percent to Romney’s 44.5 percent in the Real Clear Politics average of Virginia polls — and if that trend continues into the fall campaign, the GOP will face an enormous challenge in re-taking the White House. On the other hand, if Virginia’s middle-class voters rally to the Romney standard over the next six to eight weeks, Obama will clearly be on the defensive as the campaign enters the home stretch. This explains why Obama showed up Saturday in Fairfax County to give a speech in which he invoked the phrase “middle-class families” on four separate occasions.
Contrary to the president’s rhetoric, Republicans continue to hold their own among actual middle-class families — that is to say, married voters with household incomes above $50,000 a year. To the extent that Democrats have recently made any substantial gains in the middle-income demographic, it is among the unmarried and the divorced. The fraying of the family examined by Charles Murray in his recent book Coming Apart (see David Bass’s column last month) has enormous political consequences. Even in the ebb-tide year of 2008, exit polls showed John McCain getting half the over-$50,000 vote, while Obama secured his margin of victory by getting 60 percent of voters whose annual incomes were below that threshold. And whereas unmarried voters favored Obama by nearly a 2-to-1 margin, McCain won a narrow majority among married voters.
Fairfax County, a booming suburb southwest of Washington, D.C., would therefore seem to be exactly the kind of “Republican territory” that Tim Hugo described. With a median household income above $100,000, Fairfax is the third richest county in America and, with more than 1.1 million residents, is also the most populous county in Virginia. Yet the eastern side of the county, closer to D.C., has a lot of apartments, townhouses and condominiums occupied by young singles and lower-income residents, and Fairfax is also home to many immigrants — nearly 30 percent of the county’s population is foreign-born — whose inclinations are clearly more toward the Democrats. (An undetermined percentage of those immigrants are illegal aliens or other non-citizens and thus ineligible to vote, a fact alluded to by some Tea Party protesters who noted that attendees at the Obama rally were required to show identification, while the president’s administration opposes requiring ID to vote.) Overall, Democrats are a majority of voters in Fairfax County, which John Kerry won with 54 percent in 2004 without preventing Bush from claiming statewide victory. In 2008, however, Obama beat McCain by more than 100,000 votes in Fairfax (60 percent to 38 percent), a result that played a big part in tipping Virginia into the Democrat’s column. The challenge for Romney’s campaign in 2012 is to boost the GOP vote in western Fairfax County enough to offset Obama’s strength on the east side, keeping the margin close enough in the Northern Virginia suburbs to make up the difference in the predominantly Republican rural areas of the state.
There are reasons to suspect that, despite the early poll numbers, the Old Dominion will swing toward the Republican this fall. Virginia was the scene of one of the first GOP victories that signaled an anti-Obama backlash in 2009, when Republican Bob McDonnell won the governorship with nearly 59 percent of the vote. In the 2010 mid-term election, Republican challengers in Virginia defeated three Democratic congressmen, including 14-term incumbent Rick Boucher. Boucher made the career-ending mistake of supporting the president’s energy policy, which threatens to eliminate thousands of coal-mining jobs in the southwest Virginia district now represented by Republican Morgan Griffith. Obama’s tax-the-rich proposals are similarly threatening to the interests of prosperous suburbanites in Northern Virginia, especially small business owners like Tami Hurley.
THE LARGE CROWD of protesters at Saturday’s event impressed Republican officials. “It’s amazing how many people are out here,” said Hugo, the local delegate. Fairfax County supervisor Pat Herrity interpreted the strong turnout as a promising omen for November. “Our people are energized,” he said. “People around here are angry.”
Ron Wilcox seemed more amused than angry. A leader of the Northern Virginia Tea Party, Wilcox smiled when asked how things were going for the grassroots movement. “Dead as a doornail, can’t you see?” he joked, as scores of protesters nearby chanted anti-Obama slogans and waved their yellow “don’t-tread-on-me” Gadsden Flags. Grassroots activism got an accidental boost last month when the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the president’s health-care legislation, ruling that the mandated coverage portion of the measure is a tax. Attendance at Tea Party events has doubled since the June decision, said Wilcox, who advocates the repeal of Obamacare no matter what the Supreme Court says.
What does this mean for Obama’s fate in Virginia? The fundamental question is whether the election is a referendum or a choice. If Virginians see themselves casting an up-or-down vote on Obama’s first term, there is good reason to believe most will vote thumbs down. The president’s re-election campaign strategy, however, is to make the election a choice between the incumbent and his GOP challenger, whom Democrats are endeavoring to demonize with attack ads portraying Romney as a selfish rich guy out of touch with middle-class concerns. But voters don’t have to love Romney in order to oppose Obama, and the president’s campaign attacks on Romney’s career at the Bain Capital investment firm have so far done little to distract middle-class voters from Obama’s failed economic policies. A hint of what to expect in November was Wilcox’s reaction when it was pointed out that most conservatives in the GOP primaries didn’t support Romney. The Tea Party leader laughed as he shouted, “We do now!”
Virginia’s governor is similarly confident. “Mitt Romney is going to win Virginia because the independent voters don’t care about tax returns and Bain Capital,” McDonnell told CNN’s Candy Crowley in a Sunday interview, referring to the latest attacks from the Obama campaign. “They care about getting the greatest country on earth out of debt.”
The fate of the greatest country on earth has been decided in Virginia before. It was Washington’s victory at Yorktown that secured America’s independence, and many of the key battles of the Civil War were fought within a few miles of Centreville. No state is more proud of its military traditions, and among the protesters who lined Union Mill Road on Saturday afternoon was a 54-year-old veteran of the Marine Corps, Frederick Peterson III, who explained that he is not officially a member of the Tea Party. “I don’t actually belong to anything,” Peterson said. “I’m not a big joiner.” His son is now a Marine who just returned from Iraq, while Peterson’s son-in-law is deployed to Afghanistan, and his daughter recently graduated from Naval Academy in Annapolis. Peterson expressed his philosophy as a commitment to “foundational liberty and constitutional order.” No one can doubt his willingness to fight for those principles, and nowhere will the fight this fall be more crucial than in the battleground state of Virginia.
About the Author
Robert Stacy McCain is co-author (with Lynn Vincent) of Donkey Cons: Sex, Crime, and Corruption in the Democratic Party (Nelson Current). He blogs at The Other McCain.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (82) | Leave a comment
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Chris Holly | 7.15.12 @ 10:03PM
Homegrown music/ad for Mitt Romney "America Street" . I think Nancy Pelosi would call this astro turf. http://youtu.be/PiPYv4NIOEg
Becca| 7.16.12 @ 12:55AM
If this is what it's like in NoVA, Obama's got no chance of winning VA. I'm in Va Beach and you don't have to look any further than the reaction to the facebook posts from the local news announcing his visit last week. Literally, 90% of the comments are anti-Obama and I think it's mainly because of the military. We tend to be protective of them down here and if we feel like they're not being treated well by the CIC, then he must go!! When the military gave a verbal reprimand to the commander of SEAL Team 6 for all of their publicity, every single comment was the same....Obama deserves the blame. Even had a former SEAL go to the local news to tell the administration to shut the hell up when after they rescued those 2 hostages in Africa. He can't have my state this time around!!
Anna K. from Emory U.| 7.16.12 @ 7:57AM
While attending a meeting of our university’s Senate Diversity Committee, I was moved by this prayer. Afterwards, I asked the young African American woman--a divinity student with powerful leadership qualities--would she write it for me, and she kindly consented. I made copies for all of my students.
I am asking the American Spectator readership to join me in this prayer for President Obama. Surely, we can be nonpartisan when praying for God’s guidance in helping our president make wise decisions about our country’s future.
A PRAYER FOR PRESIDENT OBAMA
Lord, you are the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. I pray that you will guide President Obama and lead him in your way, and while you guide our beloved president, please soften the hearts of those who oppose his noble efforts. And, Lord, we ask you to warm the hearts and minds of those who disrespect him and his family.
May our country be drawn to you in love and compassion, and may your kingdom be established on earth as it is in heaven.
Thank you for your son Jesus and the price he paid for us on the cross. Remind us, Lord, to show kindness in our speech and action, and forgive our many transgressions of civility.
We ask this in thy holy name. Amen
Anna K. from Emory U.| 7.16.12 @ 8:02AM
Dear readers,
We can all participate in intelligent, educated discourse when we do the following:
***Avoid profanities or foul language unless it is contained in a necessary quote.
***Stay on topic.
***Disagree, but avoid ad hominem attacks.
Before you post, consider these three simple guidelines.
Brucey Boy| 7.16.12 @ 8:08AM
How 'bout this, bitch?
Why don't you crawl back into your rat-infested ivory tower and keep your mouth shut.
Is this civil enough for you?
TLP| 7.16.12 @ 9:18AM
Bruce. I don't know what to say.
You sound just like every Democrat Operative, who works the Precincts for The Muslim.
Forgive her. For she is a Brain Dead Liberal Dumbb*tch, worried about where her next Free Abortion, Free Condoms, and all of her Free Vaginal Creams and Free Plastic Lifelike Male Appendage "Substitutes" are coming from, as well as what she needs for her next trip on one of those boats, running the Israeli Blockade against her Peaceful Brothers and Sisters in Palestine. Who, every right minded Brain Dead Liberal Dumbb*tch knows, only seek a State of their own, from which to use THEIR KIDS to Blow Up OTHER PEOPLE'S KIDS, and as a Launching Pad to Fire Rockets in to Israeli population centers.
Other than that, she's great.
I love the idea that she actually wants us to Pray to God, to Help The False Messiah.
You can't make this Sh*t up.
Gary B| 7.16.12 @ 12:53PM
LOL
C'mon Man!| 7.16.12 @ 1:45PM
No you can't. "Noble efforts "- classic. I'm sure Jesus will help her get her contraceptives.
And, the bible does say something about those who will not work, now where is that?
Doctor Right| 7.16.12 @ 11:23PM
Actually, Bruce sounds a lot like one of your posts.
loulou| 7.16.12 @ 10:13AM
Funny!
Goldwater Girl| 7.16.12 @ 9:05AM
Anna,
We don't need any lectures from you. Now get back to your women's studies or whatever worthless class you're skipping to type this drivel. Oh, and GFY!
Al Adab| 7.16.12 @ 9:21AM
Anna:
Consider for a moment that Diversity has become one of the Idols of our age. Along with Gaia, Tolerance and Choice we worship the idol rather than Him who makes men free. It is these false gods who lead our nation astray. How many children have we sacrificed to Choice? How many do we harm worshiping Gaia? You know, I am certain, which road it is paved with good intentions.
JimP| 7.16.12 @ 9:18AM
What's up with the preemptive sanctimonious lecturing, Anna? Do you fancy yourself a saint and are on some messianic mission among the heathens- as you see it?
Practice what you preach, sister. You are casting the first stone in this case by virtue of presuming that anyone here needs your admonitions which is a kind of oblique ad hominem in itself and YOU are off topic. The subject here is the election in VA this November.
Get your flock elsewhere or get thee to a nunnery but either way, please just get lost.
PhilTheCapitalistPig| 7.16.12 @ 9:44AM
1) Are you on bathsalts?
2) "Intelligent, Educated discourse." HAHAHA.. I had to laugh.
3) "Stay on topic" -- Which topic? how the evil republicans are opposing the all-intelligent, infinitely noble Obama? FOH
Cobalt| 7.16.12 @ 11:55AM
It looks like Anna K. from Emory U. has her head in the proper, politically correct place, and is on the right track to be a shoo-in for tenure.
WRTolkas| 7.16.12 @ 12:11PM
Dear Miss Anna K:
I'd be civil if this wasn't WAR!
Have a nice day.
TLP| 7.16.12 @ 4:38PM
Dear God.
Please, in your infinite wisdom, go back in time and ABORT this POS.
Amen.
Doctor Right| 7.16.12 @ 11:24PM
Wow, that's profound.
I'm sure God is pleased with your loving attitude.
Liza Brisson| 7.16.12 @ 5:23PM
I have been looking for a voice of moral character on this blog, and I have finally found it in the words of Anna K. from Emory U.
God bless you, Anna, for bringing a bit of humanity to this dark and angry blog.
It just tears at my heart to read some of the hateful comments directed at you and your kind, thoughtful words. Again, I wish you God's blessings.
CJW| 7.16.12 @ 8:08AM
Did O ever say such a prayer for the US presidents while a member of Rev Wright's church for 20 years, or did Rev Wright ever lead his congregation is such a prayer for the USA and its presidents prior to O?
Stephanie| 7.16.12 @ 3:41PM
No. God DAMN America! That's obama's prayer for our nation.
Anna, I get where you're coming from but you are obviously not well informed or you love having a marxist as our leader. You might want to look that word up.
Mimi | 7.16.12 @ 8:20AM
The lack of paychecks...by the millions, the 40�crease in net wealth by all....The struggle to make ends meet..an impossible feat by many. All suffer except Obama....the lifestyle of the RICH and FAMOUS, The leisure, the celebrities, the concerts, vacations up the gazzoo.
I would like to CHANGE the " PRAYER FOR", ( A beautiful One) from Obama to the AMERICAN PEOPLE who have endured the lack of leadership and disemination of their basic rights on which this GOD GIVEN country was founded on!
Anthony| 7.16.12 @ 9:39AM
Dear Anna K, These two posts of yours are a joke right? Have you been on a Marx Brothers movie marathon weekend? Maybe it's that new drug going around, that turns people into flesh eating zombies.
Because if this is for real, girl, you've really become a sickening caricature of elitist leftism in all its sanctmonious perversity.
Did your Senate Diversity Committee pray and send appropiate prayerful admonishments to your fellow blood thirsty academic leftists when the Duke Lacrosse team was being lynched?
Did your Senate Diversity Committee demand that the Duke faculty and student body engage in "intelligent, educated discourse"?
Perhaps your Diversity Committee admonished the Florida D.A. about lynching George Zimmerman in the name of racial blood lust?
And honey, if you're gonna offer up a prayer for Obozo, perhaps you'll ask him not to bring a gun to the fight, and perhaps stop tearing this nation to pieces all for his own glory.
In America's name we pray!!!
Now, as been suggested by better Christians than you on this site, and as per your request to avoid foul language, go **** yourself.
PhilTheCapitalistPig| 7.16.12 @ 9:41AM
"please soften the hearts of those who oppose his noble efforts"
GTFOH! I don't know whether to laugh or puke!
What a joke!
Anthony| 7.16.12 @ 10:05AM
Phil, I'd like to laugh in Anna's face, slap the hypocrite bitch, and then puke on her Birkenstocks.
That would soften my heart, big time!!!
Drunken Sailor| 7.16.12 @ 10:11AM
The only way I will pray for Obama is to pray he sees that the best way for him to help this country is to resign.
We have about as much chance of that happening as we have of you becoming a conservative.
Anthony| 7.16.12 @ 11:14AM
Dear Anna K, Upon deep reflection on this prayer written by this young African American woman divinity student, "with powerful leadership qualities", I have taken it upon myself to email copies to the Revs. Jeremiah Wright and Jessie Jackson.
I suspect that under the tutelage of both Revs. Wright and Jackson, (assuming she avoids both prison and pregnancy) that she will have a most financially rewarding career as the new pastor of Wright's Church of Black LiberationTheology. Or, as Obozo called it for 20 years, the, Throw Whitey Under the Bus Church of Payback's a Bitch.
Perhaps this woman of enormous faith can also manage to heal the soul of poor, poor, Jessie Jackson Jr., whose mother says "can't rebound from disappointment".
Or maybe Jessie Jackson Jr. needs the help of another new rising star in the leftist firmament, Sandra Fluke, Esq.
Sound's like a plan. Oh, and I will not ask for a referral fee. But you can make a donation to George Zimmerman's legal defense fund in my name.
KyMouse| 7.16.12 @ 11:38AM
Anna, speak for yourself. I don't need you to lead me in prayer, especially in support of Obama's "noble efforts."
I pray for God to correct and change Obama -- for example, for Him to give Obama a heart of compassion toward unborn babies and their mothers who are exploited by abortionists.
I hope you will add that to *your* prayers.
KennesawJack| 7.16.12 @ 11:41AM
I pray to God he guide Obamarx to make a wise decision about our country's future and resign, forthwith. It would certainly be his most noble effort, to date, and would warm the cockles of my heart as well as ease the anger in my mind. Will you join me in this prayer, Anna K.?
KennesawJack| 7.16.12 @ 11:43AM
Forgive me for forgetting to capitalize the "H" in He. I know better.
ljgriffith| 7.16.12 @ 10:40PM
First of all Anna, the Dear Leader is NOT beloved. With a 45% approval rating, that hardly qualifies as beloved. On the contrary, most Americans think the guy's a jerk and an idiot. And a heck of a lot of them think he's downright evil. (I being one of them.) I am a Christian, and I too, believe we should pray for our leaders. However, the Lord also warns us that if we turn our backs against Him, He would bring his judgement upon us. In addition, I believe that respect begets respect, and this president nor his family doesn't respect the people that he governs. If he did, they wouldn't be taking vacation after vacation, all on our dime. And he wouldn't be telling those in our country that if you have a business, you weren't responsible for making it a success, you owe it all to our nanny state government. (Believe me, he sure needs to learn how to win friends and influence people; this isn't cutting it.) And lastly, you're talking about showing kindness and civility??? Democrats should be the last of those to be pointing the finger about civility!!!
spike59| 7.17.12 @ 5:53AM
how can you pray TO Obama, FOR Obama? your thinly disguised diatribe against anyone who disagrees with your 'beloved Obama' is not nearly as clever as you think; is Emory one of those schools that advertise on matchbook covers?
benny havens| 7.16.12 @ 6:47AM
It wasn’t socialism that started putting men on the moon in the late 60’s. It wasn’t socialism that created hundreds of millions of jobs for the American people after WWII. It wasn’t Marxism or Progressivism that developed the best health technology the world has ever seen. It wasn’t collectivism that afforded everyday citizens the opportunity to purchase their own home. It wasn’t a dictator that created the middle-class. It was a free market Capitalist system that did.
Capitalism didn’t kill 50,000,000 people between 1933 and 1945. It wasn’t Adam Smith’s free market capitalism that killed 30,000,000 citizens under Joseph Stalin or 45,000,000 Chinese under Chairman Mao.
Capitalism didn’t create our economic mess either, Progressives did. The Marxist and socialists, in our government, have succeeded in taxing and regulating the system for the last 60 years to the point where the system is totally overloaded. They are killing the middle-class by killing job growth and killing the engine of opportunity. What they have succeeded in doing was to create a sub-culture looking for government handouts and free money.
Gary B| 7.16.12 @ 7:01AM
The something-for-nothing sales pitch is very tempting. "Give up your liberty and you remain on the couch."
The counter argument is liberty and personal responsibility. That, of course, means getting up off the couch. Luckily, there are still enough American willing to do that. Not so in Europe.
TLP| 7.16.12 @ 7:44AM
Some, continue to see this Creature as something other than he really is. They still cling to the belief that "He doesn't know what he's doing".
We are where we are, because HE WISHES IT!
Every Job Killing Rule and Regulation. Every Document Forging, ILLEGAL Drilling Moratorium. Every CANCELED Pipeline. Every Shut Down Power Plant. Every shuttered Business in the Gulf, that relied on the Oil Industry, and every Farmer out West, who needs Water, but can't get it.
They're all ON PUROSE.
For One to Fundamentally Transform something? One must, first Tear Down what is already there.
If One wishes to Establish a "BOTTOM UP" Economy (where the homeless guy at the traffic light, holds a sign that reads: "Will HIRE for Food!")?
One must first, Tear Down the Capitalist/Market Economy, because "That doesn't work. It's NEVER WORKED!"
We have, in Amerika, ARMY of the Unemployed, and Underemployed, led by a Charasmatic Leader, who's Oratory Skills enthrall his followers, and sends them in to the Streets after anyone he TARGETS as his Enemy.
Sound Familiar?
Gee.
I wonder if this will end BETTER, than all of the other times it's been tried?
You know.
Millions of people being MURDERED by their Compassionate Government.
Gary B| 7.16.12 @ 8:52AM
Yup... Obama has been 100% successful. Every lie, every trick is a means to an end - killing America. One more term would do it. I say again, regardless of the Romney outcome, if our governors don't stand up for America, it really will come down to the pitchfork solution.
Regarding Romney... yes, he's the superior choice over The Muslim, but that doesn't mean he can be trusted. Republicans have the nasty habit of selling out. They simply can not be trusted.
I almost envy Democrats, because their politicians can be trusted to do exactly what they're elected to do - set the Constitution on fire and push the socialist agenda.
TLP| 7.16.12 @ 9:50AM
Can we STOP IT, already, with the "Romney's not my favorite Guy"?
I love ya, Gary, but we've got all of the Republican Nominees that we're gonna get, this time around. And, all of these Backhanded Endorsements, only makes things more difficult.
We even had some Establishment Puke come out, yesterday, saying that "Romney should show everything that Obama is asking to see (100 Years of Income Tax) because "It looks like he's hiding something". The very definition of USEFUL IDIOT, and Why we Lose.
To continue to keep on Harping that "He's not Barry Goldwater!" helps us how, exactly.
He's not President Appocalypse. He's not the guy trying to Destroy this Country.
How many times have we been told that, the only way this Country could EVER be defeated, was FROM THE INSIDE?
He is LAWLESS, and every fiber of his Being, Screams out with HATRED for every aspect of America.
Everything he does, is ANATHEMA to what our Founders put in place for us.
And, 4 more years of him will mark The End of our way of life.
Now.
What did you wanna say about Romney?
TLP| 7.16.12 @ 10:18AM
I don't mean to jump down you're throat.
But, OUR NOMINEE has enough people! on the other side, breaking his balls, without the people Voting For Him, doing it as well.
I get it.
Just, save it for later.
Petronius| 7.16.12 @ 12:01PM
What balls?
TLP| 7.16.12 @ 2:00PM
Perfect example.
Gary B| 7.16.12 @ 1:00PM
Good point... I was going to say more about the GOP, but everyone here already knows about those particular critters. Romney's VP choice will be important. That's where backroom GOP BS comes into play. We need to be careful not to judge Romney too harshly if we're disappointed. I'm sure he's under lots of pressure. And, I'm 80% sure we'll be disappointed.
Houdini| 7.16.12 @ 11:51AM
Hate to disagree, Romney should go on national TV with his tax returns and announce that he will release them the minute BHO releases his college transcripts, his financial aid applications, his passport from his trip to Pakistan and the "Fast and Furious" documents.
mike 3/505| 7.16.12 @ 1:53PM
That would involve our side taking control of the conversation and defining the terms...for once.
C'mon Man!| 7.16.12 @ 3:38PM
I do like that tactic, but TLP is right on about the useful idiot comment, but we need to remember those guys are RINO's doing that and should be ignored. Oh, and voted out.
Cobalt| 7.16.12 @ 9:32AM
Obama in Roanoke, Virginia:
Obama - "If you've got a business -- you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen."
http://www.washingtontimes.com.....ou-didnt-/
spike59| 7.17.12 @ 6:03AM
Obama - "If you've got a business -- you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen."
-----------------------------------------
Maxine Waters, et al: "If you've got a business, hand it over"
vtwin| 7.16.12 @ 10:39AM
Men on the moon… You must be confusing the 50’s science fiction movie Destination the Moon with the real U.S. space program in the 60’s. In the 50’s movie a group of altruistic capitalist come together to fund and build a rocket ship to go to the moon but in reality in was a collective (socialist) enterprise funded by taxes and directed by the government for the common good. Don’t misunderstand I’m not saying the capitalist didn’t have a role in addition to making the “rocket ship” they pay most of the taxes needed to fund the enterprise but that was before secret bank accounts in the Switzerland, tax havens in the Canary Islands and shell companies in the Bermudas.
Anthony| 7.16.12 @ 12:00PM
So vtwin, when is San Francisco declaring bankruptcy, or are all those lefty trust fund babies banning together to save the town?
Maybe your biker buddies are collecting 5 cent returnables and filling the city's coffers, how noble of you guys!!!
Yeah right, lefties give their own money, that'll happen when the Ruskies put Americans back on the moon!!
Mimi | 7.16.12 @ 7:59AM
We must ask ourselves....Do the single, Gov. worker, high tax-paying citizens of Northern Va. not want LIBERTY?....Have they all given up...to give their FREEDOM away to Obama?....are they all for sale??? Do they ALL not see and hear ALL the LIES told. Nothing has changed...the BACK to DESTRUCTION MODE will continue if he ever wins re-election. Will all these Americans turn their face away from what is TRUE ???
We shall overcome...have faith in America and it's people to do the right thing
" TRUTH IS STRONGER THAN LIES"
Pope Benedict XVI
Gary B| 7.16.12 @ 8:54AM
" TRUTH IS STRONGER THAN LIES"
Sometimes, I wonder...
Stephanie| 7.16.12 @ 3:50PM
Not when you have the entire MSM behind you. You can lie all you want and it will be reported as the God's honest truth. The sheeple will lap it up.
Saw a photo of obama with a throng of middle to late life black women, their hand reaching out to him as if he were Jesus the Christ himself. It is such a sickening picture and I hope there that there are more of us than them.
Derek Leaberry| 7.16.12 @ 8:55AM
Part of the reason Virginia has become a swing state rather than a safe Republican state is that Republicans have failed so miserably in cutting government, including defense. The growth of government has grown Northern Virginia's suburbs which are now overflowing with government workers and workers who labor for the thousands of sub-contracting agencies dependent on big government. That developers pretty much call the shots in Northern Virginia hasn't helped. Remember, conservatives, urbanization leads to liberal political victories.
JimP| 7.16.12 @ 9:03AM
Yes! I agree. Thanks for pointing this out, Derek.
Al Adab| 7.16.12 @ 9:28AM
Exactly so Derek:
Virginia is one of about five states that must change alignment from '08 in order for the GOP to prevail. Along with FL, NC and Ohio the choice it makes will determine the next President. Indiana has already moved. That is why every effort to steal votes will be made there. The Left will let nothing stand in the way of their continued power. Remember the promise was to fundamentally transform America. Sadly we must cast our cause with a GOP that seems determined to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Derek Leaberry| 7.16.12 @ 10:46AM
Just to think that Virginia voted 62-37 Reagan over Mondale in 1984. Reagan swept almost every county in the state but for a few black-majority counties, three coal-country counties, and a few independent cities like Richmond, Petersburg, Arlington, Alexandria and Charlottesville, the last three narrow Mondale wins. Reagan won about 70 % in Loudoun, then fairly rural and exurban. Developers went on a rampage since and Obama won the county in 2008. Reagan won Fairfax County with 62 % in 1984. Now Fairfax is central to Democratic statewide victories.
JimP| 7.16.12 @ 11:07AM
People outside VA should also be aware that the folks who vote for the Democrats here, particularly over the last 20 odd years or so, are coming or have come from Northern blue states because their economies are so bad, taxes so high and jobs in such short supply. New York, NYC in particular, is the worst 'offender' for creating this wave of expatriate blockheads. The majority of these migrants come here for the better economic opportunities and lower taxes, and too many to get easy government sinecures in the No. Va. region. Ironically, as soon as they get here, they begin to clamor for the same policies that caused them to leave their blue states. This is commonly known as being learning disabled or being a liberal. Take your pick of terms. I see so many NY tags on cars that sometimes I wonder if I have somehow been transported north. NYers are like illegal Mexicans who want to reconquista the Southwest, but who never realize it was the gringos who made all that milk and honey. If they reconquista then the SW will just be another crap hole like Mexico is now. Dumb. Very dumb.
Derek Leaberry| 7.16.12 @ 11:30AM
Virginia is no longer a southern state north of Fredericksburg.
JimP| 7.16.12 @ 4:45PM
Sadly, agreed. One blog commenter, whom I forget his handle, blogs from "Occupied Northern Virginia". So true.
Derek Leaberry| 7.16.12 @ 4:51PM
I still remember when one Mayor Jim Moran of Alexandria wanted to mothball the statue commemorating Alexandria's Confederate dead.
JimP| 7.16.12 @ 5:03PM
I remember that! Yeah, Jim Moran, another carpetbagging @$$hole Yankee. He's from Massachusetts if I recall correctly.
Reggie Love| 7.16.12 @ 8:59AM
Got to love Virginia. They vote for a Republican governor and legislature,in order to keep THEIR taxes down,but then vote for liberals nationally in order to grow the federal government. I am not criticizing the whole state,just NOVA.
Kevin Brent | 7.16.12 @ 11:48AM
Just remember VA hadn't voted nationally for a Demotard since LBJ in 64. Been straight GOP until we were stabbed in the back with Petain McCain.
JimP| 7.16.12 @ 4:47PM
"Petain McCain", LOL. Love it and so true.
CJW| 7.16.12 @ 6:04PM
After you spend five years on a POW camp like McCain and serve like McCain, then maybe you can call someone a traitor.
spike59| 7.17.12 @ 6:01AM
...and after all that, to virtually cede the fate of the nation to a Marxist race-baiting member of the Chicago Democrat thugocracy without so much as a whimper beyond "my freindsh, we can all dishagree peashefully" while the other side lobs grenade after grenade, then 'petain' is the most kind thing one can say about you
JimP| 7.16.12 @ 9:01AM
I guess the author does not live in VA and therefore is still in doubt about the outcome in November. If recent history is any guide, Obama will lose VA. In November 2009 Bob McDonnell [a Reagan Republican] won the governorship of VA. He won resoundingly in the Northern Virginia segment of the state. This was during Obama's peak of popularity. In November 201o the Tea Party ran several candidates for the U.S. House of Reps and won. Eight of VA's 11 U.S. Reps are Republicans. The President of The United States can't fill a HS gym, even with mercenaries shipped in from another state. Think about that. How pathetic. Yet people question the outcome in November? Maybe lightening will strike and somehow Obama will win VA this year. In the meantime I'll be betting some gold Krugerrands that Romney will take the Old Dominion handily.
Kevin Brent | 7.16.12 @ 11:47AM
Tollbooth Bob MacDonald is no Reagan Republican. He won, yes. But, he's in love with tollbooths and he is another governor in the hip pocket of BIG EDUCATION. If he could run a second time, he would lose to a Demotard.
Derek Leaberry| 7.16.12 @ 4:49PM
McDonnell is a road junkie, too.
JimP| 7.16.12 @ 4:52PM
Where did you get this info Kevin? I've not heard of him being in BigEd's hip pocket. Please give citations etc. Yeah, he's talking about toll booths. How is this leftist? Not that I necessarily see it as a good idea, but I don't see how this makes him not a Reagan Republican, which is how he ran in '09 and WON the Northern Virginia region. The point being, NoVa WILL vote Republican and isn't necessarily an automatic Democrat constituency.
JimP| 7.16.12 @ 5:22PM
I refreshed my memory on the toll booth issue, Kevin. This has nothing to do with Reagan conservatism and everything to do with circumstances, timing, and the voters in the Hampton Roads region NOT raising their own taxes years ago to pay for new tunnels, but now expecting the rest of the state to bail them out at the worst possible time economically & financially. You have my sympathy, but it is not McDonnell's fault or him not being a Reagan Republican. If he taxed the rest of us to bail out your region, after y'all failed to pay your share when you should have, that would be Obamaism. Sour grapes. Now please forward the BigEd citations. I'm not finding anything on Bob being in BigEd's pocket. Help me out here, Kevin.
George Collins| 7.16.12 @ 9:15AM
Dear Anna K from Emory U.,
What would those noble efforts be? President Obama would qualify, in my opinion, as the most ignoble occupant of the White House since Richard Nixon.
Reggie Love| 7.16.12 @ 9:37AM
Virginia seems like a good state for "The One". Lots of blacks. Lots of illegals. Lots of government workers. Lots of limpwrsited pantywaist metrosexual whites in NOVA.
loulou| 7.16.12 @ 10:17AM
Reggie Love, you're right. NoVa is infested with illegal aliens--not just Hispanics but Muslims as well.
Kevin Brent | 7.16.12 @ 11:45AM
That's only in the Soviet Socialist Republic of Northern VA. Not the rest of the state....lol
Crassus| 7.16.12 @ 2:05PM
Don't forget the redneck whites who live west of I-77. This area was formerly known as Boucherville until 2010 when Rick Boucher was finally retired. Many residents of Boucherville view full employment as a government check in every mailbox. They'll always vote Democrat in order to keep that check coming.
paintbrush| 7.16.12 @ 9:49AM
The fate of our country has been misplaced to an elitist class who sees in social engineering as the foundation to its desire for power and self purpose. They now constitute the greatest danger to the middle class and traditional institutions because whatever they do is correct and moral due to the liberalism they espouse. Setting aside fact and logic, voters have to ask themselves, do we want to become citizens or subjects?
Kevin Brent | 7.16.12 @ 11:44AM
I am a Virginian and I can promise you all, there is nothing 'battleground' about this state. Obama won Virginia in 2008, because too many of us were disgusted with Petain McCain and stayed home. Since then we have elected a GOP Governor, GOP State House, GOP State Senate, GOP Attorney General, GOP Lt Governor. That has never, ever happened before in the history of the state and it is because of Fuhrer Obama that it happened.
loulou| 7.16.12 @ 12:15PM
Except that VA has elected losers: Jim Webb, Doug Wilder, and the other Senator--I forget his name.
The VA Republicans are historically weak.
Gary B| 7.16.12 @ 1:04PM
Almost all Republicans are historically weak.
JimP| 7.16.12 @ 4:59PM
The VA GOP has the same problem as the GOP nationally. Virginians will vote for 'conservative' Democrats and occasionally get fooled by liars like Jim Webb and Mark Warner (the guy who's name you couldn't remember) who run right and then govern left. As for Doug Wilder, for a Democrat governor he did a decent job from a conservative standpoint. He was not a radical liberal, horses rear end like Obama. We could have done much worse than Wilder. Plus, that was over 20 years ago that Wilder was elected. Why didn't you mention Chuck Robb as well if you are going to bring Wilder into things.
Reggie Love| 7.16.12 @ 8:21PM
Some of those liberal enclaves should just merge with Maryland. Those phonies wouldn't go for that,as they don't want to pay the high taxes crazy MArtin O'Malley has enacted.