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October 7, 2009
Exclusive: Oval Office Watch - Wednesday, October 7
Obama breaks precedent by not meeting Dalai Lama SEE HERE.
Rep. McClintock: The Dawn of the American Reawakening READ IT HERE.
What We Would Have Told Obama: Though we weren't invited to the White House, here are better ideas to increase coverage for the uninsured. READ ARTICLE HERE.
Did We Elect a Beta Male As President?
Greg Lewis, American Thinker.com
We're all somewhat familiar with the body language dogs display when they greet each other. The dominant alpha male approaches directly, asserting his authority, while the beta male genuflects, crouches, tucks his tail, and may even end up on his back, exposing his neck in acquiescence, making sure the alpha male knows he has no intention of challenging him. With his "we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist" opening to the world's dictators, the President is exhibiting classic beta male behavior, in essence rolling over on his back and exposing his throat to them to make sure they know he has no intention of challenging their authority.
Of course, the problem is that he's not simply exposing his throat, he's exposing America's collective throat, sending the message that he's a typical beta male intent on submitting to all the alpha male leaders around the world, and damn the consequences. His response to the discovery of Iran's newest, and heretofore "secret," nuclear facility was, as Daniel Henninger (Wall Street Journal, October 1, 2009) points out, to have our State Department offer to start a direct dialogue with the tyrannical Burmese regime.
The Obama administration has also offered conciliatory gestures to the genocidal Sudanese leader Omar Hassan al-Bashir, and it has dispatched none other than John Kerry to meet with Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad. This, of course, is not to mention his somewhat more visible overtures to the world's alpha male thugs: Obama has consorted jovially with Hugo Chavez and his counterpart Daniel Ortega, he's bowed down to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, he's agreed to halt plans to install a missile defense system in eastern Europe to placate Vladimir Putin, and he's offered the aforementioned hand to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, despite the latter's expressed unwillingness to even agree to acknowledge the truly important issue of Iran's nuclear weapons in our talks, all quintessential beta male behaviors. Read article.
Media Malpractice: Ayers 'Dreams' authorship suppressed
James Simpson, American Thinker.com
Perhaps one of the biggest political stories of the year is being completely overlooked by the Obama-struck mass media. A new biography by veteran author Christopher Andersen, "Barack and Michelle: Portrait of a Marriage," reveals that former Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers wrote most, if not all of President Obama's book "Dreams From My Father."
In a series of American Thinker articles over the past year, PhD author and columnist, Jack Cashill has been asserting just that. But while he found striking similarities between the two men's writing styles he could never conclusively prove Ayers' ghost authorship. Andersen's book does.
Cashill relates: "relying on inside sources, quite possibly Michelle Obama herself, Andersen describes how Dreams came to be published -- just as I had envisioned it in my articles on the authorship of Dreams.
"With the deadline pressing, Michelle recommended that Barack seek advice from 'his friend and Hyde Park neighbor Bill Ayers.' Despite a large advance, Obama found himself 'hopelessly blocked.' After four futile years of trying to finish, Obama ‘sought advice from his friend and Hyde Park neighbor Bill Ayers.' This he did 'at Michelle's urging.'"
Andersen explains their rationale: "Everyone knew they were friends and that they worked on various projects together. It was no secret. Why would it be?"
I don't know, but it was certainly considered a secret by candidate Obama, and the media bent over backwards to keep it that way.
This was not the first time Mr. Obama was "blocked" either. Shortly after he was elected the first black president of the Harvard Law Review, an aggressive literary agent named Jane Dystel secured a $125,000 advance from Simon & Schuster for him to write his book. An astounding sum for a first-time author, he never delivered. After years of waiting, the publisher dropped him.
Dystel then secured him a second advance for $40,000 from Random House, and in 1995 "Dreams" was finally published. After gaining his U.S. Senate seat, Mr. Obama summarily dumped Dystel in favor of someone cheaper. She was understandably infuriated. It is worth noting that as editor of the Harvard Law Review, Mr. Obama wrote one short article. For such a supposedly gifted writer this is truly odd. And as Cashill has noted, Obama's few other writing samples are "sophomoric." Read article.
Unmasking Obama
Thomas Lifson, American Thinker.com
It is now abundantly clear that the image of Barack Obama sold to the American electorate was tightly edited, air-brushed, and exaggerated. He has worn a series of masks -- eloquent orator, brilliant scholar, centrist, and literary sensation. All of these masks are coming off as he copes with a job for which image will not suffice. For instance, hiding behind the eloquent orator mask is a guy who says "uhh" a lot when he is winging it, and who makes lots of factual and grammatical mistakes.
Now, thanks to Jack Cashill, the literary mask has been removed. Obama is a literary pretender. Case closed. The evidence is overwhelming that Bill Ayers ghost-wrote Dreams from my Father, the book which established Obama's pose as a brilliant writer (and therefore a fine mind, in the estimation of many). The stylistic resemblance between the Dreams and Ayers' work is stunning. Now we know, thanks to Chris Andersen's new book, that Obama hit a brick wall trying to fulfill his contract to produce a book, and shipped off his notes and tapes to Ayers. That is the classic description of a ghost writer's assignment. And it completely fits the theories Cashill had inferentially reasoned from the data of his literary studies.
The revelation that Chris Andersen had two separate sources means that this fact meets the journalistic standard of reliability, provided by a respected, established best selling author. Obama's dismissal of Ayers as "just a guy in the neighborhood" has been shown to be an outright lie. Read article.
Reality intrudes on ‘West Wing’
Wesley Pruden, JWR.com
The White House is a risky place for on-the-job training, as Barack Obama and the rest of us are learning. But the president doesn't deserve all the blame for the installation of a handsome but unprepared matinee idol in the toughest job in the world. The adoring cult, the 53 percent of the giddily oblivious electorate that took a flyer on Election Day, deserves most of it.
Matinee idols only do what matinee idols do, look pretty and inveigle softly with practiced seductiveness. Trouble arrives when the matinee idol and his public confuse role with reality. Reality arrives with the surprise and impact of a lemon-cream pie in the face.
Nasty surprises abound across the real world. Iran completes a third round of testing of Shahab-3 and Sajjil medium-range missiles capable of hitting not only Israel, Eastern Europe and several Middle Eastern countries but, if all that were not sobering enough, several U.S military bases as well. Venezuela boasts that it's working with Russia and Iran in finding sources of uranium, the key ingredient of nuclear weapons technology. China says it will display new "upgraded missiles" in celebration of the 60th anniversary of the founding of Red China. India announces that it can now make nuclear weapons up to a strength of 200 kilotons, four times over the line that the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty pledges signing nations not to cross.
This is the fine mess Barack Obama told us would never happen if Americans would elect him to soothe the fears of the frightened and bank the ambitions of evildoers of the world. Read article.
Chrysler’s Railroad
Chuck's Blog, Our Lighter Side.com
This could be a scandal of epic proportions and one that makes Nixon’s Watergate or Clinton ’s Monica Lewinsky affair pale by comparison. Why was there neither rhyme nor reason as to which dealerships of the Chrysler Corporation were to be closed? Roll the clock back to the weeks just before Chrysler declared bankruptcy. Chrysler, like GM, was in dire financial straights and federal government “graciously” offered to “buy the company” and keep them out of bankruptcy and “save jobs.” Chrysler was, in the words of Obama and his administration, “Too big to fail,” same story with GM.
The feds organized their “Automotive Task Force” to fix20Chrysler and GM. Obama, in an act that is 100% unconstitutional, appointed a guy named Steve Rattner to be the White House’s official Car Czar- literally – that’s what his title is. Rattner is the liaison between Obama, Chrysler, and GM.
Initially, the national media reported that Chrysler had made this list of dealerships. That is not true. The Washington Examiner, Newsmax, Fox New and a host of other news agencies discovered that the list of dealerships was put together by the “Automotive Task Force” headed by no one other then Mr. Steve Rattner.
Now the plot thickens. Remember earlier we said that there was neither rhyme nor reason why certain dealerships were closed? Actually there’s a very interesting pattern as to who was closed down. Read article.
Liberals -- Choose You Friends Wisely
Froma Harrop, Rasmussen Reports.com
Nearly as unappetizing as the video of ACORN workers explaining how to run a prostitution business, cheat on taxes and import underage streetwalkers from Central America is the presence of Michael Moore's mug on TV screens everywhere.
Having helped throw the 2000 election to George W. Bush -- moderate Democrats had to be punished -- Moore is now promoting his new movie on the evils of capitalism. The bankers he embarrasses on camera should also be thanking him for their best years.
Democrats were elected to fix the health care mess and address other problems that the Republicans ran away from. "Now is the time," as President Obama likes to say, and flare-ups caused by the undisciplined left are most unhelpful to his agenda.
ACORN -- the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now -- has long served as a walking parody of the poverty pimp popularized by the right. Ten years ago, the brother of ACORN's founder was caught embezzling $1 million from the organization. ACORN workers have since been criminally charged with voter registration fraud. After the video surfaced, Democrats tried to control the political damage by quickly voting to cut off ACORN's federal funding.
The ACORN affair followed the Van Jones controversy. Head of a federal "green jobs" program, Jones had signed a petition questioning whether the Bush administration let the Sept. 11 attacks happen to provide a pretext for invading Iraq. He had also publicly used obscenities in referring to Republicans. Jones had become a liability for the Obama administration. He was asked to leave quietly and graciously complied. Read article.
The Secret Weapon in America's Revolution
Chuck Norris, Townhall.com
On Sept. 28, 1781, Gen. George Washington led a combined force of 17,000 French and Continental troops upon Yorktown, Va., and encircled British Gen. Charles Cornwallis and his regiment of 9,000 British troops. Washington bombarded Cornwallis and crew day and night for three weeks with artillery and cannon fire, until Cornwallis surrendered Oct. 17, 1781. Negotiations for peace began in 1782, and the Treaty of Paris eventually was signed Sept. 3, 1783, formally ending the seven years of war and securing America's independence.
The key to victory at Yorktown came when, at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, the French navy helped to corner Cornwallis and his crew so they could not flee by sea, while Marquis de Lafayette, who, under Washington, led 5,000 American soldiers, blocked Cornwallis' escape by land. Lafayette was only 23 years old at the time.
Lafayette was only 16 when he joined the Black Musketeers back in France, an elite unit of royal troops that rode black horses. He started fighting in the American Revolution in 1777 at only 19, at which time Congress gave him the rank of major general. Two months after the British surrender at Yorktown, Lafayette returned home as a "hero of two worlds."
Marquis de Lafayette was one of Gen. George Washington's secret weapons in the American Revolution. Youths are often the key to victory in revolutions. That's because people often underestimate their potential or perceived contributions. I believe young people will play a critical role in reawakening and returning America again to its Founding Fathers' vision, ways and principles. Read article.
Calling Conservatives Racists a Tired, Old Game
Richard Viguerie & Steve Allen, NewsMax.com
A new generation of conservative activists has come forth, and many of the newcomers have never experienced the kind of nastiness to which liberals are inclined, falsely labeling them as racists, even Nazis.
Many of the new activists worry that liberals' smears will be effective. But the old-timers among conservative activists have a message for the newcomers: Don't worry. We've heard these smears throughout our political lives. Even in the old days, the smears rarely worked.
It is, to paraphrase Nathan Detroit in "Guys and Dolls," the oldest established permanent floating crap game in American politics.
The upside of the influx of new people into the ranks of political activists is that it gives conservatives the chance to rebuild their movement in the aftermath of the George W. Bush disaster. The downside is that new activists must relearn lessons and, sometimes, relive the experiences of those who came before.
Prominent Democrats and liberals characterized the tea party/town hall protesters as "unruly mobs," as Ku Klux Klan types, as white supremacists. Frank Rich of The New York Times said they were creating a political environment similar to that in which President John F. Kennedy was killed. (Note: The assassins of John and Bobby Kennedy were leftists.) Nancy Pelosi wrote that people causing "disruptions" at town halls were "un-American." (During Iraq War protests, she proclaimed herself a "fan" of town hall disruptors.) Former President Jimmy Carter said that opposition to President Barack Obama is based on "racism": "There is an inherent feeling among many in this country that an African-American should not be president."
Never mind that the same type of working class and small business class Americans who rose up against Obama and his healthcare plan also rose up against Bill Clinton and his healthcare plan. Read article.
Independents desert Obama, putting 2010 in play
Chris Stirewalt, Washington Examiner.com
Independent voters are turning away from President Obama and his fellow Democrats in droves. And if they can't find a way to get them back, the party could be in deep trouble for 2010 and beyond.
Independents gave Obama the White House last year with a vote for pragmatic competence. They have been repaid with partisanship and dithering. And unlike liberals who Obama has quickly re-energized after their summer doldrums, independents are devilishly hard to win back once they lose faith.
The latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, the Rolls-Royce of public surveys, showed that for the first time, independents disapproved of the president's performance, 46 percent to 41 percent.
For the first few months of the Obama administration, independents, who make up about 43 percent of the electorate, reflected overall public opinion in giving the president consistent approval ratings of about 60 percent. But now, unaffiliated voters are less positive than the overall electorate, which is holding steady at 51 percent job approval for Obama. Read article.
The Republican Revival: Leading indicators all point to major gains in the 2010 midterm elections.
Fred Barnes, Weekly Standard.com
Ignore anyone who says Republicans have no chance of winning 40 seats in next year's midterm elections and grabbing control of the House of Representatives. A landslide of that dimension is quite possible. All it would take is for current political trends to continue. If that happens, Republicans will win the House in a landslide. The Senate is another story.
The deep trouble that's beginning to engulf Democrats is now an inescapable fact of political life. With the congressional election 13 months away, Democrats have time to halt their decline and prevent a Republican surge. But they've shown no signs of reversing their slide. In 2006 and 2008, they were on offense. Today they're stuck on defense.
Predicting the outcome in 2010 is partly guesswork. The political climate, the number of open seats, and the quality of candidates a year from now--those are unknowns. Nonetheless, a strong drift toward Republicans is clear. If the election were held today, the best guess is Republicans would win 15 to 25 House seats.
Democrats can point to successes. Their fundraising matches or exceeds that of Republicans. Voter registration has tilted in their favor. And they've won impressive majorities among young voters, Hispanics, and the highly educated in the past two elections.
But those are lagging indicators. In looking to 2010, it's the leading indicators that matter, and Republicans are doing extraordinarily well in all of them. Let's take a look at five of these indicators. Read article.
Has the liberal moment come and gone?
Byron York, Washington Examiner.com
Unhappy with Bush and the GOP, voters recoiled from the image of Republicans as the party of traditional values -- even though they basically held to those traditional values in their own lives. Now, however, with a government completely controlled by Democrats, that is, by the anti-traditional values party -- in last year's poll, Democrats were 60-37 against the government promoting traditional values -- the public has abruptly returned to its basic pro-traditional values position.
But that period of revulsion at Bush and Republicans from 2005 to 2008 left a legacy: a Democrat in the White House and large Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, at least until 2010. That is why you see Democrats racing to enact their agenda, even as they see the political conditions around them changing. They have the majorities, based on the public's very temporary mood of 2005-2008, and they are determined to put their preferred policies in place no matter what the public thinks now.The Gallup numbers also suggest that Barack Obama and the Democratic leadership in the House and Senate have fundamentally misread their own victories. Did voters elect Democrats because they desperately wanted national health care? Sprawling and expensive environmental regulation? Federal deficits triple the size of just a few years ago? No. The voters elected Democrats because they were sick of Bush and Republicans. Now Bush and the GOP are gone and out of power. Democrats are doing what they thought the voters wanted. And it turns out the voters didn’t want that at all.
The Gallup numbers also suggest that Barack Obama and the Democratic leadership in the House and Senate have fundamentally misread their own victories. Did voters elect Democrats because they desperately wanted national health care? Sprawling and expensive environmental regulation? Federal deficits triple the size of just a few years ago? No. The voters elected Democrats because they were sick of Bush and Republicans. Now Bush and the GOP are gone and out of power. Democrats are doing what they thought the voters wanted. And it turns out the voters didn’t want that at all. Read article.
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