Barack--Your Man?

The President regards "them" with disdain, prefers not to deal with "them" or even to be in their presence. Harry Reid has said that there is to be no compromise with "them".  Key members of the Democratic Party advocate any all means to defeat "them".  "Liberals" demonstrate an illiberal intolerance toward every utterance by "them". The media ignores journalistic objectivity in their criticisms of "them".

"Them"? A foreign power that threatens us and our allies? Terrorists who attack and kill Americans at every opportunity? It is neither of these.

"Them" refers to conservative Republicans and everyone or anyone who dares oppose the Democrats' agenda. In their zeal, Obama adherents justify deceit, fear and division to promote their ideology. An ideology that opposes American values of limited government and individual freedom. An ideology that promotes big government and ultimate control.

Given this fundamental difference, it is no wonder that our government is deadlocked and ineffective.  That our problems have not been addressed, our economy essentially "on hold".

Want more of the same? Barack Obama is your man.

Want to break out of this mess? Vote for someone who knows how to govern and reach across the aisle: Mitt Romney.

Putting Barack Obama in Focus

In 2008, many voters were disillusioned. Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan dragged on and our economic future was in doubt.

In 2008, we did not have a clear picture of Barack Obama, a candidate who offered hope and change but little in the way of a specific agenda. A key factor in the campaign was Obama's appeal as the first Black American to have a good chance to be elected president. The fact that he was not well known, lacked meaningful experience and accomplishment was overlooked. That left it to the voters to fill in the blanks.

Fast forward to 2012: We now know what Barack Obama means by change. He has revealed his vision of government as the primary driver of the economy, responsible for its growth and direction and including a right to insure a "fair" distribution of wealth.

Barack Obama's views are rooted in his background. Those views were influenced by the historical injustices suffered by countries subjugated to colonial rule and by the hardships endured by Blacks in the United States. (See the movie "2016: Obama's America" narrated by Dinesh D'Souza).

I submit that Obama's views led him to be a community organizer and ultimately to seek the presidency.    His views in large measure explain his "apology tour" in his first year as president, his persistent drumbeat for the rich to pay their "fair" share and other actions that he has taken.

Efforts to remedy past injustices are not new. In the last 100 years, the United States and other democracies have suffered many battles to liberate those countries where freedom was oppressed. In this country, we have made significant strides to insure civil rights and equal opportunity.

We have not yet completed the process; there is more to be done. But President Obama, acting in large part contrary to America's values, has not served us well. He was wrong to stress what divides us and not what unites us---wrong to instill an atmosphere of "us vs. them"---wrong to seek top down government solutions and not rely on the industriousness and ingenuity of the American people and wrong to sideline Constitutional principles and freedoms in his attempt to reach questionable ends.

By any measure, both domestic and foreign, we are in a worse position now then when Barack Obama first took office. If he is elected to a second term we can expect more of the same and very possibly worse.

Comments on Last Night's Debate

The strategies used by both parties in last night's debate were a continuation of those in the vice-presidential debate last week.

The Romney campaign continued its presentation of their plans to right the economy. The Obama campaign sought to regain some of the ground lost in the first debate by going on the attack, by obfuscating the facts and diverting the discourse from a pathetic record.

That record includes:

     An increase of Americans out of work from 21.5 million to 23.1 million; 
     An increase of those in poverty from 39.3 million to 46.2 million;
     An increase in our debt from $10.6 trillion to $16 trillion;
     Persistent unemployment and a sluggish economy.

As president, Obama has not used his legitimate powers to fix our very real problems. He has used those powers to redirect the economy and "transform" America.  If reelected, he plans more of the same--to go "forward".

His record and policies are not consistent with who we are as a country or with the cherished principles and freedoms cited in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan offer a better alternative. It is an alternative based on constitutional principles. It is also an alternative that provides hope for the future, not despair. 

The Biden Smirk and What it Reveals

If you watched the Vice-Presidential debate last night (Oct. 11), what is your first recollection when reminded of it? To me, it is the Biden smirk.

What are we to make of the Vice-President's outlandish and insulting behavior? Outlandish because it is not what we should expect from a prominent government official; insulting not only to his political opponents but to the American public as well.

There has always been an undercurrent of arrogance in the Obama message. His communicative style resembles that of a preacher declaring the unalterable truth to all of us who should be grateful to be its recipients. There is no give and take; there is no compromise--why bend when you encompass the truth?

Indicative of his attitude are his numerous executive decrees, his waivers to requirements of established law and his unconstitutional mandates under the Affordable Care Act.

The Obama governing rationale and his policies have led to monumental failures. No amount of spin can turn these failures into successes. And they know it. As Obama himself said some four years ago, when someone has a record of failure, he/she turns to small things and seeks to demean the opposition.

This is what we saw in last night's vice-presidential debate. You bluster, you interrupt, you bend the truth, you feign a child's tantrum and you smirk. Or you do as the President did, you are unresponsive and not engaged, above the fray. All in an effort to avoid the real issues.

We should not tolerate this kind of behavior in our elected officials. Neither should we support those who encourage it especially those in the media. It sullies the political process and undermines the truth.

Except for the Vice-President's revealing behavior. the debate last night was effectively a non-event. In this important election, we need a clear understanding of the issues, not smoke and mirrors. For the remainder of the campaign and in the last two debates, we deserve an honest discussion of issues based on facts. We should expect no less.

A Nation of Laws or of Men?

Mitt Romney made several important points in the first presidential debate last night. As you may surmise from the blog's title, I was pleased with his references to the Declaration of Independence and to the Constitution.

As president, Barack Obama has issued numerous executive orders, many of which are of dubious constitutionality. Some examples:

     *He has told defense contractors that they need not issue notices of impending lay-offs in disregard of the provisions of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notice (WARN) Act.

     *He issued waivers for work requirements in the welfare reform act passed in the Clinton administration.

     *He promulgated new rules to resolve the status of illegal immigrants without congressional approval.

     *He issued regulations mandating religious organizations to include in their insurance policies coverage for contraceptives and abortifacient drugs contrary to their beliefs and in violation of the first amendment's guarantee of religious liberty.

     *He announced that his administration would not enforce the Defense of Marriage Act, an act duly enacted by Congress,

This President avoids participation in the legislative process, an area where presidential leadership is important. He seems to have an aversion to the give and take of the political arena, projecting an aloofness and dislike of the process of governing.

An example of this was his handling of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) which was rammed through Congress in secret with special deals reminiscent of the politics in authoritarian countries and not of a democratic republic.

The Declaration of Independence declares in part: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Since ancient times, the prevailing philosophy has been that all men are not created equal, that each person only had those rights assigned to whatever class in which they were born. The Declaration's pronouncement of equality for all turned that concept on its head. We as Americans have struggled to perfect that ideal since our founding. It is an ideal worth defending. It is an ideal which makes America an exceptional nation--"a city on a hill".

The ideals proclaimed in the Declaration are the basis for the freedoms enshrined in the Constitution, its Bill of Rights and subsequent amendments. Attempts to circumscribe these basic precepts, to manipulate and stretch their meaning beyond the original intent, is an affront to constitutional government and a threat to our liberty.

Obamaworld

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness".        (Declaration of Independence)

The following post is by a guest contributor and concerns our most basic liberties. It is quoted in full:


"The choice is  clear to me. I do not want to go to Obamaworld. To become a denizen of that world would mean giving my future, my fortune, such as it is, and my liberty to a 'leader' who knows not what to do with it or perhaps worse, does.

This leader is so caught up with his own image and likeness that nothing else matters.  It is now clear that this president doesn't even communicate with his own party leaders, never mind world leaders. When one's image is all important, burnishing it is a full time endeavor.  Palavering on "The View" with celebrities is an example of that burnishing. Rome burns and Nero frolics with TV personalities. Note however that this time many of those are absent.

But, even more than fiscal ineptness and empty promises, the threat to our freedoms looms large. Governing by executive decree smacks of Caesar Chavez and his ilk. Some of our most precious freedoms are the right to life, the right of religious expression, the right to speak out: to dissent.

The campaign to continually impinge on those freedoms is strong, flourishing in Obamaworld. Particularly with regard to the Department of Health and Human Services mandates eliminating the right of church sponsored health facilities (or any one else for that matter) to not pay (therefore support) contraceptive and abortifacient services.

There is but a small movement to the next step. I will speak here of abortion. I know of this fight against this intrinsic evil. I was there early on. I speak of it in a medical sense. Once life is imbedded in the womb, there is a human being. Period. No question. This is called a child. A baby. It clings to its mother; it hears, it feels, it moves. If you do an amniocentesis, this child will flinch from the needle.

When real time ultrasound sonograms were first introduced, I knew a radiologist who was invited to view a pregnant uterus. After he saw the baby sucking his/her thumb, he was so moved he spent the entire next year studying the Bible.

Once this child with a beating heart, a tiny growing brain and sensation is within, there is only one way to remove it. That way is to forcibly extract it, sometimes to fracture him/her, to suction it out. If the child is late-term (late-term = full term or at viability: able to live outside the womb) it means delivering it and leaving it to die. Period.

Ironically, wanted children are saved in neonatal units everywhere. Wanted children--3 pounds and up.

It is my contention that many do not understand these facts--they are often 'offended' by them.  If I am a radical: so be it."

Sandra

It's More Than the Economy, Stupid.

In 1992, former President Clinton ran for president with the slogan: "It's about the economy, stupid". Well, this time around, it's about more than the economy.

Despite what the pundits may say, underlining the issues of unemployment, slow growth and unprecedented debt, there is deep concern about where we are heading.

In a recently discovered tape from 1998, Barack Obama is heard as saying that he believed in the "redistribution" of wealth. And in a quote from the 2008 campaign, he responded to a question from "Joe the plumber" by saying that we need to "spread the wealth".  As president, he has stated on numerous occasions that he aims to raise taxes on the rich so that they pay their "fair share".

Without serious cuts in spending, taxes on the rich alone will neither cover the deficit or whatever other programs Obama has in mind. Additional sources will have to be found. Potentially any private asset (401k's and IRA's for instance) may be the target for new taxes.

As part of the "Affordable Care Act" (or Obamacare) regulations have been issued to force religious institutions to provide contraceptives and abortifacient drugs in their health insurance policies. The mandate is contrary to the beliefs of Catholics and other people of faith.

It should be self evident to the administration that such an imposition is clearly in violation of the second amendment's guarantee of religious freedom. If allowed to stand, what else will follow: will religious institutions be forced to perform abortions or other procedures mandated by government? Will procedures now covered be denied as "too costly"?

Also under the "Affordable Care Act", twenty new or additional taxes will be imposed on individuals and businesses. Included are an additional Medicare tax on income, a surtax on investment income, the individual mandate "tax", an excise tax on health insurance etc. Given a history of rising health care costs, these taxes and the social security medicare deduction, are bound to increase.

In a second term, we can expect more regulations from an Obama administration. His propensity to issue executive decrees to circumvent legislative intent or to implement rules without Congressional approval will keep the bureaucracy busy to our detriment.

Consider for example decrees he has already issued granting waivers for work requirements of the welfare law passed under Clinton and his decree changing immigration rules without Congress's involvement.

In light of President Obama's record and his statements, it is more than likely that we will see more of the same if he is reelected to a term where he will have "more flexibility".

This election is critical. It is more than just about the economy. It calls into question what our future holds. It is about individual freedom and REAL opportunity. It is about what type of government we want and what type of country we want for ourselves and for our children.