National Journal’s Hotline reports that President Obama’s approval numbers are at an all-time low. Not exactly what the White House had planned as the reaction to the State of the Union.
As a good friend of mine predicted before the speech, Obama “doubled down” on defending his policies and not moderating this actions. Even his so-called “spending freeze” was pushed off a year – to the literal laughter of Congress.
Obama has reacted by saying that he would rather be a great one-term President than a mediocre two-term President. The problem with his comment is that if a President is great, he gets reelected. Think about it. Other than JFK, name a “great” one term President.
(picture courtesy of Dr. Fred Vidal)
Today would have been Ronald Reagan’s 99th birthday. If there was ever a time we needed another Reagan, it is now.
Reagan embodied a concept of America very different than our current President. In his final address to the nation from the Oval office he spoke of the success of America as an example of freedom.
“I’ve spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don’t know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, windswept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That’s how I saw it, and see it still.”
Happy birthday President Reagan. We miss you, we need you.
Lost is one of the most interesting television series in the history of the medium. I got into Lost after it had been on TV for more than two seasons and I have been riveted ever since.
It was the human interest elements of the story that got me hooked, more so than the science fiction aspect. However, the time travel focus now has me begging for more.
My anticipation for the season premiere was bigger than I have ever had for any other show (even Mad Men) in my life, and it didn’t disappoint. Seeing Richard Alpert take a punch was more satisfying than it should have been, and to see Benjamin Linus cowering like a little girl was great.
Other highlights: Hurley taking charge; seeing the Temple (finally); learning that the smoke monster is actually evil itself, not just a tool of evil; and seeing Charlie again.
However, I’m really trying to grasp the idea of two sets of characters; the version of those who stayed on the island and the version who landed in L.A. After Juliet died and then Saied died, I was thinking that the island version of the characters would die off one by one. But then Saied came back to life.
One thing that appears to be real is that Jacob is dead.
One of my favorite movies of all time. And yes, I’m a little late in celebrating Groundhog Day.
This is funny, because it is so accurate.
President Obama is telling the Justice Department to find a different location than New York City for the terror trial. Mayor Bloomberg had expressed concern about the trial taking place in Manhattan and even liberal Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer wanted it somewhere else.
It begs the question: if you can’t do it in New York, where, pray tell, do you think you can do it? It certainly won’t be well received anywhere else. Maybe since Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Reid have been so gung ho about civilian trials of terrorists, they should do the trial in either San Francisco or Las Vegas.
Actually, Vegas seems like the perfect venue. It’s all for show anyway.
This whole episode is going to continue to damage Obama’s credibility on the war on terror, or whatever his administration calls it these days. The bottom line is that terrorists should not be tried in civilian courts in the first place.
Buz Mills has officially launched his campaign for governor with a $2 million splash. If Clean Elections matching funds are shelved by the courts, this $2 million, and the additional money he is expected to put into the race, gives him a huge money advantage over Governor Brewer and Treasurer Dean Martin.
He will need a lot of money to introduce himself to voters. Brewer and Martin have near universal name ID among Republican primary voters, so they can spend their money on messaging and voter ID.
Mills entry into the race will probably hurt Martin’s chances by adding another person to the mix of the “anti-Brewer” vote and Mills also greatly diminishes John Munger’s chances.
Why blog on the State of the Union when I can post this!
Politico is reporting that President Obama will propose an across-the-board non-security spending freeze in his State of the Union address on Wednesday night.
Huh. That’s a bit different than candidate Obama.
Erick Erickson at Redstate.com has a post that is certain to make you angry.
Remember how the Democrats vehemently denied both the existence of the death panels and the cold nature of the decision making processes that would be invoked to save money on health care?
Well, then you should not be shocked to learn the Democrat leadership of the House of Representatives is prohibiting members of Congress from putting links to Haitian Relief efforts on their websites and encouraging donations to the Red Cross, Salvation Army, and other groups.
Why?
According to the House Administration Committee,
“We understand the good intentions of those making such inquiries, but the rules of the House preclude Members from using official resources for any purpose other than in support of the conduct of the Member’s official and representational duties on behalf of the district which he or she currently represents,” the letter states. “This has, in the past, been interpreted to mean that charitable solicitations using official resources are not permitted.”
But don’t worry. The House Democrats say it is permissible for members of Congress to link to the White House’s relief effort. Just not private sector charities.
