U.S. 2012 Election

[cupper]

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha.........

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/obama-administration-takes-credit-inspiring-lexus-hybrid-suv-which-began-production

George W Bush will stop at nothing........

And Al Gore invented the internet. What is your point?

 

[Fishbone Jones]

And Al Gore invented the internet. What is your point?

Seriously? What's the point?  :

The point is that they are liars, at best.

Of course the Obama aplologists will spin it that that's not strictly what they meant. Just like they didn't strictly mean it when they said Obama killed Bin Laden, but they'll still take the credit.

Just that they imply all these great feats about themselves to the guillable hoping that they'll believe the great Hope & Change myth.

Oh wait, they already used that one. It proved a lie also.

 

[cupper]

Seriously? What's the point?  :

The point is that they are liars, at best.

Of course the Obama aplologists will spin it that that's not strictly what they meant. Just like they didn't strictly mean it when they said Obama killed Bin Laden, but they'll still take the credit.

Just that they imply all these great feats about themselves to the guillable hoping that they'll believe the great Hope & Change myth.

Oh wait, they already used that one. It proved a lie also.

You really expect any politician to tell the truth? Let alone in an election year?

 

[Fishbone Jones]

And Al Gore invented the internet. What is your point?

You really expect any politician to tell the truth? Let alone in an election year?

You answered your own question.

 

[a_majoor]

And Al Gore invented the internet. What is your point?

If they are grasping at straws like this now (taking credit for something that happened midway through the Bush Administration) with something so easily disproved, how are they going to handle getting the hard questions about lingering unemployment higher than 10%, lackluster economic growth for the past three years, Crony capitalist bailouts and "stimulus" monies being poured into nonexistent congressional districts, "Fast and Furious", unconstitutional Executive orders, foreign policy fails....

I predict an endlessly entertaining election season as the Democrats start shooting themselves in the foot more and more often.

 

[cupper]

I predict an endlessly entertaining election season as the Democrats both parties start keep shooting themselves in the foot more and more often until no one is left standing.

TFTFY

 

[a_majoor]

Since 60% of Ameericans are against Obamacare, this will obviously be part of the election narrative. Less obvious, perhaps is how Obamacare can also affect the downline elections at the State level. Here are the ways Obamacare can be smothered by actions at the State level, which should be interesting election fodder for these races:

http://dailycaller.com/2012/07/10/the-ballot-box-is-not-the-only-way-to-stop-obamacare/

The ballot box is not the only way to stop Obamacare
Published: 4:17 PM 07/10/2012
By Jeffrey Singer
Adjunct Scholar, Cato Institute
Bio | Archive  Get Jeffrey Singer Feed

Jeffrey A. Singer, MD practices general surgery in Phoenix, AZ and is an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute.

In the wake of the recent 5-4 Supreme Court decision holding the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”) constitutional as a tax, the conventional wisdom is that the only way to save America from the consequences of Obamacare is via the ballot box. Elect a Republican majority to the U.S. Senate, keep the Republican majority in the House, replace President Obama in the White House, and then hope they keep their promises and repeal Obamacare.

There is another, very potent option. That option, which has two components, rests in state capitals across the nation.

By a 7-2 vote, the Supreme Court held that the federal government couldn’t punish the states if they choose to not expand their Medicaid rolls. Obamacare can’t work unless they do so. More than half of the uninsured targeted for coverage under Obamacare are supposed to receive that coverage via Medicaid, thus getting the states to shoulder much of the cost. But states are struggling to balance their budgets with their current Medicaid burden. It makes no sense for them to expand their Medicaid rolls even further.

By choosing to not expand their Medicaid rolls, they place a huge obstacle in the path of implementing Obamacare. The population originally planned for placement into Medicaid will have to seek coverage via the Obamacare exchanges. Which brings us to the second part of this option.

According to the Affordable Care Act, the federal government will set up a health insurance exchange in any state that chooses not to create its own exchange. It is through these exchanges that people will obtain their government-approved health insurance. The state reaps no advantage from creating an exchange. This is because the state must carry out all federal directives in operating and implementing the exchange, and has no autonomy in the matter. In effect, all it does is make the state act as the proxy — the executive secretary, if you will — for the federal government in operating its exchange.

But according to explicit wording in the Affordable Care Act, if the states let the federal government create the exchanges, then residents of those states will not be able to receive federal subsidies to help them purchase the super-expensive, government-designed, government-mandated health insurance. Without those subsidies, few people would want to purchase these expensive policies.

What’s more, if instead of the states, the federal government creates the exchanges, small businesses are exempt from the onerous employer mandates. This rescues small businesses from the huge financial burden Obamacare places upon them. It will enable them to expand and add jobs without fear of financial insolvency from health insurance mandates.

In short, if the states don’t create their own exchanges, Obamacare won’t work.

So the cloud of the Supreme Court’s Obamacare decision indeed comes with a silver lining. It leaves the states holding all the cards. The future of Obamacare is in their hands.

Arizona’s legislature has already made it clear it is not interested in setting up an exchange. The state can barely afford its present Medicaid population and has recently enacted cutbacks. Arizona’s Governor Brewer can help throw a wrench into the gears of the Obamacare machine and grind it to a halt — if she joins states like Texas, Florida, Wisconsin, Louisiana, Nebraska, and others by saying “no” to Obamacare. No Medicaid expansion. No state-run exchanges.

Regardless of the outcome of this November’s election, if state legislatures and governors choose not to play the Obamacare game, then the game is over.

The governors who have voiced opposition to Obamacare have “talked the talk.” Now it is time for them to “walk the walk.”

Jeffrey A. Singer, MD practices general surgery in Phoenix, AZ and is an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/07/10/the-ballot-box-is-not-the-only-way-to-stop-obamacare/#ixzz20KQFpA9s

 

[a_majoor]

Dr Rice being considered as a potential VP candidate? "I had a Dream" would be fulfilled.....

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mckaycoppins/audio-exclusive-the-speech-that-landed-condi-on-r

Audio Exclusive: The Speech That Landed Condi On Romney's List
A call to “storm Washington D.C.” Speculation in Park City that “she wants to be Vice President.”
McKay Coppins

Posted Jul 13, 2012 8:27am EDT
With The Drudge Report driving speculation that Condoleezza Rice is now a leading contender in the Republican veepstakes, campaign surrogates and supporters say Rice electrified Mitt Romney's circle last month with a speech she delivered at the candidate's closed-door June fundraising retreat in Park City.

Rice's forceful and surprisingly partisan 13-minute address — audio of which has been obtained by BuzzFeed — won her two standing ovations from the gathering of big-money donors and GOP elite. It was widely considered the highlight of the weekend, several people present told BuzzFeed.
The standout performance took several people in Romney's orbit by surprise. One surrogate said he was surprised by the red meat rhetoric employed by Rice, who has largely eschewed the political arena in recent years, devoting her time instead to an academic career at Stanford.

"She's either very worried about a socialist threat to America, or she wants to be Vice President," the surrogate said.

Rice would still be an unlikely selection as running mate. She is, for example, a supporter of abortion rights, and Romney has specifically promised anti-abortion groups that his running mate will share their views.

But Rice's speech in Park City aptly captured the mood of conservatives, painting a bleak portrait of the "dangerous, chaotic times" facing the country, and blaming President Obama for bringing on international weakness, class warfare, and fiscal recklessness. She even urged those in attendance to "storm Washington D.C." on behalf of Romney.

Framing her speech around three major "shocks to the international system" in the past decade — the 9/11 attacks, the global financial crisis, and the Arab Spring — Rice said Obama's failed governance has thrown the world deeper into crisis.

"What we're feeling most is not just that tumult, we've been through tumult before," she said. "What we're feeling is the absence of American leadership."

She continued: "When our friends aren't certain that they can count on us — and they aren't so certain now — and when our foes don't fear us or respect us, this is what you get: tumultuous, dangerous chaotic times," Rice said.
Riffing on the Arab Spring, which she dubbed "in many ways, the most dramatic of all these shocks," Rice said the various dictator-toppling movements were the inevitable and ultimate consequence of authoritarian rule. She compared it to the 1989 Romanian Revolution, when Communist leader Nicolae Ceaușescu was executed by his own people.

"The Ceaușescu moment is when what separates a dictator from his people, when fear breaks down," she said, adding, "That's what you see in the Middle East."

She sounded other hawkish themes as well, condemning Obama for allowing America to be "governed by the lowest common denominator collective will of the so-called international community of the United Nations." And she Romney's absolute belief in "American exceptionalism."
But the first moment that brought the crowd to its feet came when she moved from foreign to domestic policy, blasting the president for pitting the rich against the poor.

"It is a narrative that is being pushed by our current president, that 'I'm doing poorly because you're doing well,'" she said. "That has never been the American narrative. Ours has never been a narrative of aggrievement, and ours has never been a narrative of entitlement."
And then, moments later, she received her second standing ovation by declaring, "It is time for all of us, in any way we can, to mobilize, get our act together, and storm Washington D.C."

 

[SeaKingTacco]

That would be an interesting ticket...

 

[GAP]

Rice is a proven commodity....far better than Palin....

 

[Fishbone Jones]

Rice is a proven commodity....far better than Palin....

and H Clinton, IMHO.

 

[Sythen]

Why compare her only to other females? She is an amazing choice, regardless of who you match her against.

 

[cupper]

Dr Rice being considered as a potential VP candidate? "I had a Dream" would be fulfilled.....

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mckaycoppins/audio-exclusive-the-speech-that-landed-condi-on-r

Much as I like Condi, I think it would be a mistake for her to join on the ticket. Her talents would be better suited serving the same roles she had with Bush 43.

 

[Bass ackwards]

Four years ago, I seem to recall hearing something to the effect that Dr Rice wanted nothing to do with being on the ticket.
Her reasoning being that she figured the MSM would go after her family and she didn't want to put them through that.

 

[cupper]

Regardless of party affiliation, one would have to be insane to put themselves and their family through this meat grinder.

 

[GAP]

Regardless of party affiliation, one would have to be insane to put themselves and their family through this meat grinder.

Ah.....but the power.....

 

[cupper]

Could someone on the Scott Brown campaign please put a muzzle on him so you don't need to issue a walk back of some asinine statement his brain farts out every day.

Brown’s staff walks back his claims -- again

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/articles/2012/07/13/browns_talk_of_constant_white_house_calls_butts_against_reality_of_staffs_own_records/

First, it was kings and queens. Now, it is heads of state — and the secretary of state.

During a CNN interview that aired Tuesday, Senator Scott Brown said that President Obama and other powerful Democrats are regularly phoning him to get help passing their legislation.

Bipartisanship is a bedrock theme of Brown’s hotly contested reelection campaign, as the Massachusetts Republican tries to fend off a challenge from Democrat Elizabeth Warren.

“I can name a litany of Democratic-sponsored bills that I’ve done that never would have passed hadn’t it been for me,” Brown told CNN. “And the president had called me, and vice president calls me, and Secretary [of State Hillary Rodham] Clinton calls asking for my vote all the time.”

In reality, Brown’s staff says he has spoken by phone with Clinton just twice during his Senate career — most recently over a year ago, on July 5, 2011.

The other call occurred in December 2010, when the Obama administration was seeking votes to pass the New START Treaty.

Brown and Clinton have spoken in person twice, when the secretary addressed a group of senators on political uprisings in Egypt and Libya. Those sessions were over a year ago, in February 2011 and March 2011.

The contrast between Brown’s comment and his office’s records recalls a similar statement he made in another recent media interview.

“Each and every day that I’ve been a United States senator, I’ve been discussing issues, meeting on issues, in secret meetings and with kings and queens and prime ministers and business leaders and military leaders, talking, voting, working on issues every single day,” Brown said June 21 during an interview on WTKK-FM’s “Jim & Margery Show.”

An aide later said he “misspoke when he said ‘kings and queens,’ ” and Brown himself clarified he meant to say he has regular meetings with representatives of such monarchs.

In response to questions about the most recent comment, Brown’s staff says he has spoken with the vice president by phone just once. That happened around December 2010, when Biden joined Clinton in trying to round up votes for the New START Treaty.

The two have also met face-to-face at least twice, first in February 2010, when, in his capacity as president of the Senate, Biden swore in Brown. They also met in March 2010, when the vice president gave the then newly elected senator a tour of the White House and hosted him for lunch.

As for Obama himself, Brown’s staff says the two have spoken by phone just once, in April 2010, when he called the senator from Air Force One to discuss immigration policy and seek his support for the Dodd-Frank financial regulation act.

But the president also hosted Brown in June 2010 for a face-to-face talk in the Oval Office. It was both a get-to-know-you session and a discussion of a variety of policy matters.

And the two have also seen each other on eight other occasions, as Brown attended bill-signing ceremonies, buttonholed the president as he left the State of the Union address, or, in September 2010, as the Boston College hockey team visited the White House after winning an NCAA championship.

In a statement, Brown’s staff made his point in slightly more generic terms.

“As the second-most bipartisan senator in the country, Scott Brown has met with and talked to President Obama and his team on a number of issues in the past, and will continue to do so in the future,” said campaign spokeswoman Alleigh Marre.

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.

 

[cupper]

One strike against Condi as Veep.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/burns-haberman/

Romney stands by anti-abortion VP pledge
By ALEXANDER BURNS |
7/13/12 7:05 PM EDT

There's not a ton of news coming out of Mitt Romney's interview tour on Bain Capital this evening. In an interview with ABC's Jonathan Karl, the Republican presidential candidate made this comment that would seem to deflate the latest Condi-for-VP boomlet:

    KARL: I want to ask you about a report that popped up about Condoleezza Rice being near the top of your list of potential running mates. I know you’re not talking about the vice presidential search process but just tell me this: you said earlier that your running mate will be pro-life. Do you still stand by that.

    ROMNEY: I don’t have anything for you on the vice presidential process. I of course stand by the things I have said during the campaign. But I have nothing for you on the VP front.

Unless Romney's pledge on abortion is permeable in a way that's not immediately obvious, or Rice has changed her views, that would seem to be the end of that.

 

[Redeye]

Four years ago, I seem to recall hearing something to the effect that Dr Rice wanted nothing to do with being on the ticket.
Her reasoning being that she figured the MSM would go after her family and she didn't want to put them through that.

And three weeks ago she said the same. Not happening.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505267_162-57460324/condoleezza-rice-says-no-way-to-vp-for-romney/

 

[cupper]

Romney is getting serious calls from within his own party to be more transparent with his finances.

Alabama’s GOP Governor Calls On Romney To Release More Tax Returns: ‘Release Everything To The American People’

http://thinkprogress.org/election/2012/07/14/517601/alabama-gop-governor-calls-on-romney-to-release-more-tax-returns/

In a series of interviews yesterday, Mitt Romney mainatined he would only release tax returns dating back two years. Romney told CNN, “that’s all that’s necessary for people to understand something about my finances.”

Robert Bently, the Republican Governor of Alabama, isn’t satisfied.

The AP has the story:

Pressure was building on Romney from within his own party to be more forthcoming with his finances, a day after he declared he would not release past income tax returns beyond his 2010 tax records and, before the November election, his 2011 taxes.

On the sidelines of the National Governors Association meeting in Williamsburg, Alabama’s Republican governor, Robert Bentley, called on Romney to release all the documents requested of him.

“If you have things to hide, then maybe you’re doing things wrong,” Bentley said. “I think you ought to be willing to release everything to the American people.“

Ana Navarro, a prominent Republican strategist, has also called on Romney to release more tax returns, telling Politico “I wish he’d hurry up and release more tax returns so this distraction would go away.”

Romney’s father, George Romney, released 12 years of tax returns when he ran for President in the 1960s. Romney provided John McCain with 23 years of tax returns when he was being considered for the Vice Presidential nomination in 2008.

And from the Post:

Mitt Romney faces new round of calls to release tax returns

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/mitt-romney-faces-new-round-of-calls-to-release-tax-returns/2012/07/12/gJQATAdZgW_story.html

The candidate submitted to public pressure during the Republican primaries and released his 2010 tax returns, and he has said he will release his 2011 returns later this year once they are complete. Although Romney has followed the law, he has not adhered to historical precedent. His father, George, released 12 years’ worth of tax returns when he ran for president in 1968, and other top-tier candidates have traditionally taken a similar approach.

For the Romney campaign, the calculation is complex, as his advisers are weighing the benefits of transparency against the potential problems he could face should the documents reveal — or even appear to reveal — that he has gamed the tax code.

For now, Romney’s advisers said that the candidate has been sufficiently transparent and that he has no plans to disclose additional tax filings. But with four months left until Election Day — and the near-certainty that Romney will face questions about his finances in any interviews and in the fall debates — his advisers might be forced to reevaluate their strategy if the issue damages his standing in the polls.

Strategist Mark McKinnon said the candidate's reluctance to release his taxes feeds into the Obama campaign’s argument that Romney is hiding something and taking advantage of the system to enrich himself.

“I think it’s pretty obvious there is something in the records that is problematic or the Romney campaign would have turned them over by now,” he said. “And they are gambling that the heat they’ll take for not disclosing is less than the fire they’ll take for the information that will become public if they do disclose.”