In case you missed it - Elizabeth Emken interview with KUSI San Diego.

KUSI.com - KUSI News - San Diego CA - News, Weather, PPR

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In case you missed it - interview with KUSI San Diego. Why won't Dianne Feinstein debate? She owes California families an explanation for the 20 year decline of our state on her watch. -e

I now pronounce you frog and wife.

◼ Indian village holds frog wedding for rain - heraldsun.com.au (image source: AFP)

With five priests chanting scriptures, a frog groom named Punarvasu and his amphibian bride Pushala were joined in holy Hindu matrimony by villagers hoping the ancient custom will bring monsoon rains to their drought-stricken district.

Reminder: Mitt Romney comes from a civil rights activist background.

◼ Before The Black Community Writes Off Romney They Should Consider Something... - The Looking Spoon (image source)
◼ ...a rebuke to those aforementioned African-American progressive activists. Because they have done something worse than allowing themselves to have been brainwashed; they instead participate in the brainwashing of others. And they’re wrong.... - Moe Lane
◼ Mitt Romney's Dad: Civil Rights Icon - Doug Ross

Obama spending on attack ads soars

◼ President Barack Obama's campaign has spent nearly $100 million on television commercials in selected battleground states so far, unleashing a sustained early barrage designed to create lasting, negative impressions of Republican Mitt Romney before he and his allies ramp up for the fall. - AP

About three-quarters of the president's advertising has been critical of Romney as Obama struggles to turn the election into a choice between him and his rival, rather than a referendum on his own handling of the weak economy. Obama's television ad spending dwarfs the Romney campaign's so far by a margin of 4-1 or more. It is at rough parity with the Republican challenger and several outside GOP-led organizations combined. They appear positioned to outspend the president and his allies this fall, perhaps heavily....

"Despite all of the negative advertising from the Obama campaign, polling numbers are exactly where they were before they started this onslaught," the Romney campaign said in a memo distributed this week, referring to a rolling average of polls....

Carl Forti, one of the strategists involved with Restore Our Future, said Obama's strategy is more defensive than it might appear.

"I don't think he's got a choice. He has to try to change the dynamic now, but the polling indicates it's not working. He doesn't appear to be making any headway in the polls," he said.

Romney’s life characterized by little-told stories of generosity

◼ Stories like these — tales of long hours spent with grieving families, financial assistance to those in need and timely help given to strangers whether asked for or not — abound in the adult life of the Republican presidential candidate.

One cold December day in the early 1980s, Mitt Romney loaded up his Gran Torino with firewood and brought it to the home of a single mother whose heat had been shut off just days before Christmas.

Years after a business partner died unexpectedly, Romney helped the man’s surviving daughter go to medical school with loans for tuition — loans he forgave when she graduated.

And in 1997, when a fellow church member’s teenage son fell seriously ill, Romney sprinted to the hospital in the dead of night, where he kept vigil with his terrified parents.

Stories like these — tales of long hours spent with grieving families, financial assistance to those in need and timely help given to strangers whether asked for or not — abound in the adult life of the Republican presidential candidate. Many of them, though not all, are connected to his work as a Mormon bishop.

And yet these stories are largely absent on the campaign trail.

Some supporters believe he isn’t touting them because it’s impossible to separate the good works he’s done from a Mormon faith that demands them — a faith that has by all accounts been a defining influence in his life, yet which the campaign has been determined to keep out of the political conversation.

But taken together, the stories point to a central contradiction between Romney the candidate and Romney the person. In short, a man weighed down by the image of a heartless corporate raider who can’t relate to people actually has a history of doing remarkably kind things for those in need.

“He needs to take control of his people… It’s Chicago-style politics at its worst.“

◼ Mitt Romney Slams Obama Over Bain Smears: “It’s Chicago-Style Politics At Its Worst” (Video) - Gateway Pundit
◼ Says president 'reckless and absurd' - CBS News via Drudge
◼ Deceptive and dishonest' - CNN
◼ 'It's disgusting. It's demeaning' - National Journal
◼ 'Beneath Dignity Of His Office' - Real Clear Politics

‘THAT’S A LIE & THE AMERICAN PEOPLE KNOW IT!’

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

◼ ‘THAT’S A LIE & THE AMERICAN PEOPLE KNOW IT!’ ANDREA MITCHELL WALKS INTO ANOTHER DEBATE UNPREPARED - The Blaze

Super-Easy Calling for Mitt Romney--From Your Home!

Would you like to help send Mitt Romney to the White House without ever leaving your home? The "Volunteer for Mitt" program is up and running for supporters who can spare a few minutes to make personal calls to other voters across the country.

◼ Click here to learn how you can get involved!
To learn more about Call From Home:
◼ Click here to view the instructional video or
◼ Click here to view step-by-step written instructions.
__________________
Mitt Romney
LIKE Mitt on Facebook
◼ Humboldt Romney Volunteers

Who Might Be a Romney Running Mate?

◼ The GOP convention isn't until September, speculation about who Mitt Romney might pick as a running mate is in full swing. Take a look at some of the possibilities. - Wall St. Journal

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Tim Pawlenty, Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Condoleezza Rice, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte, New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell... at the link...

◼ Democrats Dump Opposition Research On Top Vice Presidential Contenders - ABC

Mitt Romney and his team in Boston aren’t the only ones feverishly vetting potential running mates.

In a non-descript Washington, DC office building within sight of the United States Capitol, a team of more than a dozen Democratic researchers have spent the last few months examining every nook and cranny of the records of several GOP vice presidential contenders.

The researchers work for the super PAC, American Bridge 21st Century, which is unveiling a new website on Friday called VeepMistakes.com. The site features more than 1,300 pages of opposition research and scores of video clips.

Political prognosticators can only speculate who is on Romney’s short-list, but now we know who the Democrats are preparing to target.

Nehring to guide campaign against Feinstein

◼ Ron Nehring, former chairman of the California and San Diego Republican parties, will serve as senior strategist to Republican Elizabeth Emken in her bid to unseat U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. - Christopher Cadelago/UT San Diego

Emken, who trails Feinstein by nearly 20 points in a recent poll, said Monday she was excited to have Nehring join the campaign. “Ron is a skilled strategist who understands the complex political environment in every part of our state, as well as the national dynamics that impact this race,” she said. “We’re going to offer voters a real alternative to the failed status quo in California, and we’re assembling a first-class team to get it done.”

Emken promptly challenged her opponent to a series of debates, which Feinstein’s campaign swiftly declined.

The Republican sent a letter urging Feinstein to participate in debates across the state focusing on regional issues, including national security in San Diego. Others would center on education in Los Angeles, water issues in the Central Valley and energy along the Central Coast.

Emken, who secured a second-place finish in the 24-candidate primary June 5, faces an uphill climb in the November contest, Nehring acknowledged in a conference call with reporters on Monday. Still, he said the campaign was “thrilled” with the results of a Field Poll last week showing Feinstein besting Emken by 19 points, 51 percent to 32 percent among likely voters.

“We’ve said all along that Dianne Feinstein is far weaker than the conventional wisdom has held,” said Nehring, pointing to Democrats’ 14-point registration advantage. “Dianne Feinstein barely breaks 50 percent against an almost-unknown Republican challenger who is making her first statewide run for office.”

__________________
Elizabeth Emken
Follow Elizabeth on Twitter at ◼ @Elizabeth Emken and ◼ @Emken2012
and like ◼ her Facebook page to keep track of campaign news and events.

"It is time for all of us, in any way we can, to mobilize, get our act together, and storm Washington D.C."

◼ Click Here For Audio Exclusive: The Speech That Landed Condi On Romney's List

...She sounded other hawkish themes.. 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 touted 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."

What Happened?

Four years ago, Candidate Obama spoke out against using "stale tactics to scare voters." Today, his plan to "destroy Romney" includes dishonest attacks that he hopes will distract voters from his broken promises.

Romney's Core Beliefs Don't Shift with His Audience

◼ Mitt Romney delivered a gutsy speech to the NAACP convention on Wednesday, reminding African-Americans of what most of them knew or should have known: President Obama hasn't made their lives better. - Donald Lambro/Townhall

No demographic group has suffered more from Obama's economic policies than black Americans, nor has a worse unemployment rate.

Romney went into the lion's den in Houston knowing he would be booed, but it was a courageous move on his part to show he was taking his campaign for economic renewal to every corner of the country and to every interest group, even to Obama's core political constituencies.

Notably, the president has decided to take a pass on the NAACP convention, where he would have had to defend his failed economic policies and look into the faces of people who are hurting under his presidency....

It was a risky performance and could have ended badly for Romney, but he emerged from the speech as someone who was not afraid to carry his message to every group in the country, even those who may be hostile toward him.

And he proved he was not going to tailor his message to suit different audiences and that he held firm convictions that would not shift with the political tides.

The Obama campaign put out a statement saying that "African-Americans can't afford Romney economics."

Tell that to the 2.4 million black workers who cannot find a job in Obama's economy.

Devastating: CNN's King/Gergen: Obama's Lying, Romney/Bain Honest

◼ Obama Campaign Deputy Says ‘Spread The Smears’ - Sweetness & Light

◼ THE LATEST BAIN-RELATED SMEAR TAKES HIT AFTER HIT - Paul Mirengoff/PowerLine

PAUL RYAN: HEALTH CARE LAW WAS SOLD ON THREE BROKEN PROMISES

◼ link - Breitbart

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) weighed in on the importance of Wednesday's vote. He said the law “was sold on three broken promises. One, it’s a tax on middle income taxpayers. Number two, President Obama said health care premiums will go down – no, they went up. They went up about $2,500 dollars. Number three, he said if you like the plan you have, you could keep it. Well now we’re finding out that millions of people are poised to lose their health insurance once this becomes effective.”

#GOP2012 #tcot #Nobama2012 #MITT2012

New Study Thoroughly Debunks Global Warming, Will Media Notice?

◼ In the past several weeks as much of the nation suffered under a massive heatwave, global warming-obsessed media depicted the high temperatures as evidence of Nobel laureate Al Gore's favorite money-making scam. - Noel Sheppard/Newsbusters

A new study published in the journal Nature Sunday completely debunks all previous claims that temperatures in recent decades are in any way historic demonstrating instead that things were much hotter on this planet during Roman times

◼ RESEARCHERS: EARTH WAS WARMER 2,000 YEARS AGO - Times 24/7

How did the Romans grow grapes in northern England? Perhaps because it was warmer than we thought. A study suggests the Britain of 2,000 years ago experienced a lengthy period of hotter summers than today.

German researchers used data from tree rings – a key indicator of past climate – to claim the world has been on a ‘long-term cooling trend’ for two millennia until the global warming of the twentieth century.

This cooling was punctuated by a couple of warm spells. These are the Medieval Warm Period, which is well known, but also a period during the toga-wearing Roman times when temperatures were apparently 1 deg C warmer than now. They say the very warm period during the years 21 to 50AD has been underestimated by climate scientists.

Top Obama Fundraiser Explodes Over Campaign's Class Warfare

◼ Millionaire developer R. Donahue Peebles -– a 52-year-old D.C. native whose company website touts The Peebles Corp. as "the country's largest African Americanreal estate development company," is a top fundraiser for President Barack Obama...raising between $100K and $200K for this reelection. - FOX via Huffington Post

But in a 20-minute conversation with HuffPost Monday, Peebles blasted Obama's campaign messaging. He said, as he told other press outlets, that his frustrationwas sparked by receiving an email from the DNC that mocked Romney as"out of touch" for having a boat that fit 12 people, accompanied by apicture of the Republican presumptive nominee on vacation.

"That offended me. Now if I were on the fence, he'd have lost me,"said Peebles, who described himself as nonetheless a "big supporter of the president's."

"What I get concerned about is the message from the Obama campaign that we only want someone who has not been successful to run for president. What do we want here? You can't be successful and run the country? We don't want somebody who has been successful to run it? That doesn't make sense," Peebles said.

"So I look at that and I see that those things are becoming offensive to some of his strongest supporters, financially."It would be unrealistic to think that that kind of thing would not impact the enthusiasm for those who are supportive of the president, financially, and certainly would turn off others who were on the fence to say, 'You know, what the heck with it. I'm done,'" Peebles continued. "And they go on to Romney."

Obama Guts Welfare Reform

◼ Today, the Obama Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released an official policy directive rewriting the welfare reform law of 1996. - Heritage

The new policy guts the federal work requirements that were the foundation of the reform law. The Obama directive bludgeons the letter and intent of the actual reform legislation....

The new welfare dictate issued by the Obama Administration clearly guts the law. The Administration tramples on the actual legislation passed by Congress and seeks to impose its own policy choices—a pattern that has become all too common in this Administration.

The result is the end of welfare reform.

◼ http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ofa/policy/im-ofa/2012/im201203/im201203.html

RUMORS: ROMNEY NARROWS VP CHOICES; CONDI EMERGES AS FRONTRUNNER

◼ Late Thursday evening, Mitt Romney's presidential campaign launched a new fundraising drive, 'Meet The VP' -- just as Romney himself has narrowed the field of candidates to a handful, sources reveal. And a surprise name is now near the top of the list: Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice! - Drudge

The timing of the announcement is now set for 'coming weeks'.

◼ But the news: When conversation turned to the vice presidential nominee, I said we all know the names of those being considered, spoke of a few, and then said Condoleezza Rice might be a brilliant choice. Here spontaneous applause burst forth.- Peggy Noonan/Wall St. Journal
◼ Could It Be Condi for VP? - Rush
◼ Romney-Rice? - Bill Kristol/Weekly Standard

◼ Romney campaign denies the rumors - Erick Erickson/RedState via Twitter

◼ Drudge: Sources say Condoleezza Rice ‘near the top’ of Romney VP list - Daily Caller

The story comes despite vigorous and repeated denials by Rice that she would not be vice president. Rice told “CBS This Morning” June 26 that “I didn’t run for student council president. I don’t see myself in any way in elective office.”

“There is no way that I will do this because it’s really not me,” she said. “I know my strengths and weaknesses.”

◼ The GOP’s crush on Condoleezza Rice - Alexander Burns/Politico

◼ Sarah Palin: ‘Condoleezza Rice would be a wonderful vice-president’ - Charlie Spiering/Washington Examiner @CharlieSpiering

◼ Rice's Name Is Floated as Potential VP Choice - Wall St. Journal

Obama: "I Stopped Giving Great Speeches"

◼ Obama On Biggest Mistake Of His Presidency To CBS: Policy Was Right, Salesmanship Was Lacking - Mediate

“It’s funny – when I ran, everybody said, well he can give a good speech but can he actually manage the job?” said Obama. “And in my first two years, I think the notion was, ‘well, he’s been juggling and managing a lot of stuff, but where’s the story that tells us where he’s going?’ And I think that was a legitimate criticism.”

“So getting out of this town – spending more time with the American people – listening to them and also and being in a conversation with them about where do we go together as a country,” Obama concluded. “I need to do a better job of that in my second term.”

◼ The President said that the faith his supporters expressed in his abilities as an orator left him believing in, for lack of a better term, his own hype. - FOX

◼ "This will be my last political campaign, no matter what. I've got nothing else to run for." - Althouse

◼ Obama: I Regret Not Speaking Slower And Using Smaller Words. If I Had, You'd Realize How Lucky You Are I Let You Have Me As Your President - Ace of Spades
◼ Obama: You know what my problem is? Poor messaging - HotAir

Yeah. Just yesterday I was thinking, “If only he’d talked more about how awesome it is that 25-year-olds can stay on their parents’ insurance under ObamaCare, I’d totally be willing to choke on that trillion-dollar pricetag.

◼ Hoping To Fake Change Successfully - Smitty/The Other McCain

Wolf Blitzer Blasts Obama's NAACP No-Show

◼ "Here is something I’d like to say to President Obama: You should have attended the NAACP convention in Houston today. Mitt Romney did. It was the right thing to do. The Republican knows the nation’s oldest civil-rights group isn’t exactly friendly turf but went anyway...." - Ed Morrissey/HotAir

◼ Then there's this: Obama gives cold shoulder to black news outlets as well - Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion
◼ Mr. President: Are you dissing the Black Press? - Akeya Dickson; NNPA News Service/The Chicago Crusader
◼ According to the National Newspaper Publishers Association also known as the Black Press of America, President Obama is avoiding Black media outlets. - Rebel Pundit/Breitbart

◼ Wolf Blitzer Scolds President Obama for Skipping NAACP Convention - NoQuarter

Obama's War On Women

Michelle Fields - Sandra Smith - Sean Hannity

San Francisco buzzes over article about Willie Brown's influence

◼ San Francisco's political cognoscenti are buzzing over a lengthy article in the current issue of Washington Monthly that details how Willie Brown, the city's former mayor, continues to pull strings on behalf of his favored politicians and, apparently, his legal clients. - Dan Walters/Sacramento Bee

◼ The Power Broker - Elizabeth Lesly Stevens/Washington Monthly

San Francisco’s ex-mayor Willie Brown has pioneered a new way to control a city without breaking a sweat—or running for office, or getting elected, or disclosing his clients, or making anyone particularly mad....

Simple Illustration of California’s Budget Dilemma

◼ Here’s why California has a hard time getting out of its budget straits: - Loren Kaye/Fox&Hounds

The ratio of private sector workers in California to Medi-Cal recipients and government employees continues to fall. More non-wealth generators are being supported per wealth generator today than in the past. The same trend is evident nationally, but it’s worse in California. We can’t right our fiscal vessel (never mind the economy) without acknowledging and addressing this. We address this by (1) fixing the denominator – fewer welfare recipients and public employees, or (2) the numerator – more private sector workers creating wealth.

"When a president doesn’t tell the truth, how can we trust him to lead?"

◼ A new television advertisement from the campaign of presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney attacks President Barack Obama's campaign for spreading lies and dishonest attacks. - Daniel Halper/Weekly Standard

"Today, Romney for President released a new television advertisement titled 'No Evidence,'" the Romney campaign will say in a press release, when the ad is formally released later this morning. "Just like he did against Hillary Clinton, President Obama now continues to spread dishonest attacks about Mitt Romney to distract from his failed record. Even though fact check after fact check have found his claims to be false, he continues to mislead the American people. It is no wonder why our country has lost confidence in his leadership."

Why does it matter when Mitt Romney left Bain Capital? Because Millions of dollars of attack ads by the Obama campaign are hanging in the balance.

◼ BOSTON GLOBE REPORTS OLD NEWS AS NEW BAIN BLOCKBUSTER
◼ FLASHBACK: FORMER 'BOSTON GLOBE' REPORTERS CRITICIZED ROMNEY FOR LEAVING BAIN IN 1999 - JOHN NOLTE/Breitbart
◼ Official statement from Bain: Bain Capital: Romney left in Feb. 1999 - Politico
◼ POLITICO REPORTER ADMITS 'BOSTON GLOBE' ROMNEY SMEAR IS RETALIATION - JOHN NOLTE/Breitbart

As of right now, the corrupt Politico is leading with the Boston Globe's Bain smear against Mitt Romney, wherein the Globe recycles old news as a new blockbuster-attack against the former Massachusetts Governor. This is especially ironic when you learn that one-time reporters from the Globe acknowledge Romney left Bain in 1999 -- for which they now criticize him.

In another fit of irony, we now have current Politico reporters, in this case Maggie Haberman, inadvertently admitting that the lead story on her own publication is old news and an act of media retaliation against Romney:

Boston Globe Bain piece a good example of why Romneyland strategy of trying to kill stories (this came up in primaries) can backfire.
— maggie haberman (@maggiepolitico) July 12, 2012

What else could Haberman possibly mean when she says the, "Romneyland strategy of trying to kill stories … can backfire."

Well, the only place where backfires occurred thus far is within the media. And is it the media's job to make a politician pay a price for pushing back against false stories?

Only when the politician in question is a threat to Barack Obama.

◼ Today, the Boston Globe has destroyed its own credibility. Update: Boston Globe Admits It Plagiarized Romney Story from Leftist Conspiracy Mongers, Mother Jones and Talking Points Memo - PJM

◼ Why it matters: OBAMA TEAM SUGGESTS ROMNEY MIGHT BE A FELON - BEN SHAPIRO/Breitbart

The Obama team is picking up on the Boston Globe’s false report this morning that Mitt Romney didn’t actually leave Bain Capital until 2002, even though he said he left Bain Capital in 1999. That report neglected to mention that Romney left the firm in 1999 to manage the Salt Lake City Olympics – a fact lamented by the Globe itself at the time – and never returned to work, formalizing his break with the firm in a 2002 agreement. This non-troversy was settled at the time by the Massachusetts Ballot Law Commission, which said that Romney’s “testimony was credible in all respects.” If Romney hadn’t left active management in 1999, he would have committed a federal felony by certifying that he did leave in financial disclosure forms.

So this shouldn’t be an issue.

But the Obama campaign never lets a false attack go to waste.

◼ Millions of dollars of attack ads by the Obama campaign are hanging in the balance. If Romney left Bain in February 1999, when he departed to run the Olympics, then a number of business deals that went sour (such as KB Toys) can’t be counted as part of Romney’s tenure. If he actually left in 2002, as the Obama campaign alleges, then those deals are fair game. - Washington Post

◼ Romney camp: Obama's staff 'out-of-control' - Stephen Dinan/Washington Times

Romney is likely to spring surprise with pick for Secretary of State

◼ While speculation in the political world over Mitt Romney’s vice presidential choice courses through the summer barbecue circuit, an equally juicy topic is beginning to bubble up among foreign policy analysts: Who might be secretary of state in a Romney administration? - Washington Times

The Romney campaign is tight-lipped, but names are beginning to fly, and the few campaign insiders willing to speak on the condition of anonymity say there is no guarantee that the former Massachusetts governor will draw from the pool of foreign policy advisers in his inner circle for his top diplomat.

San Francisco plans to ban APPLE computers for city workers...

◼ San Francisco’s 50 departments and 28,000 employees will no longer be able to use city funds to buy Apple desktops, laptops or monitors because the Cupertino, California-based company dropped out of a rating system called EPEAT to track the environmental impact of computers - Bloomberg

Apple defended its decision to drop out of EPEAT, which it helped create several years ago. The company said it meets strict environmental standards, including the government’s Energy Star program, that exceed EPEAT.

◼ San Francisco Officials Plan to Block Apple Procurement - Joel Schectman/Wall St. Journal

◼ APPLE Drops 'Green' Certification From Products - Joel Schectman/Wall St. Journal

Feinstein challenger Emken wants to debate

◼ Behind in the polls and even farther behind in fundraising, autism activist Elizabeth Emken, a Republican, on Monday challenged U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California) to a series of debates across the state. - LA Times (image source)

In a letter to Feinstein, who is seeking her fourth full term in November, Emken proposed “statewide televised debates that would focus on regional issues.” She suggested debating water issues in the Central Valley, jobs and economic matters in the Inland Empire and education topics in Los Angeles, among others.

Emken's campaign staff announced the debates proposal during a telephone news conference with reporters, shortly after a California Field Poll released over the weekend showed Feinstein leading Emken 51% to 32% among registered voters.

...Campaign finance records show Feinstein had more than $2.6 million in the bank at the end of the latest reporting period, while Emken had $23,669....

◼ SENATE RACE: Feinstein to reject Emken debate challenge - Press-Enterprise

U.S. Senate hopeful Elizabeth Emken challenged incumbent Sen. Dianne Feinstein to a series of debates around the state, including one in Riverside focused on the state’s economic woes and foreclosure crisis.

The California Democrat‘s campaign immediately declined.
__________________
Elizabeth Emken
Twitter: @ElizabethEmken

GOV'T AUDIT: Obama 'lacks legal authority' for new spending program...

◼ Auditors: Obama administration is bending health law - Stephen Dinan/Washington Times via Drudge

...In a pointed letter, the Government Accountability Office’s chief lawyer said the administration hasn’t shown that it can learn anything by a “demonstration” project to pay bonuses to average-performing plans in the Medicare Advantage program. The lawyer also questioned “the agency’s legal authority to undertake the demonstration.”...

Republican opponents of Democrats’ health law said the GAO letter proves the administration is trying to cover for the law’s cuts to Medicare Advantage, an alternative private plan-based system that provides coverage for about a quarter of all Medicare beneficiaries.

“Lacking the legal authority to undertake a project of this magnitude shows how the Obama administration tried to use a technicality to sidestep Congress and write itself a blank check to spend more money for political purposes leading into this year’s elections,” said Sen. Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, who has been keeping a close eye on the matter.

Earlier this year GAO issued a report saying the program was likely doomed to fail. In unusually stern language, the auditors urged the administration to cancel it altogether.

Wednesday’s letter went a step further in questioning the legal authority of the administration even to go forward.

◼ An $8 billion trick? - Benjamin E. Sasse & Charles Hurt/NY Post

Call it President Obama’s Committee for the Re-Election of the President — a political slush fund at the Health and Human Services Department.
Only this isn’t some little fund from shadowy private sources; this is taxpayer money, redirected to help Obama win another term. A massive amount of it, too — $8.3 billion. Yes, that’s billion, with a B.

◼ Obamacare Now Estimated to Cost $2.6 Trillion in First Decade - Cost of President's Health Law rises with each new estimate - Daniel Halper/Weekly Standard

House votes 244-185 to repeal Obama healthcare reform law

◼ As expected, just a handful of Democrats supported the GOP repeal bill. Five Democrats, Reps. Dan Boren (Okla.), Larry Kissell (N.C.), Jim Matheson (Utah), Mike McIntyre (N.C.) and Mike Ross (Ark.), sided with Republicans in the final vote. Of this group, all but Matheson voted with the GOP in a procedural vote on the bill Tuesday. - The Hill

"For those who still support repealing this harmful healthcare law, we're giving our colleagues in the Senate another chance to heed the will of the American people," Boehner said, noting the House vote against the law at the start of the 112th Congress. "And for those who did not support repeal the last time, it's a chance for our colleagues to reconsider."

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said Republicans felt compelled to put members on the record about the healthcare law after the Supreme Court ruling, which surprised both parties.

"I introduced this legislation on behalf of my colleagues so that we may all be on record following the Supreme Court's decision, in order to show that the House rejects ObamaCare, and that we are committed to taking this flawed law off the books," Cantor said as he closed debate on the bill.

...But Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has vowed to block any votes to undo the president's signature domestic achievement. (in the Senate)

◼ House votes to repeal ObamaCare — for the 33rd time - AllahPundit/HotAir

Mitt Romney's Full Speech at NAACP National Convention

Mitt Romney addressed the NAACP convention in Houston today. Bryan Preston recaps the speech.

◼ Mitt Romney’s Speech to the NAACP Convention – Video and Transcript - Mitt Romney Central

◼ Romney to NAACP: Obama made it worse for you 'in almost every way' - The Hill

Romney on Wednesday delivered an aggressive speech to a potentially-hostile audience. He acknowledged the historic nature of Obama’s 2008 campaign, in which he became the country’s first black president, but also made the case for his own candidacy.

“I can’t promise that I will agree on every issue, but I do promise that your hospitality to me today will be returned,” Romney said, earning applause and a swell of organ music. He also promised that he would say “yes” if invited back to speak at the convention next year as president, likely a dig at Obama, who is not scheduled to speak to the conference this year.

◼ It was nice to see Romney not give into the temptation to leave out things he knew would be surefire boo-bird magnets and subsequent MSM takeaways, such as (his) pledge to repeal Obamacare - Doug Powers/Michelle Malkin
◼ Mitt Romney: Scrappy Underdog? - The Other McCain
◼ Mitt Romney At The NAACP And Media Malpractice - Ace of Spades
◼ Rush: Obama Won’t Go To The NAACP Precisely Because The Black Unemployment Rate’s 14%

FAST AND FURIOUS IS NOT A D.C. LAW FIRM

◼ Most Americans don’t care about whether Attorney General Eric Holder is hiding Fast and Furious documents because they don’t understand the story. - Ann Coulter/Human Events

Until someone can tell us otherwise, there is only one explanation for why President Obama’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives gave thousands of guns to Mexican drug dealers: It put guns in their hands to strengthen liberals’ argument for gun control.

Precisely because this is such a jaw-dropping accusation — criminality at the highest level of government to score a political point — Republicans refuse to make it.

But the problem with Republican rectitude in discussing this scandal is that as soon as they start talking about subpoenas and dates and documents, TV channels change across America. They’re never going to get answers unless they first explain to the American people why it matters....

First, the Democrats tried lying about how American guns were being found in the hands of Mexican drug dealers — while demanding a renewal of the assault weapons ban.

Obama had barely unpacked at the White House, when he and high-level administration officials and Senate Democrats — Holder, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Sen. Chuck Schumer — started railing about how our lax gun control laws were putting guns in the hands of Mexican drug cartels....

This isn’t just another government program gone bad — a $300 ashtray, stimulus money fraud, Solyndra or Van Jones.

It isn’t just a story about some government official refusing to testify.

It isn’t even a story about an American dying as a result of a government program, as outrageous as that is. Yes, Brian Terry died at the hands of a Mexican using a Holder-provided American gun. Pat Tillman died. Ron Brown died. People sometimes die as a result of government screw-ups. Fast and Furious is worse.

Innocent people dying was the objective of Fast and Furious, not collateral damage.

It would be as if the Bush administration had implemented a covert operation to dump a dangerous abortifacient in Planned Parenthood clinics, resulting in hundreds of women dying — just to give pro-lifers an argument about how dangerous abortion clinics are.

That’s what Fast and Furious is about.

Environmental Extremists Exposed as Political Goliaths

◼ The constant careening from environmental disaster to environmental disaster allows these very prophets of global doom to raise even more funds to promote their latest scare. - Net Right Daily

While it’s undeniable that these private donors have every right to invest their money in causes that they support, the hundreds of millions of dollars pouring in from biased donors have all but silenced rational, scientific inquiry, buried as it is under a crushing mountain of prejudiced money.

The disproportionate expenditure of funds on behalf of environmental extremism drowns out rational discussion on the state of our planet. Instead, these jaundiced millions, are used to guilt trip ordinary Americans into squandering their wealth on pointless projects under guise of saving Mother Earth....

The irony of the situation is that, in what the Green Movement paints as a “David and Goliath” battle between environmental interests and pro-resource development groups, the environmentalists are Goliath.

◼ How Tides Washes the Left’s Money - Net Right Daily

The genius of the Tides foundation is that it allows donors to support radical activist groups while maintaining near complete anonymity – crucial for groups and individuals with their fingers in multiple, possibly contradictory, political pies.

In short, Tides accepts money from progressive and left-leaning donors – both individuals and large corporations – and then grants these donations back out to radically progressive groups, bank-rolling the left while preserving the anonymity that is so important to their donors.
_______________
◼ DiscoverTheNetworks.org
◼ ActivistCash.com
◼ OpenSecrets.org

What's going on in California Colleges?

Third California city in two weeks declares bankruptcy

◼ San Bernardino voted yesterday to declare bankruptcy — the third state in California in the past two weeks to do so. - HotAir
◼ San Bernardino, facing the possibility of missing payroll, becomes California's third city in weeks to authorize a bankruptcy filing. - LA Times

The city's fiscal crisis has been years in the making, compounded by the nation's crushing recession and exacerbated by escalating pension costs, lucrative labor agreements, Sacramento's raid on redevelopment funds and a city reserve that is tapped out, officials said.

Poll: Romney Extends Lead Among Independent Voters To 14%…

◼ The mainstream media is touting the poll as showing the race is “dead even” — a 47-47 percent Obama-Romney contest among registered voters. Yet the new poll contains many more warning signs for the Obamacrats. - Redstate

In the new ABC News/Washington Post poll, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney extends his lead among Independents to 14 points, 53-39 percent. Two months ago, a POLITICO/George Washington University Battleground poll found Romney had a ten-point lead among the critical Independent voters....

Obama’s overall job rating is 47-49 percent, approve-disapprove (the same as in May). But his approvals are majority negative on:

The Economy, 44-54 percent;
Health Care, 41-52 percent (a numerical low in approval, with no bump from last month’s Supreme Court ruling); and
Immigration, 38-52 percent (also bumpless despite Obama’s halting enforcement against certain illegal aliens, who arrived as minors) via executive fiat.
Sixty-three percent say the country’s headed in the wrong direction. This is hard to dispute in light of the very disappointing May and June unemployment reports and the 41 straight months of unemployment above 8 percent during the Obama presidency.

Obama’s biggest shortfall is on the deficit where he trails Romney by 25-70 percent. It’s not hard to see why.... And all these favorable findings for Romney come from another poll skewed toward Democrat results.

Embattled Democrats buck President Obama on taxes UPDATED

◼ President Barack Obama’s renewed push to raise taxes on people who make more than $250,000 is facing some strong head winds: Democrats running for Congress in 2012. - Politico

Several Democrats in critical House and Senate races say they prefer raising taxes on people who make more than $1 million, the latest example of how the president and vulnerable Democrats are mounting diverging campaigns just four months from Election Day....

The clear difference with the White House underscores how Democrats on the front lines of their congressional campaigns are not afraid to buck their party’s leader on even some of the most high-profile issues of the election.
The divergence can be seen on other fronts as well: A handful of vulnerable Democrats are expected to vote in favor of repealing Obama’s health care law when it comes up for a symbolic vote Wednesday in the House. Coal-state Democrats have been openly criticizing the president on energy policy. And several Democratic lawmakers in tough races are bowing out of their party’s three-day convention in September, believing that physical distance from the president during the convention may help them politically....

◼ UPDATE: Dems block Obama's tax-cut bill - Stephen Dinan/Washington Times

Republicans, eager to put Senate Democrats on record on taxes, tried to force a vote Wednesday on President Obama's proposal to extend middle-class tax cuts but raise taxes for the rich, but Majority Leader Harry Reid objected, essentially sidelining the president's plan.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, Republicans' leader, tried to set up competing votes — one on the GOP's plan to extend all the tax cuts for one year, and another on Mr. Obama's proposal to extend them only for households making $250,000 or less.

But Mr. Reid objected to the request, saying he didn't want to have the vote on the GOP's legislation.

John Sununu Laughs at Andrea Mitchell Defending Obama's Use of Bogus Romney Outsourcing Claims

◼ It really has been hysterical watching the Obama-loving media the past few weeks defend the President using bogus information reported by the Washington Post falsely accusing Mitt Romney of outsourcing jobs while at Bain Capital. - Noel Sheppard/Newsbusters

This has become so humorous that former New Hampshire Governor John Sununu (R) couldn't hold back the laughs as Andrea Mitchell did exactly that Tuesday on the MSNBC program bearing her name... Transcript and commentary at the link.

◼ 4 Pinocchios for Obama’s newest anti-Romney ad - Glenn Kessler/Washington Post

The Latest Democratic Attack Fail

Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz has spent days pounding Mitt Romney for keeping money in a Swiss bank account. She tweeted attacks on his “secret offshore” accounts, slammed his “secretive investments” on Fox News Sunday and just last night, she joined Rep. Donna Edwards in pushing the failed Democrat hashtag #WheresYourBank.

◼ Where’s your bank, Debbie Wasserman Schultz? - Michelle Malkin ◼ Surprise! Little Debbie Wasserman Schultz had a Swiss bankroll - twitchy.com ◼ Dem. Chair Invested in Swiss Banks, Foreign Drug Companies, and the State Bank of India - Daniel Halper/Weekly Standard Disclosure forms reveal that Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a member of Congress from Florida, previously held funds with investments in Swiss banks, foreign drug companies, and the state bank of India. This revelation comes mere days after the Democratic chair attacked presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney for holding money in Swiss bank accounts in the past. Next you’ll tell us she’s demanding Romney release more tax returns while refusing to release her own!

Oh looky here! While @DWSTweets whines about Mitt's tax returns, it turns out she hasn't released her own! ◼ weeklystandard.com/blogs/dnc-chie… #Mitt2012— Kevin Eder (@keder) July 09, 2012

◼ White House adviser Valerie Jarrett’s recent financial disclosure form lists a line of credit from a Bermuda insurance company, according to ABC News: - Washington Free Beacon Staff ◼ Nancy Pelosi made between $1-5 million on Asian investments in 2011 - Matt K. Lewis/Daily Caller

On the heels of The Weekly Standard’s report yesterday that DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz — a vocal critic of Mitt Romney‘s investing practices, had herself dabbled in the foreign markets — we can add Nancy Pelosi to the list of prominent Democrats to profit from overseas investments. According to Pelosi’s 2011 financial disclosure statement, the Democratic House Minority Leader received between $1 million and $5 million in partnership income from ”Matthews International Capital Management LLC,” a group that emphasizes that it has a “A Singular Focus on Investing in Asia.”

SACRAMENTO TOTALLY OUT-OF-TOUCH ON PENSION REFORM

◼ Voters understand that every additional dollar government spends on pensions is one less dollar for public safety, schools and other priorities. That is why when given the opportunity, voters in places such as Wisconsin, San Diego and San Jose voted for reform.... - Assemblyman Martin Garrick/Flash Report

No matter how they spin it, government union bosses and their Sacramento allies cannot ignore the obvious – voters of all stripes supported pension reform because the status quo is failing. Cities like San Diego and San Jose are devoting a greater portion of tax dollars to pensions. This year, San Diego will spend $231 million on pensions compared to $137 million in 2006. To meet this rising cost, the city has had to lay off workers and reduce services.

A recent study from Stanford University says California’s taxpayers are on the hook for as much as $497 billion in unfunded pension liabilities for state workers. Governor Brown has proposed a modest 12-point pension reform plan that my Republican colleagues and I introduced on his behalf in the Legislature.

Yet Democrats have left his plan languishing in parliamentary purgatory for months and the Governor has done nothing to call them out on it. Their latest excuse is that they have run out of time to vote on a plan because the Legislature has adjourned for its summer vacation. But they had plenty of time to pass a budget dependent on higher taxes and start the construction of the high-speed fantasy train.

Even worse, legislative Democrats are exploring their options of whether they can legally override the San Diego and San Jose pension reforms. Such plotting would completely disrespect the will of the local voters Democrats claim to represent....

OBAMA’S GOOSE IS COOKED

◼ Obama needed a filet mignon in the June employment report. But instead he got a rubber chicken. - Lawrence Kudlow/Human Events

In a campaign stop in Ohio on Friday, Obama actually said we’re still “heading in the right direction.” Is he kidding? As a stagnant gross domestic product drops below 2 percent, employment falters, retail sales decline and the ISM index for manufacturing drops below 50 (signaling contraction)? No objective observer can deny that the economy is headed in the wrong direction.

I don’t like playing the pessimist, but the numbers are the numbers. This is exactly what former Clinton advisers James Carville, Doug Schoen and Stanley Greenberg have been warning Obama about. People just don’t believe the economy is getting better. So he’s gotta change his message.

But what change? Taxing rich people won’t create jobs. Neither will bashing Bain Capital. Obama is surrounded by leftist campaign advisers. And it’s hard to see them shifting gears to something constructive like making a summer deal to extend the Bush tax cuts for a year, or heaven forbid, backing off the 20-some-odd tax hikes embodied in Obamacare.

In other words, Obama’s goose may already be cooked....

◼ EXCLUSIVE - CADDELL: TAXES AND TRUST - THE ACHILLES HEELS OF OBAMACARE AND OBAMA, PART I - Pat Cadell/Breitbart
◼ EXCLUSIVE - CADDELL: TAXES AND TRUST - THE ACHILLES HEELS OF OBAMACARE AND OBAMA, PART II - Pat Cadell/Breitbart

Romney: President Obama is the "outsourcer-in-chief"

Mitt Romney discusses President Obama's false TV ads and recent articles showing President Obama's horrible record on outsourcing American jobs. This is from a Romney event in Grand Junction, Colorado on July 10, 2012.
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MittRomney.com

In the battle for political cash, President Obama is finding himself in an unaccustomed place during the final months of the 2012 campaign: he is losing.

◼ Obama Trails Romney Again in Battle for Campaign Cash - Nicholas Confessore/NYT

Mitt Romney and the Republican National Committee easily outraised the formidable Obama money machine for the second month in a row. A nonstop schedule of high-dollar events around the country brought in $106 million during June to Mr. Obama’s $71 million, giving him and his party four times the cash on hand that it had just three months ago.

Mr. Obama’s fund-raising deficit in part reflects how steeply the terrain has shifted since 2008, when many Republican donors embraced the candidate and his campaign raised millions of dollars from Wall Street and other traditionally right-leaning industries. Now those donors are swinging hard back to the Republican Party — and to Mr. Romney, whose promise to curtail regulation and cut taxes has helped draw a torrent of five-figure checks.

In a worrisome development for the Obama campaign, Mr. Romney, who until now has been heavily dependent on donors giving the maximum federal contribution, also showed success in June drawing small donors, a traditional strength of the Obama campaign....

“This month’s fund-raising is a statement from voters that they want a change of direction in Washington,” Spencer Zwick, Mr. Romney’s finance chief, said in a statement.
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Mitt Romney

Morning Jay: The State of the Race, Four Months Out

◼ With the media consistently confusing and obscuring the true state of the race, it is worth reviewing the key facts that will determine the parameters of the fall campaign. - Jay Cost/Weekly Standard

There are four, in particular.

(1) Barack Obama is an unpopular president.
(2) Impressions about Obama seem mostly to be set.
(3) The economy is hurting the president.
(4) Romney will have an opportunity to define himself.

It is important to remember that Team Romney will use the Republican National Convention to introduce him to the public. Of course, the Bain attacks are eventually going to damage his reputation, at least a little bit – but Romney has a solid and compelling story to tell. He saved the Olympics. He was a pragmatic governor in deep blue Massachusetts. He’s a loyal family man. And so on. Voters are going to have all the facts about Romney come November – the positive and the negative.

It makes sense for Romney to hold off until the Republican convention to do that, as that will be the time when voters start becoming engaged....

◼ Don’t panic - Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion

CARNEY CORNERED ON OBAMA'S CHANGING TAX CUT STANCE

◼ at BreitbartTV

Report: 83 percent of doctors have considered quitting over Obamacare

◼ link - Sally Nelson/Daily Caller

The DPMA, a non-partisan association of doctors and patients, surveyed a random selection of 699 doctors nationwide. The survey found that the majority have thought about bailing out of their careers over the legislation, which was upheld last month by the Supreme Court.

Even if doctors do not quit their jobs over the ruling, America will face a shortage of at least 90,000 doctors by 2020. The new health care law increases demand for physicians by expanding insurance coverage. This change will exacerbate the current shortage as more Americans live past 65.

By 2025 the shortage will balloon to over 130,000, Len Marquez, the director of government relations at the American Association of Medical Colleges, told The Daily Caller.

...The DPMA found that many doctors do not believe the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will lead to better access to medical care for the majority of Americans, co-founder of the DPMA Kathryn Serkes told TheDC.

“Doctors clearly understand what Washington does not — that a piece of paper that says you are ‘covered’ by insurance or ‘enrolled’ in Medicare or Medicaid does not translate to actual medical care when doctors can’t afford to see patients at the lowball payments, and patients have to jump through government and insurance company bureaucratic hoops,” she said.

DOJ REVEALS BRIAN TERRY WAS SHOOTING BEAN BAGS AT MEN WHO KILLED HIM

◼ The Department of Justice unsealed documents today showing that Brian Terry was shooting bean bags at men who returned fire with assault rifles.

◼ OUTRAGE: Eric Holder disarmed Brian Terry while arming his killers - Doug Ross (image source)

Just when you thought Operation Fast and Furious -- and its cover-up -- couldn't get any worse, another layer of the onion gets unpeeled.

◼ Justice unseals indictment charging 5 in Brian Terry's death, offers $1M reward for leads on fugitives - FOX

The developments come amid an intensifying debate over the department's failed Fast and Furious anti-gunrunning operation. Weapons from that program were found at Terry's murder scene -- Republicans seeking documents pertaining to Fast and Furious last month escalated their probe by voting to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, praised the department Monday for its announcement but questioned the timing.

"I applaud what they're doing, but I condemn the timing. It's very clear that the timing has everything to do with the House of Representatives holding Eric Holder in contempt," Issa told Fox News.

Issa, who led the contempt push, said Justice could have been doing more to find the suspects all along -- he called the timing of the FBI reward money "another example of using politics over good policy."

◼ Fast & Furious: Brian Terry Murder Indictment Unsealed, Five Charged - Katie Pavlich/Townhall

After more than 18 months of waiting and a contempt of Congress charge against Attorney General Eric Holder, the FBI unsealed an indictment of five illegal Mexican bandits charged with the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry today in Arizona and offered a $1 million reward for information leading to the arrest of four of the five men who are still on the run and suspected to be in Mexico.

Million Big Gulp March to protest proposed NYC soda ban

◼ At least 500 protesters are expected to take part at the "Million Big Gulp March" at City Park Hall starting at 4:30 p.m, according to NYC Liberty HQ spokesman Zach Huff. - CBS

"It's astonishing we have a mayor who is pro-choice when it comes to what a woman can do with her body but isn't pro-choice with simple choices, like soda container sizes," he added.

Huff said he expected people who are angry with the city's smoking ban and table salt ban to join the movement as well.

Donald Trump gets ‘statesman of year’ award

◼ (T)he latest title to be bestowed upon Donald Trump when he receives the 2012 “Statesman of the Year” award from the Sarasota Republican Party in August. - Patrick Gavin/Politico

James Carville: The best thing for Romney to do would be to highlight his ability to “fix things.”

◼ In an appearance on WWL radio in New Orleans earlier this week, James Carville surveyed the Romney campaign and said the presumptive GOP nominee still hasn’t overcome the issue of his Mormon religion. - Jeff Poor/Daily Caller

The best thing for Romney to do, Carville said, would be to highlight his ability to “fix things.”

“I would say, look people are looking for someone that can fix things,” Carville said. “And you got to tell them Romney is that guy. You know, you accomplished that with the Olympics. You actually accomplished that when you were governor of Massachusetts. And you actually accomplished that when you ran Bain.”

Hill Poll: 56-35 Majority believe Obama has changed country for worse

◼ A new poll for The Hill found 56 percent of likely voters believe Obama’s first term has transformed the nation in a negative way, compared to 35 percent who believe the country has changed for the better under his leadership. - Sheldon Alberts/The Hill

The results signal broad voter unease with the direction the nation has taken under Obama’s leadership and present a major challenge for the incumbent Democrat as he seeks reelection this fall.

...The feeling that Obama has changed the country for the worse is strongest among Republicans, at 91 percent, compared to 71 percent of Democrats who support Obama’s brand of change. Strikingly, 1-in-5 Democrats say they feel Obama has changed the United States for the worse.

The spoils system has a long history in American politics, but it was never as spoiled as all this. There is no parallel in American history for the spoils system being used not just to rotate out supporters of the old administration and replace them with your lackeys, but to hijack the economy as your own spoils system to the tune of trillions of dollars.

◼ Will Obama Destroy Socialism? - Sultan Knish

You can make corncob pipes, eighteen wheel trucks or microprocessors-- but you can't make jobs. Jobs are not a commodity or a service. They cannot be created independently through a job creating program. Rather they are the side-effect of a working economy. Trying to shortcut the economy with job creation programs is like trying to run a fruit orchard by neglecting the trees and instead buying fruit at inflated prices to resell to your customers at a lower price. It's feasible, but not sustainable....

Just about anyone in the White House this term would have launched job creation programs. And like most such efforts they would have been a wash. But Barack Hussein Obama's approach was different in that he did not even pretend to make the effort. His economic programs went by business friendly names, but invariably turned out to be concerned with only one kind of job creation. The creation of public sector jobs....

Obama responded to an economic crisis by working to create two kinds of jobs. Government and union jobs. This was not about anything as simple as rewarding his supporters. The Black community got very little in exchange for supporting him. The Hispanic community similarly ended up with some token appointments, but not much to show for it. This was about shifting jobs from the private sector into the public sector and its feeders. To manufacture the types of jobs that feed money back into the Democratic party and expand the scope of the government bureaucracy.....

Obama has only one idea. The same one idea that the left has beaten into the ground repeatedly. The monopolization of power. This monopolization is disguised behind organizations claiming to represent the people, community activists, unions and public interest lobbies, whose only message is the vital necessity of a government monopoly in every economic area of life.

It's the old Soviet strategy writ large. Every red error brought back to life and pushed forward with cunning and brute force, but no understanding of why it failed last time around. Much more at the link.

Barack Obama is...being tuned out. “Let me be perfectly clear,” “Make no mistake about it,” “In truth,” “In point of fact,” “I’m not kidding,” and “I’m not making this up” all tip off a weary public that just the opposite is true.

◼ Tuning Out a President - Victor Davis Hanson/PJM

...The Dog Ate My Economic Plan? After nearly four years, no one, either supporter or skeptic, assumes the president to be either consistent or sincere. He expects us to believe that his economic problems date back to the Reagan and Clinton administrations, when employment and growth were far more impressive than they are now. He thinks neo-socialism is the cure for the “failures” of the past — a past that also apparently explains why he inherited the reins of the most powerful and richest country in the world. His fables about Bush did it, the tsunami did it, the EU did it, ATMs did it, etc., have as much factual basis as his own memoir. When Obama swears he was outspent in his earlier campaigns, I no more believe that than the details of his literary biography. Examine almost any current topic, and the president simply does not tell the truth about it, or contradicts what he earlier had asserted — or we are left with some contorted postmodern narrative. The concocted story about Rev. Wright (Obama was married in Trinity, baptized his children there, bragged about perfect attendance for 20 years, stole Wright’s sloganeering for the title of his second book while serially claiming he scarcely knew what Wright was saying all those years — in the manner he hardly knew either Bill Ayers or Tony Rezko) is sort of the model for all of Obama’s explanations: a current narrative becomes “true” if it is in service to a progressive cause. The result is that Obama has left us with a postmodern mess on about every current issue, about which what he has said and done never add up.... More at the link

JEREMIAH WRIGHT: AMERICA‘S ELITE COLLEGES INFECT BLACK PEOPLE’S BRAINS WITH ‘WHITE RACIST DNA’

◼ It wasn’t your typical Sunday sermon, but then again, Jeremiah Wright isn’t exactly your typical reverend. - Jason Howerton/The Blaze
◼ Jeremiah Wright: We need control - Jennifer Epstein/Politico
◼ Reverend Wright knocks Obama in Sunday sermon - Jamie Weinstein and Michelle Fields/Daily Caller

WHY OBAMA WILL LOSE IN A LANDSLIDE

◼ ...First, most pollsters are missing one ingredient- common sense. Here is my gut instinct: not one American who voted for McCain four years ago will switch to Obama. Not one in all the land. But many millions of people who voted for an unknown Obama four years ago are angry, disillusioned, turned off, or scared about the future. Voters know Obama now- and that is a bad harbinger. - Wayne Allen Root/The Blaze

Now to an analysis of the voting blocks that matter in U.S. politics:

*Black voters. Obama has nowhere to go but down among this group. His endorsement of gay marriage has alienated many black church-going Christians. He may get 88% of their vote instead of the 96% he got in 2008. This is not good news for Obama.

*Hispanic voters. Obama has nowhere to go but down among this group. If Romney picks Rubio as his VP running-mate the GOP may pick up an extra 10% to 15% of Hispanic voters (plus lock down Florida). This is not good news for Obama.

*Jewish voters. Obama has been weak in his support of Israel. Many Jewish voters and big donors are angry and disappointed. I predict Obama’s Jewish support drops from 78% in 2008 to the low 60’s. This is not good news for Obama.

*Youth voters. Obama’s biggest and most enthusiastic believers from 4 years ago have graduated into a job market from hell. Young people are disillusioned, frightened, and broke- a bad combination. The enthusiasm is long gone. Turnout will be much lower among young voters, as will actual voting percentages. This not good news for Obama.

*Catholic voters. Obama won a majority of Catholics in 2008. That won’t happen again. Out of desperation to please women, Obama went to war with the Catholic Church over contraception. Now he is being sued by the Catholic Church. Majority lost. This is not good news for Obama.

*Small Business owners. Because I ran for Vice President last time around, and I’m a small businessman myself, I know literally thousands of small business owners. At least 40 percent of them in my circle of friends, fans and supporters voted for Obama 4 years ago to “give someone different a chance.” I warned them that he would pursue a war on capitalism and demonize anyone who owned a business…that he’d support unions over the private sector in a big way…that he’d overwhelm the economy with spending and debt. My friends didn’t listen. Four years later, I can’t find one person in my circle of small business owner friends voting for Obama. Not one. This is not good news for Obama. More at the link.

Obama then and now

◼ President Obama’s bus tour through Ohio and Pennsylvania late last week offered a striking look at the evolution of a president. In 2008, Obama used soaring rhetoric and personal biography to talk about binding together a red-blue nation. His message today is about the urgent need to defeat a stubborn opposition party in order to move the country forward. - Dan Balz/Washington Post

◼ Discussion at Lucianne

"Balz still doesn't get it as you can see here: "His message today is about the urgent need to defeat a stubborn opposition party in order to move the country forward."

M2: "...forward"? Obama is the only one who thinks his policies move the country forward, except off a cliff. And the GOP is "stubborn". Could it be their eyes are opened to the disastrous condition this country is in because of O's policies? No, they're "stubborn", as in, "If they would only get out of my way, I could fix everything", says Obama, Balz and the other liberals.

What's so hard about saying "I was wrong about Obama. He's the opposite of what he said he is and he is destroying our country"?"

Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality.

"Nobody saw more clearly than Tocqueville that democracy as an essentially individualist institution stood in an irreconcilable conflict with socialism: 'Democracy extends the sphere of freedom,' he said in 1848; 'socialism restricts it. Democracy attaches all possible value to each man; socialism makes each man a mere agent, a mere number. Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude" (Hayek and Tocqueville quoted in Hayek, Road to Serfdom, 77).

Republicans Heat Up Election With Campaign Blitz

◼ Thousands of Republican volunteers braved scorching temperatures to knock on doors and canvass voters this weekend as the party staged its first "Super Saturday" blitz hoping to energize supporters and rival Democrats' volunteer mobilization. - Newsmax

Republican party officials said volunteers were out in a dozen battleground states expected to see close contests in the Nov. 6 election between Democratic President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

They plan to hold similar events once a month until the election, to contact voters and collect data they can use to make decisions such as where to deploy volunteers or focus voter turnout efforts during the last weeks of the campaign.
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Mitt Romney

"Sometimes the message gets pretty old."

◼ Quotes of the day - HotAir

Obama In 2004: Dismisses Job Creation Of 310,000 New Jobs

THEN: After the economy added 310,000 jobs in May 2004 and the unemployment rate was 5.6%, then-candidate Barack Obama used the Democrat weekly radio address to attack the Bush administration for citing good economic numbers.

"For the past few weeks, President Bush and members of his administration have traveled the nation to celebrate recent improved economic statistics.

Well, I've been traveling too. All over this large and diverse state. In cities and suburbs, downstate and upstate, I've heard from people who claim it's way too early to claim victory when it comes to our economy, After three DISMAL years of job loss, we all welcome encouraging statistics. But for most Americans, the health of our economy is measured in a different and more personal way. If I lose my job, where will I find one that pays as well and offers real benefits. Can I afford health care coverage on my own? Or the cost of sending my children to college? Will I ever be able to save and retire with dignity and security?

These are the questions I hear hard-working people asking. For them, the basic rewards of a middle-class life, rewards that we once took for granted, have become an elusive dream."

◼ OBAMA ATTACKED 310K NEW JOBS UNDER BUSH IN 2004 - Washington Times 24/7

◼ AND NOW:
JUNE JOBS REPORT MISSES EXPECTATIONS, UNEMPLOYMENT 8.2%
The U.S. economy created just 80,000 jobs in June: Unemployment 8.2%
Just 80,000 jobs added in June...
One-third at temp agencies...
Unemployment rate for blacks jumps to 14.4%...
Rate stuck at 11% for Hispanics...

Rubio: “I hope people back home fully understand what this means... If you do not buy health insurance, the IRS is going to be on your back and chasing you. They’re going to take away your refund, they’re going to increase your fees, they’re going to come after you.”

◼ Maine Governor Paul LePage used his weekly radio address to blast President Obama's health care law and described the Internal Revenue Service as the "new Gestapo." - Morning Sentinel

"We the people have been told there is no choice," he said. "You must buy health insurance or pay the new Gestapo -- the IRS."

...The governor added that Maine will not move forward the ACA's insurance exchanges -- the marketplaces where individuals can shop for health plans from private companies -- until the proposed $800 million tab to pay for them passes Congress.

"With these looming uncertainties circling around this issue, Maine cannot move forward right now with Obamacare," LePage said.

The governor finished his radio address by outlining his ideological opposition to the health-care law, which he said "raises taxes, cuts Medicare for the elderly, gets between patients and their doctors, costs trillions of taxpayer dollars, and kills jobs."

"Even more disheartening is that reviving the American dream just became nearly impossible to do," he said. "We are now a nation which supports dependency rather than independence. Instead of encouraging self-reliance, we are encouraging people to rely on the government."

◼ REPORT: IRS to hire thousands more agents to collect new health care taxes... The tax man cometh to police you on health care - AP

The health care law "includes the largest set of tax law changes in more than 20 years," according to the Treasury inspector general who oversees the IRS. The agency will have to hire thousands of workers to manage it, requiring significant budget increases that already are being targeted by congressional Republicans determined to dismantle the president's signature initiative.

◼ Rubio: IRS to 'come after' uninsured - Politico

“I hope people back home fully understand what this means, and here’s what this means: It is now unlawful for you not to buy health insurance, and if you do not buy it, you have an IRS problem,” the Florida Republican said on Fox News. “If you do not buy health insurance, the IRS is going to be on your back and chasing you. They’re going to take away your refund, they’re going to increase your fees, they’re going to come after you.”

Rubio argued that millions of Americans will face being “out of compliance” with the IRS for not having health insurance coverage.

“Somehow the Obama administration thinks that’s a victory,” he said. “That’s everything you need to know about that administration.”