Tag Archives: president

Ken Beatrice, Mitt Romney, Reason for Losing

BY WILLIAM F. GAVIN

As I read the harsh criticisms of Mitt Romney’s campaign (none more harsh than those made by Republicans), I recall the radio sports program hosted by Ken Beatrice back in the 70’s and 80’s.

It was a great show, informative, entertaining, and often provocative, although always civil. Beatrice was infinitely knowledgeable about sports, especially about football. As I recall, he was not only the host of the show, but had a football scouting organization, and he seemed to know everything about every football player in the country, from the Pop Warner league to the NFL. When a listener would call in, it went something like this: Continue reading →

Obama Phoning It In

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

During President Barack Obama’s whirlwind visit to New York City, he delivered a speech to the United Nations.

In that speech Obama said, “The attacks on our civilians in Benghazi were attacks on America.”

To keep close tabs on our response to those “attacks on America” Obama played footsie with the gals on The View. And attended a reception. And Tweeted about the nature of the global issue of replacement refs in the NFL. And, for all I know, took a turn as the Naked Cowboy in Times Square. Continue reading →

Obama Is Not Working

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

All hell is breaking out in the Middle East and in North Africa. Israel is preparing to go to war with Iran. China and Japan are at the brink of war. Unemployment is above 8 percent. The Federal Reserve is forced to buy forty billion dollars of mortgage-backed securities a month because the Chairman is very worried that the economy will backslide into a deep recession. The debt numbers are only getting worse as the government grapples with adding a new entitlement to an already over-subscribed entitlement system.

The Obama Administration is failing on both the international and domestic stage.

And Mitt Romney is on the defensive!

How the hell does that happen? Continue reading →

Campaigns Part I: Public Must Save Campaigns

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON

“This is a political stunt.”

That was the analysis of Meet the Press host David Gregory, who was summoned to the anchor desk on the NBC Nightly News August 17, to offer more incisive in-depth coverage of what everyone in America was anguishing over, the Romney and Ryan tax returns.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had taken the podium on the Senate Floor a week or so earlier and accused Mitt Romney of not paying income taxes for 10 years. It is reasonable to assume that Reid deliberately lied about Romney’s taxes in a silly attempt to goad him into releasing tax returns for those 10 years.

Gregory was close, but he didn’t get it quite right. What we were witnessing was not a stunt, but a political disgrace. Continue reading →

Did Obama Ever Run a Lemonade Stand?

BY FRANK HILL
Reprinted from Telemachus.com

This presidential election is going to be about 1 thing and one thing only: ‘Do you believe that America is built on the notion that free people engaging in free enterprise is the BEST thing we can do as a nation…or that everything flows from the federal government?’

That is pretty much it, ladies and gentlemen. We have always had the debate in our national elections over more or less ‘control’ from a centralized authority in Washington starting with the debates in the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787. Continue reading →

Ryan Right Choice for Romney

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

The selection of Rep. Paul Ryan to be Gov. Mitt Romney’s running mate was an excellent choice.

Nevertheless, the press corps happily bought into the Obama campaign’s early response that, as the Washington Post’s Dan Balz wrote: “There was no one on Romney’s short list of contenders they wanted to run against more than the chairman of the House Budget Committee.”

The great thing about that statement is: It would have worked no matter whom Romney had picked. In this age of everything anyone has ever said or even thought about anything being available instantaneously on-line, there is no such thing as a candidate that can’t be savaged in a 30 second ad by one SuperPAC or another. Continue reading →

Romney Reality Differs from Perception

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

From Cleveland, Ohio
Midwestern Legislative Conference

Donna Brazile and I did our very popular “He said; She said” act in Cleveland for legislators from the Midwest. We will take the act somewhat further on the road next week when we reprise it in Edmonton, Alberta for the Western Legislative Conference.

The buzz among the political cognoscenti is how much damage the Romney campaign has suffered from the attacks on his time at Bain Capital. The problem is, there is no evidence – thus far – that the attacks have had any effect. Continue reading →

By The Numbers

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

We did this a couple of months ago, and I decided, as we are now within four months of election day, to take another look at the polling numbers of former Presidents in their first terms.

As of Sunday afternoon, President Obama’s job approval, according to Gallup, was 46%. His disapproval was also 46%. In the past half-century only George W. Bush has won re-election with an approval score of under 50%.

Let’s go to the chart.

Here’s the list of Presidential approval ratings at approximately the same point in their first terms going back to Lyndon Johnson: Continue reading →

Bain Gambit Takes Campaign to Gutter

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON

A United States Senator who enjoys wide respect for his legislative skill and political insight predicted privately the other day that the 2012 Presidential campaign may become one of the most negative and brutal in our nation’s history, rivaling the 1800 Adams-Jefferson campaign.

His prediction was ever so prescient because the very next day a spokeswoman for President Obama accused Mitt Romney of being either a liar or a felon.

The American people need to put a stop to this nonsense before it gets any worse. The Republican mudslinging in the primary was disgusting, and now it is a cancer in the general election campaign.

Continue reading →

Media Narcissism Dinner’s Entre

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON

The White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, a dazzling display of media narcissism, is slipping from memory now. But before it does, the Association ought to think seriously about not doing it next year. The spectacle is an embarrassment to journalism and the American Presidency. It reinforces an awful perception of Washington culture.

The dinner is an annual affair put on by the White House Correspondents Association under the guise of a fundraising event for journalism scholarships, but it isn’t that at all. The paltry amount of money the Association gives out in scholarships that night could be raised with a tin cup at the corner of Connecticut and K streets in DC.

The newspaper Politico said that the Association has only made $583,000 in scholarship awards in the last 20 years. That averages out to $29,150 a year. The Association website reported this year’s awards at $132,000. Politico said there were 2,800 guests at the dinner, which would mean the scholarship money amounted to no more than $47 per guest. Usually at dinners of this type, some guests are comped–let in free. But those who do pay or have their ticket paid for them, fork over $1,000 a plate.

We don’t know how much the dinner actually grossed or netted, but the numbers raise questions about why there is so little left over for the scholarships. Continue reading →

President’s Day

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

My brother was born on February 22. That’s why I know that February 22^nd is actually George Washington’s birthday.

When I was growing up, we used to get both Abraham Lincoln’s birthday (February 12^th) and President’s Day off. I seem to remember that for a while we kept the President’s holiday on my brother’s birthday, but my memory might be a little hazy.

In typical Congressional fashion, we now celebrate Presidents Day on no one’s birthday in particular. Sometimes, it falls on Washington’s Birthday, but usually not. It is always the third Monday in February. There is some disagreement, actually, if the third Monday in February is done in honor of George Washington or in honor of all of the Presidents.

If we were to have a month to celebrate the most Presidents, it would be October. There were six Presidents born in October, and only four in February. The six born in October include some pretty good ones, like Dwight Eisenhower, John Adams and Teddy Roosevelt. But February had better trump cards, including Reagan with Lincoln and Washington (and don’t forget William Henry Harrison). Continue reading →

Trumped in Vegas

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

Once again, Donald Trump trumped the rest of the world and made a grand opera out of an otherwise modestly interesting situation.

You may be aware that the Republican party of Nevada is holding its precinct caucuses tomorrow to choose delegates to the GOP national convention in Tampa in August.

There is not the frenzy that attended the Iowa caucuses because there have already been four election events in this GOP primary cycle even though Iowans not only got it wrong on election night, but lost the results of eight precincts and so when they got around to declaring the actual winner to be Rick Santorum (17 years after the event) the Iowa caucuses had no meaning. Continue reading →

American Politics and the Perpetual Campaign

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON

One of the failings of our system of governance, former Republican Leader Bob Michel once observed, is that you can no longer tell where the campaigns end and governing begins.

That trend has defined American politics for sometime. The differences between campaigning and governing have gotten less and less apparent. And this year, they seemed to have disappeared all together, after a brief flurry of off-again, on-again, off again, bipartisan, bicameral, bi-branch exchanges that showed promise, but no permanency.

The combatants in American politics, conservatives and liberals, Democrats and Republicans, have dropped any pretense of governing. It is all campaigning, all the time. And no one did it in more grandly than the President.

Oregon Rep. Greg Walden said the other day that he has never seen a President step away from governing the way President Barack Obama has. Previous presidents who served in divided government where Republicans controlled one part and Democrats the other chose not to cut and run in the face of serious challenges. Ronald Reagan didn’t. Nor did George H.W. Bush or Bill Clinton. When the country’s challenges demanded it, they stepped up, not away. They found common ground, sorted through the politics and partisanship, made decisions and resolved contentious issues like taxes, Social Security, budgets and welfare reform.

When President Obama was asked on 60 Minutes: “Isn’t it your job as president to find solutions to these problems, to get results, to figure out a way to get it done?”’ the response was pretty much no. The President said it was his job to present the country with a vision, presumably so others could govern. Continue reading →

What Would Founders Think?

BY STEVE BELL

All you really need to know about the state of Washington, D.C., are three facts:

A–a majority of Republicans in the Senate defeated a bill to extend the payroll tax holiday that was introduced by their own Senate Minority Leader last week;
B–President Obama has decided that the only real legislative item he wants passed is that very payroll tax holiday–not deficit reduction, not extension of unemployment benefits, not ending the expansion of the Alternative Minimum Tax into the middle class, not preventing a 27 per cent overnight reduction in payments to Medicare providers;
C–Congressional Democrats and Republicans, as well as the White House, still have not approved the basic appropriations bills necessary to keep the government operating.

To extend what should be extended will cost about $200 billion plus. The President doesn’t want to run the risk as a big taxer, so he is watching as Congress wrangles, something that has been thematic about this President–talk and watch.

Congress fears both extending the items that a weak economy needs and not extending them. This confusion puts the rotten cherry on top of the melted ice cream sundae that has been this session of Congress.

Continue reading →

Newt Declares Newt the Nominee

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

We can say this about our friend Newt Gingrich: He has never suffered from public self-doubt.

On the strength of a string of polls showing the GOP conservative base has fallen in love with him Newt told ABC News’ Jake Tapper: “I’m going to be the nominee. It’s very hard not to look at the recent polls and think that the odds are very high I’m going to be the nominee.”

A Rasmussen poll which was taken on Wednesday shows Newt with 38 percent to Mitt Romney’s 17 percent among likely voters. Even being mathematically challenged I know that is a 21 percentage point lead. The rest of the field is in single digits: Cain & Paul are at 8; Perry, Bachmann and Santorum are at 4, and Huntsman continues to trail the field with three percent.

If there were a national primary and it was scheduled for this Saturday, Newt would probably be correct. He might be correct anyway, but it’s a little early to be taking a victory lap. Continue reading →

The Christie Crunch

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

First. Chris Christie.

As I predicted back in 1957, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie announced at a press conference yesterday that he would not be a Republican candidate for President in 2012. He said 27 times that he has only been Governor for 20 months and didn’t think (a) he could turn his back on the people who voted for him and (b) he could leave before the job of fixing the state was done.

This was widely seen as a poke in the eye of Sarah Palin who (a) resigned as Governor of Alaska as soon as she got her first paid speaking gig and (b) wasn’t Governor long enough to know what the problems of Alaska were; much less care about fixing them.

Who does this help and who does this hurt? Continue reading →

Christie or Bust

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from mullings.com

This Gov. Chris Christie. Is he running?

Yes, he’s running. No he is not running. Former N.J. Gov. Tom Kean says he’s running. Christie’s brother says he’s not.

This very strange turn of events was driven by the results of a non-binding straw poll in Orlando, Florida last weekend. For those who were out searching for wherever that dead climate satellite crashed, Herman Cain won the straw poll; with Perry coming in second and Romney third.

Nevertheless, the Punditocracy immediately determined that the results proved the GOP was dissatisfied with the field and were looking for someone else to get into the race. Continue reading →

The Fox/Google Debate

BY RICH GALEN

Reprinted from Mullings.com

Debate night – UH-gain. This time co-sponsored by Fox News and Google – unlikely partners who make the case about strange bedfellows UH-gain.

The stock market is in free fall: The Dow Jones Industrial Average has lost 675 points or almost nine percent of its value in the past two days alone, so it is likely the economy will be a big part of the debate. The execution of Troy Davis in Georgia Wednesday night will doubtless be a subject of discussion as well. On foreign policy, the Israel/Palestine issue is at the top of the stack; and funding FEMA – UH-gain – will probably be dealt with.

Here’s the pre-game analysis. Continue reading →

Obama and His Critics

BY JOHN FEEHERY

Reprinted from the FeeheryTheory.com

I was working out at the gym this morning (I know, miracles never cease), and I looked over briefly (I know, you don’t believe me), at the television and saw one of the hosts interviewing Rachel Maddow.

I am not the biggest Rachel Maddow fan in the world (ok, I am not really a fan at all) and I immediately assumed that the topic of conversation was on the President’s decision on “don’t ask, don’t tell”, an issue that apparently is important to the MSNBC host.

According to the headline blaring at the bottom of the television screen was “Is Obama losing his base?”

Interesting question, given that the previous day, the President struck a blow for some of his most passionate supporters by going through with change in a long standing military policy. Continue reading →

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

BY RICH GALEN

Reprinted from Mullings.com

The Popular Press is swooning over what they consider to be the new-found potency in President Barack Obama’s demands that the Congress pass his Jobs Bill.

For reasons which I cannot understand, the President decided to make his case for his bill by leading with who was going to pay for it, notwithstanding we have no idea how the first job will be created by the jillions of dollars of new taxes he is proposing.

You want people who make millions of dollars a year to pay more in taxes? Ok. I don’t have an answer to that.

But somehow, in the translation, anyone with a family income north of about $250,000 (husband and wife each making a little over $10 k per month) becomes the equal of Warren Buffett’s income and needs to be penalized for the family’s success. Continue reading →