Saturday, September 22, 2012

Good News: Obama To Trash First Amendment in Speech to U.N.

How else would you interpret this story?

Obama to Condemn Christian Filmmaker Before United Nations


Not only are we seeing the White House and State Department call more attention to the Mohammed-mocking "Innocence of Muslims" than any terrorist network ever could've hoped for, but the President's indefensible scapegoating of the film and filmmaker to draw attention and blame away from U.S. security failures apparently knows no bounds.

Next week, Obama will denounce the film in a speech before the United Nations General Assembly:

"As he has in recent days, the President will make it clear that we reject the views in this video, while also underscoring that violence is never acceptable[.]"

As Obama's appalling policy of disengaging in the Middle East comes to fruition in the form of the region exploding and al-Qaeda's targeted assassination of an American ambassador -- the media spen[t] two weeks savaging Mitt Romney and directing our sorrow, rage, and helplessness on [a filmmaker].

For weeks this administration, aided and abetted by The State Media, has shamelessly lied to us about what happened in Libya. Moreover, in order to cover up and distract for unforgivable security lapses, this hapless filmmaker has been targeted for all of the blame -- certainly more blame than the Administration's failure to secure a consulate on 9/11 (of all days), but even more blame than the actual murderers.

And now, even though we know the truth about what really happened in Libya, it won't stop. It will never stop. Because Obama knows his media will never make him pay a political price for lying and scapegoating...

And so, next week, as Obama condemns this film, and therefore the American ideal of freedom of speech, before the entire world -- all in an effort to quadruple-down on a brazen lie that's already been exposed as such -- it will truly be the ultimate Big Brother moment of this presidency.

Not only has the administration lied about and covered up its failures in Libya, but today The Hill reported something even more bizarre:

Senate Republicans are furious the Obama administration rebuffed their attempts to learn details of the Benghazi attack, only to give the coveted information to The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

Senators say they were rebuffed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when they pressed for more information about the attack that killed U.S. envoy Christopher Stephens in Libya.

“That is the most useless, worthless briefing I have attended in a long time,” Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) told reporters after the closed-door session.

GOP lawmakers were incensed to find many of the details they tried to learn Thursday were in a front-page article in The Times the following morning.

That's right: the "President of All the People" gives better intelligence briefings to The New York Times than to Republican Senators.

Circulate this far and wide. November is coming.


Hat tip: BadBlue News Service.

My time in the 11th circle of hell, otherwise known as trying to get customer service from the cable company

The terms customer service and cable company go together about as well as Robb Stark and Cersei Lannister. Which, if you don't watch Game of Thrones, means they go together like the Bears and the Packers.

After more than 15 years of utilizing the fine, upstanding services of my cable provider, the latest outage debacle drove me over the edge. It was the final straw. It broke the camel's back. It was the end of the line. The final nail in the coffin. And other metaphors that indicate just how pissed off I was.

Here's what transpired:

Sunday 9:00am - All cable services go out. Every box in the Blog-Bunker™ is suddenly unable to connect. I initiate a web-chat with a representative on the well-designed support website (that's sarcasm - finding customer support is roughly akin to a Where's Waldo). The rep indicates that indeed, there is an outage in the area.

Sunday 9:00pm - Still assuming the neighborhood is experiencing an outage, all of the cable boxes remain dead.

Monday 6:00pm - Return from work. Cable is still out. Now questioning whether this is a neighborhood outage. I ask a neighbor if they are experiencing any issues. Nope. There's been no outage at all on our street. The web-chat representative "feedback" was completely bogus.

Monday 8:30pm - After at least four separate calls to, and web chats with, customer service -- and several escalations with "managers" -- the fastest anyone can get to our neighborhood is... wait for it... eight (8) days from now. I believe cable repair service at Bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad was faster. We put in our request, with the oh-so-fine-grained repair window of sometime, eight days from now. Despite several threats to cancel service, no earlier date was offered.

Monday 8:55pm - After ruminating on the conversations with "customer service", I've decided I've had enough. After more than 15 years of various debacles, this is finally the last straw. I decide that I no longer deserve the luxurious, 12-star customer service offered by the cable company.

Monday 9:03pm - I call the customer cancellation line. After a short delay; I am told that... wait for it... canceling service can only be accomplished prior to 8:30pm or after 9:00am. Can I put a name in a queue to be called on my cell when they open in the morning? The rep almost laughs in my face. Aren't government-regulated monopolies super?

Tuesday 12:18pm - I enter the "service downgrade" queue for my area.

Tuesday 12:25am - I get an agent, who tells me that her phone system is acting up and she can't access my information because she's in the wrong region of the country to service the account. Perfect. She says they've been having phone system routing problems -- do tell? -- and she will transfer me to the correct queue.

Tuesday 12:28am - The new rep, who I believe is speaking into a diving mask, says that she can't perform any transactions at the moment. The systems, it would seem, are down, and she is unable to make changes. I will have to call back. Is there an estimated time that the systems will be back up? I'll give you one guess and "yes" isn't it.

Tuesday 07:05pm - I enter the cancellation queue; and, as you might expect, they're not going to make it easy to cancel services.

Tuesday 07:29pm - After 15 minutes, I am able to convince the very nice customer retention specialist that I really do want to quit the cable service. Amazingly, they can schedule the home visit and shutdown this coming SUNDAY within a 1-HOUR WINDOW.

Stunning. They can show up within a 1-hour window on a Sunday to turn the service off. To fix something? Not so much.

I did a quick, back-of-the-napkin estimate and discovered that I've probably spent about $36,000 with the company over the last 15 or so years. So the lifetime value of a typical customer is significant.

In fact, the company should call their "customer service" area the "customer annoyance" department, because I missed out on the actual "service" part and they seem to treat customers as a bother than anything else.

I'm interested in your opinions. Am I the one being unreasonable here?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The most terrifying aspect of this debacle? There's at least a tiny bit of competition when it comes to television services. You can opt for DirecTV or Dish Network. You can get a broadband Internet connection and try Roku or a similar, IP-based service. Some lucky consumers even have two cable providers.

Now I ask you: can you imagine the customer service you'll get from the government-run healthcare system after Obamacare takes hold? Imagine the DMV the Social Security Office, only without the peppy and motivated employees. Faceless, nameless bureaucrats will be providing "customer service" and, thanks to civil service and public sector unions, firing a bad employee will require an Act of Congress.

When Obamacare is finished rolling out, there won't be any insurance companies left. A company forced to cover a pre-existing condition is somewhat akin to a home insurer having to cover a house after it's been set afire. Whatever you may call it, it's not insurance.

I have seen the future of health care: it's like cable customer service, only with your family's life at stake.


Unmasking Obama: A Special Report

Who is Barack Obama? A must-read special report by The Washington Examiner is excerpted and illustrated below.


The Image and the Reality



Over the years and in two autobiographies, Obama has presented himself to the world as many things, including radical community organizer, idealistic civil rights lawyer, dynamic reformer in the Illinois and U.S. senates, and, finally, the cool presidential voice of postpartisan hope and change...

...Beyond the spin and the polls, a starkly different picture emerges. It is a portrait of a man quite unlike his image, not a visionary reformer but rather a classic Chicago machine pol who thrives on rewarding himself and his friends with the spoils of public office, and who uses his position to punish his enemies.

Peter Schweizer captures this other Obama with a bracing statistic in his book "Throw Them All Out," published last year...

In the Obama economic stimulus program's Department of Energy loans, companies owned and run by Obama contributors and friends, like Solyndra's George Kaiser, received $16.4 billion. Those not linked to the president got only $4.1 billion. The Energy Department is far from the only federal program in which favoritism has heavily influenced federal grants.

To paraphrase Tammany Hall's George Washington Plunkitt, Obama has seen his opportunities and taken them, over and over.

A Childhood of Privilege, not Hardship



First lady Michelle Obama told the Democratic National Convention that "Barack and I were both raised by families who didn't have much in the way of money or material possessions."

But... Obama lived in a "well-off neighborhood near the University of Hawaii where Barry, as he was known, resided in a comfortable home with his mother and her parents before she took him to Indonesia."

Tellingly, Obama has never lived in a black neighborhood. Maraniss reported in his book that when leftist activist Jerry Kellman interviewed Obama for a community organizing job in Chicago, he asked Obama how he felt about living and working in the black community for the first time in his life.

Obama accepted the job but chose not to live among those he would be organizing. Instead, he commuted 90 minutes each way daily from his apartment in Chicago's famous Hyde Park to the Altgeld Gardens housing project where he worked...

A Pattern of Minimal Performance



In the state Senate during the same years he was lecturing, Obama voted "present" nearly 130 times, the most of any legislator in the chamber.

When then-Sen. Hillary Clinton made Obama's state Senate voting record an issue in their Democratic presidential primary contest in 2007, the New York Times said it found at least 36 instances when Obama was the lone "present" vote or was one of six or fewer lawmakers casting that vote.

And during his lone term as a U.S. senator, according to Gov Track.us: "From Jan 2005 to Oct 2008, Obama missed 314 of 1300 recorded or roll call votes, which is 24.0%. This is worse than the median of 2.4%."

The 1997 Speech That Launched Obama



Few doubt that Barack Obama's stirring oration before the 2004 Democratic National Convention vaulted him into the national limelight... But another, less-heralded Obama address -- delivered on Valentine's Day 1997 at First Chicago Bank -- was equally essential to his later successes. Without it, it is doubtful that he would have ever been in position to assume so prominent a role in 2004.

...people interviewed by the Examiner who heard him speak say Obama laid out a powerful vision for a political strategy that ultimately reshaped housing activism on the Left, first in Chicago and then nationwide...

...He was drawing from the same well that had produced the Community Reinvestment Act, relaxed federal standards for mortgage qualifications, and creative financial packaging of subprime loans, but doing so in a manner uniquely matched to conditions on the political ground of Chicago...

Chicago thus became the proving ground for Obama's vision, which, according to LISC spokesman Joel Bookman, "really changed the direction of community development in Chicago and ultimately nationally." ... It was an irresistible combination of money, politics and idealism that also offered endless opportunities for greed and tragic abuse of the poor.

For the Slumlord's Defense, Barack Obama, Esq.



In March 1994, a year before "Dreams" was published, Obama was the lead defense attorney on an obscure case in Cook County Court that has heretofore escaped examination by the national media.

In this case, Obama defended a Chicago slumlord and powerful political ally who was charged with a long list of offenses against poor residents... Brazier's WPIC had failed for nearly a month to supply heat and running water for the complex's 15 crumbling apartments. On Jan. 18, 1994, the day the heat went off, Chicago's official high temperature was 11 below zero, the day after it was 19 below... Even worse, the residents were then ordered to leave the WPIC complex in the winter chill without the due process they would have been afforded by an eviction procedure.

...In court documents, Daniel W. Weil, commissioner of Chicago's Buildings Department, slammed WPIC for multiple municipal code violations, including "failure to maintain adequate heat," failure "to provide every family unit with approved heating facilities," and "failure to provide adequate" supplies of either hot or cold running water.

...Obama also did legal work involved in the establishment of four Brazier-Rezko limited partnerships: Woodlawn Partners Ltd., Central Woodlawn Partnership, KRMB Limited Partnership and Woodlawn Drexel Ltd. Partnership. Rezko is now serving a 10-year federal prison sentence for fraud and attempted bribery on state government contracts.

Obama's Harshest Critics on the Left



Robert Stark, director of the liberal Harold Washington Institute for Research and Policy Studies, told the Examiner that the demolition effort required to clear the way for the new affordable-housing projects advocated by Obama was disastrous for low-income blacks on Chicago's South Side...

...Obama's toughest critic on the Left, however, was the late Robert Fitch. Fitch, a radical leftist and freelance journalist who specialized in urban politics and economics, said Obama surrounded himself with people who got rich on Chicago's $1.6 billion neighborhood demolition program known officially as the Plan for Transformation.

At least 25,000 low-income apartments in Chicago were destroyed under the program, which forced thousands of black families -- many of whom lived in Obama's state Senate district -- to move out of the city. Obama's political allies directed the effort.

"What we see is that the Chicago core of the Obama coalition is made up of blacks who've moved up by moving poor blacks out of the community," Fitch charged in a 2008 speech before the Harlem Tenants Association... Obama sold out to a corrupt Chicago establishment. "Obama's political base comes primarily from Chicago FIRE -- the finance, insurance and real estate industry," he said.

...Obama's political endorsements also worried liberal reformers concerned about good government. Cynthia Canary, former head of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, recalled Obama's endorsement of corrupt officials like the imprisoned Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Chicago City Council members.

The Poor People Obama Left Behind



Four years after Barack Obama's historic election as president, little seems to have changed for the African-American communities on Chicago's South Side. The lack of change -- or the sense that these neighborhoods are getting worse -- is eroding the president's standing among African-Americans in his hometown.

In 2011, Chicago suffered the third-highest black jobless rate among the nation's major metropolitan areas, at 19 percent, according to the liberal Economic Policy Institute... Chicago still lacks enough affordable housing. Not only did the city demolish 25,000 public housing units in the previous decade, it also experienced more than 80,000 foreclosures, mainly in low-income neighborhoods.

Chicago "black nationalist" Eddie Read contends Obama has never fought for the black community. "I would not honestly tag Obama as a fighter for black people, black agenda or black issues," Read told The Washington Examiner... After Obama's election, Read said, "I hoped that it would change."

...D'Anna Carter, a neighborhood activist in Chicago's Woodlawn section, singled out the Habitat Co., which was run by Jarrett, now Obama's closest White House adviser... "They were never interested in poor people," she told the Examiner. "They would sell poor people a bill of goods," she said bitterly in an interview.

The Myth of Obama as State Senate Reformer



An Examiner review of a reform-minded state legislative caucus known as the "Fab Five" from 1995 to 2000 identified 22 proposals, including sweeping government procurement reforms like requiring open, competitive bidding for state contracts. Obama missed votes on several of the proposals, and those he supported were approved unanimously.

"He was nowhere to be found on reform," Fab Fiver Chris Lauzen told the Examiner. "I reached out to Barack. My wife and I took Barack and Michelle to dinner."

...Some of Obama's reluctance about the Fab Five may have stemmed from his occasional golf outings and lunches with the state's top gambling lobbyist, Alfred G. Ronan. Ronan was well-known in Illinois political circles for passing out cash contributions to supporters off the floor of the legislative chambers. Obama himself took $10,500 from Ronan and changed his position on a gambling bill afterward, according to the Los Angeles Times...

Cynthia Canary, former director of the largest statewide reform organization, said Obama's endorsement of Rod Blagojevich and other Daley allies worried her... "Obama has made a number of endorsements, not just the Blagojevich one -- he gave a number for the Chicago City Council that were complete whack jobs. I have never understood it or why he felt he needed to it," she said.

Obama's State Pension Scandal



State Sen. Barack Obama and members of an Illinois lobbying group representing politically connected minority-owned businesses launched a campaign in 2000 to pressure state pension funds to help their friends and donors... Obama and his cohorts targeted state officials in charge of pension funds for teachers, police and firemen, and regular government employees.

Much as the Rev. Jesse Jackson had been doing for years to Fortune 500 corporations, Obama and the Alliance of Business Leaders & Entrepreneurs, or ABLE, demanded that the officials set aside at least 15 percent of pension assets for management by minority-owned investment companies...

The campaign succeeded in early 2001 when more than $500 million from the pension funds was transferred to Ariel and Holland... Ariel's assets increased dramatically following the infusion from the pension funds, rising from $2.8 billion to $15 billion between 1999 and 2002, according to the firm's Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

John Rogers, Ariel Capital Management's CEO, and James Reynolds, founder of Loop Capital, were ABLE leaders and longtime Obama supporters... Even so, things did not go well a few years later. Ariel and Holland were terminated by ISBI and SURS for what pension board officials described as "underperformance."

Rogers also wasn't helped when U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald revealed in federal court proceedings that Rogers had given $22,500 to bundler Tony Rezko, who was later convicted of influence peddling... Rogers' money was destined for the campaign of Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who, like Rezko, is now serving a federal prison sentence for public corruption. No charges were ever filed against Rogers in connection with the $22,500.

Rogers remains an Obama confidant. He has visited the White House at least 37 times since Obama's 2009 inauguration for both business and social meetings.


Based upon: Washington Examiner Special Report - The Obama You Don't Know. This is Part I of the report. Stay tuned for Part II.

"Recession is when your neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours. And recovery is when Barack Obama loses his."

Peter Brady analyzes this week's depressing jobs report.

Initial jobless claims were just announced at 382K, much higher than the expected of 375K.

Last week's claims were announced at 382K, but revised up to 385K.

Today's headlines across all media outlets: JOBLESS CLAIMS FALL BY 3K

Wash, rinse and repeat.

Real unemployment is 11.7 percent... and still rising.



Title borrowed from Ronald Reagan.

Steyn: "I see the Obama campaign has redesigned the American flag..."

The peerless Mark Steyn:


I see the Obama campaign has redesigned the American flag, and very attractive it is too. Replacing the 50 stars of a federal republic is the single “O” logo symbolizing the great gaping maw of spendaholic centralization. And where the stripes used to be are a handful of red daubs, eerily mimicking the bloody finger streaks left on the pillars of the U.S. consulate in Benghazi as its staff were dragged out by a mob of savages to be tortured and killed. What better symbol could one have of American foreign policy? Who says the slick hollow vapid marketing of the Obama campaign doesn’t occasionally intersect with reality?

Do yourself a favor and read the whole thing.


Hat tip: JTT.

Larwyn's Linx: The part of Romney’s Tape the media isn’t playing

Send us tips! Bloggers: install a Larwyn's Linx widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

Nation

The part of Romney’s Tape the media isn’t playing: NoisyRm
Obama learned of 9/11 attacks, went to bed: GWP
Romney Tax Returns Mock The Dems And The Media: JoshuaPundit

Vetting Obama: Erickson
Why Romney Will Romp over Obama in November: AT
The Progressive Project Has Failed: Elephant

The 12-Step Guide for the Recovering Obama Voter: PJM
Democrat Senator Nelson Avoids Debates, Connie Mack Pounces: Shark
On behalf of the Romneys, I demand Harry Reid Apologize: TAB

Romney will campaign in... Colorado: Breitbart
Romney agrees: Obama ‘can’t change Washington’: Hill
Dem registration down in key states: Politico

Economy

100 Days Until Taxmageddon: ATR
We Need A Startup President Who Knows How Jobs Are Created: IBD
4 Graphs Bernanke Doesn’t Want You to See: FreedomWorks

Terrorist Prof. Bill Ayers and Obama's Federal Schools: NoisyRm
After Obamacare, Is a Retirement Benefit Mandate Next?: FreeEnt
More unemployment statistics for dummies: JPA

Scandal Central

Obama Lied on Univison: F&F Not “Begun Under the Previous Administration”: Tapper
Well Done: Senate Conservatives Gather the Votes to Block Lame Duck Treaties: Foundry
Why does Homeland Security need 1.4 billion rounds of ammunition?: AT

Climate & Energy

Are the Chevy Volt’s sales being inflated by “giveaway” leases?: Hot Air
Romney ads: Okay, if you want to talk about killing jobs, let’s talk about the war on coal: Hot Air

Media

Presidential Races Can Look One Way Now but Much Differently on Election Day: AmPower
LA Times Fights Back: Why We Won't Release Obama's Khalidi Video: Breitbart
Oh dear: Joe Biden makes mind-blowing sexual gaffe about cheerleaders: Twitchy

What John McLaughlin Sees in the Polls Right Now: Geraghty
Univision Shows Up Mainstream Media In Obama Interview: IBD
Gallup: Americans’ distrust of the media hits a new high: Hot Air

Kirsten Powers: The media seems to be taking their orders from the Obama administration: Scoop
We’re Out of Patience and You’re Gone, Obama: MB
Study: 85 percent of Democrats suffering from serious mental issues: Jawa

World

Second anti-Israel term: ynet
White House narrative on Libya all but collapsed: Hot Air
Egypt intends to use chemical weapons in Sinai, says report: Times of Israel

Collapse of the Cairo Doctrine: Krauthammer
BBC Backs Down; Threats of Physical Violence: Gatestone
France bans protests over Prophet Mohammad cartoons: Reuters

Was Anything Obama Admin Said About Benghazi True?: Ricochet
IDF soldiers attacked on Egpyt border, kill 3 terrorists: JPost
The List of Things That Offend Muslims: Amboy Times

Turnabout Fair Play: Israel Demands Restitution of Jewish Land Confiscated by Arabs: Tatler
The U.S. Suffered Its Worst Airpower Loss Since Vietnam Last Week and No One Really Noticed: AtlWire
Jews leave Swedish city after sharp rise in anti-Semitic hate crimes: Telegraph

Sci-Tech

Google has a whopping 7,100 people working on Maps alone: BGR
Motorola Mobility (Google) Pokes Fun At Apple’s iOS 6 Maps With #iLost Hashtag: Crunch
“Metropolis” Programme, 1927: Retronaut

Cornucopia

A Word to Rioting Muslims: iOTW
“Here, Hold My Beer And Watch This”: PeachPundit
Fundamentally transforming America: You can’t do that alone: MOTUS

Image: iOwnTheWorld
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: America's Comeback Team

QOTD: "“The Democrats want to convince [these anti-Obama voters] falsely that Romney will lose to discourage them from voting. So they lobby the pollsters to weight their surveys to emulate the 2008 Democrat-heavy models. They are lobbying them now to affect early voting. IVR [Interactive Voice Response] polls are heavily weighted. You can weight to whatever result you want. Some polls have included sizable segments of voters who say they are ‘not enthusiastic’ to vote or non-voters to dilute Republicans. Major pollsters have samples with Republican affiliation in the 20 to 30 percent range, at such low levels not seen since the 1960s in states like Virginia, Florida, North Carolina and which then place Obama ahead. The intended effect is to suppress Republican turnout through media polling bias. We’ll see a lot more of this. Then there’s the debate between calling off a random-digit dial of phone exchanges vs. a known sample of actual registered voters. Most polls favoring Obama are random and not off the actual voter list. That’s too expensive” for some pollsters." --John McLaughlin

Friday, September 21, 2012

BREAKING: Romney's Tax Returns Released as Layered PDFs

This breaking news is brought to you by The People's Cube:


As Romney belatedly releases his tax returns, many experts question their authenticity, converting the documents to PDF and examining them for hidden layers. According to Sen. Harry Reid, some of the tax tables used were not in effect at the time of the alleged "returns."

I hear that Brian Ross is all over this story.



IT'S OVER: The Left's Information Warfare Campaign Has Failed -- and Mitt Romney is Going to Win This Election

Are you down? Are you glum, dejected, feeling like Republicans can't catch a break? Are you sick of Mitt Romney's gaffes, hyped hysterically by obsolete media with breathless "Romney Can't Win 2012" Special Reports?

Have you been overwhelmed by criticism of the GOP from so-called conservatives? Let's consider the sources: Bill Kristol is a useless coot whose predictions are unerringly off-base. Peggy Noonan is a yenta. Rich Lowery is a sellout. And David Brooks isn't worth the three seconds I just spent typing this sentence. All of them are more worried about invitations to glitterati parties than they are in saving this Republic.

In the face of liberal agitprop campaigns, they wet their Depends and run away.

I'm not down. I feel good. Let's consider where we are in this campaign cycle.

The Professional Left has thrown everything but the kitchen sink at the Romney campaign. It prematurely ejaculated an October Surprise -- "the 47 percent" recording -- weeks too early. It's hysterically marketed other similar, trivial statements as campaign-ending for Romney.

But the campaign isn't over and those weren't gaffes.


Though you wouldn't know it from Sixties media, the three biggest verbal gaffes this month all were uttered by Barack Obama:

3. On Univision, Obama admitted that he "can't change Washington from the inside."

2. On the David Letterman show, Obama claimed he didn't know the amount of the national debt, a terrifyingly large burden on the young and future generations

1. On the issue of the 9/11 terror attacks in Libya, Obama and his administration have been caught in a series of lies and cover-ups.

The debates are coming. You got a "47" gaffe? I'll top you with a "57" (remember how candidate Obama said he hoped to visit all 57 states?).

Obama without TOTUS is like Joe Biden without the hair-plugs. Romney has been tempered through the fires of a dozen, hard-core, debate melees.

And Obama has had precisely zero debates and, for that matter, hasn't even entertained a serious interview in years. Without practice -- and with his increasingly questionable work ethic -- I have a prediction to make:

Obama is going to stumble in these debates. He will stumble badly. And he will reveal himself.

Furthermore, when you come right down to it, he's an easy mark. He has a record he must try to defend. And that record is downright ugly. He can blame Bush, Tsunamis, ATMs and the Euro for all of his failures, but if he tries, he'll sound even more like an unpresidential loser than usual.

The combination of being confronted with his failures -- one after the other, with no real way to spin or lie without blatantly appearing as a charlatan -- along with his documented case of Aggressive Narcissism results in my Lock o' the Week prognostication:

Obama will seriously stumble in these debates. It will be cringe-worthy.

Oh, and then there are the polls. The polls that seem to magnify each "gaffe" a thousand-fold to stifle Republican optimism. Well, polling expert John McClaughlin offers the straight scoop as to what we're seeing there:

On what a realistic partisan breakdown would look like: “The 2004 national exit polls showed an even partisan turnout and Bush won 51–48. Had it been the +4 Democratic edge of 2000, John Kerry would have been president. 2008 was a Democratic wave that gave them a +7 partisan advantage. 2010 was a Republican edge. There’s no wave right now. There are about a dozen swing states where in total millions of voters who voted in 2008 for Obama are gone or have not voted since...

...There are also hundreds of thousands of voters in each of several swing states like Ohio, Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, Colorado, and others who voted from rural, exurban or suburban areas in 2004 for Bush who did not vote in 2008, because they were not excited by McCain or thought he would lose. They are currently planning to vote mainly as a vote against President Obama.”

What Obama and his allies are doing now: “The Democrats want to convince [these anti-Obama voters] falsely that Romney will lose to discourage them from voting. So they lobby the pollsters to weight their surveys to emulate the 2008 Democrat-heavy models. They are lobbying them now to affect early voting. IVR [Interactive Voice Response] polls are heavily weighted. You can weight to whatever result you want. Some polls have included sizable segments of voters who say they are ‘not enthusiastic’ to vote or non-voters to dilute Republicans. Major pollsters have samples with Republican affiliation in the 20 to 30 percent range, at such low levels not seen since the 1960s in states like Virginia, Florida, North Carolina and which then place Obama ahead. The intended effect is to suppress Republican turnout through media polling bias. We’ll see a lot more of this. Then there’s the debate between calling off a random-digit dial of phone exchanges vs. a known sample of actual registered voters. Most polls favoring Obama are random and not off the actual voter list. That’s too expensive” for some pollsters.

That's not all. I think we'll see a couple of related, interesting anomalies in this election:

• The impact of a phenomenal drop in households with landlines, which badly skews polling
• The return of the Bradley Effect
• The return of the Reagan Democrats, in this case, union members who realize their jobs are at stake, but tell the pollsters they're voting with the bosses and actually pull the lever for the GOP
• A much larger percentage drop in the Black vote for Obama than anyone's anticipating (see Why Romney Is Going to Romp over Obama in November)

As much as old media tries to tell us that Obama is a sure thing, he's actually anything but.

Which is why, for example, he's in... Wisconsin this week.

Mitt Romney is going to win this election. Write it down. Take it to the bank.

But before you do, send 'em a couple of bucks. We have a country to repair.



Larwyn's Linx: Obamamalaise Part XXXVII: ‘You Can’t Change Washington from the Inside’

Send us tips! Bloggers: install a Larwyn's Linx widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

Nation

Obamamalaise: 'Can’t Change Washington from the Inside’: Driscoll
Ruh Roh: Counterterror Head Contradicts White House: Breitbart
Obama: No, I Can't : Beacon

As Rome Burns: Camp o' the Saints
GOP To Reid: Campaigning On Senate Floor Is Illegal: WZ
Scott Brown hits Elizabeth Warren on "Native American" heritage: Riehl

Another Day, Another Disaster: RWN
Gallup: Obama Disapproval Up, Now Tied With Romney: JWF
New swing state? Obama to visit Wisconsin: USA Today

Economy

Obama Doesn’t Just Gut Welfare Reform...: Foundry
Good News: 140MM Families Hit With IRS Obamacare Form: ATR
Hilarity: Tax Cheat Attacks Romney for Paying Taxes: Hot Air

Building a Bridge to 1936: Driscoll
Caption this: DWS wrote something on her hand too: Treacher
Three States Join Constitutional Challenge to Dodd-Frank: CEI

Scandal Central

Issa: White House pursuing an 'enemies list' in Washington: Hill
Quayle on Fast and Furious report: Holder ‘lied to my face’ during House testimony: DC
Blackmail Alert: White House Staffers Enjoyed Prostitutes with Secret Service in Colombia: MagNote

IG: White House ‘Made it Impossible’ to Pursue Lead in Fast and Furious Probe: CNS
Obama slammed on Fast and Furious in Spanish-language TV interview: Shouldn’t you ‘fire’ Holder? [VIDEO]: DC
Horowitz: Arrest of Anti-Islam FilmMaker “One of the Most Disgraceful Moments in... History”: Nice Deb

Climate & Energy

Obama's Cap & Trade Executive Order: Redistribution: NoisyRm

Media

As Embassy Protests Exploded, Obama Did Interview with People and Posed for a Photo Spread: Powers
Eddie Haskell Brooks: Malkin
Michelle Malkin Blasts the Beltway and Manhattan RINO Establishment Losers: Scoop

Obama: An Authentic Phony: RSM
Time for Ron Paul Fans to Support the Constitution: Breitbart
New York Times announces that only Obama will be allowed to approve stories in advance: IHTM

Media to Romney: Stop Telling the Truth!: Klavan
GOP Ad Bashing Obama on His Socialist Beliefs Will Give You Chills: GWP
A Short Visual History of the Creepy Obama Cult: Events

World

Obama & PLO Khalidi 2003 – LA Times Release The Videotape: NoisyRm
Obama's Chicago Arab-American network comes into focus: Cary
US official: Libya attack not planned in advance: JPost

Wow. Obama Calls The Attacks On Us Around the World And In Libya “Natural”: Bruce
Obama and Hillary now apologizing for Muhammad video in ads running in Pakistan: Scoop
Miscues Before Libya Assault: WSJ

Obama Donor Heads Organization that Freed Terrorist Accused of Plotting Attack in Benghazi: MenRec
CBS Report: OBAMA LIED-There Was NEVER A Protest In Libya, Just an Attack: Lid
You Go, Pamela Geller!: RSM

The Terrorists’ Veto: Totten
Poll shows Jewish support for Obama in Florida down 7 percentage points from 2008: Times of Israel
South Korea fires on North Korean fishing boats: AP

Sci-Tech

Exclusive: Wal-Mart stops selling Amazon Kindles: Yahoo!
Asia is now Facebook’s largest continent after hitting 242 million users: NextWeb
Voice is a killer app, but not all carriers will kill to control it: GigaOm

Cornucopia

Countess of Castiglione, C.1856-1899: Retronaut
Vince Young broke, looking for work, court documents say: GlobPost
I’ve been away recuperating, but let me chime in on that controversial candid soundbite: ProWis

Image: iMore
Sponsored by: Allen West Needs Your Help ("Dem super PAC hits Allen West with $1 million buy")

QOTD: "A lot of politicians are dishonest, but Barack Obama may be in a league by himself. He appeared on the David Letterman show last night, and Letterman asked him about the national debt (somewhat surprisingly). Obama’s answer was a masterpiece of prevarication. He described how the debt originated, and claimed, falsely, that he inherited a $1 trillion deficit. In fact, this country had never run a deficit anywhere near $1 trillion until FY 2009, the first year of the Obama administration. (And, no, Bush isn’t to blame for it; the Democratic Congress waited until Obama was in office to pass the vast majority of the bloated spending for that fiscal year.) Letterman, to his credit, went on to ask Obama how much the national debt actually is. Obama evidently knew that if he said $16 trillion his audience would be horrified, so, incredibly, he pretended not to know!...

Barack Obama is a world-class liar. At least, we’d better hope he is a world class liar, because if he really has no idea what the national debt is, we are in even worse trouble." --John Hinderaker

Thursday, September 20, 2012

NO JOKE: If Obama reelected, looks like he'll release the WTC bomber

This report should trouble every American (which excludes, of course, most self-described "progressives"):

The U.S. State Department is actively considering negotiations with the Egyptian government for the transfer of custody of Omar Abdel-Rahman, also known as “the Blind Sheikh,” for humanitarian and health reasons, a source close to the the Obama administration told TheBlaze...

...The Blind Sheikh is currently serving a life sentence in American prison for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, but the newly-elected Islamist government in Egypt has been actively petitioning his release. Many have pinpointed a cause of last week‘s unrest in in the country to be protests over the Blind Sheikh’s release — not an anti-Muslim YouTube video.

...A veteran intelligence analyst and researcher for TheBlaze said he met with an official within the Obama administration who told him that the transfer of the Blind Sheikh to Egypt is something that is being “actively considered” by the administration as a solution to the ongoing crisis in the Middle East. His source asked not to be identified.

When asked if the transfer of the convicted terrorist was being seriously considered, the intelligence analyst said yes, according to his source, who stressed that the move, if executed, was not intended to take place or be announced until after the presidential election.

The concerns are legitimate, as evidenced by a report this afternoon that top House Republicans are imploring the White House to keep Rahman under lock and key.

Eight top-ranking House Republicans are pressing the White House not to release “the blind sheikh” from prison, saying that it would be “a sign of weakness” by President Obama...

In a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Attorney General Eric Holder this week, eight heads of House committees and subpanels pressed the administration not to appease the acts of violence in Egypt by releasing Rahman.

“Succumbing to the demands of a country whose citizens threaten our embassy and the Americans serving in it would send a clear message that acts of violence will be responded to with acts of appeasement rather than strength,” wrote Reps. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), Buck McKeon (R-Calif.), Pete King (R-N.Y.), Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), Frank Wolf (R-Va.) and Kay Granger (R-Texas).

The Obama administration could put this madness to rest with a simple statement such as, "We pledge that we will never release the Blind Sheikh."

And this it will not do. Which means the only guaranteed way we'll stop Obama from releasing the World Trade Center bomber is to fire him in November.


Helpful Chart: Focus Groups Contrast the Candidates

Spotted at HillBuzz:


This data is real. Daniel Foster explains the methodology "Meet the Deciders":

Yesterday afternoon, on the seventh floor of a nondescript glass office tower on the fringes of downtown Tampa, I sat in a dark room behind a two-way mirror and watched the one and only Frank Luntz put a focus group of 23 “swing voters” through the paces.

What I learned: Americans are worried.

Of course they are. See "The Five Charts You MUST Show Every Undecided Voter You Know."



Viral Image o' the Day

That's what Instapundit calls this juxtaposition, yet another epic #ObamaFail.


Writing at The Washington Times, Oleg Atbashian quips "Finally, a flag you can burn."


Hat tip: @TheAnchoress.

Barack Obama Just Lost the Election*

I really can't wait for the debates. Off his teleprompter, Barack "57 States" Obama is Joe Biden with a better speaking voice.

President Obama has learned something during his presidency: You can’t change Washington from the inside.


“The most important lesson I’ve learned is that you can’t change Washington from the inside,” he told a Univision forum Thursday. “You can only change it from the outside.”

The remark immediately set off the political media on Twitter... “(This) is perhaps Obama’s worst gaffe since he met Joe the Plumber?” BuzzFeed editor Ben Smith asked on Twitter Thursday afternoon.

Mitt Romney's campaign responded instantaneously with a couple of perfect retorts:

ZING!

As Twitchy reported, President Obama changed his campaign slogan to Hope and (can’t) Change today. Mitt Romney immediately issued a zinger.

As of this posting, it has been retweeted 542 times. In seventeen minutes. Keep the retweets coming!

Boom update:


The The Washington Examiner relays another great reply:

“We’ll get the job done from the inside – Republicans and Democrats will come together,” Romney continued today. “He can’t do it. His slogan was ‘Yes, we can.’ His slogan now is ‘No, I can’t.’ This is time for a new president.”

These responses are deserving of a few bucks if you have 'em to spare. Well done, Romney Campaign... well done.



* Left-wing propagandist Henry Blodget hardest hit.

OH, MY: Rick Perry Just Ended the Creepy #ForAll Meme

@HarrietBaldwin nominates Governor Rick Perry for the Twitter Post of "the day, week, month"... and possibly year:


Well, I don't think we'll be seeing much more of the Obama campaign's embarrassing #ForAll photo bust.

You gonna put some ice on that, Messina -- if that is your real name?



Larwyn's Linx: Wildly Out Of Touch, Antique Media Complain Romney Not Regular Guy

Send us tips! Bloggers: install a Larwyn's Linx widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

Nation

Wildly Out Of Touch Media Complain Romney Not Regular Guy: Coulter
Mitt Romney Right: Dependency Subverts Democracy: IBD
Mr. Podhoretz, please read the transcript.: Kuznicki

2012 Will Be Another Tea Party Election, Like 2010: Strata
Race Finished Update: Real RCP Average Shows Dead Heat: Bizzy
UMass/Herald poll: Brown pulling ahead of Warren: Herald

Man of the People: Jay-Z knows what my life is like says Obama: Exam
Mitt Romney’s Remarks are Another Chick-Fil-A Moment: RS
*Sigh* Obama plays the race card... again: AT

Economy

Good Lord, Obama doesn't even know what the national debt is: Twitchy
Is Barack Obama America's Most Dishonest Politician?: Power Line
Obama’s First Term Is Like Roosevelt’s Dismal Second: Barone

Obama's $105,000 champagne tower with Jay-Z and Beyonce: MB
Radical Chicago teachers win, taxpayers/students/parents lose: Malkin
Man of the People: DailyMail

Obama to Letterman: National Debt Not a Concern in Short Term: LoneCon
Under Obama, US Drops to 18th in Economic Freedom Ranking: MB
Tungsten-Filled 10 Oz Gold Bar Found In Manhattan's Jewelry District: ZH

Scandal Central

Eric Holder's exoneration by Fast and Furious report strains credibility: Geraghty
Report Blows Huge Hole in Obama's Fake Biography: Lid
DOJ F&F probe: “Pattern of serious failures,” 14 employees up for… sanctions: Hot Air

Alert: Fast and Furious IG report drops this afternoon, DOJ IG scheduled to testify tomorrow: Malkin
CRS report: number of able-bodied adults on food stamps doubled after Obama suspended work requirement: Exam
Going, going, gone: Bankrupt green loan recipient Abound Solar goes to auction: Malkin

Climate & Energy

GOP needs to start talking about EPA reform now: Times
Nature editorial dashes alarmist hopes of linking extreme weather events to global warming: Watts
Quote of the week, the hilarious EPIC FAIL of Dana Nuccitelli: Watts

Media

Admitted Socialist Occupies The White House: S&L
Illinois Ground Report: HillBuzz
Conservative Student Denied Entry to Michelle Obama Speech: FNR

Barack Obama? Arrogant and Way the Heck Out of Touch? The Deuce You Say!: Sundries
Obama is Living Large while Americans Suffer: PatriotUpdate
Time for an Intervention: Noonan

World

Leader of Assault on US Consulate in Libya was Released From Gitmo in 2007: Tatler
Let the record of the Benghazi attack show… whatever Obama needs it to show: DC
Sweet Fancy Moses: Administration Still Trying to Refine Libyan Attack Messaging: Ace

Pictures Matter: Wilson
Obama official: Benghazi was a terrorist attack: ForPol
On being nice to Muslims, or not.: Elephant

Obama's Dangerous Campaign: Phillips
Rampaging Islamists: Pipes
Exclusive: Western report - Iran ships arms, personnel to Syria via Iraq: Reuters

Sci-Tech

Apple gets patent for universal batteries, edges closer to long-lasting wireless peripherals: Engadget
U.S.: Laws of war apply to cyber attacks: ArmyTimes
Awesome Persol Shades Your Friends Will Want to Steal: Gizmodo

Cornucopia

Occupy Wednesday: MOTUS
Like Manna For the Agitpropist: iOTW
Lewinsky's Clinton book to reveal his insatiable desire for threesomes and how he trashed Hillary: Daily Mail

Image: Ace o' Spades
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Serve Your Country by Working at the Polls in November

QOTD: "The Political Industrial Complex (made up of Politicians, their Handlers, Lobbyists, the News Media, etc) have not realized that the 2012 election is going to be Part 2 of the 2010 shellacking of the government-knows-best, government-only-solutions party (i.e., Dem0crats). The fact is you cannot screw up indefinitely, throwing away people’s money and destroying their hard earned wealth, without repercussions. Voters will fire failures." --AJ Strata

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Obama Campaign Manager Norman Bates Tweets Uber-Creepy Photo, Sets Blogosphere Afire With Instant Meme Mockery

Did I say Norman Bates? I meant someone who says his name is "Jim Messina" -- and also claims to be the SCOAMF's campaign manager:

Would you let this man within a hundred feet of your children?


Update: Messina is now officially a meme. I made this one. You can make yours here.

Here's a quick one:


Well, this is inappropriate:


Update: The Memeorandum thread has
plenty more
.

Things Democrats Say in Private

My three favorites from a gallery at The Looking Spoon:


You can see The Looking Spoon's Top 20 here.


A Magnificent Photo Gallery of Our President's Exceptionally Busy Schedule This Week

Earlier today, the President met in the White House with a man dressed like a pirate and took time to tweet about it.

Yes, it’s "Talk Like a Pirate Day" which the Preezy of the United Steezy noticed more than the fact that we’re under attack in 20 countries around the world. Oh, and our four Americans in Libya are still dead.


This followed an appearance on The Letterman Show:


And a lavish, $40,000-a-head fundraiser with Jay-Z and Beyonce that featured a $105,000 champagne tower.

...President Barack Obama attended a fundraiser at Jay-Z's 40/40 Club in Manhattan that featured a champagne tower of 350 bottles worth $105,000 - more than twice the median household income of an American family... The tower of $300-a-bottle Armand de Brignac Brut Gold, known as 'Ace of Spades' because of its label, is a permanent fixture at the club.


'It’s floor-to-ceiling gold bottles in the entire space,' a 40/40 representative told the New York Post. 'It’s beautiful—breathtaking. It’s the first thing you see when you walk in.'


...He then compared himself to Jay-Z. 'Jay-Z now knows what my life is like. We both have daughters, and our wives are more popular than we are. So we’ve got a little bond there. It’s hard, but it’s okay.'

Jay-Z is quite the role-model for America's youth, what with his romantic classics "F*** All Nite", N****, I'll throw a Molotov cocktail through your momma's momma's house", South Philly motherf***ers kill at will" and I put the gun to ya, I let it sing you a song"

Oh, and who could forget "Is That Yo Bitch?"

Yes, that's precisely who kids should be seeing the president with. A true American hero.

Meanwhile, as America's embassies suffered 20 attacks and protests throughout the Middle East, the president has extended an invitation to meet Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi -- leader of the Muslim Brotherhood -- in New York.

The Brotherhood's credo was and is, "Allah is our objective; the Quran is our law, the Prophet is our leader; Jihad is our way; and death for the sake of Allah is the highest of our aspirations." Its most famous slogan, used worldwide, is "Islam is the solution."

The Muslim Brotherhood was closely intertwined with the Third Reich during World War II and many of its goals remain aligned: namely, slaughter Jews, Christians and other infidels wherever and whenever possible. Egypt's Jews were run out of the country decades ago and the Coptic Christians are fleeing the Brotherhood's Islamists now.

But in the midst of his busy schedule, President Obama explicitly refused a meeting with Israel's Prime Minister -- who also requested to meet in New York -- as Iran nears completion of its nukes.

For Obama, a pirate, Letterman, Jay-Z, Beyonce, and other fundraisers all receive much higher priority than daily intelligence briefings and the security needs of the nation and our allies.

Because Iran's nuclear weapons are certain to be handed off to its terrorist partners like Hezbollah and smuggled into the United States through the southern border Barack Obama has failed to seal.


I admit it: the videotape probably ended his campaign

I refer, of course, to the most damaging taped admission by a president since the Nixon era.

Let's allow The New York Times to relay the March 2012 incident. An open microphone happened to catch a private conversation between President Obama and Russian President Medvdev regarding America's missile defense shield.

“On all these [security] issues, but particularly missile defense, this can be solved, but it’s important for him to give me space,” Mr. Obama could be heard saying to Mr. Medvedev, according a reporter from ABC News, who was traveling with the president.

“Yeah, I understand,” Mr. Medvedev, the outgoing Russian president, said. “I understand your message about space. Space for you …”


Mr. Obama then elaborated, in a portion of the exchange picked up by the cameras and reproduced by news agencies: “This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility."

“I understand,” Mr. Medvedev said. “I will transmit this information to Vladimir,” he continued, referring to Vladimir V. Putin, who won another term as president in an election this month.

The most transparent administration ever is, as Jim Geraghty observed, sending "[o]ne message to the voters at home, an entirely different message to leaders abroad."

To recap: a resurgent Russian empire -- ruled by a nascent dictator -- has been America's foremost enemy since 1945. And we have a president, who is already hollowing out America's defenses, secretly negotiating with those dictators behind America's back.

That, my friends, is the most shocking video of this election season.

November is coming.


Larwyn's Linx: It's The Facts, Not The Daily News Cycles, That Determine Election Outcomes

Send us tips! Bloggers: install a Larwyn's Linx widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

Nation

It's The Facts, Not The Daily News Cycles, That Determine Elections: Ace
Romney’s “Secret Video” and the Dem Politics of “Squirrel!”: Malkin
Obama loses convention, media bounce: Breitbart

The Greatest Enemy to Liberty: TL in Exile
Media Bias Designed to Save Obama’s Presidency: AIM
A Campaign On The Edge (And it's not the one you think): Ricochet

DOJ + MMFA: Ministry of Truth: RSM
A Golden Opportunity for Mitt Romney: Rush
Barack Obama cannot be serious: LI

Economy

Obama in 1998: "I actually believe in redistribution": FNR
Mitt Hammers Obama Over Redistribution Tape: GWP
Mitt Romney Just Helped Create 52,000 Jobs: NRO

The Gathering Storm: Greenroom
Romney Shines on Cavuto, Flips “47%” Comments Perfectly: Bruce
Clever: Romney Counters "47%" Questions with "Redistribution": Ace

Scandal Central

Emails reveal DOJ regularly enlists Media Matters to spin press: DC
Sheldon Adelson Under Attack By Obama Campaign and Media: RWN
Twenty-eight years later, it’s finally 1984: Greenroom

Climate & Energy

Good News: Another Coal Mining Company Slashing 1,200 Jobs: AllAm
Levin: If You Think The 'Broccoli Mandate' Can't Happen, Just Try To Buy Gas Under EPA's New Rule: CNS
Is the EPA superagency bigger than the President and Congress?: NetRight

Media

Mitt: Please Read and Memorize: Rush
If the tape doesn’t knock Romney out, the media narrative is toast: LI
Boom! James O’Keefe highlights media hypocrisy over hidden camera videos of Romney: Twitchy

STFU and Let's Get This Done!: Alexa Shrugged
Treat the Press as Enemy Collaborators: RS
Shhh! Top-secret Rasmussen poll shows Romney still up by 2: Twitchy

An October Surprise Sprung Early?: Rush
Arrest The Los Angeles Times Editors When I Riot: Ricochet
Bigoted Anti-Islam filmmaker's name revealed: Bill Maher: Cube

The 25 Most Obnoxious Quotes From Barack Obama: Hawkins
In a Perfect World...: Cube
Book: Scalia was 'furious' at Roberts vote on healthcare law: Hill

World

White House Negotiating Release of World Trade Center Bomber: RS
Not-So-Happy Hour: 52nd Thwarted Terror Plot Targets Chicago Bar: Foundry
Ben Stein: Hillary Clinton Should Resign: Politico

Mitt Romney Tells the Truth, Media Recoils in Horror: Jawa
Did Iran launch a cyberattack against a major financial institution?: Beacon
A Reminder of Who Israel Is, What They Have Done In The Past, What They Are Capable Of Today: MagNote

Sci-Tech

Two men admit to $10 million hacking spree on Subway sandwich shops: Ars Technica
AT&T will be slapped with net neutrality complaint over FaceTime blocking: GigaOm
The emerging Obamacare truth is disarray: AEI

Cornucopia

Do Straight People Pick Up on All the Gay Jokes that Drudge Report Makes at O's Expense?: HillBuzz
'The Gospel of Jesus's Wife': NYT
$7 Million In Gold Bars Found In Reclusive Man’s Home Month After He Died: CBS Las Vegas

Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: America's Comeback Team

QOTD: Mitt Romney is running against Barack Obama.

But Barack Obama is running against Mitt Romney, and against a domestic economy in almost existential peril and from an Arab world sinking into chaos and darkness from Algiers to Aleppo, and from two of the world's economic superpowers about to start a hot war in the Pacific and from his “good war” in Afghanistan warming up to become a genocide at the hands of the Taliban as American troops inevitably withdraw, their decade of sacrifice and heroism squandered.

Obama is running against all those glittering, gorgeous promises of economic miracles and civic harmony from 2008, and of powerful stimulus programs that were guaranteed to generate millions of green jobs.

He's running against the grim reality of the real world, foreign and domestic." --Rick Wilson