20 February, 2009

Forget 100 Days – How’s The President Doing After 30?

It’s 30 days into the administration of President Barack Obama (D-USA). Unless you’re the most ardent of Obama fans, you’d be hard pressed to claim that his Presidency so far is anything other than a complete disaster.

To wit, as I noted in brief earlier:

  • “Hope and Change” has given way to “politics as usual”. The biggest spending bill ever has passed with virtually no bipartisan support. Now, I think if I were trying to convince the American people to spend that much money, I would try a little harder to convince all of the American people, not just those on the left. In addition, the bill was rushed through with a proper review by Congress or the American public.
  • His Cabinet appointments have been a joke:
    • Bill Richardson (D-NM) withdrew his nomination for Secretary of Commerce after his alleged involvement in a pay-to-play scandal was revealed.
    • Tom Daschle (D-SD) withdrew his nomination for Secretary of HHS after it was revealed he failed to pay taxes.
    • Nancy Keillefer withdrew her nomination as Obama’s Chief Performance Officer after it was revealed that she also failed to pay her taxes.
    • Timothy Geithner was confirmed to the position of Secretary of Treasury despite not paying his taxes.
    • Judd Gregg (R-NH) withdrew his nomination for Secretary of Commerce because of fundamental disagreements with Obama.
  • The candidate who campaigned on transparency has none.
  • His White House has attempted to take over the 2010 census
  • The Dow closed at its lowest level in 6 years.
  • The process of finding a replacement for his Senate seat has been a joke. Now the person who was finally appointed may have to resign after corruption charges start to stick.

Clearly this is a man who was not prepared for the job he he asked the American public to give him. We knew that last year, but gave it to him anyway. “Does experience really matter?” we asked. Now we know the answer.

19 February, 2009

Ok RNC, You Were Right…

…but you’re still not getting my money.

For most of this decade, I have bemoaned how the Republicans in Washington had lost their way. They’d forgotten the principles that had gotten them elected, mainly small and limited government.

As a result, I became one of the many unenthused conservative voters in 2006 and 2008. The RNC warned me that I still needed to vote and support Republican candidates because “the Democrats are worse”.

I believed they were probably right, but how much worse could they be? I couldn’t keep on rewarding bad behavior.

29 days into the Barack Obama (D-USA) administration I know the answer, and it’s worse than I ever imagined. Worse than I ever thought possible.

29 days into the Obama administration, and already I long for the days of 2004 with Bush and the Republican Congress.

Ok, RNC, I’m sorry I doubted you. The Democrats are far worse. And I now reserve the right to say “tax and spend Democrats” for the rest of my life without worry about the common reprisal of “Republicans can not criticize on fiscal discipline”.

A Guide to Republican Reform Rhetoric

Jon Henke at TheNextRight has posted this guide to Republican reform rhetoric

  1. [BAD] Bargaining: "If you return us to power, we'll stop the Democrats! And behave better!"
  2. [INADEQUATE] Apology: "We've learned our lesson"; "We lost our way."; "We need to return to principles."; "You can tell we've learned because we're voting against Democrats!"
  3. [GOOD] Repentance: "I was wrong to [fill in the blank with specific votes, decisions and opinions], because [fill in blank with specific reason] and I pledge not to do that again."
  4. [BETTER] Acceptance: "You have absolutely no reason, none, to trust our word or our actions at this point." - RNC Chairman Michael Steele, acknowledging the Republican Party's failures, lack of credibility and responsibility for same.
  5. [BEST] Reform: "We abused the power we were given, and we should not be trusted with the majority again until we have taken steps to reform ourselves. To that end, we are unilaterally adopting transparency, ethics and procedural rules for the Congressional Republican Caucuses. What's more, the RNC, NRSC and NRCC are adopting strict accounting rules to protect donations and expenditures, and strict communications accountability rules, including disclosure of evidence for independent review and verification, that will ensure the integrity and accuracy of any message we communicate to the public. We hope the Democrats will join us in these reforms, but we will not wait for them to act before we get our own house in order."

Unfortunately, all I keep seeing is the first. This is what the RNC has been using on me for the last two years every time they call.

Until we see more of the last two, a lot more, Republicans will have an uphill climb. Fortunately for them, and unfortunately for us, Democrats seem hell-bent on giving back Congressional control to the undeserving. More on that to come.

Boortz on Change You can Believe IN

As seen here, and quoted pretty much in its entirety.

  • The Dow at a 10-year low.
  • A tax cheat running the IRS
  • Another tax cheat as the Chief of Staff
  • A trillion-dollar plus federal deficit
  • Over one-half of voters relieved of any federal tax liability
  • Government mandated limits on executive compensation
  • Three failed attempts and still no Commerce Secretary
  • Tom Daschle rides his free limo into the sunset - after paying taxes he evaded.
  • The White House performance czar turns out to be a tax cheat also
  • Lobbyists hired to work for the Obama Administration
  • The census gets politicized
  • Double government spending in one year
  • The word "freedom" fades into obscurity
  • Increasing home loan mortgage rates across the board
  • Millions of Americans made dependent on government
  • Moving unionization-by-intimidation forward
  • Welfare checks become "tax cuts."
  • Illegal aliens free to work on taxpayer-funded "stimulus" projects
  • Welfare reform reversed, states ordered to increase welfare roles
  • Move to silence critical talk radio shows
  • Selling Senate seats
  • Obama books in religious sections of book stores
  • More government workers, not private sector jobs
  • A government bureaucracy to intrude on doctor/patient relationships
  • Stage set for medical services rationing
  • Annual welfare checks for middle income families