Mitt-picking: Choosing Condi Rice a game changer
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This might make things interesting.flickr/darthdowney; flickr/Gage Skidmore
By Juan Williams
Washington's favorite gossip game– speculating about the vice presidential pick– now gets serious.
Now that Mitt Romney has a lock on the GOP's 2012 presidential nomination, his next step is to introduce himself to America as a general election candidate. It will be tough. He begins with negative favorability ratings– especially compared to President Obama.
The ABC News/Washington Post poll shows 47 percent of Americans holding an unfavorable opinion of Romney with just 35 percent viewing him favorably. Obama has a 21-point advantage with a 56 percent favorability rating.
Romney is fighting the image created over the primary campaign in which he came across as an out-of-touch rich guy, pandering to the right wing by flip-flopping on the moderate Republican positions he held as governor of Massachusetts.
Romney also has to flip the script on the perception that he is "Your Father's Oldsmobile": a patrician, white Republican male with no sense of the changing racial make-up of America or the reality that women are now power players in the workplace and in politics.
The biggest move he can make to change his image is via an eye-catching pick for the number two slot on the presidential ticket.
A recent CNN/ORC poll asked Republicans and Republican-leaning independents to pick their preference for Romney's running mate. At the top was a surprise choice: Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. She attracted 26 percent support. Rick Santorum won second place with 21 percent support. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio were tied for third place with 14 percent each. At the meeting of state GOP chairmen in Arizona recently half of them told a National Journal reporter they wanted Romney to pick Rice.
Rice would be a political game changer for the 2012 race.
Yes, she would be the first African American woman to be on a major party's presidential ticket, at a time when the GOP is losing ground with minority and female voters.
But she is more than that because– unlike some other prospects– her selection can never be dismissed as racial tokenism. She is an experienced political player who has scars from previous battles; former Vice President Dick Cheney and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld are still taking shots at her in their latest books.
And her expertise on foreign policy, as a former secretary of state, would compensate for Romney's lack of international experience. As a governor and a businessman, Romney dealt almost exclusively with domestic policy.
Keep in mind, Rice has a strong political spine. She flew in the face of anti-immigrant fervor from the GOP right wing recently by standing up for immigrants. She opposed individual states, beginning with Arizona, passing laws to increase pursuit of illegal immigrants. That position– politically daring in the modern-day GOP– will be a big help as the Romney campaign tries to win over Latino voters.
There is another critical reason why Romney should pick Rice. Over the last few months, she has partnered with Joel Klein, the former chancellor of the New York City public school system, to draw attention to the crisis in American public education. They co-chaired a Council on Foreign Relations panel that examined the failure of public education as a threat to America's national security.
They found that 75 percent of American young adults do not qualify to serve in the military because they have criminal records, are physically unfit or– the biggest reason– have inadequate levels of education. One out of every four American students fails to get the high school diploma needed to join the military.
This includes about half of the nation's black and Hispanic students, who drop out of high school. Even more disturbing is the report's finding that 30 percent of the young people graduating from America's high schools don't do well enough in math, science and English on the aptitude test to serve in the military.
The report also screamed out that the U.S. State Department is unable to find enough foreign-language speakers to serve as interpreters and translators.
"The education crisis may well be the greatest threat to our national security," Rice explained at a recent speech before the Heritage Foundation in Washington. "The crisis in K-12 is producing unemployable people who will ultimately be on the dole because they will have nowhere else to go."
In his election night speech in New Hampshire, Romney said he wanted to "stop the unfairness of urban children being denied access to the good schools of their choice."
Rice has exactly the right message to jump start the education debate.
By putting Rice on the ticket, Romney could reform his image and give the education reform movement a boost. And win or lose in November, he will have created a political legacy for himself and done his country a great service.
~
The ABC News/Washington Post poll shows 47 percent of Americans holding an unfavorable opinion of Romney with just 35 percent viewing him favorably. Obama has a 21-point advantage with a 56 percent favorability rating.
Romney is fighting the image created over the primary campaign in which he came across as an out-of-touch rich guy, pandering to the right wing by flip-flopping on the moderate Republican positions he held as governor of Massachusetts.
Romney also has to flip the script on the perception that he is "Your Father's Oldsmobile": a patrician, white Republican male with no sense of the changing racial make-up of America or the reality that women are now power players in the workplace and in politics.
The biggest move he can make to change his image is via an eye-catching pick for the number two slot on the presidential ticket.
A recent CNN/ORC poll asked Republicans and Republican-leaning independents to pick their preference for Romney's running mate. At the top was a surprise choice: Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. She attracted 26 percent support. Rick Santorum won second place with 21 percent support. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio were tied for third place with 14 percent each. At the meeting of state GOP chairmen in Arizona recently half of them told a National Journal reporter they wanted Romney to pick Rice.
Rice would be a political game changer for the 2012 race.
Yes, she would be the first African American woman to be on a major party's presidential ticket, at a time when the GOP is losing ground with minority and female voters.
But she is more than that because– unlike some other prospects– her selection can never be dismissed as racial tokenism. She is an experienced political player who has scars from previous battles; former Vice President Dick Cheney and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld are still taking shots at her in their latest books.
And her expertise on foreign policy, as a former secretary of state, would compensate for Romney's lack of international experience. As a governor and a businessman, Romney dealt almost exclusively with domestic policy.
Keep in mind, Rice has a strong political spine. She flew in the face of anti-immigrant fervor from the GOP right wing recently by standing up for immigrants. She opposed individual states, beginning with Arizona, passing laws to increase pursuit of illegal immigrants. That position– politically daring in the modern-day GOP– will be a big help as the Romney campaign tries to win over Latino voters.
There is another critical reason why Romney should pick Rice. Over the last few months, she has partnered with Joel Klein, the former chancellor of the New York City public school system, to draw attention to the crisis in American public education. They co-chaired a Council on Foreign Relations panel that examined the failure of public education as a threat to America's national security.
They found that 75 percent of American young adults do not qualify to serve in the military because they have criminal records, are physically unfit or– the biggest reason– have inadequate levels of education. One out of every four American students fails to get the high school diploma needed to join the military.
This includes about half of the nation's black and Hispanic students, who drop out of high school. Even more disturbing is the report's finding that 30 percent of the young people graduating from America's high schools don't do well enough in math, science and English on the aptitude test to serve in the military.
The report also screamed out that the U.S. State Department is unable to find enough foreign-language speakers to serve as interpreters and translators.
"The education crisis may well be the greatest threat to our national security," Rice explained at a recent speech before the Heritage Foundation in Washington. "The crisis in K-12 is producing unemployable people who will ultimately be on the dole because they will have nowhere else to go."
In his election night speech in New Hampshire, Romney said he wanted to "stop the unfairness of urban children being denied access to the good schools of their choice."
Rice has exactly the right message to jump start the education debate.
By putting Rice on the ticket, Romney could reform his image and give the education reform movement a boost. And win or lose in November, he will have created a political legacy for himself and done his country a great service.
~
Fox News political analyst Juan Williams serves has been the senior national correspondent for National Public Radio as well as author of the bestseller "Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965." This essay from the Featurewell service originally appeared in the Washington newspaper called The Hill.
Read more on: Condoleezza RiceMitt Romney
40 comments
"They found that 75 percent of American young adults do not qualify to serve in the military because they have criminal records, are physically unfit or– the biggest reason– have inadequate levels of education. One out of every four American students fails to get the high school diploma needed to join the military."
Is this statement true? If so the USA has grave problems. And after all that money being spent on education!
It used to be shameful to be ignorant.. now they give you a trophy just for showing up.
People who drop out of school should be inelgible for any wefare until age 25 or secure a diploma or GED.
Additionnly anyone who goes to jail should have to serve the entire sentence if they don't have a diploma (but the jails should have manadatory schooling avialable)
Part of the "entitlment" mentality of America is that people feel "entitled" to ignore their civic duty to be self sufficent. We provide a fre education, the least they can do is take advantage of it.
Good comment Mr Marshall. Reform is required. The school boards want more money but money wont help the problems created by the welfare state. The economics of poverty has enslaved the youth to the Democratic Party Machine.
@ Observer - I can state the opposite. the Republican Party Machine has so increased the number suffering poverty as to overwhelm our economics. most individuals would reach for the hand offering assistance of any kind rather than the hand ignoring you, or pushing you down.
I think Mr. Marshall's suggestions deserve discussion. but blaming the problems on one Party is why we continue to have no solutions to our problems. when a person (or delegate) stands with hands crossed stating things will only be done his/her way it's little different than a toddler repeatedly saying, "no, mine!". try that with your husband/wife/sibling and see if you solve anything.
Her work with the public school systems would be the only good thing about "Condi"
Her foreign policy credentials are a joke, she was on the war bandwagon with the rest of the "weapons of mass distraction" Bush cronies. Those wars drained resources and funding that could have helped aid our collapsed public school infrastructure.
And we are no safer, only weaker.
Remember this, we have the watches but Al Qaeda has the time!!!!
Republicans, Libertarians and Democrats all have a lot in common but there are substantial differences. Democrats definitely own the welfare state. Deny it if your embarrassed.
Condi, She is an attractive, highly accomplished black, woman and former Secretary of State. Who the hell are you to even evaluate her accomplishments. She has earned respect and trust as an honest individual.
A voter
Oh, hey Voter. Which welfare state do the Republicans own? Come on now..... you and I know there are two welfare states and if we do the math we will find that the Republicans own the more costly one.
Let's stop arguing and sing the middle class theme song, come on everyone it goes like this, "I'm a schmuck, your a schmuck, wouldnt you like to be a schmuck toooooooooooo."
Well lets see.
Democrats have the governmental wellfare for banks and too big to fail businesses. Ask Obama where his donations come from, or Geithner.
Democrats have the Department of Education
Democrats have Fannie Mae, Freddy Mac and Sally May too.
Democrats have the SnAP CARDS
Democrats have the Federal Reserve Bank
Maybe Republicans have the defense department? Thats big. But is it part of the welfare state?
Come on taxpayers, help out here.
This "essay" by Juan Williams is a prime example of how deteriorated his "thinking" has become, and why he now resides at Fox fake news.
The Council on Foreign Relations education “report” consists of a very healthy dose of tripe. Indeed, what can we expect, if the panel is headed by Joel Klein and Condaleezza Rice?
Joel Klein, one of the co-chairs of the report, perpetrates and perpetuates the myth that public education is in “crisis,” and without serious “reform” “the U.S. economy will continue to suffer.”
The “reform” pushed by Klein (and the Council report) is to impose the “business model” on public schools. This is the same “model” that led to big budget deficits, a ballooned national debt and a broken economy. Klein advocates more testing, merit pay through "value-added" evaluations, more charter schools and vouchers as “innovative” reforms. There is little or no research to support any of them.
Klein blames the current economic quagmire on public education. He writes that we used to “have a successful middle class,” but “that’s changed markedly since 1980.” Klein says “we’re rapidly moving toward two America’s –– a wealthy elite and an increasingly large underclass that lacks the skills to succeed.” His answer to the problem? The market, since “markets impose accountability.”
Klein never makes any mention whatsoever, as he blames schools and teachers, of the supply-side economic policies pushed by conservative presidents, politicians and businessmen that are directly responsible for big budget deficits, millions of job losses, the most severe income stratification in the developed world, and our unsustainable national debt. He calls for “radical reform” of public education (more tests, merit pay, vouchers, etc), but says not one word about reforming the banks, and derivatives trading, and skewed tax system, and regulatory enforcement that are sorely needed.
Condaleezza Rice was George W. Bush’s national security director before 9/11 occurred and during the launching of the war in Iraq, which she favored and supported. Rice helped to sell the American public the big lie of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, warning infamously that “ we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud." Journalists who covered her reported that she “made public claims that she knew to be false.”
There’s little doubt but that Rice (and her colleagues) ignored repeated warnings about imminent terrorist threats. After 9/11, she said (repeatedly) that no one could have predicted that planes might be used as weapons, despite the fact that there were at least a dozen documented warnings of it.
Initially, until public pressure forced the Bush administration to relent, Rice refused to testify before the 9/11 Commission. When she did, it wasn’t pretty. She wiggles and squirms, and tries to obfuscate and evade answering questions about the Presidential Daily Briefing (PDB) of August 6, 2001. That PDB was titled “Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US” and warned that Bin Ladin was “determined...to conduct terrorist attacks in the US,” that he “prepares years in advance and is not deterred by setbacks.” The memo noted “patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks,” and it warned that a group of “Bin Ladin’s supporters was in the US planning attacks with explosives.”
Now just imagine that the physical and human dimensions of the Twin Towers and Pentagon and planes were converted into schools and schoolchildren. Would anyone seriously think that there had not been ample warning of an impending disaster? Would anyone think that any of those involved in ignoring the threat should NOT be held accountable? What Rice said in private testimony to the 9/11 Commission has not been declassified (it should be...there are likely some real “whoppers” in there). What she said in public testimony can be seen below. It ain’t pretty.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ri1i6nAGOE
The Aug. 6, 2001 PDB is here:
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB116/index.htm
We know enough about the two people (Klein and Rice) who chaired the Council of Foreign Relations education task force to know that what it reports isn't worth much, if anything.
Finally had to read down to the last post here by democracy to find a proper debunking of Williams' dumb idea . Rice would be a complete disaster for the Republican ticket . Along with her incompetance,and untruthfulness she has the major flaw of no experience as a campaigning politician . Experminting with an untested political person by running her for VP is just a bone headed gimmick that would guarantee failure. Romney needs someone who has ran previously for high office and won . Huckabee,the Govs of Ohio or Virginia are the qualified type of candidates Romney needs to pick from .
And as National Security Advisor she ordered people tortured. She chaired the meeting that introduced torture to American detention policies. She takes credit for personally suggesting they adopt SERE program techniques like waterboarding. Even after her Counsellor Phillip Zelikow advised with a carefully reasoned legal memo that it is torture and we need to stop doing it,Rice still insisted she supports torture. Zelikow is here in Charlottesville--go ahead, ask him what happened to his memo.
When I ran the Outfit in Chicago , things were different.
You did your job, you did it right, and there was more than enough
For you and your family.
Just reading the last few comments by these cafones Is painful.
On and on with their self serving nonsense.
Torture...please...just reading some of those comments is torture.
Better they should have regular sex, makes everything else in life better.
Less to whine and complain about.
Remind me of people who would knock on my door ...only when they needed me of course.
"Mr. Giancana.....that kid keeps beating up my son at school....please help us"
"Mr. Giancana ...my wife was disrespected in the street yesterday....that's not right
...and my favorite...
"Mr Giancana , you were right my wife Angie didn't understand how expensive the new Caddy
would be ...who can we see about a quick loan...there're gonna take the car...."
Behind my back....a very different story ...no respect...
Who takes these people seriously?
Are they men of honor ...?
I am a simple man....just want to have a little citterio sausage and escarole .
Only so much nonsense I can take.
I think its comical how people who criticize the president are accused of being racist, yet when the left criticizes people of color in the republican party, that is never raised. Things like the idiocy of referring to Rice and the alleged "torture" issue, yet Obama continues to spike the football for getting Bin Laden due at least in part from information obtained USING THESE EXACT SAME PRACTICES!!! There's similar hypocrisy on the right also. I'm tired of all of it. Very few politicians want to solve problems of our country---its all posturing for political advantage and power.
I thought you might find this interesting, -- maybe even SICKENING!
The National Association of Realtors is all over this and working to get it repealed, -- before it takes effect. But, I am very pleased we aren't the only ones who know about this ploy to steal billions from unsuspecting homeowners. How many realtors do you think will vote Democratic in 2012?
Did you know that if you sell your house after 2012 you will pay a 3.8% sales tax on it? That's $3,800 on a $100,000 home, etc. When did this happen? It's in the health care bill, -- and it goes into effect in 2013. Why 2013? Could it be so that it doesn’t come to light until after the 2012 elections? So, this is ‘change you can believe in’?
Under the new health care bill all real estate transactions will be subject to a 3.8% sales tax.
If you sell a $400,000 home, there will be a $15,200 tax. This bill is set to screw the retiring generation, -- who often downsize their homes. Does this make your November, 2012 vote more important?
Oh, you weren't aware that this was in the ObamaCare bill? Guess what; you aren't alone! There are more than a few members of Congress that weren't aware of it either.
Rice has more intelligence and courage in here little finger that Obama and Biden put together.
The matrix has you.
It is one thing to be accused of being out of touch because you are "rich guy"..... it is quite another to actually be out of touch because you don't
have a clue......
@ WhoaNelly
Condaleezza Rice was George W. Bush’s national security director before 9/11 occurred and during the launching of the war in Iraq, which she favored and supported. Rice helped to sell the American public the big lie of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, warning infamously that “ we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud." Journalists who covered her reported that she “made public claims that she knew to be false.”
There’s little doubt but that Rice (and her colleagues) ignored repeated warnings about imminent terrorist threats. After 9/11, she said (repeatedly) that no one could have predicted that planes might be used as weapons, despite the fact that there were at least a dozen documented warnings of it.
Initially, until public pressure forced the Bush administration to relent, Rice refused to testify before the 9/11 Commission. When she did, it wasn’t pretty. She wiggles and squirms, and tries to obfuscate and evade answering questions about the Presidential Daily Briefing (PDB) of August 6, 2001. That PDB was titled “Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US” and warned that Bin Ladin was “determined...to conduct terrorist attacks in the US,” that he “prepares years in advance and is not deterred by setbacks.” The memo noted “patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks,” and it warned that a group of “Bin Ladin’s supporters was in the US planning attacks with explosives.”
What Rice said in private testimony to the 9/11 Commission has not been declassified (it should be...there are likely some real “whoppers” in there). What she said in public testimony can be seen below. It ain’t pretty.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ri1i6nAGOE
@Voter (is that you County Farmer?)
FactCheck.org has already debunked this nonsense:
"We’ve been flooded with queries about this one ever since the health care bill became law. At the last minute, Democratic lawmakers decided on a new 3.8 percent tax on the net investment income of high-income persons. But the claim that this would amount to a $15,200 tax on the sale of a typical $400,000 home is utterly false."
"The truth is that only a tiny percentage of home sellers will pay the tax. First of all, only those with incomes over $200,000 a year ($250,000 for married couples filing jointly) will be subject to it. And even for those who have such high incomes, the tax still won’t apply to the first $250,000 on profits from the sale of a personal residence — or to the first $500,000 in the case of a married couple selling their home."
"The Joint Committee on Taxation, the group of nonpartisan tax experts that Congress relies on to analyze tax proposals, underscores this in a footnote on page 135 of its report on the bill. The note states: 'Gross income does not include … excluded gain from the sale of a principal residence'."
"And just to be sure, we checked with William Ahern, director of policy and communications for the nonprofit, pro-business Tax Foundation. 'Some home sales would see a tax increase under this bill, Ahern told us, 'but it would have to be a second home or a principal residence generating [a gain of] more than $250,000 ($500,000 for a couple)'."
You can easily look this up. Easily.
Or, for more, see "The flood of falsehoods about the health care law":
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2012/mar/21/health-care-...
@ WhoaNelly and Voter
P.S. It can hardly be called "courage" to ignore repeated warnings about terrorist threats, lie about negligent behavior, start a war based on trumped-up falsified "intelligence" against a country that had nothing to do with 9/11 and possessed no weapons of mass destruction, and refuse to pay for it.
The claim that the Affordable Care Act imposes a "tax" on all home sales came from an Internet email that has circulated rampantly on conservative websites. According to the Palm Beach Post,
"The email's original source appears to be an April 2010 blog post on www.gop.gov, which describes itself as 'the website of the Republican majority in Congress'."
Republicans today seem to specialize in lying. Take just two examples. Weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Trickle-down economics. Our nation has already paid a terrible price for both. When will Republicans ditch the hypocrisy (and lying), take some personal responsibility for their failures, and make a commitment to honest discussions based on factual information?
Democracy...you're reputation precedes you. You rail constantly about anything republican. You're agenda is quite apparent, and it's getting old. My statement was in regards to her intelligence as compared to the bozo's presently in the white house. Why don't you give us one of your exposé’s on Obama and his socialist connections, or his Islamic connections, or his energy policies that will eventually bankrupt us altogether....? Condi Rice won’t bow down to Saudi kings.
Liberals, on the other hand don't see all of America as one. They pit the rich against the poor, black against white, working women against homemakers all in the name of votes to stay in power. The liberal policies for the last 40 years have brought this country to its knees, created more poverty, strangled industry and are reducing America to a nanny state bent on destruction. We have a president who blames everything and everybody but himself for his own failed policies. We have a vice-president who couldn’t make a profit running a lemon aid stand and is the laughing stock on the world stage. Obama and his cronies need to go before we are reduced to a third world nation with the majority of our population dependant on government handouts.
Whoa there WhoaNelly...go back on your meds. Please.
Your latest rant is, once again, without foundation and substance. But that's not unusual.
I'll simply cite two instances of your unsubstantiated blather.
First, you write this gem: "Why don't you give us one of your exposé’s on Obama and his socialist connections, or his Islamic connections, or his energy policies that will eventually bankrupt us altogether....?"
You've spent far too much time trolling right-wing websites and watching Fox fake news. Since YOU wrote this tripe, perhaps you could provide readers with ONE piece of factual information that details the president's "socialist connections," or that lays bare his "Islamic connections," or that sheds light on how "his energy policies" are going to "bankrupt us."
Then you pen this pearl of lunacy: "The liberal policies for the last 40 years have brought this country to its knees, created more poverty, strangled industry and are reducing America to a nanny state bent on destruction."
Obviously you fail to acknowledge –– as most conservatives do –– that the vast majority of debt piled up over the last thirty years took place under Republican presidents (Reagan, Bush1, Bush2) pursuing supply-side economic policies that benefitted the rich (and corporations) but eviscerated the standard of living for tens of millions of others. It was only under Bill Clinton that the economy provided prosperity for most Americans, and budgets were balanced (multiple times). Clinton actually shrank the size of the federal government, and he raised taxes on the wealthy without one single vote from Republicans in Congress (look it up). They claimed the tax increase would "ruin" the economy. They lied. You cannot escape it, WhoaNelly. You can't hide. The Republican Party today worships the supply-side policy of "the proliferation of the rich" based on "cutting upper-bracket incomes." It is that policy that broke the economy. It is an utter failure.
As Rex Nutting reported at MarketWatch recently, "Almost everyone believes that Obama has presided over a massive increase in federal spending, an “inferno” of spending that threatens our jobs, our businesses and our children’s future. Even Democrats seem to think it’s true. But it didn’t happen."
Nutting continues: "Over Obama’s four budget years, federal spending is on track to rise from $3.52 trillion to $3.58 trillion, an annualized increase of just 0.4%...What people forget (or never knew) is that the first year of every presidential term starts with a budget approved by the previous administration and Congress. The president only begins to shape the budget in his second year. It takes time to develop a budget and steer it through Congress — especially in these days of congressional gridlock. The 2009 fiscal year, which Republicans count as part of Obama’s legacy, began four months before Obama moved into the White House. The major spending decisions in the 2009 fiscal year were made by George W. Bush and the previous Congress...spending under Obama grew by about $200 billion over four years, amounting to a 1.4% annualized increase. After adjusting for inflation, spending under Obama is falling at a 1.4% annual pace — the first decline in real spending since the early 1970s, when Richard Nixon was retreating from the quagmire in Vietnam."
Now, I know you are terrified of facts, but I challenge you to read the article. I suspect that even you can understand the CBO-based charts.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/obama-spending-binge-never-happened-201...
P.S. Did you read the PDB of August 6, 2001? Did you watch Rice's testy testimony to the 9/11 commission? Are you ready to concede that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq?
All this banter is fascinating, divide and conquer is working on the small minds in america.
@ skin
All of us should be committed to equality and freedoms and justice for all citizens, should we not?
All of us should be dedicated to Abraham Lincoln's proposition of a government "of the people, by the people, for the people," don't you agree?
@ Democracy, don't take my word for these accusations, reading his book "Dreams of My Father" would be a good start for you.
@democracy "What people forget (or never knew) is that the first year of every presidential term starts with a budget approved by the previous administration and Congress. The president only begins to shape the budget in his second year. It takes time to develop a budget and steer it through Congress"
Well Obama has not been successful in guiding any budget through congress. It has been years since any compromise was agreed to. He just cannot get it done.
After considering democracy's arguments I definitely dislike Obama. Further I bet "democracy" is a cover name for one of the wanna-be Socialists Elite. You know socialism for everyone but he wants to be more than comfortable at the top due to his political position.
@ WhoaNelly: I repeat, since Since YOU wrote all the tripe in comments above, perhaps you could provide readers with ONE piece of factual information that details the president's "socialist connections," or that lays bare his "Islamic connections," or that sheds light on how "his energy policies" are going to "bankrupt us."
C'mon. Please back up your rhetoric with facts.
@ Voter (is that you County Farmer?): You don't seem to like facts any better than WhoaNelly. Did you read the MarketWatch (owned by Dow Jones) piece? And aren't YOU the very same commenter that posted (above) the nonsense about the Affordable Care Act's secret tax on home sales, a lie that originated with the Republican party?
@ WhoaNelly and Voter: I think that all of us should be committed to equality and freedoms and justice for all citizens. I believe in Abraham Lincoln's proposition of a government "of the people, by the people, for the people."
Your comments make it clear that the two of you do not. Perhaps you'll explain.
@ democracy You accuse me of things that are not true. You have no facts. Speaking of TRIPE, thats all you have.
Get real or get lost.
@ Democracy, I agree wholeheartedly with those quotes.
I would just like to see more voters taking in more information about this world than what comes out of Rush Limburger's yap. Or the crap that is spewed out by the popular internet.
It seems that some americans are so easily misled by the media when they look at one or two sources of information about an issue. Americans should look not only at the issues in america but how american policies and culture affect the rest of the world.
@ Voter
1. Ethanol
2. Medicare Advantage
Just two for starters, you wrap your head around those two and you will see where i'm comming from.
I used the wrong comparison when I indicated the two welfare states were divided between Democratic policy (poor) and Republican policy (rich).
There is really no difference between the two parties, it's all smoke and mirrors, the average Joe does not keep track of congressional voting records.
There's only a difference between someone who has access to public officials and someone who does not.
He needs someone from the center like Olympia Snow of Maine rather than Santorum etc.
But who would make the best VP choice for Romney ? Definately not Rice , she is a non starter . This Williams fellow is just creating mischief to suggest her or he is very poor at assesing politics . Who should Mitt pick to give him the best chance at getting elected ?
Olympia is retiring and she doesn't inspire anyway . Nice lady but . Doesn't Mitt need a pleasant conservative like Huckabee ,Rubio , Virginia Gov, N.J. Gov , or the Ohio Gov. that will ingnite the conservative base and church types .Mitt himself is moderate enough for the ticket balance .
@skin...good point. People who disregard Fox news and only get their daily news from the mainstream sources, miss allot of stories that are relevant to what's going on in the world. I watch them all and I am amazed at how the big three will ignore a big story for days because it does not fit their agenda.
If every voter in America would have read Obama's 2 books "The Audacity of Hope" and "Dreams of my Father" before the last election, he would not be our president now. "Spread the wealth around" was not just a catchy phrase of his; it is his primary agenda in life.
This president has no previous experience in anything; he got himself elected by the gift of gab. The problem he has now is that he has a record, and it is a dismal record. He can’t run on that so this election will be all about tearing down his opponent much in the same manner that “democracy” tears down posters here and elsewhere.
@ WhoaNelli
The information you site is but a source, correct or not it is just one source of info.
Your opinion is to be valued and moreso if an informed opinion.
Obama and the democratic party are supposed to be just one part of the beauty of a democracy. Problem is, both parties members are in lockstep with one another and neither will yeild to the other parties good ideas. And believe it or not both parties do have good ideas.
They wont yield because the money behind each member of congress is directing which way things will go.
The american people deserve a govt that will act with the majority opinion in mind and/ or the best interests of the country as a whole.
I fear this will never happen except by armed force.
To quote T.J.
"The tree of liberty should be watered from time to time by the blood of patriots and tyrants"
Skin...I with ya' buddy. I can't see government ever being reduced to what it should be in my lifetime..
BTW, I do read and watch many sources, I think I am probably better educated in regards to politics than your average voter. The main stream media DOES have an agenda, they don't even really try to hide it anymore.
Hometown boy - Donald yrum
Hometown boy- Donald - trumps Romney on his big day
Will he be the VP ?
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/30/us/politics/romney-finds-himself-upsta...