Author: COB6

There’s been a lot of noise on the right (rightfully so) about the president voting present on Afghanistan, failing to provide anything close to his own version of healthcare reform, ACORN etc., but finding time to jet off to Europe to lobby for his hometown which is the heaven of all political corruption.

With Oprah no less.

President Obama will defy his political enemies and a chorus of protest from Chicago to fly to Denmark tonight in a last-ditch bid for the Olympics that his aides have likened to the dramatic early stages of his campaign for the White House.

In five hours on the ground in Copenhagen, he will join his wife and the talk-show host Oprah Winfrey — who made her career breakthrough in Chicago — for the city’s final 45-minute presentation to the International Olympic Committee (IOC). He will answer questions and attempt to charm enough IOC members to bring home America’s second summer Games in 20 years. In the process, he will risk substantial political capital on a vote by an unpredictable group that one disgruntled Chicago columnist ridiculed as “a posse of international sports influence peddlers”.

The question is who will turn out to be correct; me or Sarkozy?

Sarkozy reportedly views Obama as Naïve and egotistical:

I have a friend, one friend who is close to Sarkozy and another who is a member of France’s external intelligence agency. And they both say that Sarkozy thinks that President Obama is incredibly naive and grossly egotistical, so egotistical that no one can dent his naiveté.

If Sarkozy is correct Obama will fail on his last minute thrust to save the Olympic games for his criminal cronies in Chicago. It will show that the IOC played him for a ton of photo ops and some celebrity theater only to turn and give the games to Brazil or Argentina…and they will laugh as they hang the photos of themselves with “The One” in their offices. No idea what they will do with the photos with Oprah and Obama’s Klingon war bride.

I’m not totally disagreeing with Sarkozy on this issue. Is Obama “grossly egotistical”? The man (or someone close to him) has written two autobiographies and he isn’t even 50 years old. Is he “incredibly naïve”? He has never held a real job in his entire life and can point to zero experience dealing with the myriad of issues that he is now juggling.

But Obama’s handlers are fairly savvy politically and this entire administration needs a victory ASAP.

Why risk his totally made up charisma and mad people skills on an event that won’t even happen on his watch? The gain would be minimal and the potential embarrassment could be catastrophic; so why risk it?

Because there is no risk. The fix is in or Obama wouldn’t be going.

If this whole selection wasn’t in the bag and Obama decided to parachute in to save the day anyway, he is clearly the dumbest ego-maniac to occupy the White House in some time. Because if he fails it will be an epic fail.

The president has a HUGE problem on his hands and it is unlikely based on his amateurish leadership so far that he will handle this very well. In fact, he has managed to paint himself into a political corner that will prove to be difficult if not impossible to extricate himself.

The White House has apparently been sitting on a rather significant request for a troop increase from General Stanley McChrystal for over three weeks.

And General McChrystal’s analysis certainly appears to request urgent action or face failure.

The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan warns in an urgent, confidential assessment of the war that he needs more forces within the next year and bluntly states that without them, the eight-year conflict “will likely result in failure,” according to a copy of the 66-page document obtained by The Washington Post.

Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal says emphatically: “Failure to gain the initiative and reverse insurgent momentum in the near-term (next 12 months) — while Afghan security capacity matures — risks an outcome where defeating the insurgency is no longer possible.”

His assessment was sent to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates on Aug. 30 and is now being reviewed by President Obama and his national security team.

This is not good for Obama. He hand picked McChrystal and now he is realizing that though Stan McChrystal is among the best Generals we have, he doesn’t have a magic wand.

Obama is trying to vote “Present” again but while that is a valid tactic in Illinois politics it doesn’t work very well at all when making decisions about war.

Hard decisions are not a strong suit for the young president who can’t point to a single day of executive experience prior to the White House or a particularly difficult decision that he alone would be held responsible for. Now he is at a politcal tipping point and this hazard is 100% of his own doing.

His biggest problem is not Afghanistan. The 2-ton elephant in the room is the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC). This is the far left loons who support anything ACORN does and opposes any war for any reason. I like to refer to them as the “All Whores-No Wars” coalition.

Healthcare reform is dead if he doesn’t include the public option to this group of Socialists and dead if he does to the blue dogs particularly in the Senate.

Dramatically increasing troop levels in Afghanistan will singe the collective panties of the “All Whores-No Wars” coalition and Obama knows that if nothing else, they are a very vindictive group. They have the power and will use it to destroy his entire domestic agenda.

Philosophically Obama is a far left Socialists and that is how he got where he is so this group holds more sway over him than most sane presidents. The anti-war leftists in both houses are starting the raise their heads and Obama has to be hearing their cries.

Oh, and it gets worse for the president.

Within 24 hours of the leak of the Afghanistan assessment to The Washington Post, General Stanley McChrystal’s team fired its second shot across the bow of the Obama administration. According to McClatchy, military officers close to General McChrystal said he is prepared to resign if he isn’t given sufficient resources (read troops) to implement a change in direction in Afghanistan:

Adding to the frustration, according to officials in Kabul and Washington, are White House and Pentagon directives made over the last six weeks that Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, not submit his request for as many as 45,000 additional troops because the administration isn’t ready for it.

If true, this is a major development and Obama is in a total quagmire. Most Americans have never heard of General McChrystal but he is an icon in the Special Operations community and his integrity is absolutely beyond reproach.

To put this in context, what would have happened to Jefferson Davis if Robert E. Lee resigned in protest of his policies?

Yeah, it’s that bad and Obama knows it.

Stay tuned as this story developes.

Early prediction: Obama throws the CPC under the bus and supports McChrystal. This will wreck his domestic agenda but single handedly losing a war is not a way to leave a legacy above Jimmy Carter.

…his constant worshiping at the feet of “The One” has irrepairably damaged his brian.

In this bit of mindless drivel he declares that Rush Limbaugh is a racists for calling for segregated buses. He even has a clip from the world renowned arbiter of unbiased talkshow host analysis, Media Matters.

I searched, and found not a single right wing blog denouncing this vile rant. As far as I can tell, nobody on the right seems to think there’s anything with this.

Since I’m being excommunicated from the ranks of the faithful anyway, I’ll come out and say it: this is absolutely disgusting. Where was Michael Steele? What the hell is wrong with the right?

Wow, Charles sure seems pretty energized for a comment that you would think would be the talk of the weekend. This would be ten times bigger than Limbaugh’s comments on Donovan McNabb but not so much coverage, why?

Did Rush really say that? Yes, he said “We need segregated buses”. That’s a fairly outrageous position to take today so why no furor?

Because most people including the main stream media (who would like nothing better than to smack Limbaugh around) are apparently not COMPLETE FRIGGING IDIOTS!

Here’s the complete, unedited transcript of what Limbaugh really said.

RUSH: We don’t know what obvious taunts.

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: Worse than the obvious verbal taunts, we all know the racism that was in the kid’s mind. I mean Newsweek magazine says he was born a racist. So you know the white kid is sitting there thinking N-word and all kinds of things being surrounded by these black students. They knew that. They knew that and so they just descended on the kid and beat him up. We’ve seen the videotape. What did the police chief investigate?

CALLER: He did not comment on anything other than he said more investigations shows that it was not racially motivated.

RUSH: I think the guy is wrong. I think not only was it racism, it’s justifiable racism.

CALLER: True.

RUSH: I mean, that’s the lesson that we’re being taught here today. Kid shouldn’t have been on the bus anyway.

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: We need segregated buses. It was invading of space and so forth. This is Obama’s America.

END RUSH ARCHIVE CLIP

It’s called SARCASM, Chuck. If you could get your head out of Obama’s ass for a few seconds you would recognize it.

I equate most hysteria to a juvenile lack of life experience in which to frame events around you. Go to war a few times and a rude driver is not such a big deal.

Manufactured hysteria is simply being a lying asshole.

The recent administration decision to betray eastern Europe allies Poland and the Czech Republic is a catastrophe for American credibility in foreign relations all over the globe.

If you believe the White House spin that this new proposed system is even better, you are an idiot. Even if it is (and it isn’t) it was arranged not by dealing with a major Eastern European ally but by a drug deal with the mortal enemy for centuries of said ally.

Any leftists out there want to square that circle, feel free to try.

Ironically, the people of Poland wanted this…and wanted it in a big way.

19% of respondents in Poland support McCain while 65% support Obama.

The very same Polish newspapers that praised Obama’s European vacation as the second coming are now proclaiming that “America Betrayed Us”.

America didn’t betray you, the annointed one that you loved betrayed you.

Be careful what you ask for; you may get it. Ofcourse “The One” will come to your rescue when Putin decides to re-annex you…won’t he?

The easiest way to tell a political figure is in freefall is when he creates generational crisis out of whole cloth.

Apparently Obama is not above this silly and frankly embarassingly juvenile technique.

Once again addressing students…

WASHINGTON – Calling health insurance reform a “defining struggle of this generation,” President Barack Obama told thousands of college students Thursday that Congress must resist scare tactics and false accusations to do a makeover.

Health insurance/care reform is not exactly a defining struggle for the over 70% of Americans who are totally content with the healthcare they already have. The same healthcare that will become exponentially more expensive if available at all under Obama’s plan.

The original house bill is dead on arrival; the latest Senate version is a black hole of taxes and restrictive regulation. The Progressives swear to block anything short of a public option and the Blue Dogs vow to block anything close to a public option.

This isn’t a crisis for the American people but it is certainly a crisis for the Democrat party and naturally it is 100% one of their own making. Pelosi is crumbling because she knows she can’t bring a nationalized system home to San Francisco and Harry Ried is already on record against even the greatly diluted current Senate Bill.

All that said, the real crisis is the pressure on Obama. Most Presidents start looking at their legacy in their second term not in their first 9 months but then again most Presidents didn’t write two autobiographies before they had accomplished anything more valuable than a boot full of piss.

Everytime Obama says “this isn’t about me” just reinforces how much it is truly about him.

Obama is a far left Socialist at heart and the economy will always suffer under such policies. He is not a war President and obviously doesn’t want to be. He is beginning to be exposed correctly as weak on foreign policy at least certainly in places like Poland and the Czech Republic.

Cap and Trade was never much more than a scheme to suck up to the enviro-wackos and make friends like Al Gore insanely wealthy. Obama won’t fight hard for it because there isn’t anything in it for him.

Nationalizing healthcare allows him to put a stamp on history. Far more important than the history of the United States is his view of the history of Barack Obama.

Obama knows that he will lose seats next year and possibly enough to cripple his administration’s radical agenda. It’s now or never for Obama to leave his mark.

And honestly that isn’t looking even as salvagable as Jimmy Carter right now.

…what was intended to be a small respite to relocate my bride and I to our new home has instead became a saga worthy of a Homer trilogy. That is ofcourse a story for another time (or two) but I am back on the net at least sporadically until we are finally secured in the new estate next week.

So, let’s see if I have the topline issues up to date.

Harry Reid is in deep shit for re-election.

Chris Dodd is in it as well.

Virginia and New Jersey (are you serious) are likely GOP pick ups for Governors.

The generic ballot shows signs of another 1994 for the GOP in Congress.

Van Jones is an anti-American radical (so are half of all the other Czars). So, get on it Gateway Pundit and Glenn Beck.

Obama is tanking in the polls largely because he is on a Jimmy Carter path toward pathetically ineffective chief executive status.

Cap and Trade is ultimately a dead issue because Democrats won’t support taxing the hell out of their constituents and thus losing their precious high perches of power.

Healthcare reform is also DOA in anything even remotely close to what Obama promised because of exactly the same Democrat concerns.

GITMO is still open and running like a clock.

We are still in Iraq and actually expanding our war footing in Afghanistan and Africa.

The provisions of the Patriot Act that Bush and Cheney used to kill the Constitution are being extended.

The Porkulus package didn’t work and unemployment is going up.

Over the past three weeks I have been characterized as a tea-bagger, a terrorist, a tea-bagger again and finally a racist.

The Fed is printing money like elves before Christmas and using the money to secretly monitize the debt from the Treasury. Yeah a train wreck is coming.

If we can regain controll of Congress next year, we will survive as a nation but in any case Obama is tracking hard for the top of the list of most inept Presidents eveh!

(Aside from that part, how did you like Dallas Mrs. Kennedy?)

Did anyone really miss me?

Today on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace I noticed several things that need further discussion.

1. Don’t ever send me to Chris Wallace with nothing more than weak talking points.
2. Wallace calls you a liar so nicely you’re soon agreeing with him.
3. Tammy Duckworth is a piss poor liar and doesn’t seem smart enough to fake it.
4. Shinseki didn’t have the balls to defend this and tossed Tammy overboard.

The issue was of course the recently outed end of life planning booklet that the VA has revived. It essentially encourages veterans to choose death over prolonged treatment.

We had a fascinating segment on FNS today about the workbook. First–we talked with Jim Towey–the man who broke the story. He helped end use of the book under President Bush, and was shocked to see it has now been reinstated. He says the message of the work book is clear: hurry up and die. And he says–when government can steer vulnerable individuals to conclude that life is not worth living–“who needs death panels?”

Then–we talked with VA Assistant Secretary Tammy Duckworth–who insisted on being interviewed separately. She said the workbook is just one of many reference tools the VA makes available–and that it is currently being revised. However, as we pointed out, it is still up on the VA website.

Duckworth was easy prey for Wallace and her talking points did little to help her. She eventually resorted to a full blown lie. She said that the booklet was funded by federal research dollars and as such was required by law to be on the VA website. That statement is quite simply, complete bullshit.

But here is why I hate Shinseki for his role in this.

I disagree with Duckworth’s politics but I respect her as a wounded veteran and a fellow officer. Shinseki does not respect her and essentially set her up to look like an idiot.

The booklet will be off the website in 72 hours (in spite of her bullshit legal requirement) because Obama will require it. It is the right thing to do with no political downside for Obama and a potentially huge downside if he doesn’t make this POS go away. I don’t think Obama gives a shit about veterans but he is not devoid of basic political instincts.

Shinseki knows this and yet he hid behind a woman and forced her out there to defend this atrocity on its merits.

Obama will toss it and Duckworth will look like a complete fool for having tried to defend it and Shinseki walks away unscathed.

First let me say that I like Bob Beckel. I disagree with almost everything that he believes but I like him. Why? Because Bob is an unapologetic ideologue. He doesn’t piss on your leg with feel good rhetoric and tell you it’s raining jelly beans and sunshine.

Bob has said that he thought a little socialism would be a good thing. Note to Bob: There’s no such thing as a little socialism.

Last week he penned an article offering President Obama a guaranteed silver bullet to get the socialized medicine pushed through and more importantly get a big chunk of Republican support.

It’s a good read but here is the real meat.

Universal healthcare has been our fight for 50 years. It is ingrained in our DNA and we are close. There are no guarantees, but Democrats offering tort reform will confound the Republicans, take away one of their most potent arguments, and put us back on the offensive. If that means throwing some trial lawyers under the bus, so be it.

Why haven’t we talked about tort reform during this entire debate? Because we haven’t wanted to bite one of the biggest hands that feed us. That substantial and legitimate disagreement over the effects of medical malpractice awards on health care costs is another. And there is our child-like fear the trail lawyers will abandon us.

On that last point let me be brutally pragmatic. The trial lawyers won’t abandon us because they have nowhere else to go. As a trail lawyer friend admitted to me, “I hate to lose medical malpractice, but there’s a whole lot of suing to do out there that has nothing to do with doctors”. And that’s the point. We’re not talking about massive tort reform. We’re not taking tobacco and asbestos of the table. We’re talking a cap on punitive damages.

Keep in mind that Bob’s claim to fame was being the national campaign director for Walter Mondale and leading one of the most disastrous Democrat attempts in history.

I don’t disagree with Bob’s assertion that inserting tort reform would take the Republicans off message and could even possibly pick up a few squishy Republicans along the way.

So, why can’t/won’t Obama heed his advice?

Here is a relevant quote from a fairly prominent politician about the same issue that seems to agree with Bob.

First, we cannot have health care reform without tort reform. The two are intertwined. For example, one supposed justification for socialized medicine is the high cost of health care. As Dr. Scott Gottlieb recently noted, “If Mr. Obama is serious about lowering costs, he’ll need to reform the economic structures in medicine—especially programs like Medicare.” [1] Two examples of these “economic structures” are high malpractice insurance premiums foisted on physicians (and ultimately passed on to consumers as “high health care costs”) and the billions wasted on defensive medicine.
………………
So I have new questions for the president: Why no legal reform? Why continue to encourage defensive medicine that wastes billions of dollars and does nothing for the patients? Do you want health care reform to benefit trial attorneys or patients?

This should make Craissi’s frigging tiny little brain explode.

Sarah Palin said this and has been saying it for a year.

I know that hurts Craissi and I’m glad that it does so here is some more.

Many states, including my own state of Alaska, have enacted caps on lawsuit awards against health care providers. Texas enacted caps and found that one county’s medical malpractice claims dropped 41 percent, and another study found a “55 percent decline” after reform measures were passed. [4] That’s one step in health care reform. Limiting lawyer contingency fees, as is done under the Federal Tort Claims Act, is another step. The State of Alaska pioneered the “loser pays” rule in the United States, which deters frivolous civil law suits by making the loser partially pay the winner’s legal bills. Preventing quack doctors from giving “expert” testimony in court against real doctors is another reform.

To make sure the pain does not cease, here’s another rising Republican’s approach to healthcare reform.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry noted that, after his state enacted tort reform measures, the number of doctors applying to practice medicine in Texas “skyrocketed by 57 percent” and that the tort reforms “brought critical specialties to underserved areas.” These are real reforms that actually improve access to health care.

In spite of what might be good for the country, Obama cannot politically embrace anything from Sarah Palin.

The Democrats would wreck this country before allowing Palin to be credited with saving it.

Change. In deed.