Combs Spouts Off

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Posts Tagged ‘politics’

Obama Jobs Council member backs Romney

Posted by Richard on November 2, 2012

According to the White House:

The President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness (Jobs Council) was created to provide non-partisan advice to the President on continuing to strengthen the Nation’s economy and ensure the competitiveness of the United States and on ways to create jobs, opportunity, and prosperity for the American people.

But the President hasn’t met with his Jobs Council since January. And he sure hasn’t followed the advice of Jobs Council members like Intel CEO Paul Otellini. Maybe that’s why Otellini has joined an impressive group of business leaders supporting Romney.

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Michigan surge for Romney

Posted by Richard on November 1, 2012

Detroit News columnist Nolan Finley:

If the polls are right and Michigan really is suddenly in play in the presidential race, it’s a very, very bad sign for President Obama’s re-election hopes.

The Detroit News WDIV-Channel 4 poll this week placed Mitt Romney at just 2.7 points behind Obama, well within the margin of error and erasing a lead for the president that had been as high as 14 points after the Democratic National Convention.

The narrowing of the race in a state that Obama won by 16 points in 2008 bodes ill for the president nationally. Michigan was never expected to be this competitive.

While both campaigns have had the state on the watch list and continued nominal spending on ads, Romney hasn’t been here since August and Obama since April.

And why would they come here? Michigan hasn’t voted for a Republican presidential candidate since 1988.

But if history is wrong and Obama is indeed on the verge of losing a state so reliably blue it may well portend a nationwide collapse.

I’m not religious, but when I read that the phrase “From your lips to God’s ear” popped into my head.

UPDATE: I just checked Rasmussen Reports (one of the most accurate polling firms in the last several elections), and they have these recent swing state poll results:

Dick Morris argues that any state in which the sitting president can do no better than a tie this close to the election will go to the challenger, because most of the undecideds will swing to the challenger. From his lips to God’s ear. 🙂

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The key sign that Romney’s winning

Posted by Richard on October 31, 2012

Forget the polls. Yeah, they show that things are trending Romney’s way in state after state. But here’s the real key sign that things are going Romney’s way: David Letterman’s Top Ten List.

Letterman has been carrying on like a trouper during Sandy, doing his show last night and tonight with no studio audience. Tonight, he did a Top Ten List of unnecessary 911 calls received during the storm.

The number one unnecessary 911 call: “I’m losing to a guy named Mitt.”

[rimshot]

You know the Obama campaign is in trouble when a confirmed lefty like Letterman is making jokes about how he’s losing.

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Obama’s 2nd term agenda: a “pathetic picture book”

Posted by Richard on October 26, 2012

Rich Lowry at Politico:

As an artifact of the diminishment of President Barack Obama, it is hard to top his newly released pamphlet, “A Plan for Jobs & Middle-Class Security.”

The plan purports, first, to be a plan, and second, to outline a second-term agenda distinct from his first-term agenda. It fails on both counts. It cobbles together his current policies with some ill-defined new bullet points to barely cover 20 pages largely devoted to nice pictures of the president.

Why would the president wait until 14 days before the election, after the conventions and the debates, to release his plan? And then print 3.5 million copies of it, making the plan a publishing phenomenon to rival “Dreams from My Father”?

It’s the panicked realization that his campaign’s attempted destruction of Mitt Romney hasn’t worked and isn’t enough to win. The NBC/Wall Street Journal poll this week found that 62 percent of people want major changes in a prospective Obama second term. Four percent — that’s almost down to Obama administration officials and immediate family — want more of the same.

So the president needed someone to get on QuarkXPress to paste together “a new plan” and then run down to FedEx Kinko’s — pronto. But he couldn’t hit print during debate season, lest he give his opponent another target. Surely Romney would have loved to cite the risible document as Exhibit A for Obama’s status-quo presidency.

Read the whole thing. As I suggested earlier, Obama’s second-term plan is “Stay the course, stay the course.”

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Missed opportunities, part 2

Posted by Richard on October 22, 2012

OK, one more missed opportunity. Earlier this month, the chief imam of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, Supreme Guide Mohammed Badie, called on Muslims worldwide to wage jihad against Israel and liberate Jerusalem. The Simon Wiesenthal Center denounced Badie and called on the Obama administration to distance itself from the Muslim Brotherhood.

Earlier today, responding to Egyptian President Morsi’s apparent endorsement of a “destroy the Jews” prayer, the Wiesenthal Center reiterated its call for the Obama administration to act:

The Simon Wiesenthal Center on Monday reiterated its call to US President Barack Obama to sever ties with the Muslim Brotherhood after Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi attended a prayer service during which an Islamic cleric called for the Jews to be destroyed.

According to the Center, Egypt’s Channel 1 broadcast cleric Futouh Abd Al-Nabi Mansour’s sermon in which he prayed: “Oh Allah, destroy the Jews and their supporters. Oh Allah, disperse them, rend them as under. Oh Allah, demonstrate Your might and greatness upon them.”

Romney should have brought up the Wiesenthal Center’s demand and asked Obama point-blank, “Have you responded in any way to the Wiesenthal Center’s demands? Will you suspend aid to Egypt and support for its Muslim Brotherhood government until that government renounces the views of Mohammed Badie and Futouh Abd Al-Nabi Mansour, acknowledges the right of Israel to exist, and reaffirms its commitment to the peace treaty with Israel? Because if I were President today, that’s what I would do.”

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Missed opportunities

Posted by Richard on October 22, 2012

Romney lost the foreign policy debate because of missed opportunities. According to Romney campaign spokespeople, it was a calculated strategy to “go big,” focusing on overarching themes instead of challenging the President on specifics. That’s why Romney basically gave Obama a pass on Libya. I think that was a mistake.

I think there were a number of other specifics where Obama simply stated falsehoods and Romney failed to challenge him or did so rather softly. I want to keep this brief, so I just want to mention one of them.

During one of Romney’s tougher attacks, when he listed several Obama failures or errors in foreign policy, he mentioned the Green Revolution in Iran and the Obama administration’s lack of support for the people in the streets of Tehran. Obama rebutted that, claiming that the US stood with the pro-democracy demonstrators. Balderdash. And Romney should have called him on it.

People have forgotten that the Green Revolution began as protests against a fraudulent, stolen election. In the weeks leading up to it, opposition candidates were locked up. Their rallies were broken up and their supporters attacked by Revolutionary Guards. And there was compelling evidence of systematic vote fraud in the election itself.

I remember seeing video of demonstrators carrying “America Help Us” signs and hearing pro-democracy demonstrators plead for the US to speak out on their behalf. Contrary to his claim tonight, Obama didn’t do so. Instead, the Obama administration explicitly stated that it recognized the election as legitimate and the government of Iran as legitimate. It was shameful, and Romney should have said so.

The Romney strategy seems to have been to simply appear presidential and pass the “commander-in-chief test,” relying on his advantage on economic issues to win the election. That strategy will probably work. But I’d like to have seen a more robust challenge of the Obama foreign policy record and the numerous Obama falsehoods uttered during the debate.

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Romney does stand-up

Posted by Richard on October 19, 2012

Romney killed at the Al Smith Dinner last night. Who knew he had such a good sense of comedic timing?


[Mediaite link]

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New Amendment 64 ad

Posted by Richard on October 19, 2012

On the Channel 7 10pm local news tonight, I saw the latest ad by the Colorado Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, featuring retired Denver cop Tony Ryan. Excellent! Here it is:


[YouTube link]

I know Tony Ryan. He’s one of the most honorable, brave, and decent people I know. I’ve never asked, but I’m willing to bet he’s never smoked pot in his life. And he no longer lives in Colorado. He’s doing this not because there’s any personal benefit, but because it’s the right thing to do. I’m absolutely outraged that Roger Sherman, campaign director of the anti-64 organization, smeared Tony as a “pro-pot rent-a-cop.”

Tony was one of the cops who responded to the Columbine shooting. I was present in the audience the first time he publicly talked about that day. I saw the emotions on his face as he recounted what happened. I trembled and teared up hearing him tell it.

I don’t know who Roger Sherman is, but to me he is vermin for attempting to denigrate a 36-year veteran of the Denver PD with a record of heroism and exemplary community service for political purposes.

If you can spare a few bucks (or a few hundred bucks), make a donation to the Colorado Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol to help keep Tony’s ad on the air. Do it right now. The window for buying air time between now and Nov. 6 is rapidly closing.

BTW, I’ve also heard an excellent radio ad in favor of Amendment 64 by former Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo. I can’t find it online, but there’s a YouTube video of him endorsing it at a press conference. And the 700 Club’s Pat Robertson, an evangelical leader of the Christian right, is also “absolutely” in favor of Amendment 64.

If you have any friends in Colorado, especially conservative, “Christian right,” or moderate/muddled/independent friends, share this information with them and urge them to vote for Amendment 64.

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Leftists threaten Romney

Posted by Richard on October 17, 2012

At Infowars.com, Paul Joseph Watson collected some of the more interesting tweets from the left after last night’s debate:

 Despite numerous media outlets attempting to downplay the issue, Twitter exploded last night following the debate with new threats from Obama supporters to assassinate Mitt Romney if he defeats Obama in the presidential race.

As we reported yesterday, in addition to threats by Obama supporters to riot if Romney wins, innumerable Twitter users are also making direct death threats against Romney.

If the tables were turned and conservatives were making death threats against Obama in these numbers, it would be a national news story. Indeed, the mere act of hanging empty chairs from trees as a reference to Clint Eastwood’s RNC speech was hyped by the media as a deadly sign that conservatives were out to lynch black people if Obama won.

However, the major networks have remained completely silent on the disturbing trend of Obama supporters threatening to resort to violence if their candidate fails to secure a second term.

As Infowars has stressed, we are non-partisan and have encouraged people to vote for neither candidate. However, the hypocrisy of leftists in trying to either downplay or deny this issue altogether is jaw-dropping given how they routinely try to portray conservatives as violent and extremist by pointing to angry comments made online.

See the Watson post for a sampling of the threatening tweets and a link to many more.

In a way, this is encouraging. If significant numbers of leftist moonbats went berserk after the debate, that’s evidence that Romney won.

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The debate moment that evoked a strange memory

Posted by Richard on October 16, 2012

OK, I admit the adult beverages are starting to kick in (I can’t watch a debate without adult beverages — call it the Vodkapundit syndrome). I’ve been watching post-debate analyses on two networks (CBS and Fox News). There seems to be a consensus that one of the most significant questions was from the black guy who said to the President (paraphrasing), “I voted for you in 2008. But things aren’t going so well and I’m having a tough time. Why should I vote for you again?”

The talking heads, right and left, seemed to agree that Romney’s response was one of his best moments, and I think so too. But I was more interested in the President’s answer, which was basically (paraphrasing), “I know things are still tough, but we’re working on it. And it’s getting better. And we’re going to keep on doing what we’re doing. And believe me, things will get better still in the next four years.”

I suddenly had this memory come into my head. It was the image of George Herbert Walker Bush, gesturing with his right hand, Atlanta Braves tomahawk-chop-style, and repeating, “Stay the course, stay the course.”

Remember how well that worked for him?

And that reminded me of the Einstein quote: “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

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I missed the debate — thank goodness

Posted by Richard on October 11, 2012

After four years of mostly trouble-free performance, my Dish VIP722 DVR receiver chose tonight to flake out. So instead of watching the vice presidential debate, I spent much of the evening exhausting my diagnostic and troubleshooting skills (which, IMHO, are pretty darn good) and eventually throwing myself on the mercy of Dish technical support. Which is really very good, once you get past the Tier 1 people who initially take your call. Long story short, they restored the receiver to service just in time for me to see the post-debate analysis.

Based on the clips I saw and commentary I heard (CBS and Fox News), it’s a good thing I missed it. I couldn’t take 90 whole minutes of Biden’s laughing, sneering, eye-rolling, and belittling of Ryan.

And it seems that Biden was abetted throughout by moderator Martha Raddatz. Big surprise. ABC’s “objective, impartial journalist” is a leftist hack and a shill for the Obama administration, and not just because Barack Obama was a guest at her wedding 20 years ago. Why the GOP continues to allow debates (both in the primaries and now in the general election) to be moderated by their ideological enemies without so much as a peep of protest is beyond me.

UPDATE: Ryan won according to “snap” polls by CNN and CNBC. A CBS poll of “undecided” voters gave the win to Biden.

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More notable debate reaction

Posted by Richard on October 4, 2012

Nancy Pelosi claimed Obama won the debate. No, really. She said it with a straight face. A very Botoxed, practically immobile, straight face.

Al Gore blamed the altitude for Obama’s poor performance. No, really. He said it with a straight face. His usual, no Botox needed, straight face.

Chris Matthews “freaked out” and argued that Obama’s problem is he doesn’t watch enough MSNBC. No, really. He said it with his usual freaked-out face.

Rush Limbaugh said Obama “came off even worse in his debate with Romney last night than he did in his debate with Clint Eastwood.”

Jimmy Kimmel said the only thing that could have saved Obama is if the body of Osama bin Laden had dropped from the ceiling.
<rimshot>

My theory on Obama’s poor performance: He practiced for the debate with John Kerry. So he was fully prepared to debate someone like John Kerry.
<rimshot>

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Debate: Romney won, Obama lost, and I’m ambivalent

Posted by Richard on October 3, 2012

You know it was a bad night for the President when Bill Maher, who recently gave the Obama campaign $1 million, tweets stuff like this:

@billmaher i can’t believe i’m saying this, but Obama looks like he DOES need a teleprompter
@billmaher Obama made a lot of great points tonight. Unfortunately, most of them were for Romney
@billmaher Looks like my pre-thought about Romney knocking it out of the park was accurate, or so says the media that’s so in the tank for Obama

The media consensus, from Fox News to CBS News and CNN, is that tonight’s debate was a huge win for Romney and that the President had a lackluster, disappointing evening. CNN’s post-debate poll showed 67% thought Romney won. CBS had 400 independents watch the debate, and then polled them afterward. Overwhelmingly, they thought Romney won. Before the debate, 30% of them thought Romney could relate to the average person’s problems. Afterward, it was 62%.

Personally, I see the glass as both half-full and half-empty. As a libertarian, listening to a lot of what Romney said in the way of specifics was painful. “I’m not against regulations, I love regulations! Except for a few bad ones, and the ones that aren’t concrete and specific enough.” (I’m paraphrasing.)

On the other hand, when I focus on the larger statements of principle and vision of the two, it’s clear that there’s a huge difference between them. Not because Romney is so good in that regard (he’s only OK), but because Obama is so bad.

Obama doubled down on Bigger and Bigger Government. Lots of blather about the need for more government “investments.” This statement in particular struck me: “I want to hire another 100,000 new math and science teachers” — not “I want to make it possible” or “I want to help school districts,” but “I want to hire” — as if we have a single national school district and he’s the chairman of the board.

If this man gets another four years, he’ll destroy what’s left of the founding principles of this country (not least by appointing three or four new Supreme Court justices who share his socialist/authoritarian view of government).

My ambivalence is strictly about what I heard in the debate, not about how to vote. Mitt Romney may or may not move us significantly in the right direction, but he won’t move us in the wrong direction. Obama will accelerate us with all his might in the wrong direction. We simply can’t afford — fiscally or philosophically — another Obama term. So I’m glad Romney won the debate. I’m certainly hoping he wins the election, and unless the outcome in Colorado is not in doubt (and I can vote Libertarian without risking negative consequences), I’ll certainly be voting for Romney.

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Boxer and other leftist Obama shills try to silence Netanyahu

Posted by Richard on September 13, 2012

Barbara Boxer, the genius of the Senate who once said of the San Francisco earthquake, “those who died, their lives will never be the same again,” and of Obamacare, “I don’t want to go back to the days when thousands of people died every day because they had no insurance,” wrote an open letter to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu chastising him for supposedly trying to influence the US election by speaking bluntly about the Iranian threat and America’s inept approach to it. This is an astonishing and I believe unprecedented foray into pursuit of a private foreign policy by a member of the US Congress.

But Boxer’s attempt to silence Bibi has been joined by other Obama surrogates and media lapdogs like Time’s Joel Klein, The New Yorker’s David Remnick, and former ambassador Dan Kurzer.

It apparently hasn’t occurred to Boxer and the rest of these clowns that Netanyahu might be just a little bit more interested in preventing the nuclear annihilation of Israel than the US election. Commentary’s Seth Mandel sets them straight.

I suspect that the anti-Netanyahu frenzy among the American left is a reaction to this:

What’s even more telling in the TIPP poll, are the inroads Mitt Romney is making, gaining support among Jewish voters. A breakdown of religion along with other demographic groups shows President Obama maintaining a lead among Jews but by a smaller margin – 59 to 35 percent for Mitt Romney, with six percent undecided. While that is still a majority it is a dramatic decline from the 78 percent of the Jewish vote he got in 2008.

 

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Democracy, Socialist-Democrat style

Posted by Richard on September 5, 2012

Yesterday, the Democratic National Convention adopted a platform from which references to God and to Jerusalem as the capital of Israel had been removed, and Republicans wasted no time seizing on these issues. I’m guessing that the campaign consultants ran those changes past some focus groups or did some quick overnight polling and told the party leadership those changes were suicidal. Because this afternoon, God and Jerusalem were restored to the platform. How it was done is illustrative of the approach to governance of today’s Socialist Democrat leadership.

Amending the platform from the floor requires a two-thirds supermajority. After former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, a minister and the chair of the platform committee, introduced the amendments, the convention chair, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, called for a voice vote.

In my opinion, the majority shouted “no.” Watch the video and judge for yourself.

Villaraigosa repeated the vote, with the same result. Then he repeated it again! The third vote was just about even. Good enough — Villaraigosa ruled that two-thirds had approved.

Would it be too  snarky of me to bring up “voter suppression”?


[YouTube link]

 This is reminiscent of the Obama administration’s behavior with regard to the legislative branch. “If Congress won’t act, I will,” the President has declared multiple times, and then proceeded to act extra-legally in defiance of the elected representatives of the people. So now his minions at the DNC have acted extra-legally in defiance of the elected representatives of the party’s rank-and-file members. This is what passes for democracy in the world of Socialist Democrats.

 

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