A SOTU Over Before Its Begun

Hugh Hewitt / Townhall Columnist

 

 

When George W. Bush and the GOP got "thumped" over the conduct of the war in Iraq in November 2006, 43 responded to the will of the people, made changes, announced the Surge, and graciously welcomed Nancy Pelosi as the first woman Speaker at the start of his 2007 State of the Union Address. Not much else is remembered from the next two years, except victory in Iraq and a market panic in the fall of 2008 brought about by the popping of the housing bubble. That panic brought us President Obama.

 

Tonight President Obama will give a speech few Americans will watch much less remember, and it will lack even a gracious gesture such as Bush's appreciation of Pelosi. "Petulant" has been the tone of the past ten weeks, and while Bush acted within his constitutional authorities to dispatch troops to Iraq in 2007 in sufficient numbers to secure victory in Iraq, and while President Obama has acted within his constitutional authority to begin the return of those troops after his withdrawal of them gave terrorism new life and force can in the rise of ISIS, most of the news now is about a president acting domestically far beyond any established precedent in order to try desperately to stay relevant even as his Class D set of advisors manage to miss the moments --like the march in France-- that could make extend President Obama's shelf life as a force on the world and national stage.

In truth --the hard, cold political truth-- President Obama is a spent force in American politics. Capable, of course, of creating more mischief and of obstructing urgently needed repairs brought about by his epic incompetence, but spent. Like a zoning board packed with no-growthers after an earthquake, President Obama can veto rebuilding, for a time. His inactivity and inane decrees can make a terrible situation worse on the health care front, and can accelerate the collapse of care even as meaningless numbers march out of the mouths of his advisors. His EPA can continue its job killing assault on every industry that employs high wage blue collar workers. He can continue to deliver nonsense speeches about his Harvey-the-rabbit programs he expects Congress to pass.

Gallup: Obama Plummets to Lowest Annual Approval Rating Ever

By John Blosser / NEWSMAX

With six years down and just two left in which to build a legacy, President Barack Obama has posted his lowest-ever average annual approval rating.

A Gallup poll finds that Obama, in the one-year period between Jan. 20, 2014, and Monday, posted an approval average of just 42.6 percent.

During their sixth year in office, Presidents Dwight Eisenhower, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixon showed their lowest approval rating as well, with the sixth-year approval rating of every president since 1945 averaging just 45.5 percent, Politico notes.

President George W. Bush tapped out the lowest at 37.3 percent, while President Bill Clinton scored an average approval of 63.8 percent, just before the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke, Politico reports. Ronald Reagan, in his sixth year, averaged a 59.9 percent approval rating, Gallup reports.

Previously, Obama's lowest yearly average came during the third year of his presidency, 44.4 percent, and his current yearly average is below last year's average of 45.8 percent, Politico notes.

Obama gets slightly better news from Real Clear Politics, which lists him as averaging a 44.7 current approval rating, according to the site's roundup of polls, which shows various polls giving him approval ratings ranging from a low of 38 percent, from Reuters, to a high of 48 percent, from Rasmussen Reports.

"President Obama certainly had a trying sixth year in office as he dealt with challenges abroad, such as the rise of Islamic militants in the Middle East, and faced continued partisan gridlock in trying to address key domestic issues," Gallup commented.

"During the fall months, he registered some of the lowest approval ratings of his presidency. That culminated with Republicans' strong showing in the midterm elections, giving them solid majorities in both houses of Congress.

"But since that time, aided by falling unemployment, plummeting gas prices, and generally solid economic growth, as well as resurgent support from Hispanics, things have started to look up for Obama."

Obama's approval rating, The New York Times notes, has increased lately to 46 percent from around 42 percent right after the mid-term elections in November.

"It is a relatively small increase, but it is more impressive in the context of the unusual stability of Mr. Obama’s approval rating, which hovered between 42 and 44 percent for 15 consecutive months," the Times notes.

"There is a well-established relationship between the pace of economic growth and a president’s approval ratings, and Mr. Obama is clearly benefiting from signs of accelerating economic growth," the Times commented.

"The modest improvement in Mr. Obama’s standing suggests that the Republicans cannot count on an easy midterm-like victory if the economy continues to grow at a healthy pace."

The Problem With Obama's Tax Plan

Conn Carroll / Townhall Tipsheet

 

In his State of the Union address Tuesday night, President Obama pitched a $320 billion tax hike seemingly based on French socialist Thomas Piketty's book, Capital in the Twenty-First Century.

Widely popular among liberal Democrats, Piketty's book claims that capitalism inevitably leads to unsustainable levels of inequality thanks to the "fundamental law" that, over time, the return on capital will always outpace economic growth.

Piketty claims that this fundamental law of capitalism can
be thwarted by high taxes on wealthy Americans, particularly their capital investments and inherited wealth.

And that is exactly what Obama's tax plan does. It increases the capital gains tax above Clinton era levels and it changes how the IRS calculates the size of inherited wealth in a way that increases estate tax revenue.9

Problem is that, Obama, the liberal Democrats, and the French socialists are all just plain wrong.

Rising income inequality has nothing to do with returns to capital outpacing economic growth.

Just take a look at something as pedestrian as Major League Baseball. In 1970, the highest paid player in the league (Willie Mays at $132,000) made about 10 times more than the $12,000 league minimum. Just 15 years later, in 1985, Mike Schmidt's $2 million salary was 33 times larger than the $60,000 league minimum. Fast forward to today and Clayton Kershaw's $32 million salary is 64 times larger than the $500,000 league minimum.

The widening gap between the lowest and highest paid player in baseball has nothing to do with anything Mike Schmidt or Clayton Kershaw inherited from their parents, other than athletic talent. It has nothing to do with any returns to capital either. It has everything to do with how our increasingly globalized economy offers more and more disparate  awards to varying levels of skilled labor.

In other words, Obama's tax plan needlessly punishes the rich for no reason other than it might make Obama more popular among those predisposed to believe it is the government's job to redistribute wealth.

A better way to help all Americans would be to eliminate tax expenditures that predominately benefit the wealthy like the state and local tax deduction and the mortgage interest deduction. By eliminating these tax spending programs that mostly go to the rich, the federal government could then cut the payroll tax which would put more money into every paycheck of every working American.

Inside Terror: ISIS “Much Stronger Than We Think”

January 19, 2015   Breaking News   6 Comments

• 
  
• 12

   
  EmailShare

 12  11  0 Reddit0  20  43

If we’re accustomed to seeing the grisly fate awaiting Western journalists who have the misfortune to be captured by ISIS, at least one such journalist has lived to tell the tale. German journalist Jurgen Todenhofer spent 10 days embedded with the Islamic State, and his recent interview with Al Jazeera has shed some light on what has remained a very secretive, shadowy organization.
The 74-year-old Todenhofer was granted safe passage in Mosul despite his previous comments criticizing the Islamic State. He told Al Jazeera that, having read the Quran several times, he asked the fighters he met whether they gave any thought on the mercy preached in the religion. “These were very difficult discussions,” said Todenhofer, “especially when they were talking about the number of people who they are willing to kill. They were talking about hundreds of millions. They were enthusiastic about it, and I just cannot understand that.”
Todenhofer went on to warn that ISIS – or ISIL, as he calls them – was “much stronger than we think.” Dismayed at the fact that they now control an area larger than the whole of Great Britain, Todenhofer said that the “brutality of their intended religious cleansing is on another level.” Finally, he took aim at the Western response to the Muslim world, saying that our military efforts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and against ISIS are only serving as programs for “terror-breeding.” He suggested that only Arabs and Sunni Muslims in particular could win the war against the extremist army.

What War?
Putting aside the journalist’s opinions on how to defeat the group – he has no background in military strategy as far as I’m aware – he’s not wrong when he says the bombardment campaign is a failure. Obama’s wishy-washy strategy against the militants proves only that America’s heart is not in the battle, emboldening the enemy and the would-be terrorists flocking to join them from around the world.
According to previews of President Obama’s State of the Union address, he may spend little airtime commenting on our fight against ISIS. He may not mention it at all. To say we are fighting this battle with one armed tied behind our backs would be an understatement. The truth is that we’re barely fighting it at all. We are determined instead to wait until this problem grows too large to ignore. Unfortunately, that time may only come after ISIS launches or inspires a major attack on U.S. soil.
Every liberal needs to read Todenhofer’s account of ISIS in full. The need to understand the enemy – to empathize with their point of view – is simply not applicable to the Islamic State. There is no way to “understand” their aims. There is no way to justify their actions. These are a people who respect only one thing: the language of death. Thus, we should be more than willing to give them what they want.
This war is coming, like it or not. Whether we win it or not…well, that’s still up for grabs.

- See more at: http://www.fixthisnation.com/conservative-breaking-news/inside-terror-isis-much-stronger-than-we-think/#sthash.lqvuDv5G.dpuf

Inside Terror: ISIS “Much Stronger Than We Think”

January 19, 2015   Breaking News   6 Comments

• 
  
• 12

   
  EmailShare

 12  11  0 Reddit0  20  43

If we’re accustomed to seeing the grisly fate awaiting Western journalists who have the misfortune to be captured by ISIS, at least one such journalist has lived to tell the tale. German journalist Jurgen Todenhofer spent 10 days embedded with the Islamic State, and his recent interview with Al Jazeera has shed some light on what has remained a very secretive, shadowy organization.
The 74-year-old Todenhofer was granted safe passage in Mosul despite his previous comments criticizing the Islamic State. He told Al Jazeera that, having read the Quran several times, he asked the fighters he met whether they gave any thought on the mercy preached in the religion. “These were very difficult discussions,” said Todenhofer, “especially when they were talking about the number of people who they are willing to kill. They were talking about hundreds of millions. They were enthusiastic about it, and I just cannot understand that.”
Todenhofer went on to warn that ISIS – or ISIL, as he calls them – was “much stronger than we think.” Dismayed at the fact that they now control an area larger than the whole of Great Britain, Todenhofer said that the “brutality of their intended religious cleansing is on another level.” Finally, he took aim at the Western response to the Muslim world, saying that our military efforts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and against ISIS are only serving as programs for “terror-breeding.” He suggested that only Arabs and Sunni Muslims in particular could win the war against the extremist army.

What War?
Putting aside the journalist’s opinions on how to defeat the group – he has no background in military strategy as far as I’m aware – he’s not wrong when he says the bombardment campaign is a failure. Obama’s wishy-washy strategy against the militants proves only that America’s heart is not in the battle, emboldening the enemy and the would-be terrorists flocking to join them from around the world.
According to previews of President Obama’s State of the Union address, he may spend little airtime commenting on our fight against ISIS. He may not mention it at all. To say we are fighting this battle with one armed tied behind our backs would be an understatement. The truth is that we’re barely fighting it at all. We are determined instead to wait until this problem grows too large to ignore. Unfortunately, that time may only come after ISIS launches or inspires a major attack on U.S. soil.
Every liberal needs to read Todenhofer’s account of ISIS in full. The need to understand the enemy – to empathize with their point of view – is simply not applicable to the Islamic State. There is no way to “understand” their aims. There is no way to justify their actions. These are a people who respect only one thing: the language of death. Thus, we should be more than willing to give them what they want.
This war is coming, like it or not. Whether we win it or not…well, that’s still up for grabs.

- See more at: http://www.fixthisnation.com/conservative-breaking-news/inside-terror-isis-much-stronger-than-we-think/#sthash.lqvuDv5G.dpuf

No-Go on the No-Go: Paris Mayor Gets in on the massive FOX pile-on

Pamela Geller / Atlas Shrugs

Forgive me for not opining sooner on the no-go zone jihad, but the DDoS attack has kept me…well, busier than usual.

The Leftist media and Islamic supremacist groups have been doing a victory dance ever since Saturday night, when Fox News issued an apology for statements made on the air by terror expert Steve Emerson and others about Muslim no-go zones in Britain and France. However, the apology doesn’t say what it has widely reported as saying – and there is considerable evidence that Muslim areas in both countries are a growing law enforcement and societal problem….. more

And now Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo told CNN Tuesday that she intends to sue Fox News in the wake of the channel’s coverage of supposed...

Read the whole entry »

     

• Email to a friend • Article Search •

RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS...LIVE...TODAY

Today, Wednesday, January 21st on RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS on CPR Worldwide Media from 2 to 4pm, Craig and Diane will discuss Obama's State of the Union Address, the coup in Yemen, the latest from Europe as they face an ongoing tangible threat from muslim islamic extremists, and other important news of the day.

Hope you can join us...http://cprworldwidemedia.com/live-radio/
and chat with live shows at
https://www.facebook.com/groups/cprworldwidemedia