Like many Americans, I am counting down the days until the next election so that we can finally turn the country around. 2010 was a huge step in the right direction, but it was never going to be enough. In 2008 our weariness with the war on terror made many of us susceptible to the siren song of “Hope and Change“. It was all a fine crafted lie, which has been exposed since then to really be cover for rabid, left wing policy disasters.

First the failed Stimulus Bill which did nothing but ratchet up our deficits and debt. Instead of lowering unemployment, it made the recession deeper and longer – years longer. We now have to pay off the bills run up by stupid and wasteful programs run amok.

Then came Obamacare which requires 100′s of special interest vouchers to avoid total disaster. All the while costs of health care continue to rise, as government run programs go bankrupt and lines for care start expanding. It is so bad premier health organizations wrote the President to tell him he screwed up and they aren’t risking their organizations or their patients.

The mideast is in turmoil, while an illegal 3rd war was started in Libya – this time without any congressional backing and based on an illegal UN sanction.

The DC pols are obsessed with kowtowing to their rabid base – especially the Democrats who fight every opportunity to get our collective house in order. Those Chicken Little cries of imminent doom screeched from Unions in Wisconsin to the Debt Ceiling debates in DC have proven to be all bark and not real. The sky is not falling as predicted.

And then we get this thrown in our faces:

A key senator has asked the Social Security Administration to investigate how people who live their lives role-playing as “adult babies” are able to get taxpayer-funded disability payments — after one of them was featured on a recent reality TV episode wearing diapers, feeding from a bottle and using an adult-sized crib he built.

Sen. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma Republican and the Senate’s top waste-watcher, asked the agency’s inspector general to look into 30-year-old Stanley Thornton Jr. and his roommate, Sandra Dias, who acts as his “mother,” saying it’s not clear why they are collecting Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits instead of working.

“Given that Mr. Thornton is able to determine what is appropriate attire and actions in public, drive himself to complete errands, design and custom-make baby furniture to support a 350-pound adult and run an Internet support group, it is possible that he has been improperly collecting disability benefits for a period of time,” Mr. Coburn wrote in a letter Monday to Inspector General Patrick P. O’Carroll Jr.

The request comes at a time when members of Congress are struggling to cut budgets and weed out waste to try to bring down the staggering deficit, and comes just days after Social Security’s trustees released a grim assessment of the program’s long-term financial health.

Brings a whole new meaning to the term “Nanny State”. Why is money being diverted from my family so this idiot can wet his pants??? I for one will never watch the show Taboo – it promotes crippling dysfunctional behavior. I would prefer it be cancelled. But at least it has exposed a harsh truth – we could and should cut the government down to bare bones. No more programs to make lives a little better. Either you are completely disabled or you must fend for yourselves.

As I said, all this leaves me disgusted with politics and the current crop of so called leaders. We need to dump all the old guard who got us into this mess. We need to find hard working, truly successful citizens to come in and change the whole paradigm (which would bar community organizers from being pawned off as truly experienced and successful). We have let the fringes on left and right play god with government. Time to take the tool of our suffering away. Shrink government down to its bare and successful minimums. Award thrift and innovation, while demanding results. No more throwing money around hoping something might work. No more pretending bureaucrats are better at solving problems than the private sector. No more.

Sadly, now we wait for 2012 to make the final turn.

Update: Unbelievable! A millionaire receiving food assistance:

A Michigan man has continued to accept food aid from the state even though he won big in a state lottery game and said he told officials about it.

Leroy Fick won the $2 million jackpot in the “Make Me Rich!” contest in June. Despite receiving about $850,000 in winnings, the Auburn resident is still using his Michigan Bridge Card, an electronic version of food stamps.

Fick’s lawyer said his client hasn’t done anything illegal.

What a cretin. All the while our next generation of workers are losing precious career building time:

Now evidence is emerging that the damage wrought by the sour economy is more widespread than just a few careers led astray or postponed. Even for college graduates — the people who were most protected from the slings and arrows of recession — the outlook is rather bleak.

Employment rates for new college graduates have fallen sharply in the last two years, as have starting salaries for those who can find work. What’s more, only half of the jobs landed by these new graduates even require a college degree …

Yeah, all those shovel-ready jobs only required a shovel, not a degree. The lost years wasted over the Reid-Pelosi-Obama Stimulus debacle. Years wiped out and unable to be recaptured. 4 years of punishment for making a rash and emotional choice on election day 2008. Hopefully we have learned our lesson.

Update: Hot Air has more on this, and a lot of comments!

(3) The Birthers: No doubt the big losers. They are being (rightfully) ridiculed in the media. Like Trig-mongers who attack Sarah Palin, the Birthers missed the memo on how Americans are fed up with partisan foolishness. The only requirement right now for a candidate of either party to win elect ion is a modicum of maturity and backbone, with strong resistance to these stupid political stunts. The “Donald” was the laughing stock of the news cycle as he went in front of the microphones and patted himself on the back. Not one serious proposal about jobs, the debt and deficits, nor the economy. Just a promise to go after Obama’s school records. LOSER!

(2) President Obama: Half win, half lose. He went on a political road show with his BC and attempted to caste his thin-skin into a shield of aloofness. The fact still remains he jumped into the gutter two years too late in a . The fact he ignited racial insecurities in the African American community only underlines the President’s political motivations. He needs some juice on his side of the political debate – thus the current spectacle. Whoopi’s ‘race card’ blow up yesterday just put all race neutral independents on notice. Neither side is clean in this mess, though Obama is cleaner than his critics.

(3) Winners: Everyone who stayed above the fray. While the Birthers and Trig-Mongers wrestle in the political sewers, the rest of the company is looking for answers. Everyone who stayed out of the fringes is looking great right now.

Update: Anyone wishing to continue down the loser path of birtherism just remember – only the truly fevered support the Trig-mongers on the left. The mirror does not lie.

When 90% of the country opposes you, you are doing something very wrong. When 90% of the country opposes the fruits of your labor, they will undo what you created with amazing speed and energy. The House of Representatives is lost to anyone who aligned themselves with the Democrats on their economic stimulus dud, their bailout raid on the treasury, their transformation of health care into an IRS tax, or their delusions about carbon dioxide (the air we breath out) and global climate.

It is the liberal/progressive movement, in all its incarnations and flavors, that has truly self-destructed through out this period of political ascension for the left, which peaked in 2008 with the election of an inexperienced liberal president. These left wing ideologues have replaced civil, creative, optimistic and mature approaches to solving this nation’s problems with derogatory, simplistic, alarmist and juvenile fantasies. They have become corrupt and conspiratorial, relying on propaganda and messaging instead of generating sound ideas that generate public support..

They cannot grasp why trickle-out government spending (which only goes to selected contractors in a few niche markets) failed to broadly spur the economy and generate jobs like across-the-board tax cuts can (cuts which do not discriminate, are instantaneous and hit every nook and corner of the country). The liberals hid the reality of Obamacare, where their version of saving medical costs is to limit available services. Health care is now all about diverting billions of dollars into creating a massive bureaucracy to oversee everyone’s participation in Obamacare – not a dime of which will be spent on doctors or patients, new drugs or preventive care. How will these ‘watchers’ save a life? How can they when they are siphoning off needed dollars?

It is no wonder 90% of the country is in opposition – they all have the common sense and intelligence to see why liberal fantasies are recipes for disaster. But the damage being done to the left is not just to a political party.

The next blow to hit  is going to be the “Journolist” Conspiracy. While serendipitous moments of like-minded thinking can be expected in the leftward biased world of ‘journalism’ – and tolerated – the realization that a cadre of left wing zealots have attempted to control the nation’s media focus and help their ‘team’ get elected smacks of a high crime. These people are allowed their own opinions, but they are not allowed to twist the nation’s through coordinate misinformation and lies.

Take the ugly war on Governor Sarah Palin, and put yourself or someone you know in her shoes. She is simply someone who arose out of Main Street to do what she felt was right (and succeeded). But to the far left, she was a threat:

“What a joke,” added Jeffrey Toobin of the New Yorker. “I always thought that some part of McCain doesn’t want to be president, and this choice proves my point. Welcome back, Admiral Stockdale.”

Daniel Levy of the Century Foundation noted that Obama’s “non-official campaign” would need to work hard to discredit Palin. “This seems to me like an occasion when the non-official campaign has a big role to play in defining Palin, shaping the terms of the conversation and saying things that the official [Obama] campaign shouldn’t say – very hard-hitting stuff, including some of the things that people have been noting here – scare people about having this woefully inexperienced, no foreign policy/national security/right-wing christia wing-nut a heartbeat away …… bang away at McCain’s age making this unusually significant …. I think people should be replicating some of the not-so-pleasant viral email campaigns that were used against [Obama].”

Emphasis mine. If you can stomach it, a review of the mad Andrew Sullivan and his obsession with the Palin’s youngesrt son Trig/ It is a classic case of an emotionally disturbed human being. Sullivan has single handedly created a completely new variation of ‘stalking’.

This is not America, this is some insecure lefty railing against his personal demons. As we all know the best anyone could claim was Palin and Obama had similar levels of inexperience on foreign policy, etc. Palin clearly had much more administrative experience than the community organizer who claimed running a Senate campaign was good enough. But the anti-christian thing is just ugly. Just as ugly as the most crass racism.

This Levy tool is likely a planted agitator, set in place to lead the not-so-bright others on journolist to do the bidding of his masters. Otherwise he is a delusional nut. Either way he represents the worst of humanity, let alone America.

As we uncover this cadre of propagandists, creating half truths from the depths of their insecurity with diversity of opinion, we come face to face with a classical inner demon of humanity: fear. Liberals hate Christians/Catholics for some weird and inexplicable reason. Maybe the feel inferior to them, who knows. I am not religious, but being in a church does not make me feel hate towards those in attendance. I know I am of a differing view, but that does not make me despise them.

Liberals hate fiscal conservatives. They want to have people rely on the mythical goodness of government instead of having to work and compete for personal success. Is it because they have allows felt out-classed, not quite up to the challenge? What drives this fear of the open market which the rest of us – existing in that open market – embrace and support?

Whatever drives these people, they have gone beyond the bounds of acceptable actions. You cannot bribe and force into law left wing policies that fail, and then expect credibility and respect. You cannot rely on gutter character assassination, followed by unproven cries of victimhood, to endow you with public sympathy (don’t being calling ‘cracker’ a ‘racist’ unless you got some hard and indisputable evidence). You cannot use a conspiracy of thug-like propaganda tactics to inspire people or win their hearts. The Journolist Conspiracy illustrates how the left tried to manufacture credibility and respect for their side out of falsehoods and lies aimed at their opponents. It just does not work that way.

The liberal/progressive movement has been based on brutal and simple minded strategies. America was built on inspiration, dedication and honor. It should be no surprise the two would not mix well.

Sources tell ABC News that Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pennsylvania, has informed the White House that he would like to consider remaining in public service after his Senate term ends at the end of this session, and White House officials are keeping an open mind about possible job openings for him.

Specter, who was defeated in his March primary by Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pennsylvania, is a close friend of Vice President Joe Biden and someone praised for his leadership in pushing for greater funding for the National Institutes of Health.

Specter is also a bit of a Benedict Arnold, who flipped to the Dems on the promise of Obama removing Sestak and other competition from the Democrat primary so he could hold onto his seat. The bribe of an administration job was offered to Sestak, right on queue (more here), but Sestak balked. Clearly plan B in the quid pro quo was some cushy (and highly paid) government job if Specter failed to be elected.

As we know Sestak was not the only one offered a bribe to get out of a senate primary. And those are the two we know of because the DECLINED the offers. And how about the wheeling and dealing being exposed in the Blago trial?

But wait, there’s more! Remember that greeding-frenzy during the health care debate? You had the Louisiana Purchase bribe for Dem Senator Landrieu and  the Corn Huckster bribe for Dem Senator BenNelson. Florida’s Medicare Advantage plan was spared cuts other states would have to shoulder, a special deal for Dem Senator Bill Nelson. And of course the one set of health insurance plans immune to Obamacare are union health care plans.

Yep, from where I sit the bribe and greed in DC is very much visible. The problem is of course, this is just the tip of a foul iceberg. This goes way deeper and broader than what is being reported ‘in the open’.

The “we’re just asking questions” rationale seems to be the explanation du jour for the tiresome and self-destructive continuing “Birther” fixation of some journalists who purport to be on the Right.  As depicted in a fairly straightforwardWashington Independent article, WorldNetDaily Editor-in-Chief Joseph Farah used his Friday night dinner speech at the Tea Party convention to “raise questions” about the President Obama’s citizenship, much to the disgust of other attendees, including Andrew Breitbart.  “It’s self-indulgent, it’s narcissistic, it’s a losing issue,” Breitbart told one of Farah’s minions, his frustration evident.

Let me add a few more adjectives.  It’s “stupid,” “irrational” and “destructive” of everything we are fighting for.  The movement might as well take out its figurative .45, aim directly at its foot, and pull the trigger.

Read the whole thing and realize the centrists are fed up with the fringe and will reject anyone stained with fringe thinking. We need people with good heads on their shoulders who are not distracted by conspiracies and paranoia. We need to lead this nation forward by finding solutions to complex problems. No one wants to waste their time with this silly nonsense. If people are interested in moving this country forward, get past this stuff and onto the real issues of national security and personal financial security. Those are tough enough.

As Allah Pundit notes at Hot Air Governor Palin came very close to destroying her political future when she was asked about President Obama’s birth certificate being a possible issue in 2012. I say close because you can read her answer two ways. The one way is the way the left will latch onto try and tar her with birther madness.

But I read her response as trying address the general concept of probing a candidates background and a bit of an attempt not to ridicule the birthers:

Would you make the birth certificate an issue if you ran?

I think the public, rightfully, is still making it an issue. I don’t have a problem with that. I don’t know if I would have to bother to make it an issue ’cause I think there are enough members of the electorate who still want answers.

Do you think it’s a fair question to be looking at?

I think it’s a fair question, just like I think past associations and past voting record — all of that is fair game. You know, I’ve got to tell you, too: I think our campaign, the McCain/Palin campaign didn’t do a good enough job in that area. We didn’t call out Obama and some of his associates on their records and what their beliefs were and perhaps what their future plans were. And I don’t think that that was fair to voters to not have done our jobs as candidates and as a campaign to bring to light a lot of the things that now we’re seeing made manifest in the administration.

I mean, truly, if your past is fair game and your kids are fair game, certainly Obama’s past should be. I mean, we want to treat men and women equally, right?

Hey, you know, that’s a great point, in that weird conspiracy-theory freaky thing that people talk about that Trig isn’t my real son. And a lot of people say, “Well you need to produce his birth certificate! You need to prove that he’s your kid!” Which we have done. But yeah, so maybe we could reverse that and use the same [unintelligible]-type thinking on them.

It was one of those topical tight rope walks (which all candidates do). Sadly, it was a tight rope she need not walk. The Birthers are not worth reaching out to because you then lose the other 95% of the country.

Her follow statement makes that clear – she is not going to become the birther candidate.

Voters have every right to ask candidates for information if they so choose. I’ve pointed out that it was seemingly fair game during the 2008 election for many on the left to badger my doctor and lawyer for proof that Trig is in fact my child. Conspiracy-minded reporters and voters had a right to ask… which they have repeatedly. But at no point – not during the campaign, and not during recent interviews – have I asked the president to produce his birth certificate or suggested that he was not born in the United States.

I am not surprised former Governor of Alaska from small town America is going to stumble here and there. It is part of her common roots charm. America is fed up with fancy dressed, smooth talking, say anything politicians. Being imperfect will not destroy Palin’s relationship with America, because it is a core part of her relationship to American.

Not to mention that America will give her a lot of slack after the un-American crap thrown at her personally last year. The left, in their usual harsh clumsiness, provided her a huge shield of sympathy.

Got Sarah’s book (actually we got two copies so the political junkies did not have to take turns) and just started reading it. Might comment on it more – probably won’t though. It doesn’t seem to require a lot of over analyzing and fact checking by media and blogger mental midgets.

One of the things Americans despise about the Political Industrial Complex is the idea that the complex must interpret events and information for us normal Americans. Class A arrogance without anything to back it up. Most talking heads and news media folks can’t grasp a majority of what real life is all about, let alone interpret it. They don’t understand what it takes to feed this nation, educate this nation, defend this nation, expand this nation’s economy, etc. When it comes to science – forget about it.

The news media in general are watchers who keep failing in their attempt to explain what we all do. They are not even a worthy peanut gallery, self absorbed as they are.

Palin’s book is doing one important thing – it is sifting the angry, insecure elitist from the sympathetic and respectful. Sarah is still one of us from Main Street – we all live a variant of the “American Life”. And we are all rogues – in that we all cherish our individuality and when we break the settled pattern and succeed. We all do this in our day to day lives, when we crack the tough problems that stumped others. And we all take our turn with our coworkers, friends and family in going rogue and solving a problem. We feel pride when we do it, we are genuinely impressed when someone we know and/or love has their moment.

Which is why attacking Sarah can ruin credibility forever. The small minded obsessives (e.g., little Andy Sullivan comes to mind) who feel a need to be bitterly negative because she wrote a book about herself and her experiences in being a woman candidate for the 2nd top office of the land are not exposing Sarah! The ugly reflection on America we see comes from Sarah’s enemies.

Populism is back because the Political Industrial Complex has failed repeatedly to grow up, straighten up and get something done right (I would say a recent  exception to that rule was President George W Bush on many, many issues). And when that happens, We The People clean house – and not just elected houses (as can be noted in the demise of the lame news media and biased and shoddy products).

Update: Palin’s book is already in the next book run, but they are going to need a lot more the 1.6 million copies.

Update: Palin on Rush:

Part One

Part Two

“Virginia, hello, this is Sarah Palin calling to urge you to go to the polls Tuesday and vote to share our principles,” the former Alaska governor says in the call, which was provided to CNN by one Democrat who recorded it. “The eyes of America will be on Virginia and make no mistake about it, every vote counts. So don’t take anything for granted, vote your values on Tuesday, and urge your friends and family to vote, too.”

No mention of McDonnell, which is fine. I prefer she endorse the entire swath of GOP candidates who are going to knock out Democrats large and small across the state tomorrow in an undeniable backlash against the DC liberals in Congress and the White House. She surely is not supporting Deeds!

But this race is over, not sure what these calls do other than get the anti-Dem crowd out in vast numbers. Once the damage is tallied in VA it will be crystal clear this was not just an isolated race or one candidate. It is the first warning sign of a tsunami heading for the Democrat Party.

Is Palin trying to associate herself with this movement? I hope so. But everyone must remember this movement will not be co-opted by any one group. This is not the far right rising, this is not the centrists rising, this is not the GOP rising. This is America rising in opposition to liberal democrats – and that is plenty enough.

A new Politico piece is out today, dutifully reporting the spin which was flowing through the partisan blogosphere yesterday – an unfortunate reaction to net-hype by a ‘so called’ news outlet:

Vincent’s past projects include co-writing the memoir of General William Boykin, who blasted the media and President George W. Bush alike for ending his career over his casting the war on terror in overtly religious terms. Her most political book, “Donkey Cons,” describes the Democratic Party since its inception as “pro-gangster” and the “party of treason and subversion.” Her work for World Magazine, where she was an editor, includes a description of President Barack Obama as the “minority survivor” of the “black genocide” – that is, abortion.

First off, I think it is safe to assume this is a cherry picked selection of Vincent’s work. That’s how these hit pieces find some air, through distortion and exaggeration. But I do see a problem here: Vincent is probably too hot in her rhetoric to provide the calm and reason the nation wants right now. But then again, is this about Vincent or Palin?

We as a nation are sick and tired of the partisan zealots arguing over which side of the spectrum is the smartest and more capable to tell us other rubes how to live right. The Democrats as a whole are not “the party of treason”. There are some far left liberals (mostly visible now in DC and in the media) who would love to change this country into a socialist, central control, fantasy of dictatorial perfection (and perks for the select elite). But there are bizarre counter parts with the same delusions of Godliness on the right. These are the exceptions, not the rule in the nation as a whole.

What we don’t need is to change America or fracture Americans. We don’t need a hyper-partisan. We need someone like Sarah Palin has been demonstrated to be so far. Honest and blunt in a kidding way – not a threatening or demeaning way. Someone who can honor our differences and represent our diversity – not someone trying to shape us into their image of a perfect society.

Lynn Vincent may be getting a bum wrap here, odds are she is given the Political Industrial Complex and their fear of normal America taking over. From day one the left and media elite (and some conservatives violating Reagan’s 11th commandment) have tried to paint Palin as a religious zealot. I have never once seen anything to back up those claims.

So I read this article and noted some troubling evidence of my own:

Sarah Palin’s most consequential choice since leaving the Alaska governor’s mansion may be her co-author – a staunch conservative, devoted evangelical Christian, and intensely partisan Republican from far, far outside the Beltway.

Some things don’t work here. “Staunch Conservative” and “Intensely Partisan Republican” are either redundant or an oxymoron. Trying to use both points to an effort to exaggerate – a lot.  That’s like saying Vincent is really, really, really, really on the right side of politics.

“Devoted evangelical Christian” means nothing more than the woman goes to church regularly. Again, why bring this up unless your trying to create an impression. Another sign this is not reporting but a political PR piece.

And the worst is always left for last: “from far, far outside the Beltway”

Yeah, Palin and Vincent are from that land far, far outside the Beltway (why do I feel a Shrek analogy is called for?). The Ogres from Main Street are coming to town and the Political Industrial Complex has their Paul Revere’s crying the alarm.

This so called reporting is actually another sign of the power of Palin to disrupt and shake up the Political Industrial Complex. Vincent may be too far right to be elected to office, but she is not running for office. So far I have seen nothing to prove Vincent is outside the boundaries of main stream America (which is really a very broad and diverse group of people). Some people are intense, few of us can get elected.

What is really pathetic in this blatant political piece trying to masquerade as news (sort of reminds me of Shrek again, all gussied up in formal wear) is the attempt to transmute Vincent into Palin:

Palin’s choice of Vincent suggests that hers will be, emphatically, a partisan tract. And it is of a piece with a post-election posture in which the nation’s most intensely popular, and most intensely unpopular, Republican has chosen to deepen her bond with her base at the cost of antipathy from the independent voters who decide presidential elections.

Well, this is all supposition with an overdose of wishful thinking thrown in. Palin has never pushed cultural conservative issues into political policies. Not once that I could find. Lord knows the left tried to find an example of this (remember the whole book banning in the libraries lies).

“The success of this book will rise and fall on who much it appeals to the Christian right,” Nelson said.

I found this quote particularly damning of the hit job has a whole. This Nelson person has no relationship to the book, Vincent or Palin. She is offering an outside opinion that isn’t worth a dime. But it does give a chance to reinforce that evil phrase again: “Christian right”.

People of faith scare the daylights out of elites. The churches of elites  are different than the ones sprinkled in the neighborhoods of this great nation. They focus on different things. The elites fear people who actually live and breathe their religious beliefs. They come from the Church of “its OK to cut corners”.

For the record, I don’t attend church anymore. I believe I learned what I needed about living a positive spiritual life when I attended as a kid. I also have a serious problem with the way the Roman Catholic Church sees women as second class. So religion and I parted ways (not God and I). I always wondered about those who go for show more than reason. One of those puzzles I will never solve I guess.

Anyway, Palin does have to manage the image (if not the reality) of her religious side and connections with those who are more strident. Vincent is probably a great writer and could work positively with Sarah Palin to get herself on paper, focus on the important stuff. After the fiasco of the DC handlers mucking things up during the 2008 election I am not surprised Palin went for far, far outside the beltway.

Palin will control the tenor and priorities –  not Vincent. It is too early for anyone to make judgement on the book and its message. Which, in the end, is why this hit piece from Politico is not a warning sign for Sarah yet, but a sign of more panic from the Political Industrial Complex.

Which segues me nicely into an incredibly insightful piece by Jay Cost on the hubris of President Obama. While the article’s focus is on Obama’s problematic relationship with America as a whole, the same observations apply to the Political Industrial Complex (left and right) as a whole. This fracture between those who led this nation into this partisan snake pit (the pols, the hype-addicted news media, the talking heads, handlers, lobbyists, and partisan consultant) and the nation itself is summarized nicely in the piece:

We all know that President Obama has a Republican problem, namely the 200 or so Republican members of Congress who refuse to go along with his health care reform plans. However, I think he might also be developing a republican problem. Namely, I think he is having trouble keeping his ego within the boundaries of an office that fundamentally reflects the republican quality of this country.

It is difficult to nail down precisely what “republicanism” means. It has had different meanings in different places at different times. In the United States, it conjures up the notion of self-government: the people are capable of ruling themselves, and the authority of the leaders derives from the consent of the governed, rather than some aristocratic pedigree or superior position in life.

…

Ironically, the sense that the President is no better than any of us is a major reason why the office is so powerful, or at least why it can be. A President who appears to be of the people, rather than above them, can more easily rally them to his cause, thereby forcing the Congress to do as he likes. It is not coincidental that the first stirrings of the modern, powerful presidency can be seen in the administration of Andrew Jackson, who was thought by his opponents to be the leader of a mob.

…

Since he emerged on the national stage, Barack Obama has not been the model of American republicanism. This was the case during the campaign, and it continues today. Juxtapose the simple respectability of the White House with these images taken from the Obama-Biden campaign website.

Read the whole thing, it really distills down the problem the people in DC are having with those of us outside the Beltway.  And Palin is the figure head for all of us outside the beltway – that is why she stirs up so much fear. The problem for Obama and all these DC clowns is their egos. They see themselves as the white knights come to save America:

There are two problems with the attitude that Gerson has correctly identified. First, it’s fair to criticize the actions of the previous administration to a point, but speeches like his U.N. address often move beyond that to suggest a broader failure, one that implicates the mass public. For instance, the best rejoinder he has to those who question the “character” of his country is: “look at the concrete actions we have taken in just nine months,” which he suggests are “just a beginning.” This rhetoric does not befit the leader of a democratic republic, especially one as great as the United States of America. The President should be willing and able to defend the “character” of his country beyond his own, inconsequential-to-date actions.

Second, the implication here is that his administration has sanctified our character. No administration can do that in a republic because no administration possesses the moral standing to offer such a blessing. He is the equal of the people in every measure. He temporarily holds an office whose magnificence is dependent upon the goodness of the people he represents. Yet this President implies a claim to such moral superiority – in the above quoted sentence, then later on when he says: “The test of our leadership will not be the degree to which we feed the fears and old hatreds of our people.” No President should suggest that his people would fall prey to fear and hatred were it not for his leadership – even if he thought this were true. And he surely should not air such “dirty laundry” to an international audience that does not understand how this country actually functions. Instead, he should claim that he leads a great people who have the wisdom and equanimity not to fall prey to such fears, and it is his hope that he can emulate them.

We are getting an ear full of “I have never been proud of my country until now” and “Its all because I am here doing what I am doing that we are now whole”. Obama and the DC elites are piling it on too thick to stomach. Makes one almost want to throw up.

Add into the political mix the Nanny state attacks on babysitting, garage sales, riding bikes to school and the take over of our health care and you see a tipping point going by.

We do not worship  our leaders, we hold them accountable. 90% of us would prefer to do things ourselves, our way, and have the fools in DC be quiet and just keep the trains running on time. But this generation of leaders really think they are special. Sadly, when you look people like Kerry, Gore and others all you see are people kidding themselves. ‘Special’ just doesn’t work with these people trying to keep up with a rapidly changing, modern, complex world.

As the facade was ripped from the news media, and this nation grew to realize there was a bottomless pit of information which we could digest and synthesize better than the talking heads on TV could ever hope (we miss you Dan!- not) I think  the facade of the all powerful, all knowing, all wise political leader is falling away as well.

The internet has brought us close to each other, even though we may never physically meet. That kind of familiarity tends to rip away romantic facades. But the core of reality, while less grand, is no less inspiring or intriguing.

We don’t think in terms of simple platitudes, and we don’t need to be told what to do. When our leaders listen to what we want or need, and work to prioritize our needs and desires into a community plan acceptable to most in the community, they will have arrived into the modern world.

If they keep trying to walk on water in their own minds – fuggataboudit.

The Birther fools out there are making any real opposition to the failed liberal policies of President Obama and the liberal old guard in Congress a laughing stock.

The angry-mob style protesters who have infiltrated town halls around the country are the non-organic product of “tea-baggers,” “birthers,” and the conservative fringe, two Senate Democratic leaders said Tuesday.

Speaking outside the White House after meeting with President Obama, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois and Chuck Schumer of New York both dismissed the significance of boisterous protesters who have been interrupting Democratic lawmakers’ events.

“It is a small fringe group,” Schumer told the Huffington Post, “and if we let a small group of people who want to monopolize the conversation and not listen to the facts win, you may as well hang it up.”

To make a resounding argument Obama and his liberal friends have royally screwed up the economy with their government run stimulus disaster does require a modicum of credibility. No matter how sane and logical the argument, it doesn’t carry weight when the person or group making it are rightfully seen as clowns.

I mean seriously, who in the hell is going to believe any thing Al Franken says is serious, thoughtful or important? 

Only other clowns.

The failed policies that Obama and his fellow liberals inflicted on this country for generations to come are serious, very serious. The lunatic conspiracy idiots are clowns and forgers - the two discussions should not be combined. But the GOP let this brain damage spread throughout its ranks unchecked, allowing those same liberals who screwed up to blame the birthers – who are clearly a fringe group – for any and all counter arguments.

By doing so these clowns are allowing Obama and the liberals to escape responsibility and be free to do more damage.

Only the far right could screw up as bad as the far left. Ugh – where is the sanity and maturity?

Somebody has to be last, be the example of failure and poor emotional stability. These people are it:

Todd and Sarah Palin to divorce:

A National Enquirer story exposing previous affairs on both sides led to a deterioration of their marriage and the stress from that led to Palin’s resignation as governor of Alaska last week.

The National Enquirer? Oh please. Let me guess, one of the affairs was with a visiting Martian couple?

Exclusive! Sarah and Todd Palin are Splitsville!:

Earlier this week one of my best sources claimed to have explosive new information for me.

It took all week for us to finally get together, but last night we finally sat down for an amazing conversation. And what I heard made my jaw drop.

This from the aptly named ‘immoral minority’ – aka ‘scum of the earth’, ‘big  time loser’, whiney wannabe’. This is what we learned from the top link about this source:

UPDATE by RAM: So, let me understand the “story” according to Zaki and other “journalists”…

At the beginning of the month, Zaki reported that Gov. Palin was being investigated by the FBI and was going to jail. That turned out to be false. Last week, the ADN reported that Gov. Palin was moving to the Hamptons. That turned out to be false. Today, Zaki reports that Gov. Palin is moving to Montana after throwing her wedding ring into Lake Lucille. That turns out to be false.

They are reporting blatant lies. Quit making things up! 

Like I said – scum. Definitely not our nation’s finest. 

What this blow up exposes is a searing fear on the liberal left. They see Obama’s failures stacking up. They see him tacking to the center to salvage what he can. They see their global warming and government managed health care myths imploding. They are frightened that they are failing only a few steps from the golden ring.

This is just the beginning. These animals are cornered and so close to their treasure they will become much uglier. You can count on it.

Palin’s complaints about unfair treatment by the news media resonate with many respondents. Three-fourths of Republicans, more than half of independents and a third of Democrats say coverage of Palin has been unfairly negative.

When it comes to a potential presidential run, the USA TODAY Poll displays Palin’s strength in the Republican base and weakness among swing voters, who traditionally decide national elections. Republicans by 71%-27% say they’d be likely to vote for her if she ran for president in 2012, while independents by 51%-44% would not.

This is the starting point for Palin, not the final result. It will take very little to move the Independents her way. Far less than years of historically high unemployment will do to the American view of the screw ups in DC.

“I am now looking ahead and how we can advance this country together with our values of less government intervention, greater energy independence, stronger national security, and much-needed fiscal restraint,” the former Republican vice presidential candidate wrote in a posting on her Facebook page. Palin’s spokeswoman, Meghan Stapleton, confirmed Palin wrote the entry.

One thing I did forget to mention in the previous post which is clear today – Palin is going to shove as much crow down as many arrogant, mouthy throats in the Political Industrial Complex as she can. And America will be cheering her on for the next decade as she does so. And she began today:

“To the extent several websites, most notably liberal Alaska blogger Shannyn Moore, are now claiming as ‘fact’ that Governor Palin resigned because she is ‘under federal investigation’ for embezzlement or other criminal wrongdoing, we will be exploring legal options this week to address such defamation,” Van Flein said in a statement. “This is to provide notice to Ms. Moore, and those who re-publish the defamation, such as Huffington Post, MSNBC, the New York Times and The Washington Post, that the Palins will not allow them to propagate defamatory material without answering to this in a court of law.”

…

The FBI reiterated that claim Saturday, telling the Los Angeles Times for a story Sunday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation was not investigating Palin’s activities as governor, a former mayor or in any other capacity.

“There is absolutely no truth to those rumors that we’re investigating her or getting ready to indict her,” Special Agent Eric Gonzalez, the bureau’s Alaska spokesman, said.

You go Sarah. The center will rise up and ride a wave of disgust and anger, and clean out the political industrial complex. After the parties have yacked and yacked about taking back American, Palin can ride a grass roots wave to make it happen.

Update: This guy nails it much better than I did.

To the Beltway-Big Apple pundit elites, the idea that anyone would (or could, or should) live a life not centered on the government-Ivy League-media capital corridor is simply an idea that is not on their radar.  That Palin did not have such a life, and was not interested in such a life, was by definition a disqualification in their minds. That she was not willing to do anything to curry their favor was simply not forgiveable. The only possible reason was that she must be too stupid to realize that all wisdom worth having is contained within this rather closed circle of geographies, people and philosophies.

Its called an “echo chamber”.

For all those who smear her with asinine conspiracy theories – the mirror is on you. For example, Iran’s revolution not withstanding, Andrew Sullivan sunk from an interesting political commentator to all out scum over Palin. His hate of her destroyed him, and left Sarah completely untouched and a sympathetic victim to Sullivan’s mad ravings.

And to the Palin’s. Good luck in life. I agree with the decision. Sarah had accomplished a lot, and the muck loving Sullivans in the world had made it nearly impossible to do more  for Alaska. They have a Phyrric victory, but again, you can destroy something for the moment, but the act itself destroys you 100 times over.

I strongly hope Sarah will be back next year, building her Congressional base in 2010 that will lift her into 2012. I know she is wondering if it is all worth it. I can only give her this advice. Your son is in Iraq trying to make the world better for all of us. He is risking it all. All of our families will be suffering for decades to come if the Democrats are pulled from office for the ineptitude and failures. You too may have to sacrifice a lot for this country. But at least it will not be the same as those who gave the ultimate sacrifice in the war on terror.

You will lose your wonderful life if you become President. It doesn’t mean you won’t enter into another kind of wonderful life. It will never, of course, be as wonderful. That is the price that always must be paid to make things better. - end update

 

All the crotchety conservatives and muck-spewing liberals are attacking Governor Palin’s decision to step down and prepare for what I believe is a run for President on 2012. I won’t go into all the bizarre theories from the chattering political addicts – not worth a sane person’s time.

But if you are a Main Street, average person you can clearly see how you might grab the chance to make history if you were in her place. The decision process is straight forward and simple, which is why the naggers are all flummoxed and left with dumb insults.

• First off, the Palin’s live very simple and inexpensive lives. They can probably live better than ever before off political events and speeches, than on the typical governor’s salary. This gives them income so they can focus on one thing, and one thing only.
• Secondly, Palin has wrapped up her big issue for the year – the natural gas pipeline project. It is now in the hands of companies and the Canadian and US governments to complete. She did her part and can declare huge successes in her term this and many other big wins. She can move on confident that her marks on Alaska will be providing benefits for years and years to come.
• Third, the national spotlight and ankle biting muck rakers have blunted what she could do in Alaska in the future. Most Alaskans like Alaska off the mainland’s radar map. It is an easy decision to walk away and give Alaska back to her people. It much better than to keeping the media circus mucking things up and spoiling the environment there. Only those who cannot live without a fawning press would not understand.
• Fourth, she has time to settle back, think this out, and get Trig through his first two years. She has the time and money to get him through the tough parts, so she can then do what it will take to get on the national campaign trail again. This is the perfect time to take control of the tempo, and focus on Trig for a while.
• Fifth, Obama and the Dems sealed their fate when they blew the stimulus bill by relying on the sluggish federal bureaucracy to stimulate the economy. It is now an unavoidable economic disaster for the Dems. There is no way to turn it around any more,and there is no way for Dems to blame the successful Governor from Alaska for their utter failures. The opportunity to ‘excite’ the economy back into forward gear is gone. No one is going to buy any more BS from DC. Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us twice – ain’t going to happen. There days are numbered. All it takes to remove them are some centrist conservatives.

The low lifes in America will spin their ugly fantasies about Palin – all the time bolstering Palin in the eyes of families and women of all ages and all across this great nation. It is the attack on this average American mother from Alaska which has America rejecting the fringes left and right. Enough is enough.

Palin can sail through the middle of the maelstrom as far right and far left keep self destructing. Only those willing to moderate their views and respect diversity of opinion will survive the coming cleansing of politics. 

She has plenty of time to strategize and prepare for the grueling tests to come, to arrive at a time where the Dems will be crippled and the far right only marginally less scarred. It is a common sense move – too subtle for all those arrogant know-it-alls who, in the end, have accomplished basically nothing. But they do know how to insult others. That much we all know very well. It is a trait we don’t need any more in this country. It is a poor trade for real, honest leadership.

Allah Pundit has a great overview of useless speculation!

Update: Here is the video. She is not the lame duck type, she made that clear. I am more convinced after hearing the speech she is actually setting the stage for the Lt Governor to reap the incumbency benefits, allowing the GOP to hold the state house, as she prepares for 2012.  

 

Folks, I put together the bullets above before I saw or read the speech. Seems I was damn close. The delusional ranting from the left is quite humorous. Hope they enjoy crow. She is not going quietly into the night – that much is clear.

BTW Todd and Sarah – sign me up!

A Quinnipiac University poll found Specter would defeat a conservative Republican who is in the race, Pat Toomey, if the election were held today by 53 percent to 33 percent.

But the picture was much closer if a popular former governor of Pennsylvania, Republican Tom Ridge, were to jump into the race.

The poll found Specter leading Ridge by only a margin of 46 percent to 43 percent.

So why is Ridge more competitive? He is, of course, a moderate Republican (see here for one example). One of those stinking RINOs the far right always growls about.

It is quite clear to everyone that the far right is out of favor with the electorate. The ‘true conservatives’ (as Sean Hannity calls himself, I did not make up the moniker) think the country is just waiting for their return to power. They could not be more wrong – from what I can see no one is shedding a single tear at their demise.

If conservatism is to arise from the ashes of the far right, it will have to be in the form of a more centrist conservative movement. It will be in the form of someone fresh and new who is a moderate reformer. Someone like Sarah Palin or Rudy Giuliani.

Update: Only fools on the right would take swipes at Governor Palin, who drew record crowds and owns the title of most watch Presidential-Vice Presidential debate in all history. She was the only person who could compete with Obama, and still the tired old GOP just cannot accept her as the new face of the party:

In the latest instance of a high-profile GOP member taking a passing swipe at the party’s 2008 vice-presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Governor and GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney jokingly dismissed Sarah Palin’s inclusion on Time’s list of influential people in an interview broadcast Sunday. 

He asked, was “the issue on the most beautiful people or the most influential people?”

Romney could not hold a candle to Palin on the stump, but there he goes with a demeaning comment insinuating she is all looks and no substance. How will this make inroads with the women’s vote? 

Palin, to her credit was much more classy:

“I think there are 100 influential Republicans alone who have tremendous ideas and I hope that we can all work together to accomplish what we believe is best for America,” Palin said through a spokeswoman.

Who better reflects the proud American family? No contest. The GOP is making a huge mistake by not embracing Palin, instead they are cowering in front of the viscious liberal media:

Romney’s comments were striking because such grumbling is rarely expressed in public by high-ranking Republicans. Instead, GOP officials typically strive to ignore Palin, routinely leaving her off lists of the party’s rising stars even though she still retains a significant following among grassroots conservatives and may run for president in 2012. 

The euphemistic mantra is that the party has to rebuild based on policy solutions – not the “personalities” the media insists on focusing their attention on.

Backstabbing Palin like this is why moderates and centrist bolted the conservative movement.

Update: The word is getting out – the purity wars are killing conservatism:

What makes no sense at all is the even more prevalent view in the party that fence-sitters such as Mr Specter should have been purged already – that the path back to power lies in ideological purity and a re-energised conservative base.

One thinks of the British Labour party’s reaction to Margaret Thatcher’s victory in 1979. Labour lost because it had not been socialist enough, was the party’s diagnosis: it needed to be truer to itself. Having forgotten how you win elections – namely, by occupying the middle ground – the party then lost its desire to win them. Better to be true to your principles and out of power than to compromise. True to its principles, it was out of power for nearly 20 years, and the Thatcher revolution transformed the country.

…

The party needs to frame practical, coherent, and above all centrist alternatives to what Mr Obama and his congressional allies are doing. Instead, it wants to shore up its base, chant its slogans and purge its moderates. You have to laugh. Yet this gleeful suicidal tendency is sad as well as funny. There is plenty of scope for calm, centrist criticism of Mr Obama’s bold progressive agenda. The country needs exactly this.

How long will it take the right to wake up to reality? Can they get their act together in a few months in order to stop the damage of the left, or will they screw around for 20 years avoiding reality?