Vote for Romney

Don’t tell Karen’s Dad

I received an e-mail from Karen—maybe you did too.  My problem is I have 5 or 6 Karens in my contact list, plus others I know with whom I don’t regularly correspond, so I don’t know who Karen is.  Maybe it’s a Tea Party plant?  Trying to show that the opposition of softening?  Maybe it’s a liberal plant, hoping to show the opposition that they haven’t completely undone the Obama support.  She hasn’t answered by return note, so here it is:

I am sick and tired of politics!

Over the last couple of years, there has been a lot of tension over politics, and that division has intruded into my relationship with family and friends -- particularly now with the upcoming election.

In 2008, I voted for Obama. That was my right -- I am a good person and I voted for him for good reasons. But that decision has created stress between some of us, and that has been hurtful. Yes, sometimes I have thrown Obama in your face and I am sorry about that -- I truly am.

Here is the thing. I don't think you are stupid because you voted for McCain in '08, and I'm not stupid because I voted for Barack Obama. We both want our country to go in the right direction, but we just have a difference of opinion as to what that direction is, and I'm entitled to my opinion.

I didn't vote for Obama because of all the "hope and change" stuff. I voted for him because I could relate to him on so many levels and I trusted him. If this guy were my neighbor, I would give him the key to my house. I admire the fact that from his very difficult childhood and struggles rose a candidate for president of the Untied States -- and an African-American with an unusual name!

I could relate to his desire to help people who most need it, to help the poor and elderly, children without medical care, and women in need. It seems like Republicans want to cut the important things people need most, and help the rich get richer. I feel like Republicans think Obama supporters are stupid.

I was excited that Obama was going to end the policies of George Bush. I have to tell you, I really didn't like George Bush, and though I still feel that way about him, after four years it's not as clear to me why.

But Obama against McCain, that was easy. Obama is more like me, energetic, young, loves his family.

I got a glimpse of the Obama motorcade on arrival for the debates here in Denver, and that was cool -- though it held up a lot of traffic, which was not cool.
I watched this year's first presidential debate closely and was disappointed in Obama. I found him depressing.

However, the Barack Obama I saw in the second debate the other night is the Obama I voted for in '08!

He was "hitting on all cylinders" as Dad would say ... but he wouldn't about Obama, would he. ;-)

I woke up Wednesday morning feeling invigorated. I had a chance to talk about the debate with friends, and some agreed with me. That was "the real Obama" seemed to be the consensus, but my two best friends didn't share my enthusiasm.
Later in the day, I ran into some friends who agreed that Obama won the debate -- but they had some harsh criticism. One of my colleagues at the University said to me that she felt betrayed, like she had been tricked into voting for Obama the first time. A guy friend was much more callous, saying that he was now convinced that Obama was a phony and a liar.

These two people were Obama's biggest fans in '08. Did they watch the same debate I watched Tuesday?

Last night I had the uneasy feeling that something wasn't right, something was out of place. After all the good vibes with the debate, I now find myself wondering if Obama was sincere, or if what I heard was just talk aimed at "emotional women," like I'm not smart enough to vote on what I think rather than how I feel.

And the more I think about all his comments Tuesday night, against the backdrop of the reality that things have gotten much worse in the last four years, not better as he seemed to claim, I'm not sure I trust Obama anymore. I'm more concerned now than I was in '08.

I think that Obama is still a good person and he wanted to do good things, but I'm bothered by the fact that he didn't take responsibility for where our economy is now. That troubles me the most. It seems like he hasn't grown into the job and hasn't done much of anything he said he would do, and he's still blaming George Bush. Meanwhile, the number of unemployed citizens and poor families has grown a lot.

So why am I writing you?

I know Mitt Romney is a genuine person who really does love his family, who really does care about people from all walks of life. Part of me doesn't like the fact that part of me likes Romney! I am conflicted. I'm not writing to say that I am voting for Romney, but I have decided not to vote for Obama.

Don't tell Dad or I'll never hear the end of it!
Karen

What is also part of the cover-up

Obama’s Middle East policy is a disaster.  Maybe you didn’t like Bush’s policies in Afghanistan and Iraq, but at least he got the approval of Congress—Republicans and Democrats.  Obama has seriously expanded the war, with no approval from us via our representatives, and the guns are about as secure as they were in Fast and Furious.  Here the NYT actually puts the bad news in the lede:

Most of the arms shipped at the behest of Saudi Arabia and Qatar to supply Syrian rebel groups fighting the government of Bashar al-Assad are going to hard-line Islamic jihadists, and not the more secular opposition groups that the West wants to bolster, according to American officials and Middle Eastern diplomats.

That conclusion, of which President Obama and other senior officials are aware from classified assessments of the Syrian conflict that has now claimed more than 25,000 lives, casts into doubt whether the White House’s strategy of minimal and indirect intervention in the Syrian conflict is accomplishing its intended purpose of helping a democratic-minded opposition topple an oppressive government, or is instead sowing the seeds of future insurgencies hostile to the United States.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/15/world/middleeast/jihadists-receiving-most-arms-sent-to-syrian-rebels.html?_r=0

Obama has Muslim Brotherhood members advising him.  This has to stop.  We have a system for selecting advisers.

Op-Ed by Victor Davis Hanson

"In the final debate, Romney will know in advance that the moderator will be biased, that Obama will get more time, that Obama will snicker and interrupt, that Obama will go negative early and long — and that Romney himself has the proven disposition, skill, and information to fend the tag team off, and resonate with voters who are getting ever more savvy after each debate to what is going on. Some sympathetic Romney supporters had been critical of missed opportunities in the vice-presidential debate and the second presidential one, but the wondrous part is not that their missing an opening now and then, but instead how well they have done against the moderators, the distractions, and the rawness. To paraphrase Wellington at Waterloo, I think by now we know that Obama will come on in the same old way, and that Romney will send him back in the same old way — and the polls will show it."

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/330945/romney-should-be-encouraged-victor-davis-hanson

The Obama Record

Tuesday night at the debate, Mitt Romney summed it up: "We have fewer people working today than we had when the president took office. The unemployment rate was 7.8 percent when he took office; it's 7.8 percent now. But if you calculated that unemployment rate, taking back the people who dropped out of the workforce, it would be 10.7 percent [today]." He later added, "I look at what's happened in the last four years and say this has been a disappointment. We can do better than this. We don't have to settle for ... 43 months with unemployment above 8 percent, 23 million Americans struggling to find a good job right now. There are 3.5 million more women living in poverty today than when the president took office. We don't have to live like this. We can get this economy going again."

Obama and FDR

           

We scratch our heads that people still support Obama despite his failures in the domestic economy and the foreign scene, particularly the Middle East where he’s interfered in civil wars and lost more American soldier in 3 years than Bush did in 8 . Yet, Americans kept reelecting FDR during the Great Depression (including my sainted mother), and unemployment was as high as 25% and in 1942 he imprisoned or put in camps almost a million Americans of Italian, German and Japanese ethnicity. There's just no accounting for political blinders.

FDR particularly hurt blacks and poor with minimum wage legislation which is always a job killer at the bottom ranks; lots of minor taxes that hurt the poor the most—like movies and candy; also wouldn't support anti-lynching legislation, snubbed Jesse Owens and Joe Lewis, allowed unions to keep out blacks; manipulated public works programs for votes. But . . .to this day he is revered by blacks and minorities. It seems people found him charming and believed his lies. Sound familiar?

Fifty percent?

I’m shocked 50% could still support Obama after the massive cover up, bigger than Watergate, in which no one died.

GOP women have binders; Democrat women have blinders

From the debate transcript, a comment that Democrats find so hilarious it completely made them forget about 4 dead Americans and a campaign cover-up:

"ROMNEY: And -- and so we -- we took a concerted effort to go out and find women who had backgrounds that could be qualified to become members of our cabinet. I went to a number of women's groups and said, "Can you help us find folks," and they brought us whole binders full of women."
Now they can talk of nothing else.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/10/16/transcript-second-presidential-debate/#ixzz29gSOFUa1

Which one better represents America?

The taxman cometh, and cometh, and cometh—he will keep coming long after Obama is out of office

a little-known part of ObamaCare, levies a 3.8 percent Medicare tax on investment income for couples making more than $250,000 or individuals making more than $200,000 a year. The tax is scheduled to go into effect on January 1, 2013.

7 new taxes: http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/06/29/Seven-new-taxes

Religious tolerance? Think again.

Back when Hillary Clinton was still blaming the internet for the Benghazi terrorist attack, she made this odd statement, "Our commitment to religious tolerance goes back to the very beginning of our nation." There was no religious tolerance at the beginning of our nation when we were English, French and Spanish colonies, nor is it a Biblical value or ethic. True, Catholics and Protestants weren't slaughtering each other like they did in Europe, but those who came here for religious freedom really didn't want other groups, or the STATE, telling them how to worship or act.

One of the geniuses of our Bill of Rights is that our Founders were able to get all these disparate groups to actually agree that religious freedom was primary to all other freedoms. The Northwest Ordinance (1787) preceded the Bill of Rights, and also enshrined the idea the state couldn't decide your religious beliefs and behavior.

And now with 70% of the world without religious freedom, and even outright religious oppression and terrorism, our current President wants to diminish what centuries of Christians and Jews died for--not tolerance, not non-judgementalism, not political correctness--but religious freedom. The HHS Mandate is the camel's nose in the tent.

Good-bye Newsweek

It’s been announced that the print edition disappears at the end of the year.  I read the digital edition, The Daily Beast, just so I’m up on the loony tunes liberals.  It’s just unbelievable.  They are hysterical over “binders full of women” but pretty quiet about Benghazi. They even swear with a straight face that Obama “won on points” the last debate. (Apparently there were no points for the truth.)  Tina Brown made her name in women’s and gossip magazines.  I just don’t think she’s a good fit for serious news.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/10/18/a-turn-of-the-page-for-newsweek.html

Let’s talk about that 47%

On the expanding wars

The left says they support Barack 0bama because he won't get us into unnecessary wars. B0 has been using drones to bomb countries in the Middle East, and has American Soldiers in up to 7 countries at this point. More American soldiers have been killed since Obama has been president than during the 8 years Bush was president. Their argument about Obama and war is illogical and contrary to proven facts.

From Beth Shaw’s Facebook page

Also, Big Bird has been mentioned as often during the debates as veterans.  Think about it!

Where’s your plan, Mr. President?

TIME MAGAZINE’S MARK HALPERIN: “I just want to say one thing we haven’t brought up yet, but it’s incredibly important. The President did not lay out a second-term agenda. And if there’s an undercurrent here, that could really hurt him, not in the room, because it wasn’t evident, it was absent. He didn’t lay out a second term agenda any more than he did in the first debate. And that is where he is the weakest. And he didn’t address it, I thought at all.”

MSNBC’S JOE SCARBOROUGH: “Looking for a way forward, you want to know what’s going to be different over the next four years and you just didn’t get that from Barack Obama. And I’ve just got to think after the second debate this president has laid out no plan for the next four years. No plan. That’s got to be devastating in some voters’ eyes.”

NBC NEWS’ DAVID GREGORY: “I think liberals can breathe a sigh of relief. It’s not curtains for the president. He showed up and showed up big tonight. He was more aggressive; he had a lot of fight in him. A little light on his vision for the future.”

CNN’s JOHN KING: “If people think you have a plan, likability comes into play. The president has still left a whole lot of people, as I’ve been traveling the last few weeks, this is what people say, I want to vote for him, but he hasn’t told me what he’s going to do.”

NEW YORK TIMES’ TOM FRIEDMAN: “I continue to believe Obama has a weakness when it comes to the question of will the next four years really be different? Do you have a plan that excites you and me to get out of my chair and say that’s the guy, that’s it, that’s the person I want to follow now. He has not closed that deal.”

POLITICO’S BEN WHITE: “But Obama was far less effective in making an affirmative case for a second term, saying only that he wanted to create more manufacturing jobs and reduce the debt and deficit and keep investing in alternative energy sources. Romney had his strongest moments ripping up Obama’s first term record, citing the persistently high jobless rate, the rising debt and the lack of action on Social Security, Medicare and immigration reform. Obama mainly tried to refresh his campaign’s initial – and largely successful – disqualification effort against Romney rather than making a strong pitch for a second term vision.”

WSJ EDITORIAL: “Judging by Tuesday’s debate, the president’s argument for re-election is basically this: He’s not as awful as Mitt Romney. Mr. Obama spent most of his time attacking either Mr. Romney himself (he invests in Chinese companies), his tax plan as a favor for the rich (‘that’s been his history’) or this or that statement he has made over the last year (‘the 47%,’ which Mr. Obama saved for the closing word of the entire debate).”

FORMER NEW YORK GOV. ELIOT SPITZER: “We shouldn’t be blind to what continues to be the soft underbelly of the president’s campaign, which is that when all is said and done, you didn’t leave last night with a real tangible sense of what the second term agenda is going to be.”

http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/index.php/2012/10/17/national-voices-question-whether-obama-has-detailed-a-second-term-plan/article?nclick_check=1

The Benghazi cover up and why

Why did the White House persist with the phony story of a protest against a video being the cause of Ambassador Stevens' death, when they had to know there was no protest?

The most plausible explanation is that the truth -- we were being hit with the worst terror attack since 9/11 in a city we saved -- would have exposed Obama's boasting about his Libya triumph and al-Qaida being "on the run" and "on the path to defeat" as absurd propaganda.

Al-Qaida is now in Libya, Mali, Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Pakistan.

And the epidemic of anti-American riots across the Muslim world, with Arab Spring elections bringing to power Islamist regimes, testify to the real truth. After four years of Obama, it is America that is on the run in the Middle East.

But we can't let folks find that out until after Nov. 6.

Hence the Benghazi cover-up.

Read full essay with time line here.

From Mike Huckabee on refurbishing mosques

Why is our State Department spending your tax money to build mosques in the Middle East? Frontpage magazine reports that there there’s a little-publicized federal program to refurbish mosques in 27 Islamic countries. Using federal money to save religious buildings is illegal, but they get around that by calling it developmental aid. The idea is that refurbishing mosques will convince Islamists to respect other cultures. And how’s that working? In nations where we’re rebuilding mosques – Pakistan, Egypt, Afghanistan, Sudan, Kenya and more -- dozens of Christian churches have been burned to the ground by angry Muslim mobs. So far, no protests from the left. I wonder what they’d say if we started using federal money to rebuild the Christian churches?
tps://www.facebook.com/mikehuckabee/posts/10151099666327869

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/aug/10/tax-dollars-to-build-mosques/print/

Will women swing to Romney?

Christians for Mitt says: “Goodbye, Obama! USA Today says that WOMEN in swing states are swinging towards Romney & Ryan! Why? Because we want jobs, national security, our consciences and families honored, religious liberty -- we want America back!”

As the presidential campaign heads into its final weeks, the survey of voters in 12 crucial swing states finds female voters much more engaged in the election and increasingly concerned about the deficit and debt issues that favor Romney. The Republican nominee has pulled within one point of the president among women who are likely voters, 48%-49%, and leads by 8 points among men.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2012/10/15/swing-states-poll-women-voters-romney-obama/1634791/

Fake ads—but still the truth—sort of

Let’s review the history of this administration

January 2009
Americans out of work(1) 21.5 million
Gas Prices (2) $1.89
National debt (3) $10.6 trillion
Family Income (4) $54,962
Americans in Poverty (5) 39.3 million

October 2012
Americans out of work(1) 23.1 million
Gas Prices (2) $3.91
National debt (3) $16 trillion
Family Income (4) $50,054
Americans in Poverty (5) 46.2 million
Question? Are we better off today than 4 years ago?

Sources: (1) US Dept of Labor statistics (2) US Energy Information Administration (3) Treasury direct (4) Sentier Research LLC (5) US Census Bureau