• President 2012

    President 2012: NBC/Politico GOP Debate Tonight at 5 PM



    Photo from Time

    I will be live tweeting the debate. Follow me in the right sidebar —–> or @Flap.

    Also, here is the list of debates to come.

    • September 12, 2011: Tampa, FL Debate Sponsored By CNN And The Tea Party Express
    • September 22, 2011: Orlando, FL Debate Sponsored By FOX News, Google And The Republican Party Of Florida
    • October 11, 2011: Hanover, NH Debate Sponsored By The Washington Post And Bloomberg
    • October 18, 2011: Las Vegas, NV Debate Sponsored By CNN And The Western Republican Leadership Conference
    • November 9, 2011: Rochester, MI Debate Sponsored by CNBC and Michigan Republican Party
    • December 10, 2011: Des Moines, IA Debate Sponsored by ABC and Iowa Republican Party
  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for September 7th on 14:35

    These are my links for September 7th from 14:35 to 14:37:

    • Where the Jobs Aren’t – With the economy stagnating and unemployment high, where are the jobs of the future going to come from? A few years ago, it seemed as though the Green Economy could be a big part of the answer.

      New clean-energy sources could address environmental, economic and national security problems all at once. In his 2008 convention speech, Barack Obama promised to create five million green economy jobs. The U.S. Conference of Mayors estimated in April 2009 that green jobs could account for 10 percent of new job growth over the next 30 years.

      Alas, it was not to be. The gigantic public investments in green energy may be stimulating innovation and helping the environment. But they are not evidence that the government knows how to create private-sector jobs.

      Recently, Aaron Glantz reported in The Times on some of the disappointments. California was awarded $186 million in federal stimulus money to weatherize homes. So far, the program has created the equivalent of only 538 full-time jobs. A $59 million effort to train people for green jobs in California produced only 719 job placements.

      SolFocus designs solar panels in the United States, but the bulk of its employment is in China where the panels are actually made. As the company spokesman told Glantz, “Taxes and labor rates” are cheaper there.

      There’s a wealth of other evidence to suggest that the green economy will not be a short-term jobs machine. According to Investor’s Business Daily, executives at Johnson Controls turned $300 million in green technology grants into 150 jobs — that’s $2 million per job.

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      Read it all

    • Solyndra’s all-too-predictable collapse – On Tuesday evening, ABC News reported that in his upcoming “jobs speech,” President Obama will call for more “green jobs stimulus” — though this is now being called, in advance, “targeted infrastructure investment for clean energy projects.” It appears that he and his team have run out of ideas.

      The next day, Wednesday, Obama’s “green jobs stimulus” baby, Solyndra, declared bankruptcy after taxpayers had spent $527 million propping up the company (or $479,000 per temporary job created).

      I suppose it would be déclassé to note that I told you so.

      Today, The Washington Post weighed in with a story on page A2: “Obama-backed green firm shuts down.” Although it was actually the taxpayer who bore the financial risk of Solyndra, The Post notes that it is Obama who bears the political exposure for this absurd boondoggle.

      The best line in the story is this quote from Solyndra chief executive Brian Harrison: “This was an unexpected outcome and is most unfortunate.”

      Unexpected? Really? Not only did I predict that this would happen in a book that was published in April 2010, red flags abounded soon thereafter about Solyndra, specifically, key among them that the company had to pull the plug on a comparatively modest $300 million equity IPO.

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      Read it all

  • Barack Obama,  Hispanic Vote,  Polling,  President 2012

    President 2012 Poll Watch: Obama Approval Sinks Among White and Hispanic Voters

    According to the latest Gallup Poll.

    President Barack Obama earned the lowest monthly job approval rating of his presidency to date in August, with 41% of U.S. adults approving of his overall job performance, down from 44% in July. He also received term-low monthly job approval ratings from both Hispanics (48%) and whites (33%) and tied his lowest rating from blacks (84%).

    The latest results are based on Gallup Daily tracking throughout August and include telephone interviews with more than 12,000 whites, 1,100 blacks, and nearly 1,200 Hispanics.

    Whites’ approval of Obama has trended downward thus far in 2011 after showing little change in 2010. Whites’ largest drop in support for the president within a calendar year — 17 percentage points — came in 2009, declining from 58% in February, the first full month of Obama’s presidency, to 41% by December.

    Blacks have remained solidly approving of Obama throughout his presidency; however, 2011 is the first year this group’s monthly job approval has routinely registered below 90%, indicating a decline in blacks’ support, albeit a fairly minor one.

    The president’s current standing with Hispanics reflects a rather steep decline since January, when 60% approved of him. This follows Hispanics’ less-pronounced drops in their support in each of the first two years of his presidency. As a result, the gap between blacks and whites in Obama’s job approval has been widening while the gap between Hispanics’ and whites’ approval has been narrowing.

    Although Hispanics’ monthly approval of Obama dipped below 50% for the first time in August, more still approve than disapprove (48% vs. 37%) of his job performance. A relatively high 15% — typical for Hispanics — has no opinion.

    Hispanics’ Approval of Obama Now Close to National Average

    While blacks and Hispanics both expressed significantly higher-than-average approval for Obama throughout 2009 and most of 2010, Hispanics’ approval has been moving progressively closer to the national average and is now only single digits above it. Whites’ approval has consistently remained about eight points below the national average. As a result, blacks have become an extreme outlier — the only major racial group showing well-above-average approval.

    Here is the chart reflecting the gap:

    So, what does this all mean?

    President Obama has lost the white voter and now has only a 33% job approval number. This is a significantly LOW number.

    Hispanic voters are likewise leaving the Obama ship of state although more approve than disapprove of the President’s performance. However, the trend towards disapproval is unmistakable.

    And, without overwhelming African American support, the President would not even be in the game.

    President Obama has significant problems going into the 2012 re-election campaign season.

    Despite launching his presidency with a large majority of Hispanics approving of his job performance, along with most blacks, Obama has seen significant erosion in Hispanics’ support.. As a result, while Hispanics’ approval of Obama was at one time 20 points higher than the national average, at this time it is just 7 points higher. Two significant slips in Hispanics’ approval of Obama were seen in 2010, perhaps linked with the president hedging on campaign promises to make immigration reform a priority. However, that decline has continued into 2011 as the nation’s focus has turned more to the economy and federal budget problems.

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for September 7th on 10:49

    These are my links for September 7th from 10:49 to 11:37:

    • Rep. Dan Lungren won’t challenge Tom McClintock for Congress – Rep. Dan Lungren has decided against challenging fellow Republican Congressman Tom McClintock and instead will run in what is a swing district that extends from Elk Grove to Folsom, his campaign manager said today.

      "Unless something changes, he will run in the 7th Congressional District and is confident in doing so," Lungren adviser Rob Stutzman told The Bee.

      Lungren had toyed with running against McClintock, the more conservative of the two, in the 2012 GOP primary for the 4th Congressional District.

      The district where McClintock will be running is among the most conservative in the state. It includes part of Roseville, and stretches from Lake Tahoe south past Yosemite National Park.
      By deciding to stay put, Lungren will seek the congressional seat that includes his home in Gold River. If he wins reelection — not a sure thing — he would represent McClintock, whose residence is in Elk Grove.

      "Republicans need to focus on holding the House, not necessarily running against each other, which unfortunately is happening elsewhere," Stutzman said.

      Lungren won reelection last year against Democratic physician Ami Bera. Bera, a proven fund-raiser, is planning to run again.

    • Does Rick Perry have a Social Security problem? – Perry has a couple of options here. He can disclaim his prior suggestion to send Social Security to the states, but stick by his statement that Social Security is not sustainable. That would require presenting something more detailed than his campaign line that we should all have a ”conversation” about Social Security. Another approach would be to stick with his call for a radical reworking or end to federal retirement benefits. That too would require a full plan and plenty of assurance that he’s not going to relegate grandma to eating cat food in her old age. Perry’s campaign has not yet responded to my request for comment.

      There is plenty of room for smart talk on Social Security. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) sets forth some solid suggestions in his Roadmap for America. Perry will need to show he has a serious plan as well — or maybe even to adopt Ryan’s ideas in total.

      Rove is right about one thing: Even for Republicans, the idea of ending Social Security is going to be a tough sell.

      UPDATED AT 1:34 P.M.

      A Perry spokesman e-mails me: “We realize entitlement reform is a politically touchy subject, but it must be discussed if America is serious about fiscal responsibility and economic growth. At the rate they are going, many federal entitlement programs will be unsustainable, unaffordable and unavailable for future generations. Governor Perry would protect Social Security benefits for those at or near retirement and also recognizes we must discuss changes to make Social Security and other retirement benefits financially sound and viable going forward.”

      That doesn’t sound like he’s ready to propose anything specific. We’ll have to see if that will be sufficient to allay concerns he is out to wreck Social Security.

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      Perry needs a specific proposal like Paul Ryan

  • Barack Obama

    Video: Mr President, Please No MORE Speeches – We Demand Leadership

    Since taking office, President Obama has given more than a thousand speeches. Over half a dozen times, he’s promised to “pivot to a focus on jobs or the economy.” All the while, unemployment has hovered around 9%, and now, it’s above 9%. Mr. President, your speeches aren’t working

    I don’t think we are going to see leadership on Thursday night though.

    A new campaign by the conservative group American Future Fund is attacking President Obama’s economic record as nothing but talk.

    The campaign, “No more speeches,” released this Web video highlighting various Obama speeches on the economy over the past few years.

    The video goes back and forth between clips of speeches, as well as a voice-over discussing Obama’s jobs record.

    “So now over a thousand speeches later what is the president actually doing to create jobs … President Obama we need more jobs, not more speeches,” says the video’s narrator.

    From the previews I have read about Obama’s proposal, it is just more of the same.

  • Barack Obama,  James Hoffa,  Jr.,  Tea Party,  Teamsters

    Video: Let’s Take Those SOB’S Out – Teamster’s President James Hoffa

    Teamster’s President James Hoffa, Jr. at a Labor Day rally: “Let’s take these son of a bitches out

    I was recovering from the Disneyland Half Marathon and relaxing on Labor Day when this flap ensued. While to rhetoric is “UNCIVIL,” it is unfortunately the usual from Big Labor. Here are a few stories on the blow back to the organized labor movement and the President of the United States, Barack Obama who is coddling them.

    How Obama Protects the Teamsters

    Barack Obama and Jimmy Hoffa are like Tweedledum and Tweedledee, Lady Gaga and hype, the Jersey Shore cast and hairspray: inseparable. The president can no more disown the Teamsters Union’s leader than he can disown his own id.

    At a Labor Day rally in Detroit on Monday before Obama spoke, Hoffa stoked anti-tea-party hostility by urging his minions to “take these son of a bitches out.” (Botched grammar added that extra boost of street-gang authenticity to the labor lawyer’s threat.) The same civility police on the left who decry any references to crosshairs as incitements to violence are now mute about Hoffa’s brass-knuckle rhetoric. The Chicagoans in the White House refuse to comment.

    Those calling on Obama to condemn Hoffa’s uncivil tone are deluding themselves. The 1.4 million–member Teamsters lifted Obama to power with a coveted endorsement and bottomless campaign coffers funded with coerced member dues. Over the past two decades, the union has donated nearly $25 million to Democrats (compared with $1.8 million for Republicans).

    What quid pro quo protection has the Teamsters’ money bought? Let us count the ways.

    Trumka won’t condemn Hoffa’s vitriolic rhetoric

    AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka refused to denounce the vitriolic rhetoric that his fellow union leader, Teamsters President James Hoffa, espoused in a speech on Monday.

    While warming up a Labor Day crowd in Detroit before a speech by President Obama, Hoffa said unions should fight a “war” with tea partiers and congressional Republicans. “President Obama, this is your army,” Hoffa declared. “We are ready to march. Let’s take these sons of bitches out and take America back to where America we belong.”

    On CNN’s “Piers Morgan Tonight,” Trumka said he “probably wouldn’t have chose the adjectives [Hoffa] used” but that he supports the premise.

    “I think Jim Hoffa’s speaking for the anger that millions of Americans have,” Trumka said. “These people [tea partiers and congressional Republicans] are playing political brinksmanship and not allowing us to create jobs and they’re not willing to help us get the country moving. Some of them even announced that they want the president to fail.”

    Trumka went on to declare that tea partiers “don’t have the right to say they’re the only patriotic ones out there,” especially “when they want the country to fail and 25 million people not to get back to work.”

    Vines: Hoffa called my mother a what?

    Am I mad that Jimmy Hoffa called my dear mother the B-word?

    I am, after all, her son and I am a conservative Republican and love the tea party. Therefore, ipso facto, if Jimmy wants his buddies to “take these son of a bitches out” then I guess I am a target and Momma Wisecracker is a “you know what” in his eyes.

    Ah, that new civility called for by our president. The same president who pulls the lowest form of partisan politics and demands a full session of Congress for him to speak at the exact same time Republicans have scheduled their first major presidential debate. He said he wanted to go back to the unifying spirit of 9/11, but I guess 9/7 doesn’t count.

    Back to Jimmy. Am I mad? Not really, because what everybody is focusing on – the use of S.O.B. and “take out” – are probably uttered on a daily basis by union thugs like Hoffa and the AFL-CIO’s Richard Trumka.

    No, I’m disappointed in Jimmy’s sentence construction.

    “Let’s take these son of a bitches out and give America back to America where we belong.” The phrase “give America back” should have been followed by some form of “to whom.” Example: give America “back to the little people”. Or: give America back “to hard working men and women.” What he said, in the end, was nonsensical.

    What was equally silly was Aretha Franklin warming up the crowd singing “Chain of Fools.” Considering the Obama Administration’s dreadful economic results, the failure of the stimulus, and increasingly awful poll numbers, “Down by the Lazy River” or “I Can’t Get No (Satisfaction)” would have been less-heinous choices.

    Chain of Fools? Holy hits Batman, you just can’t make up this stuff.

    Chain of fools indeed and such civil conduct about which our President remains silent.

    Come on now, Mr. President, repudiate this type of discourse.

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for September 7th on 06:11

    These are my links for September 7th from 06:11 to 07:15:

    • Obama to propose $300 billion to jump-start jobs – The economy weak and the public seething, President Barack Obama is expected to propose $300 billion in tax cuts and federal spending Thursday night to get Americans working again. Republicans offered Tuesday to compromise with him on jobs — but also assailed his plans in advance of his prime-time speech.

      In effect, Obama will be hitting cleanup on a shortened holiday week, with Republican White House contender Mitt Romney releasing his jobs proposals on Tuesday and front-running Texas Gov. Rick Perry hoping to join his presidential rivals Wednesday evening on a nationally televised debate stage for the first time.

      Lawmakers began returning to the Capitol to tackle legislation on jobs and federal deficits in an unforgiving political season spiced by the 2012 presidential campaign.

      Adding to the mix: A bipartisan congressional committee is slated to hold its first public meeting on Thursday as it embarks on a quest for deficit cuts of $1.2 trillion or more over a decade. If there is no agreement, automatic spending cuts will take effect, a prospect that lawmakers in both parties have said they would like to avoid.

      According to people familiar with the White House deliberations, two of the biggest measures in the president's proposals for 2012 are expected to be a one-year extension of a payroll tax cut for workers and an extension of expiring jobless benefits. Together those two would total about $170 billion.

      The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because the plan was still being finalized and some proposals could still be subject to change.

      The White House is also considering a tax credit for businesses that hire the unemployed. That could cost about $30 billion. Obama has also called for public works projects, such as school construction. Advocates of that plan have called for spending of $50 billion, but the White House proposal is expected to be smaller.
      Obama also is expected to continue for one year a tax break for businesses that allows them to deduct the full value of new equipment. The president and Congress negotiated that provision into law for 2011 last December.

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      Too little and way too late.Obama needs to repeal and repudiate ObamaCare

      Next President please

    • President 2012: Rick Perry on Immigration: Even weaker than you think – Rick Perry’s record on immigration isn’t as bad as I thought. It’s worse! … It’s not just that he doesn’t want to build the border fence. Many fence opponents argue (though I disagree) that it’s far more important to take away the “jobs magnet” that lures illegals to try to cross the border in the first place. But Perry hasn’t supported the quickest, best way to take away the jobs magnet, which is to require all private employers to use the “E-Verify” electronic check of Social Security numbers. Perry wouldn’t even require his own state government to use E-Verify, let alone private employers, declaring “E-Verify would not make a hill of beans’ difference when it comes to what’s happening in America today.” ….

      And the fence and E-Verify are the easy part of this issue. They are the “stripped down basic package” of enforcement provisions outlined by immigration-control advocate Mark Krikorian. The hard part is getting a candidate–especially a pro-business GOP candidate–to promise, in a binding way, that in the future he or she won’t, under pressure from business and Latino leaders, accept some sort of premature legalization (i.e., amnesty).

      That’s tough enough with, say, Mitt Romney: He’s criticized “amnesty” in the past, but you know there will be Romney strategists pushing legalization as the key to capturing the fast-growing Hispanic vote.

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      Read it all

  • Ann Coulter,  Laura Ingraham,  President 2012,  Sarah Palin

    President 2012: Fish or Cut Bait Sarah Palin

    Conservative divas Laura Ingraham and Ann Coulter berated Sarah Palin and her supporters tonight on The O’Reilly Factor

    Ann Coulter makes a valid point in the video above and Eric Erickson nails it this morning.

    What they are saying is that Sarah Palin must “fish or cut bait” on her 2012 Presidential candidacy. Either Sarah, you are in, or you are out. But, in any case, ENOUGH of the tease.

    I have said for months that Sarah Palin would determine she should run, if she were a viable candidate in the polls against President Barack Obama. Poll after poll has demonstrated that she is NOT.

    Sarah Palin is NOT ELECTABLE against Obama.

    So, is there a role for Sarah in 2012?

    Of course, and she can rehabilitate her political careeer just as richard Nixon did. But, this rehab takes time. Sarah has plenty. She runs a 1:45 half marathon and is only 47 years old. Her politcal career has a few decades – if she plays it smart.

    Sarah Palin should pick a conservative candidate for President who can beat Obama (Rick Perry or Mitt Romney or Michele Bachmann), latch on, maybe take a Cabinet position when they win. Or, move back to Alaska and run for Senate in 2014. Or, move to Arizona and take McCain’s seat when he retires.

    Do something and end the tease – for all of us.