There is every reason to be deeply skeptical of President Obama's prospects
in November.
Republicans feel an understandable anxiety about Mr. Obama's coming
campaign: It will be all slice and dice, divide and conquer, break the
country into little pieces and pick up as many as you can. He'll try to pick
up college students one day and solidify environmentalist support the next,
he'll valorize this group and demonize the other. He means to gather in and
hold onto all the pieces he needs, and turn them into a jagged, jangly
coalition that will win it for him in November and not begin making
individual demands until December.
But it still matters that the president doesn't have a coherent agenda, or a
political philosophy that is really clear to people. To the extent he has a
philosophy, it tends to pop up furtively in stray comments and then go away.
This is to a unique degree a presidency of inference, its overall meaning
never vividly declared. In some eras, that may be a plus. In this one?
Republicans are worried about the power of incumbency, and it is a real
power. Presidents command the airwaves, as they used to say. If they want to
make something the focus of national discussion, they usually can, at least
for a while. And this president is always out there, talking.
But-and forgive me, because what I'm about to say is rude-has anyone noticed
how boring he is? Plonking platitude after plonking platitude. To see Mr.
Obama on the stump is to see a man at the podium who's constantly dribbling
away the punch line. He looks pleasant but lacks joy; he's cool but lacks
vigor. A lot of what he says could have been said by a president 12 or 20
years ago, little is anchored to the moment. As he makes his points he often
seems distracted, as if he's holding a private conversation in his head,
noticing crowd size, for instance, and wishing the front row would start
fainting again, like they used to.
I listen to him closely and find myself daydreaming: This is the
best-tailored president since JFK. His suits, shirts and ties are
beautifully cut from fine material. This is an elegant man. But I shouldn't
be thinking about that, I should be thinking about what a powerful case he's
making for his leadership. I'm not because he's not.
It is still so surprising that a person who seems bored by politicking has
risen to the highest political office in the land. Politics is a fleshly
profession, it's all hugging, kissing, arm twisting, shaking hands. It
involves contact. When you see politicians on C-Span, in the well of the
House or the Senate after a vote, they're always touching each other's arms
and shoulders. They touch each other more than actors! Bill Clinton was
fleshly, and LBJ. How odd to have a Democratic president who doesn't seem to
like humans all that much.
He's raised a lot of money, or so we keep reading. He has a sophisticated,
wired, brilliant computer operation-they know how to mine Internet data and
get the addresses of people who've never been reached by a campaign before,
and how to approach them in a friendly and personal way. This is thought to
be a secret weapon. I'm not so sure. All they can approach their new friends
with is arguments that have already been made, the same attacks and
assertions. If you have fabulous new ways to reach everyone in the world but
you have little to say, does that really help you?
A while back I talked to a young man who was developing a wonderful thing
for a website, a kind of constant live TV show with anyone anywhere able to
join in and share opinions live, on the screen. You're on your iPad in the
train station, you log on and start talking. He was so excited at the
technology, which seemed impressive. But I thought: Why do you think people
will say an ything interesting or important?
This is the problem of the world now: Big mic, no message. If you have
nothing to say, does it matter that you have endless venues in which to say
it?
The old Washington gossip was that the Obama campaign was too confident, now
it is that they are nervous. The second seems true if you go by their
inability, months after it was clear Mitt Romney would be running against
them, to find and fix on a clear line of attack. Months ago he was the
out-of-touch corporate raider. Then he was a flip-flopping weasel. They
momentarily shifted to right-wing extremist. This week he seems to be a
Bushite billionaire.
Will all this work? When you look at Romney you see a wealthy businessman, a
Mormon of inherently moderate instinct, a person who is conservative in his
personal sphere but who lives and hopes to rise in a world he well knows is
not quite so tidy. He doesn't seem extreme.
It's interesting that the Obama campaign isn't using what incumbent
presidents always sooner or later use, either straight out or subliminally.
And that is "You know me. I've been president for almost four years, you
don't know that other guy. In a high-stakes world do you really want someone
new?"
You know why they're not using "You know me"? Because we know him, and it's
not a plus.
Here's one reason why.
There is a growing air of incompetence around Mr. Obama's White House. It
was seen again this week in Supreme Court arguments over the
administration's challenge to Arizona's attempted crackdown on illegal
immigration. As Greg Stohr of Bloomberg News wrote, the court seemed to be
disagreeing with the administration's understanding of federal power:
"Solicitor General Donald Verrilli . . . met resistance across ideological
lines. . . . Even Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the court's only Hispanic and an
Obama appointee, told Verrilli his argument is 'not selling very well.'"
This follows last month's embarrassing showing over the constitutionality of
parts of ObamaCare.
All of this looks so bush league, so scattered. Add it to the General
Services Administration, to Solyndra, to the other scandals, and you get a
growing sense that no one's in charge, that the administration is paying
attention to politics but not day-to-day governance.
The two most public cabinet members are Eric Holder at Justice and Janet
Napolitano at Homeland Security. He is overseeing the administration's
Supreme Court cases. She is in charge of being unmoved by the daily stories
of Transportation Security Administration incompetence and even cruelty at
our airports. Those incidents and stories continue, but if you go to the
Homeland Security website, there is no mention of them. It's as if they
don't even exist.
***
Maybe the 2012 election is simpler than we think.
It will be about Mr. Obama.
Did you like the past four years? Good, you can get four more.
Do the president and his people strike you as competent? If so, you can
renew his contract, and he will renew theirs.
If you don't want to rehire him, you will look at the other guy. Does he
strike you as credible, a possible president? Then you can hire him.
Republicans should cheer up.
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6) How some foreign cartoonists view Obama:


How  some American cartoonists view Obama:



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7) How some First Ladies and Presidents were viewed by their Former Secret Service agents:

*Here are snippets from a book of "Impressions &Observations"  of Secret Service personnel assigned toguard U.S. Presidents/First Ladies, and VicePresidents.*


*JOHN & JACQUELINE KENNEDY 
  *A philanderer  of the highest order. * 
*She ordered the kitchen help to save all the left-over wine during State dinner, which mixed with fresh wine and served again during the next White House occasion.*
     *LYNDON & LADYBIRD JOHNSON
*Another philanderer of the highest order. In addition, LBJ was as crude as the day is long.*
*Both JFK and LBJ kept a lot of women in the White House for extramarital affairs, and both had set up "early warning systems" to alert them if/when their wives  were
  nearby. Both Kennedy & Johnson were promiscuous and  oversexed men. *
*She was either naive or just pretended to "not know" about her husband's many liaisons. *

  *RICHARD & PAT NIXON
  
  *A "moral" man but very odd and weird, paranoid, etc. He had horrible relationship with his family, and in a way, was almost a recluse.*

  *She was quiet most of the time.*
*SPIRO  AGNEW 
  *Nice, decent man, everyone in the Secret Service was surprised about his downfall. *
  
  *GERALD & BETTY FORD

  *A true gentlemen who treated the Secret Service with respect and dignity. He had a great sense of humor..

  *She drank a lot!*

  *JIMMY & ROSALYN CARTER

  *A complete phony who would portray one picture of himself to public and very different in private, e..g., would be shown carrying his own luggage, but the suit cases were  always empty; he kept empty ones just for photo op's. Wanted the people to see him as pious and a non-drinker, but he and his family drank alcohol a lot. He had disdain for the Secret Service, and was very irresponsible with  the"football" nuclear codes. He didn't think it was a big dea and would keep military aides at a great distance.  Often does not acknowledge the presence of Secret  Service personnel assigned to serve him.*

  *She mostly did her own thing.*
      *RONALD & NANCY REAGAN
    
  *The real deal --- moral, honest, respectful, and dignified. They treated Secret Service and everyone else with respect and honor. Thanked everyone all the time. He took the time to know everyone on a personal level. *

  *One "favorite" story which has circulated among  the Secret Service personnel was an incident early in his Presidency, when he came out of his room with a pistol tucked on his hip. The agent in charge asked: "Why  the pistol, Mr. President?" He replied, "In case you boys  can't get the job done, I can help." It was common for him  to carry a pistol. When he met with Gorbachev, he had a pistol in his briefcase. Upon learning that Gary Hart was caught with Donna Rice, Reagan said, "Boys will be boys, but boys will not be Presidents." [He obviously either did notknow or forgot JFK's and LBJ's sexcapades!]*

  *She was very nice but very protective of the President; and the Secret Service was often caught in the middle. She  tried hard to control what the President ate, and he would say  to the agent "Come on, you gotta help me out." The Reagans drank wine during State dinners and  special occasions only; otherwise, they shunned alcohol; the Secret Service could count on one hand the times they were  served wine during their "family dinner". For all the fake bluster of the Carters, the Reagans were the ones who lived life  as genuinely moral people.*

  *GEORGE H. & BARBARA BUSH 
  *Extremely kind and considerate Always respectful. Took great care  in making sure the agents' comforts were taken care of. They even brought them meals, etc.

  *One time Barbara Bush brought warm clothes to agents standing outside at Kennebunkport ; one agent who  was given a warm hat, and when he tried to nicely say "no thanks" even though he was obviously freezing, President Bush said "Son, don't argue with the First Lady, put the hat on.." He was the most prompt of the Presidents. He ran  the White House like a well-oiled machine.*
* She ruled the house and spoke her mind.*

  *BILL & HILLARY CLINTON 
  **Presidency was one giant party. Not trustworthy --- he was nice because he wanted everyone to like him, but to him life is just one big game and party. Everyone knows of his  sexuality.*
*She is another phony. Her personality would change  the instant cameras were near. She hated with open disdain  the military and Secret Service. She was another one who  felt people are there to serve her. She was always trying to keep tabs on Bill Clinton.*

  *ALBERT GORE 
  An egotistical ass, who was onceoverheard by his Secret Service detail lecturing his only son that he needed to do better in school or he"would end up like these guys" --- pointing to the agents.*

* GEORGE W. & LAURA BUSH 
  *The Secret Service loved him and Laura Bush. He was also the most physically "in shape" who had a very strict workout regimen. The Bushes made sure their entire
  administrative and household staff understood to respect and be considerate of the Secret Service. KARL ROVE was the one who was the most caring of the Secret Service in the administration.*
  *She was one of the nicest First Ladies, if not the nicest; she never had any harsh word to say about anyone.*

* BARACK & MICHELLE OBAMA
* " Clinton all over again" - hates the military and looks down on the Secret Service. He is egotistical and cunning; looks you in the eye and appears to agree with you, but turns around and does the opposite---untrustworthy. He has temper tantrums.*

  **She is a complete bitch, who hates anybody who is not black; hates the military; and looks at the Secret Service as servants.*
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8) Burt Perlutsky's view of Obama:

By Burt Prelutsky

Now that Romney has sewn up the nomination, it’s time we all concentrated on the best way to prevent Obama and his creepy cronies from finally turning America, the shining city on the hill, into a cesspool.

When people wonder how the liberals gained so much influence, I point to the 60s. That was the era when young people first discovered how much power and influence they had so long as they acted in unison. By the time they had gotten through college, they decided the best way to hang on to power and influence was by pursuing careers in law and academics. By the time that Woodward and Bernstein managed to chase Richard Nixon out of the White House, those who didn’t have the requisite brain power to become lawyers, judges and professors, became social workers, public school teachers and journalists.

What these people tend to have in common is the notion that America is an evil, greedy, materialistic, racist, warlike nation, that fails to measure up to places like Cuba, Russia, Iran, China and the West Bank.

They believe that whites, other than themselves, are racists, but that blacks, 97% of whom voted for Barack Obama, who allow people like Al Sharpton, Maxine Waters and Jesse Jackson, to speak for them and whose ministers, more often than not, parrot the same tripe as Jeremiah Wright, are not.

My advice to Romney is to stop telling us he thinks Obama is a nice guy. We’ve had over three years of this guy cozying up to our sworn enemies while insulting our allies; redistributing everybody’s wealth but his own; saddling us with a debt that will bankrupt our grandchildren; and crippling America’s sources of energy. That may be Romney’s idea of a nice guy, but it’s my idea of a schmuck.

We already had John McCain run a campaign that was so separated from reality that he wouldn’t even permit the Party to run an ad that connected Obama to his religious mentor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, because he suffered from the delusion that he was behaving in a statesmanlike way, overlooking the fact that the only time a politician is referred to as a statesman is in his obituary.

I remain convinced that Romney is the best man to unseat Obama, but he will need to start waking up Americans. It’s time for another Paul Revere to warn his countrymen that the enemy is upon us, and that behind the smile, Obama is an anti-American, anti-capitalist, demon.

Unlike most politicians who lie to us during campaign season, Obama was perfectly honest. He said that his energy policy would send our energy costs soaring. And then to help him keep his promise, he appointed Stephen Chu, the man who prayed for our gas prices to hit $10-a-gallon, to be his secretary of energy.

He also said that the problem with both the U.S. Constitution and the Civil Rights Movement was that they didn’t deal with the redistribution of wealth. To ensure that the same could not be said of his administration, he surrounded himself with the likes of Timothy Geithner, Van Jones, Valerie Jarrett and David Axelrod.

The one obvious lie Obama told us was that he would be a post-racial president. The truth is just the opposite. He is the president who appointed confirmed racist Eric Holder to be our attorney general. In that role, Holder has gone to war against a number of states for either trying to keep illegal aliens from taking root like leaches, for attempting to ensure that only living American citizens get to vote in our elections and for opposing ObamaCare. He has also overseen Fast and Furious, the sting operation that saw thousands of weapons ending up in the hands of Mexican gangsters, culminating in the death of an American border agent. At the same time, Holder has refused to indict the Black Panthers for either voter intimidation or, more recently, for placing a dead-or-alive bounty on the head of George Zimmerman.

I, personally, don’t hold Holder accountable. Clearly, Holder is merely following orders emanating from what some people have taken to calling the Offal Office.

In fact, when some folks call for Holder’s resignation, I roll my eyes. It’s like people who believe that term limits would finally rid Congress of the likes of Henry Waxman, Maxine Waters and Charley Rangel. It’s a pipe dream to think their constituents would suddenly wake up and elect candidates reminiscent of Paul Ryan or Darrel Issa. These dimwits would simply elect younger, no doubt more attractive, versions of Waxman, Waters and Rangel.

Thanks to Obama’s pussyfooting around when it comes to Iran, I recently suggested that it might be time for a chicken to replace the American eagle as our national symbol. One reader wrote in, suggesting we could compromise with Benjamin Franklin’s original suggestion, the turkey.

But, as I wrote back, isn’t it enough that we already have one roosting in the White House?
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9) A comment about Obama and his over the board patting himself on his own back for killing Osama:

Thanking Obama for killing bin Laden is like going into McDonald's and thanking Ronald McDonald for the hamburger. It is the guy cooking a hamburger that deserves the credit, not the clown.

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10) WV Democratic Governor Not Backing Obama


We just drove through West  Virginia and saw the governors ads and others by out of work or threatened coal miners blaming Obama and the EPA.  



West Virginia’s Democratic Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin said he is not endorsing President Barack Obama for re-election, saying the president “has apparently made it his mission to drive the backbone of West Virginia’s economy, coal and the energy industry, out of business.”
Tomblin is running for re-election in the heavily Democratic and major coal-producing state this year. He won a special election for the governorship last year after Gov. Joe Manchin was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2010.
“As a loyal member of the Democratic party and as governor for our state, I will continue to do everything I can, including suing the EPA, to get the president to change the misguided policies that are hurting West Virginians,” Tomblin added in his statement.
Tomblin said he is not supporting presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney either, but it is generally presumed that most elected officials would support the nominee of their party. Manchin has also declined to back a candidate at this point.
Democrats outnumber Republicans in party registration in West Virginia by 2-1, according to the Associated Press. However, the state has voted Republican in the last three presidential elections. Of potential significance is West Virginia’s proximity, bordering three key battleground states of Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
The governor’s campaign issued a statement Wednesday that asserted neither Obama nor Romney has earned his support.
“I do not believe that either candidate has a real understanding of what is important to West Virginia,” Tomblin said in the statement. “As governor, I go to work every day to stand up for West Virginians and create jobs. As governor, I know that I must work hard every day to earn the trust and the votes of my constituents. Neither President Obama nor Governor Romney has earned my vote at this point.”
He first criticized Romney.
“On the one hand, Mitt Romney is supporting policies that will end Medicare and Social Security as we know it,” Tomblin said. “His policies will put more burdens on West Virginia families who are simply trying to make ends meet.”
He then went on to address the president of his own party.
“On the other hand, President Obama has apparently made it his mission to drive the backbone of West Virginia’s economy, coal and the energy industry, out of business,” Tomblin said. “That will not only hurt thousands of West Virginia families, it will destroy the economic fabric of our state.”