Change We Don't Quite Believe In

From The Hill:

Two-thirds of likely voters say President Obama has kept his 2008 campaign promise to change America — but it’s changed for the worse, according to a sizable majority. 

A new poll for The Hill found 56 percent of likely voters believe Obama’s first term has transformed the nation in a negative way, compared to 35 percent who believe the country has changed for the better under his leadership.

 

Comments

[Porchlight]

From the article:

Strikingly, 1-in-5 Democrats say they feel Obama has changed the United States for the worse.

Now, will they vote for him anyway? Stay home? We shall find out.

[NK]

Porch-- we shall see. IMO-- If those Dems desert and vote ABO? it will be a huge reallignment and 'Bam only gets 42%. If those 20% of Dems stay home, he'll get his 45%.

[NK]

Little Indiana has a surplus and rainy day fund, gives rebate to taxpayers. Illinois? don't ask: http://www.indystar.com/article/20120709/OPINION08/207090303/Fiscal-health-gives-Indiana-an-edge?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7COpinion%7Cp

[rse]

Here's more things we shouldn't believe in but cannot be surprised by. It is simply how unconstrained govt works.

http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/how-crony-capitalism-works/

[Agent J]

IMO, The infrequent Democratic Voter will stay at home. A large number of common senses Democrats,(at the bottom of the pile and local) will vote along the line of the Independents.. The Nation will desert the sinking far left in vast numbers. Maybe even worse then the Reagan-Mondale election.

Personally, I know many lifetime Democrats that have said they were voting for the "R"..If you get out of the Washing machine of DC, away from all of the sock puppets and talking heads, this President is not liked very much..

[Danube of Thought]

Imagine the national sigh of relief when this man is removed from office.

[Neo]

Denise Rich, the wealthy socialite and former wife of pardoned billionaire trader Marc Rich, has given up her U.S. citizenship - and, with it, much of her U.S. tax bill.

Rich, 68, a Grammy-nominated songwriter and glossy figure in Democratic and European royalty circles, renounced her American passport in November, according to her lawyer.

Her maiden name, Denise Eisenberg, appeared in the Federal Register on April 30 in a quarterly list of Americans who renounced their U.S. citizenship and permanent residents who handed in their green cards.

By dumping her U.S. passport, Rich likely will save tens of millions of dollars or more in U.S. taxes over the long haul, tax lawyers say.

Eric Holder ... call your old law office

[Jane - Get off the couch your country needs you!]

Two questions:

1. How can Obama raise taxes since the bill has to come from the House?

2. If Obama wasn't at Columbia, where was he?

[Clarice]

Jane, I said it on another thread. I think he was at the Columbia General Studies School which then was something like an extension school for foreign and transfer students.

[pagar]

I put this at the end of the thread that has just died.

Are taxpayers paying for this"

http://mentalrecession.blogspot.com/2012/07/democrats-now-sending-staffers-to-stalk.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

"They say showcasing the homes — most of which are spacious and neatly maintained —underscores what will be a key avenue of attack for the party this fall: communicating that Republicans just can’t relate to economically struggling voters."

Having a neatly maintained home is apparently not a leftist virtue.

I believe the Democrats become more vile every day. I can not imagine voting for one of them

[Jane - Get off the couch your country needs you!]

Justice unseals indictment charging five in Brian Terry's death

[NK]

"at Columbia" whether he was an Affirmative Action baby at Columbia College or in General Studies school, IMO 'Bam spent his 2 years in Morningside Heights chooming away, and not going to class much. Faculty don't remember him, and his Columbia U records are a tighter secret than the daily ICBM launch codes. hence, Barry kept on choomin' and didn't do much schoolin'.

[Jane - Get off the couch your country needs you!]

Thanks Clarice, perhaps he was trying to learn English.

[Clarice]

De nada, Jane.

As for the indictment, do you suppose our border agents were shooting bean bags at Mexican drug runners by their choice?

[James D.]

Pagar, that's horrifying, but really not surprising. The current Dems, from President Zero on down, are for the most part flat-out sociopathic monsters.

But this tactic seems like one that should backfire, once the Reps start responding in kind. I imagine there are plenty of spacious and neatly maintained homes belonging to Dem officeholders and candidates that could be filmed and shown on the Internet, no?

[DebinNC]

An Oct. 2008 JOM thread about Obama's lost Columbia years. Amazing testament to msm lib unanimity that it's still a mystery.

[MarkO]

Vital lies, Deb, vital lies.

[peter]

2. If Obama wasn't at Columbia, where was he?

Driving the Brinks getaway vehicle?

[bgates]

Jane, if you're talking about the Bush tax cuts (which the re-framers never thought to call "Bush revenue decreasers"), those are scheduled to expire automatically. That was the deal the Guardians of Civility and the New Tone made with the hostage-takers of the American Taliban.

Obama can have some House Dem introduce a bill to extend the rates for anyone making under $250k. What keeps McConnell from amending that bill to strike the phrase "for anyone making under $250k" is beyond my ken.

[Jane - Get off the couch your country needs you!]

5 minutes after Obama leaves office there will be no financial incentive to keep this stuff hidden. January will be very interesting. Once he is revealed to be the fraud he is, I want him to be forced to pay off the $12b of our money he spent covering it up.

Holder is trying to deflect attention away from himself. Darryl Issa just said then AG has no authority to refuse to prosecute Holder as the statute says "shall".

[NK]

DebinNC-- thanks for the 10/08 JOM post about Columbia years. I was a JOM lurker then. One thing struck me, the Trolls then were less impolite, but equally lame-- and so, so very wrong. In October 2008 JOM criticism of 'Bam was if anything-- TOO MILD.

[Carol Herman]

I don't think Romney gets elected. I think he's depending too much on people hating Obama. Which MAY cripple the republican party?

Nothing sets people off more than an opponent who is nasty. And, who feels entitled to your vote, even if you don't like him very much.

Yes. Romney is an insider. Just like the Bush family.

And, if you really want a good laugh ... you'd go back to 1964. When the ONLY speech that still gets played today ... was Reagan's speech for Goldwater! Where Goldwater thought Reagan was a lightweight.

And, to prove that he could win an election, Reagan first ran against the "Brown" machine in California. Where he won the governorship TWICE!

Anyway, after Nixon selected Ford ... 2 years would pass ... And, Ford decided he'd run. Even though he had originally promised not to. And, Ford picked Nelson Rockefeller as he veep. Just proving yet again how the insiders control the GOP nominating strings.

In 1976 Reagan was sent home by the Bush/Romney/Rockefeller team. And, they were hoping, too, that he'd be "too old to run in 1980."

Carter didn't win in 1980!

Nor is Romney Reagan in any sense of the ability to win over democratic voters.

[Jim Eagle]

It wouldn't surprise me that the FBI has a nice thick file on the robbery and the bombings where our Ear Leader makes more than a cameo appearance.

I like Peter's answer - driving the getaway car. Did they find it in a ditch? That'd be the tell-tale.

[jimmyk]

What keeps McConnell from amending that bill to strike the phrase "for anyone making under $250k" is beyond my ken.

Regardless, we'll have a repeat of last year where Obama will cave and extend the cuts for everyone rather than let them expire, and then go on a hissy fit about it.

[NK]

JimmyK@305-- I think that's right. Until then, Romney should simply say extend all rates and use the time to fix the abomination that is the Tax Code. Indies will agree with that, and then 'Bam is forced to cave while pitching a fit. Priceless.

[Extraneus]

Why do I get the impression that there's another side to this story?

Restaurants join fight to protect Bristol Bay salmon

Kevin Davis is a chef who fishes. He cares deeply about wild fisheries, so much so that he has lobbied for them in Washington, D.C., and has made sustainability a founding concept for both of his Seattle restaurants, Blueacre Seafood and Steelhead Diner.

Now Davis is part of a national effort by restaurateurs and conservationists trying to stop a proposed mining operation in Southwest Alaska’s Bristol Bay, site of the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery.

[Rick Ballard]

This is a very interesting poll. The Party ID skew is correct but the black percentage is 10% rather than a more correct 13%. White liberals should run about 19% of a correct national sample. That brings us to this deeply buried sentence

There is a marked difference of opinion along racial lines, with just 29 percent of whites saying Obama has changed the country for the better compared to 92 percent of blacks.

Hmmm.... 80% of the 19% white prog voters are positive so we subtract 16% from the 29% to get an 87% changed for the worse rate among non-prog whites. If I plug a 29% white approval rating into my nifty '12 vote model, Obama would be at 38%.

The President's reelection effort is doing just fine.

[NK]

RickB-- if 'Bam gets 35% of the total white vote, what do you project as his % of the total electorate?

BTW-- the 'Bam 2012 Troika have adopted "the beatings will continue until moral improves" approach: http://washingtonexaminer.com/obama-campaign-threatens-donors-we-could-lose-if-this-continues/article/2501656?custom_click=rss

[matt]

18 months to release the names of the suspects in a high profile murder of a U.S. agent. Why?

Bean bags? Did they think this was a walk in the park? These guys were back in the hils moving large quantities of dope.

The cartels have their own surveillance teams, narcotics superhighways, and are considered some of the most violent criminals in the world.

What the hell was management thinking? This case keeps on getting worse and worse.

[Gus]

Carol, you said:
Nothing sets people off more than an opponent who is nasty. And, who feels entitled to your vote, even if you don't like him very much.

Are you high?? Obama is as nasty as this country has ever seen.

Again Carol, stupid or high? Which are you?

[NK]

The Blue Model of urban politics is bankrupt-- this time Scranton Pa, Joe Biden's hometown: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/360731/20120708/scranton-mayor-pay-cut-minium-wage-politics.htm

[caro]

That fisheries post prompts me to link to PERC, the Property Environment Research Center in Bozeman, Montana.

Last week John Batchelor did his broadcasts from the center and the interviews were informative and refreshing. There is a link to the free podcasts in the right column. It is all about private ownership and entrepreneurship to promote conservation and sustainability.

One interview just thrashed Rachel Carson for poor science and politics. And after 50 years the left still adores her.

Iggy, thanks for the Navy links. I had been to those pages, but they are not very user friendly. I found a 340-page pdf on marine mammel research that I just could not wade through to find the 15900 whales will be made deaf information. Something is very wrong with this system to promote citizen involvement.

[Rick Ballard]

NK,

A 35% white vote returns a 43% total vote, assuming black/Hispanic turnout and preference remain the same as they were in '08. With current black/Hispanic approval ratings and 35% white the percentage drops to 41%.

[NK]

RickB-- OK thanks. with 35%, I intuitively come up with about 45% of total. Anyways, if 'Bam gets 35% of the white votes, he loses badly.

[Clarice]

Unfortunately PERC sounds too much like PIRG the greenie nutcases who keep sending unemployable college students around to my house trying to get money from me.

[Ignatz]

--the greenie nutcases who keep sending unemployable college students around to my house trying to get money from me--

Isn't that why God made Rottweilers?

[Extraneus]

Soledad O'Brien: You Know, All My Friends Say That The Poor Economy Isn't Obama's Fault

If Mitt Romney doesn’t come forward with a better plan, many economists we spoke to this morning would say, "You know, the President is not to blame and that anybody in the same position would have the same challenging numbers. It's really going to be incumbent upon the Republicans to say 'Well, here's what we would do better and provide a convincing argument if they expect to take the White House'".

Ace:

"Referendum" or "Choice" is one of the central questions this campaign cycle; it is not the role of Soledad O'Brien or her swell economist buddies to settle this matter on behalf of CNN's viewers.

Furthermore, she's a f***ing idiot who has no competency whatsoever to resolve this question, apart from simply being a breathing adult. If CNN calls her, randomly, as part of a poll, sure, let her answer then.

[centralcal]

Now, I know, there are people with big bucks who donate to opposing political parties - just wanting to grease which ever wheel makes it across the "win" line, but still:

One of President Barack Obama’s campaign co-chairmen also is a political donor to Representative Paul Ryan, one of Obama’s most prominent critics and a top surrogate for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

Marc Benioff, chief executive officer of Salesforce.com, the largest maker of online customer-management software, has raised more than $500,000 for the president’s campaign and hosted a fundraiser for him in April 2011. Yet Benioff, who became an Obama campaign co-chairman in February, donated $10,000 last month to a political committee aiding Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican who may merit consideration by Romney as a vice-presidential running mate.

[snip]

A few months before he became an Obama campaign co-chairman, Benioff told television interviewer Charlie Rose that he was “not sure yet” who he wanted to see as the next president.

“I have supported Barack Obama in the past. I have vacillated between being a Republican and being a Democrat,” Benioff told Rose in November 2011. “I’m now neither one. I’m not a Republican or a Democrat — I’m an American.”

[Extraneus]

First comment:

1 Obama 2012:

It's not his fault

Posted by: fluffy at July 09, 2012 03:20 PM (z9HTb)

[centralcal]

Soledad O'Brien: You know, all my friends say that my show's and all of CNN's other shows' poor ratings aren't our fault. Everyone I know agrees that we are a non-partisan middle of the road news provider, unlike Lefty MSNBC and Rightwing FNC.

FTFY - *wink*

[narciso]

Ye, this is the major player,

http://alaskamag.com/article/76/02/pebble_mines_formidable_foe

[pagar]

NK, It looks to me like the Scranton Pa, mayor is going to have to use the Roberts tax plan (taxes are legal) to keep the city running. How can the city council claim they want to borrow more. Who would lend it to them?

[Clarice]

iggy, with me answering the door we don't need no rottweilers.

[Gus]

Soledad O'Brien: "You know, like all my rich friends think that I'm sooooper dooooper smart and stuff"

[pagar]

"What the hell was management thinking?"

IMO, the same thing that is thought in all branches of the Obama regime. Anyone opposed to the US forces must be allowed to do anything they want to Americans. No American is to be allowed to defend them selves.

[Ignatz]

--iggy, with me answering the door we don't need no rottweilers--

LOL, clarice.

[Ignatz]

I bet none of Soledad O Brien's friends know anyone who knew who Pauline Kael was.

[narciso]

I would suggest she get better friends.

[Danube of Thought]

I believe Denise Rich is subject to a pretty big hit for what she is doing. I think when John Dingman did it some sort of punitive legislation was passed.

[Danube of Thought]

*Mike* Dingman.

[pagar]

"I believe Denise Rich is subject to a pretty big hit for what she is doing."

I'm sure she is subject to a big hit for her current action. If she has a good CPA they have probably calculated that the big savings will come in future years.

[Janet]

Soledad O'Brien: You Know, All My Friends Say That The Poor Economy Isn't Obama's Fault

The MFM just suck....really, they are shameless. Remember this with Bob Scheiffer & Boehner. Scheiffer should have been fired for being a busybody moron.

[Carol Herman]

2/3rd's of the voters couldn't identify most of the people who've been benched up at the supreme court. (And, if you go looking for Tanney's picture; it's in the basement. It doesn't hang with the rest.)

Nor would people understand "From Roberts to Roberts" as a 1937 reference to the supreme court. Where a conservative judge (Owen) Roberts switched his vote: "THE SWITCH IN TIME THAT SAVED 9."

FDR had won his second term in a landslide. He was threatening to "pack the court" ... increasing the number of judges to 23.

The case? Had to do with the minimum wage law. West Coast Hotel v. Parrish. "The right to contract" that had been immortalized in Lochner. And, reversed in a 5 to 4 decision, which brought together the Chief (Hughes) And, Brandeis, Cardozo, and Harlan Stone. THE NEW DEAL got born on that decision. And, the guy who switched? Named Owen Roberts.

For the most part, people don't notice the justices at all. While Lochner seems to be the "destination" the conservatives would like to return to.

Cancelled by John Roberts.

You think all his tomorrow's are blighted.

While I think Obama wins. People on the current court get replaced. And, Obama will be selecting replacements over the next five years.

With just a few seat changes ... the odds of seeing 6-3 and 7-2 decisions, ahead, remains more than just "possible."

And, IF John Roberts prefers voting with conservatives ... he'll be like Rehnquist. With a court NOT under his control! Heck, why would John Roberts want a PLASTIC REINDEER AWARD?

[Danube of Thought]

"Effective June 2008, U.S. citizens who renounce their citizenship are subject under certain circumstances to an expatriation tax, which is meant to extract from the expatriate taxes that would have been paid had he remained a citizen: all property of a covered expatriate is deemed sold for its fair market value on the day before the expatriation date, which usually results in a capital gain, which is taxable income"

[Danube of Thought]

"THE NEW DEAL got born on that decision."

Not exactly. Before Parrish was decided, congress had enacted the Securities Act of 1933, the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, and Social Security, among many other things.

[caro]

PERC promotes free market environmentalism. I don't think PERC is what we refer to as Greenie. They support mining and drilling and private land used for hunting and fishing for money. My take on it is that if someone with this background becomes our interior secretary much better outcomes and resource use on public lands will be the way we go.

An example from the link.

"My unsexy bumper sticker for adapting to climate change," says UCLA Professor of Economics, the Environment, and Public Affairs Matthew Kahn, "is 'Give free markets a chance!'"

[Gus]

Danube, you can check out any time, but you can never leave.

[bgates]

do you suppose our border agents were shooting bean bags at Mexican drug runners by their choice?

It's my understanding that every gun in the Southwest that fired real bullets had already been sold to the Mexican drug runners by order of the Obama administration, Clarice.

[Janet]

Could we at least shoot some bigger bean bags at them?

[Buford Gooch]

Gus, Carol Herman should be read for the amusement factor, not taken seriously.

[narciso]

I am reminded of the dissent by Sutherland, Devanter and co, in that case;

It is urged that the question involved should now receive fresh consideration, among other reasons, because of ‘the economic conditions which have supervened’; but the meaning of the Constitution does not change with the ebb and flow of economic events. We frequently are told in more general words that the Constitution must be construed in the light of the present. If by that it is meant that the Constitution is made up of living words that apply to every new condition which they include, the statement is quite true. But to say, if that be intended, that the words of the Constitution mean today what they did not mean when written—that is, that they do not apply to a situation now to which they would have applied then—is to rob that instrument of the essential element which continues it in force as the people have made it until they, and not their official agents, have made it otherwise.

[Carol Herman]

There are no tea leaves in the world that will ever indicate the future!

But IF Romney was a terrific pick ... by now you'd see the contagious enthusiasm. And, you don't see it. I don't even see bumper stickers!

Maybe, someday? Someone will ask: How did Romney get chosen? Well, in Iowa, he was the "best of the lot." Because the lot was lousy.

Doesn't mean you've got the right formula going.

Yes. That's what I said. And, I also said going after Obama to create an impression he's nasty is bound to backfire. Claiming he doesn't have a valid birth certificate didn't work, either. Why? Most people hate it when they have to produce these odd assortments of paper products.

As a general rule, so far, people seem more sympathetic to Obama than they do to Romney.

This isn't new information.

Heck, back in 1932, the republicans thought FDR was a cripple. Hoover purposely stressed him by forcing him to stand for hours during the swearing in ceremony. FDR STOOD. Won by a landslide. And, kept winning by landslides. FDR changed WHERE the swearing in would take place. And, he also moved the date from the middle of March ... up to the middle of January.

Hoover just set the stage for FDR to be successful!

Hoover thought he was showing off his brains. And, FDR would reach out to him ... so Hoover wouldn't have to leave the White House. Hoover's reputation never recovered.

Hitler came to power in 1933. FDR kept the USA out of the mess Europe was heading into. FDR measured America's mood. He got it right.

Obama is also getting the mood right. He is not being blamed. And, he is not losing votes. And, in time he will win over the sympathy vote which comes where you're retained for a 2nd term.

[Manuel Transmission]

caro, I forwarded your PERC link to our band of merry men (and ladies). They are ecstatic! I agree that there is a twinge of something there that seems too good to be true, but our gang are big boys and girls. They can sort all that out.

One of them responded: "never thought I'd be in love with a 501c(3)."

[Beasts of England]

And speaking of changing for the worse - had some fine vino with one of my favorite couples last night. He's a neurosurgeon. At the time, and still true today, he was the youngest board certified neuro in America. Obamacare was one topic of discussion. He's been a partner with his group for 15 years, now managing partner - six surgeons. He's done very well. He also worked his ass off and earned (earns) every dollar he makes. He also does about two-dozen pro bono surgeries per annum. He's approaching 50 years old. He earns about 2.5 plus / minus from his practice.

With that preamble, I asked him what he (and his wife) planned to do if O-care turns out as badly as is likely. Selling his practice to a hospital, working a few more years and then retiring and downsizing their lifestyle. Here's one of the finest surgeons in the south and he should be looking forward to ten or fifteen more productive years in medicine, but he's already sick of the gubmint's intrusion - right now! Very sad. An economic inefficiency, vis-a-vis underutilized skills (via early retirement), lost expertise (ibidem), lessened return on expended educational resources (ibidem), et cetera.

This shit's gotta stop. We need the populace and politicians to understand and respect free market economics, get the hell out of the way while people produce wealth, and respect those whom so do...