Blaming the GOP Isn’t Working

President Obama seems full of double talk these days, all smoke and mirrors, as Angelina Jolie reportedly has described him. (I’m loathe to borrow words from a celebrity but it is a spot on assessment.) Listening to the president’s comments lately, one would think the Republicans were in the governing majority over the past year and it was their fault the president couldn’t push through his costly, government expansion agenda.

This is of course despite the reality that last year, the Democrats had solid majorities in both the House and Senate. Now that Obama is not delivering on his promises he’s blaming everything on “the previous administration and the previous Congresses” and the $1.3 trillion debt he inherited. But neither President Bush nor congressional Republicans were in charge last year. Let’s review:

President Obama got Congress to pass the $787 billion stimulus and promised it would create 3.5 million jobs and unemployment wouldn’t rise above 8%. Neither happened: unemployment surged to 10% and a mere 600,000 jobs may have been created.

The president promised the Making Home Affordable program would help 4 million borrows avoid foreclosure. It has maybe helped 110,000 homeowners since February 2009.

Banks received billions in bailout money. In return, they have hoarded cash, reduced consumer lending and reward themselves by paying employees $145 billion in 2009, about 18% more than 2008.

Obama promised to pass a $1 trillion healthcare reform bill. He had about 12 months and solid Democratic majorities in both the House and Senate. It didn’t happen.

The president promised he would bring “change to Washington that people could believe in.” Didn’t happen; instead he brought an extreme liberal ideologue agenda to Washington.

Now that the president’s agenda is in tatters, and Democrats no longer have a filibuster proof majority in the Senate thanks to Scott Brown, the president wants to “work with Republicans” to get the country back on track. Until Scott Brown won Ted Kennedy’s Massachusetts Senate seat, neither the president nor Democratic congressmen showed any interest in working with the Republicans on anything, specifically healthcare reform. As polls showed mounting disapproval from Americans for the healthcare reform bill, Democrats and the president became even more resolute in passing it.

But now, the Democrats’ solid majority has been cracked by Brown’s win, even Democrats are backing off their “we’re in charge and can do whatever we want” attitude. This probably has something to do with 58% of Americans believing the country was headed in the wrong direction (WSJ/NBC poll) and the upcoming 2010 midterm election. But since his SOTU speech, the president revealed he really doesn’t intend on working with Republicans and last week’s speech was “smoke and mirrors.” President Obama is digging in his heels more than ever. Since releasing his $3.8 trillion budget for 2011, he’s vowed to fight, fight, fight for the same broken, partisan spending agenda of last year. His budget will result in the nation’s debt rising to $8.5 trillion over the next 10 years. And once again Obama is offering up the same old porridge of $1 trillion in proposed taxes on so-called wealthy Americans, which was rejected last year.

Obama has been quoted saying: “What I will not welcome-what I reject- is the same old grandstanding when the cameras are on, and the same irresponsible budget policies when the cameras are off.” Sounds like Obama is talking about himself. But who knows what to believe coming out of the president’s mouth. What’s clear as many reporters have noted is that the Obama spell has been broken. Americans aren’t buying the magic anymore and may be viewing the president more and more as a one termer. Looks like the “tea partiers”‘ weren’t just a few right wing mobs after all (as many liberals and some conservatives suggested last summer) but represented the anger felt by most of the American people.

"Frum was indeed a critic of Palin, calling her nomination a "huge mistake" during an October 13 (2008, weeks before the election) Early Show appearance."

David Frum: "Two of our most plausible candidates for president in 2012 are leading Mormons: Mitt Romney and Utah governor Jon Huntsman."

David Frum: "I have a lot of regard for Mitt Romney as a man and politician… I will support him without qualm."

Late in October, The American Spectator's The Prowler revealed:
"Former Mitt Romney presidential campaign staffers…
have been involved in spreading anti-Palin spin to reporters, seeking to diminish her standing after the election.
'Sarah Palin is a lightweight, she won't be the first, not even the third, person people will think of when it comes to 2012,'
says one former Romney aide…
'The only serious candidate ready to challenge to lead the Republican Party is Mitt Romney.
"Some former Romney aides were behind the recent leaks to media, including CNN, that Governor Sarah Palin was a 'diva' and was going off message intentionally."

The Palmetto Scoop reported: "One of the first stories to hit the national airwaves was
the claim of a major internal strife between close McCain aides and the folks handling his running mate Sarah Palin."
"I’m told by very good sources that this was indeed the case and that a rift had developed, but it was between Palin’s people and the staffers brought on from the failed presidential campaign of former Gov. Mitt Romney, not McCain aides."
"The sources said nearly 80 percent of Romney’s former staff was absorbed by McCain and these individuals were responsible for what amounts to a premeditated, last-minute sabotage of Palin."
… aides loyal to Romney inside the McCain campaign, said The Scoop, reportedly saw
that Palin would be a serious contender for the Republican nomination in 2012 or 2016, which made her a threat to another presidential quest by Romney.

Erick Erickson, who organized Operation Leper, said:
"These staffers are now out trying to finish her off ….hoping it would ingratiate themselves with Mitt Romney."

"Who's the Palin Leaker from the McCain Campaign?
National Review Online The publication of a Vanity Fair profile of Sarah Palin
appears to have opened old wounds in the McCain campaign.
... the source of the “Diva” leak was Nicolle Wallace’s husband."

Who benefits most from Sanford meltdown? Californian (that's right) Mitt Romney

"Peeking Out From the McCain Wreckage: Mitt Romney"

"Someone's got to say it: IS MITT ROMNEY RESPONSIBLE FOR OBAMA'S VICTORY?"

"Vanity: Team Romney Sabotaged Palin and Continuing to Do So?"

"Romney Supporters Trashing Palin"

"Romney advisors sniping at Palin?"

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