Imagecolumn: 

The current debate over health care reminds me of that scene in the movie Outlaw Josey Wales where the snake oil peddling carpetbagger tries to sell a bottle of his tonic to an Indian, only to be asked about what was in it.  After saying he didn’t know, the Indian said, “You drink it”.

Obama and the Democrats are selling snake oil.  And the American people aren’t buying.

But after a full year of debate, speeches, emails and town halls promoting his health care agenda it has come down to this: an all out, last ditch effort to ram a bill through Congress that a majority of Americans don’t want.  Public opinion be damned.  “Change” is coming.

The biggest (political) problem with ObamaCare, and thus Obama’s problem, is that the public doesn’t want it.  Worse, the latest polls seem to indicate that the more Congress and the public focus on the issue, the more opposed they become.  read more »

This is it.  The moment of truth in the US House...and what is probably our last, best chance to stop the liberal,big-government takeover of our health care system.

The House will be voting soon on whether or not to pass the Senate version of "ObamaCare", and we have to stop it.

Contact your members of Congress and tell them to vote NO!

Right now, liberals from the White House and the Democrat leadership are meeting behind closed doors trying to create a "compromise" package that will give Democrats in the House enough cover to vote for the bill...promising them that the Senate will enact these changes AFTER they approve the current Senate bill.

In other words, they're saying "trust us".

Tell them "NO". Let them know that the American people do NOT want this bill - and that we do NOT trust them withour health care.  read more »

According to the L.A. Times, federal officials report that there were 34 deaths in the past decade from Toyota vehicles suddenly and unintentionally accelerating.

Then again, federal officials also report that there were 34 deaths from people not having health insurance while you were reading the last sentence.

A sensationalistic crash that killed four occupants of a Lexus last year in San Diego resulted in nationwide media exposure regarding supposed Toyota design flaws.  Toyota investigated and found that the car’s floor mat had become stuck to the accelerator, preventing it from operating properly.  The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration backed up Toyota: as outlined in the inspection report, “The right clip was installed into the grommet of the carpeting but not installed into the mat.  The left clip was… not clipped to either the carpet or the rubber mat…  [T]he bottom edge of the accelerator pedal had melted to the upper right corner of the mat…  [W]hile it was a Lexus brand mat, it was not the correct application for the vehicle.”

Nonetheless, the incident led to an accumulation of complaints about Toyota and high-profile recalls for problems ranging from Sudden Unintended Acceleration (SUA) to brake problems to faulty steering.  The federal government butted in by holding hearings last month in which they grilled Toyota executives about alleged glitches in their vehicles’ electronic throttles; they also demanded to know when Japanese execs would commit hara-kiri to atone for their sins.

As the Times noted, virtually all of the accident-related deaths reported this year took place before 2010, some as far back as 20 years.  In other words, motorists are jumping on the bandwagon, contributing horror stories to a ravenous media, and helping perpetuate an urban legend.  Or, as one agency spokeswoman diplomatically noted, “It is normal for NHTSA to receive an increase in consumer complaints after a recall is announced and the public learns of a safety defect.”  read more »

Just when you begin to sorta' feel good about how things are going for Republicans, thanks largely to Barack Obama and the Democrat leadership, you seem them do the kind of things you expect from people who really just don't want to win.

For example, take the NRSC (please!) and its continued fundraising for Charlie Crist, who (as we pointed out) is getting "waxed" by Marc Rubio in the Florida Senate primary by 32 points in the latest poll.

I understand that the NRSC has a job to do, that being to recruit candidates and help them win US Senate seats.  Fine.  And I also understand that there will be times that someone there will screw up and recruit the wrong candidate, although this seems to happen waaayyy to often to just be a screw up, but I digress.  But it's another thing entirely to continue to waste the party's money...and encourage GOP donors to waste even more money...supporting someone that Republicans in that state have CLEARLY indicated that they don't want.  read more »

Talk about hand-writing on the wall.

In what can be termed as nothing less than "big", the latest poll of the Republican candidates in the Florida Senate primary has House Speaker Marco Rubio ahead of incumben Governor Charlie Crist by 32 points.

Via Public Policy Polling:

Rubio now leads Crist 60-28, including a staggering 71-17 lead with conservatives. Crist has a 49-36 advantage with party moderates, but they account for just 31% of likely primary voters compared to 65% who describe themselves as conservative.

Rubio is benefiting from a widely held sentiment among Florida GOP voters that Congressional Republicans are too liberal and that Crist would add to the problem. 41% of them think that the party leadership in Washington is too liberal, and with those folks Rubio holds an 83-10 lead. 50% think that Crist himself is too liberal and with those voters Rubio’s advantage expands even wider to 90-5.

Wow.  And, believe it or not, it gets worse for Crist.

It also looks like it’s too late for Crist to audible and make another run for Governor. GOP voters say they’d prefer likely nominee Bill McCollum over Crist by a 49-35 margin. In fact Republicans generally just want Crist to go away- 56% say they’d like him out of office a year from now to 19% who’d like to see him continue as Governor and only 14% who want him in the Senate.  read more »

It’s getting to be a little like a ‘Price is Right’ scheme. Behind this window we have… and behind window #2… The difference is that no one knows how to score this one yet. There’s a bunch of hype going on, primarily by a not-quite-panicky Democratic leadership. But the Republicans aren’t that far behind in taking advantage of the situation either.

With President Obama telling his Democrat membership to pay no attention to your jobs… you must sacrifice your careers for the greater good… makes you wonder how many judgeships he has to give out? I want my bill and I want it now. Uh, ok Barry, but just how motivated do you think these folks actually are in following you to Valhalla?

There’s a bunch of political experts and pundits wading in on this one. With the count, and the amount, ratcheting up from day to day. That is the count: the price that this monstrosity is threatening to cost you and your children, and their children, and their children. The number: those politicians who are actually going to be bold enough to sign away the freedom of choice of the entire populace of this country for a very bad piece of legislation on a straight party line reconciliation (there’s that word that Obama won’t use anymore, it’s no longer newspeak) vote of 51 lawmakers.  read more »

What difference a year makes!

We're a long way from where we were after "The One" took office.  The economy is still in the tank, most of his agenda is stalled (thankfully), and his polling numbers continue to head south.

For Republicans, things are looking up as we approach the mid-term elections.

But how should Repubicans continue to deal with Obama?  Who would you like to see in a leadership role?  What direction should the party take overall?  Where are the best Republican ideas coming from?

All important questions.

The Republican Leadership Survey is an ongoing project we use to take the pulse of the conservative base, and we want to add your opinions to the mix.

So if you haven't taken the survey yet, click here and do so today. Then pass it on to someone else.  read more »

Some of the latest from the ongoing debate over ObamaCare...

Obama orders full speed ahead

The Washington Times op-ed has a nice paragraph that summarizes fairly simply why the plan needs to be defeated.

At stake is the biggest policy initiative of the year-old Obama presidency, a rewrite of the nation's health care system that would trim hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicare, expand Medicaid, mandate that every American join a plan and rewrite rules telling insurance companies how they can operate.

Exactly.

Are Democrats whistling past the graveyard on ObamaCare?

Via Julie Mason:

Republicans warned they will use Obama's reliance on parliamentary moves to push the unpopular bill through as a top campaign issue in the fall. Democrats are hoping Americans ignore rhetoric about voting procedures in Congress and credit them with passing something.

"I don't know how this plays politically, but I know it's right," Obama said of his latest proposal.  read more »

Last summer, NBC’s Brian Williams wrote a piece called “The Hurt Locker: Hurting for a Fact-Checker” regarding one of the top two contenders for Best Picture at this weekend’s Oscars.  Williams noted, “I found a slew of technical inaccuracies based only on my few trips to Iraq during the height of the conflict.  Seeing the movie made me go back over many of the positive reviews I read…  [I]t is now clear none of them was written by anyone who had spent any time with U.S. armed forces in Iraq.”

Williams suggested that the filmmakers botched the following minor details: the vehicles, the armor, the armaments, the helmets, the uniforms, the communications technology, the military jargon, the unit structure, the command procedure, and the mission logistics.

On the plus side, Williams noted that the filmmakers accurately portrayed soldiers’ fingernails being dirty and their eyelashes being covered with dust.  Score one for cinéma vérité!  Williams also praised the film’s lovely desert scenery.

Williams ended, “I’d like to watch ‘The Hurt Locker’ with a combat veteran, but my layman’s eyes found way too much to quarrel with.”

Fortunately for Williams, combat veterans have already seen the film.  Unfortunately for director Kathryn Bigelow, their criticism of the film is even more scathing than that of Williams.

Paul Rieckhoff, Founder and Executive Director of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, recently concluded in Newsweek that “Hollywood’s latest attempt to define the Iraq War and the American troops who have fought in it is just as disappointing as all the others produced so far.”  read more »

Obama is like a twelve year old whose skateboard and video game privileges have been taken away. His petulant attitude was in full bloom at the health care summit this week.

Eric Cantor and John Boehner, along with John McCain and other Republicans, made the Democrats look pretty silly at times. Every Democrat that spoke had to come out with the obligatory sad health care sob story, no matter how improbable. Rep. Louise Slaughter (D) NY told how one of her constituents had to wear her dead sister’s false teeth. I guess these Democrats have got to be collectively tone deaf, because they sure don’t hear themselves the way we hear them.

Conversely, I was totally impressed with Minority Leader John Boehner and the Republicans, their grasp of the bill and the solid refutations that they presented to President Obama, despite being held to a mere 110 minutes as opposed to a full 222 minutes for Obama and his Democrats, with the bulk of the time being taken up by President Obama continually interrupting Republicans when he didn’t like what he was being told, which was most of the time. His facade of bi-partisanship went out with his opening statement.

 read more »