by Nick Stone of Drawnlines Politics: 

Imagine this scenario:  Americans are weary from four years of disarray both at home and abroad.  A complicated war has left the President's base alienated.  A culture war at home has left the Party divided.  A massive new federal program has incensed the opposition and exploded the deficit.  As an election looms, nervous Democrats turn on one another and descend into political meltdown.  Even the most loyal journalists eventually turn on the once popular President and the headlines aren't pretty.  A second term once seemed inevitable, but now appears impossible.

If this scenario seems implausible in 2012, would you be surprised to learn it has already happened?

1968: Johnson stuns the world by announcing he won't run for re-election.

The year was 1968.  As bad news piled up for President Johnson, members of his own Party found themselves unable to hold their tongues.  The base fractured and revolted.  Despite an intense effort to drown a primary challenge from Eugene McCarthy in New Hampshire, Johnson clung to a surprisingly narrow victory.  Against the possibility of an embarrassing defeat, LBJ announced to America that he would not seek, nor would he accept his Party's nomination for President in the following election.

Rather than LBJ, President Obama's campaign team has attempted to draw parallels to Harry Truman's 1948 comeback.  Of course, no parallel would be perfect.  Both Truman and Johnson took office because of the death of their predecessors, while Obama was elected during the death of our economy.  The base voters of the Democratic Party have also changed over time.  Obama was elected with 53% of the vote by an uncommon coalition of youth, blacks, Latinos and cross-over Obamicans.  Support from these groups has steadily declined, leaving Obama below 50% today.  If that math seems unspinnably bad, the history is even worse.  Only one Democrat in modern history has won re-election.


Speaking of Bill Clinton...

If President Obama truly believes in Democratic causes and wants to keep the White House away from the GOP, he may have no choice but to step aside. Last week, the Chicago Tribune ran an opinion suggesting that Obama clear the way for Hillary Clinton to take the nomination next year.  More recently, Clinton strategist Dick Morris wondered aloud, What is Bill Clinton Up To?, suggesting that he was laying the foundation for Hillary's nomination.  According to Morris, a senior Democratic strategist recently told him that if the metrics don't improve before January, Obama may consider doing just that.

FrontPage: President Obama addresses the UN.

President Obama descended into New York this week to address the United Nations and avoid a political catastrophe.

Palestine, a pseudo-state without proper government or real estate of its own, is asking for recognition as an official State by the UN. This would result in a complete meltdown of Middle East peace.  Derailment of the Palestinian bid is critical for the futures of both Israel and the Obama White House.

Obama is already buried under a mountain of bad press for a lack of support for our only ally in the Middle East.  Presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Rick Perry both sharply criticized Obama for leadership failures on the foreign policy front.  Romney alleged, "...repeated efforts over three years to throw Israel under the bus and undermine its negotiating position."  Perry said, "The Obama policy of moral equivalency which gives equal standing to the grievances of Israelis and Palestinians, including the orchestrators of terrorism, is a very dangerous insult."  The governors perfectly captured the gravity of the situation at the United Nations.

President Obama must move Heaven and Earth to stop the UN from recognizing the anti-Zionist Palestinian pseudo-state as a legitimate nation - if not to save the Jewish state, then at least to save himself. Failure in this task may cost his re-election chances next year and cement the perception that Democrat presidents are no friend to Israel.

Just last week, NY area Jews sent Obama a message of disapproval by electing a Republican to Congress for the first time since 1922.  Jewish voters, which heavily supported the President in 2008, will play a pivotal role in Florida, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey in 2012. If they stay home or cast protest votes, Obama is toast.

Israel's future hangs in the balance while an electoral alignment of historic proportions is under way. Generations of Jews are waiting on one last straw to bolt the Democratic Party for good. Will Obama let that be his legacy?

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Reuters: GOP candidates trade barbs, but one will carry the torch in 2012.

by Nick Stone of Drawnlines Politics:

Last night, Broward County Young Republicans hosted a crowd of over 30 people to cheer on their favorite Republican presidential candidates on television at the Reagan Presidential Library. Young men and women from wide-ranging backgrounds came together to rally for the common purpose of electing a Republican candidate to defeat President Obama in 2012.

That task could not be more critical.

With an economy creating 0 jobs and unemployment stuck at over 9 percent, we know that the Obama tax-and-spend economic model is just not working for America. The President's far left, class warfare policies may sound good to union thugs and environmental nuts, but they aren't putting anyone back to work.

Although the economy falters under Obama's boot, government growth has been prolific. Big Brother is crowding out private enterprise. Burdensome regulation and mandates are choking off individual freedom and responsibility. Is this really the America we know and love? Of course not.

We need a fundamentally different path for our country, and that begins by hiring a new leader. Last night we saw a stage full of Republicans with bold, fresh ideas to turn around the Obama economy and return America to her rightful position of leadership. One of them will be the Republican nominee next year. Whomever you support for President, remember we are united in our mission to limit President Obama to one term. We cannot accomplish that goal by way of bloodying our own troops.

As Ronald Reagan concluded his remarks to the 1976 Republican National Convention, he noted the urgency of working together to get the GOP nominee to victory on Election Day. "We must go forth from here united, determined that what a great general said a few years ago is true: There is no substitute for victory, Mr. President." Republicans failed that task in 1976, and the country suffered four years of Jimmy Carter's malaise.

Today, that call is every bit as urgent.  We cannot afford another four years of Obama malaise. There is no substitute for victory.

CNN:  Wasserman Schultz reminds America that "words matter" when her friends are in the cross hairs.

So much for the moratorium on heated rhetoric.

Yesterday, Teamsters President James Hoffa declared all out war on Republicans on behalf of the President.  On the campaign trail in Michigan, Hoffa repeatedly used war lingo urging labor forces to defeat, target, get and "take these son of a bitches out."


Yes, he meant open season on Republicans.  You know, like bang-bang?  Hoffa seemed to take his lead from the President himself, who said, "They bring a knife, we bring a gun."

As a nice guy, I won't attack the eloquent Leftist spokesman for failing to correctly say "sons of bitches."  Nor shall I cry foul on the grounds of equal opportunity by noting that he did not call for killings of "daughters of bitches."  After all, the Angry Left would rapidly note, had a conservative made the statement, that it was typical right wing chauvinism to neglect the women folk.  Affirmative action should put daughters and minority offspring of bitches at the very front of the line, according to far left policy.  But that couldn't be further from the point.

Reassuring news came as "equal opportunity" news outlets quickly condemned Hoffa's extremist remarks.  (Hint: no they didn't.)

Of course, Americans are completely desensitized to such vitriolic war chants coming from the far left (better known as the President's base).  This type of slash and burn rhetoric is nothing new from the cuddly characters you were already warned about in the aftermath of the Gabby Giffords shooting.

For now, let us take deep breaths and count to ten.  Surely, Debbie Wasserman Schultz (the thought police) will swoop in at any moment and declare outrage at such heated, suggestive and dangerous political rhetoric.  The President must be preparing even as I type to deliver a grand speech on the importance of remaining above the fray in such fractious times for fear of inciting the worst elements of our humanity against our dedicated public servants.

You do remember, after all, that words matter.  Or is that only when Republicans speak up?

YAF:  Miss America, Teresa Scanlan.

Miss America Teresa Scanlan recently sat down for an interview with Ron Meyer at Young America's Foundation to discuss her views on the American paradigm.  In addition to being a gorgeous and eloquent spokesperson for our nation's youth, Miss Scanlan is also a well versed constitutionalist.

During her interview with YAF, Scanlan emphasized the importance of learning and adhearing to the constitution of the United States.  She opined, "The number one thing I feel that we should all be willing to protect and hold above all else is freedom and is liberty, and so we need to take it upon ourselves to understand where that comes from and how that's different."  Miss America further noted that the constitution is what sets America apart on the world stage.  "The constitution and those founding documents have some pretty genius ideas in there, that truly are different from anything else the world has seen."  She added, "That is what has made our country what it is right now... if we move away from that, then we are going to make the same mistakes that other countries have."



According to NewsMax, "Scanlan scored Obama poorly for his faithfulness to the Constitution, saying that “there are definitely issues there that he’s not paying attention [to] like he should,” and suggested “ignorance” might be to blame since constitutional law is no longer stressed in school curriculums."

As impressive as Miss America's reverence and faith in the constitution is, don't think that she's some backwards stick in the mud.  Miss Scanlan believes in progress, and she knows the right way to bring that progress about.  "If you don't agree with something that's in the constitution, we need to go about amending it.  But you have to go about it the right way.  You can't just say, 'I don't like that law, so I'm not going to listen to it.'"

See more interviews with Miss America Teresa Scanlan on YAF's YouTube channel.  Miss America, we salute you!

To President Obama's credit, he has tackled recent debt talks with shocking transparency. For starters, he has laid out his re-election campaign strategy. Unable to run on his economic record, the president has doubled down on traditional leftist class warfare against straw men like billionaires, corporate jets, and fat cats. In meetings with Republican leaders, Obama has also fallen into the same trap as he did during the Bush tax cut extensions last year. That is to say, Democrats were horrified that the president never even fought to decouple the tax deal and allow taxes to rise on upper income earners. This time, he announced early that there will be Social Security and Medicare cuts in the final tax deal.

Let's repeat that. The president himself - not Republican lawmakers - announced and prepared lawmakers to sign onto a deal which cuts into those programs. Perhaps the DCCC will run an ad with Obama pushing a grandmother off a cliff now?

Last and most shockingly, President Obama accidentally warned the press of his plans to hike taxes after the election. If he receives a second term, Obama warned, he will raise tax rates in addition to huge hikes in payroll taxes already built into his budgets. According to Obama, "What we have talked about is that starting in 2013, that we have gotten rid of some of these egregious loopholes that are benefiting corporate jet owners or oil companies at a time where they're making billions of dollars of profits." John Hayward at Human Events noted of the stumble, "So, we’ve got an ominous promise by Obama to raise taxes again, if he gets re-elected. That’s right, again. He’s already raised billions of dollars in new taxes, and should never be allowed to pretend otherwise." To support his argument, Hayward pointed to a recent Wall Street Journal article highlighting just a few of the egregious tax hikes the president has already signed.

Will there be four more years for President Obama? Americans should think carefully whether or not they can afford the prospect.  At least the president is honest about what he would do in his next term.

RCP: Obama Approval Upside Down

For the first time in two and a half months, President Obama's net approval rating has gone into negative territory.  The president's poll numbers have been on a steady decline since taking office with the exception of two blips: the Arizona shooting that injured Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and the capture and killing of Osama Bin Ladin.  Following those two events, the American people rallied around the president with some renewed support.  That support proved to be soft and short-lived, as Obama pressed on with an unpopular agenda.  With an economy in trouble, high jobless numbers, and out of control Washington spending, more Americans blame the president than now credit him.  According to Real Clear Politics, 46.8 percent disapprove while only 46.3 percent approve of his job performance.  With a high stakes debt deal on the table and a $1 billion re-election campaign gearing up, the president will likely be looking for another miracle to turn his ratings around in short order.

Getty Images: GOP Leadership addresses budget

GOP Leaders Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) and Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) have agreed to discuss so-called revenue increases during the debt talks which resume tomorrow with President Obama at the White House.

The Republican plan differs from the Democrat plan in that it would avoid increasing taxes on businesses or individuals. Kyl and Cantor have already agreed to as much as $200 billion in new revenues, according to Newsmax, paid for by selling government property and/or increasing user fees for government services.

While Republicans prepare to swallow this minor compromise on so-called 'revenue enhancements', Obama has already ceded ground himself. According to AFP, Obama has made contact with congressional leaders to prepare them to accept a deal which includes cuts to Social Security and Medicare.

With election season heating up, both sides feel intense pressure not to throw their bases under the bus. However, most Americans want leadership to find a long term solution to our spending and debt problems - regardless of political risk.

Salon magazine editor Joan Walsh ran an interesting article on Wednesday titled The Mirage of the Obama Coalition. In it, she describes the unlikely hodgepodge of Obamicans, liberals, latinos and labor that swept the president into office in 2008. Walsh says Obama appears to be in big trouble with each group as his approval rating tumbles.  A breakup of the 2008 base spells disaster for the re-election campaign.  Here is a great excerpt:

One big problem for Obama is that he assembled an unprecedented electoral coalition in 2008, but it wasn't a governing coalition. Progressives like to think of the themselves as the president's base, and it's partly true: Obama won thanks to an unrivaled turnout of young voters, first time voters, African Americans and Latinos; and an energetic labor effort. But they – we – weren't enough by ourselves. He also did well with independents and even some Republicans who were ashamed of what the Bush Cheney years did to their party. Predictably, lot of those voters are going home now.

NBC Miami: Obama rakes in donations in Miami

A link on NBC Miami's news site said yesterday, "Obama Visits Miami... Again." Indeed the president was in South Florida for a series of fundraisers Monday. With sizable Hispanic and black populations, South Florida will play a pivotal role in what promises to be a close election.

This visit follows a commencement address to Miami Dade College and other recent fundraisers, not to mention huge fundraisers with Emilio and Gloria Estefan and other high dollar donors last year. The Obama campaign hopes to raise $1 billion for his re-election, and Miami plays a large part in that plan.

The president seems to grasp how difficult his re-election campaign will be. While addressing Miami supporters, he remarked that half of the 40,000 daily letters the president receives include irate Americans "calling him an idiot."  The challenge is particularly steep in Florida, where unemployment remains at two percentage points higher than the national average and Republicans swept statewide offices last year.

Obama adds Georgia and Arizona to his 2012 wish list

President Obama knows he's on defense in several key states going into the 2012 election cycle. But while Team Obama concedes that the president's path to victory will be considerably narrower next year than in 2008, they do have their eyes on a few new prizes.

The Obama campaign acknowledges that Indiana and other Bush states are probably going to the Republican next year. But because of population shifts and other factors, Arizona and Georgia have popped up on the Obama target list. According to the Washington Post, Hispanic populations have increased dramatically in the two Republican-leaning states. Presuming that latino voters come home to the Democratic Party next year as expected, this could be a huge boon for the president. In Arizona, Obama also has the good fortune of not running against the state's native son this time around.

Obama still has plenty of routes to 270. Both parties have begun examining the 2012 landscape with optimism, though most pundits agree that the map looks much better to the GOP than it did four years ago.

Now wouldn't that be one hell of a headline?

HuffPo: Roger Ailes Wants to hire Hillary Clinton

Of course, there is no news that Hillary Clinton is going to work for Fox. However, Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes did say in a recent inverview that he would be interested in hiring Hillary. Ailes told Newsweek, "She looks unhappy at the State Department. She'd get ratings."

To be sure, an Obama administration insider bolting the president and going to work for Fox News would attract both ratings and controversy. But is the idea so crazy? Hillary has already declared that she is interested in leaving her post in short order. On Fox News, Hillary's feelings have been rather positive. During her tenure at State, she has come on camera to discuss policy with Fox several times. As a presidential candidate, Clinton heaped praise on Fox, saying she "appreciated" the network's coverage of her campaign. Campaign surrogates Ed Rendell and Terry McAuliffe went even further, calling the network "Fair and Balanced" (their tag line).

Will Hillary leave State and join Fox News? For now, we only know that she is unlikely to be inactive when she leaves her current post.

From the "We Told You So" section of Drawnlines Politics:

No wonder a majority of Americans favor Obamacare repeal! The bad news keeps pouring in on top of President Obama's landmark legislation. This week we learned that some 30 percent of businesses plan to cancel their health benefits for one reason: Obamacare.


This news is particularly unsettling to Democrat lawmakers after a tsunami of other poor findings. The law has already proven to: raise costs, take away people's current insurance plans, ration care, raise the deficit, and curry favor to liberal political allies. Not to mention that whole speed bump we call The Constitution. Ouch!

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Human Events: 10 Outrageous Quotes from Debbie Wasserman Schultz

This morning, the LA Times reports that the economy added only 54,000 jobs in May. This number is far short of the 190,000 new jobs predicted on average by economists. To make matters worse, unemployment ticked up to to 9.1 percent rather than ticking down slightly as predicted. On the heels of several poor economic indicators and a slumping stock market, Americans are hard pressed to wonder what planet DWS calls home.

by Nick Stone of Drawnlines Politics.

On August 5, 1953 the Milwaukee Sentinel ran an editorial on the failure of President Truman to force Congress to raise the legal debt limit. Democrats and Republicans came together to tell the president that spending had become out of control. Treasury Secretary Humphrey and President Truman managed to steamroll a bill through the House, but the Senate wasn't so quick to budge. According to the Sentinel, "A bipartisan majority of the finance subcommittee concluded that the only way to stop astronomical spending was to force the Treasury to keep within the law." Facing defeat, the president and secretary were urged to find ways to economize instead.

CNBC: President Obama and House Republicans talk about the debt ceiling

The situation over the national debt seems largely similar between 1953 and today. On Wednesday, House Republicans met with President Obama to hash out a plan to raise the debt ceiling while slashing federal spending. The same day, CNBC reported, "The Treasury Department has warned that the country could face a default that could push it back into recession and roil markets across the globe if it does not raise the $14.3 trillion debt limit by Aug 2." On economizing, they reported, "Treasury has been tapping federal employee pensions and other funds to pay the nation's bills since it reached the current debt limit on May 16."

Where will the current debt fight end? Words the Sentinel penned in 1953 echo true today: "We shall have to wait and see. But it is something, and a mighty big something, that Secretary Humphrey will postpone the necessity as long as he can."

NewsMax: Obama thugs plan attacks on potential rivals

Are you better off than you were four years ago? When Americans go to the polls in 2012, the answer for too many voters will be a firm "No." According to Republican candidate Newt Gingrich, "If he was on an equal playing field, he'd lose--on his record, on his values, on his beliefs.” Knowing that the president can't run on his dismal record, Team Obama has formulated a plan to attack his opponents instead. Already, the Obama campaign is developing dossiers against GOP candidates and potentials. News broke this week that the Obama people are even digging up dirt on Chris Christie, who has committed himself against running in 2012. What else would Americans expect from the old-school campaign thugs that surround President Obama?

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WaPo: Daniels will not seek the GOP nomination in 2012

Fox News: Pelosi Caught With Hand in Obamacare Waiver Jar

by Nick Stone of Drawnlines Politics:

Today, I'm calling on congressional Republicans to abolish all waivers to Obamacare.  If the plan is good enough for everybody else, then it's good enough for Democrat special interests.

President Obama urged passage of his health care plan on two basic premises: to cover all Americans, and to reduce the costs of medical care.  Even before the law passed, experts warned that Obamacare would achieve neither of those goals and in fact could make America worse off on both counts.  Since its passage, the Obama administration has been issuing exemptions to the law, many requested by the same interests that lobbied for its enactment.  As the latest round of Obamacare waivers was released, we learned that 20 percent went to Nancy Pelosi's district in San Francisco.

According to The Tennessean, 1372 Obamacare waivers have been granted already.  It turns out that many have actually been requested by liberal activist groups, unions, and Democrat lawmakers themselves.  While millions of small businesses and employees brace for the impact of the president's health care plan, the Department of Health and Human Services is letting Obama's liberal allies off the hook.  But if the president's allies thought America needed Obamacare, then why wouldn't they want to participate in it now?

I call on Republican lawmakers to pass a bill requiring that "until such time as Obamacare is repealed in its entirety, all waivers or exemptions to its mandates shall be null and void."  If the president's health care system is good for America, then it's good for his allies.  But if it is too burdensome for Nancy Pelosi's district, then it's too burdensome for us all.

Update: The Heritage Foundation asks this morning, How About a National Obamacare Waiver?

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The United States government bumped its head on the debt ceiling at $14.308 billion on Monday, while negotiations over spending levels continue.  As a senator, Mr. Obama was against raising the debt ceiling.  President Obama has not only changed his tune on raising the ceiling, but is also asking for a 'clean' (read: no-strings-attached) hike on the national debt limit.  To keep the government running with mounting deficits, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has announced that he will begin raiding government retirement trust funds.

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