What to Look for in a Presidential Candidate

Pajamas Media  "Obama has shown electing a president to be far easier than electing one who will govern well. Republicans must nominate a presidential candidate who can achieve three primary goals: 1) the enactment of a pro-growth agenda that will revitalize the economy, 2) the reform of entitlements programs to ensure fiscal solvency, and 3) a long-term plan for the reduction in the national debt."....

 

Political Courage....
Character....
The Confidence of the Base....
Ability to Inspire Optimism.  This is vital to long-term economic recovery. Under President Obama, America has received uncertain leadership. As was the case after Jimmy Carter, America needs a boost to its self-confidence to be able to grow and succeed. A nation where the people believe buying gold and food storage make more sense than buying homes and investing is not one that will prosper.

Taliban Hotel Attack: Low Death Toll, High Psychological Value

 STRATFOR  "These multi-man armed attacks in Kabul were true acts of terrorism — attacks conducted for their symbolic propaganda value — and not acts conducted to be tactically significant from a military standpoint. When taken together, these less than spectacular individual attacks were conducted with enough frequency to cultivate a perception of instability and lack of security in the Afghan capital — an important goal for the Taliban."

Obama’s Twitter Town Hall

National Review Online  "Barack Obama today held a “Twitter Townhall,” at which the president agreed to answer questions posed to him on Twitter (marked by the #AskObama hashtag). The tweets were filtered by “a Twitter Search algorithm” that aimed to “identify the most engaged-with Tweets,” but were also subject to further filtering by a panel. So no one will have been surprised by the absence of anything particularly damning or controversial.
"Here are a collection of the tweets the president would presumably rather had not been posted:"...
....
"Tweet of the Day, however, goes to the unknown Kevin Smith, whose verdict read:"

I have never seen anyone who can talk so much and still say absolutely nothing of any intelligence #askobama

The New RepublicObama’s Twitter Town Hall and His Guarded, Lame Approach to Social Media  "Perhaps Obama let his guard down that day, just slightly, because of the debate’s novel format. Perhaps the lesson he took away was that he should never to do that again. But, if social media are ever really going to matter in the conversation between the president and the public, the guarded, lame approach Obama has taken won’t cut it." 

Twitter town hall: Obama tops 140 characters

Heritage Foundation has five questions it is asking Obama for his Twitter Townhall.  Here's one:

You said it wasn’t a good idea to raise taxes in a recession but that is all you offer now to fix debt. Why? #AskObama

President to solve nation’s problems in 140 characters or less  "A tough constitutional question on the debt ceiling or the War Powers Act would alone make this worth watching, but since part of this exercise is to brand a guy who’s overseeing a ruinous entitlement load as somehow the “candidate of the young,” we’re bound to see some oddball, lighter-side crap too. In fact, check out the word cloud of Twitter questions for O from Detroit. The most troubled major city in America, and yet the topic du jour is … UFOs. What a waste. "

Casey Anthony: Single Mom of the Year!

Ann Coulter "A 2008 study led by Georgia State University economist Benjamin Scafidi conservatively estimated that single mothers cost the U.S. taxpayer $112 billion every year -- in addition to asking the rest of us to keep an eye on their kids while they go clubbing.

....

A 2007 New York Times op-ed column about three gold-diggers fighting for custody of Anna Nicole Smith's illegitimate daughter said: "Surely this change is a welcome corrective to the injustice of traditional marriage laws and family values that stigmatized 'bastards' for life."

Except one can't help noticing how many more illegitimate children there are -- and the accompanying child abuse, neglect, suicide, runaways and murders -- now that the stigma is gone.

Casey Anthony juror: It made us sick to our stomachs to acquit her  "More of them should speak up. America’s sweetheart is about to become a bona fide celebrity, rich beyond her wildest dreams, and the only moral cover she has to enjoy it is the perception that 12 people who saw all the evidence think she’s actually innocent. The more the jurors dispel that perception, the greater her disgrace."

Photos from http://www.orlandosentinel.com/

Casey Anthony: Must Everything Be About Race?

Lloyd Marcus  "There is a lot of chatter claiming the massive media coverage and public interest in the Casey Anthony case confirms America is racist. They say if Casey and her daughter were black, no one would care. They claim the story is popular because the missing child is white and cute.
"I say, "Hogwash!"
"Some blacks have a "black eternal victim chip" on their shoulder while others (liberals) relish every opportunity to dump on America and her good, decent, compassionate and extremely generous people."
Lloyd Marcus, Proud Unhyphenated American; Vice Chair, www.CampaignToDefeatObama.com 

Casey Anthony found not guilty; TV talking heads found guilty  Matt Drudge used the graphic at right:

"The case became an obsession of cable news, and many talking heads, pre-eminently Nancy Grace (whose ratings soared during the trial), now look foolish. They were slammed by the defense team after the verdict:"...

Even if it is 'likely' or 'probable' that she committed the murder, she must be acquitted. The standard is proof beyond a reasonable doubt..  ALAN M. DERSHOWITZ

This is What a Casey Anthony Juror Sounds Like  "So if someone’s friends think she’s a good mom, that’s good enough for this guy. The fact that her daughter disappeared and she said nothing doesn’t change his opinion one little bit. What a complete moron."

You Stay Classy, Casey Anthony Defense Attorney!   "Casey Anthony Defense Attorney Gives Reporters The Finger"

Injustice  "The Casey Anthony verdict didn’t deliver justice for little Caylee. But it did give America some insight into the kind of family dysfunction and parental enabling that produces a mother like Casey: one who could move in with her boyfriend, enter a bikini contest, and get a “Bella Vita” tattoo during the time her little girl’s body was decomposing in a swamp near the family home."

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/garyvarvel

Culture capital of the world vs them hicks in flyover country

http://terrellaftermath.com/

The Philosophies of Illegal Immigration

Victor Davis Hanson  "Where does all this leave us? A mess of alligators and moats, poor children being arrested on their way to ice cream, wise Latinas, ethical lectures from the Mexican president on the White House lawn, and America as a foreign team in the Rose Bowl. The former liberals have now become the most illiberal sorts; a movement that targeted racism is now itself race-based, as La Raza has sought to resurrect the once discredited notion of Volk — a people to be defined not by ideas or values, but by how they look.
"God help us all."

Obama’s Twitter townhall: A win-win for the White House

Post Politics  "In the 2008 election, voters aged 18-29 comprised 18 percent of the overall electorate and voted for Obama over Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) by a 66 percent to 32 percent margin.
"In the 2010 midterms, voters 29 and under made up just 12 percent of the electorate and went for Democrats by a much slimmer 13-point margin — one of several factors in the GOP wave that swept the country.
"For Obama to win re-election next fall, he needs to replicate (or come close to replicating) his 2008 showing among young voters."


Obama’s Twitter Town Hall: Questions in 140 Characters or Less  "Users of the social networking service can post questions for Obama before and during the event, which starts at 2 p.m. Washington time. Questions should fit Twitter’s 140-character limit and include the hashtag #askObama.
"Representatives of San Francisco-based Twitter Inc. will determine which questions to pose to the president, White House director of digital strategy Macon Phillips and communications director Dan Pfeiffer said during a conference call yesterday."

And here's one from former congressman Anthony Weiner that, oh, my......please, no more photos.

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/henrypayne

Obama’s [Ineptness] as President Might Save Him

Have we evolved as a nation past the need for a competent president?  "...back in 1980, the fact that Jimmy Carter was a terrible, awful president was by far the biggest issue of the election. Any suggestion that his opponent was a right-wing extremist was outweighed by the fact that Carter clearly had no idea what he was doing as commander-in-chief and people felt it was best he move on to an occupation like building houses, where he was less likely to cause major harm.
"Many expect the 2012 election to play out similarly, as Obama has failed in ways that rival even Carter’s failures." (Emphasis added)  ....
"Still, perhaps 2012 will play out like elections in the past, and Obama will be unceremoniously dumped for being less than useless. But then again, maybe we really have changed in our expectation of whether a president should have basic competency. If Republicans base their campaign around “Obama is horrible, and our guy will actually know what he’s doing,” they may be making an argument voters just don’t care about anymore."
Frank J. Fleming writes political humor at IMAO.us and has hundreds of unwanted goldfish. Why won't someone stop him?

http://www.usnews.com/opinion/photos/barack-obama-cartoons/31

Boortz Rant: Is the American Dream dead?  "[Barack Obama's] father was a Communist. His mother was a Communist, and when his father disappeared from his life, his mother took on a lover who was a Communist. He hung out with Communists in college. He gravitated toward Communist professors in college. And now he is president of the United States?

"This is a man who, when he decided that he was going to finally enter the political realm, decided that he would make that announcement in the home of two dedicated Communist revolutionaries: Bernadine Dohrn and Bill Ayers. Everything about this man -- from his childhood, through college and his entry into politics -- everything about him is infused in Marxism and anti-capitalism and a hatred for the private sector and free enterprise and a love of government."

California Dreamin’ of Secession

The Volokh Conspiracy  "Ironically, the Constitution is far more clear about making it hard for territories to secede from a state than about the secession of states from the Union, a subject on which it is conspicuously silent. No successful secession from a state has occurred since West Virginia broke off from Virginia during the Civil War. And that secession may have violated the Constitution, since the Virginia legislature did not consent to it at the time."

Californiality.com  "The State of South California is being proposed by Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone, with 13 counties seceding from California to form America's 52nd state.

"The proposed 51st state, of course, being the already proposed State of Jefferson in Northern California."
....
"Los Angeles County, Ventura County and Santa Barbara County, which are currently part of what is known as "Southern California", would NOT be included in the State of South California.
"Apparently, the counties with the most fame, wealth, power, influence and Botox are not welcome in America's 52nd state."

Obama’s Declaration of Dependence; The self-reliant citizenry is history.

Mark Steyn   "Charles Krauthammer did the math. If you eliminate the Obama-Pelosi-Reid Corporate Jet Tax Break, you would save so much dough that, after 5,000 years, you would have clawed back enough money to cover one year of Obama’s debt. Five thousand years is the year 7011. Boy, our kids’ll really be safe by then. I see some leftie at MSNBC has just been suspended for characterizing the president’s performance on Wednesday as that of a demotic synonym for the male reproductive organ. So I shall be more circumspect and say only that even being a hollow unprincipled demagogue requires a certain lightness of touch Obama can’t seem to find."  And polls still show that people "like President Obama". Who are these people anyway?