American Glob

Michael Scherer of TIME Magazine published a lengthy piece about Obama today in which he acknowledges the growing buyer’s remorse over hope-n-change…

With the local unemployment rate above 12% and rising again this summer, about a third of the employer display tables stood empty. Julie Griffin, who voted for Obama in ’08, sat down at the room’s edge, well dressed and discouraged. After 23 years as a payroll administrator at a local RV plant, she got laid off 18 months ago. “Really, what has he been doing?” she said when I asked about Obama’s efforts to help people like her. “I guess I don’t know what he is doing.”

Ironically, back in December of 2008 when I switched American Glob over from a news aggregator site to true blog form, my very first post was about the absurd number of times TIME Magazine had featured Obama on their cover.

That was almost two years ago. God only knows how many more times they’ve had him on the cover since then.

Read more opinion on the Time article at Memeorandum.

You can also watch Scherer summarizing his article in the video below.

Not a bad idea. You can get the basics from the Washington Post…

CLEVELAND — House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) called Tuesday for the mass firing of the Obama administration’s economic team, including Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner and White House adviser Larry Summers, arguing that November’s midterm elections are shaping up as a referendum on sustained unemployment across the nation and saying the “writing is on the wall.”

Boehner said President Obama’s team lacks “real-world, hands-on experience” in creating jobs that are needed for a full economic recovery. The Republican lawmaker cited reports that some senior aides complained of “exhaustion,” including the recently departed budget chief Peter Orszag.

Of course the money quote comes at 0:46 in the video below. “We’ve tried nineteen months of government as community organizer and it hasn’t worked.”

Read more at Memeorandum.

The American job market sure is great for sign makers lately. Especially for people who make signs touting the excellent job the Obama Administration did with the Stimulus Bill and unemployment.

ABC News reports:

As the midterm election season approaches, new road signs are popping up everywhere – millions of dollars worth of signs touting “The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act” and reminding passers-by that the program is “Putting America Back to Work.”

On the road leading to Dulles Airport outside Washington, DC there’s a 10′ x 11′ road sign touting a runway improvement project funded by the federal stimulus. The project cost nearly $15 million and has created 17 jobs, according to recovery.gov.

However, there’s another number that caught the eye of ABC News: $10,000. That’s how much money the Washington Airports Authority tells ABC News it spent to make and install the sign – a single sign – announcing that the project is “Funded by The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act” and is “Putting America Back to Work.” The money for the sign was taken out of the budget for the runway improvement project.

Obama has continued a number of policies from his predecessor, but now he even has a “Mission Accomplished” moment of his very own.

As reported by the Politico:

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — President Barack Obama has a new campaign slogan.

“Yes, we did.”

And it doesn’t stop there. Republicans, an animated Obama argued Thursday, wouldn’t have.

They wouldn’t have set the economy back on track, he said during a fundraiser for Senate candidate Robin Carnahan, or passed a health care overhaul or financial regulatory reform. Giving the GOP control of Congress again — a possibility that Obama acknowledged — would usher in another era of a “you’re on your own philosophy,” he said.

In which alternate reality is the president currently residing? The economy is back on track? You could have fooled me.

Republicans wouldn’t have passed Obamacare? That’s a feature not a bug, Mr. President.

Your on your own philosophy? You mean like the people of Arizona who wish the federal government would do its job and secure their border?

If this is your idea of “yes we did” maybe you could do us a favor next time.

Don’t.

Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin delivers the GOP weekly address.

I think this falls into the category of what Glenn Beck calls “common sense porn.”

HT to Smitty at The Other McCain who adds “cuts are fine, but we need to amputate the system that buries liberty in reams of legislation to support un-Federal tasking.”

Who really cares that massive unemployment continues to loom?

There are more urgent matters at hand! So urgent, you probably haven’t even heard about them. Puerto Rico needs to become the 51st state in the USA! Even if the people of Puerto Rico have rejected this idea repeatedly…

This bill attempts to rig the voting process and denies the American people a real say on the issue of whether they want to allow Puerto Rico to be granted statehood.  The fact of the matter is that Puerto Ricans have rejected statehood numerous times and this bill seems to have been written in a way to fast track statehood without a majority of Puerto Ricans favoring the idea.  Furthermore, the people of the United States should be allowed a vote on whether they want to admit Puerto Rico as a new state.  If the people of Puerto Rico can vote, the people of the United States should have a vote.

Why would the Obama Administration and the Democrats push such a measure out of the blue, you ask? Simple. They know they’re screwed in November and they desperately need to add new voters to their base…

Ordinary citizens have already been hit in the past year with an unconstitutional takeover by the federal government of our health-care system. Americans have watched with growing frustration and anger as the president and his party have exponentially grown the government, the federal budget, and the country’s debt in a completely unsustainable manner with seemingly no concern over the future economic wellbeing of the country. Now those same citizens are faced with a manipulative bill that political observers will recognize as designed to create millions of new votes at a time when certain political actors fear their election prospects are diminishing. This is nothing more than a transparent attempt to rig election rules to favor the outcome they want.

The Democrats in Washington, DC care about one thing only – staying in power. Everything else takes a back seat. The economy, jobs, national security, the will of the people, etc.

They plan to handle the 2010 and 2012 elections the same way they handled ObamaCare. If the voters disagree, they’ll just go around them.

Our Constitution be damned.

The Democrats need Puerto Rico. Get ready to be called a racist if you disagree.

The stimulus? FAIL. ObamaCare? FAIL. Unemployment? FAIL.

Keep it up, John.

Matt Mayer from the Buckeye Institute reports:

President Barack Obama, joined by Ohio governor Ted Strickland, came to Ohio today to continue his permanent campaign on health-care legislation. His campaign events during the 2008 presidential race attracted crowds of thousands of Ohioans; this time, President Obama managed a crowd of about 200 people. With his negative approval numbers in Ohio (44 percent approve, 52 percent disapprove), it isn’t much of a surprise that few showed up to hear him once again talk about health care.

If you read the whole article linked above, you’ll find that Ohioans are, like most Americans, more interested in the economy and jobs. A fact reinforced by this snippet from another report.

The president’s Strongsville speech began much the same as it did in Shaker Heights — with raucous cheers and applause.

“I love you,” someone shouted — the same as in July. “I love you back,” Obama said before he was introduced by the sister of a Medina County woman who won the president’s attention in recent weeks.

But this time, hecklers called out, “What’s your plan?” and “We want jobs,” during his speech. That didn’t happen last year.

Also consider that the fact that a certain Ohio Democrat decided not to show up…

Representative John Boccieri, Democrat of Ohio, whose vote on major health care legislation could be crucial to the outcome, will not be attending President Obama’s health care rally on Monday in Strongsville, Ohio, not far from Mr. Boccieri’s own district, a spokeswoman said.

Mr. Boccieri is focusing instead on a major infrastructure announcement this morning at Akron-Canton Airport, where the chief of the Federal Aviation Administration, Randy Babbitt, delivered a $16.6 million check for a runway extension and improvement project.

Of course, there was one group who showed up in big numbers. Protesters.

It clearly doesn’t. So why are we doing it?

“A prison complex 150 miles from Chicago will house Gitmo detainees, the Obama administration will announce Tuesday.”

“A senior administration official tells ABC News that on Tuesday the administration will announce that President Obama “has directed  that the federal government proceed with the acquisition of the Thomson Correctional Center in Thomson, Illinois to house federal inmates and a limited number of detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.”

“Thomson Correctional Center is a  maximum security prison that opened in 2001 but has never been fully utilized because of state budget issues.”

“Information from the state of Illinois indicates that Thomson Correctional Center is a Level 1 adult male maximum-security facility comprised of 1,600 cells and eight housing units, none of which are currently used. The facility is on 146 acres and is currently surrounded by a 12-foot exterior fence and 15-foot interior fence — which includes a dual sided electric stun fence.”

“Closing the detention center at Guantanamo is essential to protecting our national security and helping our troops by removing a deadly recruiting tool from the hands of al Qaeda,” the official said. “Tomorrow’s announcement is an important step forward as we work to achieve our national security objectives.”

Yeah, right.

The answer to my question above is simple. We’re doing it because Obama is beholden to his base to close Gitmo. Obama and his base are putting their political agenda ahead of national security.

Let me say that again. Obama’s success is more important to them than America’s national security.

John McCormack at the Weekly Standard just published a memo being circulated by Republicans on Capitol Hill regarding the decision. It’s well worth a read…

“Having failed to bring the Olympics to Illinois, President Obama will give Illinois an odd replacement gift just in time for the Holidays—al Qaeda terrorists from the Guantanamo detention facility. In announcing this decision, there still remains no explication of how closing Guantanamo makes America safer. Quite to the contrary, unnecessarily importing al Qaeda terrorists into the United States 1) gives them more legal protections, including Constitutional rights, than they have now at Guantanamo, 2) increases the chances they may be released into the country, and 3) in exchange for these significant costs, does not appease the Democratic base, and certainly will not appease al Qaeda.”

Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: Silly me! I didn’t know bringing Gitmo to Illinois was a jobs program!

Why?

Not because of unemployment, not because of the economy, not because of the war in Afghanistan.

No. They’re meeting to discuss the one agenda item that’s lowest on the list of most Americans…

ObamaCare!

“WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama will huddle with Senate Democrats on Sunday in a special meeting to discuss health-care legislation.”

“Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) has kept the Senate in a rare weekend session as senators try to complete work on a health-care bill before Christmas.”

“President Obama will meet with the full Democratic caucus at 2 p.m. EST Sunday, a spokesman for Sen. Reid said.”

“On Saturday evening, Senate Republicans forced Democrats to vote in favor of cutting billions from providers of home care for older people as partisan debate flared.”

“Democrats were meeting behind closed doors to try to reach agreement on how to structure a government-sponsored insurance option, one of the most controversial issues for Democrats in the debate. Mr. Reid has asked a group of 10 Senate Democrats to try to strike a compromise on the issue. The group includes proponents of a strong public plan like Sens. Jay Rockefeller (D., W.Va.) and Sherrod Brown (D., Ohio), and senators pushing for a more limited version including Sens. Tom Carper (D., Del.) and Mark Pryor (D., Ark.).”

“Several centrist Democrats have said they will not support the version that is in the bill now pending before the Senate. That public plan reimburses based on rates negotiated with health-care providers, and allows states that do not want to participate to opt out.”