We’re dealing with a stubborn, out-of-touch President

Yesterday, President Obama told a crowd that the economy has “turned around” since he entered the White House.

“And if you think about where we are now economically compared to where we were when I first came into office, we were then losing 800,000 jobs a month. We now are seeing the lowest unemployment claim since 2006 — the largest drop this past year in unemployment in 30 years. We’ve seen the deficit cut by more than half. We’ve seen the stock market rise so that people fully recovered their 401(k)s. We’ve seen corporate profits booming … The housing market has recovered.”

Americans aren’t buying this.  Last week, Americans’ economic confidence dropped six points – the largest one-week drop since October 2013. And these negative sentiments are more than just worry and emotion – they’re the byproduct of real, economic hardships.

-Since President Obama took office, there has been a 23 % increase in the number of the long-term unemployed. 2.6 million long-term unemployed at the beginning of his term has climbed to 3.2 million last month.

-There are 46.5 million Americans living in poverty. The number of Americans living at or below the poverty line has gone up by 6.7 million between 2008 and 2012.

-More than $7 trillion has been added to the national debt. Trillion equates to more than $61,000 per household! And when President Obama introduced his budget plan this year, he failed to address the debt and increase taxes for Americans.

-Americans are paying higher costs for nearly everything – and struggling to make ends meet. Energy costs in particular have nearly doubled under President Obama. A quarter of Americans reported they’re “just getting by” financially.

-In addition to paying more, Americans are receiving less. Since January 2009, median household income has fallen by $2,067 – dropping from $55,958 in January 2009 to $53,891 in June 2014.

-These lower incomes might be due to the 66% increase in involuntary part-time workers. There are 7.5 million Americans struggling to find full-time work - stuck settling with part-time jobs. That is more than double what it was in December 2007.

-The labor force participation rate is nearing a 30-year low. According to the most recent Department of Labor unemployment report, the share of the population participating in the labor force is at lows not seen since the 1970's, at 62.9%.

So has the economy turned around? Definitely not. In fact, it’s doing worse. President Obama’s failed economic policies, paired with an out-of-touch understanding of real, Americans’ problems is putting too many families in stressful economic situations.

House Republicans have passed over 40 jobs-bills that will put Americans back to work and help them bring home more of their paycheck – too bad they remain stuck in a Democratic-controlled Senate. However, a do-nothing Senate and a stubborn President will not deter the House from continuing to work. We will pass more solutions for Americans – solutions to make life better and solutions to empower.

View the original article here

President Obama’s Got “No New Friends”

President Obama has earned a reputation of not playing well with others. And while House Republicans have long been vocally frustrated – now even Senate Democrats are speaking out about their inability to work with President Obama.

In a recent New York Times article, several Senate Democrats – including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) – were interviewed about their relationship with President Obama.

“With Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, sitting a few feet away, Mr. Reid complained that Senate Republicans were spitefully blocking the confirmation of dozens of Mr. Obama’s nominees to serve as ambassadors. He expected that the president would back him up and urge Mr. McConnell to relent.

“Mr. Obama quickly dismissed the matter.

“‘You and Mitch work it out,’ Mr. Obama said coolly, cutting off any discussion.”

Ouch. That’s not a very nice way to treat your co-workers or fellow leaders. And Senator Reid agreed:

“After his return to the Capitol that afternoon, Mr. Reid told other senators and his staff members that he was astonished by how disengaged the president seemed.

“But the impression the president left with Mr. Reid was clear: Capitol Hill is not my problem.”

Other Democrats spoke out about the lack of communication and compromise coming from the White House:

“Asked to characterize his relationship with the president, Mr. Manchin, a centrist Democrat who has often been a bridge builder in the Senate, said: ‘It’s fairly nonexistent. There’s not much of a relationship.’”

Senator Angus King (I-ME) said:

“In order to work with people, you need to establish the relationship first before you ask for something, and I think one of the things the White House has not done well and the president has not done well is the simple idea of establishing relationships before there is a crisis.”

But this isn’t the first time President Obama has opted out of compromising friendship – this behavior has been going on for a while. The Wire broke down a timeline of President Obama’s inability to make friends, from the recent border crisis to complaints from foreign ambassadors. Often, the word “aloof” arises when lawmakers describe the President.

President Obama’s behavior has created a trickle-down affect, and his inability to compromise is echoed in the Senate chambers. House Republicans have passed dozens of bills that would put Americans back to work – many of them with bipartisan support. Yet they remain stuck in a stubborn Democratic controlled Senate. And now even his allies there are catching on to the fact that President Obama isn’t interested in helping anyone. In the words of hip-hop artist Drake, Obama is making “no new friends – no, no, new.”

House Republicans will continue to pass bills that empower Americans to make their lives better – and will push against the obstacles of an imperial Presidency.

View the original article here

President of Scandinavia

Alter — whose second history of the Barack Obama era, “The Center Holds,” comes out next week — is puzzled about why a former Constitutional law professor allowed such a sinister turn.

“What is it about Obama that he so disdains us?” he muses. “Presidents always hate leaks. Ronald Reagan said ‘I’ve had it up to my keister with these leaks.’ But they usually don’t act on it. Even if Obama didn’t personally sign off, people always sense by osmosis what leaders are thinking and go in that direction. His people know that leaks offend his sense of discipline and that he likes to protect his right flank by being tough on national security.

“Kennedy had been a reporter, but Obama is not friendly with the press. And he has contempt for people who don’t do their jobs, and, when you talk to the press out of school, you’re not doing your job.”

Alter, a fellow Chicagoan who thinks Obama has generally been a good president, has closely studied the central paradox about the man. “He won a majority twice in elections for the first time in half-a-century without liking the business he’s chosen,” the writer says. “He’s missing the schmooze gene.”

As Bill Clinton noted, it was strange that Obama was good at the big stuff, like foreign policy, and bad at the easy stuff, like connecting to people.

By 2011, Obama’s insularity was hurting him with Democratic donors, elected officials and activists, Alter writes, adding: “Democratic senators who voted with Obama found that their support was taken for granted. Many would go two or even three years between conversations with the president, which embarrassed them (constituents were always asking about their interactions) and eventually weakened Obama’s support on the Hill.”

It was not only powerful committee chairs and many Cabinet members who rarely spoke personally to the president, Alter notes. It was only in his second term that the Obamas invited the Clintons over for dinner in the White House residence.

Obama is not a needy person, but he needs to think of himself as purer than this town.

He wanted to be, Alter writes, “nontransactional, above the petty deals, ‘donor maintenance,’ and phony friendships of Washington. Here his self-awareness again failed him. In truth, he was all transactional in his work life.”

As Alter observes, “His failure to use the trappings of the presidency more often left him with one less tool in his toolbox.”

Obama did not understand why his stinginess with expressions of gratitude and phone calls could sting, or fathom the thrill of letters from the president.

“He fundamentally doesn’t relate to their impact because he wouldn’t particularly care if he got one,” the Obama adviser Pete Rouse explained to Alter.

At East Room events, Alter writes, Obama’s vibe was clearly: “I’ll flash a smile, then, please, someone get me the hell out of here. It wasn’t that he had to be back in the Oval Office for something urgent. He just didn’t want to hang out for an instant longer than he had to, even with long-lost Chicago friends.” The president sometimes “exuded an unspoken exasperation: I saved Detroit, the Dow is up, we avoided a depression — I have to explain this to all of you again?” That attitude caused him to tank in his first debate with Mitt Romney.

David Plouffe told Alter that Obama was “better suited to politics in Scandinavia than here,” meaning, Alter writes, “that he was a logical and unemotional person in an illogical and emotional capital.” Ironic, given that it was Obama’s emotional speeches that precociously vaulted him into the Oval Office.

When Obama was elected, he assumed he would be a good bridge-builder. “But he just had no experience dealing with Republicans in any significant way,” Alter told me. “He wasn’t in the leadership in Springfield or the Senate. He thought that just because he mussed up Tom Coburn’s hair that he knew how to deal with Republicans.”

On “Fox News Sunday,” Bob Dole told Chris Wallace that Obama “lacks communication skills with his own party, let alone the Republican Party. And he’s on the road too much.”

The president will have to learn the hard way: You can go over the head of Washington but it doesn’t get you anything in Washington.

The man who prides himself on his self-awareness is now trying to use more tools in the toolbox. So the main question, Alter says, is “whether learned behavior and his determination to have a successful second term and do things differently can win out against his natural inclinations.”

The historian believes that Obama does have the capacity to change. “He gets it now,” Alter says. “Is it too late? I doubt it. He wants to be remembered for more than being the first African-American president.”

View the original article here

Clinton Was a Bipartisan President, Except When He Wasn't

Damon Winter/The New York TimesFormer President Bill Clinton was greeted with an extended standing ovation at the Democratic convention on Wednesday.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Perhaps only Bill Clinton could deliver one of the most brutal partisan poundings of the other party in recent memory and come out of it with people talking about how bipartisan he is.

For 48 minutes on Wednesday night, he extolled the virtues of working with Republicans, then eviscerated them as dangerous radicals. He offered more abundant praise of George W. Bush than most prime-time speakers at the Republican convention, then said he had left President Obama “a total mess.”

“It was a pretty bipartisan speech relative to a convention,” Howard Dean, the former Democratic National Committee chairman and Vermont governor, said on CBS News on Thursday morning.

Former Gov. Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania, another former party chairman, pointed out the caveat. “It was bipartisan,” he said. “It was a little bit like giving someone flowers at the same time you’re taking a scalpel and dissecting them.”

In that sense, the speech was a vivid reminder of Mr. Clinton’s famed capacity for juggling many different ideas, personas and narratives, and along the way rewriting the history of his own presidency. The story line of a relatively bipartisan era when Democrats and Republicans came together to overhaul welfare, balance the budget and expand the economy profoundly oversimplifies a much more complicated, messier presidency.

As it happens, the revised version of history is something of a bipartisan conspiracy. As much as Mr. Clinton wants to emphasize those elements of his record, so now do Republicans, as a way of contrasting the popular Mr. Clinton with the not-so-popular Mr. Obama. They have praised Mr. Clinton as a bipartisan centrist, as opposed to the leftist Mr. Obama.

“Bill Clinton was a different kind of Democrat than Barack Obama,” Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, told CNN before the former president’s speech. “Bill Clinton gave us welfare reform. Bill Clinton worked with the Republicans to cut spending. Bill Clinton did not play the kind of political games that President Obama’s playing.”

After the speech, Mitt Romney’s campaign pressed home that theme. “President Clinton drew a stark contrast between himself and President Obama tonight,” said Ryan Williams, a campaign spokesman. “Bill Clinton worked with Republicans, balanced the budget and after four years he could say you were better off. Barack Obama hasn’t worked across the aisle.”

It is certainly true that Mr. Clinton in his instincts and messaging was more centrist than Mr. Obama, and the 42nd president emerged from the White House with a string of achievements that both parties laid claim to. But to say that Mr. Clinton worked together with Speaker Newt Gingrich’s Republicans on welfare, spending, trade and other issues is an exercise in selective amnesia.

Mr. Clinton’s first major budget plan passed Congress without a single Republican vote. Once Mr. Gingrich’s party took over Congress in the 1994 midterm elections, the two men clashed over spending so fiercely that the government was shut down. The two sides eventually drafted a plan to balance the budget, but it was made considerably easier by an economy that was growing so fast that few genuinely hard choices had to be made – and in fact the budget became balanced years before it was envisioned because of unexpectedly strong tax revenues.

Likewise, many talk today about how Mr. Clinton and Republicans worked together on overhauling welfare. Not exactly. Mr. Clinton had long supported limiting the number of years that recipients could receive benefits, requiring work in many instances and providing child care, training and other assistance to make that possible.

But he strongly opposed Mr. Gingrich’s more conservative vision of welfare and twice vetoed Republican proposals before bowing to the political winds in an election year and signing a third, somewhat modified version. Even then, he spoke out against limits on benefits to legal immigrants and promised to overhaul the overhaul.

By the time he appeared at the Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte on Wednesday night, Mr. Clinton was grayer and memories fuzzier. The fights of his generation have faded with time, and the accomplishments have been accordioned into simple sentences. At some points it even seemed that Mr. Clinton had forgotten some of the harshest moments of his own time in the White House.

“Though I often disagree with Republicans,” he said, “I never learned to hate them the way the far right that now controls their party seems to hate President Obama and the Democrats.”

This from the man who was hated so much by Republicans that they impeached him for lying under oath about his affair with Monica Lewinsky – and who loathed a number of his enemies back.

But Mr. Clinton, more than most politicians, has always been able to reimagine himself and his place in America, and he has a knack for eventually reconciling with those he battled against.

He beat the elder George Bush in 1992, then once out of office became such good friends with him that they hang out in the Bush compound in Kennebunkport, Me. He beat Bob Dole for re-election in 1996, then bestowed on him the Medal of Freedom. He campaigned against George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004 but now travels the country with him giving joint speeches.

He even broke bread at points with conservative figures like Richard Mellon Scaife, Rupert Murdoch and Christopher Ruddy who were among his biggest antagonists in the 1990s. (The one exception has always been Kenneth W. Starr, the independent counsel who investigated his attempts to cover up his affair with Ms. Lewinsky in a sexual harassment lawsuit. “That’s another kettle of fish,” he once said.)

In any case, Mr. Clinton’s speech on Wednesday night was seen as a template for Mr. Obama, an example of how to run in a difficult year. “Cooperation works better,” Mr. Clinton said and noted the various Republicans Mr. Obama had appointed. But he went on to say that Republican plans “will hurt poor kids,” explode the debt, “force seniors to pay more for drugs,” cut taxes for millionaires and raise them for the middle class.

“They want to go back to the same old policies that got us into trouble in the first place,” he said. Then he appropriated the Republicans’ greatest recent hero, Ronald Reagan. “As another president once said, there they go again.”

The truth is that party conventions and election campaigns are partisan affairs. If Mr. Clinton provided any lesson for the current president on Wednesday, it might not be in how to be bipartisan, but how to be partisan and win while not looking like it.

View the original article here

South Dakota's Thune is on short list for vice president

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – John Thune has been a favorite in Republican circles for almost a decade. In the next few months, the senator from South Dakota could be taking that notoriety national.

By Stephen J. Boitano, GANNETT

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., speaks with high school students during their visit to the Capitol Thursday.

By Stephen J. Boitano, GANNETT

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., speaks with high school students during their visit to the Capitol Thursday.

Now in his second term in the Senate, what happens in the coming months could give the onetime high school basketball star from Murdo a title everyone would recognize. For instance:

• How does Vice President Thune sound? If Mitt Romney likes it — and some say he might — then Thune could follow in the footsteps of Joe Biden, Dick Cheney and Al Gore.

• What about Senate Majority Leader Thune? The man Thune beat in 2004, Tom Daschle, once held this position. And while Thune might be years away from following suit, he could be just one step away by Christmas.

• And either path, or others entirely, could set the stage for Thune to capture the most significant title of them all: Mr. President.

Or maybe not. There's plenty of competition among other talented politicians for all these positions.

Nevertheless, Thune's political talents have helped him him rise from a conservative hero after defeating Daschle, through a series of leadership roles in the Senate, to flirtation with a presidential run last year. Now, after building strong relationships with both his Senate peers and Romney, whom Thune endorsed early on in this campaign, the South Dakotan is at a crossroads with multiple paths leading to national prominence.

For his part, Thune insists he's taking things day by day and not pursuing the job of vice president or anything else. But unlike some politicians, Thune hasn't ruled anything out, either.

"I made a decision that the difference I can make is in the Senate, but I don't think you ever rule out options and opportunities to serve your country," Thune said Friday in Sioux Falls. "I'm not ever going to close the door if an opportunity to serve my country comes along."

The most immediate possibility is that Thune could be the Republican nominee for vice president. Coming from a small, safely Republican state such as South Dakota, no one's calling Thune a favorite. But experts say he's in the conversation.

"I'd say he's a long shot to be the nominee, but then look at the history of vice presidential candidates. Quite a number of long shots have been picked," said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics. "Anything can happen."

Robert Costa, a reporter with the conservative National Review magazine, has covered Thune and Republican politics for several years. He's talked to Romney advisers who say Thune might be just what the former Massachusetts governor needs in a running mate.

"From everything I hear, Romney wants to pick someone who's low-key, respected, has Washington experience and comes from the Midwest," Costa said — all factors, he added, that apply to Thune.

Others considered to be on Romney's short list: Sens. Marco Rubio, Fla., and Rob Portman, Ohio; Rep. Paul Ryan, Wis., and N.J. Gov. Chris Christie.

Thune's background and experience aren't the only assets he might bring to a national ticket. He seems to be a political natural, said Jon Schaff, a professor of political science at Northern State University in Aberdeen. He easily relates to people and speaks well extemporaneously.

Thune's style of speaking, in particular, could make him a valuable asset on the campaign trail.

"He's very comfortable about bringing the Republican message … in a way that isn't ham-fisted," Schaff said. "He's got a way of speaking that people who weren't necessarily with the Republican Party will listen to Thune and give him the time of day, because he can present his arguments in a way that appear to be non-ideological."

Thune's not a "fire and brimstone" Republican like Reps. Michele Bachmann and Allen West, Schaff said.

But not everyone agrees with that, or about Thune's strengths as a communicator who can appeal to moderates.

"John Thune, by his nature and by the positions he's taken, he's not the one you go to to look for solutions," said Ben Nesselhuf, chairman of the South Dakota Democratic Party. "He's one you go to to look for the Republican position and talking points. He doesn't know what the word compromise means."

Nesselhuf said he would advise national Democrats to attack Thune for his Washington ties.

"I think most South Dakotans would agree that's what's wrong with Washington -- too many people unwilling to look for solutions," he said.

Indeed, Thune's Washington experience might be both an asset and a liability, Costa said.

"In an anti-Washington climate … there's a sense from many voters of 'throw them all out.' Thune's Washington experience, though helpful to a president, could be a drawback to voters who might like to see more outsiders in Washington," Costa said.

Thune disputes Nesselhuf's charge that he doesn't compromise, citing his work with Democratic senators on legislation dealing with agriculture, trade, transportation and others.

"Yes, I'm very principled when it comes to my party and the things I believe in, but I also understand that I'm elected to get things done," Thune said. "I don't ever look at compromising my values and my principles, but I certainly on a tactical level understand that you need to work with people who have a different point of view … find common ground and consensus."

Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., praised Thune as someone he can work with even though they come from different political backgrounds.

"We're dealing with a tough economy and a jobs shortage, and even if we don't always agree, John wants to work together to overcome our nation's challenges," Baucus said in an e-mailed statement.

One of Thune's biggest strengths as a potential vice presidential pick could be something that others might call a weakness: He's not very exciting. After the last Republican vice presidential pick, then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, became controversial, Schaff said Romney might want to pick a less contentious running mate.

"Picking your vice presidential candidate, you take a Hippocratic Oath: First, do no harm," Schaff said.

With considerable numbers of Americans unhappy with President Barack Obama's handling of the economy, Sabato said, many Republicans think they should pick noncontroversial candidates who will keep the focus on Obama rather than distracting attention with their own antics.

"Thune is not controversial," Sabato said. "He's seen as acceptable, if bland."

When told that some people describe him as something less than exciting, Thune laughed.

"I never really think of myself as bland, but I guess it's maybe that Scandanavian heritage," Thune said. "I don't ever think that necessarily bland is a bad thing. I suppose I wish I were more exciting, but sometimes you are who you are, and you have to be comfortable with that and not try to be something you aren't."

There still are plenty of factors weighing against Thune's chances of being Romney's running mate. Many other potential candidates can bring Thune's strengths to the ticket, plus represent bigger or more closely divided states.

"In what looks to be a close election, Romney is likely to pick someone who brings a little more electorally to the table," Schaff said.

That makes sense to some political observers, who say the more likely route to power for Thune is in his current job of senator.

"Politically speaking, I think Thune has a much better chance of being one day Senate majority leader than president of the United States," Costa said.

Thune currently is the chairman of the Senate Republican Conference. It's the third-highest position among Senate Republicans, behind only the majority or minority leader and the whip or assistant floor leader.

The No. 2 spot of Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., is opening up this fall. Thune is one of a handful of senators who might have the support it would take to move up.

Thune's climb up the leadership ladder started in 2006, about a year after he took office. That's when he was appointed chief deputy whip, an assistant to the No. 2-ranked party leader.

By taking a leadership position, Thune made a choice that he could get more done as part of Senate leadership than by trying to become the chair of a powerful committee -- the two traditional paths senators can take as they accumulate seniority and influence in the Senate.

"I'm sure what John Thune thinks it means with constituents is he's able to bring their issues to the highest level in the party," Schaff said. "A potential side effect, of course, that we saw with Tom Daschle is the further you move up leadership, the more you're responding to the national needs of the party and not so much the local needs of your constituency."

Sabato predicted Thune's popularity in South Dakota could give him the longevity needed to rise to the top of the Senate, presuming he doesn't leave Congress for another position.

"He's relatively young in Senate terms," Sabato said. "With the electoral security he has in South Dakota, he could be there for as long as he wants."

And while some powerful South Dakota senators have suffered defeat after being seen to care more about Washington, D.C., than their home state, Schaff said Thune has taken care to protect against that. "He's been a fairly constant presence back in the state," Schaff said. "He hasn't let the state go."

Thune's friends and family say he hasn't let his South Dakota roots go, either.

"I think he's the same person he always was," said Frank Brost, who was living in and near Murdo as Thune was growing up there, and later worked with him in Pierre under Gov. George S. Mickelson. "If there's any person Washington can't screw up, it's John Thune."

If selected as Romney's vice presidential candidate, Thune said he would present himself to the country as a principled man who hasn't strayed from his South Dakota upringing.

"I try to be authentic and very much a down-to-earth person," Thune said. "I don't think I've ever gotten away from my roots."

Critics point to Thune's rapid rise to prominence in Washington and say that reflects ambition rather than "down-to-earth."

"He's definitely trying to create a national name for himself," Nesselhuf said. "I think anybody who's watched his career would say that from day one, that's the way he operates — looking for the next step up."

Thune, in contrast, said he's not looking for anything other than opportunities to serve the country. "Growing up I never thought I'd be doing any of this in the first place."

Despite that the next few years could put Thune in a position to take the biggest step up a politician can make. Last year he stayed out of the race for president when he decided he wasn't ready to make that huge commitment. At the time, he said he wanted to focus on his work in the Senate. But his presidential dreams might not be finished. He still will be young enough to run for president in 2016, 2020 and possibly beyond.

The events of the coming months could give him a head start if he still aspires to the Oval Office.

"If Thune is picked, and Romney loses, it would make Thune an automatic contender for the nomination in 2016," Costa said. "Even if he's not picked, you're going to still hear about Thune in the 2016 conversation if Romney loses."

Sabato cautioned that a future run for president could be tough for Thune.

"Everybody and his brother and sister will be running if Romney loses," he said.

For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.

View the original article here

Religious faith no way to pick president

(PNI) Regarding "The race issue vs. the religion issue" (Republic, Sunday):

When I take the opportunity to vote for my next president, it will be with full knowledge of what he stands for where the American people are concerned, not his particular religious affiliation.

Those who judge based on their disagreement with a presidential candidate's religion will be held accountable for their bigotry.

Narrow-mindedness is not a "Christian" attitude, nor should it be preached from the pulpit.

A good man is a good man.

Vote your conscience, not your preacher's contempt for another person's religion.

--Connie Cushing, Sun City

Railing by Montini is misdirected

Regarding "Politicians exempt themselves from 'real world'" (Valley & State, Friday):

There are times when I read E.J. Montini's columns and it makes me want to double up with laughter. The problem is, I think he's serious.

While he's right that the firing policies for legislator and governor are different from others, the criterion for "hiring" these personnel is quite different from the average clerical or bureaucratic employee. If the majority of voters are not satisfied with the work they do, they are dismissed through the power of the ballot.

As an employer, retention of good personnel is not something done as capriciously as your columnist would like us to think. As a retired civil-service worker, who also was a union steward for many years, I can state that 95 percent of disciplinary problems were confined to less than 5 percent of the employees.

With progressive discipline principles as part of bargaining contracts, it is virtually impossible, short of committing a felony, to discharge bad employees.

Montini rails against those in elected office like a banshee on a rooftop.

Maybe he should realize his beef is not with those who were elected, but with those who in ignorance and indifference continue to elect these sorts.

--Marvin Jarecki, Glendale

Just a reminder on GM bankruptcy

Responding to those who are saying that Barack Obama saved GM while Mitt Romney wanted to allow it to go bankrupt:

General Motors filed for bankruptcy in July 2009. Just want to keep it real.

--Denny Miller, Phoenix

Voters, are you tired of this yet ?

Let us ask the wise leaders of our state how they can sanction what they do:

How can they even consider approving the use of taxpayer dollars to reimburse a disgraced senator money he spent to fight his recall election ($261,000), especially when the money was donated and did not come out of his personal funds?

How can they, yet again, threaten to sue over the redistricting maps that were drawn up by a voter-approved commission and just recently put into action?

They are of the opinion that they, the legislators, can do a better job than the voter-approved commission.

How can they redirect $50million, over half of the total amount intended by the federal government to help Arizonans save their homes from the mortgage-foreclosure debacle and not become homeless? The $50million will go to general fund, never to be seen again.

How can they continue to pull these shenanigans that trigger costly lawsuits paid with tax dollars and wonder why our state is broke?

Voters, are you tired of this behavior?

--Jonae DeLong, Paradise Valley

Good riddance to animal-test lab

Word that Covance is closing its animal-testing lab in Chandler is the best news I've heard in years.

It is a single step in the right direction for humans and the rest of the animals and our planet.

--Mary Durst, Gilbert

Obama just doing what Grant did

Regarding the public discussion about the "politicizing of the presidency," particularly during the first anniversary of the death of Osama bin Laden ("Hail to the braggart in chief," Letters, Friday):

Get over it. Barack Obama is the president, and he is politicking for the position again.

Ulysses S. Grant rode his war-hero robes into election and re-election.

Woodrow Wilson campaigned for re-election in 1916 on the theme, "He kept us out of war." Of course, we were fighting in World War I a year later.

President Dwight Eisenhower's 1956 re-election theme after bringing the Korean War to an end was "peace and prosperity."

For good or for bad, Obama is the president, he was the president (when Osama bin Laden was killed), and he wants to be president again.

--John J. Hoffman, Gilbert

Today's Republicans are the RINOs

Regarding "Old Republican values destroyed" (Letters, May 2):

How many other readers identify with the woman disappointed that the Republican Party no longer supports her values?

I was a Republican until age 61. But when President George W. Bush spent so recklessly in his first term, I changed parties hoping for a return to sanity.

The Republican Party has been usurped by a rapacious batch of plutocrats, who are anything but conservative.

They complain about RINOs, but the current party leaders are the actual "Republicans in name only."

--Yvonne Clark, Phoenix

Copyright 2012 The Arizona Republic|azcentral.com. All rights reserved.For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.

Posted

View the original article here

Gingrich steals Romney's cloak of electability as president (Reuters)

COLUMBIA, South Carolina (Reuters) – Newt Gingrich didn't just beat Mitt Romney in Saturday's South Carolina primary, the former House speaker kicked away one of the main pillars of his rival's election campaign.

Exit polling data shows Gingrich convinced voters he would be the toughest Republican opponent against President Barack Obama in the November general election.

Electability - Republican campaign-speak for a candidate's ability to beat Obama - had been one of Romney's top selling points until Saturday.

Conventional wisdom was that the former Massachusetts governor's emphasis on jobs and the economy and his perceived appeal to independents would help him against Gingrich, who is often seen as erratic and divisive.

But Gingrich's combative style in debates resonated with voters keen for a heavyweight debater to take on Obama, who is grudgingly respected by Republicans as a formidable campaigner.

This may also be helping Gingrich's message on the economy gain traction, exit polling data showed.

South Carolina's Republicans rated the ability to beat Obama as a candidate's most important quality, an exit poll on CNN showed.

Forty-five percent of voters said that was the main attribute they sought in a nominee. Of that group, 51 percent voted for Gingrich compared to 37 percent for Romney.

Twenty-one percent of South Carolina voters said the quality that mattered most to them in their candidate was that he had the right experience.

"It is electability, and that is measured in your ability to effectively debate and prosecute your case against Obama," said Republican strategist Matt Mackowiak.

Exit polls also showed that for 63 percent of South Carolina voters the most important issue was the economy. Gingrich won this group by a margin of eight percentage points over Romney.

The attraction of Gingrich as an anti-Obama candidate may be the factor that increased his ratings on other issues like the economy, Mackowiak said.

Attacks on Obama in recent weeks, including dubbing him "a foodstamp president," endeared Gingrich to voters in a state with unemployment of almost 10 percent.

OLD TIMER WITH EXPERIENCE

"He is an old timer with a lot of political experience. He's the only one who can beat Obama," said Jim Walters, a retired marine owner in the town of Aiken.

Gingrich slammed Obama as "truly a danger to the country" in his South Carolina victory speech and promised to bring down Obama in a series of long debates.

A master of the sharp turn of phrase who talks in big broad sweeps, the former House speaker was the clear star of the more than 20 Republican debates in recent months.

He left Romney floundering, particularly during two televised contests in South Carolina this week where the millionaire former executive stumbled over questions about his personal finances.

Republican voters in South Carolina, a conservative state with a taste for rough and tumble politics, lapped it up.

"I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that people really want to see Newt debate Obama," Mackowiak said.

"It reminds me of gladiators. You see an amazing gladiator have a string of victories in the middle of the Coliseum so you really want to see him go up against the biggest, baddest gladiator there is."

In a sign that Gingrich's well-documented marital infidelities might have created a problem with female voters, exit polls showed Gingrich held an advantage over Romney of 16 points among men but only 9 points among women.

(Editing by David Storey)

View the original article here

President Obama Forced to Squabble Over Nonissues with Republican Candidates (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | I'll admit it, even though it's a little embarrassing nowadays. I used to be a Republican. And then I grew up. Here in the final year leading to election 2012, when the GOP could be bringing up real issues -- or at least getting out of Ron Paul's way -- Republicans are doing little more than pandering to emotions, as shown in a report from the Associated Press.

Rather than discussing real-world issues, most Republican candidates seem more upset because the president made the occasional honest critique of the U.S. I'm saddened by seeing so many of our government leaders more offended by honest commentary, than by the issues which would bring out such comments in the first place. I'm saddened even further when I consider that so many of my fellow countrymen are also quick to jump on the bandwagon of irrational hatred, rather than do their own critical analysis of what the media reports. Just follow the herd, right, folks? Moo.

Personally, I do feel America is the greatest nation on Earth. And the concept of personal freedom and individual liberty does make us somewhat unique in world history. If we wish to remain so, we need to be willing to learn from honest criticism, unless our goal is to simply be deluded. A nation reputed to be established on the basis of freedom and liberty should be willing to accept the harshest of honest criticism. We're not perfect. Am I a traitor for having said so?

Another topic which seems to stoking the emotional fires of patriotic Americans is the allegations of the president's knowledge of "Operation Fast and Furious," as covered on The Daily Caller. Were the evidence to show Obama had knowledge of such an operation, then sure, push with prosecution. But it doesn't.

A much more plausible scenario would be investigators need to focus on Stephen Holder. He is, after all the attorney general and therefore the country's top law enforcement officer. It seems specious to go after President Obama for a department he does not manage.

If the Republicans do want to win the White House in the 2012 election, they might want to go after real issues rather than relying on emotional buzzwords and pandering to religious superstition. If all the GOP is willing to offer is emotional and religious extremism then I'd just as well keep President Obama in office.

View the original article here

GOP Mich. US Rep. McCotter running for president (AP)

DETROIT – U.S. Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, a guitar-playing five-term congressman from Detroit's suburbs known for his eccentric sense of humor and independent streak, said Friday that he plans to seek the Republican nomination for president.

The 45-year-old attorney said he will officially announce his candidacy — and join a crowded early field of GOP candidates — on Saturday at an Independence Day festival at Whitmore Lake, about 30 miles outside Detroit. He is expected to play guitar with his band at the event.

McCotter said he would push for a fundamental restructuring of government and for Wall Street banks that received federal bailout money to free up credit.

"We're not seeing credit flow down to entrepreneurs, innovators and workers that will grow the economy and shape it for the 21st century," he said. "To me that has to be a linchpin of any economic policy that goes forward."

He'll join a Republican race that already includes former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, pizza magnate Herman Cain, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman and U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota.

McCotter said there's "room for another message or another candidate ... Now whether or not it's me, that remains to be seen, but that's why we have campaigns."

His biggest battle may be getting his name out.

"The first time I heard about him was today when I received a news alert," Emory University political science professor Andra Gillespie said Friday. "My general reaction to this is this is a long-shot candidacy."

McCotter, of Livonia, was elected to his fifth consecutive term in Congress in November. Before running for Congress, he was a lawyer, a state senator, a Wayne County commissioner and a community college trustee.

View the original article here

Michigan Rep. McCotter to run for president (The Ticket)

(J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

Little-known Rep. Thaddeus McCotter of Michigan on Friday called on Americans to "Seize Freedom" via his newly unveiled presidential campaign website following reports the conservative Republican is planning to officially enter the 2012 race.

Advisers to McCotter told USA Today Thursday that the lawmaker will kick off his presidential campaign Saturday in his home state of Michigan. He will make his plans official today, Politico reports, by filing presidential paperwork with the Federal Election Commission and other reports indicate the announcement will be made Saturday in his home of Livonia.

As The Ticket has reported, McCotter has been inserting himself into 2012 discussions, even going so far as to offer some less-than-friendly advice to members of the burgeoning 2012 GOP field.

His representative made a scene at last week's preparation for the Ames Straw Poll in Iowa. Kellie Paschke, an Iowa-based conservative lobbyist working informally with McCotter, attempted to participate in the traditional "buy-in" for the poll (an auction where campaigns bid on plots of land on which to host straw poll supporters) without identifying for whom she was bidding.

After participants stormed out in protest, Paschke identified herself and successfully bid $18,000 to secure a plot for the Aug. 13, 2011 event for McCotter.

In the run-up to his campaign rollout this weekend, McCotter has been talking to the press about themes he hopes the build his campaign around: fiscal discipline, challenges created by globalism, and core Republican principles including smaller government.

McCotter pledged on ABC's politics webcast "Top Line" last week to offer blunt honesty to the American people. "I have no doubt that if I run I will be reviled across the country in many quarters," he said, arguing that unlike other candidates he won't change his position to suit a particular audience. The lawmaker said voters "have to hear an honest difference of opinion."

McCotter has served as a Michigan congressman since 2003 but holds virtually no national profile--a major obstacle for his projected presidential run. He is known for holding staunchly conservative positions as well for his willingness to buck his party on issues of importance to his home state and on proposals he believes defy his core principals, such as the financial bailout.

And for all those lamenting the absence of bass player Mike Huckabee from the 2012 race, take heart--McCotter is an avid guitarist.

View the original article here

SC GOP legislators ask NJ gov to run for president (AP)

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Some Republican lawmakers in South Carolina are calling on New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to run for president.

Ten GOP House members held a news conference Wednesday to try and draft Christie for the race for the Republican nomination. He has repeatedly said he will not run.

Rep. Chris Crawford of Florence says there's obviously some dissatisfaction with the crowded Republican field. He says he understands Christie likes his current job but the country needs him.

Crawford says Christie has proved he can win in a deeply Democratic state and is willing to tackle tough problems and speak bluntly.

Crawford says the Republican legislators will work for Christie and help him win South Carolina, which holds the first-in-the-South presidential primary.

View the original article here

Schultz slams Beck for pointing at President Obama during gun segment; Glenn’s GOP guest list for Jerusalem rally debunked (The Cutline)

US voters uncomfortable with Mormon president: poll (AFP)

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US voters are uncomfortable with the idea of a president who is a Mormon, even as Massachusetts ex-governor Mitt Romney, a member of that church, leads the pack of Republican White House hopefuls, a poll released Wednesday found.

The Quinnipiac University Polling Institute survey showed that Romney would lose 41-47 percent in a head-to-head election with Barack Obama, contrary to the results of a Washington Post/ABC News poll out Tuesday that showed Romney narrowly defeating the president.

According to the Quinnipiac poll, only 45 percent of registered voters had a favorable view of Mormonism, while 32 percent had an unfavorable view. Only atheists and Muslims had less support in the survey.

Mormonism originated in the 1820s in western New York state. It is the main religious tradition of the Latter Day Saint movement, and is controversial in the United States in part because it fuses Christian theology with teachings that other religious scholars feel are not consistent with standard Christian doctrine.

US voters apparently "have many more questions about a Mormon in the White House than they do about followers of other religions," said Peter Brown with the Quinnipiac pollsters.

"And most don't see much similarity between their religion and Mormonism," he said.

Many conservative Christians see Mormonism as a cult or even a heresy.

The Republican Party's base includes a strong contingent of conservative evangelical Christians that would presumably vote against a Mormon -- yet according to the Quinnipiac poll, the Democrats are least tolerant.

Sixty-eight percent of Republicans surveyed are comfortable with a Mormon president against only 49 percent of Democrats, according to the poll.

Among those who were Republicans or could vote Republican in the 2012 election, Romney was ahead in the field with 25 percent support, followed by former Alaska governor Sarah Palin with 15 percent.

Romney announced his candidacy last week, but Palin has not said if she will run.

They were followed by businessman Howard Cain who polled at nine percent; former House speaker Newt Gingrich and Representative Ron Paul, both at eight percent; Minnesota Representative Michele Bachmann at six percent; former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty at five percent, and ex-senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania at four percent.

The only other Mormon presidential hopeful, Republican Jon Huntsman of the Mormon-majority state of Utah, has one percent support. Another 20 percent of those Republicans surveyed were undecided.

"The fact that less than half of voters have a favorable view of the religion is likely to be a political issue that governor Mitt Romney, and should his campaign catch on, governor Jon Huntsman, will have to deal with as they pursue the White House," said Brown.

Millionaire businessman Romney lost his party's presidential nomination to Senator John McCain in 2008.

The May 31-June 6 poll surveyed 1,946 registered voters. The survey has a margin of error of 2.2 percentage points, and 3.4 percentage points for the Republican primary.

Mormon teachings refer to the Old and New Testaments, but adherents also believe that authentic Christianity vanished a century after Christ and was restored only through church founder Joseph Smith.

Smith revised large sections of the Bible before he was murdered in Illinois in 1844.

Among the prominent Mormons who have been elected to high office in the United States are veteran Republican Senator Orrin Hatch and Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid.

View the original article here