Populist wave, push from left keeps alive talk about Warren, not Clinton, in 2016

The widespread speculation this week on whether Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren could upstage Hillary Clinton’s “coronation” as the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee has rankled fellow party members but appears just fine with Republicans.

Republicans suggest that Warren, among the Senate’s most liberal or progressive members, could ride the recent populist wave and force Clinton further to the left -- or at least slow her juggernaut and improve their chances in 2016.

“We’d welcome Elizabeth Warren to the race,” Republican National Committee spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski tells FoxNews.com. “It’s just another example of how Hillary will have a hard time making the sale within her own party, let alone the country.”

The election is three years away. And Clinton, widely popular in nearly all factions of the Democrat Party, already leads in practically every general election poll, resulting in widespread talk about the 2016 Democratic nomination essentially being a Clinton coronation, with no apparent unity among Republicans on who might emerge as their nominee.

The only outlier poll appears to be a Quinnipiac survey showing New Jersey GOP Gov. Chris Christie leading the former first lady by 1 percentage point. But that was released in the immediate aftermath of Christie’s 20-point re-election victory. And he still faces questions about his conservative credentials in a primary expected -- like last year’s -- to be a conservative-vetting factory.

Via: Fox News Politics

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When Did Obama Decide That The Scandals He Once Thought Were Serious Are Now ‘Phony?’

On Wednesday, President Barack Obama set the tone for the debate surrounding the many controversies that have plagued his administration since the spring. The president called those scandals “phony” and denigrated those who find any worth in their investigation. But, as one prominent conservative opinion writer noted yesterday, it was not long ago that the White House was acknowledging the seriousness of the scandals he now derides as contrived. 

“With an endless parade of distractions, political posturing and phony scandals, Washington has taken its eye off the ball,” Obama said during a marathon speech in Illinois.

During a panel segment on Fox News Channel’s Special Report, The Weekly Standard editorStephen F. Hayes asked a pointed question about these so-called “phony scandals”: “Which of the scandals is phony?”

“The president has already acknowledged the seriousness of two of them – three of them, in one way or another,” Hayes added.

“This is part of the plan to set up an argument for the fall,” he said, identifying how Democrats will counter Republican charges of malfeasance by administration officials ahead of the 2014 midterms. In essence, Hayes implied, Obama and his supporters will accuse the opponents of his administration of a pathological desire to cling to already discredited conspiracy theories.

Via: Mediaite

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The Inequality President

The rich have done fine under Obamanomics, not so the middle class.

President Obama made his fourth or fifth, or maybe it's the seventh or eighth, pivot to the economy on Wednesday, and a revealing speech it was. We counted four mentions of "growth" but "inequality" got five. This goes a long way to explaining why Mr. Obama is still bemoaning the state of the economy five years into his Presidency.

The President summed up his economic priorities close to the top of his hour-long address. "This growing inequality isn't just morally wrong; it's bad economics," he told his Galesburg, Illinois audience. "When middle-class families have less to spend, businesses have fewer customers. When wealth concentrates at the very top, it can inflate unstable bubbles that threaten the economy. When the rungs on the ladder of opportunity grow farther apart, it undermines the very essence of this country."

Then the heart of the matter: "That's why reversing these trends must be Washington's highest priority. It's certainly my highest priority."

Which is the problem. For four and a half years, Mr. Obama has focused his policies on reducing inequality rather than increasing growth. The predictable result has been more inequality and less growth. As even Mr. Obama conceded in his speech, the rich have done well in the last few years thanks to a rising stock market, but the middle class and poor have not. The President called his speech "A Better Bargain for the Middle Class," but no President has done worse by the middle class in modern times.

By now the lackluster growth figures are well known. The recovery that began four years ago has been one of the weakest on record, averaging a little more than 2%. And it has not gained speed. Growth in the fourth quarter of 2012 was 0.4%. It rose to a still anemic 1.8% in the first quarter but most economists are predicting even slower growth in the second quarter.

Via: The Wall Street Journal

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White House: Congress Trying to ‘Trump Up Phony Scandals’

A senior White House official griped on Monday that Congress wanted to “trump up phony scandals” rather than help middle-class Americans as the Obama administration faces increasing questions about the IRS-Tea Party scandal, National Security Agency surveillance, Benghazi and other controversies.

Instead of focusing on the important issues, “too many in Congress are trying to score political points, refight old battles, and trump up phony scandals,” said White House adviser Dan Pfeiffer.

Pfeiffer made his remarks on Monday in a blog post and e-mail to supporters previewing President Barack Obama’s Wednesday speech on the economy in Galesburg, Ill. He will speak about the same topic that day in Warrensburg, Mo.

“But the President thinks Washington has largely taken its eye off the ball on the most important issue facing the country,” Pfeiffer wrote. “Instead of talking about how to help the middle class, too many in Congress are trying to score political points, refight old battles, and trump up phony scandals. And in a couple of months, we will face some more critical budget deadlines that require Congressional action, not showdowns that only serve to harm families and businesses -- and the President wants to talk about the issues that should be at the core of that debate.”

Via: CNS News

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CNN Poll Finds Romney Beating Obama Among Independents By 22 Points … But They Are Tied At 49%…

Washington (CNN) – It's all tied up, according to a new national poll released two days before the presidential election.

And the CNN/ORC International survey not only indicates a dead heat in the race for the White House, but also on almost every major indicator of President Barack Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney that was tested in the poll.

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Forty-nine percent of likely voters questioned say they support the president, with an equal amount saying they back the former Massachusetts governor.

The poll is the fourth national non-partisan, live operator survey released Sunday to indicate the battle for the presidency either a dead heat or virtually tied. A Politico/George Washington University survey has it tied at 48%; an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll indicates Obama at 48% and Romney at 47%; and the latest ABC News/Washington Post tracking poll puts Obama at 49% and Romney at 48%.

A Pew Research Center survey also released Sunday indicates the president at 50% and the GOP challenger at 47%, which is within the survey's sampling error.

Via: CNN

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If Economy Is Recovering Why Is Obama Increasing Welfare Spending?

Rising welfare spending has served as a metric for the weakness of the economy, but a new report suggests that will change in the coming years, as Obamacare increases welfare spending even after the economy bounces back.

“As projected by the Congressional Research Service, spending on welfare will continue to rise over the next decade, even as the economy is expected to recover,” the Senate Budget Committee Republicans announced today.

This year, welfare spending was approximately $1 trillion. By 2016, that number will rise by $321 billion, according to figures released by Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.

“Altogether, the President’s health law would add a new means-tested federal benefit to 30 million more Americans (many of whom do not currently receive means-tested assistance),” Sessions’ office explained. “In total, fully one-third—approximately 105 million—of all non-elderly Americans will receive their health care through the government once the law takes full effect. That figure will be even higher if the economy continues to experience weak growth.”

Mitt Romney has promised to repeal Obamacare if elected. If President Obama wins a second term, he could veto any repeal of the law unless two-thirds of the House and Senate voted to override his veto.

Via: Washington Examiner

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Goon Squad: AFL-CIO Chief Trumka Promises More Than 2,000 Union “Poll Monitors” In Battleground States…

(CNSNews.com) - Setting the scene for possible post-election legal challenges, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said his unions plan to deploy 2,000 “poll monitors” who will be linked with lawyers around the country as a way to prevent
"voter suppression" in states such as Ohio.

During a media conference call on Thursday, Trumka recalled being at an early voting site in Las Vegas where he saw “challengers inside.”

“We’re going to have over 2,000 people that are going to be available as poll monitors that’ll be connected to a number of lawyers around the country. So that if they [the opposition] attempt to deny them the right to vote, or hassle them we’ll be able to have a rapid response team that will respond immediately to that and protect them,” Trumka said.

“That will be up in the core states like Ohio, where we think there could be problems and so we’ll challenge those everywhere we can and protect the votes,” he said.

Via: CNS News

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Mooch: Kids As Young As 10-Years-Old Should Be Working On Obama Phone Banks…

SOCIALIST PROPAGANDA IS FORCING KIDS TO DO OBAMA'S DIRTY WORK

In the battleground state of Iowa, first lady Michelle Obama made a pitch for individuals as young as 10-years-old to help President Barack Obama win re-election.

“Here’s something that I always remind young people, because I’ve met so young people over these four years who said — told me — my parents and grandparents were not going to vote for Barack in 2008 until I talked to them and I told them what this election means for my future, and because of that conversation they voted for him. Now, that’s the power that young people can have,” Michelle Obama said Monday in Iowa City.

“It doesn’t matter how old you are. I’ve had 10-year-olds who are on a phone bank — 14-year-olds. I mean, I’m telling you, there is power because this is your future and you can tell people that they don’t have to wait until November the 6th to cast their ballots.”

The first lady went on to encourage individuals to take advantage of early voting.

“We all know that early voting has started, and there’s some good early voting happening right here in this state. I voted by mail early already, a couple of weeks ago,” she said.

“And I voted for Barack Obama, just in case you were wondering. I really, objectively feel that he’s the best man for the job.”

Via: Daily Caller

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THE BIG FAIL: Look Out The Window

As Obama Travels Across The Country In A Last-Minute Bid For Votes, America’s Middle Class Deserves An Explanation For His Failed Policies

 

“Sometimes All President Barack Obama Has To Do Is Look Out The Window To Get A Firsthand Look At The Country’s Economic Woes.” (Julie Pace, “Rough Economy In Clear View For Obama On The Road,” The Associated Press, 10/2/12)

OVER THREE YEARS OF OBAMA’S FAILED POLICIES HAVE LEFT THE MIDDLE CLASS IN A SQUEEZE OF HISTORIC PROPORTIONS

“Obama, Who Came Into Office Promising To Bolster The Middle Class And Reduce Inequality, Has Presided Over A Turbulent Economy That So Far Has Done Neither.”“Analysts call continuing high levels of joblessness a prime factor in the income and wealth declines that have continued for most Americans even after the recession ended. Obama, who came into office promising to bolster the middle class and reduce inequality, has presided over a turbulent economy that so far has done neither.” (Michael A. Fletcher, “Obama’s Record: Struggling To Bring Back Jobs,” The Washington Post , 10/18/12)

• “The Tepid Pace Of Job Creation Looms As Perhaps The President’s Biggest Political Vulnerability As His Re-Election Campaign Enters Its Final Weeks.” “The tepid pace of job creation looms as perhaps the president’s biggest political vulnerability as his re-election campaign enters its final weeks. The unemployment rate had been stuck above 8 percent for 43 consecutive months before falling to 7.8 percent in September. Still, nearly 5 million Americans have been out of work for six months or more.” (Michael A. Fletcher, “Obama’s Record: Struggling To Bring Back Jobs,” The Washington Post , 10/18/12)

• “[T]he President’s Policies Have Failed To Ignite Anything Close To The Robust Jobs Growth Needed To Overcome The Horrific Losses Caused By The Downturn.” “The aggressive series of actions helped construct a floor under the most severe economic collapse since the Great Depression, many economists agree. Yet, the president’s policies have failed to ignite anything close to the robust jobs growth needed to overcome the horrific losses caused by the downturn.” (Michael A. Fletcher, “Obama’s Record: Struggling To Bring Back Jobs,” The Washington Post , 10/18/12)

The Washington Post Headline: “Census: Middle Class Shrinks To An All-Time Low”(Carol Morello, “Census: Middle Class Shrinks To An All-Time Low,” The Washington Post , 9/12/12)

“Far From A New Dawn Of Broad-Based Growth, America’s Middle Class Decline Is Getting Worse.” “Second, the hollowing out of America’s middle class – still politely described as median income stagnation rather than ‘decline’ – is accelerating rather than slowing. According to the US Census last week, the US median household is 4.8 per cent poorer now than at the start of the recovery in 2009. Median incomes have now fallen to the pre-internet level of 1993. All of the gains of the Clinton years have been lost. The decline in the past three years follows a 3.2 per cent drop during the recession, which itself followed a shrinkage during the 2000-2007 cycle. Far from a new dawn of broad-based growth, America’s middle class decline is getting worse.” (Edward Luce, “The US Economy Is Still In A Sorry State,” Financial Times, 9/23/12)

Via: GOP.com

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Economy Grew At Just 2% In 3rd Quarter

Average GDP Growth Less than Half of What Obama Predicted 

The average GDP growth for the first three quarters of this year is 1.77 percent, according to data released by the the Bureau of Economic Analysis this morning. That is less than half of what the White House predicted GDP growth would be this year, and less than a third of what the Obama administration projected when it first took office.

 

Here's a chart from the Republican-side of the Senate Budget Committee, detailing real GDP growth numbers versus those predicted by the White House:

 

 

Via: Weekly Standard

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Opinion: All Mitt Needed To Do Was Sound Reasonable, He Succeeded

A Perfectly Plausible President

Mitt Romney needed to pass the usual tests for Republican presidential candidates in his debate Monday night with President Obama.

There was the Ford test (alternatively known as the Palin/Cain/Perry test): Would Mr. Romney say something so obviously misinformed, so manifestly silly, so revealingly ignorant as to disqualify him from serious consideration as a prospective commander-in-chief? He said nothing of the sort.

There was the Goldwater test (unfairly named, but reputations are stubborn things): Did Mr. Romney make pronouncements so belligerent as to make ordinary people fear for their children's safety—or at least provide David Axelrod a chance to make it seem as if he did? He did not, though that won't stop Mr. Axelrod from trying.

And there was the Bush test (not unfairly named but mistakenly understood to mean ideology when it ought to be about consistency): Would Mr. Romney find a deft way to define his foreign policy as something other than a retread of the 43rd president—but also as something defensible, distinctive, and (not least) identifiably Republican?

On this score, Mr. Romney succeeded, too, if only in a manner coyly calculated to raise the hackles of every conservative who has harbored doubts all along about the Massachusetts governor.

Enlarge Image

Mitt Romney

"We can't kill our way out of this mess," he declared early in the debate, a point that, had it been made by Mr. Obama, would have been treated as evidence of Democratic pusillanimity. He offered a vision for Mideast social and economic progress so wholly unobjectionable it would have made any Peace Corps volunteer proud. On Syria, Egypt, Afghanistan, Iran, drone strikes and China he offered policy prescriptions that—as Mr. Obama didn't fail to notice—were all-but identical in substance to the administration's.

He even got in a personal dig on President Bush toward the end, in connection to the auto bailout.

Via: WSJ

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Ahmadinejad Predicts Downfall Of America Because Of $16 Trillion Debt…

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad predicted the impending downfall of the "US empire," blaming the collapse on a combination of the country's massive debt and its loss of legitimacy within the international community, Iran's official news agency IRNA reported Thursday.

“How long can a government with a $16 trillion foreign debt remain a world power?” he asked at a press conference with Kuwaiti media personnel. "The Americans have injected their paper wealth into the world economy and today the aftermaths and negative effects of their pseudo-wealth have plagued them.”

He added: “An empire, or a government, remains in power so long as the people under its power support it, but today the Americans have acted in a way that the world nations do not like them at all, and therefore, their international legitimacy is annihilated.”

Ahmadinejad also predicted that the West would soon drop their alliance with the "Zionist regime," saying that Westerners and US politicians are increasingly "at a loss" as to why Israel exists.

Downplaying the effect of Western sanctions on the Iranian economy, Ahmadinejad said that the Islamic Republic would persevere. "The hegemonic powers have no way [forward], but to change the conditions.” Earlier this month, riots broke out in Tehran in protest of the collapse of the rial currency, which has lost some two-thirds of its value against the dollar in the past 15 months, stoking inflation that is now running at around 25 percent.

Via: JPost

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The Reality Principle

Column: Obama and Biden were winning—until they faced actual opponents

Hold it, I’m confused. I watched all of the vice presidential debate last night, and someone did not show up. Vice President Joe Biden was there—how could one miss him, with all the grinning, grunting, interrupting, and sneering. But where was the Ayn Rand-worshiping, rape-redefining, fanatically exercising zealot who wants to throw grandmothers off of cliffs and whose budget plan is, according to the president, “thinly veiled Social Darwinism” that is “antithetical to our entire history as a land of opportunity and upward mobility”? That Paul Ryan was nowhere to be found.

What America saw instead was a young and likable and knowledgeable conservative worried about the current trajectory of fiscal, monetary, foreign, and social policy. Where Biden harrumphed, Ryan calmly litigated President Obama’s failed record. Twice in eight days, the caricatures against which President Barack Obama and Biden are purporting to run have been exposed as grotesque exaggerations. The liberal attempt to frighten America with the illusory specter of an extremist Republican ticket dissolved on first contact with, well, the actual ticket. The reality principle asserted itself once again. We have an open race.

Perceptions matter. Why did 67 million people watch the first debate? One reason may have been that Americans, open to an alternative to the incumbent, wanted to know who the Republican nominee actually was. They only had vague knowledge of Mitt Romney going into the Denver bout—and their impression was not favorable.

What they knew was largely limited to the messages of $217 million in negative advertising from Obama and his allies: Romney was rich, secretive, out of touch, paying little in taxes, hiding his tax returns, stashing money in the Cayman Islands, singing out of tune, shipping jobs overseas with little thought of the lives he affected, dismissing out of hand 47 percent of the country, in favor of raising middle-class taxes and health-care costs for seniors, and waging a “war on women” with Todd Akin to “turn back the clock” on women’s rights.

Via: WFB

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RNC TO DOJ: INVESTIGATE OBAMA CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS

Republican National Committee (RNC) Chair Reince Priebus fired off a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder today calling for an investigation into hundreds of millions of dollars in undisclosed Obama campaign contributions.

In part, the letter reads:

"[T]he President's campaign committee does not use the industry standard practices to guard against receiving fraudulent or excessive contributions via the internet," Priebus alleges in the letter. "As a result, the President's campaign committee is vulnerable to the receipt of prohibited contributions. Their failure to adhere to the industry standard has caused these questions regarding whether the campaign is deliberately inviting prohibited contributions."

We're talking about Eric "Fast and Furious" Holder here, so it's let's call it "pretty likely" that Priebus isn't looking for a whole lot of fast action. What he is looking to do, though, is to call some media attention to the issue. Hope does spring eternal.

For four years now, we've all wondered why a media so obsessed with things like Mitt Romney's tax returns (which the IRS have seen) and what private individuals do with their own money in the form of super PACs, is not at all curious about hundreds and hundreds of millions of undisclosed dollars that flooded and are flooding into Obama's '08 and '12 campaign coffers.

That was a joke.

We actually know precisely why the media's not interested -- they're worried that what they find might hurt Obama.

And now, with the release of a bombshell report that points to glaring and seemingly intentional security gaps in Obama's online fundraising juggernaut, the media looks like they might have good reason to worry. The report proves beyond any doubt that the potential for illegal overseas monies to flood into the Obama campaign and remain undisclosed thanks to a ridiculous (in the Internet age) $200 FEC cut-off, is almost limitless.

But as of today, though no one has refuted the report's major findings, the media is less interested in this potential scandal than even the real scandal surrounding Libya. Day after day after day, the Obama campaign keeps chumming its pet media-sharks with distractions like Big Bird and abortion. And day after day after day, the  sharks are more than happy to manufacture a frenzy that obscures the real issues -- like hundreds of millions of dollars in undisclosed campaign contributions.

Because the IRS has seen Romney's taxes and most of us couldn't care less about what private people do with their own money in the form of super PACs (unlike a pile of Obama money, super PAC money is publicly disclosed), those media obsessions have nothing to do with accountability or transparency.

The Obama campaign wanted Romney bloodied with his tax returns, and the corrupt media of course obliged. Moreover, the media lost all interest in toxifying super PACs once they figured out Obama wasn't going to be at a fundraising disadvantage. But hundreds of millions of undisclosed dollars going right into a sitting president's campaign coffers is a major story, whether the corrupt media wants to pretend it is or not.

In 2008, McCain disclosed the names and addresses of all his donors, including those under $200.

Obama did not.

In 2012, both Romney and Obama should be pressured to do the same. And if I were Romney, I would follow up on this letter by doing exactly that.

Via: Breitbart

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