Scarborough to The View: Republicans ‘Too Obsessed’ with ‘Hating Obama’

With his new book The Right Path to promote, there was Joe Scarborough acting as guest co-host on The View Tuesday morning. And the MSNBC host had plenty to say about the current state of his Republican Party, including the belief that the GOP is “too obsessed” with “hating on” President Barack Obama.

Scarborough began by laying out the premise of his book, in which he says the GOP needs a new Ronald Reagan-esque figure to lead the party into the future. He said the real problem is that “we’ve been conducting ideological witch hunts in our party. If you don’t agree with everybody on 100% of the issues, somehow you’re out.”

Much of the discussion surrounded New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who many view as a possible frontrunner for the 2016 presidential nomination. “The fact is, people that would judge Chris Christie because he hugged Barack Obama, first of all, they’re too obsessed on hating Barack Obama,” Scarborough said. He recounted that, as much he disliked former President Bill Clinton, when the president came to his district after a hurricane, he didn’t hesitate to hug him. “So Chris Christie hugged Barack Obama, get over it!” he said.

As for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Scarborough said he “has the same problem Sarah Palin has. About twice as many people have an unfavorable opinion as a favorable opinion. we have to figure out how to flip that around.”

Scarborough also surprised the hosts when he said he could see himself voting for a Democrat for president. “I mean, if we keep going in this direction, you know, I would,” he said. “I haven’t had to actually try that theory out yet, and hopefully our party will turn things around.”

Finally, Scarborough weighed in on the Affordable Care Act, saying, “I’m not going to endorse Obamacare right here.” But, he added, “If you don’t like Obamacare, then guess what? Let’s actually win elections and we’re only going to win elections if we come up to an alternative to Obamacare.”

Via: Mediaite.com

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Americans’ Participation in Labor Force Hits 35-Year Low

(CNSNews.com)  The percentage of American civilians 16 or older who have a job or are actively seeking one dropped to a 35-year low in October, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In September, the labor force participation rate was 63.2 percent, but in October it dropped to 62.8 percent—the lowest it has been since February 1978, when Jimmy Carter was president.

The labor force, according to BLS, is that part of the civilian noninstitutional population that either has a job or has actively sought one in the last four weeks. The civilian noninstitutional population consists of people 16 or older, who are not on active-duty in the military or in an institution.

At no time during the presidencies of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton or George W. Bush, did such a small percentage of the civilian non-institutional population either hold a job or at least actively seek one.

Via: CNS News

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To save merger, US Air, American may seek changes at D.C.'s Reagan National

WASHINGTON — The fate of an $11 billion deal to create the world’s largest airline might hinge in large part on one airport, but not just any airport: It’s the one right across the Potomac River from the nation’s capital.

When the Justice Department sued in August to block the merger of American Airlines and US Airways, it cited the deal’s potential impact on Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The combined airline would control 69 percent of the takeoff and landing slots at the terminal, a deal-breaker for the department’s antitrust division.

“Blocking the merger will preserve current competition and service at Reagan National Airport, including flights that US Airways currently offers to large and small communities around the country,” Assistant Attorney General Bill Baer said when he announced the lawsuit in August.

While the two sides are preparing to go to trial late this month, they brought in a mediator last week to work out possible solutions. If the airlines and the government settle the case before going to court, aviation observers think that any deal would involve the merged airline giving up some of its dominance in Washington.

Via: McClatchy

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Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/11/05/207435/to-save-merger-us-air-american.html#storylink=cpy

[VIDEO] Rob Reiner aka Meathead: 'Obama Is Right Around Where Reagan Was' Politically

It really is hysterical listening to liberal Hollywoodans talk 

about politics.

Take for example actor/director Rob Reiner - made famous by his role as Meathead in the legendary sitcom All in the Family - claiming on HBO's Real Time Friday ("Overtime" web segment) that Barack Obama politically "is right around where Reagan was" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

BILL MAHER, HOST: I’m just saying the Democrats have moved to the middle.

CONGRESSWOMAN DEBBIE WASSERMAN-SCHULTZ (D-FLORIDA): We have.

MAHER: Unfortunately, the other people have moved way over there. So now the middle isn’t the middle anymore.

ROB REINER: Obama right now, where Obama is is right around where Reagan was, right around where Nixon was. There, he’s no more left than those, those, those Republicans.

MAHER: Hardly a socialist. He’s barely, barely a liberal.

REINER: No, as Bob Dole said, he could not get…

MAHER: Right.

REINER: …anywhere in this Republican Party. And so Obama’s right around where Bob Dole is. They’re very similar, you know? There’s not much of a difference there.

MAHER: Whenever they say, “Oh, he’s the most radical president ever,”

REINER: No, no, no, no.

MAHER: …right, because they’re such experts on history. What they mean is, “He’s black.” That’s what’s the most radical thing about him.

Via: Newsbusters

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EPIC FAIL: Now JIMMY CARTER is calling Obama an incompetent loser

It’s been a disastrous couple of weeks for President Barack Obama. His signature legislation, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, is a slow-motion train wreck. His poll numbers have tanked.

Now, things have gotten so bad for Obama that former president Jimmy Carter has called President Obama incompetent in the family-friendly pages of Parade magazine.

“He’s done the best he could under the circumstances,” Carter said of Obama in an interviewed published on Thursday. “His major accomplishment was Obamacare, and the implementation of it now is questionable at best.”

Carter presided over what was, until the current recession, the longest period of economic stagnation since the Great Depression. There was runaway inflation, high unemployment and an ongoing energy crisis. There was a hostage crisis in Iran involving the capture and imprisonment of 52 Americans for 444 days.

In the summer of 1979, Carter gave one of the least effective speeches any president in the history of the American presidency. The deeply unpopular “Crisis of Confidence” speech became widely known as Carter’s “malaise” speech.

Carter lost his 1980 reelection bid to Ronald Reagan by an electoral vote total of 489 to 49. He won only six states, along with the District of Columbia.

The 39th president’s Parade interview touched on several subjects in addition to Obamacare including his grandson’s role in a hidden camera video of Mitt Romney, the Middle East, the Trayvon Martin case and the recent  tribulations of fellow Georgian Paula Deen.

Carter’s wife Rosalynn was also present at the interview and contributed to it.

Via: Daily Caller

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EXCLUSIVE: Rev. Jesse Jackson says Ronald Reagan wanted to ban blacks from playing football with whites

Deceased-Republican President Ronald Reagan sought to to permanently ban African Americans from playing college and professional football in the South with white people, civil rights icon Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. alleged in a speech to Furman University on Wednesday evening.

In the same speech he also alleged that modern Tea Party was born from efforts to sustain segregation.

“Goldwater and Reagan – had they been successful, it would have been illegal for blacks and whites to play together on a Saturday afternoon,” he said.

“You couldn't have had the Carolina Panthers behind the cotton curtain playing the Atlanta Falcons…[inaudible] it would have been illegal.”

In the tirade, recorded by a Furman University student, Jackson went on to claim that if Reagan and former GOP presidential candidate Barry Goldwater had their way, there would have been no Olympics in Atlanta, and basketball legend Michael Jordan would have ineligible to play basketball at the University of North Carolina (UNC), where he got his start.

“Michael Jordan couldn't have gone to UNC… [inaudible] it would have been ineligible for him to play at UNC,” he continued “You couldn't have had the Olympics in Atlanta Georgia. You couldn’t have had the Dallas Cowboys in Houston, Texas, you couldn't have had the Super Bowl in New Orleans or in Atlanta or in Jacksonville or Miami.”

Jackson may have been referencing Reagan and Goldwater’s vocal support for state and individual rights, which a small number of far left critics interpreted as thinly veiled appeals for segregation.

In the hour long speech, which focused on race but meandered through a number of subjects, Jackson made other incendiary comments, for example suggesting that the Washington Redskins name is a reference to the scalping of American Indians.

“How about pictures we see of Indians stabbing the cowboys” he asked. In reality what happened was if If you killed an Indian... [inaudible]…finally you got paid for the scalps of the red skins of the Indians…and that’s how we got the Washington Redskins football league.”

He repeatedly calling the United States South “the land of the free, the home of genocide” and suggested that the modern day Tea Party was born from efforts to maintain "the walls" of slavery and segregation.

Via: Campus Reform

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Obama's Job Approval Declines for 3rd Straight Quarter to Near-Record Low

(CNSNews.com) - President Obama's approval rating has taken another hit, dropping for the third quarter in a row, this time to 44.5 percent between July 20-Oct. 19, Gallup reported on Monday.

That's a three point decline from the previous quarter, and it is the third largest quarter-to-quarter decline of his five-year (19-quarter) presidency.

Obama's highest approval rating (63 percent) came during his first quarter as president, and by the fifth quarter, it had dropped to 48.8 percent. Obama's lowest quarterly approval rating, 41 percent, came in the 11th quarter (third year) of his presidency.

Looking at the most recent quarter, Gallup says Obama's daily job approval rating dropped in August and September amid criticism over his call for military action in Syria and Russia's intervention to prevent it. The partial government shutdown that began on Oct. 1 and Obama's refusal to negotiate over that and the debt limit sent his job approval rating as low as 41 percent in the current quarter, before it rebounded slightly.

Gallup notes that three post-World War II presidents -- Ronald Reagan, Dwight Eisenhower, and Bill Clinton -- had significantly higher 19th quarter averages than Obama, all near 60 percent. Two presidents had lower 19th quarter averages than Obama: Richard Nixon, whose 19th quarter came during the Watergate investigations, and Lyndon Johnson, attributable mostly to the increasingly unpopular Vietnam War - See more at: 

Via: CNS News

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Thom Hartmann Blames Reagan for Starting Rightist 'Anti-American Crazies Who Hate Our Government'

The old Norm McDonald joke was “Germans love David Hasselhoff.” The liberal talk radio equivalent is “Thom Hartmann really hates Ronald Reagan.”

On Thursday afternoon’s show, Hartmann blamed Reagan for this whole Tea Party trend of “anti-American crazies who hate our government,” with that unpatriotic hatred somehow including veterans of every war, and George Washington, who “signed the first legislation that provided housing, food, medical care, and clothing to poor people.” Footnote, please?

THOM HARTMANN: Ronald Reagan came along and, in his first inaugural address, said the government is the problem, and ever since then there's been this small group of anti-American crazies who hate our government, our government that all these people over all these years, the people who fought in World War II; the people who fought in World War I; the people who fought in the Civil War, at least for the North; the people who fought in the Revolutionary War; the people who fought in the War of 1812; our government that they fought to keep, and many of them died.

Our government, according to these teabaggers, has become an evil thing, or was all along, actually. I mean, it was George Washington who signed the first legislation that provided housing, food, medical care, and clothing to poor people in Washington, D.C.

Hartmann summarized the shutdown as a Tea Party tantrum of hate: “They brought this government to its knees, and cost us $24 billion, for what? Because they don't want 46 million people who don't have health insurance to be able to get it? They brought this government to its knees because they object to the idea that people who have had, like my friend Tommy Christopher who had a heart attack and can't get health insurance, that they [say], 'Screw him, he shouldn't be able to get health insurance.' They really did this!”

Hartmann sounds just like one of my childhood friends, who tweaked me on Facebook: “What did the Republicans propose for health care? Other than to make people (like me) with chronic health problems feel they were being led to slaughter. Culling is the word. P.S. any organ donors out there?”

Via: Newsbusters

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Ronald Reagan Speaks out against Socialized Medicine 1961

Via: You Tube

Poll: John F. Kennedy tops presidential rating

As the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination approaches next month, polling released Tuesday as part of a new book about Kennedy’s legacy shows that he remains one of the most highly rated presidents of the past 50 years.

Asked to rate all the presidents from 1950-2000 on a scale of 0 to 10, Kennedy scored the highest, at 7.6. He was followed by Ronald Reagan, at 6.9, Dwight Eisenhower, at 6.8, and Bill Clinton, at 6.7. None of the other presidents scored above a 5.0.

Nevertheless, Kennedy would not be Americans’ first choice to bring back as the next president, if any former leader alive or dead could serve again. Asked who they would most want to bring back, 24 percent of adults chose Reagan, 21 percent chose Clinton and 13 percent chose Kennedy. Abraham Lincoln was next, at 9 percent.

(Also on POLITICO: Sabato’s JFK book takes aim at House conspiracy theory)

The findings, from a survey of more than 2,000 adults conducted this summer, were released Tuesday to coincide with the release of a new book from University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato, which takes on evidence of popular conspiracy theories about Kennedy’s assassination and analyzes his lasting legacy.

At a press conference unveiling his book at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Sabato said it was the findings on the impact Kennedy’s life has had that most struck him, not the findings about his death.

“The most important thing didn’t have anything to do with the assassination, it was the fact that even though John Kennedy had a terribly abbreviated tragic presidency, he’s actually lived for 50 years through nine successors,” Sabato afterward told a handful of reporters, which included press from the U.K., Germany and Korea.

Via: Politico

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Myths about Government Shutdowns

Young people often don't realize that government shutdowns used to be common, until the middle of the Clinton administration. The George W. Bush presidency was an exception to the rule. The Miami Herald's Glenn Garvin debunks the myths promoted by the left-leaning "chattering classes" to people too young to remember earlier shutdowns, and people with bad memories.

Myth: "This kind of thing never used to happen." Reality:

"Actually, it used to happen all the time. What's unusual is the quiet stretch since the last shutdown, when Newt Gingrich and Bill Clinton were facing off in 1995. Before that, there were 18 shutdowns in 19 years as various Congresses and presidents squabbled over raising the national debt limit. My personal favorite is the one in 1982, when Congress didn't feel like working late to pass a spending bill the night before the new fiscal year started. The Republicans were all going to a barbecue at the White House, while the Democrats had a $1,000-a-plate fund-raising dinner to attend."

Myth: "it wouldn't happen if not for all these crazy ideologues who've been elected the last few years. In the old days, Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill would have just had a drink after work and settled everything." Reality:

"More likely they would have broken some bottles over one another's heads. The federal government shut down seven times while Reagan was president and O'Neill speaker of the House. No wonder, the way they talked about each other.

"O'Neill called Reagan 'an absolute and total disgrace' and added that it was 'sinful that this man is president of the United States.' Reagan, in his diary, wrote that budget negotiations with the speaker were an ordeal because 'Tip O'Neill doesn't have the facts of what was in the budget. Besides he doesn't listen.'"

Via: CNS News

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Kidnapping Goldwater and Reagan

A favorite meme in the attack of moderate Republicans and the liberal media against conservatives is that we have gone so overboard on ideological litmus tests that neither  Barry Goldwater or Ronald Reagan could be nominated in today’s Republican Party. Our opponents are attempting to kidnap these two Lions of the right to use as cudgels against their spiritual heirs.

Goldwater’s geriatric jeremiads against the religious right and Reagan’s loosening of abortion restrictions as Governor and tax increase as President are most often cited by the left as proof that “even” those two Godfathers of modern conservatism would “compromise” and “bend” – making them unacceptable to conservatives today

In the words of my candor mentor, Colonel Sherman T. Potter of the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital,” horse hockey”.

The Gipper’s seeming apostasy is easily dealt with.  He realized about a nano-second after both of those actions that they were mistakes, and spent the rest of his career describing them as the biggest mistakes of his political life. To those of us who actually knew and worked for Ronald Reagan the idea that he was a closet moderate or that he would not be a leader of or cheerleader for today’s Tea Party is laughable.

Barry Goldwater’s late-in-life statements need to be balanced against his actual votes which were almost uniformly conservative, and  need to be considered in light of the influence of his decades-younger second wife Susan. She apparently was a good companion to Barry, reportedly made his twilight years easy and happy, and that is all good. She also was an unabashed liberal and her influence on his politics is obvious, and that was all bad.

That said, the later-day Barry Goldwater is irrelevant to this discussion. He didn’t matter then and he doesn’t matter now.  Who matters is the man who changed America – the Barry Goldwater of the late 50s and early-to-mid 60s who inspired millions and launched the modern conservative movement.  It was the Barry Goldwater of Conscience of a Conservative  and the 1964 campaign who activated hundreds of thousands of previously inactive citizens, many of whom (including yours truly) are still at it today.

Via: California Political Review

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Reagan on Mt. St. Helens

Why Robert Smith is wrong about Ronald Reagan’s environmental record.

Last week in The American Spectator, CEI’s Robert Smith criticized the organization I head, the R Street Institute, for celebrating the anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s dedication of the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. Some of Smith’s arguments have merit and aren’t points we’d dispute. However, in the end, he misses the point.

Among our areas of agreement: private land ownership is valuable, and private efforts at conservation and responsible land management should be encouraged and rewarded. Most land in the United States is in private hands and should remain that way. Many public lands should be sold off to the private sector or opened to private use and development. 

In addition, we must put an end to senseless mandates on private property and dirty tricks that degrade the value of privately held land. Even the Endangered Species Act, a sacred cow to much of the environmental movement and a favorite of the likes of Newt Gingrich, ought to be reviewed.

But conservation of public lands is not an all-or-nothing tradeoff. That’s where we part ways with Smith. 

Smith claims that federal acquisition of land “undermines conscientious private stewardship of land, waters, and other natural resources.” Certainly the amount of land the federal government holds should be constrained, but the truth is, effective public management of a limited number of acres can and should go hand-in-hand with private management. It necessarily supports it. Advocates of limited government should see the value in this dual strategy.

Via: American Spectator

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FISCAL CLIFF DEAL: $1 IN SPENDING CUTS FOR EVERY $41 IN TAX INCREASES

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the last-minute fiscal cliff deal reached by congressional leaders and President Barack Obama cuts only $15 billion in spending while increasing tax revenues by $620 billion—a 41:1 ratio of tax increases to spending cuts.

When Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush increased taxes in return for spending cuts—cuts that never ultimately came—they did so at ratios of 3:1 and 2:1.

“In 1982, President Reagan was promised $3 in spending cuts for every $1 in tax hikes,” Americans for Tax Reform says of those two incidents. “The tax hikes went through, but the spending cuts did not materialize. President Reagan later said that signing onto this deal was the biggest mistake of his presidency.

"In 1990, President George H.W. Bush agreed to $2 in spending cuts for every $1 in tax hikes. The tax hikes went through, and we are still paying them today. Not a single penny of the promised spending cuts actually happened.”

Via: Breitbart

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Hey, let’s elect a new Speaker from outside the House

Ed’s headline in the Greenroom for this piece (written by the co-author of “The Republicans Are the Problem”) tells you all you need to know about what an unserious bit of trolling it is, but I’m oddly comforted to see it show up on WaPo’s op-ed page. It’s proof positive that even the most celebrated newspapers aren’t immune from having to scrounge for content in the news desert between Christmas and New Year’s. Coming tomorrow, presumably: “Let’s repeal term limits for Obama.”

Still, it’s worth writing about for two reasons. One: Conservative dissatisfaction with Boehner is real. We may well end up with a new Speaker on January 3. No harm in thinking about alternatives. Two: It’s a useful prism through which to consider the leadership void in the GOP right now.

What if Boehner doesn’t survive? Go to Article I, Section 2: The Constitution does not say that the speaker of the House has to be a member of the House. In fact, the House can choose anybody a majority wants to fill the post. Every speaker has been a representative from the majority party. But these days, the old pattern clearly is not working…

The best way out of this mess would be to find someone from outside the House to transcend the differences and alter the dysfunctional dynamic we are all enduring. Ideally, that individual would transcend politics and party — but after David Petraeus’s stumble, we don’t have many such candidates. It would have to be a partisan Republican.

One option would be Jon Huntsman. By any reasonable standard, he is a conservative Republican: As governor of Utah, he supported smaller government, lower taxes and balanced budgets, and he opted consistently for market-based solutions. As a presidential candidate, he supported positions that were in the wheelhouse of Ronald Reagan. But a Speaker Huntsman would look beyond party and provide a different kind of leadership. He would drive a hard bargain with the president but would aim for a broad majority from the center out, not from the right fringe in. He could not force legislation onto the floor, but he would have immense moral suasion.

Another option would be Mitch Daniels, the longtime governor of Indiana and a favorite on the right. Daniels has shown a remarkable ability to work with Democrats and Republicans, and he is a genuine fiscal conservative — meaning he does not worship at the shrine of tax cuts if they deepen deficits, and he would look for the kind of balanced approach to the fiscal problem put forward by Simpson-Bowles, ­Rivlin-Domenici and the Gang of Six.

Via: Hot Air
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