The Outlaw Barrack Obama

     When President Obama announced his dictate last week regarding a major change in the immigration policy, it was just one more example of the lawless behavior of an out of control executive. Whether you agree with the policy or not, the President does not have the Constitutional authority to make law. The people's representatives in Congress are the only branch of government that can make law. And therein lies the rub between Liberals and Conservatives. The left believes that unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats and activist judges should be allowed to create new laws and rights. And in this case, they believe a President should be able to push an agenda by creating law without the representation of the people. This runs completely contrary to the founder's intent and is a violation of the letter of the law spelled out in the enumerated powers embodied in the Constitution. And we are, after all, a nation of laws and not of men.
     This latest foray into lawlessness by the President has been proceeded by many others. It began with the violation of contract law when the President confiscated the equity of the GM bond-holders and gave it to the unions. It continued with his refusal to obey two federal judges' rulings to end the drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico after the BP oil spill. Over the last three and a half years there have been many other examples of this lawless behavior. Some are blatant, like when the President flat out stated that he and his Justice Department were not going to enforce The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Other examples were more subtle, as when the President made the recess appointment of Richard Coudray as head of the new consumer protection bureau. The problem with this appointment is that the Senate was not in recess. The President has even publicly stated that if the Congress does not act on his agenda, that he would act on his own. This statement alone would cause the founding fathers to roll over in their graves.
     The President doesn't seem to understand that leadership is different from dictating. The job of any President is to have an agenda that he feels will serve the people best without infringing on the basic freedoms protected by the Constitution. He does this by negotiating with his opponents and by compromising some of what he wants to allow his opposition to support other items that he wants. He doesn't publicly demonize those who disagree with him, nor does he blame everyone and everything for the failures of his policies. This President could learn something from one of his Democrat predecessors, Harry S. Truman, who said, "The buck stops here." Or from Dwight D. Eisenhower who had a speech in the breast pocket of his suit on D-Day accepting complete responsibility for the invasion's failure, had things gone wrong. He never had to use the speech, but this incident stands as an example of real leadership, as opposed to the It's not my fault-Things were worse than we thought-It's Bush's fault-There was a tsunami in Japan-Europe is crumbling-The Arab spring-ATMs-The Republican minority in Congress-Banks are evil-Rich people are greedy kind of leadership that we now have in the White House.

Economy Is Fine-In Obama's World

     Two separate incidents this week revealed the core of the Obama agenda and fleshed-out his vision for the country. The first was the revelation, and incontrovertible evidence, that Barrack Obama was a member of the New Party in the mid-1990s. The party was a radical Socialist organization whose goal was to convert the U.S. into a European Socialist-style of government. The Obama campaign in 2008 vehemently denied that Mr. Obama was a member of this organization because they knew it would all but ruin his chances to be elected president. But now Howard Kurtz from National Review Online has uncovered minutes from a meeting of the New Party from January 11, 1996. In these minutes is recorded the matriculation of Barrack Obama as well as his request to run as a New Party candidate. There is also a picture from the party's literature of the President posing with New Party members when he was a state senator. The record also shows that he paid dues to join the organization.
     In a separate but related incident during the President's press conference this week he revealed that he still believes in the mission of the New Party. He stated that the private sector economy is doing fine. This was not a mis-statement or a gaff. To the President's way of thinking, and that of the New Party, the economy is doing fine. Chronically high unemployment, now 40 months over 8 percent (the most since The Great Depression), growth in GDP below 2 percent (which is far below the post-WWII average of 3.2 percent) and twice as many people on food stamps as when Mr. Obama took office, all portends an economy that is doing fine according to the President.
     I recall a press conference shortly after the President was inaugurated, in which he said his goal was to even out the economy so there would be no boons or busts. I almost fell off my chair, because when a patient exhibits those same signs they are considered dead. Creating an economy which manufactures government dependants aligns with the New Party's objectives as well as those of our current president. I don't believe the President wants an economy which encourages independence and entrepreneurship, otherwise he would have implemented policies which would have encouraged it. Even hard-core Democrat leaders in cities and states will sometimes implement free-market, business-friendly policies in order to revive a failing economy. It's not rocket science,  you can't make life better for the employee class by making it harder on the employer class. Every one of the over 10,000 new Federal regulations passed by the Obama administration costs business money which means fewer jobs. The draconian regulatory environment along with uncertainty about taxes causes business to not hire or invest.
     When one looks at the policies and rhetoric of the last three and a half years coming from the Obama administration, it would take a herculean amount of denial to call President Obama a democrat instead of a New Partier.

Be Careful What You Wish For Mr. President

     I was not a fan of Mitt Romney during the Republican primary season, partially because it was obvious that the Obama campaign wanted to run against Romney. They created and nurtured the Occupy movement for that expressed purpose. All the anti-Wall Street and class-warfare rhetoric was specifically designed to battle Mitt Romney.
     But I must say that in the last couple of weeks I have been pleasantly surprised by Mitt Romney's performance. He and his wife Ann, in large part, neutralized the administration's attempt to convince people that the Republicans were waging a war on women. He masterfully responded to the Obama campaign's mis-characterizations of his time at Bain Capital. His response was so effective that even Democrats such as Duval Patrick, Ed Rendell, Corey Booker and former president Bill Clinton joined the defense of Bain specifically and private equity in general. When the left demanded that Mitt Romney denounce Donald Trump because of his views on the President's birth certificate, he stood his ground while saying he disagreed with The Donald's birth certificate view. This incident would have had John McCain running to the woodshed for some serious self-flogging, even before it was demanded by the left-wing media.
     The Romney campaign has been very effective staying on message while rapidly responding to attacks from the Obama campaign and their minions in the mainstream media. Mitt Romney's secret trip to the shuttered headquarters of Solyndra was brilliant. Solyndra is the solar panel company run by a major Obama donor which received 500 million dollars in taxpayer money then went bankrupt. Governor Romney made an effective speech at the former solar panel maker, drawing a distinction between the 80% success rate he had at Bain Capital, using private money, and the President's 0% success rate in the "Green Energy" industry, using taxpayer money. For those who don't know, Solyndra is only one of over a dozen "Green Energy" companies that have received taxpayer money and subsequently have gone bankrupt. In fact 70% of the loans made by the Department of Energy for "Green Energy" projects, have been to major Obama donors or campaign bundlers.
     Whether or not Mitt Romney is at heart a true Conservative may yet to be proved. One thing for sure is that he doesn't intend to run a campaign that apologizes and shrinks from the fight like the wilting flower campaign of John McCain. Yes, the Obama campaign hoped and wished for Mitt Romney to be the Republican candidate, because they thought they had an effective strategy for defeating him. But that desire by the Obama campaign is illustrative of the old adage, "Be careful what you wish for." And they may yet regret their wish made upon the falling star that has become their campaign.