Is America in trouble no matter who wins the presidency?
Last Friday, I spoke to a local chapter of the Optimist Club. This Friday, I’m going to make sure no one who reads my blog can possibly have any shred of optimism remaining.
Just kidding. Sort of.
In an election season in which the presidential campaigns take turns making mistakes, making one wonder if either candidate really wants to win this thing, Sean Trende at Real Clear Politics lays out a case that neither side should want to win.
It’s the third in a three-part series; the first two installments were an argument for why Barack Obama will be re-elected, and an argument for why Mitt Romney will unseat him. The third piece boils down to: Be careful what you wish for.
Trende cites four factors that, at this point in time, suggest the winner of this election will see his party (or, in Romney’s case, himself) get rocked in the 2014 midterms and 2016 presidential election.
1. The economy. After reviewing the way we have not sprung back from the most recent recession the way we have from previous downturns, Trende notes:
Now consider that the average post-war business cycle lasts about six years from trough to trough. We hit our last trough in mid-2009, which means we should be due for another recession in the next few years.
We could easily begin to contract before we have fully recovered from the last recession. There are already signs that slowdowns in Europe and China are spilling over to our shores. This is probably too late to affect Obama’s re-election chances, but if it turns into a full-blown recession, it would greatly impact 2014 (when 11 Democrats are facing re-election in states that went for George W. Bush).
2. Debt. Here, Trende writes:
The current CBO projection assumes that we will add $3 trillion in debt over the next decade. But the reality is actually much, much worse than that. This assumes that we go off the famous “fiscal cliff” in December and allow all of the Bush tax cuts to expire, allow the full force of the alternative minimum tax to kick in, allow all of the spending cuts agreed to earlier this Congress to kick in, and greatly slash money paid to Medicare providers. Needless to say, if people see their taxes raised, their doctors stop accepting them for care, and we go into a recession, none of this will be popular.
If we assume Congress won’t allow this to occur, then we are looking at the CBO’s “alternate scenario.” It involves an additional $11 trillion in debt over the next few decades.
Even this latter scenario, he notes, is dependent on CBO’s rosy economic growth projections coming true — even though the economy has consistently underperformed CBO forecasts in recent years.
3. Health care. Trende notes that Obamacare is set to get cranked up in earnest in 2014. He imagines two scenarios:
If Obamacare doesn’t work — if seniors really suffer as a result of the benefit cuts to Medicare; if more people get thrown off their employer-sponsored insurance than expected; if insurers get put out of business because people opt to pay the tax rather than get insurance — it will not be a pretty political situation for Democrats.
Even if it works well, there will be problems. Unlike Medicare and Social Security, Obamacare creates obvious winners and losers. We then get to issues of salience: If people who are tossed onto the exchanges are angrier than people who are no longer denied care for pre-existing conditions are happy, there is a political problem for Democrats. If seniors strongly perceive the cuts to Medicare Advantage, but quickly forget about the “donut hole” being closed, there is a political problem for Democrats. There are dozens of such examples. Maybe they cancel each other out, but I wouldn’t bet the proverbial farm on it.
As for Republicans, Trende only maps out a scenario in which a President Romney and Congress repeal the law but don’t replace it with other reforms. Personally, I don’t think that’s the most realistic GOP scenario. But either way, he is probably right that Democrats will claim any shortcomings would have been better under Obamacare and will swing that club against Republicans early and often.
4. Iran. This, Trende says, doesn’t require a lot of theorizing:
In the next few years, one of two things will happen. Either Iran will develop a nuclear weapon, or Israel and the United States will forcibly stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
No American president wants to be the one who oversees the former. And the disruptions that could ensue from the latter would be massive, especially in combination with any of the other factors listed above. Add in the continued difficulties we face in the region in general (as we saw last week), and the problems there are similarly insurmountable.
***
What does all this mean? Is Trende right that either Democrats or Republicans could “win by losing”?
From a purely electoral-politics perspective, maybe. Of course, that would mean neither man is up to the task of creating better outcomes to these challenges. Which is a pretty depressing thought.
But is it a correct thought? Should we really believe America is doomed for the next four years no matter what happens in November?
Let’s hear your arguments why Obama or Romney would avoid disaster on any or all of these four issues. Think of it as a Poll Position without the poll. Just answer in the thread below.
– By Kyle Wingfield
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798 comments Add your comment
cc
September 23rd, 2012
12:44 pm
“infrastructure needs a major overhaul.”
While not contesting the validity of your statement, I wonder if now is the time to undertake such a project? That project would have to be paid for with taxpayers’ dollars, or those dollars must be borrowed. We have experienced two downgrades in our credit rating and borrowing the money would be more expensive. Increasing that national debt shouldn’t be done under any circumstance. That would leave only a tax increase, something we can ill afford with the economy as it is now.
Rafe Hollister, suffering through Oblamer's ineptocracy
September 23rd, 2012
12:48 pm
cc: I will try again, glutten for punishment.
Iowa
You don’t seem to get it. I am talking about EXIT polls, so your nonsensical reply of, depends who conducts the poll makes no sense. EXIT polls are done on the grounds of the poll sites all over the USA, by one group contracted by the Media to interview voters leaving the polls. People consistently lie. I brought this up to show why you doubting Linda’s and other posters comments that people lie to poll takers. The media uses these polls to get a snapshot of what the voters were thinking. So, if voters lie, in personal interviews, just after they vote, about whom they voted for, would they not lie when they are at home, answering some anonymous persons question?
Yes, the other pre election polls are all over the map. The daily tracking polls show it even, the swing state polls are trending to the Mistake, however, I hope and think they will soon catch up with the daily tracking polls. These polls usually show what the poll takers want them to show; that influences who is polled and how the questions are asked.
Iowa St Fair
September 23rd, 2012
12:52 pm
cc
You mean like arguing with the RCP average that shows Obama up more than he was at this time in 08?
Iowa St Fair
September 23rd, 2012
12:54 pm
Ole Dick “McCain is going to walk away with this election” Morris says Romney is going to win……..
He has a great track record….
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
September 23rd, 2012
12:55 pm
Anybody willing to bet their hard-earned money on the whims of the most uninformed electorate in the history of this nation deserves to lose their money.
You liberals don’t have to worry about that, because the EBT cards you use aren’t paid for with your hard work.
Just ours.
Rafe Hollister, suffering through Oblamer's ineptocracy
September 23rd, 2012
12:56 pm
I agree with cc, now is not the time for major work on infrastructure. You do infrastructure in good times. We have to get the economy growing ASAP, or we go over the cliff. No amount of tax hikes is going to solve the debt/deficit problems. The amount of gov spending that would have to be cut to solve our problems, will be unpalatable to the politicians and the people. We can’t print our way out of this mess, we have to get the economy growing to bring in the revenue necessary to get back on our financial feet.
bluecoat
September 23rd, 2012
12:59 pm
I think reason people lie at exit polls,and phone interviews.Because they feel this is private.
Rafe Hollister, suffering through Oblamer's ineptocracy
September 23rd, 2012
12:59 pm
Iowa if polls in Sep counted for squat, Dukakis would have beat Bush I, Carter would have beat Reagan, Dewey beats Truman.
The polls will continue to serve to push their favorite until the end of October, then you will have a mad polling scramble to try to pick the race correctly.
cc
September 23rd, 2012
1:06 pm
Iowa:
I wouldn’t argue polls and as Tib said, I wouldn’t bet a nickel on the outcome considering the electorate was so easily fooled in ’08. It would be foolish to bet that they are any smarter today. I do think that this election is way too close to call and there is too much time left to consider either as having a lock on it.
The stupidity and ignorance of the average voter is appalling.
@@
September 23rd, 2012
1:09 pm
Customer review:
Nov 4, 2011 – The Trader Joe’s Valencia Creamy Peanut Butter with Sea Salt is magic, unicorns , sunshine, and happiness, all rolled into one. It’s a natural.
Trader Joe’s Valencia Creamy Salted Peanut Butter may be at the center of a multistate Salmonella S. Bredeny outbreak, according to warnings from multiple state departments of health.
Salmonella rides in on unicorns?
Lil' Barry Bailout - Vote American
September 23rd, 2012
1:14 pm
Voting should be limited to those with skin in the game–the 53% who pay the bills.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
September 23rd, 2012
1:36 pm
Harris-Perry show on MSNBC yesterday, and the race pimps and war on women types were bemoaning voter ID laws.
Their solution is to make voting registration an opt-out, rather than an opt-in, method.
As if we want people who can’t be bothered to register to have the ability to vote.
Idiots, one and all.
Lil' Barry Bailout - Vote American
September 23rd, 2012
1:53 pm
Why don’t we just assume that everyone votes Democrat unless they show up and vote Republican?
David R. Boag, DDS
September 23rd, 2012
2:17 pm
Linda @ 6:19
“David@5:58, You are keeping me awake at nights & waking me up in the mornings. Would you please, please change your blog name? This is not a blog you should post on with your real name. Don’t respond to me. Just take my advice before it’s too late. Just try it for a few days.”
@@ @ 6:35,
“Linda’s right about using your real name. There are some folks on here who will track you down. They’ve done it to me…no face to face, mind you.
I’ll just leave it at that.”
Thanks for your concern guys. I really mean that. I thought carefully about it last evening, and then I went to church this morning and believe it or not, the sermon was on Matt. 5:10-12:
“Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5:10-12 NIV)
Boy, there couldn’t have been a more timely message. My response is a few things:
1. When you stand for truth, you don’t go looking for persecution. Persecution finds you. It is inevitable–the more you stand for truth, the more you guarantee yourself persecution. This is not just true for spiritual truth, but for truth in general. The stronger you stand, the harder those who don’t like the truth will push. There is usually a cost for defending truth. Not that I WANT to pay it or that I’m looking for trouble, but I’m ready for it when it comes. Prophets, in the text above BTW, are not fortune-tellers, they are truth-tellers. That is what prophecy is: truth-telling. In that sense, that’s who I am.
2. There is something powerful about speaking truth and identifying yourself with that truth and vice versa. It gives the truth more validity, especially when it is given by someone who actually lives his/her life honestly and consistent with truth. When I put my name to my posts, just by the fact that I do that gives what I say more authenticity, because unlike most others who supposedly claim to proclaim truth, they are not willing to identify with it, whereas I am. But more importantly, the way that I live my life does it even more than that.
3. I’m not ashamed of speaking truth, nor am I ashamed of speaking His truth, although there is a time and a place for that, and a political blog isn’t necessarily the place for that for a good portion of the discussion. However, there are times when proclaiming it makes sense, and there are times either kind of truth is worth defending. But HOW one goes about it is just as important as being right with what you say. With all due respect to some of my conservative brethren here on the blog, even though I agree with many of the points they are trying to make, sometimes the way that they go about making them is often counterproductive. That’s not how I go about my business. I don’t insult people, because God loves them even as much as He loves me. I have been given the ability to disagree without being disagreeable. Oh, here and there, I will take someone’s own words when they try to twist truth, and tongue-in-cheek show the falsity of their words, but I don’t hate ANYONE on this blog, and even if someone were to try something with me, I wouldn’t like it, but I still wouldn’t hate them. I’d hate what they did, but not who they are.
My role here is to speak the truth in love. Period. I hope that I continue to do so honorably, although I AM human, and I do make mistakes, just like all of us do, despite the claims often made on here to the contrary. I have decided to continue to stand for truth without hiding behind a pseudonym. I want what I say to be genuine, not contrived, and not something that is worthy of me having to hide for saying.
Thanks for your concerns again. Linda, don’t lose any more sleep. If something happens, well, it will only serve to strengthen both what I have said–having paid the cost for saying it–and as long as I have behaved admirably doing so, will show the weakness of the side of untruth that they must resort to such behaviors to try to silence truth.
Besides, Kyle Wingfield puts his name to every column and every post. And even though I disagree with 75% of what he says, the same goes for Jay Bookman. I give both of them credit for standing behind what they say with their own identities. I am choosing to do the same: to continue as I have, defending truth and doing so without stooping to insulting those who oppose it.
If that still concerns you, you are welcome to pray for me. I’ll pray that others would also respond to the call to identify with the truth to the point where they can at least say who they are when they speak it. In summary, I’m taking the high road, not to be smug, but because it is who I choose to be, and I encourage whoever will to join me. But don’t do it for me. Do it because you believe what you say and your life reflects it HONORABLY. Some things are worth the cost. Truth is one of those things, especially when you proclaim it in love.
Kyle, I welcome your thoughts on this. Feel free to email me privately if you feel the need.
Sorry for the long response, everyone. And now, back to our regularly scheduled program…
Iowa St Fair
September 23rd, 2012
2:35 pm
“Voting should be limited to those with skin in the game–the 53% who pay the bills.”
The low ranking enlisted personnel who pay little to no income tax due to their salary, but put their life on the line for punks like you, say thanks for demeaning them.
Lil' Barry Bailout - Vote American
September 23rd, 2012
2:46 pm
Fair point, Iowa, and I wholeheartedly agree–military and their immediate families should also have full voting rights. Thanks for your suggestion. And here you probably thought I wouldn’t modify my proposal simply because the idea came from a lefty.
yuzeyurbrane
September 23rd, 2012
3:01 pm
My my. Paranoia is rife among the right-wing today. I agree with their advice to not use real name on blog because of danger of harassment. But fear of guns?? I believe it is Linda’s buds who are crowding gun shows, etc. and walking around with heat. More telling is righties fear of responding to people who disagree with them, even going to extreme of calling Jay and his readers a cult and therefore refusing to post on Jay’s blog. What hypocrisy for self-described fact-based debaters. By the way Linda, I also read the Wall St. Jrnl. and occasionally agree with their editorial pages. Their news stories are excellent.
David R. Boag, DDS
September 23rd, 2012
3:03 pm
Appreciate your $.02 on the issue, yuze.
David R. Boag, DDS
September 23rd, 2012
3:06 pm
BTW, hardly “rife” as you say. Your commentary on using real names suggests anything but paranoia.
Linda
September 23rd, 2012
3:35 pm
HDB@12:19 AM, I appreciate your lengthy response. I respectfully disagree with you. I would rather concentrate on the major topics that pertain to the Nov. election. Have a great day.
Linda
September 23rd, 2012
3:57 pm
David@2:17, There are pros & cons to blogging using your real name. Do your own research. You are vulnerable & placing your family, employees & clients in jeopardy. People have been harassed & cyber stalked. One person went thru 18 mts. of red tape because of identity theft. Your name could be used on other blogs all over the world. You are subjecting yourself to criminal threats. You could be placed on govt. &/or police watchlists.
Using a pseudonym makes you no less blessed, truthful, spiritual, strong, powerful, valid, honest, consistent, authentic, etc. It just makes you safer & could save you much heartache.
Would you approve of your parents, spouse or children using their real names to blog?
I’ve been called every name in the book on blogs, but it stops here, at the computer. My private & professional life remain private & professional.
P.S. My husband would prefer I use a pseudonym on e-bay. Would save $$$$$.
@@
September 23rd, 2012
4:15 pm
Doc:
In summary, I’m taking the high road, not to be smug, but because it is who I choose to be, and I encourage whoever will to join me. But don’t do it for me. Do it because you believe what you say and your life reflects it HONORABLY.
More power to ‘ya.
Someone on these AJC blogs encroached on my daughter’s privacy. That’s where I draw the line…although it was a one time occurrence. She didn’t sign up for blogging.
And once again…I’ll leave it at that.
MarkV
September 23rd, 2012
4:19 pm
“You do infrastructure in good times. We have to get the economy growing ASAP, or we go over the cliff.”
One might wonder what is the economy we want to grow? Producing products, for which there is no domestic demand, which people without work cannot buy?
Here are a few interesting pieces of information
“The Public Works Administration (PWA), part of the New Deal of 1933, …. It was created … in June 1933 in response to the Great Depression. It built large-scale public workssuch as dams, bridges, hospitals and schools. Its goals were to spend $3.3 billion in the first year, and $6 billion in all, to provide employment, stabilize purchasing power, and help revive the economy.
The PWA became, with its “multiplier effect” and first two-year budget of $3.3 billion (compared to the entire GDP of $60 billion), the driving force of America’s biggest construction effort up to that date. By June 1934 the agency had distributed its entire fund to 13,266 federal projects and 2,407 non-federal projects. For every worker on a PWA project, almost two additional workers were employed indirectly.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Works_Administration
But then, the above is from Wikipedia, so they probably got it all wrong, and some people here know better.
Linda
September 23rd, 2012
4:27 pm
yuzey@3:01, If I can seek revenge on an invader of my privacy while I am cooking dinner by answering their polling questions concerning my private voting rights with less than truthful answers, I will.
If I can prevent an IRS audit by claiming to a member of the state-sponsored media (MSNBC, NBC, ABC, CBS, etc.) that I am considering voting for the Godfather, I will.
You may call it fear. I call it smart.
There was a time that the blogger went on vacation for a week & left up a picture of a mural. There were thousands & thousands & thousands of comments. Kyle’s participants actually have something to say, to share, to discuss, with complete multiple sentences, on topic.
You may call it hypocrisy. I call it interesting.
cc
September 23rd, 2012
4:50 pm
HDB@2:17 pm:
Great courage, great mental attitude and you are apparently prepared . . . to very possibly (likely) fighting the wrong fight. If your choice affects anyone other than yourself, it is a selfish choice and one for which someone else might pay. It’s your life, but is it really considerate to potentially involve others in your “something powerful about speaking truth and identifying yourself with that truth”?
Good luck, someone may need it!
Linda
September 23rd, 2012
5:11 pm
cc@4:50, You meant David, not HDB.
cc
September 23rd, 2012
5:20 pm
Linda@5:11 pm: You are right, of course, and thanks! I have to be very sure that all my pencils have erasers!
HDB: My apologies . . .
David R. Boag, DDS @2:17 pm: My post at 4:590 pm was misdirected but meant for you.
@@
September 23rd, 2012
5:51 pm
MarkV:
As is often the case, FDR’s PWA was one of a handful of short-term fixes that created a long-term problem….ongoing to this day.
It was WWII that brought the country out of the depression.
Gravy Train
September 23rd, 2012
5:54 pm
Boag has to use his real name, he thinks he’s going to get some of you old lonely ditto-heads to go to his million dollar suite. Not building as he claims. Suite. Also Boag, that is one quality web site you’ve got there. Looks like you put lots of money into it. LOL You’re a poser.
Gravy Train
September 23rd, 2012
5:57 pm
Nothing sadder than old white xenophobes with nothing to do but spin their wheels pushing a candidate they don’t even like.
Lil' Barry Bailout - Vote American
September 23rd, 2012
5:59 pm
Public works? Dang, we blew through $800 billion and didn’t fix a darn thing. Oh, forgot, had to buy off the government unions and give pretend tax cuts to folks who don’t even have jobs.
JamVet
September 23rd, 2012
6:08 pm
TBe, that was one impressive tirade/meltdown.
Yet another conservative Christian having a bad Sunday?
MarkV
September 23rd, 2012
6:11 pm
@@ 5:51 pm
Nobody I know argues that PWA “fixed” the depression, and there is general agreement that WWII brought the country out of depression. But that is not a proof that PWA created a long-term problem, and it does not support for the view that “you do infrastructure in good times.”
tiredofIT
September 23rd, 2012
6:12 pm
How many of you GOP guys have got your FREE hover rounds?
JamVet
September 23rd, 2012
6:12 pm
PWA workers built the state capitol building in Oregon, the highway linking the Florida Keys to the mainland United States, the Bay Bridge in San Francisco, the Federal Trade Commission Building in Washington, D.C., the city hall in Kansas City, Outer Drive Bridge in Chicago, the Ellis Island Ferry Building, Washington National Airport and the Grand Coulee Dam in Washington state.
They built thousands of miles of roads, hundreds of sewage disposal plants, and thousands of schools. They built or improved hundreds of airports.
Historians and economists differ on how much effect the New Deal building programs actually had on the economy. The building programs “didn’t bring the Depression to an end, but they reduced the magnitude of it and enabled people to survive who would have had an impossible or difficult time surviving without them,” says Richard Kirkendall, emeritus history professor at the University of Washington.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/blueprintamerica/reports/profiles-from-the-recession/report-bridge-to-somewhere-public-works-administration/693/
Lil' Barry Bailout - Vote American
September 23rd, 2012
6:18 pm
PWA workers built the state capitol building in Oregon, the highway linking the Florida Keys to the mainland United States, the Bay Bridge in San Francisco…
—————–
And all WE got for our $800 billion were some politically-motivated payoffs to union thugs.
JamVet
September 23rd, 2012
6:43 pm
You neofascist union busters have a great role model:
The very first thing Adolph Hitler did when he came to power?
Abolish labor unions.
On May 2nd, 1933, the day after Labor day, Nazi groups occupied union halls and labor leaders were arrested. Trade Unions were outlawed by Adolf Hitler, while collective bargaining and the right to strike was abolished.
Well played, Republicans…
Linda
September 23rd, 2012
6:59 pm
The announcers keep pronouncing Falcons’ Julio Jones’ name incorrectly. It’s either Julio Jones or Hulio Hones. You can’t have it both ways.
Del
September 23rd, 2012
7:02 pm
Egypt’s Morsi is truly an Islamic radical P.O.S. and standing proof for the failures of this administrations policies in the Middle East and around the world.
Del
September 23rd, 2012
7:13 pm
Scanned the Kookman blog and don’t see fat man and little boy or squaw boy anymore are they hiding out.
cc
September 23rd, 2012
7:16 pm
Del@7:02 pm:
From the Washington Post:
++++++
Collapse of the Cairo Doctrine
By Charles Krauthammer, Published: September 20
In the week following 9/11/12 something big happened: the collapse of the Cairo Doctrine, the centerpiece of President Obama’s foreign policy. It was to reset the very course of post-9/11 America, creating, after the (allegedly) brutal depredations of the Bush years, a profound rapprochement with the Islamic world.
Never lacking ambition or self-regard, Obama promised in Cairo, June 4, 2009, “a new beginning” offering Muslims “mutual respect,” unsubtly implying previous disrespect. Curious, as over the previous 20 years, America had six times committed its military forces on behalf of oppressed Muslims, three times for reasons of pure humanitarianism (Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo), where no U.S. interests were at stake.
But no matter. Obama had come to remonstrate and restrain the hyperpower that, by his telling, had lost its way after 9/11, creating Guantanamo, practicing torture, imposing its will with arrogance and presumption.
First, he would cleanse by confession. Then he would heal. Why, given the unique sensitivities of his background ¬ “my sister is half-Indonesian,” he proudly told an interviewer in 2007, amplifying on his exquisite appreciation of Islam ¬ his very election would revolutionize relations.
And his policies of accommodation and concession would consolidate the gains: an outstretched hand to Iran’s mullahs, a first-time presidential admission of the U.S. role in a 1953 coup, a studied and stunning turning away from the Green Revolution; withdrawal from Iraq with no residual presence or influence; a fixed timetable for leaving Afghanistan; returning our ambassador to Damascus (with kind words for Bashar al-Assad ¬ “a reformer,” suggested the secretary of state); deliberately creating distance between the United States and Israel.
++++++
The rest of the column is definitely worth reading . . .
Linda
September 23rd, 2012
7:16 pm
What a coincidence that Hillary Clinton, for entertainment, attended the Broadway play “The Book of Mormon,” which bashed Mormons, & didn’t condemn the play, but then came out last week & condemned the video that bashed Islam terrorists.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444450004578002010241044712.html
The difference: Mormons don’t burn down embassies, American flags & likenesses of Obama.
Hypocrisy!!!!!
Del
September 23rd, 2012
7:20 pm
cc, even the WaPo can sometimes call it right.
Del
September 23rd, 2012
7:24 pm
Oh yes…the Hildabeast.
Rafe Hollister, suffering through Oblamer's ineptocracy
September 23rd, 2012
7:31 pm
That’s right Mark, follow the policies of FDR, those that after 13 years never brought us out of the great depression, instead of the policies of Reagan, Clinton, and Kennedy, that turned around things in 2-3 years or less. Typical Dem move, ideology over tried and true remedies.
Linda
September 23rd, 2012
7:39 pm
Obama’s mistake was that the Middle East & parts of Africa could not pick up the USA state-sponsored media, especially MSNBC, & hear the rhetoric that would send trickles up their legs. All the Middle East & parts of Africa heard was the rhetoric from the Democratic National Convention: GM is still alive & Osama Bin Laden is Dead! That didn’t sit too well with them, despite the apology tour from 2009. The radical Muslims want their blind cleric let go, you know, the one that was behind the bombing of the World Trade Center in ‘93 & the one OBL claimed to be behind his motivation to bomb the World Trade Center on 9/11/01.
The Obama adm. is thinking about letting him go, for humanitarian reasons.
Regardless of all the rhetoric, Obama is finding out that the average Joe in the Middle East & Africa is not as smitten with him, nor as stupid, as the Democratic minions in the US.
Lil' Barry Bailout - Vote American
September 23rd, 2012
7:48 pm
Hillary Clinton, for entertainment, attended the Broadway play “The Book of Mormon,”
—————
And I bet she laughed her fat ass off, too!
cc
September 23rd, 2012
7:49 pm
Del@7:20 pm:
Not so much the Post as Mr. Krauthammer . . .
cc
September 23rd, 2012
7:52 pm
Linda@7:39 pm:
You’re on target with this!
Linda
September 23rd, 2012
7:56 pm
The Obama Adm. is spending $7 M of taxpayers money advertising on public TV in Pakistan to assure its citizens that the US govt. does not approve of free speech, that is, that the video that no one except Obama believes triggered the protests & violence in the Middle East, is acceptable in the US.
I’ve heard that the Obama Adm.’s political advertisement against free speech on Pakistani TV got mixed up & was substituted with his video in the US advertising food stamps in Spanish. The Pakistanis are even more irate.