CALIFORNIA YANKEE

Obama still campaigning on the taxpayer dime

In today’s New York Times we learn that President Obama, in a desperate effort to save his own job, is again spending taxpayer money for political campaign purposes. In light of yesterday’s depressing Gross Domestic Product (GDP) news, Obama should again pivot and focus time on saving everyone else’s job.

The country's GDP growth slowed to an anemic 1.5%, and the Obama campaign ought to be in the middle of some serious self-reflection in Chicago. Whatever shambled economic record Obama might have had –- and there certainly wasn’t much to begin with, is pretty much gone. As the Wall Street Journal reported today, "the economic story of his Presidency is by now familiar: a plodding recovery that has taken its third dip in three years and is barely raising incomes for most Americans."

Voters now trust Mitt Romney to handle the economy more than Obama, by a whopping 34-points -- more than 2-1, 63%-29%. Things are bad, and even the mainstream media is starting to realize they can’t ignore it anymore. Despite last night’s Opening Ceremonies in London being a historic international event that occurs only once every two years, the depressing GDP news still made bigger and bolder headlines in the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal.

Sadly, Obama’s campaign is only sinking deeper into this mess. Obama’s big-government solutions to the economy have failed miserably, and his mantra of governance – spending more and more taxpayer money on anything and everything – is starting to seep into his campaign strategy too, with the same result. Mitt Romney brackets the president with money Romney raises for his campaign, while Obama brackets Romney with taxpayer money, using the taxpyer funded White House to drop news wherever Romney goes.

Obama's campaign spends more than it takes in – shocking! And Obama gets nothing for it -- the latest Rasmussen's likely voter tracking poll has Romney up 4-points, Romney has lead by four or five points for three consecutive days. That’s the largest advantage enjoyed by either candidate in over a month. All that money spent by Obama, with no positive results. Sounds just like his failed stimulus.  

Obama spends taxpayer money on his failing economic policies. Obama spends taxpayer money on his failing campaign tactics. Almost everyone can see where this is heading, except apparently Obama’s team in Chicago.

Virginia voter fraud used Voter Participation Center registration form

 Stealing Virginia and maybe the presidency, Chapter 2.

There is now a smoking gun that more than justifies the Romney campaign's concern about the hundreds of thousands of registration forms the Voter Participation Center mailed to Virginia addresses that were partially filled out or "pre-populated" with names and/or information belonging to the recipients' dead relatives, minor children, non-citizen relatives, already registered voters, convicted felons, and cats and dogs.

A convicted felon, living in Louisa County, Virginia, used one of the Voter Participation Center's pre-populated forms to register to vote illegally and then cast a ballot in the 2008 presidential election. In January 2010, the felon pleaded guilty to two counts of election fraud and was sentenced to 10 years in prison with all time suspended.

According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Page Gardner, president and chief executive officer of the Voter Participation Center, discounts any suggestion that voter fraud can occur through the organization's mailings. Gardner said Voter Participation Center relies on the "diligence of local election officials" to review the submitted applications, as well as on the "individual integrity of the individuals receiving the forms."

Louisa County’s Attorney Thomas A. Garrett Jr., the guy who prosecuted the felon and is now a state senator, sees the connection, and has tough words for Page Gardner’s comments:

Garrett said Gardner is in denial if she believes that voter fraud can't occur. "She can say … 'We don't know where (the felon) got it' all she wants to," he said. "But I do know where she got it from and it was from (Gardner's) organization, and I got the proof. I produced the original form, which is on file and accessible to the public." Garrett said he believes Nicholson and another felon he prosecuted for illegally registering to vote were essentially duped into breaking the law.

This is the first case of confirmed voter fraud I've heard of that resulted from the five million "pre-populated" voter registration forms the Voter Participation Center mailed across the country targeting Democrat-leaning voting blocs, such as unmarried women, young people and minorities. I'm sure it won't be the last.

Stealing Virginia and maybe the presidency

The Romney campaign today has requested an investigation into potential election fraud in Virginia, a Key battle-ground state.

The request was necessary because of the shenanigans of the DC-based Voter Participation Center which has mailed voter-registration forms to deceased relatives, children, and even pets.

According to the Associated Press, the Voter Participation Center has touted the distribution of some five million registration forms in recent weeks, targeting Democratic-leaning voting blocs such as unmarried women, blacks, Latinos and young adults. The mailings appear official, arriving in privacy envelopes with the headline "VOTER REGISTRATION DOCUMENTS ENCLOSED." Some information is already completed on the voter registration papers, and recipients also get an envelope to send completed forms to local elections officials.

PJ Media has already followed up with a great investigative piece – the return address on the VPC’s forms, which are allegedly supposed to be Virginia State Board of Elections, actually sends the forms to a rogue address:

"The evident misdirection of the return address and the permit number registered in Pennsylvania all beg for an answer: Why? These returned registration forms contain real personal information including full legal names, date of birth, and even Social Security numbers. What is the Voter Participation Center really up to, in having forms returned to an address that it says is controlled by a state entity, when that is not the truth? Additionally, where are the completed forms really going"

That is a great question. Virginians (and Americans, because Virginia is an important battleground state and could determine the next President) deserve answers.

This is all too reminiscent of the voter fraud practiced by ACORN in the 2008 presidential campaign in Ohio, Indiana and other states. Hopefully, someday the lefties who say that voter ID laws and other anti-fraud measures are not necessary will be overcome by all the evidence of voter fraud and other instances of ineligible voting.

Happy Moon Landing Day

Remembering Tranquility Base.

PHOTO: Aldrin Looks Back at Tranquility Base - Lunar Module pilot Buzz Aldrin was photographed by mission commander Neil Armstrong. In the foreground is the Passive Seismic Experiment Package; beyond it is the Laser Ranging Retro-Reflector; in the far right background is the Lunar Module "Eagle." Image credit: NASA

It's been 43 years since we heard those famous words announcing that humans had finally reached another world:

"Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed."

On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 landed on the moon.

When mission commander Neil Armstrong finally took the "small step," I was watching in the Fillmore West in San Francisco. In a corner of the huge concert hall they had a large screen showing man’s first steps on the moon. The activities at Tranquility Base fit right in with the light show.

Where were you when Armstrong took that the "giant leap for mankind?"

The following video shows shows Armstrong's first steps on the moon:

Blowing up the Romney vs. Obama dead heat meme

Friday I spoke with WBYZ 94.5 Radio's Wild Bill McKubby about my recent article, "Romney extends lead among Independents to 14 percent."

During the interview we blow up mainstream media's meme that the presidential race tied. We also take   Obama to task for his $trillion deficits, his 50% increase in the national debt and his incessant Pinocchio campaign falsehoods.

You can listen to the interview here:

As of July 6, 2012, the national debt was $15,879,528,608,975.11 ($15.9 trillion). It was $10,626,877,048,913.08 ($10.6 trillion) when Obama became president. That's a $5.3 trillion, or 50 percent, increase in less than four years. On July 3, 2008, Presidential candidate Obama said that adding $4 trillion in debt was "irresponsible" and "unpatriotic." President-elect Obama warned us when he predicted "trillion-dollar deficits for years to come." And President Obama promised to cut the deficit in half by the end of his term not once but at least five times.

Thanks to Wild Bill for having me on the show.

Romney extends lead among Independents to 14 percent

In the new ABC News/Washington Post poll, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney extends his lead among Independents to 14 points, 53-39 percent. Two months ago, a  POLITICO/George Washington University Battleground poll found Romney had a ten-point lead among the critical Independent voters.

The mainstream media is touting the poll as showing the race is "dead even" -- a 47-47 percent Obama-Romney contest among registered voters. Yet the new poll contains many more warning signs for the Obamacrats.

Obama's overall job rating is 47-49 percent, approve-disapprove (the same as in May). But his approvals are majority negative on:

1. The Economy, 44-54 percent;
2. Health Care, 41-52 percent (a numerical low in approval, with no bump from last month’s Supreme Court ruling); and
3. Immigration, 38-52 percent (also bumpless despite Obama's halting enforcement against certain illegal aliens, who arrived as minors) via executive fiat.

Sixty-three percent say the country’s headed in the wrong direction. This is hard to dispute in light of the very disappointing May and June unemployment reports and the 41 straight months of unemployment above 8 percent during the Obama presidency.

Obama’s biggest shortfall is on the deficit where he trails Romney by 25-70 percent. It's not hard to see why. As of July 6, 2012, the national debt was $15,879,528,608,975.11 ($15.9 trillion). It was $10,626,877,048,913.08 ($10.6 trillion) when Obama became president. That's a $5.3 trillion, or 50 percent, increase in less than four years. On July 3, 2008, Presidential candidate Obama said that adding $4 trillion in debt was "irresponsible" and "unpatriotic." President-elect Obama warned us when he predicted "trillion-dollar deficits for years to come." And President Obama promised to cut the deficit in half by the end of his term not once but at least five times.

The new poll also offers additional evidence that Obama's continuing and misleading attacks against Romney's private sector experience at Bain Capital has not hurt Romney. The poll found  an even split on whether his Bain Capital background is a major reason to support or oppose him (23-24 percent), with 50 percent saying it makes no difference.

And all these favorable findings for Romney come from another poll skewed toward Democrat results. The new poll used a sample of  33 percent Democrats, 24 percent Republicans and 36 percent Independents. As we have mentioned before, based upon exit polling, the 2008 electorate was 39 percent Democrat, 32 percent Republican, and 29 percent Independent. In 2010, it was 35 percent Democrat, 35 percent Republican, and 29 percent Independent.

The new ABC News/Washington Post poll was conducted  July 5-8, 2012 and has a margin of sampling error of 4 percent for the full sample and registered voters.

Terrorist-led Romney protest fizzles

Fortunately, despite the best efforts of one of America's unrepentant terrorists along with left-wing radical groups such as the Democrat supported Occupy movement, Move On, and the Long Island Progressive Coalition, yesterday's protest against Gov. Romney's Long Island fundraisers fizzled.

According to NBC's Garrett Haake, together left-wing radical groups including the Democrat supported Occupy movement, Move On, and the Long Island Progressive Coalition only managed to get about 60 protestors to show up. The protestors were greatly outnumbered by 450 invited guests.

The protestors/occupiers caused little trouble except for crashing into a Police boat. In an effort worthy of the Keystone Cops, David Fink and Simon Kinsella attempted to cross the police line on the water, ignored orders to stop, and “struck” a police boat. One of the alleged miscreants attempted to escape by swimming to shore, and was promptly arrested nearby, while the other was arrested on the boat.

The two face charges for resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and obstructing government administration.

Other than the boat caper, the protest was pretty tame for anything involving the Occupy movement. Still, these miscreants get creativity points for using a boat.

One of America's unrepentant terrorists to lead Romney protest

Later today, Gov. Romney will be fundraising in the Hamptons. The left is planning a massive protest, busing in the usual left-wing suspects, including the Democrat supported Occupy, Move On, GreenPeace, etc. That these radical groups would choose to protest the presumptive Republican nominee is not surprising.

What is unusual, is the fact that the protest is being led by one of America's unrepentant terrorists -- Andy Stepanian. Stepanian a so-called Liberal/Progressive activist is an admitted convicted terrorist, who boasts about being praised for "succeeding where Karl Marx and the Red Brigades failed." Sort of reminds one of Bill Ayers and Van Jones who helps astroturf the Occupy Movement and American Autumn

The Terrorist-led protest is especially ironic, considering that David Axelrod has publicly said he condemns heckling Romney’s campaign. Nevertheless, I’m sure the Obama campaign won’t say a peep about a convicted terrorist organizing protests designed to do just that. The mainstream media certainly won’t bring it up either, although you can bet they’ll give coverage to the protests.

DNC Chair channels Obama's 'doing fine': 'Happy' with private sector job growth

During an appearance on "Fox News Sunday," DNC Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz channeled President Obama's infamous "the private sector is doing fine" comment, saying she is "happy" with job growth in the private sector:

Fox News’ John Roberts: “So then is the suggestion that we should just do keep doing the same thing? There’s that old definition of doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”

DNC Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz: "What we should do – well, I’m pretty happy about 28 straight months of job growth in the private sector."

Roberts: "Are you happy about 80,000 jobs last month, 69,000 the month before that. Are you happy with those numbers?"

Rep. Wasserman Schultz: "Like I’ve said and President Obama has said, we need to continue to improve and we need to do more and we need to work together."

You can watch Wasserman Schultz's "happy" comment here.

Wasserman Schultz's "happy" version of Obama's "doing fine" comment came just a day after Obama Adviser David Plouffe falsely claimed June's terrible jobs report is "what everybody expected."

Both are attempts to resurrect Obama's failed "doing fine" effort to shrug off the continuing failure to bring unemployment down to the levels used to sell Obama's failed so-called stimulus.

As you will recall, a month ago Obama had to clarify, but did not repudiate his "the private sector is doing fine" comment, within five hours of saying it.

Obama's "doing fine" comment created quite a hue and cry. The Romney campaign quickly launched a @ObamaDoingFine parody Twitter site. The RNC put up a YouTube video titled "Doing Fine," showing headlines highlighting the lousy economy, Obama saying "the private sector is doing fine," and asking how can President Obama fix our economy if he doesn't understand what's broken? And the Romney Campaign released its "Jolt" video using video clips of news broadcasts about the horrific May jobs report, Obama's "doing fine" comment and asking if there has ever been a president so out of touch with the middle class?

Obama has boxed himself into a corner by admitting we are not better off than we were four years ago and telling NBC, "If I don't have this done in three years, then there's going to be a one-term proposition." He and his Obamacrats will continue to try out outrageous sounding comments about the unemployment numbers until something actually resonates or the numbers finally significantly improve.

Romney accepts ObamaTax decision: Calls Obama out for broken tax pledge

Mitt Romney tells CBS News chief political correspondent Jan Crawford, that he accepts the Supreme Court's decision that President Obama's individual mandate is "a tax."

In the Crawford interview Romney said there is no way around the Court's decision:

"I said that I agreed with the dissent, and the dissent made it very clear that they felt it was unconstitutional. But the dissent lost - it's in the minority.

And so now the Supreme Court has spoken, and while I agreed with the dissent, that's taken over by the fact that the majority of the court said it's a tax, and therefore it is a tax. They have spoken. There's no way around that.

You can try and say you wish [the court] had decided a different way, but they didn't. They concluded it was a tax; that's what it is. And the American people know that President Obama has broken the pledge he made. He said he wouldn't raise taxes on middle-income Americans, and not only did he raise the $500 billion that was already in the bill, it's now clear that his mandate, as described by the Supreme Court, is a tax."

The media and many pundits have really messed up this story. They have presented the voters with a false story that The Romney Campaign and the GOP are at odds over the tax versus unconstitutional commerce clause-based mandate. The real issue is that the Supreme Court left Obama with a choice: his ObamaCare federal individual mandate is either a constitutional tax or an unconstitutional penalty.

Governor Romney thought it was an unconstitutional penalty, but accepts the Court's decision. Team Obama has been pressing hard trying to convince voters that, notwithstanding what the Supreme Court said, the ObamaTax is not a tax, but just a penalty:

• Stephanie Cutter, Deputy Obama Campaign Manager: "What John Roberts said, we have the power to impose this penalty on people through the taxation clause, it’s a penalty."
• David Axelrod, Sr. Obama Campaign Strategist: "Whether you call it a mandate or a tax, what it is is a penalty of the sort I described before."
• Obama surrogate, Gov. Deval Patrick (D-MA): "Don’t believe the hype that the other side is selling. This is a penalty."
• The so-called Obama Truth Team: "…and the ‘tax’ they are trying to scare everyone about is actually a penalty for the 1% of people who can afford insurance but still choose not to buy it."
• During the June 30, 2012 press gaggle, Obama's White House spokesman Jay Carney said: "It's a penalty because you have a choice. You don’t have a choice to pay your taxes, right?
• On Fox News Sunday, White House Chief of Staff Jacob Lew struggled for over five minutes trying to explain why it isn't a tax.
• On CBS's Face the Nation, Obama surrogate Gov. Martin O'Malley (D-MD), wasn't able to explain why it is not a tax.

Obama should not be allowed, as he has on so many other issues, to get away with having it both ways here. Obama's federal individual mandate is either a constitutional tax or an unconstitutional penalty.

Obama's campaign is obfuscating and claiming it is not a tax despite the Court's ObamaTax ruling in a desperate attempt to argue the ObamaTax does not prove Obama lied his way into office with his promise he would not raise taxes on Americans making less than $250,000:

"I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase.  Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes." (Presidential candidate Obama speaking in Dover, New Hampshire, Sept. 12, 2008 [video link].)

You can watch video of Obama making his firm pledge here.

I could, perhaps should, stop there, but we need to mention the "it's not a tax" meme ignited by Romney senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom on MSNBC's "Daily Rundown.":

"FEHRNSTROM: The Governor disagreed with the ruling of the court. He agreed with the dissent that was written by Justice Scalia, which very clearly stated that the mandate was not a tax.

CHUCK TODD: The governor does not believe the mandate is a tax — that’s what you’re saying?

FEHRNSTROM: The governor believes that what we put in place in Massachusetts was a penalty and he disagrees with the Court’s ruling that the mandate was a tax, but again —

TODD: But he agrees with the president that it is not — and he believes that you shouldn’t call the tax penalty a tax, you should call it a penalty or a fee or a fine?

FEHRNSTROM: That’s correct. But the president also needs to be held accountable for his hypocritical and contradictory statements because he has described it variously as a penalty and as a tax, he needs to reconcile those two very different statements."

The best explanation I've seen for Fehrnstrom's "shouldn’t call the tax penalty a tax" comment is from CNN. According to CNN, this wasn't another "Etch-A-Sketch" moment. Rather, it was a shrewd move to assuage worried moderates and independents and draw fire away from Romney:

"It's still kind of ham-handed, but it served a strategic purpose," said Trevor Parry-Giles, a political communication professor at the University of Maryland. "What (Romney) has to confront is that he did the exact same thing in Massachusetts. And that he's not as hard-nosed and doctrinaire as he sounds. He's trapped in this weird realm where he has to appeal to the base but still attract the center."

In other words, Fehrnstrom took one for Romney. Health care is a particularly thorny issue. Obama wants you to believe that the tax penalty in the ObamaCare law was modeled after the reform plan passed in Massachusetts under then governor Mitt Romney.
 
Obama can make that point but it would only be fair to note what Romney has been saying about his Massachusetts healthcare mandates. Romney has repeatedly said that his plan was a state-based plan but one he does not think would work on a federal level. Romney has said far more than just that it was "meant for Massachusetts only." He has in fact based his position on the 10th Amendment, as he explained during the December 11, 2011 ABC News Iowa Republican debate in an exchange with Gov. Perry and former Speaker Gingrich:

MITT ROMNEY: A good deal of what you said was right. Some was wrong. Speaker Gingrich said that he was for a federal individual mandate. That's something I've always opposed. What we did in our state was designed by the people in our state for the needs of our state. You believe in the 10th Amendment. I believe in the 10th Amendment. The people of Massachusetts favor our plan three to one. They don't like it, they can get rid of it. (COUGH) That's the great thing about (COUGH) a democracy, where individuals under the 10th Amendment have the power to craft their own solutions.

By the way, the-- the problem with President Obama's plan is it does three things we didn't in my opinion, among others. I understand we disagree on this. But among others, one, it raises taxes by $500 billion. We (NOISE) didn't raise taxes. Two, it cuts Medicare by $500 billion. We didn't do that, either. And three, it doesn't just deal with the people that don't have insurance. It's a 2,000-page bill that takes over health care for all the American people. It is wrong for health care. It's wrong for the American people. It's unconstitutional. And I'm absolutely adamantly opposed to ObamaCare.

And if I'm the President of the United States, I will return to the people and the states the power they have under the constitution and they can craft the solutions they think are best for them...

Romney stands firm on the idea of 10th Amendment as allowing a laboratory in which the states to come up with and their own solutions. Romney tried to solve the Massachusetts healthcare problem. But those solutions he does not want the federal government to try it on a national scale.

In longer interview excerpts released by the Romney campaign, Romney again differentiates  between a state mandate and a federal mandate when it comes to taxation.

CRAWFORD: “But does that mean that the mandate in the state of Massachusetts under your health care law also is a tax? I mean, you raised taxes as governor.”

ROMNEY: “Actually, the chief justice in his opinion made it very clear that at the state level, states have the power to put in place mandates. They don’t need to require them to be called taxes in order for them to be constitutional. And as a result, Massachusetts’ mandate was a mandate, was a penalty, was described that way by the Legislature and by me, and so it stays as it was.”

CRAWFORD: “So at the state level because of … you’re saying the Supreme Court says that’s different, that the federal government — the powers are different between the states and the federal government? Does that make sense to you?”

ROMNEY: “Just take a read of the opinion. The chief justice said that states have what’s known as police power, and states can implement penalties and mandates and so forth under their constitutions, which is what Massachusetts did. But the federal government does not have those powers, and therefore for the Supreme Court to reach the conclusion it did — that the law was constitutional — they had to find it was a tax, and they did. And therefore Obamacare’s a tax. Like it or not, it’s a tax.”

So there we have it. Romney accepts that the Supreme Court has determined that ObamaCare is actually ObamaTax. Obama cannot bring himself to do so.