CALIFORNIA YANKEE

Romney to inspect Hurricane Isaac storm damage

After accepting the Republican nomination with a terrific speech Thursday night, former Governor Mitt Romney is flying to the New Orleans area Friday to inspect storm damage caused by Hurricane Isaac.

Romney will meet with Gov. Bobby Jindal and first responders and thank them for their work and see areas impacted by the storm. Romney found it important enough to make such a visit that he is skipping a previously scheduled rally with his vice-presidential running mate Paul Ryan in the battleground state of Virginia this afternoon.

Romney's presidential-like storm damage inspection stands in sharp contrast to President Obama, who has been too busy flying around the country conducting campaign rallies in Iowa, Colorado and Virginia and has not even announced any plans to visit the storm ravaged area.

Washington Post-ABC News poll finds Romney leads

The new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds Romney leads 47 to 46 percent among likely voters. Yes,  that is well within the poll's 4 percent margin of error, but like previous Post-ABC polls, this skewed poll greatly under sampled Republicans giving it a Democrat-leaning bias.

This poll's sample was 31 percent Democrat, 22 percent Republican, and 39 percent Independent. We've been through this before. As mentioned in connection with a previous ABC News/Washington Post poll, 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. 

It's still all about the economy. The Post-ABC poll found 72 percent of voters say the president’s handling of the economy will be a "major factor" in their vote this November. In light of President Obama's failed stimulus, unemployment remaining at or above 8 percent for the entire Obama presidency and the now $16 trillion national debt, that's bad news for Obama. The poll found Romney with a solid seven-point advantage  among registered voters on handling the economy.

The poll also found Romney has a 48 to 39 percent advantage on dealing with the federal budget deficit. Not surprising considering Obama continues his trillion dollar deficits for years to come. According to the Post, on all the other issues, the "two are about even or one is ahead by an insignificant margin."

There is more bad news in this skewed poll for Obama:

• Obama's efforts to make Romney's tax returns have failed. Only 20 percent see Romney’s handling of his tax returns as very important to their vote.
• Obama's big lead on enthusiasm is gone. "In the new poll, 48 percent of Obama’s backers say they are 'very enthusiastic' about his candidacy, compared with 42 percent of Romney backers who feel that way about the Republican’s campaign — a difference that is not statistically significant. Obama had a 13-point edge in July in this measure; his lead was 25 points in May."

The new Post/ABC poll should have the Obama campaign very worried.

Romney: America needs big bold answers

"I believe in America and in the American people. That I believe that this nation is unique and exceptional and that we have everything we need to continue to lead the world in prosperity and in peace." – Mitt Romney

Romney believes in America. He said it when he announced his presidential campaign and today he told Chris Wallace during an appearance Fox News Sunday he hopes the one thing voters take away from his acceptance speech on Thursday night is that he believes in America:

Here's a transcript of the exchange:

CHRIS WALLACE, FOX NEWS: "What do you hope to achieve over this next week in Tampa?"

MITT ROMNEY: "Well, I’d like people to stand back and say what are the big issues that America faces. And what are the answers that I have and that Paul Ryan has for the issues that we face. And I believe that if people stand back and consider all that America has to deal with going forward, they’ll recognize that we’re the only team that has answers for these challenges. And they’re big and bold answers. America needs that kind of help at a time when so many people are out of work or underemployed or having a hard time making ends meet."

CHRIS WALLACE: "If voters take away one thing from your big acceptance speech on Thursday night, what do you want that to be?"

MITT ROMNEY: "That I believe in America and in the American people. That I believe that this nation is unique and exceptional and that we have everything we need to continue to lead the world in prosperity and in peace."

According to Fox News, when asked what his father would say to him on this occasion, Romney told Wallace that his father would tell him to be bold: 

"He gave some advice to the new governor of Michigan, John Engler, years ago. And I've heard him give it to many people, which is be bold. Don't worry about what people think, just be bold, get the job done. That's the advice he'd give me."

That advice reminds me of the meme associated with recent landing of the Mars Science Laboratory, Curiosity, on Mars; dare mighty things. While that may have been appropriate  meme for the audacious sky crane landing of Curiosity, NASA didn't originate the phrase. It comes from Theodore Roosevelt's "The Man in the Arena: Citizenship in a Republic," speech delivered at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910.

Imagine if we elect President Romney, who will dare mighty things and has the experience to accomplish such goals.

Fox News poll shifts to likely voters; finds Romney leads

Fox News finally shifted to likely voters and the new poll finds Romney leads, 45 to 44 percent.

Don't get too excited that is well within the poll's 3 percent margin of error. But the point is that as the polling shifts to likely voters and more realistic voter samples, the main stream media will find it more difficult to continue to tell voters that President Obama is winning.

If you think I'm just paranoid about the main stream media, well I'm not alone:

• Fifty-nine percent of likely voters believe Obama has gotten better treatment from the media than Romney has so far.
• Fifty-one percent of voters think that most reporters will try to help Obama, and just one-in-five voters believe most reporters will try to offer unbiased coverage. That's about the same as voters felt in 2008, when a similar majority said reporters tried to help Obama win the presidency.
• Seventy-four percent of voters think most reporters try to help the candidate they want to win. That’s up seven points from June of last year.
• Fifty-four percent of voters also believe that most reporters would hide information they learned that might politically hurt a candidate they wanted to win. That, too, is up slightly from June 2011.

The main stream media's bias is so bad, reporters now admit it. 

During a recent appearance on the Today Show, NBC's Mark Halperin said the media basically does what the Obama campaign wants them to do:

"The Obama folks clearly know they've found some traction on this tax return issue with Romney," said NBC's Lester Holt. "And then of course late in the week comes this challenge--'give us a little more and we won't complain anymore.' Has this issue come to the point it's jumped the shark?"

"I think the press still likes this story a lot, the media is very susceptible to doing what the Obama campaign wants, which is to focus on this," said Halperin.

You can watch a video of Halperin's comment here.

During an appearance Laura Ingraham's radio program, ABC's senior White House correspondent Jake Tapper, admitted the media will do what the Obama campaign wants:

"I have said before -- I said that I thought the media helped tip the scales. I don't think the coverage in 2008 was especially fair to either Hillary Clinton or John McCain," Tapper said on Ingraham's nationally syndicated radio show.

"Sometimes I saw with story selection, magazine covers, photos picked, you know, campaign narrative, it wasn’t always the fairest coverage and I hope that doesn't happen again," he said.

Back to the new Fox News poll. By a huge 46 percent  margin, voters think most members of the media want Obama (61 percent) to win the election rather than Romney (15 percent).

Some other interesting findings in the new poll include that Romney continues to maintain his lead among Independents -- 42-32 percent, Romney supporters are more enthusiastic -- by 11 percent, and by a 17-point margin voters say the country has changed for the worse in the last four years rather than for the better --46-29 percent. Voters reject Obama's fundamental transformation of the United States.

Obama assists Bain takeover at OMB and tries to hide it

It looks like President Obama is assisting in a friendly takeover of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), by Bain Capital.

As you may have heard, earlier this year Obama picked Jeff Zients to lead the OMB. You might not have heard that Zients worked at Bain from 1988-1990. The Zients White House biography did not originally admit that fact.

Now Obama has appointed another former Bain consultant, Boris Bershteyn, to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), which is part of the OMB. Recognizing how awkward this is for Obama's reelection campaign, Bershteyn's tenure at Bain has been edited out of his official White House bio. This is an obvious and glaring attempt to hide Obama's friendly Bain takeover of the OMB.

The audacity of  Obama's hypocrisy in attempting to hide his Bain takeover of the OMB, while continuing to attack Romneys's private sector service at Bain and refusing to condemn the despicable ad by an Obama-supporting super PAC that attempts to link Romney to a woman's death from cancer, knows no bounds.

Even worse, Obama's Bain takeover of the OMB completely undermines the core of the Obama campaign’s argument about Romney’s private-sector experience. After all, just last month last month Obama said:

"When some people question why I would challenge his Bain record, the point I’ve made there in the past is, if you’re a head of a large private-equity firm or hedge fund, your job is to make money….That’s part of the American way. That’s part of the system. But that doesn’t necessarily make you qualified to think about the economy as a whole, because as president, my job is to think about the workers. My job is to think about communities, where jobs have been outsourced."

Obama has obviously changed his mind, and private-sector experience at Bain no longer disqualifies one from public service. The proof is in the pudding, Obama just appointed another Bain man to be head of Regulatory Affairs, arguably one of the administration positions most impactful to Americans’ lives and well-being. The Bain argument has always been a nothing-burger designed to distract the media and voters from the real issues. Obama himself just proved it.

Romney will put work back in welfare

The Romney campaign released another new television ad taking President Obama to task for gutting bipartisan welfare reform by ending the work requirement. The new ad is titled, "Richmond Times-Dispatch On Welfare Reform." It is based upon an editorial titled "Welfare Reform: Gutted," in which the Richmond Times-Dispatch called  the Obama directive waiving the welfare reform’s work requirements nuts:

"Sounds like the White House wants to let states get more people into work sooner, doesn't it? Nuts. If you want to get more people to work, you don't loosen the requirements — you tighten them."

Watch the"Richmond Times-Dispatch On Welfare Reform," ad:

I truly like Dispatch's use of "nuts." It reminds me of General Anthony McAuliffe's reply to the German's when the German's asked the American forces at Bastogne to surrender during the Battle of the Bulge.

Nuts isn't all the Dispatch had to say about Obama's gutting of welfare reform. The paper also said that the Obama administration is simply ignoring the law:

"The work requirement of the 1996 law was "specifically designed not to be waivable." The 1996 law allows waivers for certain provisions — such as state reporting rules — but the 'mandatory work requirements" contain no waiver provisions. As the Congressional Research Service said in a 2001 report: "Effectively, there are no TANF waivers.' (TANF, or Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, is the formal term for welfare.) The administration is simply ignoring the law."

As the Racine Journal Times put it, "If Congress and Clinton had wanted a waiver in the TANF legislation, they would have put one 16 years ago. They didn’t."

In an editorial titled "Obama Is No Bill Clinton," the Youngtown Vindicator took Obama to task for his refusal to compromise with congressional Republicans: 

"While Clinton was willing to compromise with congressional Republicans, Obama and congressional Democrats are not. Clinton signed the welfare reform bill ... Now the Obama administration wants to let states opt out of the bill’s work requirement, which forced many people to get jobs. Instead of requiring people to work, Health and Human Services wants to grant states waivers to the work provision so that they can "test alternative and innovative strategies, policies, and procedures that are designed to improve employment outcomes for needy families.'"

Obama has a long history of opposing work for welfare. In 1998 state Senator Barack Obama, said he was not a huge supporter of the welfare reform bill President Clinton signed in 1996:

"You know, let me say one thing about this, because I’ve been very active in drafting the state of Illinois’ welfare proposal and thinking about how do you craft these coalitions. I was not a huge supporter of the federal plan that was signed in 1996."

Unlike President Obama, Mitt Romney has always been a strong supporter of welfare reform and its work requirements. Romney has promised that as president, he will immediately rescind the Obama gutting of welfare reform, and make clear that work requirements are not optional.

Special Operations OPSEC targets Obama for reckless intelligence leaks

A group of former special operations and C.I.A. officers accuse President Obama of spiking the football -- taking credit for killing Osama bin Laden, and recklessly leaking intelligence information about the raid that killed Osama bin Laden and other security matters solely to gain political advantage.

"Mr. President, you did not kill Osama bin Laden, America did. The work that the American military has done killed Osama bin Laden. You did not." -- Ben Smith, a Navy SEAL

The Special Operations OPSEC Education Fund Inc, argues that high level Obama administration's leaks are damaging U.S. security. They make their case in a new video called "Dishonorable Disclosures: How Leaks and Politics Threaten National Security."

Watch the very well done documentary video;

The good folks at Special Operations OPSEC see their mission as stopping President Obama and others, from politically capitalizing on U.S. national security operations and secrets, which allows the special operations and intelligence capabilities to be degraded., and educating the public about the importance and necessity of Operational Security. The video does a good job of doing that.

The Former Special Operations and C.I.A. are upset about the "avalanche" of leaks obviously intended to politically benefit Obama:

• Immediate disclosure of the killing of Osama bin Laden rather than waiting to exploit the information taken by SEAL Team Six.
• Disclosure and special access to Department of Defense and C.I.A details about the Osama bin Laden operation to Hollywood filmmakers.
• Disclosure of the unit, the cover name, The aircraft that were used, the number of raiders, and how the team entered and moved around the grounds.
• Disclosure of details pertaining to the intelligence gathering before the raid, including the identity of the Pakistani doctor who provided information.
• Disclosure of U.S. and Israeli involvement in the computer viruses which targeted Iran's nuclear program.
• Disclosure of a joint U.S./British/Israeli covert operation that planted a spy in Al Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen, whose information stopped a terrorist bomb plot against a U.S.-bound airliner.
• Disclosure of the secret Obama "Kill List." 

OPSEC is not alone in being outraged about the Obama Administration's national security leaks. Former Democrat Senator Bob Kerrey, took Obama to task for his decision to disclose some details of the Osama bin Laden operation:

"By describing certain methods — the name of the unit involved, the kinds of equipment employed, the nature of intelligence collected and techniques of insertion and extraction used in the operation — the President violated a key rule of clandestine work."

Democrat Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has also gone after Obama for controversial leaks of classified information, saying "I think the White House has to understand that some of this is coming from their ranks." She was even tougher during an appearance on CNN's "Situation Room" program:

"What we're seeing...is an Anschluss, an avalanche of leaks. And it's very, very disturbing. You know, it's dismayed our allies. It puts American lives in jeopardy. It puts our nation's security in jeopardy."

But nobody summed up as well as former defense secretary, Robert Gates, who blasted the Obama White House's leaks and told the Obama national security team to  "Shut the f--- up."

Watch the "Dishonorable Disclosures" video.

Romney hits Obama for cutting $716 billion from Medicare to pay for ObamaCare

The Romney campaign has released a powerful new television ad contrasting the Romney/ Ryan plan, which strengthens Medicare and protects the commitments made to current seniors, against Obama's $716 billion cuts from Medicare.  

Here's the script for “Paid In”:

VOICEOVER: "You paid into Medicare for years…"
 
VIDEO TEXT: "You Paid"
 
VOICEOVER: "Every paycheck..."
 
VOICEOVER: "Now, when you need it…"
 
VIDEO TEXT: "Now When You Need It"
 
VOICEOVER: "Obama has cut $716 billion dollars from Medicare."
 
VIDEO TEXT: "Obama Cut $716 Billion From Medicare"
 
VOICEOVER: 'Why?"
 
VOICEOVER: "To pay for ObamaCare."
 
VIDEO TEXT: "To Pay For ObamaCare"
 
VOICEOVER: "So now the money you paid for your guaranteed healthcare…"
 
VIDEO TEXT: "The Money You Paid For Guaranteed Healthcare"
 
VOICEOVER: "Is going to a massive new government program that’s not for you.'
 
VIDEO TEXT: “Massive New Government Program That’s Not For You"
 
VOICEOVER: "The Romney-Ryan plan protects Medicare benefits for today’s seniors and
strengthens the plan for the next generation."
 
VIDEO TEXT: "Protects Medicare Benefits"
 
MITT ROMNEY: "I’m Mitt Romney, and I approve this message."

"Paid In" may be the most effective ad of the 2012 presidential campaign.

As we recently reported, according to the most recent estimates from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, ObamaCare will reduce Medicare spending by $713 billion between 2013 and 2022, relative to prior law. These cuts directly affect current retirees. By contrast, both the Romney and Wyden-Ryan plans only affect retirees younger than 55.

The latest Rasmussen polling finds that 56% of likely voters still favor repeal of the ever unpopular ObamaCare -- 46 percent strongly favor repeal.

Considering all that, it is hard to imagine why Obama's Deputy Campaign Manager, Stephanie Cutter, called Obama's $700 million in Medicare cuts stolen from taxpayers to fund ObamaCare an "achievement." Maybe it depends on what she means by "achievement." You can watch Cutter make her absurd claim here.

Romney campaign continues excellent Ryan roll out

As part of the Romney campaign's very well executed roll out of Congressman Paul Ryan as Romney's vice-presidential running mate, the Republican National Committee released its "Big Solutions" video. The new video showcases the Romney-Ryan America's comeback team that will get this country back on track.

After four years of a weak economy, soaring deficits and misplaced priorities, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are dedicated to bringing America back.

In a statement, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan will bring the kind of leadership and economic reform that this country desperately needs:

"They have the knowledge, expertise and vision we need to get America working again and get our fiscal house in order. Both have proven records of solving tough problems and getting the job done. America's Comeback Team stands in stark contrast to four years of failed economic policies and misplaced priorities of President Obama and Vice President Biden. Governor Romney and Congressman Ryan is what America needs in these troubled economic times to get our country back on track." 

Chris Cillizza and Aaron Blake write that the Romney Campaign has 25 days, until the Democratic National Convention concludes, to define Ryan. Scott Rasmussen gives the Romney campaign even less time saying that the roll-out of Romney's vice-presidential pick is as important as the choice itself because "most Americans will learn all they know about the new name on the ticket during the week the candidate is introduced." 

Either way, the Ryan roll out has been great, huge crowds, good speeches, the terrific "60 Minutes" interview and the jump in Ryan's approvals as found by the Washington Post-ABC News poll:

Little known nationally before Saturday’s announcement, favorable impressions of Ryan jumped 15 percentage points among the overall electorate with positive views soaring from 49 to 70 percent among conservative Republicans.

In Wednesday through Friday interviews, fully 45 percent of Americans expressed no opinion of Ryan, dropping to 30 percent on Saturday and Sunday. The increasing familiarity all went to the positive side of the ledger, giving Ryan an initial advantage in the sprint to define his candidacy.

Overall, in interviews after his selection, 38 percent of all Americans express favorable views of Ryan, 33 percent negative ones. (Before the announcement, Ryan was somewhat underwater, scoring 23 percent favorable, 32 percent unfavorable.)

All this in the face of the Obama campaign's continued gutter politics, trying to smear Ryan using the Democrats' debunked and discredited MediScare campaign that the left-leaning Politfact called the 2011 "lie of the year." Even President Obama joined in, first tweeting the big lie and then launching a Medicare attack video against Romney-Ryan.

Obama cuts Medicare more than Romney would

To borrow a phrase from President Reagan, there they go again.

As soon as Mitt Romney announced Congressman Paul Ryan as his vice presidential running mate the Democrats again started with their debunked and discredited MediScare campaign. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee called Ryan "the architect of the Republican plan to kill Medicare" in a fundraising message sent by DCCC Executive Director Robby Mook. A false charge that the left-leaning Politifact called the 2011 "lie of the year." 

As pointed out by The Washington Examiner's Joel Gehrke, Politifact rebuked Democrats for engaging in such scare tactics:

"A complicated and wonky subject with life-or-death consequences, health care is fertile ground for falsehoods," the fact checker said. "The Democratic attack about 'ending Medicare' was a pervasive line in 2011 that preyed on seniors’ worries about whether they could afford health care."

The Democrats didn't stop there. Obama spokesman Jim Messina said Ryan’s plan "would end Medicare as we know it by turning it into a voucher system, shifting thousands of dollars in health care costs to seniors." That is no more true than the DCCC's MediScare claim. As explained by Avik Roy, the Wyden-Ryan plan would only apply to Americans younger than 55 years of age, and gives those younger individuals the option of remaining in the traditional Medicare program, or choosing a comparable private-sector insurance plan.

On CNN’s "State Of The Union," Senior Advisor to Obama David Axelrod said the bipartisan plan authored by Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden and Republican Rep. Paul Ryan  for reforming Medicare would put Medicare into a death spiral. Here is a transcript of the exchange between Crowley and Axelrod:

CROWLEY: "You describe him as extreme, so I want to take you back to a December 15th, Wall Street Journal op-ed which the Congressman wrote along with Senator Ron Wyden, who is seen as a member of your party, and seen certainly as a moderate to liberal Democrat, and the two of them together came up with a plan to help save Medicare, and they wrote: 'our plan would strengthen traditional Medicare by permanently maintaining it as a guaranteed and viable option for all of the nation's retirees.' So this extreme plan has been signed on to and one of the authors of it is a member of your own party, so why is that extreme?"

AXELROD: "Well, I just disagree with Senator Wyden on this, and Congressman Ryan and so have most of the experts who have looked at this and who've said that the way that the thing is constructed, that Medicare would be in a death spiral under this plan, and that ultimately it would raise costs on seniors by thousands of dollars."

You can watch the exchange here.

Anticipating such bogus claims from the Democrats Romney promised to "preserve and protect Medicare and Social Security" during his speech announcing Ryan as his vice presidential running mate.

Both ObamaCare and Ryan's plan make changes to Medicare: ObamaCare via of government rationing, and Ryan via direction of privatization. The ObamaCare law creates a new panel, called the Independent Payment Advisory Board, which will be composed of 15 unelected government officials. They will be charged with rationing care to seniors, primarily by underpaying doctors and hospitals.

Obama has cut Medicare more than Romney and Ryan would. According to the most recent estimates from the Congressional Budget Office, ObamaCare will reduce Medicare spending by more than $700 billion between 2013 and 2022, relative to prior law. These cuts directly affect current retirees. By contrast, both the Romney and Wyden-Ryan plans only affect retirees younger than 55.

The approach advocated by Ryan and Romney gives seniors more control over their own health dollars, allowing them to choose the plan that provides the best value for their money.

It's no wonder why the Romney campaign is looking forward to a fact-based debate about reforming Medicare. A campaign spokesman told me:

"The Romney campaign relishes this fight. There is only one person in this race who has already cut Medicare for seniors, and that is President Obama. ObamaCare cut Medicare for America’s seniors by $700 billion. Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have a bipartisan plan to strengthen Medicare for today and tomorrow’s seniors. Obama’s campaign has accused Mitt Romney of committing crimes and killing people, and now they have turned their smear campaign to Paul Ryan. They have lost all credibility."

You would think that after the Obamacrats passed the ever unpopular ObamaCare, which robs Medicare of more than $716 billion to fund ObamaCare, they wouldn't want to focus on the $700 billion Medicare cuts. You would be wrong. On Face the Nation this morning, Stephanie Cutter called Obama's $700 million in Medicare cuts stolen from taxpayers to fund ObamaCare an "achievement." You can watch her say it here.