Bill Clinton: Obama an ‘Amateur’

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Bill Clinton thought so little of President Obama — mocking him as an “amateur” — that he pressed his wife last summer to quit her job as secretary of state and challenge him in the primaries, a new book claims,

“The country needs you!” the former president told Hillary Clinton, urging her to run this year, according to accounts of the conversation included in Edward Klein’s new biography of Obama.

The title of Klein’s explosive, unauthorized bio of Obama, “The Amateur” (Regnery Publishing), was taken directly from Bill Clinton’s bombshell criticism of the president, the author said.

“Barack Obama,” Bill Clinton said, according to book excerpts, “is an amateur.”

The withering criticism is incredible, given the fact that Bill Clinton is actively campaigning for Obama’s re-election.

Read More at The New York Post. By Carl Campanile.

Armageddon in Wisconsin

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The Koch brothers and Big Labor. The tea party and progressives. Teachers, gun owners, environmentalists, abortion-rights advocates, conservative billionaires, the national parties — name the interest group or outside party and chances are they’ve played a role in the June 5 recall campaign against Wisconsin GOP Gov. Scott Walker.

Whether it’s the casino mogul who financed Newt Gingrich’s super PAC, the billionaire who bankrolled the Swift Boats ad campaign against John Kerry or President Barack Obama’s reelection arm, in one way or another, everybody who is anybody is involved in what’s become one of the biggest political spectacles in decades.

And now it’s come down to a 4-week mad dash to determine not only the Wisconsin governorship but who occupies the commanding heights in the 2012 election.

“Never before have we seen the floodgate of the money of the few trying to affect the outcome for the many as we do now,” said Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, chairman of the Democratic Governors Association. “I suppose Wisconsin is a microcosm of that larger national battle in a sense.”

Tuesday’s Democratic primary escalated the fight by finally giving Walker a clear opponent — and conservatives a clear target — after Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett handily defeated his opponent, Kathleen Falk.

Read More at Politico. By Robert Bravender and Charles Mahtesian.

Palin Evens Playing Field in Nebraska GOP Senate Primary

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When former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin endorsed Nebraska Republican senate candidate Deb Fischer on Wednesday, Palin gave Fischer the name identification across the state that Fischer’s two opponents, attorney general Jon Bruning and treasurer Don Stenberg, had in spades from their previous 16 combined runs for statewide office.

This is the first attempt at seeking statewide office for Fischer, a 61-year-old state Senator who has not been a career politician, who needed Palin’s endorsement to level the playing field against her well-funded opponents.

Fishcer’s campaign manager Aaron Trost told Breitbart News that Palin’s endorsement had a “big impact on publicity” and would “help educate a lot of people who the true conservative reformer in the race is.”

Two recent polls show Bruning with the lead, with Fischer in second followed by Stenberg. In a poll commissioned by the Fischer campaign, Bruning led with 30 percent, followed by Fischer with 25.6 percent and Stenberg with 18 percent. Twenty four percent of those polled were still undecided. The primary is on Tuesday.

Palin Power

Fischer e-mailed Palin in December of 2011 while Kay Orr, the first female Republican governor ever to be elected and who is one of Fischer’s statewide co-chairs, also contacted Palin to ensure Fischer stayed on the former governor’s radar screen.

Read More at Breitbart. By Tony Lee.

Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore Creative Commons

Obama says troops are fighting ‘On My Behalf’

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The debate over same sex “marriage” has engaged the heartfelt feelings and convictions of millions of Americans. Then there is Barack Obama.

The same advisers told the Post that Obama would make the decision based on his gut, but that is an insulting way to refer to the vice president. There is no evidence that Obama planned to speak until Joe Biden said last weekend that he was for gay “marriage” and forced the issue.

In fact, Obama has not “evolved”—he has changed his position whenever his political fortunes required him to do so. Running for the Illinois state senate from a trendy area of Chicago in 1996, he was for gay marriage. “I favor legalizing same-sex marriages,” he wrote in answer to a questionnaire back then. In 2004, he was running for the U.S. Senate and needed to appeal to voters statewide. So he evolved, and favored civil unions but opposed homosexual “marriage.” In 2008, running for president, he said, “I believe marriage is between a man and a woman. I am not in favor of gay marriage.” Now in 2012, facing a tough reelection campaign where he needs energized supporters of gay “marriage” and has disappointed them with his refusal to give them his support, he is for it. To paraphrase John Kerry, he was for it before he was against it before he was for it again.

Mr. Obama’s statement today is a marvel:

“I have to tell you that over the course of several years as I talked to friends and family and neighbors, when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together; when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married.”

Read More at The Weekly Standard. By Elliot Abrams.

Obama ‘Evolves,’ Marriage Dissolves

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Values: The president’s coming out in favor of gay marriage shows he’s to the left of most black Americans — and willing to throw his most loyal backers under the gay pride float.

Under pressure to assuage the gay lobby and young voters ahead of November, Obama on Wednesday told ABC News “it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married.”

By finally taking the controversial stance, which won’t go over well in the black community, he’s clearly counting on African-American voters remaining loyal to him this election out of racial pride and a habit of voting Democrat.

But he may have miscalculated.

Gay marriage is highly unpopular among black voters — and he’ll need every one of them to beat presumptive GOP foe Mitt Romney.

Read More at investors.com

White House Threatens Veto Of GOP Budget Bill

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The White House says President Barack Obama would veto a Republican budget bill that swaps cuts to domestic programs like food stamps for cuts scheduled to hit the Pentagon and domestic agencies alike in January.

The GOP-dominated House is scheduled to vote on the measure Thursday.

The White House says that Congress should instead work with him to produce a larger deficit-cutting package blending new tax revenues with cuts across the federal budget. That’s unlikely before the election.

Read More at OfficialWire. By Andrew Taylor, AP.

Obama’s Recent Announcement Shows How Panic Leads To Mistakes

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Panic leads to mistakes.

Barack Obama’s announcement of support for gay “marriage” was not the result of a “heartfelt” search for “what is right for America.” It was the result of full blown panic and a search for what is best for Barack Obama that will be devastating in November.  The huge 61/39 landslide loss gay “marriage” took in North Carolina apparently set off a panic in Obama’s camp that “demanded” action.

This brought about Obama’s tense “declaration” of support for Gay “marriage,” something that directly contradicts what he said about the issue in 2008.

More than this, it has made raising enthusiasm to vote among African Americans harder by a wide margin. For Obama, the low energy level among his natural base was troublesome until 3 PM Wednesday. Three minutes later, that “troublesome” problem exploded into a raging fire that will require time and energy to put out – time and energy he must spend elsewhere if he is to win. Working to pump up black enthusiasm is not what Obama thought he would have to be doing with less than six months to Election Day.

With African American enthusiasm to vote already at 48% (down 30 points since 2008), this was a lethal mistake for Obama.

Read More at Western Journalism By Kevin “Coach”Collins

 

Bin Laden May Ironically Be Obama’s Albatross

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Election ’12: The president seems to think bragging about killing Osama bin Laden will help get him re-elected. But the question is increasingly becoming why the president hesitated on such a no-brainer decision.

Jack Keane, the Army vice chief of staff from 1999 to 2003, told Mike Huckabee on Fox News over the weekend that the U.S. government knew exactly where Osama bin Laden was nearly a year before President Obama gave the order to send in the Navy SEALs to his compound in Pakistan.

The retired general told Huckabee, “We had the target in the summer (of) 2010, and it took until the following May to execute the mission.”

Keane was surprised at the delay “because, you know, the longer you spend on something like that, the greater likelihood is that the target will be compromised because of your surveillance, and then that target will flee.”

Keane added, “I know for a fact that we had it that summer, maybe even sooner than that.”

Read More at investors.com

This Inmate in TX Just Took Over 40% of the Vote Against Obama… In W. Virginia’ s Primary

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CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Just how unpopular is President Barack Obama in some parts of the country? Enough that a man in prison in Texas got 4 out of 10 votes in West Virginia’s Democratic presidential primary.

The inmate, Keith Judd, is serving time at the Beaumont Federal Correctional Institution in Texas for making threats at the University of New Mexico in 1999. Obama received 59 percent of the vote to Judd’s 41 percent.

For some West Virginia Democrats, simply running against Obama is enough to get Judd votes.

“I voted against Obama,” said Ronnie Brown, a 43-year-old electrician from Cross Lanes who called himself a conservative Democrat. “I don’t like him. He didn‘t carry the state before and I’m not going to let him carry it again.”

When asked which presidential candidate he voted for, Brown said, “That guy out of Texas.”

Read More at The Blaze. By Jonathon M. Seidl.

‘Bogus Assumptions’: Factcheck.org Finds Errors on Obama’s ‘Life of Julia’ Site

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The Obama campaign’s “Life of Julia” web graphic created quite the stir when it was unveiled last week. Obama opponents derided its cradle-to-grave government philosophy, and there was also a spot of trouble with a certain flag placement.

“Julia” hasn’t escaped the notice of fact-checkers either: The Washington Post gave her three pinocchios for the claim that she could “retire comfortably” under Obama, while a Mitt Romney administration would cut her Social Security benefits by 40 percent. PolitiFact said it was “false” that her student loan rates would be allowed to double under a President Romney. And now, FactCheck.org has weighed in to say it found “some bogus assumptions in the Obama campaign’s fable about a fictional woman.”

FactCheck.org’s summary of its findings:

The campaign falsely claims Romney would leave Julia with “nothing but a voucher” to buy health insurance at age 65. Actually, the plan Romney has endorsed would let her choose between traditional Medicare fee-for-service coverage, or a variety of private plans with premiums partially paid by the government.

The slide show also contends that Julia, as a senior citizen, will have to pay “$6,350 extra per year” for a health care plan similar to Medicare. But that’s an out-of-date cost estimate based on a year-old plan that since has been made substantially more generous.

Read More at The Blaze. By Madeleine Morgenstern.