Grande Vente Wrong

Please don't try to justify this by showing me all the times any other president didn't do a snappy salute:



This is just insulting.

Period.

Our Ironic President

There's a certain kind of irony about a man who sits in Hawaii on a two-week taxpayer funded vacation and lambasts others for going "home for the holidays" and not taking care of their duties.

Added bonus:  he left Michelle there.

Seriously?

(via Memeorandum)

What Obama Should Have Done With That Umbrella

There is much ado about the umbrella stunt today.

Obama knows the optics are terrible, but like the looky-loos at a train wreck, he can't help himself.   

Didn't you just love that "Why don't we get a couple of Marines, they're gonna look good next to us...".  

Clown.

Not enough sense to come in out of the rain.  I'm fairly certain taxpayers wouldn't mind ponying up some money for a tarp for such occasions when walking inside is logistically difficult for this man.  

No, he knows it looks bad.  He's just sticking a finger in your eye.

As long as you're talking about Marine umbrella protocol then you're not talking about Benghazi, the IRS waging a campaign against American free speech, the Department of Justice trolling AP phone records, or the HHS extorting health care professionals.

Nothing to see here.  Move along.

Now, if Obama had done this, I'd have been impressed:

(H/T:  Memeorandum)

Smart Power

This comment...:

"Well, I think that you're citing a study that I believe was conducted by a health insurance company that's critical of the Affordable Care Act, so that part I'm not particularly surprised about," White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest said." 

...pretty much captures all that is wrong with this presidential administration.

Earnest said this in response to yet another study that predicts higher health care premiums under Obamacare.

That study, which Mr. Earnest finds fault with, was conducted by a company that doesn't toe the political line, apparently.

Yet what of all the other studies?

The Society of Actuaries predicts higher premiums.
Actuaries consulting firm Oliver Wyman predicts higher premiums.
Aetna predicts higher premiums.
Even Congress predicts higher premiums.

There are more.

The problem here though, is that this White House is soooo elite, soooo smart, sooooo intelligent, that they think the only conclusion that is correct is their own, all evidence to the contrary be damned.  (And we're not just talking health care here).

That's scary.

The July Jobs Report is a Total Disaster for U.S. Workers

Let's put this July jobs report in perspective.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. economy supposedly grew 163,000 jobs last month.  Except that's not exactly true.

Rush Limbaugh was on a roll about these numbers yesterday.  He called Obama "a closed-minded economic bigot."  Here's his take:

Sadly, folks, there were 195,000 fewer people employed in this country in July than there were in June. It might have been 172,000 new jobs.  That's even debatable.  But it was a net wash because -- these are numbers from the BLS report.  I'm not making it up.  Obama's Department of Labor's own numbers, 195,000 fewer people employed in the United States in July than there were in June.  We lost jobs.  We also lost more people from the labor force.  The national unemployment rate went up, 8.2 to 8.3%. One-hundred and fifty thousand people simply dropped out of the labor force.  Actually that number is 155,000, which means that this 172,000 new jobs that he's trumpeting are actually a wash, folks.  No net new jobs, 195,000 fewer people employed, 150,000 simply dropped out of the labor force.  That's the pattern. 

If you figure in all the people that have just quit looking for work and have dropped out or gone on disability then our unemployment is closer to 15%.

Ed Morrissey:

July saw a slight move up in U-6, which had been coming down earlier in the year to the mid-14 range.  That measure of un/underemployment has now risen to 15.2%, increasing in both adjusted and unadjusted measures.  It’s the highest rating in this measure since February, and it’s now up more than a full point since April. 

Historically, no sitting president has won re-election with numbers like this.

Chris Cillizza:

Because the July jobs report affirmed the now-certain reality that the unemployment rate won’t drop below eight percent between today and November. And no sitting president since World War II has been re-elected with the unemployment rate above 7.2 percent. 

The numbers are daunting for Obama. The unemployment rate has been above 8 percent for 42 straight months— its longest period ever.

Remember, Obama said he would get unemployment down under 6% if Congress passed the stimulus.  He's quite a long way from that.

James Pethokoukis on the jobs report:

Not only is the 8.3% unemployment rate way above the 5.6% unemployment rate that Team Obama predicted for July 2012 if Congress passed the $800 billion stimulus plan. It’s way above the 6.0% unemployment rate they predicted if no stimulus was passed.

In his remarks yesterday, "the smartest president ever" redefined economic policy as we know it to work with his theory of trickle-up economics:

And keep in mind, we're talking about folks like me going back to the tax rates that existed under Bill Clinton.  If you remember, that was when we created 23 million new jobs, we went from deficits to surplus, and folks at the top did well, too -- because when middle-class families have money in their pockets, they go out and buy that new car, or that new appliance, or that new computer for their kids, or they go out to a restaurant, or, heaven forbid, they take a vacation once in a while.  And that money goes back into the economy, and businesses do well because they've got more customers.

So the rich get richer because the middle class spends money?  And the middle class gets this money where?  Food stamps?  After all, that's Nancy Pelosi's theory.  She explained her food-stamps-as-stimulus theory back in 2010.  That these people are running the country just scares the hell out of me.

Rush Limbaugh again:

Did you catch that?  The money starts with the middle class, and as long as the middle class has money, then they go out and spend it, and that's how the rich get rich.  Wow!  Wow!  Folks at the top did well, too, because when middle-class families have money in their pockets, they go out and buy that new car, that new appliance, or that new computer for their kids when they've got money in their pocket. So we gotta get money into the hands of the middle class.  How we gonna do that?  We're gonna do food stamps.  Trickle up.  So we got a brand-new economic definition here from Mr. Wizard of Smart.  

It's just incredible.  How can the polls even be close?  As Mark Steyn said, "This should not be a close race."

Every number, every statistic, every graph, every calculation you look at shows Obama's ruinous effect on our economy from the explosion of the entitlement state to unemployment and more.

And stop to think for a moment about all the job killing regulations that are to come via the EPA and ObamaCare (for starters).  Think about Taxmageddon coming in January. ObamaCare is already killing jobs.  Think about another four years under Obama's energy policy (gas prices are now more than double what they were when he took office).

In light of all that, if Obama wins in November, we may look back at this jobs report and think these were the good old days.


(Graphic from James Pethokoukis)

Smartest President Ever is Now an Expert on Judaism

Barack Obama yesterday:

Obama also stressed he probably knows about Judaism more than any other president, because he read about it - and wondered how come no one asks Speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner or Senate minority leader Mitch McConnel about their support to Israel. 

That's absolutely amazing.  The arrogance of that statement leaves me speechless.

I've read a lot about the war in the Pacific but does that mean I know more than anyone else about it?  More than any other teacher?  More than any president?  More than any person in Louisiana?  No matter how you qualify it, it's still an arrogant and condescending statement.

I've read a lot about the history of pressed glass and about depression glass.  Does that mean I know more than Milly Rose about it?  Not hardly.

And how does Obama know what every other president has read or what they knew?  Oh wait, probably because he's read about them.

Bill Kristol:

And the claim that Obama knows more about Judaism than any president? His vanity boggles the mind. One could begin by citing Adams and Madison, who knew Hebrew, or Harry Truman, who knew Jewish history ... but it's silly to dignify this claim with a rebuttal. In thinking about the presidents since Truman, though, I'd guess the president who knew the most about Judaism was Jimmy Carter, who taught Sunday school and had a deep interest in religion. So let's stipulate that of the modern presidents, Carter and Obama "know" the most about Judaism. But what is it they know? In Obama's case, one could ask whether what he “knows” is what he learned from Rashid Khalidi and Jeremiah Wright.

I would add Thomas Jefferson to Kristol's list.  He knew a thing or two about Judaism and religious freedom.  He was certainly well read.

I've read about narcissistic personality disorder too...

Narcissistic personality disorder is a mental disorder in which people have an inflated sense of their own importance and a deep need for admiration. Those with narcissistic personality disorder believe that they're superior to others and have little regard for other people's feelings. But behind this mask of ultra-confidence lies a fragile self-esteem, vulnerable to the slightest criticism. 

 ...and while I'm not expert, I sure know it when I see it.

(H/T:  Memeorandum)