Happy Birthday, President Reagan

Today marks the birthday of Ronald Wilson Reagan, 40th president of the United States of America.

Joshua Pundit:

Reagan became president when the United States was in a period of great stress, just after the tenure of Jimmy Carter. Inflation and interest rates were in double digits and unemployment was close to 7%, taxes were at an all time high, America's foreign policy and international prestige were reeling from the Iranian hostage crisis, severe cutbacks in defense and successful Soviet penetration all over the world.

Worse than that, Americans seemed to have lost confidence in themselves and in the country's greatness.

Reagan squared his shoulders, rolled up his sleeves and got to work. He cut government, cut taxes, and oversaw the creation of 16 million new jobs and economic growth at 3.5 % per year. He rebuilt America's military. He was unafraid to call the Soviet Union an evil empire, or to challenge them directly so that their evil empire crumpled into the dust of history.

He left America safer, stronger and wealthier than it was when he came, which is the most you can ask of a president. In simple terms, he was a singularly decent man who honored both himself and the nation he served.

He gave us confidence in ourselves again, reminded us of who we are and that we are a country singularly blessed by G-d's providence. He inspired us as a nation. And he did it with grace, charm, wit and style, and with a sunny optimism that reached out to the best in us.

If ever a president deserved a national holiday to honor him, President Reagan does.

He was by no means perfect, as he would doubtless be the first to say. But in Ronald Reagan, we have an example of what real leadership is, an example especially needed today.

Happy Birthday, Mr. President...We Miss You!!!

** And let us remember this conservative yet practical leader in the upcoming elections of 2014 and 2016.  Reagan's old and proven formula was to unite behind the most conservative and principled candidate(s) available, and to make sure he or she knew that 2-years, let alone 10-months, isn't that far away. It won't be perfect, but it will even put RINO’s who survive on notice that times have changed!!

Reagan at His Best…

Technorati Tags: Ronald Reagan,Reagan,Republicans,Remembering,History,Happy Birthday,Former Presidents

Santorum Wins in Kansas… Romney Racks-Up Delegates in WY, Guam, Northern Marianas and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Santorum campaigns in Lenexa, KS Mar. 7 (Eric Gay/AP)

Rick Santorum has won the Republican presidential caucuses in Kansas.

Santorum captured an overwhelming 51 percent--although that constituted only about 15,300 people-- of the vote. Mitt Romney took second with 21 percent, followed by Newt Gingrich with 14 percent and Ron Paul with 12.5 percent. Those results mean Santorum stands to gain a substantial number of Kansas' 40 delegates.

Santorum made clear he had to win Kansas in order to remain competitive in the race for his party's presidential nomination.

"We have to do well here in Kansas," Santorum said this week in Lenexa, Kan., a suburb of Kansas City, Mo. "No, we have to win here in Kansas, and win big."

In the 2008 Republican primary, Mike Huckabee carried Kansas with 60 percent of the vote. John McCain received 23.5 percent, Paul received 11 percent and Romney, who had already dropped out of the race, received 3 percent.

Romney and Gingrich largely skipped Kansas in favor of states voting next week. Gingrich canceled an all-day swing Friday in Kansas to campaign in Mississippi and Alabama, where voters head to the polls Tuesday. Romney also didn't focus on the state, although he did win an endorsement from Bob Dole, the former Kansas senator and presidential candidate, in December.

[Watch: Rick Santorum addresses supporters after his win in Kansas (Video)]

But Romney picked up delegates elsewhere for himself on Saturday.

In what might be a record for delegates per individual vote, Romney won nine delegates Saturday when 207 Republicans in Guam endorsed his presidential candidacy. And then he won another nine delegates by winning the Republican caucuses in the Northern Mariana Islands.

Romney also carried Wyoming's county conventions Saturday, winning six additional delegates. Santorum won three Wyoming delegates and Paul received one. (One additional Wyoming delegate remained uncommitted, and another remained to be decided.)

And Romney also picked up seven delegates in the U.S. Virgin Islands Saturday. Paul won the support of one U.S.V.I. delegate and one additional delegate remained uncommitted.

[Watch: Romney picks up delegates in Wyoming, Virgin Islands (Video)]

Romney began the weekend in the lead with 339 delegates, compared to 107 for Gingrich, 95 for Santorum, and 22 for Ron Paul, according to the Republican National Committee. The RNC totals do not reflect any wins in contests where delegates are not bound to the winning candidates.

Update 9:10 p.m. ET: Story updated to include vote results from Wyoming and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Election Map

Related:

A Tale of Two Republican Parties

Is It Time for Conservatives, Moderates, Independents and the GOP to Come Together? Especially After Super Tuesday?

Correction - Senator Kyl: GOP Agrees to Up to $200B in New Revenues - NOT

Yesterday evening, Newsmax, who is usually accurate an on top of things, reported that Senator Kyl said the GOP had caved before even getting to the so-called bi-partisan meeting this morning.  Seems that is not the case~  M~

WASHINGTON - One day before a crucial U.S. budget meeting between the White House and congressional leaders, a high-ranking senator said Republicans have agreed to including significant revenue increases in a deficit-reduction framework.

"If you add up all of the revenues that we Republicans have agreed to, it's between $150 billion and $200 billion," said Senator Jon Kyl, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate.

Kyl said two possible ways to bring additional revenue to the government would be through sales of government property and additional fees for government services.

Meanwhile, House of Representatives Majority Leader Eric Cantor floated a possible tax compromise, saying Republicans could agree to closing some tax breaks in a budget deal as long as they were offset with tax cuts elsewhere.

"Any discussion about loopholes must be accompanied by offsetting tax cuts," Cantor said at a news conference.

Republicans had been adamant about tax increases not being included in a deficit-reduction deal that President Barack Obama hopes clears the way for also increasing U.S. borrowing authority.
In a lengthy speech on the Senate floor, Kyl talked about increased revenues from the sale of government assets or higher user fees.

He criticized, however, Democratic proposals to get rid of tax breaks on corporate jets or tossing an accounting method known as "last in first out" that eases business tax burdens.

Democrats say they have offered up a "menu" of revenue increases of as much as $400 billion in the deficit-reduction and debt limit talks.

If the limit on U.S. borrowing authority, now at $14.3 trillion, is not raised by the Treasury Department's August 2 deadline, there are fears the United States could either miss some debt repayments or be forced into cutting off major government benefits including Social Security checks.

Obama said such an outcome could push the United States economy into a second recession or worse.

(But there are many experts who say there is plenty of money to pay out debts and survive without increasing the debt ceiling and the cuts that would have to be made, will have to made for America to survive, at some point anyway.  So why increase the debt ceiling so Washington can just put us even further into debt before the inevitable?  Giving Obama and company an increase is like giving an alcoholic more booze, neither has the will power nor the will not to use it.)

On Thursday, Obama is scheduled to meet at 11:15 EDT with a bipartisan group of congressional leaders. Obama will push for a big agreement that could target as much as $4 trillion in savings -- double the size of what had been under discussion, according to Democratic officials. They provided no details on how they would reach that target.

© 2011 Thomson/Reuters. All rights reserved.

Source: Newsmax.com

The Debt Ceiling Fiction

When asked why someone said something idiotic or some group is advocating something moronic, I am apt to wearily reply that there is no defense against stupidity.  There is a defense and it works over the long run. It is called the truth.

It is interesting to watch how “the truth will out” as they say in detective novels. In our society, so in thrall to the mainstream press and media, the truth circulates swiftly through that portion of the population that first suspects something is amiss and then outward to the general population that can no longer ignore it.

That long, slow process occurred with the Watergate scandal that ultimately forced President, Richard Nixon to resign in 1974. It began with a 1972 break-in at the Democrat headquarters in Washington, D.C. and then just unraveled a little bit each day. It enshrined two young reporters from The Washington Post in journalism’s pantheon of heroes and probably caused a goodly number of college kids to change their major to journalism.

The Founding Fathers who fashioned a federal government after the Articles of Confederacy proved a failure for the new nation not only knew history, they were an unusually brilliant collection of scholars; even if self-taught as was common at the time. What they knew well was human nature and they knew that men were inclined to criminality and stupidity. Thus, the Constitution deliberately divides the powers vested in the legislature, the judiciary, and the executive. It also deliberately slows down the legislative process.

The system largely worked until eleven southern slave states became so incensed over trade laws passed by northern states and the growing abolition movement that they decided to secede from the Union in 1860. Abraham Lincoln said no. Then he sent a huge army to back it up.

If they had had a crystal ball, all would have known that technology would replace slave labor in a remarkably short time. If they had any sense, they would have worked out a compromise, but the stupidity factor interfered. Even the Founding Fathers “four score and seven years” earlier knew that the issue of slavery would threaten the new republic.

Big problems and big issues cannot be ignored forever.

To give you an idea how big the problem is, a CNSnews story reported that “Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner oversaw the largest increase in the national debt of any Treasury secretary in American history, presiding over a $3.7 trillion increase in debt… In fact, the debt accrued under Geithner is greater than all federal debt accrued in the first 204 years of the nation’s history.”

The United States now finds itself less than a month away from defaulting on its loans because, in just two and a half years, the current President has allowed the debt to increase to $14.2 trillion, an amount that equals the entire annual Gross Domestic Product. That’s not break even. That’s broke.

The Republicans have put forward a plan to solve the debt problem. The Democrats have not even produced a budget in more than 800 days.

That’s why this goes way beyond mere partisan politics. This is a nation that has managed, mostly due to government “entitlement” programs to bankrupt itself. The Democrats refuse to discuss modifying them in any way. Instead, they want to raise taxes on people (40% do not even pay taxes) who need that money to pay mortgages, auto loans, and all the other demands of life. Raising taxes during a Recession or a Depression is well known to be a very dumb idea.

Democrats keep insisting on it, claiming that squeezing more out of “millionaires and billionaires” will solve the nation’s problems. No, it won’t. And everyone knows this, but Democrats will not admit it. Their base is made up of union members and the usual disaffected people waiting for a handout.

Largely unmentioned is the way neither the current, nor former chairmen of the Federal Reserve had the slightest idea why all the things the government tried to do, nor their own ability to raise or lower interest rates, was having any affect on high unemployment and a stagnating economy. And that was their job!

In the July 4 edition of Business Week, Zachary Karabell, an author, historian, money manager, and economist asked a very important question, Does Government Matter? “Today, the ability of any state to govern and control its own domestic economy is severely constrained,” said Karabell.

“A global market of buyers and sellers sets interest rates, and short-term rates (which are all the Fed can directly control) are only one factor”, adding that “the ecosystem of global capital, in which trillions of dollars, goods, and services are traded daily, transcends the reach of any one government.”

The argument, an old one, is which is better, big government or small? Fiddling with the economy has usually done more harm than good. Government has an obligation to govern prudently and to encourage the free market to perform. Ponzi schemes like Social Security and Medicare invariably suffer the fate of Bernie Madoff, they collapse.

While the rest of us watch from the sidelines, the two major political parties posture and bluster over a “debt ceiling.” The nation has hit that ceiling and raised it many times.

There is no ceiling left. There’s just a trap door that leads to a failed economy. We’re tapped out. No one is going to want to purchase our treasury notes if we don’t change course. The debt ceiling financial fiction will be raised.

There are men and women in Congress who want to resolve the current crisis and there is a man in the White House who was never eligible to be president and would much rather blame everyone else, play golf, increase taxes, and raise money to run again.

© Alan Caruba, 2011

*The GOP… the Republicans seem to be willing to compromise again, way beyond what they would like to.  The Democrats, who have produced no budget in more than 800 days and no plans to attack the entitlement program issues or reducing the debt are headed to the big bipartisan meeting at the White House tomorrow empty handed.  Yet, because independents are so enamored with compromise and like to forget the facts when the immediate problem is settled. If the GOP does compromise, even if it is the right thing to do, their hard work will end up helping Obama and the Democrats because they will be able to say they engineered a compromise and averted a major crisis while the Republicans who made it possible will lose a major issue to campaign on.  Wake up independents… anything that happens between now and the 2012 Election is all manipulation and smoke and mirrors to win you over.  Then if Obama is re-elected, the day after, the hammer and sickle will fall.  For those too young to remember… the hammer and sickle were the emblems of the USSR…  Please pay attention this time and remember, the stakes are too high not to!!*

President Palin Poll… Say That 3 Times

Sarah Palin Poll Results are In!

After one month of voting, the Results of the Townhall.com Sarah Palin Poll have been tabulated and released.

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Since 2008, speculation of the former Alaska Governor and vice president nominee, Sarah Palin, would mount her own run for presidency. Many are excited at the possibility of a Sarah Palin presidency, others think that she would play a more powerful role as an elder stateswoman for conservatism.

Thanks for sharing your opinion in this Townhall.com poll! With over 46,000 votes counted, the results are:

Voting will continue throughout the coming months; Townhall.com will continue to tabulate the results and inform all voters of the outcome.

Townhall.com is the leader in conservative commentary and analysis by pulling together political opinions from over 100 leading columnnists, research from many partner organizations, conservative talk-radio and a community of grassroots conservatives. Townhall.com is designed to amplify those conservative voices in America's political debates.  By uniting the nations' top conservative radio hosts with their millions of listeners, Townhall.com breaks down the barriers between news and opinion, journalism and political participation -- and enables conservatives to participate in the political process with unprecedented ease.

Townhall.com also publishes Townhall Magazine -- fresh, conservative, intelligent reporting in a monthly magazine that is 100% exclusive to the print publication.

 

Poll: Voters prefer “Generic Republican” to President Obama

POSTED AT 2:30 PM ON JUNE 9, 2011 BY TINA KORBE  - HotAir

By 45 percent to 42 percent, likely U.S. voters said they would prefer a generic Republican candidate to President Barack Obama in a 2012 presidential matchup, according to a poll released this week by Rasmussen Reports. That’s the second week in a row Obama has “lost” to a faceless candidate.

Men especially want a president from the Grand Old Party — they gave the generic candidate an eight-point boost over Obama. Middle-income voters also favored the Republican. Younger voters, not surprisingly, favored the incumbent, and the vast majority — 96 percent — of black voters also supported Obama.

Importantly, though, in every Rasmussen 2012 election poll of this year, Obama has had support of no more than about 42 percent to 49 percent. As the poll summary points out, “An incumbent who earns support below 50 percent is generally considered politically vulnerable.” That impression is especially underscored by this most recent poll.

Thank you, Mr. Rasmussen, for recognizing what so few pollsters seem to: Head-to-head match-ups between Obama and specific candidates for the Republican nomination cannot possibly reflect the extent to which the voting public just might want to see a change in the White House.

True, in those one-to-one comparisons, Obama consistently edges out all the GOP potentials except for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney — and that suggests voters still tend to think of Obama as more prepared for the presidency than any of the right’s primary contenders. In fact, the Rasmussen poll confirms that:

Interestingly, however, while 54 percent of voters view Obama as qualified to be president, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is the only Republican 2012 hopeful that a sizable number of voters considers qualified for the White House. Forty-nine percent (49%) say Romney is qualified to be president.

But that will change when Republicans have an actual nominee. Voters will automatically start to look at that candidate as from a slightly more presidential cast.

In the meantime, the two-week trend away from Obama and toward a generic GOP-er appropriately mitigates the impression created by polls that show Obama outstripping GOP candidates who haven’t yet had a chance to make a powerful impression on the national stage.

Minn. Gov. Pawlenty Says He's Focused on GOP, Not 2012

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty is a man on the move. Next stop, the Republican National Committee meeting in California. Future stop? Maybe the White House.

The two-term fiscal and social conservative is taking necessary steps toward a possible presidential bid — headlining GOP fundraisers, taking an influential job at the Republican Governors Association, mulling his own political action committee.

But Pawlenty says he's focused on the party, not 2012.

"Anybody who is out focusing on (2012) instead of working toward getting the party moving forward or back in a better position in 2010 is really doing us a disservice," Pawlenty told The Associated Press.

However, his track record of GOP building in Minnesota is less than stellar. Republicans have lost ground in every election since he became governor in 2003. He is the sole statewide GOP officeholder and his party controls its fewest legislative seats since 1992. Pawlenty himself narrowly survived a three-way election contest to win his second term. But the governor said that's not his fault.

Minnesota is "probably one of the most liberal states in the country," he said. "When the pendulum swung back to the left, we were at a tenuous point to begin with."

At age 48, with almost two decades of state government service under his belt, Pawlenty denies looking very far down the national road. But he's getting the early exposure he'll need if he formally joins a GOP field that could include better-known former governors like Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, and Mike Huckabee.

He has assumed the No. 2 post at the Republican Governors Association, a perch that will involve steering assistance to GOP candidates in close races. And he's jumped into the national healthcare debate, criticizing President Barack Obama's plan in a way also seen as a veiled swipe at potential rival Romney. (He labeled a Massachusetts overhaul enacted under Romney an "experiment" with a swelling price tag.)

Pawlenty also told the AP he's considering forming a political action committee — a staple that gives potential presidential candidates a way to raise money and organize travel to election battlegrounds.

Pawlenty's recent travel has taken him to Washington, Arkansas, and Colorado. But he hasn't yet ventured to presidential proving grounds Iowa or New Hampshire and wouldn't say when he would. He visited both while campaigning for 2008 nominee John McCain — who considered him for the running mate slot Palin got — but still has plenty of work to do.

Republican John Finnegan, 50, of Concord, said Wednesday he had heard Pawlenty's name but not much else.

"I don't know anything about the guy," he said.

In Iowa, Sioux City businessman and former state GOP chairman Ray Hoffman rated Pawlenty as merely a possibility. "Would I put him at the top of the list? At this point, no," Hoffman said.

At least one Iowa conservative group, the American Future Fund, has invited him to speak. Organizer Tim Albrecht said Iowa Republicans are eager to hear from their neighboring governor firsthand, but understand why he hasn't come yet.

"The biggest risk in coming to Iowa too early is it can seem overeager or ambitious to talk about 2012," Albrecht said. "It is a delicate balance, a tightrope they need to walk in order to be successful."

But Republican strategist Terry Nelson, who managed McCain's early campaign efforts, said potential candidates' groundwork must be laid to move quickly after the 2010 election.

"Really, candidates have to decide that in the next 18 months because it's not the kind of thing anymore you can decide in June or July of 2011," Nelson said.

Republican national committeewoman Phyllis Woods of New Hampshire plans to ask Pawlenty to visit her state when she sees him in California. Woods said she met Pawlenty during last summer's GOP convention in the Twin Cities and considers him a "feet-on-the-ground, good, solid, conservative Republican."

"I would like to learn more about him," she said.

Woods and representatives from all 50 states will get their chance at Pawlenty's speech Thursday.

Pawlenty tends to stick a formula at the podium: He'll begin with a self-deprecating joke — usually about a comment by his wife or two daughters — and connect the punch line to a broader point of his speech.

The son of a truck driver, he's also fond of talking about "Sam's Club Republicans," potential GOP voters with blue-collar backgrounds who want leaders to apply customer values to government. Lately, Pawlenty has shared a tough-love message with Republican audiences, saying his party will keep "losing market share to our competitors" until it finds a better, more inspiring message.

Whether Pawlenty can break through to sustain a 2012 campaign is hard to say.

Drake University politics professor Dennis Goldford said a northern governor must find a way to appeal to an increasingly southern GOP base. He needs to weave a message attractive both to people who want to make the party more pure and to those seeking centrist remodeling.

"At this point you just don't know the political terrain," Goldford said. "All you can do right now is introduce yourself and put yourself in people's vision and mind and then say 'I'll be back.'"

© 2009 Associated Press

Palin Quits as Alaska Governor

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said Friday that she is stepping down at the end of the month, setting up a potential run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin shocked the political word Friday by announcing that she will step down at the end of the month and transfer power to Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell.

Palin made the surprise announcement from her home in Wasilla, flanked by her husband, Todd, and family and state commissioners.

"I never believed that I nor anyone else needs a title to do this, to make a difference," she said. "I'm determined to take the right path for Alaska, even though it is unconventional and it's not so comfortable."

Parnell will be inaugurated at the governor's picnic in Fairbanks at the end of the month, Palin said.

The announcement came on the same week that one of her top public health officials says she was forced out of office because Palin felt she wasn't in step on social issues.

Palin's decision now allows her to avoid the difficult task of running for president while serving as governor.

Todd Palin told FOX News that his wife will concentrate on "doing the things for Alaska and the country" that she is passionate about and can not do as governor with the limitation and constant opposition she deals with within the state.

Palin, who defeated incumbent Gov. Murkowski in a primary in 2006, gained national prominence when GOP presidential candidate John McCain picked her as his running mate last year. But her approval ratings in the state have skidded in recent months.

Palin has been dogged in recent months by ethics inquiries. Her office last month announced the 15th dismissal of an ethics complaint against her or one of her staff.

On Wednesday, Beverly Wooley, who has worked more than 20 years in public health in Alaska, most of it with the municipality of Anchorage, ended her stint as state public health director.

She's the second top health official to leave within days. The state's chief medical officer, Jay Butler, left in late June after declining to take on Wooley's job along with his own. He now is in Atlanta, overseeing a U.S. Centers for Disease Control task force on a vaccine to protect against the H1N1 flu virus.

FOX News' Chad Pergram and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Posted: Daily Thought Pad

The Real Cindy McCain

For Cindy McCain, the Fun Is in the Fast Lane

ILLUSTRATION BY JOE CIARDIELLO FOR USN&WR

Her ramrod-straight posture, the coiffed hair, even the eyes sometimes referred to as chipped ice eyes... They all have Cindy McCain fighting the image of a Stepford Wife. In Vogue this month, the millionaire wife of Sen. John McCain lets her hair down, literally, while reclining barefoot, in comfortable jeans, on a deck chair. Just another staged photo op? Not necessarily. Cindy can cut loose, say the folks at Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving in Phoenix. The 53-year-old mother of four has developed a taste for the track since 2004, the year she suffered a stroke.

"My son Jack is the one who really made me get up after the stroke and push myself again," she tells Whispers. Jack happens to be a racing fan. In defensive-driving courses at Bondurant, Cindy rammed the cars of mock bad guys and took out roadblocks. "She was steady as a rock," says Mike McGovern, the school's chief instructor. Cindy was a "gung-ho student"—the first to volunteer to try out the skid car, which trains drivers to recover from spin outs. With Jack, who's enrolled in the U.S. Naval Academy, she even jumped in a Pontiac GTO at Bondurant to learn the swerving style of street racing called drifting.

"I learned that I could push my limits and exceed my goals," she says. "After the campaign, hopefully, we will be able to go out again."

She also drove the pace car at a NASCAR race this past summer.

Cindy has a heart of gold and has spent her life and her inherited money which she feels is both a gift and a responsibility with which to do good, investing in children.  She has spent her life doing charity work, especially for children, and gets down and dirty as she travels the world to places where she feels she is needed or can make a difference.  She is very hands on, not just walking through, as many do.  And she and husband John McCain walk the walk...  they adopted a little girl from India that they both say has added much more to their lives and their family than they to hers.

Cindy McCain is just as comfortable in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt as in haute couture. She can be the perfect polished lady, but has no problem being hands-on and getting dirty. She equally loves being a mom, hugging babies, helping dig a well, speaking on behalf of her chosen causes, campaigning with her husband and driving her race car.  Cindy is caring, devoted, determined and hard-working.  She is definitely multifaceted and is more than ready and able to be an effective First Lady!