Bitch About Obama

by Pat Buchanan, Townhall

Obama came in during a rough time but he needs to quit whining 

We inherited the worst situation since the Great Depression.

That is the reflexive response of President Obama to the troubles from which he has been unable to extract his country.

Even before the inauguration, he says, there were projections of a $1.2 trillion deficit for 2009. That deficit is not my deficit.

Presidents are usually blamed for deficits run while they are in office. But, in fact, presidents do not write budgets. Congress does. Presidents sign them. And the mammoth deficits of 2008 and 2009 came from budgets approved by a Congress run by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. Did Sen. Barack Obama vote against those budgets?

As for the troubles he inherited, the president has a point. From day one, he has had to deal with two wars, a financial crisis and an economy careening into recession.

But Harry Truman inherited two great wars, an atom bomb and an ally, Joseph Stalin, about to dishonor his commitments and enslave half of Europe.

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Rasmussen

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows that 23% of the nation’s voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-three percent (43%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -20. For President Obama, the Approval Index has been lower only once (see trends).

Data for these updates is collected via nightly telephone interviews and reported on a three-day rolling average basis. As a result, just one-third of the interviews for today’s update were collected following the President’s health-care summit. Sunday morning will be the first update based entirely upon interviews conducted after the summit.

By a 46% to 29% margin, Democrats say it would be better for workers if they were dropped from their employers health insurance coverage and enrolled in a government plan. Republicans and unaffiliated voters disagree. Voters are divided on support for a “public option.”

Fifty percent (50%) see China as a long-term threat to the United States.

Overall, 44% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President’s performance. That matches the lowest level of total approval yet measured for this President. Fifty-five percent (55%) disapprove.

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by Ivan Osorio, Open Market

 The SEIU lobbyist president will sit on the Deficit Commission that’s just great

President Barack Obama has appointed Service Employees International Union (SEIU) President Andrew Stern to a new commission tasked with coming up with recommendations to help reduce the federal deficit. While disappointing, this is not surprising. Stern’s appointment is merely the culmination of a series of appointments by the Obama administration of individuals closely associated with SEIU to government posts.

These include Patrick Gaspard, a former vice president for politics and legislation for SEIU Local 1199, a giant New York health care workers union, who was named White House political director following Obama’s election, and SEIU Treasurer Anna Burger, who was named to Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board. Then there’s former SEIU associate general counsel Craig Becker, whose nomination to the National Labor Relations Board failed in a Senate cloture vote.

Stern himself, according to White House visitor logs released in November, visited the White House at least 22 times in 2009, making him the most frequent visitor during that time (the Alliance for Worker Freedom has filed a request for an investigation of Stern for possible lobbying disclosure violations, including during those visits).

This access hasn’t come easy. SEIU has invested heavily in politics. In 2008, it was the seventh biggest campaign donor, with nearly all of its contributions going to Democrats, according the the Center for Responsive Politics. Stern told The Las Vegas Sun in May 2009: “We spent a fortune to elect Barack Obama — $60.7 million to be exact — and we’re proud of it.”

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BY ED MORRISSEY, Hot Air

Sometimes, when a speaker tries telling a story to illuminate a point they want to make, they end up illuminating themselves more than any moral of their tale. Barack Obama fell into that trap yesterday during the health-care summit when he tried to argue that some insurance policies are not equal. As if that wasn’t obvious enough, President Obama then made it clear that he doesn’t get it at all. Greg Hengler captures the moment for Townhall:

Why would they have laughed at a Harvard graduate who tried to file a claim? Because Obama hadn’t bought collision insurance.  The only insurance drivers in most states have to carry is liability insurance, to cover damage they do to the cars of other drivers.  Obama explained in this clip that he only bought the legal minimum, not collision or comprehensive, which would have covered his damage.  When people buy insurance, it’s made very clear exactly what it covers.  Most drivers can understand it … even the Harvard Law grads.  That may have been why “Acme” laughed when Obama attempted to file a collision claim when he hadn’t bothered to buy that policy.

One more point: a rear-end collision is almost universally presumed to be the fault of the driver who hits the rear end of the other.  Obama should have been calling that driver’s insurance company … if this actually ever happened at all.

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