Tuesday
IN JUST OVER A MONTH WE CAN BRING REAL CHANGE TO AMERICA
~
This week's Introductory Editorial Comment: Among all the messages
we receive daily, one this past week was a hysterical reaction to remarks
supposedly made by a Member of Congress criticizing some of the acts
of the Obama administration, concluding with this statement, "This is the
single most important election ever in the history of this country." It
isn't that we disagree with that conclusion -- it is that we don't agree with
the process through which that conclusion was reached. We think that
the Nov. 2 election is indeed important -- possibly the most important in
American history -- because the president and his Democrat controlled
Congress have ignored the mantra of Bill Clinton's campaign: "It's the
economy, stupid." We are told by the National Bureau of Economic
Research that the recession ended in June, 2009. Yet since January of
2009 when Mr. Obama took office, we have lost 3.2 million jobs . . .
the 9.6 unemployment rate is higher than in June, 2009 when the current
recession "officially" ended. Household net worth is $10.7 trillion less
than in 2007, and foreclosures are continuing at record levels. And just
a few days ago it was reported that the number of persons living in
poverty is now the highest in more than 50 years. So, yes -- we agree
the Nov. 2 Election Day is tremendously important-- possibly the most
important in our nation's history. We can make substantial changes in
membership of both the Senate and the House, and re-establish the
economic and moral standards which made America great.
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IT'S HARD TO BELIEVE THAT THE NOVEMBER 2 ELECTION
DAY IS NOW LESS THAN 5 WEEKS AWAY -- IN JUST OVER
A MONTH WE CAN BRING REAL CHANGE TO AMERICA
It is an amost unheard of situation to be facing an important national
election with both major political parties -- Democrat and Republican --
utilizing identical positions. Two years ago Barack Obama swept into
power using the slogan, "Change you can believe in." In less than two
years it became painfully evident that the "change" he was making in
America was not something that the American people wanted, and the
operative term for the Republicans in this upcoming election has been
"Change" from the failures of the Obama administration. But the
Democrats are equally aware that the country is in a serious mess, and
adopted as their slogan, "Change that matters." So in this important
election, both parties are advocating "change" from what the Obama
administration is doing, or attempting to do.
We have often referred to this as the "Age of the Polls," but how
else than by the use of polls are we going to find out where Americans
think their country is going, or where they want it to go, and what they
want it to become? Every recent poll places the economy at the top of
the list of concerns of the American people. From a Gallup poll report
on September 21, for example, the Economy, at 33%, tops Jobs and
Unemployment, Healthcare, and Immigration, with War at the bottom
at only 3%. And as to whom could best handle the Economy, Gallup
has Republicans at 44% and Democrats at 36%, while a Rasmussen
Poll has Republicans at 47% and Democrats at 39%.
But when the poll is directed specifically at Americans' opinions as to
how Mr. Obama is handling the economy, most polls (Marist, Gallup,
and AP/Gfk, for example) disapprove his performance by 56% to 41%.
The Rasmussen poll differed slightly, with a disapprove/approve ratio
of 50% to 35%.
And there is small -- if any -- comfort for the Obamites in poll reports
on other subjects. Take the totally Democrat controlled Congress, for
example. During the past year the positive approval of the Congress
has ranged from 9% to 16%, with the negative opinions running from
53% to 71%. This week the public's favorable opinion of Congress was
fixed at 10% with the negative opinion at 56%. And the stars of those
unfavorable ratings are Nancy Pelosi, easily the most disliked Member
of Congress, at -59%, with a positive rating of 34% -- but over in the
Senate Harry Reid is gaining on her hold on the most disliked position,
with a negative rating of 50% and a positive rating of 30%.
On a broader scale, 29% of the American people feel we are headed in
the right direction, while 66% feel we are going the wrong way. And
this report must cause real discomfort in Liberal circles -- 52% of
Americans feel closer to the Tea Party views than to Mr. Obama's. And
the real clincher on the public opinion front is that this week 61% of the
American people favor the repeal of Obamacare, and 59% expect that
health care costs will go up under the new law, despite the president's
last minute efforts to convince the public that his favorite achievement --
rammed through into passage by those two highly disliked Congressional
leaders -- is really good for them. That is one hard sell!
And where does President Obama stand alongside all those Democrat
problems with public approval? Because poll resuilts vary slightly, we
thought it best to find an average of 7 major national polls, and can state
that on average, 44.7% approve of his performance as president, with
51.1% disapproving -- which is slightly better than his leaders in both
houses of Congress. In the Rasmussen daily approval ranking, he holds
on to a double digit negative score in the mid teens. And it is fortunate
for Mr. Obama that he is not standing for re-election this year -- a new
George Washington University Battleground poll shows that only 38%
believe he deserves to be re-elected. Although the poll showed that the
respondents hold a fairly high personal approval of Mr. Obama, it is his
policies -- most notably Obamacare and dealing with the economy --
which are unpopular.
Taking into account all those negatives, the effects are obvious as we
approach the Nov. 2 elections. . For the American people, according to
the poll reports on actions of th Obama administration and its Congress,
our opinions and viewpoints have been ignored. The present members
of Congress, House and Senate, have not acted in accord with the views
of the people they were sent to Washington to represent, but have taken
their orders from President Obama. For the Democrat party, it is difficult
for members of the House and Senate to face national elections with a
consistent record of acting contrary to the opinions and best interests of
their constituents.
Alan Gottlieb, writing in a Conservative Action Alert, enlarged upon
the conclusion we mentioned in the Editorial Comment: "We are facing
the most important election in our nation's history. The outcome of
the November elections will determine if Washington can continue to
steamroll their anti-American spend, spend and spend agenda through
Congress." Allen West, Congressional candidate in Florida, offered this
great one-liner: "It's November or never. We are at war. Wake up."
And now our usual: "What can we do ?" Beginning in January of
2010, week by week in every issue of this year, we have reminded our
readers of how many days remain until Election Day, Nov. 2, 2010; as
of today, there are now just 34 days remaining. And with those timely
reminders we have offered the two-fold suggestion as to what we, as
Christians, can do: PRAY and VOTE. We have often pointed out that
in order to vote, you must be registered. Our good friend, Dick Innes,
publisher of "Daily Encounter," reminds us that less than 60% of those
who regularly attend church are registered to vote If we are going to
take the important step of beginning to reclaim this nation to its founding
principles, Christians are going to have to vote on Nov. 2. If anyone
has not yet registered, here is a simple way to meet that requirfement:
80% of the U.S. population -- we can make a difference.
Simply replacing the present Congress with new Conservative members
does not mean that we will immediately have a perfect government in
Washington -- but it will be better than what we have now. If we want
God to bless America, we are going to have to reverse the anti-Christian
direction in which our nation is now headed -- with the emphasis on
direction in which our nation is now headed -- with the emphasis on
unrestricted abortions . . . homosexual marriage . . . kicking God out of
our schools . . . limiting freedom of religious expression . . . but you
know what is happening. In this month we have before us, let us do
everything we can to restore sound moral standards and sound economic
principles in our government.
We are aware that the Liberals -- including our president, apparently --
do not like to be reminded of the viewpoints of our nation's Founding
Fathers. But they have to admit that George Washngton was our first
president, who in 1789 made this statement: "It is the duty of all Nations
to acklnowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will,
to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection
and favors."
As always, there is much to learn from "What Others Are Saying."
Robert Ringer: "By now people should be beyond surprise when a
tea-party candidate upsets an establishment Democrat or Republican
... After all, they've had a year to get used to it. Nevertheless, the tidal
wave of tea-party-candidate victories continues to surprise - and
upset - many media pundits and, even more so, establishment
politicians... That's a battle that was over a long time ago - and the
losers were the hate-mongering left and disbelievers on the
establishment right."
Ronald Reagan: "Freedom is never more than one generation away
from extinction. It must be fought for, protected ... or one day we will
spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children
what it was once like in the United States where men were free."
Skip MacLure (in Conservative Outpost): "This brings us to the
current mid-term elections. The present Congress now has a track
record for the electorate to view ... The facts are that they, and the
president, have failed in all respects... With a history they'd rather
forget, and a president that is now causing embarrassment to his own
party, the Democrats are left with only one option. They can not
campaign on success stories or policies, so the demonization of the
opposition is the final line of defense."
Steve Chapman (Chicago Tribune): "If you arrived here from Mars
in the last couple of months and watched a lot of TV news, you would
quickly reach this conclusion: Americans hate Muslims, and Muslims
hate America ... There is no question that feelings on both sides are
running higher than usual. In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks,
says the Pew Research Center, 59 percent of Americans had a
favorable view of Islam, but today, the figure is 30 percent."
Edwin J. Feulner (Heritage Foundation): "The stakes couldn't be
higher for our nation at this moment. In the coming monhs,
Americans will help choose which direction our nation's future will
take ... All indications are that we are approaching one of those
pivotal moments in our political history, a tipping point. It will be a
test of our national character."
Hugh Hewitt (Law professor and talk show host): "The deep gloom
that has settled on the country is only in part economic. Hard times
have come and gone before, but in the modern networked age never
has so obviously a clueless set of leaders been so completely and
obviously inept, tone deqf and at the same time inarticulate."
Ayn Rand (Novelist, 1962): "There is no difference between
communism and socialism, except in the means of achieving the same
ultimate end: communism proposes to enslave men by force; socialism
by vote. It is merely the difference between murder and suicide."
And now, some random "Afterthoughts" . . . because there are so
many important items, the comments will be brief . . .
We can't ignore the Afghanistan war . . . yesterday a suicide bomber
killed the deputy governor of Ghanzi province (and five others) in the
latest assassination of a government official. This has been the bloodiest
year since 2001, with military and civilian deaths at record levels. On
average, 21 people are assassinated each week. More foreign troops have
died thus far in this year than in all of 2009. Writing in Stratfor Global
Intelligence, George Friedman said, "The United States isn't going to
defeat the Taliban. The original goal of the war is irrelevant and the
current goal is rather difficult to take seriously... The United States
needs a withdrawal that is not a defeat... Such a strategic shift is not
without profound political complexity and difficulties."
Americans are not knowledgeable about religion - even their own.
A new survey from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life reports
that only about half the questions were answered correctly, and the
highest scores came from atheists and agnostics, and from Jews and
Mormons. What ever happened to Chistian education in our churches?
The mass exodus from the Obama administration continues, and
can't be ignored. Last week we mentioned some of the past, present and
future defections from Obama's staff, and the pace has continued, with
Chief of Staff, Rahm Emmanuel, updating the date of his dearture to "any
day now." Larry Summers, Director of the National Economic Council
has announced that he will leave after the November elections. And
Assistant Treasury Secretary for Financial Stability, Herbert Allison,
who helped oversee the troubled TARP program, has also resigned. All
these departures leave only Treasury Secretary,Timothy Geithner, as part
of Obama's original economic team. The White House appears to be
working hard to convince the media that all these defections are merely
routine, and have nothing to do with the failing economy or the president's
plummeting poll numbers.
Colbert and Congress - the joke is on us. It is easy to understand why
the American public's opinion of Congress is at an all time low. The
recent appearance of TV comedian Stephen Colbert in a formal hearing
left few people laughing. Colbert engaged in what amounted to mockery
of his hosts. Rep John Conyers (D, MI) is Chairman of the Judiciary
Committee, and early in the hearing used his time to ask Colbert to leave,
but Zoe Lofgren (D, CA) who invited Colbert to appear did not rescind
her invitation. However, the Democratic leadership is at odds over the
event. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, CA) said, Of course I think it
is appropriate... I think it's great." But the House Majority Leader,
Steny Hoyer (D, MD) disagreed, "I think his testimony is not
appropriate." Leaves one wondering what will be the next act for an
already disgraced Congress.
A new book discusses, among other things, Obama's religious beliefs.
David Limbaugh (that's David, not Rush) just released another book,
"Crimes Against Liberty: An Indictment of President Barack Obama." No
punches pulled in the title, or in the book. One aspect of the book relates
to our recent discussions about Mr. Obama's religious beliefs, and his
unusual claim, "I am a Christian. I am a devout Christian." Limbaugh
points out that Obama is often carefree when speaking of the Bible truths,
which should be the basis for anyone's Christian faith. He recalls Obama
saying "it depends on which Bible you're talking about. Is it talking
about Leviticus where God kills all those people, orders people to be
killed, or you're talking about the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus
talks?" Limbaugh found that statement "amazing," and then adds, "A
believing Christian would have a hard time mocking God the way he
did if he believed the Bible was the inspired word of God." That would
doubtless apply to a "devout" Christian also.
There are more "Afterthoughts," but no more time or space. So let
us reflect on some viewpoints of our Founding Fathers . . .
"It is too early for politicians to presume on our forgetting that the
public good, the real welfare of the great body of the people, is the
supreme object to be pursued, and that no form of government
whatever has any other value than as it may be fitted for the
attainment of this object." -- James Madison, 1788
"The instrument by which government must act are either the
AUTHORITY of the laws, or FORCE. If the first be destroyed, the
last must be substituted; and where this becomes the ordinary
instrument of government, there is an end to liberty!"
-- Alexander Hamilton, 1794
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