Tag: President
Biden’s Age: A Key Factor for Re-election

Biden’s Age: A Key Factor for Re-election

By | | Comments 0 Comment

The 2024 presidential election is approaching, and a crucial question emerges: is President Biden too old to run for re-election? Despite his accomplishments and the Democrats’ strong showing in the midterms, concerns about Biden’s age continue to surface. In fact, only 37% of Democrats want the incumbent to run for re-election, according to a recent Associated Press poll.

In focus groups conducted by Republican strategist Sarah Longwell, swing voters who shifted from Trump to Biden expressed their worries about the President’s age. Longwell notes that these concerns arise unprompted. At 80 years old, Biden would be 82 at the start of a second term and 86 at its end.

Biden’s age has long been a target for his political opponents. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s 2024 presidential campaign kick-off speech called for “mandatory mental competency tests” for candidates over 75. Nevertheless, the President’s response to these concerns is, “Watch me.” White House communications director Kate Bedingfield believes that Biden’s experience and wisdom bring stability and strong leadership to a volatile world.

While President Biden’s annual physical revealed that he is fit for duty, concerns about his cognitive functioning persist. S. Jay Olshansky, a public health professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, acknowledges that the age question is “absolutely” a fair one. Risks are high for something going wrong in that age range.

However, Biden’s team views the next election as a choice rather than a referendum. They believe that Biden voters worried about age will be more concerned about the return of Trump or Trumpism than Biden’s advanced years. Even in Sarah Longwell’s focus group, all nine participants raised their hand for Biden when asked who they would support in a potential Biden-Trump rematch.

Despite the President’s healthy physical state and the potential for a stable and experienced leader, the age factor remains a critical consideration for Biden’s re-election campaign. As the 2024 race heats, the question of how old is too old for a president will undoubtedly continue to shape the political landscape. In the end, it will be up to the voters to decide if Biden’s age is a concern that outweighs the alternative.
A Bernie Sanders supporter called me last night

A Bernie Sanders supporter called me last night

By | | Comments 0 Comment

I live in Ohio, so I wasn’t surprised that last night I received a call asking me to support a Presidential candidate. I was surprised that the candidate was Bernie Sanders.
I almost felt sorry for him but in the end, I did suggest that when he hung up that he should leave the volunteer center and go home and stop trying to ruin America now that he had received a lesson in economics and voting record.

What I was most amazed at was that this young man thought that Bernie Sanders would “fix Wall Street.” I wasn’t surprised that the young man liked Bernie’s call for socialized healthcare and extremely high minimum wages. We discussed these topics for several minutes, and I explained economics to him, but it didn’t surprise me that the young man liked Bernie’s ideas – after all, who doesn’t want something for nothing! However, the uninformed young man didn’t realize that when it came to Wall Street, Bernie is quite simply lying when he says that he will “fix it” simply because the fixes that Bernie already supported CAUSED the financial crisis that has hurt so many people. In fact, I am simply amazed that any low to middle-income person in the US would want to support Mr. Sanders simply because his lack of judgment has hurt so many poor people already.

bernie sanders photoThe caller had no knowledge that Mr. Sanders actually voted FOR the legislation that ultimately caused the “too big to fail” banks and limited the regulation of financial derivatives (the Financial Services Modernization Act) that was passed under Bill Clinton. He was also completely uninformed that this massive bill that dramatically changed banking in the US was primarily supported by Democrats (and Mr. Sanders as an Independent) while the majority of the Republicans voted against it. That is correct, the party of those that will “fix Wall Street” are primarily the ones that “broke Wall Street”. For those that are keeping score, Republicans 58-131, Democrats 182-1, Independent (Sanders) 1-0.

The young man was also uninformed as to the second major contributor to the financial crisis of 2008. That was The Housing and Community Development Act of 1992. This act forced home loans to people that were very unlikely to pay back the loan. This created the bad loans which then the banks wanted to sell to get them off their books which caused the problems because of lack of control in the Sanders’ supported Financial Services Modernization Act. Mr. Sanders also voted for The Housing and Community Development Act of 1992. In fact, so did 95% of the Democrat Congressman. Unfortunately, the Republicans are not as clean on this as 75% also supported this ill-fated bill.

In true transparency, Mr. Kasich was also serving at that time, and he voted for The Housing and Community Development Act and voted against the Financial Services Modernization Act. Mr. Cruz was too young to hold federal office. Mr. Rubio was too young to hold national office. Mr. Trump was not in public office and was probably dealing with his first of several bankruptcies which occurred at about this time. Ms. Clinton did not hold public office at that point, but was the First Lady and likely supported both bills as they were both signed by her husband, President Bill Clinton.

What is the lesson to be learned here? There are two. The first is that Bernie Sanders had a helping hand in creating the situation that caused the 2008 financial crisis so saying he can now fix it is a stretch of the imagination. The second lesson is that if you are going to call me to have me support your candidate, be prepared to have to defend the candidate with solid facts and reasoning otherwise it won’t be an enjoyable phone call for you (even though I will probably enjoy it immensely).

Photo by origamidon

It is no longer someone else’s mess

It is no longer someone else’s mess

By | | Comments 0 Comment

Every President, except for George Washington, inherited something from the previous administration. Sometimes this is good and sometimes it is bad.

President Barack Hussein Obama has been talking for quite some time about the “mess” that he inherited from George Walker Bush. He has made references to mops and other allegories to describe the challenges that he has faced. While that is all well and good for the first few days of the Presidency, at a certain point BHO needs to own the problem.

That day is today.

There is no defined time for the honeymoon period of a new candidate. Most people felt that September 11, 2001 was close enough to the inauguration of George Walker Bush (just under 9 months) that the attacks on that dreaded day were at least partially the fault of William Jefferson Clinton. The honeymoon is certainly longer than the first 100 days that are all the talk at the beginning of a term. Everyone seems to agree that it doesn’t extend beyond a year from the date the person is elected.

For the past 12 months, BHO has been the President or the President-Elect. Every day he has received security briefings. Every day he has had access to and influence over thought leaders on a wide range of issues. Every day, he could pick up the phone and call any world leader, banking leader, Senator, Governor, or Representative.

When a person inherits a farm or house or china from a parent, from that day on the item or property belongs to the heir. This is the same now for the issues within the United States. The mess no longer belongs to GWB – it is the sole ownership now of BHO and he better get to work fixing it and stop talking about mops!

President Obama pitches Chicago for the Olympics

President Obama pitches Chicago for the Olympics

By | | Comments 0 Comment

Currently, President Barack Hussein Obama is planning on going to Copenhagen to be a celebrity pitchman for the city of Chicago (and America in general) for the home of the 2016 Olympics. While there is plenty of controversy over this decision since there are probably hundreds of movie stars and celebrities that could be tasked with helping the cause, the concern that BHO is too busy to go is probably not relevant.

Currently, every head of state for a city that is in the finals is visiting the IOC.  BHO’s lack of attendance would be telling if he did not go.  If BHO stayed home and spent more time socializing our economy, he would be vastly criticized if Chicago lost their bid. It is the sad state of Olympics politics that the head of state needs to be involved in order to win since Blair did that 4 years ago to secure London’s hosting spot.

There is little danger in BHO going. He has already started the process of vastly increasing our taxes with a cap and trade initiative as well as screwing up the healthcare reform effort. Having him travel around Europe (where they love him) is probably a good thing.  Maybe while he is on that side of the pond, Iran can give him a quick tour of their nuclear facilities and missile program. Then he can come back and give a Chamberlain style speech!

There is no questioning BHO’s star appeal.  In fact, this was an issue during his campaign for the Presidency (and led to this hilarious video). Let him use this star power to bring the Olympics to Chicago – for no other reason than we will be able to see the events in primetime rather than tape delayed!!

Healthcare for illegals

Healthcare for illegals

By | | Comments 0 Comment

First, let me be clear, I think that Rep. Wilson of South Carolina should be censured for his outburst while President Barack Hussein Obama was speaking in a joint session of Congress. He reminds of irresponsible brats such as Kanye West. Public outbursts while the President is speaking are simply unacceptable in any format and definitely not allowed in a joint session of Congress.

I do think that it is interesting that the rude outburst occurred due to a statement from BHO regarding healthcare for illegal aliens. There is a reasonable argument that BHO, while perhaps not lying, was not telling the complete truth. Check out this interesting video below and then read the rest of my comments.

 

Now I see that the Democrats in the Senate would like to toughen up the loopholes to prevent illegal aliens from getting taxpayer supplied insurance. I don’t get it, BHO says that this can’t happen but now a few days later there is an amendment that prevents this thing that can’t happen.  Makes me think that BHO was bending the truth a bit and probably knew it.

Of course the solution that the Senate is currently thinking about is to use Social Security numbers.  Seems reasonable.  SS numbers have become the defacto national identity card that we need. I have ranted on this before, if we would just have national identity cards then we would control much of the illegal problem that we have.

Below are a few clips from a recent article in the Wall Street Journal:

A key Democratic senator said Friday that lawmakers planned to toughen provisions in a health bill to prevent illegal immigrants from enjoying benefits, in a Democratic response to concerns by some Republicans.

Members of the Senate Finance Committee met Friday, and Sen. Kent Conrad (D., N.D.) said they wanted to use Social Security numbers to ensure that illegal immigrants weren’t eligible for subsidies envisioned as part of a plan to expand health coverage.

President Obama’s health-reform proposal has sparked heated debate over whether the plan benefits illegal immigrants, as demonstrated by Rep. Joe Wilson’s “You lie” outburst. WSJ’s Elizabeth Williamson breaks down the details of the proposed new government-run insurance plan.

Still up in the air is whether illegal immigrants would be banned from participating in federally regulated insurance “exchanges” under Democrats’ health bills, even if the immigrants were willing to use their own money to buy policies. On Friday, a coalition of three dozen faith-based groups wrote to Congress to express anger at the proposed ban.

What’s the big deal about Kanye West and Taylor Swift?

What’s the big deal about Kanye West and Taylor Swift?

By | | Comments 1 comment

I have always known that Kanye West was a jerk.  Why is it such a surprise that he was a complete jerk and idiot for going on stage with Taylor Swift? Does anyone really expect this imbecile to have good manners?

After all, when we have Congressman yelling “You lie!” during a Presidential address to the joint session of Congress, why would we expect a dumb rapper to have better manners?

Of course, hats off to the beautiful Beyonce for giving up some of her time to honor Ms. Swift.  She has shown the world that she has class (and Kanye and Representative Joe Wilson are classless).

I have an idea!

  • If you are in South Carolina – don’t vote for Joe Wilson and donate generously to his opponent
  • If you want to listen to music – buy something from Taylor Swift or Beyonce
  • Don’t EVER buy something from Kanye West.

It is only with the power of our purse and our vote that we will teach leaders, dignitaries, and public personalities that we hold them to a standard that our mothers would have taught them.

Site info