May 13, 2013

Column: Partisan Obama Culture Spawned a More Abusive IRS

In case you're hiding under a rock, you should know that an audit conducted by the inspector general for the Internal Revenue Service has found that IRS officials targeted for scrutiny certain groups critical of the administration.

Which groups? Well, those with "tea party" or "patriot" in their names and nonprofit groups that criticized the government and sought to educate Americans about the U.S. Constitution.

It's disgraceful that government bureaucrats, whether on their own initiative or at the direction of superiors, singled out anyone for special scrutiny, but what their selection criteria were makes it even worse. Reportedly, the IRS field office in charge of evaluating applications for tax-exempt status decided to focus on groups making statements that "criticize how the country is being run" and those that are engaged in educating Americans "on the Constitution and Bill of Rights."

Surely, we all understand the awesome and, frankly, horrifying power the IRS has come to have in our system, which originally didn't even contemplate an income tax, much less oversight of it by such a monstrous bureaucratic leviathan. What could be more chilling and destructive to our liberties than a government targeting -- that's its word, not mine -- private citizens and organizations based on their political and ideological views?

If the First Amendment means anything, it is that the full force of the federal government will be used to safeguard, not suppress, the liberties of American citizens to utter political speech, especially speech critical of the government. But instead, this IRS sought for abuse groups that criticized the administration and groups that wanted to teach people that under our Constitution, such government officials have no right to do this type of thing.

Continue reading "Column: Partisan Obama Culture Spawned a More Abusive IRS"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 10:17 PM

May 09, 2013

Column: There's Way Too Much Administration Smoke on Benghazi

A former National Security Council spokesman, Tommy Vietor, is representative of the arrogance of the Obama administration in mocking the congressional hearings on Benghazi, Libya, which he contemptuously derided as "amateur hour" and conspiratorial.

In a tweet to The Washington Post's Dana Milbank, Vietor mocked Rep. Jason Chaffetz, saying, "What do you think Rep. Chaffetz will disclose today? Moon landing photos? Map of Area 51?"

Very funny, Mr. Vietor, but your snark does nothing to explain many anomalies concerning the administration's mishandling of the Benghazi attacks -- though it reveals how indifferent certain administration loyalists are to its misbehavior. Not as indifferent, perhaps, as the administration itself ("This happened a long time ago" and "What difference does it make?") but indifferent nonetheless.

Let's review a list of just some of the troubling questions that have been raised about this sordid affair and see whether any of them concern people of good will, irrespective of their party affiliation.

Gregory Hicks, the State Department's former deputy chief of mission in Libya, was emphatic in denying that the attacks occurred as a result of demonstrations over an anti-Islam video and was adamant that the administration was well aware of this fact. He said: "The video was not instigative of anything that was going on in Libya. We saw no demonstrations related to the video anywhere in Libya." Hicks said he never told then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that it was a protest about the video.

Continue reading "Column: There's Way Too Much Administration Smoke on Benghazi"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:00 PM

May 06, 2013

Column: The Most Incorrigibly Political and America-bashing President

President Barack Obama has to be the most partisan and most ideological president we've seen in a long, long time. He cannot or will not refrain from injecting his partisan politics into almost every occasion.

Did he go to Mexico last week to improve our relationship with our southern neighbor or to use Mexico, as he does anything else he can find, as a political prop to bash Republicans and as a platform to criticize the United States?

What other American president has so often sidled up to foreign countries on the backs of his own countrymen? Obama's defenders deny, hallucinogenically, that he apologizes for the United States, but our lying eyes keep telling us otherwise.

In Mexico on Friday, Obama, under the guise of who-knows-what, took the opportunity to stump for his latest policy obsession -- gun control -- to an audience that had nothing to do with it, unless you imagine that some of the people there will one day be granted amnesty in the United States by Washington's ruling class and become voters who can pressure know-nothing GOP congressmen to confiscate the people's arms.

Obama didn't just offer a few throwaway lines at the issue, taking playful jabs at his Republican opponents. He actually seemed to be blaming Americans for the corrupt and violent Mexican drug culture.

Continue reading "Column: The Most Incorrigibly Political and America-bashing President"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 02:51 PM

May 02, 2013

Column: Is the Hard Left at War With the American Idea?

I think the current controversy over immigration reform points to a larger issue in America today, which is that Americans are essentially split on the very idea of what America is and should be.

It used to be that Americans mostly agreed that in order to attain citizenship, immigrants had to not only come to this country legally but also demonstrate, after training and study in the American system, that they believed in the unique United States Constitution and embraced what it means to be an American. Though that still occurs in the naturalization process, we seem to have abandoned it altogether in connection with the immigration debate.

What sense does it make that we seek to instill a love of America in those earnestly seeking to acquire legal citizenship through the proper procedures but ignore it altogether in our rush to legalize 11 million illegals?

One major difficulty is that the hard but extremely influential American left, by and large, doesn't seem to have any special affinity for the American idea, the gloriousness of the U.S. Constitution or even the notion of national identity at all, which they associate with intolerance, cultural chauvinism and anti-globalism.

Indeed, hard-leftists don't just disagree with many of America's founding ideals; they believe that it's somehow backward even to have such ideals, because to them, it reflects a prejudice against other systems, cultures and values.

So, you see, this is not really a debate over whether the American system and the ideas and values undergirding it produced the greatest nation in world history and thus should be preserved. It is a core disagreement about whether it's even proper and desirable to endorse a unique set of founding ideals as being superior to any other.

Continue reading "Column: Is the Hard Left at War With the American Idea?"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:18 PM

April 29, 2013

Column: PinocchiObama and His Ongoing Sequester Dissembling

PinocchiObama is at it again, using his weekly address to the nation to spin tall tales, demonize and scapegoat Republicans, misidentify the nation's problems, and propose the exact wrong solutions.

He opened up this week's fiction with the umpteenth repetition of his empty claim that the nation's top priority "must be growing the economy, creating good jobs and rebuilding opportunity for the middle class."

How many times has Obama promised to "pivot" toward a "laserlike focus" on jobs? How interesting that he chose to repeat this very same claim just as the Government Accountability Institute released a report concluding that Obama has spent twice as much time on vacation and golf as he has in economic meetings throughout his entire term in office.

What prompted Obama's claim this time was the brouhaha over the sequester cuts, the irresponsible allocation of which has caused problems in the aviation industry. Congress passed a bill to allow the Federal Aviation Administration to reallocate these cuts to alleviate flight delays.

Obama agreed to sign the bill into law, but he did so grudgingly. He used his address to rail against the sequestration and against Republicans and Congress for allowing the cuts to be imposed. In fact, Obama used the word "reckless" in his remarks to describe not the federal government's unconscionably wasteful spending under his direction but the sequester cuts.

Continue reading "Column: PinocchiObama and His Ongoing Sequester Dissembling"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:51 PM

April 25, 2013

Column: Assaulting Innocuous Christians and Coddling Terrorists

America's political and cultural left is, step by step, demonizing and marginalizing Christians and Christian values, to the point that even the congenitally apathetic should be concerned.

Fox News' Todd Starnes reports (http://radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/top-stories/military-blocks-access-to-southern-baptist-website.html) that the U.S. military has blocked access to the Southern Baptist Convention's website on an undetermined number of military bases because it supposedly includes "hostile content." Just a few weeks before, as noted in this space, an Army briefing labeled evangelical Christians and Roman Catholics as religious extremists.

The information about the Southern Baptist Convention's website surfaced when an Air Force officer reported that he was unable to log on to SBC.net and that he had received a message that his Internet usage was being monitored and logged because he had tried to visit a blocked website.

The notice, from an organization that guards the Department of Defense's computer network, said, "The site you have requested has been blocked by Team CONUS (C-TNOSC/RCERT-CONUS) due to hostile content."

SBC spokesman Sing Oldham said he found this "deeply disturbing" and was not completely satisfied with the Army's response. "While the deputy chief of operation of the U.S. Army has assured us this is a random event with no malicious intent," said Oldham, "the Army must run this to the ground to assure that this is the case."

Continue reading "Column: Assaulting Innocuous Christians and Coddling Terrorists"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:36 PM

April 22, 2013

Column: President Obama's Symbiotic Relationship With the Abortion Industry

When I read that President Obama refused to comment on the murder trial of abortion butcher Kermit Gosnell "because it's an active trial," I knew immediately he wasn't being truthful.

In fact, the second I heard about Obama's excuse for dodging the question, I tweeted that ongoing investigations or trials did not preclude his publicly weighing in on the Trayvon Martin case or on the case of his friend and Harvard professor Henry Gates, about which he said the Cambridge police had acted "stupidly."

If there ever has been a case of tainting the jury pool, Obama's public identification with Martin was it. So please spare us any pretense toward restraint in such matters.

Obama declined to comment on Gosnell for the same reason the liberal media have consciously blacked out the story.

When Obama was asked, he didn't just beg off because "it's an active trial"; he offered up the obligatory disingenuous liberal talking point: "I think President Clinton said it pretty well when he said abortion should be safe, legal and rare."

Continue reading "Column: President Obama's Symbiotic Relationship With the Abortion Industry"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:38 PM

April 18, 2013

Column: A Shameful Day for President Obama

I wonder why President Obama feels he has the right to be outraged when legislators don't automatically roll over to his policy demands. I suspect that his moral indignation is more about personally losing than it is about policy issues themselves.

For indeed, President Obama was obviously furious when his gun control bill failed to muster sufficient votes to pass the Senate. Politico reported, "More than anything, it was an emotional blow to Obama, who was as irritated at the four members of his own party as he was at the 90 percent of Republicans who defeated the bill."

Politico revealed that an administration official said Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp's refusal to support the bill especially rankled Obama because she "refused to go along with the bill even after White House chief of staff Denis McDonough visited her office to make Obama's case on Tuesday."

Do you see clues to Obama's mindset here? How dare a member of a coequal branch of government, especially one in his own party, defy Obama's wishes and refuse to succumb to his fabled powers of persuasion?

Politico would have us believe that the impetus for Obama's emotional investment in the bill was that he was "shaken to the core by the massacre of 26 innocents at Sandy Hook Elementary School." He was allegedly so upset that he "broke his own informal 'Obama Rule' -- of never leaning into an issue without a clear path to victory."

Continue reading "Column: A Shameful Day for President Obama"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:49 PM

April 15, 2013

Column: The World (America) Is Upside-Down, Part 2

Recently, I wrote a column arguing that the world is upside-down -- by which I meant "our" world, America. Today I offer more exhibits in support of my case that our culture is unraveling.

I realize that in today's America, the notion that we should seek to preserve and promote the traditions, values and ideals that this country's founding generation mostly shared is considered not just passe but offensively wrongheaded. Yes, why would we want to perpetuate a once underlying consensus (and the Constitution formulated on it) that gave rise to the greatest nation in world history? Well, many don't, as they level further assaults on our Constitution, our liberty tradition and what used to be our shared values.

We haven't just accepted as normal what was heretofore considered abnormal; we are, increasingly, embracing evil while calling it good and demonizing those who are still "clinging" to traditional values. Unless you buy into the self-destructive course much of our society has decided to pursue, unless you consent to the systematic dismantling of our core foundations, you are the problem.

Let me give you a further sampling of the insanity that passes for normal and the wrong that masquerades as right, plucked right out of the news the past few days.

--Liberal Democrats in Congress are pressuring their colleagues to sign a pledge not to cut entitlement spending, even though it is objectively true that without structural reform in our entitlement programs, we are headed, inexorably, toward national bankruptcy.

Continue reading "Column: The World (America) Is Upside-Down, Part 2"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:15 PM

April 11, 2013

Column: Better Never Than Late

The old adage "better late than never" might not apply in the case of President Obama's tardily filed budget.

It's one thing to habitually arrive late for scheduled appearances selfishly to build suspense and annoy those in attendance, but it's another to present this document two months late and after both the House and Senate have passed their own respective budgets.

Why did he wait so long that he would necessarily create chaos in the process? Does he not think budgetary matters are important enough to postpone vacations and golf outings when we are on the brink of national bankruptcy?

But worse than his tardiness are the contents of the budget. Does this man never tire of devising new ways to tax "evil" rich people? It's approaching the point of harassment. This is a government not of servants but of masters who view some of the people, at least, as subjects who exist to enable their addiction to expand government, control more aspects of our everyday lives and spend increasing amounts of money. In Obama's America, the "rich" are one minority that doesn't seem to be entitled to equal protection or fair treatment under the law.

Indeed, the wealthy will not pay enough in Obama's eyes until they're not wealthy anymore. He is proposing a cap on not only deductions for high-income earners but also exemptions, which, according to The Heritage Foundation, "would be a radical departure from long-established tax policy and would have serious negative consequence for retirement savings, employer-provided health insurance, and state and local bonds." In keeping with Obama's ideology that the federal government ought to be the primary charitable institution, his budget would cap -- and reduce by some 30 percent -- the charitable deduction.

Continue reading "Column: Better Never Than Late"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:41 PM

April 08, 2013

Column: The World Is Upside-Down

What right-minded person can deny the current uncanny applicability of the admonition by the Prophet Isaiah, uttered some 2,700 years ago, "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness"?

Increasingly today, what is undeniably evil is depicted as good and what most traditionalists, at least, used to agree is good passes often for evil.

What's striking to me is that many aren't merely rationalizing evil in an attempt to excuse their indefensible actions. They have systematically turned our entire moral code upside down. They have attacked the very basis for that code and declared that belief in its divine author itself is evil -- and dangerous.

Many deny that there is an affirmative war against Christianity and Judeo-Christian values, but they apparently haven't heard or read the words of some of the New Atheists -- or anti-theists, as some call themselves -- who conflate all religions and blame them all for most of the evil and war in the world.

Others scoff at the notion that Christianity and Christian values are being assaulted, arguing that it's absurd to believe a majority belief system could be under attack.

Let me share just three disturbing stories that caught my attention the past few days.

Continue reading "Column: The World Is Upside-Down"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:12 PM

April 04, 2013

Column: A Government Of the Crisis By the Crisis and For the Crisis

When President Obama's former chief of staff Rahm Emanuel said that "you never want a serious crisis to go to waste," many didn't realize he was inaugurating a new credo for governance.

Rahm's statement was originally understood as the administration's intention to capitalize on actual crises while they were hot, to promote legislation liberals had craved for decades but didn't have public support to pass. But some suspected he was talking about manufactured crises, as well.

I usually avoid conspiracy-type theories, especially where Obama is concerned because his policies and tactics are so egregious on their own that I see no reason to risk undermining the credibility of our criticisms by indulging those too much. But I do think it's interesting that an infamous radical professor duo, Richard Andrew Cloward and Frances Fox Piven, and Obama mentor Saul Alinsky advocated the strategic use of manufactured crises to advance the leftist political agenda.

I don't know whether Obama is deliberately, religiously following a Cloward-Piven/Alinsky strategy as many have argued, but I think it speaks volumes to show that he is employing the despicable tactics those radicals recommended.

So please set aside the conspiracy theory distraction for a moment and focus on what Obama is doing, irrespective of where he got the idea. Whether or not Obama retires to his residential suite every night and prays to these radicals and reads their hymnals, he is singing their tunes.

Continue reading "Column: A Government Of the Crisis By the Crisis and For the Crisis"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:56 PM

April 01, 2013

Column: Who Are Obama's Real Enablers?

I was reading the Old Testament book of Amos a few days ago and was reminded that liberation theologians get much comfort from that prophet's decrying the mistreatment of the poor.

At about the same time, I read a piece by a brilliant conservative analyst with whom I sometimes disagree who was arguing that some conservatives don't take the formidable Barack Obama seriously enough and, in effect, give him cover with their over-the-top depictions of Obama as a Marxist and worse. He erroneously assumes that these supposedly hyperbolic characterizations are motivated by greed (stirring up audiences yields more revenues) and, in any event, only serve to enable Obama.

Please stick with me; I will tie these first two paragraphs together before I'm finished.

I agree with the analyst to some extent. In fact, I have long argued that President Obama is not "The Amateur" some paint him as. He is quite competent on big-picture items and is advancing his agenda even if he doesn't have a clue about the details, most of which he doesn't want to be bothered with, anyway.

Obama never did produce a health care reform bill, but the name "Obamacare" will forever credit him with that bill's coming into law, as well it should. But do you remember Obama's rambling, incoherent, embarrassingly nonsensical 2,600-word response to a woman named Doris at a health care forum about cutting medical costs?

Obama also seems to be a virtual economics illiterate. But that doesn't keep him from getting away with expanding the government, spending trillions of borrowed dollars and taxing major producers into oblivion. The disastrous results of his policies didn't prevent him from being reelected.

Obama's style of governance can best be understood by his frustrated command regarding the hole responsible for the Gulf Oil Spill: "Just plug the damn hole." But that doesn't mean he should be taken lightly.

Continue reading "Column: Who Are Obama's Real Enablers?"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:35 PM

March 28, 2013

Column: It's Not Cool To Cherry Pick Scripture

With Easter approaching and the Astroturf groundswell for same-sex marriage at its apex, I thought I'd put in a plug for the Bible, whose integrity and timeless principles are under increasing assault in our culture.

In fact, what sparked this column was a warning by a nationally prominent Republican to his party that it ought not go "Old Testament" and oppose same-sex marriage.

I don't want to turn this column into a rant about same-sex marriage, but I cite this example to illustrate a common tendency to bifurcate the Old Testament and the New Testament and to paint Jesus Christ as a figure of unqualified, open-armed tolerance and non-judgmentalism.

The more one studies the Bible with an open heart and a receptive mind the more he realizes it is a fully integrated and divinely inspired work.

First, let's dispense with the myth that one's belief in or rejection of the Bible is a matter of intelligence, as opposed to his worldview, heart and attitude. There are millions of brilliant believers throughout the world.

Continue reading "Column: It's Not Cool To Cherry Pick Scripture"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 08:07 PM

March 25, 2013

Column: The Left's Thought Tyranny and the Right's Cowardice

A couple of recent news items illustrate the close-mindedness, aggressiveness and oppressiveness of modern liberalism's thought police.

MSNBC's Toure issued a scathing commentary against the GOP for considering outreach efforts toward African-Americans. Toure said: "Such is the dysfunctional, abusive relationship the GOP insists on with black folks. They say they want a new relationship while continuing to try to screw us over."

Toure went on to lambaste Dr. Ben Carson, a black person, for daring to stray from leftist ideas and endorsing conservative ones, such as a flat tax. Carson has "intellectual tumors in his mind, like a flat tax, which is regressive and ignorant in the face of American wealth inequality." Toure continued: "I doubt the GOP would entertain a white non-politician with unserious ideas." But blacks such as Carson "get raced to the front of the line because then people get to put a bumper sticker on their cars saying, 'How can I be racist? I would have voted for Carson."

Another story involves Ryan Rotela, a student at Florida Atlantic University who alleges that he was suspended from his class on "intercultural communications" because he refused to comply with a directive (or request) by the course's instructor, Deandre Poole.

Poole allegedly told his students to write "Jesus" on a sheet of paper, put the paper on the floor and then stomp on it. Rotela, a devout Mormon, said he refused and "picked up the paper from the floor and put it right back on the table." He said he told the professor he didn't believe this was appropriate, that it was unprofessional for the professor to have initiated this exercise and that he was "deeply offended" by what he had told him to do.

Continue reading "Column: The Left's Thought Tyranny and the Right's Cowardice"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:26 PM

March 21, 2013

Column: Expose and Oppose Obama's Radical Appointees

No matter what progress Republicans may make in electoral politics over the coming years, it will be difficult to roll back the steady march of liberalism that has taken place inside our cultural, bureaucratic and legal institutions -- from academia to regulatory agencies to the Department of Justice -- but we have to try.

A good place to start would be to oppose Obama's radical appointees, the latest being his appointment for secretary of labor, Thomas Perez.

Radical liberals are characteristically activists, strategists and organizers. Their plan to infiltrate and dominate academia was hardly spontaneous, and its effects have hardly been sporadic. Peruse any university course catalog and notice the kinds of political tripe that pass for core studies.

The same phenomenon occurs throughout the nation's regulatory bureaucracies. Liberals have managed to place so many ideologically charged people inside powerful administrative agencies, such as the Environmental Protection Agency, that these institutions tend to be radicalized from the bottom up. The radicals pursue their radical agenda no matter how out of phase it is with the will of the majority of Americans -- as if the majority even has a clue or has time to apprise itself as to the kinds of things going on.

But it's not just that we have a disproportionate number of leftists populating our institutions and agencies. This imbalance wouldn't matter so much if their every action weren't driven by ideology and if they played by the rules. But they often see their calling as being not so much to perform their assigned tasks as it is to use their positions to effect radical societal changes.

Continue reading "Column: Expose and Oppose Obama's Radical Appointees"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:57 PM

March 18, 2013

Column: Trouble Brewing in GOP

For the first time, I am wondering about the long-term viability of the Republican Party. I say this not as an advocate of its demise or restructuring but as an observer of troubling signs.

The Republican Party is thought to be the institutional vehicle for the advancement of conservative policies, but for decades, the conservative movement has been frustrated with the party's deviation from conservative principles -- its refusal to live up to its decidedly conservative platform.

I believe that the disappointing results for Republicans in the 2006 elections and probably the 2012 elections, as well, were in no small part attributable to frustrated conservatives staying at home.

The thinking among many conservatives has been that the party has consistently fallen short by failing to restrain the growth of the ever-expanding federal government and by failing to nominate sufficiently conservative presidential nominees. That is, if we would just nominate and elect Reagan conservatives and govern on Reagan principles, we would recapture majority status in no time.

The main opposing view -- call it the establishment view -- holds that Republicans need to accept that the reign of small government is over, get with the program and devise policies to make the irreversibly enormous government smarter and more energetic. In other words, Republicans need to surrender to the notion that liberalism's concept of government has won and rejigger their agenda toward taming the leviathan rather than shrinking it.

Continue reading "Column: Trouble Brewing in GOP"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:01 PM

March 14, 2013

Column: GOP Must Launch Reality Offensive

How can anyone take President Obama seriously when he tells us our national debt is no big deal? Well, we have to take him seriously, because, unserious thinking or not, he has serious power, including the power to obstruct progress on reducing the debt.

I'm not making this up, of course, which is too bad because it illustrates why it is so hard for Republicans to work with this man. He neither views the fiscal world from the same lens nor shares the goal of significant debt reduction.

In an interview with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos, Obama said, "We don't have an immediate crisis in terms of debt. In fact, for the next 10 years, it's going to be in a sustainable place."

Not only is that delusional on its face based on what we already know but there is no telling what kinds of financial strains his favorite monster, Obamacare, is going to have on the debt or what kinds of extraordinary circumstances might necessitate spending surges over the next decade.

But we needn't speculate about unknowns, because the knowns are horrifying enough. The enormity of our annual interest payments on the debt alone renders Obama's dismissiveness about the debt surreal.

Continue reading "Column: GOP Must Launch Reality Offensive"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 09:21 PM

March 11, 2013

New Column: Rep. Ryan, Please Follow Rand Paul's PR Model

There are three major factors that stand in the way of entitlement reform and the other responsible budgetary measures that must be taken to avert an eventual national financial catastrophe, and they have a common source.

The first is that too many American people remain, amazingly, in the fog about the scope of the problem. The second is that a certain political ideology refuses to substitute a designated driver for the intoxicated entitlement state, which is driving the American bankruptcy bus. The third is that the leader of this noxious ideology has a further conflict of interest precluding a solution to the crisis, which is that he is hellbent on inflicting harm on the only political party pushing for reform and on successful entrepreneurs, who are critical to economic growth -- a key component of any reform measure.

The source behind all this? That's right, President Obama and his merry Democratic Party leaders.

Our national debt problem is an objective fact and something no one should have to spend time spilling ink to document. Responsible citizens have a duty to apprise themselves of this fact, and their political leaders have a higher duty to bring it to their attention. Yet we continue to see egg-headed liberal fantasy economists, Democratic politicians, liberal commentators and liberal Twitter dabblers denying the problem -- as if the sheer righteousness of liberal ideology trumps the universal rules of simple math.

In February, the Congressional Budget Office published its latest numbers on the nation's spending, taxation and projected budget calculations. The results are sobering but hardly shocking for anyone who hasn't been asleep or inebriated with liberal spin.

Continue reading "New Column: Rep. Ryan, Please Follow Rand Paul's PR Model"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:21 PM

March 07, 2013

Column: Let's Build on the Paul Filibuster

The Republicans had better not squander the good will Sen. Rand Paul purchased for them in his filibuster over the Obama administration's potential use of armed drones to kill non-enemy combatants in America.

I am not simply referring to the constitutional issue of whether the president can engage in such acts, though that's very important. I believe the significance of Paul's filibuster transcends the drone issue. It was about challenging the administration's lawlessness and accountability across the board and his runaway spending and statism. It was about championing freedom, God-given rights and the Constitution.

Under questioning, Attorney General Eric Holder has simply refused to give a straight answer about these questions and acts as though the administration has a superior right to hold such matters close to the vest and as though Congress, let alone the American people, doesn't have a say in them or any right even to be apprised.

Paul's filibuster sparked an excitement and enthusiasm we haven't witnessed since the blue funk descended on conservative America after Obama's re-election. Twitter was on fire, and conservatives were positively energized.

I have sensed a general despondency among conservatives, born of their incredulity that voters could elect someone whose policies are so obviously damaging the country and who seems to continue to escape accountability for his actions. They have also been dispirited because they are skeptical -- to put it charitably -- that Republican officeholders are fighting for them.

Continue reading "Column: Let's Build on the Paul Filibuster"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:33 PM

March 04, 2013

Column: Could Obama Finally Have Overplayed His Hand?

Is it possible that Obama's arrogance, personal pettiness, sanctimoniousness and egotism (for starters) could finally be his unraveling? Even the liberal media are starting to notice, but will it last?

Up to this point, they've dutifully played along with his Alinskyite tactics -- converting the office of the presidency into a headquarters for community organizing at a federal level and a position to organize and fund a perpetual campaign against his political opponents instead of governing.

The liberal media share Obama's leftist policy goals and the ends-justify-the-means mentality that accompanies them and have thus far been eager not only to ignore Obama's thuggishness and deceit but also to proactively help him in accomplishing his goals and concealing his chicanery.

But perhaps his willingness to hurt the country to make political points, which until recently they'd overlooked, has finally gotten their attention -- with his brazen lies about the sequester cuts and his release of dangerous criminal illegals onto the streets. I'll not be Pollyannaish in hoping for a sustained liberal-media blowback toward Obama, but these matters have at least caught their attention and inched ever so slightly forward from the back burner. That's something to build on.

Cocky from his re-election and from a string of triumphs in his negotiations with Republicans, Obama calculated he could continue to be as dictatorial and unreasonable as he had been and even ratchet it up a notch and get away with it. He knew he was lying when he said Republicans were currently causing the sequestration because they wouldn't agree to more tax increases. He was the one primarily responsible for the impasse because he had already gotten his tax increases and was still refusing to play ball on the spending and entitlements side -- the only side that can make a difference in solving our debt crisis -- as he always has.

Continue reading "Column: Could Obama Finally Have Overplayed His Hand?"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:42 PM

February 28, 2013

Column: White House Still Throwing Fastballs at Insubordinate Journalists

It's most gratifying that people are beginning to wake up to the bullying tactics of the White House toward those in the press who occasionally stray from the government-owned media model, but this has been going on for a while.

Veteran reporter Bob Woodward has said in interviews with Politico and CNN that a White House official warned him he would "regret" publishing a story reporting that the sequestration was President Obama's idea.

"(The White House aide) yelled at me for about a half-hour," said Woodward. The aide later apologized to Woodward in an email and claimed he was not making a threat but merely observing that Woodward would regret "staking out that claim."

Does the aide's story sound credible in light of the context? He was yelling at Woodward, not making a casual observation about Woodward's journalistic accuracy. Why? Because Woodward's account undermines Obama's credibility on the story dominating the political landscape now: the sequestration.

Obama is on another campaign tour, jetting about the nation on the people's dime, accusing Republicans of putting the nation's essential services in jeopardy because they want to protect the rich.

Continue reading "Column: White House Still Throwing Fastballs at Insubordinate Journalists"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:07 PM

February 25, 2013

Column: Obama's Game Playing Is Wearing Thin

President Obama told a meeting of the National Governors Association: "At some point, we've got to do some governing. And certainly, what we can't do is keep careening from manufactured crisis to manufactured crisis." Really?

Yes, really. He added, referring to the sequestration: "These cuts do not have to happen. Congress can turn them off anytime with just a little bit of compromise."

Obama has repeatedly demonstrated that he does not consider himself bound by a duty of good faith to square with the American people. He has shown that he is unafraid to utter the most egregious distortions and exaggerations; he has no fear of being called on them.

Just consider the few assertions I've cited. "At some point, we've got to do some governing." Does he mean that at some point, he needs to quit using every possible opportunity to play golf on the public's dime, that he should stop treating the people's White House as a platform for permanently campaigning, that he intends to forgo his Alinskyite tactics of bullying and demonizing in lieu of dealing with issues on the merits, that he aims to quit flouting his legal obligation to present a budget and that he will begin to exercise leadership over his party and pressure its leaders in the Senate to pass a budget? I didn't think so.

How about his statement that we can't keep careening from manufactured crisis to manufactured crisis? Does he mean that he is finally going to renounce his policy, first divulged by his former chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, not to let a crisis go to waste, that he regrets having painted a false picture of crisis about the nation's uninsured to force Obamacare through Congress, that he is sorry that he used the 2008 financial collapse as an excuse to enact recklessly irresponsible bills to spend more borrowed money under the guise of stimulating the economy, that he is sorry he leapt on the Sandy Hook shootings to begin a frantic manufactured-crisis-driven crusade to ratchet up his effort to severely restrict the rights of gun owners, that he plans to repent for falsely laying the blame for our disgracefully unbalanced budgets on the "rich," who are already contributing more than their fair share, that he is going to square with the American people about the shameless hyperbole and
corruption in his environmental agenda and cease and desist from his dishonest fear-mongering about carbon emissions to advance that agenda, that he is sorry for exaggerating the effects of the Gulf oil spill in order to justify breaching his promises to remove restrictions on offshore drilling and that he is going to quit pretending that America's infrastructure is in a crisis state of repair in order to fuel his case for ever-greater government control and the creation of public-sector jobs? I didn't think so.

Continue reading "Column: Obama's Game Playing Is Wearing Thin"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:34 PM

February 21, 2013

Column: GOP Must Not Cave to the Bully on His Sequestration

President Obama's demagoguery and fear-mongering on his sequester cuts are breathtaking, even for him. Lest you think I am engaging in hyperbole, let me give you the dictionary definition of a demagogue.

One definition is "a political leader who seeks support by appealing to popular desires and prejudices rather than by using rational argument."

Obama's ordinary MO is to stir people against one another, to stoke the flames of envy among some against others in lieu of rational argument to rally support for his causes.

Obama has had four years to try his ideas. They have all failed, in every category. His stimulus plan to spend nearly $1 trillion of borrowed money to jump-start the economy was a colossal, unconscionable waste of money we didn't have and not only didn't work as promised but probably stalled the private sector's efforts to recover. He remains defiantly unrepentant in the face of his repeated reckless green policy failures.

Liberal economists and ideologues -- in some cases, there's little difference -- cling fast to the myth that Obama's gutting of the private sector to chase public money after projects for which there was no demand actually helped the economy. But they can't prove their assertion that the economy would have been worse but for the stimulus any more than one can prove a negative. But objective evidence says otherwise: Obama has presided over the worst recovery in 50 years.

Continue reading "Column: GOP Must Not Cave to the Bully on His Sequestration"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:24 PM

February 14, 2013

Column: Liberal Media: Obama's Front Line

It seems the liberal media are more concerned about Sen. Marco Rubio's midspeech sip of water than about President Obama's State of the Union commitment to double down on his disastrous policies.

What will it take for once-reasonable people to become alarmed at the state of this nation's fiscal condition, its stagnant economy and its egregious unemployment? Is there no number of irresponsible liberal policies from an extremist liberal president that will exceed their willingness to tolerate? Do liberal media -- and rank-and-file Democrats, for that matter -- believe that this recklessness can go on forever?

Knowing President Obama's capacity for fiscal folly and for scapegoating others for problems he's caused, even I find it hard to believe he could stand before the nation and masquerade as a Washington outsider -- as a crusader against the squalid conditions he is engineering and exacerbating.

Are these media people truly engulfed in as blinding an ideological fog as it seems? Or are they just cynical co-conspirators in Obama's deceitful self-depiction as a model bipartisan who is actually seeking a "balanced approach" to resolving our fiscal crisis -- as opposed to leveraging the crisis to further gouge the "wealthy"?

Balanced? We all know -- it's undeniable -- that we have a spending problem and that we are not taxed too little. Our government is bloated beyond belief, and Republicans have already joined Obama in raising the rates and reducing the deductions for the evil ones. Yet he continues to resist meaningful entitlement reform and real spending cuts and all the while deceives the American people with the scandalous whopper that he has already implemented more than half the cuts we need to "stabilize" the debt problem.

Continue reading "Column: Liberal Media: Obama's Front Line"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 11:26 PM

February 11, 2013

Column: Dr. Carson's Refreshing Jolt of Good Societal Medicine

President Obama must have been stunned at the "audacity" of Dr. Benjamin Carson in challenging his core assumptions right to his face in front of thousands of people at the National Prayer Breakfast.

Obama is not used to being challenged, especially in public, even if indirectly and without being specifically named. From the look on his face, it was obvious Obama was none too pleased with Carson's message or with his "presumptuousness" in presenting it in that forum, while he had to sit still and -- remain silent.

I think we can best understand Carson's message in light of his opening statements, which laid the foundation for the thematic body of this speech.

He began citing scriptural passages that he said would put his upcoming remarks into context. Three of the passages were wisdom sayings from the book of Proverbs, admonishing that the godless destroy their neighbor with their mouths, that a man who lacks judgment derides his neighbor and that a generous man will prosper.

The final passage was God's promise in 2 Chronicles 7:14 that if his people will humble themselves and pray and seek his face and turn from their wicked ways, he will hear them, forgive their sins and heal their land.

Continue reading "Column: Dr. Carson's Refreshing Jolt of Good Societal Medicine"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:38 PM

February 08, 2013

Column: Obama's Imperiousness Doesn't Have a Permanent Shelf Life

President Obama and his liberal cohorts are noticeably puffed up after his re-election and are making their move on a wide array of fronts. The liberals' voracious appetite is incapable of satiety.

Obama's cockiness was on full display during the fiscal cliff negotiations, during which he treated Republicans, the only ones remotely serious about addressing our deficits and debt, as annoying stepchildren he has to endure as a nuisance. Actually listening to their ideas is not on his playlist.

We've also seen Obama's cockiness in his behaving as though he is above the law and doesn't have to answer to Congress, the courts or the Constitution. Obama has brazenly ignored his legal duty to submit a budget, as if he were King Henry VIII. This is not some ministerial function, mind you, but the budget, which is at the heart of the nation's problems today.

Obama's hubris is particularly conspicuous in his approach to immigration policy. He used the full force of his executive power during his first term to wage war against states, especially Arizona, that wouldn't comply with his dictates on enforcement. Indeed, Chris Crane, who is the president of the union for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, confirmed on Sean Hannity's Fox News Channel show, "(The Obama administration is) ordering us not to enforce the law."

Usually, Obama's worldview soul mates in the Senate are in lock step with his every whim, but on immigration, a few of them at least nominally joined forces with a few Republicans to propose a bipartisan solution to the problem, about which, for the record, I remain a skeptic.

Continue reading "Column: Obama's Imperiousness Doesn't Have a Permanent Shelf Life"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 09:33 AM

February 04, 2013

Column: The Senate Must Reject Hagel

The Senate's "advice and consent" role doesn't require it to rubber-stamp a presidential appointee for secretary of defense who senators believe would weaken America in this increasingly dangerous world.

Notwithstanding former Sen. Chuck Hagel's diminished view of the post -- "I won't be in a policymaking position" -- the secretary of defense is an exceedingly important position and must be filled with someone who understands the complexity and gravity of the threats we face.

In his testimony at his confirmation hearing, Hagel demonstrated a remarkable unwillingness to clarify his past statements, a stunning misapprehension of the identity, intentions and capabilities of our enemies, and a disturbing ignorance of the critical subject matter on which he would be advising the president. For example, he was unaware that the sequester cuts come out of the Budget Control Act.

As tentative and confused as Hagel appeared, it might seem unfair to describe him as arrogant. But how can anything but hubris explain Hagel's defiant refusal either to stand by or to renounce his bizarre statement that the Iraq surge was our greatest foreign policy error since Vietnam?

Hagel surely has an opinion now on whether his statement was correct, and those charged with making a determination on his fitness for the position are entitled to know his opinion. These are not matters you take on trust; we're talking about the national security of the United States, not some ambassadorship to the North Pole.

Continue reading "Column: The Senate Must Reject Hagel"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:21 PM

January 31, 2013

Column: Doctored Videotapes Are Peanuts

Many have rightly condemned MSNBC's serpentine editing of a video to make it appear that certain gun rights activists heckled the father of a 6-year-old victim of the Sandy Hook shooting massacre, but let's not pretend this was a one-off event.

The liberal media long ago forfeited their respected role as watchdog over the government and have voluntary descended to the status of a public relations arm of the Democratic Party and various liberal causes.

It doesn't do it justice to call them cheerleaders, for they are active participants, every bit as much involved in bringing about the events as the party with which they collude.

They no longer merely report the news. They deliberately influence it to advance the liberal political agenda. So while they engage in plenty of deceptions on the micro level, they daily engage in a category of sin that far exceeds the despicable doctoring of videos.

For what they're about is grand deception on a macro scale. They aren't watchdogs, and they aren't just cheerleaders. Cheerleaders wear uniforms and are readily recognizable. These progressive media mavens are cloaked in a disguise of pseudo-neutrality and pseudo-objectivity, such that when they root for the political team that is assaulting America's founding principles and driving us headfirst into national ruin, many in their unwitting audience have no earthly idea they've got skin in the game.

Continue reading "Column: Doctored Videotapes Are Peanuts"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:39 PM

January 28, 2013

Column: The Stuff of Third World Tyrants

President Barack Obama is not just a radical leftist; he is obviously so ensconced in his ideology that he believes -- or wants you to believe -- that anyone who opposes him must have sinister motives.

One of his recurring themes is that some Republicans would work with him but can't do so for fear of reprisal from Grover Norquist on taxes, the National Rifle Association on guns, the conservative House caucus, radio talk show hosts and your garden-variety racists, who allegedly oppose Obama just for sport.

In mid-January, Obama accused the "gun lobby" of "ginning up" fears that the federal government would use the Newtown, Conn., shooting tragedy to seize America's guns, saying, "It's certainly good for business." Is that how presidents should talk?

Obama suggested that GOP congressional opposition was based not on principle but on the fear that unless it resisted Obama's gun-grabbing schemes, it would lose its precious NRA funding. As if the American public agrees with Obama on this issue any more than it did on Obamacare. As if Obama truly cares whether the American public agrees with him on this issue (other than as a means to an end) any more than he cared about the public's view on Obamacare.

Indeed, this is either record-breaking myopia or sophisticated Orwellian deception. Few things are more palpable on the political scene today than the groundswell of grass-roots support for the right to own firearms under the Second Amendment. It is intrinsic to the American character.

Continue reading "Column: The Stuff of Third World Tyrants"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 02:48 PM

January 24, 2013

Column: Half-Plaudits to Phil Mickelson

Welcome to an America with liberalism in full ascendancy as golfer Phil Mickelson apologizes for doing nothing wrong while the Obama administration lambasts its opponents for justly demanding it apologize for doing plenty wrong on Benghazi.

Welcome to a land where the gravest problem threatening the nation is spending, where the Democratic president refuses to cut, where the Democratic Senate lawlessly refuses to pass a budget and where Democrats thwart congressional GOP efforts to enact spending and entitlement reform, yet the public is conned into believing that Republicans are the problem.

Welcome to a culture in which the political left is frighteningly intolerant toward dissenting views yet convinces many that right-wingers are the close-minded ones.

Welcome to a society in which the left increasingly celebrates licentiousness and the abandonment of traditional standards of morality yet holds itself out as the guardian of society's progressive moral order.

Frankly, I don't know whether the majority of Americans have fundamentally changed, whether ignorance, apathy and/or a sense of helplessness have seized too many right-thinking Americans, whether the Saul Alinsky-fed Democrats are just superior at propaganda or whether the Republican political class, out of frustration or lack of conviction, has given up.

Continue reading "Column: Half-Plaudits to Phil Mickelson"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:05 PM

January 21, 2013

Column: Beware of Those Advising GOP To Unilaterally Disarm

Isn't it ironic that Republicans keep receiving advice to be more conciliatory and work with President Obama while President Obama not only is receiving the opposite advice but fully intends to be even more divisive in his second term?

On "Meet the Press" last week, former Secretary of State Colin Powell said: "There's also a dark vein of intolerance in some parts of the (Republican) party. What do I mean by that? What I mean by that is they still sort of look down on minorities."

That is outrageously false, but lest you think hypersensitivity to race is all that's bothering Powell, he made clear that he also has a problem with the GOP's policies. He said: "In recent years, there's been a significant shift to the right, and we have seen what that shift has produced: two losing presidential campaigns." A shift to the right? You've got to be kidding. Why isn't Powell concerned about Obama's uber-leftism?

"Republican" Powell also said that the GOP has become the party of the rich and that it needs to address the issues of education, immigration and climate change before the next election -- you know, to imitate Barack Obama's party of moderation. Here again, it's disgraceful that Powell has endorsed Obama's class warfare slander.

This past Sunday, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, on "Face the Nation," was only slightly more charitable toward her own party. She said, "The Republican Party certainly has to stop turning off large segments of the population."

Continue reading "Column: Beware of Those Advising GOP To Unilaterally Disarm"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:57 PM

January 18, 2013

Column:Sandy Hook: Obama's Latest Crisis To Exploit

Liberals have an uncanny knack for designing solutions that do not address the problem at hand, and they're doing it again in their current effort to use the Sandy Hook shootings as fodder for promoting stringent gun control measures.

It's as if President Obama and his fellow travelers lie in wait for the unfolding of big events that they can use to incite the public's passions and thereby gain popular support for otherwise unpopular government action.

Liberals aren't just exploiting Sandy Hook to promote their unpopular gun agenda; some are now invoking false charges of racism to aid their cause, as well. Rep. Hank Johnson asserted that the National Rifle Association opposes Obama's gun control policies because it "still cannot get over" the fact that the president is "black." Rep. Charles Rangel was a smidgeon more subtle, suggesting that while his state of New York is more progressive than other states (and has thus enacted strict gun control measures), some of the "Southern areas have cultures that we have to overcome."

Whether these pernicious allegations proceed from malice or ignorance, one thing is undeniable: Democrats often seek to inflame our emotions to impede an honest, good-faith discussion on the merits of various issues.

Obama demonstrated this in his news conference when he trotted out his 23 executive orders designed to address mass shootings. By using the parents of shooting victims and children as props he intended to imply that unless you support his measures, you oppose protecting children. He did more than imply that in his remarks when he expressed incredulity that anyone who cares about these shootings could possibly oppose his policies.

Continue reading "Column:Sandy Hook: Obama's Latest Crisis To Exploit"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 09:09 AM

January 14, 2013

Column: Barack Obama: Weapon of Mass Distraction

President Obama's latest news conference was further confirmation that his voracious appetite for spending was not satisfied but whetted by the fiscal cliff deal, which he views as an appetizer.

We were told that the GOP achieved a coup in the fiscal cliff negotiations because they lured Obama into an agreement to lock in the Bush tax rates except for the highest-income earners. Never mind that Obama agreed to no spending cuts or entitlement reform after demanding a "balanced approach" to deficit reduction; they told us he'd be forced to address those matters in a couple of months in the debt ceiling negotiations. They argued that by agreeing to make the Bush rates "permanent," Obama had tacitly admitted that he couldn't sustain the welfare state through tax increases on the middle class and that he'd now have to -- grudgingly or not -- turn his attention to spending cuts and entitlement reform.

As I've written before, I never understood this optimistic outlook, because from the get-go, Obama and his Democratic colleagues swore that they had only begun on the "revenue" side and that they were bound and determined to focus on more revenue extraction in the next round of negotiations.

It is painfully naive to assume that Obama is operating in good faith. Throughout his term, he has rarely focused on the merits of policies he's promoted. He has used various scapegoats to distract the public's attention from the substantive arguments in order to facilitate the results he seeks.

With Obamacare, the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, his many environmental initiatives, his assault on religious liberty and his ruthless opposition to Arizona's immigration law, to name a few, he glossed over the substantive issues involved and demonized his political opponents and certain individuals and interest groups in order to make the outcome turn on personal, rather than policy, considerations. This is the stuff of sheer demagoguery.

Continue reading "Column: Barack Obama: Weapon of Mass Distraction"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:10 PM

January 10, 2013

Column: Rubbing Our Noses in His Victory and Radicalism

Hey, folks, remember the good old days when candidate Barack Obama at least pretended to be bipartisan and conciliatory? Now it's as if he's on a mission to prove he was faking it.

Obama is behaving like a bitter ex-spouse who knows all our hot buttons and delights in pushing them. He is governing by crisis, fear, alienation, cronyism and anti-constitutional fiat. He is openly flaunting his militant radicalism, as if he's trying to provoke us -- and his second term hasn't even begun.

He is horrifying all Americans who have the slightest concern about our deficits and debt, refusing to address them, demonizing and obstructing those who are, and flagrantly lying about both by pretending he's the one tending to our national solvency.

Though he never would have been foolish enough to make a major production of the gun issue during the campaign, he is exploiting the mass shooting in Newtown, Conn., to press for stringent gun control measures. He's playing his leftist constituents' emotions like a fiddle, encouraging them to ignore the facts and statistics and join him in imposing measures that violate the Second Amendment.

Nor is there any tolerance for dissent from Obama and his leftist cohorts, as we've seen with his selective assault on religious liberty. If you disagree with their proposals, then you simply don't care about the death of schoolchildren -- just as if you oppose unending extensions of unemployment benefits because the empirical evidence shows it hurts people in the long run, you're heartless. Or if you oppose open borders, you are a racist.

Continue reading "Column: Rubbing Our Noses in His Victory and Radicalism"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:03 PM

January 07, 2013

Column: On Revenues, Obama Has Just Begun To Fight

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell tells us the tax issue is behind us and that we can now move on to spending. Really? What makes him think the GOP will succeed this time when it couldn't last time?

The just-concluded fiscal cliff deal included no material spending cuts, which the GOP justified by saying it had achieved locked-in rates for most of Bush's tax cuts, which would force Obama to seriously discuss spending cuts and entitlement reform as part of the upcoming debt ceiling negotiations.

But a White House memo announcing the deal said that postponing the sequester for two months "will give Congress time to work on a balanced plan to end the sequester permanently through a combination of additional revenue and spending cuts in a balanced manner."

Does that sound as if the White House has satisfied its appetite for further "revenues"?

The memo is not the only evidence of Obama's intention to further punish producers. After the deal, he said, "Cutting spending has to go hand in hand with further reforms to our tax code so that the wealthiest corporations and individuals can't take advantage of loopholes and deductions that aren't available to most Americans."

We should be concerned because this deal didn't just raise income taxes on the wealthy. It raised capital gains, dividends and estate tax rates, as well as phasing out the personal exemption and deductions for individuals making $250,000 and couples making $300,000, which can add up to serious dollars. What further squeezes does Obama intend to impose?

Continue reading "Column: On Revenues, Obama Has Just Begun To Fight"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:05 PM

January 03, 2013

Column: The Right's Unwitting Obama Apologists

I hate to break it to those deniers who believe that President Obama's tax-guzzling capacity has somehow been diminished by the fiscal cliff provision to fix "permanent" tax rates. You're dreaming.

Several smart columnists and respected conservative editorial pieces tell us that a major silver lining in the crisis deal just concluded is that by agreeing not to reinstitute the Clinton tax rates (and leave the Bush rates in place) for all but the "wealthy" (income of $400,000 for single filers and $450,000 for marrieds), Obama and the Democrats made a major concession. They argue that if Democrats couldn't do better after Obama was just re-elected and when the debt is so high, they'll never be able to. They'll have to realize that they will never be able to sustain their desired welfare state through raising taxes alone and have to come to the table on serious spending cuts and entitlement reform.

This assumes that Obama and the Democrats have any real interest in reducing spending or curbing entitlements. They have shown no interest in doing so, despite the crushing debt problem threatening the nation's solvency.

Obama doesn't base his spending plans on projected revenues, except on a micro level when the law requires him to present bills with revenue-neutral scoring, at which point he manipulates the numbers to make it work out. He spends as much as he can get away with because spending (and taxing) are his tools to fundamentally transform America and to right the myriad economic and social injustices he perceives. I am convinced that the enormity of our deficits and debt never cost him a minute's sleep.

The silver lining proponents also assume Obama has now exhausted his avenues for extracting more taxes. I frankly don't have any idea how anyone could assume that. After all, during the presidential campaign, Mitt Romney capitulated to Obama's class warfare theme that the rich weren't paying their fair share and promised to eliminate deductions and "loopholes" to remedy this. Then House Speaker John Boehner, in one of his early fiscal cliff offers, surrendered on the very same point.

Continue reading "Column: The Right's Unwitting Obama Apologists"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:04 PM

December 31, 2012

Column: David Gregory's Slobbering Obama Interview

NBC's David Gregory interviewed President Barack Obama on "Meet the Press" Sunday, and a conversation ensued that would have been more fitting for a show called "The President Meets One of His Many Mainstream Media Enablers."

Let's take a look at just some of the exchanges and fantasize how different the nation's political and electoral climate might be if the liberal press were doing its job as watchdog instead of taking sides.

Obama said, "We're seeing signs of recovery ... in employment numbers improving."

Might Gregory have asked Obama how he can continue to put an unrealistically positive spin on such persistently dismal numbers? If this were a Republican president, do you think Gregory wouldn't have pointed out that the only reason these numbers appear to be slightly improving is that more people have actually given up looking for work altogether?

Obama said, "(Republicans) have had trouble saying 'yes' to a number of repeated offers."

Continue reading "Column: David Gregory's Slobbering Obama Interview"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:13 PM

December 27, 2012

Column: Obama vs. America's Fiscal Health

The reason President Obama and Republicans can't come to an agreement on the fiscal cliff negotiations is that they don't share the same goals. This is also the key to understanding why President Obama appears far less worried about going over the cliff.

Republicans are focused on restoring the nation's financial health by promoting economic growth and reducing our horrendous deficits and debt. President Obama's primary aim is to complete his project of fundamentally transforming America.

I ask you loyal Democrats to please consider these things. Obama has demonstrated almost no concern for our crushing debt or deficits -- at least not since calling President George W. Bush unpatriotic for presiding over deficits and debt dramatically smaller than his own.

Obama's treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, showed a casual indifference to our debt when responding to questions from Rep. Paul Ryan during budget hearings. He flippantly admitted the administration had no long-term plan for bringing our debt under control and was unapologetic for having failed to submit any plan to restructure our entitlements.

When David Letterman asked Obama about the size of the national debt, Obama couldn't even make a guess. It seemed to be the furthest thing from his mind.

Continue reading "Column: Obama vs. America's Fiscal Health"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 11:48 PM

December 20, 2012

Column: The Resurrection

At the very core of Christianity is the historical authenticity of the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. But for His resurrection, we would not be celebrating His birth.

The Apostle Paul said, "And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain."

Christian apologist Josh McDowell spent more than 700 hours studying the subject of the resurrection and concluded that it "is one of the most wicked, vicious, heartless hoaxes ever foisted upon the minds of men, or it is the most amazing fact of history." When a university student asked him why he was unable to refute Christianity, McDowell responded, "For a very simple reason: I am not able to explain away an event in history -- the resurrection of Jesus Christ."

The Old Testament prophets and Jesus predicted the resurrection. The resurrection was central to Christ's preaching. He said, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?"

Well, do you?

Continue reading "Column: The Resurrection"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:01 PM

December 17, 2012

Column: God Suffers With Us

I can't imagine anything more painful for a person than the loss of one's child, and so I won't pretend that I can adequately express the horror of the savage murders at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

When such tragedies occur, most of us engage in sober reflection about the preciousness of life and especially of our own loved ones. As much as we hurt for the families who lost children at the hands of this murderer, we thank God our children are safe.

But we know it can happen to any parent; these victims did absolutely nothing to provoke this wanton act of evil.

How could an all-powerful, all-loving God permit such horrors to occur? Indeed, isn't the prevalence of evil in the world a major reason so many people through the years have rejected the notion of a personal God altogether? Isn't it why St. Augustine flirted with Manichaeism and its idea of the duality of good and evil? Isn't it why a few of our founding fathers latched on to belief in a deistic god who created the universe and human beings but then abandoned them to fend for themselves without any further intervention in history? Manichaeism, Deism and even Eastern religions don't seem to present as severe a conundrum concerning the problem of evil.

Without question, apparent intellectual obstacles sometimes mask the greater root causes of our doubt, chiefly human pride and human sin, but I am convinced that intellectual doubts about evil and suffering are a genuine impediment to faith for some.

Continue reading "Column: God Suffers With Us"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:19 PM

December 13, 2012

Column: Republicans Do Have Leverage; Use It!

At this stage of the fiscal cliff pseudo negotiations, do the American people have any idea what the Republicans stand for other than to protect the wealthy and cut Medicare and Social Security to harm the sick and aged?

People constantly invoke Ronald Reagan, but one thing is certain and very relevant: If Reagan were on the national stage today, the public would not be confused about what the Republican Party stands for and why it matters.

The GOP is having difficulty even consolidating around a central message, much less selling it to the public. There is no excuse for that.

Though following its election defeat the party has all the confidence of an abandoned stepchild, it needs to shake the dust off, stand up and begin fighting like it truly believes the nation is worth fighting for.

It is automatically assumed in virtually all corners that President Obama has all the leverage in these budget talks. But is that necessarily true?

Continue reading "Column: Republicans Do Have Leverage; Use It!"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:38 PM

Column: Conservative Media Are Not the Problem

It is really getting old to hear liberal politicians and pundits complaining about conservative media as being destructive, as if the country would be better off returning to the halcyon days of the monolithic liberal media.

That seems to be the view of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who complained about "the right-wing control of the American media, particularly starting with Fox News." During a discussion on HuffPost Live, Kennedy said, "Ninety-five percent of talk radio in our country is right-wing ... so a whole section of our country that's what they're hearing."

"Twenty-two percent of Americans," continued Kennedy, "say their primary news source is Fox News. It's divided our country in a way that we haven't been divided probably since the Civil War, and it's empowered these large corporations to get certain kinds of politicians and ideologues who are in the United States Congress elected -- the tea party ideologues who control the Republican Party."

Admittedly, many conservatives complain about the liberal media, but that's because they hold themselves out as unbiased journalists when their reporting is flagrantly slanted in favor of Democrats.

Their bias is obvious in their selection of news stories, in their presentation of those stories, and in the contrasting treatment they accord politicians and policies of the respective political parties.

Continue reading "Column: Conservative Media Are Not the Problem"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:36 PM

Column: It's Time To Turn the Tables on this Presidential Bully

Something is very wrong in the world when the most dogmatic and inflexible president in recent memory can make unreasonable demands of his GOP budget opponents and yet be confident they'll be blamed for the impasse.

It is past time Barack Obama be held accountable for his intentionally irresponsible fiscal policies that are guaranteed to take us into national bankruptcy. It is outrageous enough that he is steering us into insolvency, but it is unbearable that he's fraudulently blaming the Republican Party for it to boot.

This is not a close call, and reasonable people, if they understood the facts, would not support Obama. The problem is that so many people who trust him, inexplicably, look no further than his disingenuous statements and the liberal media's slanted reporting, and the Republican Party leadership simply cannot seem to get its message across. It would help if they evidenced more faith in the wisdom of their own approach.

This isn't complicated. Our financial problems are overwhelmingly a result of excess spending, not of insufficient tax revenues. Increasing rates or decreasing deductions won't make a speck of difference, and Obama knows it.

Our $16 trillion national debt and our $100 trillion of unfunded liabilities are going to destroy this nation in relatively short order if we don't take drastic remedial action.

Continue reading "Column: It's Time To Turn the Tables on this Presidential Bully"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:34 PM

December 03, 2012

New Column: Obama Barreling Toward Real Fiscal Cliff

Some commentators wonder why President Obama always engages in brinksmanship. Why can't he meet Republicans halfway, like Clinton did, they ask. Let me try to respond.

One blogger suggests that Obama prefers to play chicken, taking the nation right to the edge of a fiscal disaster because it will increase the likelihood that the GOP will cave. Perhaps, but there's more to it.

Many of us warned that Obama is not, by nature or ideology, a conciliator. He is not a centrist, and he's not someone who is interested in the other side's ideas. He knows what he wants to do, and he is hell-bent on doing it. He is not just playing hardball as a matter of strategy; he has no interest in compromise and is angling to get his way entirely. And he wants to further damage the Republican brand in the process.

The way Obama probably looks at it is that Republicans will cave and he will either get most of what he wants, or the Republicans will hold fast and he can effectively blame them for taking us over the fiscal cliff. You'll note that in none of these explanations is there a hint that Obama is motivated to do what is best for the country. He intends to act in his own best interests and those of his party, and decidedly against the interests of the GOP and, ultimately, the nation.

To better understand what we're dealing with and what the stakes are in these negotiations, let's take a look at what people mean when they say we're headed toward a fiscal cliff in January -- as distinguished from the much bigger cliff we're heading for if we don't get our deficits and debt under control very soon.

Continue reading "New Column: Obama Barreling Toward Real Fiscal Cliff"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 08:11 PM

November 29, 2012

New Column: Time for Congressional Republicans To Expose Obama's Agenda

We can get back to discussing GOP minority constituent recruitment soon, but in the meantime, we have a fiscal cliff issue that beckons -- the real fiscal cliff (America's imminent financial collapse), not the government shutdown molehill everyone is agonizing over.

Congressional Republicans should look at their party's loss in the presidential election as liberating. They surely now understand that the strategy of soft-pedaling Obama's record and agenda doesn't work. They surely grasp that its fear of calling President Obama out on his real intentions and the disastrous consequences of his destructive policies just plays into his hands and enables the advancement of his agenda.

So, how about some bold, straight language from our side? How about telling the American people exactly what Obama is up to? How about drawing a line in the sand right now -- before the pseudo "fiscal cliff" negotiations even begin -- and announcing there is no point to entering these farcical talks because they don't share the same goals? Republicans want to prevent a national financial collapse, and Obama wants to keep spending and prevent entitlement reform so that he can complete his task of fundamentally transforming America.

Obama is already engaging in doublespeak and deception about his goals in these negotiations, and Republicans, instead of permitting him to control the language and the narrative, should flush his true intentions into the open at the very outset.

Let's start with this fact: Obama doesn't want to raise "revenues." He wants to raise tax rates on the "wealthy," a group that includes tons of people who are not wealthy, and a policy that may well not raise significant revenues anyway. Even if you assume tax hikes on those who provide the lion's share of American jobs won't further suppress economic growth and thus revenues, the amount of money they would generate won't make a dent in our annual deficits, much less our crushing national debt.

Continue reading "New Column: Time for Congressional Republicans To Expose Obama's Agenda"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:02 PM

November 26, 2012

New Column: Social Conservatives: GOP Can't Live Without Them

One of the largest elephants in the GOP's post-election room is the fate of Christian and other social conservatives. Party honchos can't just wish this problem away -- or, maybe they can.

There has been increasing hostility toward Christian involvement in politics, and the animus hasn't been solely from the left. To be sure, Democrats have taken the lead, demonizing conservative Christians as science-challenged scolds who don't care about women's "reproductive rights," but there is plenty of antipathy from certain elements within the Republican Party, as well.

Many establishment and some libertarian Republicans have long looked upon Christian conservatives with mild, condescending contempt. Party leaders from Barry Goldwater to Alan Simpson have openly derided Christians and lamented their negative influence on the party and on the overall political climate.

Even Ronald Reagan's warm embrace of faith-based conservatives didn't diminish the establishment's disdain for them, which forcibly reared its head over the Todd Akin and Rick Mourdock kerfuffles. So swift and dramatic was their descent on Akin following his "forcible rape" embarrassment that one could almost infer they were lying in wait for just such an excuse to marginalize outspoken Christian conservatives.

Don't get me wrong; I had serious doubts about Akin's electability after the comments, too, but the establishment's outrage wasn't limited to Akin (or Mourdock) or even to his rape comment. There was palpable disgust from certain quarters on the right over what they perceived as the lunacy of making social issues a part of the equation at all.

Continue reading "New Column: Social Conservatives: GOP Can't Live Without Them"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:15 PM

November 19, 2012

New Column: The GOP: A Most Unpopular Majority Party

Isn't it tragically ironic that the man who rode the perfect storm into public office on the horse of national unity has now perfected the politics of division so spectacularly that he won re-election despite the worst record in decades?

For when you sift through the rubble from the Republican Party's 2012 nuclear catastrophe, you find consistent clues pointing to a simple explanation: We lost because Barack Obama convinced enough voters that he cares more about people than Mitt Romney, a rich white guy who is contemptuous of the poor, women, blacks and seniors. Never mind results; Obama cares and Republicans don't.

In his fundamentally transformed America, Obama has replaced "e pluribus unum" with "us against them."

So before the GOP rewrites its party platform, it better study the tricks its community organizer opponents used so successfully against it. Before it surrenders to the conclusion that its policies are unpopular, it might contemplate a simpler explanation: The voters neither rejected our policies, nor endorsed Obama's failed record. Rather, they bought into Obama's lies and distortions.

Continue reading "New Column: The GOP: A Most Unpopular Majority Party"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:44 PM

November 15, 2012

Column: Obama's Hostile and Evasive Presser

Obama's first post-election press conference, if you could call it that, tells us a great deal about his attitude and the approach he intends to pursue in his second term, which is the same failed policy mix on steroids.

Obama's re-election, of course, gives him the right to pursue these policies, but it doesn't deny elected Republicans the right or relieve them of the duty to oppose them.

If Obama can glean any intelligible mandate from his victory, it is that relentless negative campaigning, demagoguery, divisive identity politics, deceit and superior political strategists targeting essential voters and voting districts work. So it should be no surprise that Obama is taking that lesson to heart and is already applying the same strategies going forward.

In short, Obama will continue to do what he does best: community organizing and campaigning. He is a perpetual campaign machine who pretends to aspire to bipartisanship while being the most partisan president we've had in decades.

In fairness, though Obama never did present an agenda beyond generalized brochure-worthy talking points in the last two weeks of the campaign, the American people witnessed in his first term what he stands for, and a majority didn't reject it. Granted, he completely distorted the causes of our ongoing economic problems and continued to blame George W. Bush for his own failures, but in the end, he still won. But so did congressional Republicans, whose mandate to oppose Obama's policies cannot be in serious doubt.

Continue reading "Column: Obama's Hostile and Evasive Presser"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:00 PM

November 12, 2012

New Column: Before We Give Up, Could We At Least Try Selling Our Ideas?

We conservatives may never reach a consensus among ourselves as to the main factors that caused our election defeat, but surely we can agree that we must do a better job of selling our ideas.

Never mind, you say. The electorate has irreversibly become a taker class, and conservative ideas of self-reliance, personal responsibility and individual liberties will never appeal to a majority again, especially with demographics working against the GOP.

We must reject that, or we are as good as surrendering. To accept it, we are confessing our skepticism of the power of ideas, which itself is contrary to the conservative spirit.

Conservatives begin at a considerable disadvantage, with a liberal media and academia telling people they are victims who aren't responsible for their own actions and demonizing the American system as originally conceived, including capitalism, producers, business, energy producers and the wealthy. Of course, conservatives are handicapped from the outset when these institutions evince hostility toward limited government, American greatness and a cohesive American culture. It's amazing we even have a fighting chance when Democratic elected officials use government money and power to buy votes with no regard for the destruction this causes these individuals and society as a whole.

Republicans could be defeatist and throw in the towel, or abandon our ideas and seek to become mini-liberals, but both choices are suicidal.

Continue reading "New Column: Before We Give Up, Could We At Least Try Selling Our Ideas?"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:45 PM

November 08, 2012

New Column: Time for Introspection, but Not Surrender

Has the nation gone irreversibly blue? Did intraparty disunity sabotage Mitt Romney's presidential quest? Or is there some other explanation for the nation's re-election of a president with the worst record in decades?

I received an email from a brilliant conservative friend who wonders whether Republicans can ever win another election and thus whether the nation is forever lost. I ran into a college student at church the Sunday before the election, and despite his strong conservatism and high intelligence, he admitted confusion about the candidates' respective positions after the presidential debates.

My first reaction after the election verdict was to fear both that America's financial collapse is now inevitable and imminent and that America's implosion is inevitable because the election seemed to reveal that the majority of Americans no longer embrace America's founding principles.

Even with such fatalistic fears, I was exhorting my fellow conservatives on Twitter not to give up; no matter how bad things seem, we can reverse this. We must quit feeling sorry for ourselves; we must not accept this death sentence; and we must fight on.

After sifting through the evidence and reading everyone's ideas, I am feeling somewhat more optimistic but nevertheless recognize that the task before us is enormous.

Continue reading "New Column: Time for Introspection, but Not Surrender"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:41 PM

November 05, 2012

New Column: Do You Want Revenge Against America or Loving Restoration?

Mitt Romney was very wise to pivot on Barack Obama's impromptu statement that "voting is the best revenge" and frame the campaign in the final days as a choice between that negative message and Romney's "love of country."

I wouldn't say that if I thought Obama's statement was merely a slip of the tongue. Rather, I believe that in another unscripted moment, he once again revealed who he really is and the essence of his mindset.

When his soul mate and spouse said that her husband's ascendancy was the first time she'd been proud of America in her adult life, she wasn't just throwing out words. She was telling us who she is and what kind of hang-ups she has about pre-Obama America.

At the time she made the statement, she was on the stump representing her husband and speaking for him. They are of one mind on this point.

It is also no coincidence that Obama spent all those years at the feet of the America-hating Rev. Jeremiah Wright and, before that, mentors such as the Marxist Franklin Marshall Davis. Wright's sermons inspired Obama's book title, for heaven's sake, and informed his political attitudes and reinforced his worldview.

Continue reading "New Column: Do You Want Revenge Against America or Loving Restoration?"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 02:45 PM

November 01, 2012

New Column: I'm Even More Confident That Mitt Will Win

I want to give you an updated list of reasons I believe that Mitt Romney will win the election Tuesday. So much information, so much confusion, so much uncertainty. But I don't think it's so complex as it seems.

In 2008, a perfect storm developed for Barack Obama: an economic crisis, which was effectively, though unfairly, blamed on Republicans; war fatigue, which had been stoked by six years of Democratic anti-Bush propaganda; a messianic illusion personified in Obama, who was promising incomprehensibly wonderful yet undefined change and utopian-level bipartisanship; and a Republican opponent who all but forfeited the election to Obama (with the glorious exception of his selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate).

Despite all those factors benefiting Obama, he won less than 53 percent of the popular vote. That's impressive, but that's the very uppermost result he could ever expect with all signs coalescing in his favor. And things have changed radically since then. Consider:

--For all practical purposes, Obama was a blank slate in 2008. The liberal media did their best to conceal his liberal record and ideology. He enjoys no such luxury today, having established a disastrous economic record: the longest period of high unemployment and the worst recovery in 50 years and crushing national debt.

--Obama has shown no interest in tackling spending, restructuring entitlements or reducing our deficits and debt. He has wasted unconscionable sums on failed green projects, expanded government, entitlements and government dependency, and devastated the private sector. In his arrogance, he hasn't even produced a second-term agenda beyond promising more cliches -- greater education spending as a panacea -- and more "stimulus" spending.

Continue reading "New Column: I'm Even More Confident That Mitt Will Win"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:20 PM

October 29, 2012

New Column: The Lord of the Flies Administration

Two recent ads illustrate the great cultural divide in this nation and which parties and presidential candidates represent these competing worldviews.

In the handling of the economy and national security, President Obama has shown he's not capable of being the adult in the room. After four years of perpetual campaigning and cheerleading for his pet projects, he still isn't prepared to deal soberly with the consequences of his ideological indulgences.

His community organizing fantasy has been to remake America in his more socialistic image, and in the process, he's taken the nation dangerously close to financial ruin. Yet like the unsupervised children in "Lord of the Flies," he refuses to make mature decisions to reverse this fiscally suicidal trend.

In the same way, Obama eschews any responsibility for the destruction his policies have caused -- still preposterously blaming President George W. Bush four years later for his own scorched-earth ransacking of America's treasury and jobs market.

The American left simply will not graduate from its '60s radicalism, and under President Obama, these adolescents are firmly in charge. Thus, it should be no surprise that these same developmentally arrested people don't have the good sense to hide their intentions to permanently convert America into a land of rampant licentiousness and irresponsibility. Two ads connected with Team Obama make the point quite clearly and deserve universal distribution.

Continue reading "New Column: The Lord of the Flies Administration"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:45 PM

October 25, 2012

New Column: If Not 'Apologizing,' Mr. President, What Would You Call It?

OK, President Obama, if you and your defenders insist on denying that you've repeatedly apologized for America, then let's quit mincing words and acknowledge you've done worse than apologize. That works for me.

Maybe it is technically inaccurate to attribute the word apology to you, because you would have to identify with America more before you could apologize on its behalf. Besides, I suppose we should not be surprised in this Clinton-inspired age of word meaninglessness -- an age in which the simple word "is" no longer feels comfortable in its own skin -- that you would deny you have apologized because you didn't use the precise word "apology" in any of your shameful outings.

You didn't say you were sorry, either, come to think of it. But what you did do is harshly criticize America, not just to Americans on our soil but to other nations and their leaders on their soil. From the time you became a liberal activist, you've exhibited a grudge against America as originally founded, and since becoming president, you've made clear on numerous occasions that you still harbor that sentiment.

Indeed, it seems rather obvious based on your statements and policies that your principal motivation for running for president was to "fundamentally transform America" -- your words. Perhaps you could remake it into something you could be proud of and truly love.

You showed genuine contempt for America's conduct before you ascended to the presidency and hastened to add that you had nothing to do with it and would change it. In other words, on our behalf -- your fellow Americans -- you've presumptuously expressed contrition and promised repentance under any reasonable construction of language.

Continue reading "New Column: If Not 'Apologizing,' Mr. President, What Would You Call It?"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:35 PM

October 22, 2012

New Column: Mr. President, Why Won't You Help Us Avert National Bankruptcy?

President Obama, I'd like to follow up on my most recent column and ask you a few more questions, please.

I am assuming you don't dispute that our nation faces a very serious financial problem, with unfunded liabilities in excess of $100 trillion. I use the word "assuming" because I don't remember you ever spending much time talking about this problem, which is odd because the very subject haunts so many Americans and makes them fearful for the future of this country.

Yet if you do recognize that these liabilities threaten our nation's solvency, how is it conceivable that you've not made the problem one of your foremost priorities? Yes, you established a bipartisan deficit commission, but you refused to meet with it and you ignored its findings, so that doesn't get you off the hook.

When Rep. Paul Ryan presented his "Path to Prosperity" and the Republican Congress passed a budget largely along the lines Ryan proposed, you publicly ridiculed Ryan, and your Democratic-controlled Senate summarily rejected the bill.

When Ryan questioned your treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, about entitlements and our national debt, Geithner claimed that the administration stabilized the deficit and debt issues over the next 10 years but admitted that you have no plans for attacking the long-term problem. But what Geithner refers to as stabilization actually amounts to adding approximately $1 trillion per year to our national debt over the next decade, which, incidentally, makes your statement that you would not add a dime to the national debt just outright bizarre -- and disturbing.

Continue reading "New Column: Mr. President, Why Won't You Help Us Avert National Bankruptcy?"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:30 PM

October 18, 2012

New Column: A Few Questions I'd like To See President Obama Answer

I can only scratch the surface here, but the following are a few of the questions I would like to see President Obama answer in a debate.

Mr. President, your confidante Valerie Jarrett once said: "There's nobody more self-critical than President Obama. Part of the burden of being so bright is that he sees his error immediately." If that is accurate, sir, why do you feel it took you so long to realize you were shellacked in the first debate, and why did you still bitterly cling to that error days afterward, saying that if people would read the transcript, they'd realize you won?

Time's Joe Klein once wrote in his blog post "Too Dumb to Thrive" that America's opposition to Obama's stimulus package "is yet further evidence that Americans are flagrantly ill-informed. ... It is very difficult to thrive in an increasingly competitive world if you're a nation of dodos." Mr. President, do you share your fellow liberals' contempt for the American people, and is that what you meant when you lamented that democracy is messy and that you pine for the power of a Chinese president? Was that your mindset when you whispered to the Russians that you'd be able to be more "flexible" on missile defense after your re-election?

You criticized Mitt Romney for shooting first and aiming later. Were you referring to the attitude you displayed when you condemned the Cambridge police for acting "stupidly" in their arrest of your friend and Harvard professor Henry Gates before you were apprised of all the relevant facts -- or perhaps during your repeated scapegoating of a video for the Benghazi, Libya, attack? I realize that second example might be a bit unfair because in reality you were acting not just precipitously but deceitfully there, as you knew the attacks were preplanned and not the result of a video at the time you made the claim.

Has the recent uncovering of evidence showing that domestic terrorist Bill Ayers was actually your colleague years ago made you want to recant your assurances in 2008 that he was just a guy in the neighborhood?

Continue reading "New Column: A Few Questions I'd like To See President Obama Answer"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 08:56 PM

October 15, 2012

New Column: A More Aggressive Obama Still Won't Make the Grade

As he prepares for the second debate, Obama faces a major dilemma: how to be more aggressive without jeopardizing his alleged likability, the main thing he supposedly has going for him with voters.

The Barack Obama the public usually sees is not the real Barack Obama. The former is a carefully manufactured media image designed to appear eminently reasonable, highly engaged, ultra-caring, inordinately intelligent and as one who transcends the pettiness that plagues so many politicians. The real Obama is none of those things.

These things wouldn't matter as much if the liberal media hadn't insulated Obama from scrutiny and covered over his policy failures, his ideological extremism and his corruption. They've allowed the fable of his extraordinary gifts to remain largely unchallenged.

The media haven't even complained on behalf of their own interests -- about Obama's infrequent news conferences or the tight control he exercises and careful scripting he employs when he does deign to meet with them.

That's one explanation for the pronounced disconnect between Obama's likability and the unpopularity of his policies. If the press weren't always sheltering him and spinning the news in his favor, it would be a wholly different ballgame.

Continue reading "New Column: A More Aggressive Obama Still Won't Make the Grade"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:39 PM

New Column: Elect Romney To Reverse Bush's Failed Third Term

After reading transcripts of Obama's recent campaign stump speeches and watching his interview with ABC News' Diane Sawyer, I am even more convinced he is every bit as clueless as he appeared in that fateful debate but also very deceitful.

The money quote in Obama's interview with Sawyer, who asked him what happened in the debate, was: "It's not the first time I've had a bad night. But I think what's important is that the fundamentals of what this race is about haven't changed. You know, Gov. Romney went to a lot of trouble to try to hide what his positions are, because he knows that those ideas have been rejected. They won't work."

This is just more of the same. Obama is saying that our ongoing economic problems are still President Bush's fault and that Romney wants to go back to the Bush policies that caused all this -- as if the four years we've just experienced never occurred and as if he and his party weren't more responsible than Republicans for the policies that led to the housing and financial collapse.

It is true that the fundamentals of the race haven't changed. Obama wants to stay on the course of his failed policies, and Romney wants to reverse course. But Romney is not trying to hide his positions; Obama is lying about what those positions are.

Indeed, it's not just Democratic operative Stephanie Cutter who is making the embarrassingly false claim that Romney's tax cuts would cost $5 trillion. With this administration, almost everything, including Benghazi-gate, starts at the top. Obama repeated the claim to Sawyer and added that Romney's cuts would be skewed toward the rich.

Continue reading "New Column: Elect Romney To Reverse Bush's Failed Third Term"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:37 PM

October 08, 2012

New Column: Obama Would Double Down in a Second Term

Do you know what's scarier than the possibility that President Obama could be re-elected? It's that in a second term, he would double down on his failed policies.

Don't take my word for it; he's admitted it on the campaign stump.

In a speech to his fellow cultural icons in Hollywood, he said, "Everything we fought for in 2008 is on the line here in 2012. And I need your help to finish what we started. ... We've come too far to turn back now."

Note that Obama did not say this: "My agenda obviously isn't working, so I have decided to make major adjustments. Rest assured that my wholesale failure to get the economy moving again, to create jobs, to reform entitlements and to reduce deficits and debts will not be repeated in a second term.

"I will quit misleading the public with the absurd claim that 7.8 percent unemployment is encouraging, especially when so many have quit looking for work and many who are working have only part-time jobs. I'll stop insisting that I have proposed cutting $4 trillion from spending, when the lion's share of those "cuts" were either forced by Republicans or not scheduled expenditures (on the wars) in the first place. Truth be told, my most recent 10-year budget projects annual average budget deficits of almost $1 trillion -- $9.5 trillion over the next decade. Nor will I throw away hundreds of billions on ill-conceived stimulus plans and green energy boondoggles. I'll also quit making meaningless, unintelligible statements like, 'I will grow the economy from the middle out.'

Continue reading "New Column: Obama Would Double Down in a Second Term"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 08:17 PM

October 04, 2012

New Column: A Debate Rout of Herculean Proportions

I am elated to report to you something you surely already know: Mitt Romney trounced President Obama in their first debate. The rout was so decisive that even the liberal media cannot spin it the other way.

There is no need to grade this on a curve. Romney did very well in absolute, not relative, terms. He didn't just do well compared with Obama's poor performance; he really shone, in every category. He proved himself to be very knowledgeable on policy and business, quick on his feet and able to deliver zingers as graciously as possible under the circumstances.

Obama, on the other hand, didn't just get edged out by a man who performed slightly better on a given night; he turned in a very poor performance. It wasn't just an off night for him. It showed that he isn't conversant with the essential details of the major issues at stake in this campaign and affecting our nation.

Obama is so often insulated by his teleprompter and his rigid control of the few news conferences he has that some haven't caught on to his weaknesses. But those were laid bare last night, as he couldn't hide his ignorance on so many critical issues. (You would think more people would have caught on by now from witnessing, for example, Obama's inability to identify the size of the national debt on David Letterman's show to within $5 trillion.)

The debate didn't turn on a cute turn of phrase or a clever one-liner or two; it was a comprehensive slaughter on substantive issues.

Continue reading "New Column: A Debate Rout of Herculean Proportions"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 02:26 PM

New Column: On the Debates

Mitt Romney must use the debates to spotlight President Obama's disastrous record -- with no mercy.

Let's just consider a few major points Romney must make on domestic issues.

Obama's record and his agenda for a second term are a target-rich environment. Unless the majority of voting Americans have decided to embrace Obama's vision of a fundamentally changed America -- an America that barely resembles the freest, most prosperous and mightiest land in world history that we have come to adore -- then Obama will experience a crushing defeat in November.

Indeed, Romney should be unafraid to point out that Obama's thinking is out of step with the American idea. He should demand that Obama explain why he has so little confidence in the private sector and free markets to generate economic growth.

Romney mustn't dare understate his case; he cannot pull any punches in describing the gravity of our national predicament and in drawing the sharpest contrast between his agenda and Obama's record and plans for the next four years.

Continue reading "New Column: On the Debates"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 02:23 PM

September 27, 2012

New Column: Obama's 'Change From the Outside' Means Community Organizing

President Obama recently lamented: "You can't change Washington from the inside. You can only change it from the outside." I think this statement reveals more about Obama and his plans for a second term than meets the eye.

Elaborating, Obama said, "I got elected and ... big accomplishments like health care got done ... because we mobilized the American people to speak out."

Rubbish. Obamacare was not some outside, grass-roots-driven legislative achievement. Obama could never persuade Americans to support his bill or lobby Congress to pass it. He cobbled together his majority in the most inside of insider venues -- the bowels of Congress, in secret rooms, where he twisted arms, made false promises and offered bribes to persuade congressmen to defy their constituents' wishes. He didn't persuade congressmen through reasoned arguments.

His entire adult life, from what we can best determine, Obama has always been animated by some big cause. He revels in activism and has leveraged his leadership roles in these causes to propel himself into ever-greater positions of influence, from editor of the Harvard Law Review to the Illinois Senate to the United States Senate to the presidency.

There seems to be little evidence that, once he arrived at any of these positions, he did much -- other than what he had to do -- to position himself to graduate to the next level. He wrote little as law review editor and sponsored few bills as a legislator. His focus was always on upward political mobility.

Continue reading "New Column: Obama's 'Change From the Outside' Means Community Organizing"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:03 PM

September 24, 2012

New Column: 10 Reasons Mitt Will Win

Call me Pollyannaish, but I believe Mitt Romney will defeat Barack Obama in November. Let me give you some of my reasons:

1) Romney's campaign message is essentially positive; Obama's is overwhelmingly negative. People always prefer promises of something better, but Americans are especially hungry now because times are very tough. Romney is offering concrete and realistic plans to help America grow again and create millions of new jobs. Romney's message and agenda appeal to all Americans, not just certain groups, and tell them they are not imprisoned in their current economic "station" as Obama would have them believe. Though Obama's promises of "hope and change" in 2008 were vague, at least he presented them as something positive. Today he tells us we must accept an America in decline both internationally and domestically. He insists that 8 percent unemployment is the new normal and that we must adjust to the malaise because it is going to take a long time to make a dent in it.

2) Obama is appealing to people's baser instincts of envy, greed and fear and has deliberately fanned the flames of racial tension for political gain. This would have been bad enough if he'd not presented himself as a post-partisan, post-racial phenomenon.

3) Obama had the wind at his back in 2008 after happening on to a perfect financial storm he claimed he had nothing to do with creating. Today our financial outlook is actually much worse; we are much closer to a Greek-style collapse, and Obama has done nothing and proposed no ideas to avert it. It strains credulity to think Americans are gullible enough to swallow his shameless scapegoating of Republicans for problems he exacerbated and is unwilling or too incompetent to address.

4) Indeed, Obama's record has been horrendous in every category -- economic, debt, national security, military strength, energy dependence, social cohesiveness, religious liberty, race relations, health care and business. America is significantly worse off than it was when Obama took office. It will be extremely difficult for Obama to overcome the reality of his terrible record with his fictional whitewashing of that record.

Continue reading "New Column: 10 Reasons Mitt Will Win"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:26 PM

September 20, 2012

New Column: Mitt Video an Opportunity, Not a Scandal

So what about the Democrats' would-be tempest about Mitt Romney's alleged 47 percent gaffe? Is there any "there" there?

Mitt's statement was made at a private fundraiser, where he was trying to explain that his message of reducing taxes would obviously not resonate with the 47 percent of Americans who are not paying income taxes. It's purely logical; you aren't going to entice those who aren't paying taxes with promises of lower taxes.

The statement was hardly shocking or unique. For years, we've heard the axiom that once the body politic of any nation freely votes itself money from the public trough, the nation's days are numbered. In fact, the adage is so common we don't know for sure where it originated. I've heard it attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville, Thomas Jefferson and others.

All of which is to recognize that it is simply common sense that once a majority uses the coercive power of government to enrich itself at the expense of the minority, freedom is on life support.

Many believe that this is precisely the direction we're headed as the welfare state metastasizes. They feel impotent and are horrified as they watch the most reckless and selfish generation of politicians in history spend our children and grandchildren into bankruptcy.

Continue reading "New Column: Mitt Video an Opportunity, Not a Scandal"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:58 PM

September 17, 2012

New Column: Video or Bust

How can an administration that believes that Islamists need a reason to attack us apart from their default hatred of infidels conduct a coherent foreign policy?

Even if its assessment were correct, how can someone who is presumably sophisticated enough to become the so-called leader of the Free World believe he can convert Islamists overnight into fawning admirers of a new and improved America under his rule?

Yet that is precisely what Obama professed to believe. When campaigning for the presidency, he said: "We will restore our moral standing in the world. ... I truly believe that the day I'm inaugurated, not only does the country look at itself differently but the world looks at America differently. If I'm reaching out to the Muslim world, they understand that I've lived in a Muslim country and I may be a Christian but I also can understand their point of view. ... The world will have confidence that I am listening to them and that our future and our security is tied up with our ability to work with other countries in the world. That will ultimately make us safer."

Obama's lofty confidence on the matter didn't wane once he was in office. He said in April 2009, "I would like to think that with my election and the early decisions that we've made ... you're starting to see some restoration of America's standing in the world."

In his stunningly ambitious and arrogantly naive Cairo speech, Obama said, "I've come here ... to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world, one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect."

Continue reading "New Column: Video or Bust"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:37 PM

September 13, 2012

New Column: Liberal Media Might As Well Wear Obama Buttons

The liberal media gave the ceaselessly political President Obama a pass for campaigning instead of performing his presidential duties when they were most needed, while they castigated Mitt Romney for being political when he was the only one of the two acting presidential.

To be sure, Obama is a political candidate for re-election to the presidency, but do we have to remind ourselves -- as he often reminds us -- that he also currently holds that office and that it includes duties that supersede his political activities?

After remaining silent for hours after the attacks in Egypt and Libya, Obama called a news conference to issue a brief statement on the matter and, in response to the first question, turned on his heels and walked off. Yet the liberal media, feigning outrage over Romney's alleged political exploitation, are neither curious nor critical about Obama's refusal to answer questions about the attacks, such as whether he considers them an act of war and what responses he is considering.

Instead of criticizing Obama for being political instead of presidential, of putting his personal interests above the interests of the nation he is charged to lead, the media ran interference for him, ignoring his dereliction of duty and turning their attention to the activities of Romney to manufacture the bogus storyline that he was the one being too political. What better way to detract from Obama's incompetence and politicking?

The media were lying in wait for Romney, who was eager to issue a public statement on the attacks but was trying earnestly not to campaign on the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Some "reporters" were even caught on a hot mic, conspiring to trip Romney up at his news conference.

Continue reading "New Column: Liberal Media Might As Well Wear Obama Buttons"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:36 PM

September 10, 2012

New Column: Team Romney Must Sharpen Its Message

The November elections are a Republican landslide begging to materialize, but will the GOP make it happen? I believe so. I'm not buying these negative polls, but to increase our chances, let's sharpen the message, not dilute it.

A recent Fox News story reports that Romney and Ryan are both beginning to emphasize a bipartisan message rather than sharpen the contrasts between Obama's manifest failures and their plan for America. They must not follow this suicidal path.

Now is not the time for them to go all John McCain on us and downplay what Obama has done or to apologize for their own winning message. In the campaign's homestretch, they must bring more passion and urgency. It's not enough to calmly assure the American people that they'll do better. They must convince them they believe with every fiber of their beings that the nation, as we know it, would not survive four more years of Obama's assault -- that unless Obama is defeated, their children will not enjoy the same America they have enjoyed.

Their message should be: Sure, President Obama inherited a tough economy. But enough already. He knew and stated how bad it was, and he promised that if we implemented his agenda, the economy and debt would vastly improve. He implemented his agenda, yet the economy is still doing terribly, and the debt is dramatically worse. He still refuses to accept responsibility for his failures. He has no new ideas and offers the same failed policies and promises nothing but prolonged malaise if he's re-elected. Under a second Obama term, we'd experience catastrophic financial collapse.

Romney/Ryan rejects the defeatist idea that economic malaise is inevitable. Historically, the worse the recession the stronger the recovery, except with Obama, who has given us the worst recovery in 50 years. Romney/Ryan would implement tax and entitlement reform that would spur economic growth and greatly reduce our deficits and debt.

Continue reading "New Column: Team Romney Must Sharpen Its Message"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:53 PM

September 06, 2012

New Column: Twilight Zone Week

The Democratic National Convention is an elaborate effort to sanitize a failed record that cannot be rehabilitated, even by the glib sophistry of former President Bill Clinton.

President Obama has often lamented that it is not that his performance has been inferior but that he has failed to fully explain the wonders of it all in terms we bitter clingers can grasp.

It's not that his policies are misguided or that they've yielded objectively horrendous results; it's that he just hasn't figured out a way to condescend far enough to our level to make us understand. The convention gives his team one last chance to put his theory to the test and change our misperceptions.

Charlotte, N.C., is a desperate Hail Mary to turn Obama's ears into a silk purse. Unfortunately for Democrats, it involves a series of contradictions.

On the one hand, it is an orchestrated charade to depict his disastrous record as a striking success, and on the other, it's a simultaneous admission that it is a failure -- a failure caused solely by dastardly Republicans. By day, it is an embarrassing freak show, with speaker after speaker exhibiting contempt for traditional American values, and by night, it is toastmasters cunningly presenting the Democratic Party as the guardian of those values they've spent the entire day trashing.

Continue reading "New Column: Twilight Zone Week"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:09 PM

August 30, 2012

New Column: The Ryan Vision: Let's Get This Done

The Democrats and their mainstream media cheering section can huff and puff at Paul Ryan's convention speech, but they can't blow his house down. It was built on a solid foundation.

So powerful was the speech that the liberal establishment is reduced to wailing about alleged lies the speech contained -- dishonest and easily refuted allegations. Ryan delivered a substantive indictment of the Obama administration's failed record and a content-rich, realistic plan for putting this nation back on track to economic growth and fiscal recovery, a plan that includes "protecting and strengthening" Medicare, not "raiding" it.

Don't listen to the naysayers. Ryan began with a humble acceptance of his "calling" and "duty" to help restore America. His message was positive. "I know we can do this," he said, not dwelling on the malaise in which Obama's disastrous policies have placed us but offering a specific blueprint to deliver us from this quicksand.

He carried forward this same theme throughout the speech: He said that when he accepted the nomination, he told Mitt Romney, "Let's get this done"; and in closing the speech, he converted the slogan into a formal offer to the American people, promising that if elected, he and Romney would put America back on a path to fiscal redemption.

Ryan offered a succinct but irrefutable critique of Obama's economic record: 23 million unemployed or underemployed, 1 in 6 Americans living in poverty and one-half of college graduates unable to find work they've studied for or any work at all.

Continue reading "New Column: The Ryan Vision: Let's Get This Done"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:54 PM

August 27, 2012

New Column: Romney's an Extremist, and Obama Isn't? LOL

President Obama's casting of Mitt Romney as extreme is one of the most glaring incidents of political projection in the modern era. Romney doesn't approach extremism in substance, style or disposition. Obama swims in it.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Obama said Romney has locked himself into "extreme positions" on economic and social issues and would implement them if in office.

Accusing Romney of extremism is just another arrow in Obama's fantasy quiver, because reality just doesn't help him. Romney is anything but extreme, and no serious political analyst believes otherwise. He is certainly extremely bullish on America, American business and the free enterprise system, and he doubtlessly wants to move the nation extremely away from the disastrous course on which Obama is taking it, but that's about the extent of his extremism. Romney's policies are right of center, to be sure, but not extreme, except from the perspective of a radical leftist, which brings us to Obama.

Let's use Obama's bill of particulars against Romney as a yardstick to measure his own place on the political spectrum -- as if it weren't painfully obvious.

Obama says Romney is locked into extreme positions on economic issues because Romney favors across-the-board tax cuts that "would mostly help the rich."

Continue reading "New Column: Romney's an Extremist, and Obama Isn't? LOL"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 01:35 PM

August 21, 2012

New Column: Obama Hasn't Been Divisive? You Can't Be Serious

I was on Sean Hannity's show the other night, and the question was whether Obama's statement denying his divisiveness is defensible. It's not.

Obama said, "I don't think you or anybody who's been watching the campaign would say that in any way we have tried to divide the country. We've always tried to bring the country together."

If this weren't such a serious subject, his statement would be laughable. Let's just say it's ludicrous -- and disingenuous.

A Gallup poll showed that at the end of Obama's second year in office, 81 percent of Democrats approved, while 13 percent of Republicans did. This represents a 68 percent gap, the widest of any president in his second year since such polls have been conducted.

Obama has intermittently talked a good game about bringing us together. Indeed, much of his 2008 campaign pitch was centered on his promise to be a post-partisan, post-racial president who would usher in a new kind of politics. But his performance in office in this regard can at best be described as cynical.

It's one thing to earnestly try but fail to bring the two sides together. Though Democrats will deny it, that was the case with George W. Bush. On many issues, Bush didn't say, "It's my way or the highway." He poured more federal money into education than even any Democrat had ever done.

Continue reading "New Column: Obama Hasn't Been Divisive? You Can't Be Serious"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 08:22 AM

August 16, 2012

New Column: Obama's Medicare Fear Mongering Will Drown in the Facts

Analysts may be correct that the presidential election won't primarily turn on entitlements reform, but by choosing Paul Ryan as his running mate, Mitt Romney can, contrary to conventional wisdom, make it a winning issue and lay the foundation for a reform mandate when he wins.

Besides, the economy and entitlements are wholly integrated issues: We cannot ultimately fix the economy long term without entitlement reform, and we can't balance the budget or retire the debt without a growing economy.

Democrats appear jubilant about the Ryan pick, believing his close association with entitlement reform provides an opening for them to scare seniors into thinking they'll lose Medicare and Social Security benefits.

But what they haven't factored in, or are pretending to deny, is that Ryan's presence on the ticket ensures that Romney and Ryan will tackle the entitlements issue head on and that Democrats will not have the luxury of merely fear mongering. They'll have to deal with the substance of these issues, and this is a battle they cannot win, because the facts are their foe. Let's examine these facts briefly.

No one can reasonably deny that Medicare is headed for insolvency, and that Medicare's insolvency, if not rectified, will lead to the federal government's insolvency. President Obama has admitted that Medicare is on an unsustainable course and that no amount of tax increases can fix it. The Congressional Budget Office tells us that Medicare spending has increased fivefold in the past 42 years, dramatically more than all other categories of federal spending.

Continue reading "New Column: Obama's Medicare Fear Mongering Will Drown in the Facts"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:24 PM

New Column: Paul Ryan: Mitt Romney's Line in the Sand

Mitt Romney has outdone himself in choosing Rep. Paul Ryan as his running mate. The conservative base is ecstatic, and that will translate into voter intensity and high turnout.

Our country faces an unprecedented debt crisis, primarily driven by our entitlement programs. We have more than $100 trillion of unfunded liabilities -- a staggering, incomprehensible number -- and we are on a collision course with national bankruptcy.

Obama has offered no solutions; his Democratic majority in the Senate has failed to produce a budget in 1,200 days; and they have both obstructed the Republicans' proposed remedies. It's as if it's a game with these people and our crushing national debt is but a trifling matter.

Obama is not only obstructing budget reform; it's almost as if he is trying to make matters worse. He has added a new major entitlement, Obamacare, and has continued to amass annual budget deficits in excess of $1 trillion, and his latest 10-year budget revealed he would continue to do so. Instead of reducing spending, he has demanded yet more "stimulus" spending and is ushering in the largest tax increase in U.S. history, which is guaranteed to further smother growth and probably worsen our debt problem.

Not too many years ago, both parties acknowledged that our entitlement commitments were a sword hanging over our heads. But when President George W. Bush tried to begin discussions on Social Security reform, Democrats ridiculed and demonized him and told seniors he was after their nest eggs.

Continue reading "New Column: Paul Ryan: Mitt Romney's Line in the Sand"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:22 PM

August 06, 2012

New Column: Hundreds of Millions in Taxpayer Losses Are Just 'Minor Blips'

President Obama's disgracefully corrupt policies on green energy alone should be enough to ensure his defeat in November -- even apart from his war on reliable energy sources, which is unspeakably outrageous.

Recently revealed emails show the extent of the abject corruption and reckless waste surrounding Obama's Solyndra project. The Heritage Foundation has compiled a list of the 10 most revealing emails referred to in the House Energy and Commerce Committee's investigative report, many of which I wrote about in my book "The Great Destroyer." A number of these will make your blood boil.

We know that taxpayers lost more than $600 million in the debacle, but how many knew that the administration never even intended the business to be wholly self-supporting? Obama's "you didn't build that" slander could certainly be applied to this government-created and -dependent monstrosity.

Indeed, Mitt Romney should grill Obama on these emails and his energy policies in the presidential debates. Maybe he should start with Obama's protest that his "you didn't build that" statement was taken out of context. Who needs to quibble over context when Obama has made so many other similar statements and when his administration has lived that philosophy?

A statement in one of the released emails -- from Aditya Kumar, a senior adviser to the vice president, to White House communications staffer Dan Pfeiffer -- underscored the point: "When government plays a part, it can bring the private sector along."

Continue reading "New Column: Hundreds of Millions in Taxpayer Losses Are Just 'Minor Blips'"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:03 PM

August 02, 2012

New Column: Dr. Obama, Your Patient, America, Is Not Ready for Hospice

We must reject President Obama's death verdict on America's future. It is ailing under his policies, but it is not too late; it will recover.

Obama ran on a platform of unmitigated optimism -- a promise to usher in a brighter day for America. But there could hardly be a greater contrast between his pledge and his performance in office, between his commitment to the nation and his current abandonment of all hope. He has breached his contract with the electorate and must be fired.

It isn't just that Obama's policies have failed; it's that he has essentially given up and is asking us to accept a lesser America going forward, as if resigned to the fatalistic belief that America has begun an inevitable and unavoidable decline.

His policies are smothering the economy. He isn't merely denying the allergy-induced asthma patient her breathing treatment; he is holding his hand over her mouth and suffocating her. But he is also using his bully pulpit to proliferate despair, because to claim he's working against ineluctably destructive forces is the only remaining excuse he can offer after 3 1/2 years of blaming Bush.

He is basically saying, "Look, I know we aren't so prosperous as we once were, but that's just the way it's going to be from now on, so you might as well re-elect me, because at least I'm realistic about it and I will make the pain more tolerable by redistributing it throughout the body politic in a more equitable manner."

Continue reading "New Column: Dr. Obama, Your Patient, America, Is Not Ready for Hospice"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 02:48 PM

July 30, 2012

New Column: Romney Shines in Israel

I am pumped up about Mitt Romney's speech in Israel -- for both political reasons and policy ones -- and believe it may represent a turning point in the campaign.

Politically -- and this is important because it is critical that he win, or he won't be able to implement any policies and set America back on the road to recovery -- Romney has shown again he is going to take the gloves off, deal with the issues directly and draw a stark contrast between his policies and Obama's record. The significance of this cannot be overstated. Some of the reasons John McCain lost in 2008 were his lackluster campaign, his refusal to showcase Obama's extreme liberalism and, thus, his failure to demonstrate why he would make a better president than Obama.

According to Gallup, Obama has already lost support among Jewish voters, down from 78 percent to 68 percent. If Romney shows that he is genuinely committed to Israel and that Obama is not, he'll make further inroads.

In an earlier piece, I expressed my view that to maximize his chances of victory, Romney has to attack Obama's record forcefully and comprehensively -- and what a target-rich record it is. He must keep Obama so busy answering criticisms that he doesn't have as much time to obfuscate, scapegoat and level deceptive charges against Romney. In addition to highlighting Obama's disastrous policy failures, he must also present a positive, uplifting agenda. In short, he must communicate to voters his undivided commitment to America's greatness and its first principles and inspire confidence in the electorate that he will lead us to reclaim our greatness.

With his economic speeches in response to Obama's "you didn't build that" fiasco, Romney proved that he does have fire in his belly and that he is fervently dedicated to free enterprise, entrepreneurship and pro-growth policies. With his Israel speech, he laid down another marker -- telling us he is going to take the offense and make Obama accountable for his unacceptable and misguided policies. He has no intention of allowing Obama to get away with misrepresenting his record -- on the economy or on foreign policy, including his behavior toward our great ally Israel. Any concerns that Romney will adopt McCain's milquetoast campaign model are quickly diminishing.

Continue reading "New Column: Romney Shines in Israel"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:51 PM

July 26, 2012

New Column: Obama: I Defy You To Believe What I Said About Business

Obama's desperate protests that his anti-business rant was taken out of context are betrayed both by that very context and because they are a part of a piece -- just one more component of his war against the American entrepreneurial spirit.

He would have us believe that his words "you didn't build that" referred to roads and bridges and not businesses.

Given his accompanying statements -- "you didn't get there on your own," etc. -- that is an absurd construction. But even if that's what he meant, why would he have felt compelled to point out that businesses don't succeed without access to roads and bridges? Do roads and bridges not connect the population to failed businesses?

Why would any American president be inclined to think or talk this way? Of course governments -- funded by individual and business revenues, by the way -- build the roads and bridges, to successful and failed businesses.

But why isn't Obama moved instead to echo the words of past presidents, who championed small businesses, such as those showcased in Sen. Scott Brown's campaign ad?

Continue reading "New Column: Obama: I Defy You To Believe What I Said About Business"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 08:27 PM

July 23, 2012

New Column: The Left's Habitual and Ironic Rush to Judgment

When a radio host asked me what I thought of the massacre in Aurora, Colo., I had to ask for clarification. I said: "What do you mean? Who could deny it's an unspeakable tragedy?"

What he was really asking me was to address it in a political context. The problem is that I don't believe there was any political context to the shooting; not everything is political.

But unfortunately, elements of the left seemed determined to graft political implications onto the event, irrespective of the absence of any factual basis for doing so. They seized on it both to demonize grass-roots conservatives and to pump new life into their perennial campaign against the Second Amendment.

This is part of a leftist pattern to rush to the judgment that every such event is politically motivated -- by disgruntled right-wingers. The Daily Caller made a similar observation, citing such examples as The New York Times' speculating that the pilot who crashed his small plane into a Texas office building was "The First Tea-Party Terrorist" and Time magazine's wondering aloud whether tea partyers were behind the hanging death of a census worker in Kentucky.

But let's not forget the more high-profile examples: when President Bill Clinton pointed an unmistakably accusatory finger at conservative talk radio after the Oklahoma City bombing and when Democrats galore lurched to blame Sarah Palin and tea partyers for the Tucson, Ariz., shootings.

Continue reading "New Column: The Left's Habitual and Ironic Rush to Judgment"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:47 PM

New Column: Has Obama Awakened Mitt's Inner Sleeping Giant?

Someone recently asked me what campaign advice I would give Mitt Romney if I were in his inner circle. Let me respond.

First, let me say that though I have been concerned that Romney has not been aggressive enough to date, we have begun to see a different side of him in the past few days. In response to Obama's indefensibly derogatory statements about business, Romney bolted out of his chair and delivered a spirited defense of entrepreneurship and the American spirit. It was an exceedingly welcome and gratifying development and one that I hope signals a new chapter in his unfolding campaign.

Perhaps Romney is more of a counterpuncher than a puncher, but I would respectfully urge him not to wait anymore for Obama to draw first blood. He needs to take the offense and keep Obama so busy defending his abysmal record on so many fronts that he doesn't have time to administer his ad hominem and disgraceful attacks on Romney's experience with Bain Capital, his alleged outsourcing or his rightly earned wealth -- not to mention spurious, despicable charges that he's a felon.

We finally saw a bit of fire in Romney's belly last week, and that will go a long way toward convincing voters that he is authentic and passionate, which will help energize the base.

Igniting the base is critical because this election is likely to be determined by voter intensity as much as it is by any other factor. The more passionately and earnestly Romney presents his message the likelier he is to inspire the base to donate to his campaign, to work the precincts and to show up and vote on Election Day.

Continue reading "New Column: Has Obama Awakened Mitt's Inner Sleeping Giant?"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:46 PM

New Column: The Most Anti-Business President Ever

If I didn't know better, I might conclude that President Obama is trying to validate my book. His personal attacks on Mitt Romney have been so harsh that Romney called them "beneath the dignity of the presidency."

Not only did I devote several chapters to documenting Obama's practice of bullying and attacking his political opponents but my final chapter, uncannily, details Obama's "War on the Dignity of His Office."

Having presided over 41 straight months of unemployment above 8 percent and possessing no arrows in his economic quiver besides deficit spending and raising taxes, it's not surprising Obama continues to resort to these gutter tactics.

What finally drew Romney's ire was Obama's accusing Romney of committing a felony and then Obama's refusing to apologize. This is simply Chicago Thug Politics 101. President Obama's favorite whipping boy, President George W. Bush, would have never stooped to this level. Even in the face of brutal, scurrilous attacks, Bush refused to diminish the dignity of the office.

In recent days, Obama also provided supplemental material for my chapter detailing his "War on Business" by revealing, yet again, his attitude toward the private sector, entrepreneurship and business. He told a crowd in Roanoke, Va., "If you've got a business -- you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen."

Continue reading "New Column: The Most Anti-Business President Ever"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:44 PM

New Column: House Repeal of Obamacare Is Way More Than Symbolic

So what about the GOP House vote to repeal that legislative monstrosity that masquerades under the misleading title of "Affordable Care Act"? Was the vote more than symbolic?

Will the vote have any impact on the presidential and congressional races? What about the GOP proposals to replace Obamacare? A host presented those three questions, and I'd like to address them more thoroughly than the time permitted on television.

I don't believe that the GOP repeal vote was merely symbolic, even though everyone knows that the obstructionist Democratic Senate, which hasn't produced a budget for more than 1,100 days, will reject it out of hand. The House vote to repeal, which included 5 Democratic votes, helps to frame a critically important issue in the 2012 presidential and congressional campaigns, which is also true of the House's passage of "cut, cap and balance" and Rep. Paul Ryan's budget plan, "The Path to Prosperity."

Obamacare, along with Obama's stimulus package and his overall bankrupting federal spending, gave rise to the national conservative grass-roots uprising that bitter clingers fondly refer to as the tea party movement but whose followers radical leftist Democrats -- excuse the tautology -- refer to as tea baggers. If Obamacare led to the initial uprising, Obamacare 2 -- the Supreme Court majority's abominable affirmation of the law -- will galvanize the tea party as much as any other issue and energize all conservatives to defeat Obama and congressional Democrats in November. It formally showcases and places in stark relief the Democrats' position on the law; it forces them, on the record, either to join the overwhelming majority of Americans who want it repealed or to thwart their will. That is big, if Mitt Romney and other Republicans capitalize on it.

Continue reading "New Column: House Repeal of Obamacare Is Way More Than Symbolic"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:43 PM

New Column: Is President Obama Intentionally 'Destroying' America?

During my book "tour," radio hosts are forever asking me whether I believe that Obama is intentionally attempting to destroy America. It's a fair question, especially given the title of my book and because so many people legitimately believe he is.

I have never been too receptive to conspiracy theories, and I'm not particularly enamored of ones circulating about Obama. But unlike many other such theories, this one is about a truly unprecedented assault on the American idea and on those first principles that have made America the unique experiment in constitutional governance that it has been.

Ordinary people -- not just a small fringe group of zealots -- are really afraid today. They see the country they adore being attacked at all levels; they see their freedoms under assault, their life savings genuinely in jeopardy, an endlessly anemic economy, a longer period of sustained unemployment than we've experienced in a half-century and a national financial crisis, born of world-historic national debt, that this president will not help avert.

These are extremely troubled times. The government is on course to gobble up our health care system; businesses are afraid to hire because of the uncertainties caused by new taxes and regulations that will be unleashed with Obamacare -- along with the largest tax increase in the nation's history, which is already awaiting us in January. Small businesses see an administration that not only is at war with the private sector but also appears to be on a mission to punish and obliterate our domestic energy sources and waste billions more in borrowed federal dollars on green energy projects doomed to fail.

Continue reading "New Column: Is President Obama Intentionally 'Destroying' America?"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:41 PM

New Column: 'Republicans Want More Debt' and Other Democratic Propaganda

Recently, White House senior adviser David Plouffe made a comment that didn't receive the scrutiny it deserves. The statement demands attention because it frames President Obama's re-election campaign theme and illustrates how grounded in disinformation the theme is.

Apart from Team Obama's formidable community organizing skills aimed at demonizing Mitt Romney as a wealthy, compassionless corporate raider, Obama has nothing but lies and scapegoating to run on, given his abysmal record.

Plouffe said that Republicans "want to return us back to the same policies that caused the recession -- huge tax cuts for the wealthy, more war, more debt."

You have to give these people credit for chutzpah and for relentlessly staying on message, as warped as it is.

We should hold Obama to his earlier statement that he would not be re-elected if Americans weren't better off than they were when he took office.

Continue reading "New Column: 'Republicans Want More Debt' and Other Democratic Propaganda"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:39 PM

New Column: The Court Breathes New Life Into the Great Destroyer

As we approach the Fourth of July and contemplate its glorious significance, recent events have brought into sharp relief the precarious condition of America's unique liberty tradition.

Our Constitution is the best written guarantor of human liberty in human history, but its safeguards do not make it completely bulletproof against systematic assaults undermining its integrity.

In a little more than three years in office, President Obama has distinguished himself as the Great Destroyer of our liberties through a comprehensive set of policies that are at war with the American idea and are succeeding in fundamentally transforming America, in fulfillment of Obama's promise.

Just in the past few weeks, we've witnessed multiple body blows against our freedoms, in areas ranging from immigration to "Fast and Furious" to Obamacare to the economy to race relations to state sovereignty to our very social compact itself.

We've just learned that in this poisonous political climate Obama has fostered, even Chief Justice John Roberts, conservatism's latest great hope for restoring America's high court to a posture of judicial restraint, has reportedly succumbed to liberal media and presidential bullying to undermine the Constitution in the name of protecting it.

Continue reading "New Column: The Court Breathes New Life Into the Great Destroyer"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:37 PM

New Column: Obamacare Ruling a Dark Day for America -- but With a Major Upside

The Supreme Court's ruling in Obamacare v. the United States of America is yet another body blow to the U.S. Constitution's principle of limited government and the freedom tradition, but there is a major upside.

Despite President Obama's opposition to an individual mandate when he was debating Hillary Clinton during the Democratic presidential primaries and despite his postelection insistence that Obamacare's mandate does not constitute a tax, his lawyers insisted otherwise, and the Supreme Court bought it. So we have a law with enormous reach -- one-seventh to one-sixth of the economy -- having been fundamentally misrepresented to the American people from the beginning.

Conservatives who believe that the Constitution should be interpreted according to the plain meaning of its language and the original intent of the Framers have long been troubled by the court's decisions expanding the commerce clause to authorize Congress to regulate the most local of matters within a state's borders.

Many legal analysts were predicting the court would declare the mandate unconstitutional because it goes further than all other previous cases in forcing Americans to purchase a commodity. Surely, they reasoned, the court would not go that far.

Well, as it turns out, the court didn't have to. It simply chose to consider the mandate a tax rather than a fine or penalty and held that the court has ample authority under the general welfare clause to impose a tax. Voila, problem solved.

Continue reading "New Column: Obamacare Ruling a Dark Day for America -- but With a Major Upside"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:35 PM

New Column: Time for the Administration To Stop Exploiting Race

One advantage of defeating Barack Obama in November, apart from saving the country from financial ruin and the rest, is that conservatives will presumably be able to criticize liberal policies again without automatically being accused of racism.

These charges aren't just emanating from the fringe groups; they're not just being uttered by radical leftist bloggers or Occupy Wall Street zealots. They are no longer the exclusive province of race hustlers whose professional careers depend on stirring up animosity among racial groups.

In August 2011, the level of polarization seemed to reach a fever pitch, when Congressional Black Caucus Whip Andre Carson said, "Some of them in Congress right now with this tea party movement would love to see you and me ... hanging on a tree."

Just a week or so ago, no less a mainstream media figure than former ABC White House correspondent Sam Donaldson wrote, "Many on the political right believe this president ought not to be there -- they oppose him not for his policies and political view but for who he is, an African American!"

This is truly despicable. Imputing such false charges of racism, either out of profound ignorance or in a cynical effort to chill critically important political debate, is terribly destructive to our social fabric. But it goes on -- unabated.

Continue reading "New Column: Time for the Administration To Stop Exploiting Race"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:33 PM

An Arrogant and Lawless Cover-Up

Few principles are more important to our constitutional scheme than the separation of powers, which is precisely why President Obama's bogus assertion of executive privilege to thwart Congress' investigation into Fast and Furious is so inexcusable.

Executive privilege is an important safeguard against congressional overreach and to preserve the separation of powers. The inherent right of the executive to protect highly sensitive information has long been recognized, and the privilege was judicially established during the Watergate era.

As such, Congress should not go on fishing expeditions against a president to score political points. But neither should a president assert the privilege to obstruct a legitimate investigation when there appears to be no colorable claim to the privilege. This trivializes the privilege and the separation of powers it is designed to protect.

Legal experts agree that the privilege applies to communications to which the president or an adviser acting on his behalf is a party. But they disagree about whether it applies to internal communications within executive agencies when neither the president nor his representative were involved in those communications.

As the communications for which the privilege is being asserted here were reportedly internal Justice Department communications, many view the privilege claim dubiously.

Continue reading "An Arrogant and Lawless Cover-Up"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:32 PM

New Column: Obama's Backdoor Amnesty Overreach Just Par for His Course

As disturbing as was President Obama's lawless usurpation of constitutional authority in circumventing the DREAM Act to grant backdoor amnesty, this type of overreach is nothing new for him.

He has frequently complained about how democracy and the Constitution are "messy" and do not permit him to exercise the authority of a Chinese president. But he nevertheless warned us that he would be pushing forward with his agenda through executive orders and administrative actions "on a wide range of fronts."

But he has outdone himself this time, even going beyond limitations he freely recognized not long ago, when he complained that he didn't have the authority to impose his immigration policy wish list. Perhaps recent polling numbers showing him trailing Mitt Romney have increased his desperation.

His frontal assaults on the Constitution are so brazen now it's hard not to conclude that he was willing to take a calculated risk that his excesses would offend fewer rule of law sticklers than they would attract Hispanic voters.

A few people emailed and tweeted me and said they bet I was disappointed my new book, "The Great Destroyer," had already gone to print so that I couldn't include this latest example of Obama's destructive behavior.

Continue reading "New Column: Obama's Backdoor Amnesty Overreach Just Par for His Course"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:29 PM

June 14, 2012

New Column: Obama's Ludicrous Self-Portrait as a Budget Hawk

I saw it with my own eyes on a video clip that Sean Hannity played. At a speech in Baltimore, President Obama laughingly dismissed the notion that he is responsible for our nation's current spending orgy. Seriously.

Sporting a wide grin, Obama said, "I love listening to these guys give us lectures about debt and deficits." He must think this subject is a real knee-slapper. He continued: "I inherited a trillion-dollar deficit. We had a surplus; they turned it into a deficit, built in a structural deficit that extends for decades. ... We signed $2 trillion in spending cuts into law. I laid out a detailed plan for a total of $4 trillion in deficit reduction. ... But even when you account for the steps we took to prevent a depression and jump-start the economy ... spending under my administration has grown more slowly than under any president in 60 years."

A fascinating question is whether Obama actually believes this fantasy or he and his disciples are laughing at us, as well.

Yes, he's had some delusional enablers who have argued that he has been fiscally frugal, having actually slowed the rate of government spending. Yes, you read that correctly.

But how do these enablers make such a claim -- in print, no less? Well, the best I can figure is that they say that the deficit for Bush's final fiscal year was above $1 trillion and that hence Obama's $1 trillion deficits thereafter constitute continuing the status quo; he's not increasing the level of the deficits.

Continue reading "New Column: Obama's Ludicrous Self-Portrait as a Budget Hawk"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 10:32 PM

June 11, 2012

New Column: The Private Sector Is Sucking Wind

President Obama continues to prove how out of touch he is with the plight of the American people under his anemic economy. No, Mr. President, the economy and the private sector are not "doing fine."

Sure, Obama is pretending that he didn't mean it the way it sounded. But I am not buying that it was a gaffe. I watched the video, and he stated the point clearly and deliberately.

Obama is an incorrigible leftist ideologue who believes that only his statist policies can stimulate the national economy. He thinks that without the prodding, deficit spending and wisdom of the federal government, the private sector cannot recover on its own, much less flourish.

Now he has put his theories to the test, having run up unprecedented national debt in the process and producing nothing but failure. Even President Franklin D. Roosevelt's treasury secretary Henry Morgenthau admitted that FDR had spent a record amount of federal money for eight years and had amassed extraordinary debt without creating jobs or stimulating the economy. Why can't Obama learn from his own mistakes?

When his $868 billion stimulus bill didn't work, he demanded more infrastructure spending, and then came Stimulus Jr.: his $447 billion jobs bill. He only knows one course, and it involves expansion of government.

Continue reading "New Column: The Private Sector Is Sucking Wind"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:06 PM

New Column: Will Obama's Personal Popularity Save Him From His Record?

On my book "tour" to promote my new book, "The Great Destroyer," hosts keep asking me to explain how President Obama can maintain high personal approval ratings when his policies are unpopular and his record is abysmal.

I first want to challenge the underlying assumption. I don't believe that President Obama is as well-liked or, at this point, even as likable as he is reputed to be. He hasn't behaved in office as a person most would consider "likable."

Assuming these polls are being accurately reported, I tend to think that many people are responding favorably to the question of whether they like Obama personally largely because the media narrative has been and remains that he is likable.

When the media keep pounding us with the notion that he is likable, people may fear they are revealing their own personal failings if they confess that they aren't particularly fond of him. It could make them look out of step or expose them as negative people.

People are much likelier to be candid in the privacy of the polling booth, but even if I'm wrong about this, I don't believe that people will allow their personal fondness for Obama to outweigh their assessment of the disastrous consequences of his policies, which are far more relevant to their lives and to their children's future than their personal opinion of his likability.

Continue reading "New Column: Will Obama's Personal Popularity Save Him From His Record?"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:05 PM

New Column: The Great Destroyer

My newly released book, "The Great Destroyer: Barack Obama's War on the Republic," picks up where my previous book "Crimes Against Liberty" left off, chronicling President Obama's record since mid-2010, and it's not pretty.

I firmly believe that Obama is heading this nation toward financial catastrophe, is greatly undermining our national defenses, the Constitution and the rule of law, is severely damaging our energy industry and our energy independence, is dangerously expanding government and smothering the private sector and small and large businesses, and is polarizing this nation in a way that we haven't seen in many decades, along racial, gender and economic lines.

In wholesale breach of his 2008 campaign themes, he is zapping America of its optimism and hope, replacing those with despair and malaise. He is using his bully pulpit to turn the American dream on its head, demonizing success and glorifying government dependency.

Rep. Paul Ryan has been warning for several years that America is in deep financial trouble, primarily because of our runaway entitlements, which account for almost $100 trillion of unfunded liabilities. Experts whom he has consulted warn that we can't indefinitely defer this problem, that we have a window of perhaps two or three years to restructure them and return to a path of solvency.

You should notice that no one has really disputed Ryan's assertion, suggesting it is hyperbole or sensationalism. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Office of Management and Budget Director Jeffrey Zients have had their chance, in congressional testimony, to refute Ryan's claims. But they can't -- and don't.

Continue reading "New Column: The Great Destroyer"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:03 PM

May 31, 2012

New Column: Wisconsin Election as Test Case

The gubernatorial recall election in Wisconsin next week is important as an imperfect test case to indicate how Democratic propaganda will work against facts this election year.

Liberals are usually the ones who arrogantly throw around the charge that Republicans and conservatives are fact- and science-challenged and averse to reality. But their claim itself is based on nothing but their generic, nonfactual presuppositions, whether on "climate change" or same-sex unions.

What I'm suggesting is different. I'm saying that Democrats in Wisconsin are basing their case against Republican Gov. Scott Walker on anything but facts; they are distorting his policy actions, his motives for undertaking them and the effect of those actions. Coupled with their distortions, they are seeking to make the election about anything but Walker's impressive record.

Their strategy has been to pour an enormous amount of money -- much of it from outside the state, the national Democratic Party recognizing the national implications of the election -- to inflame the passions of their constituencies and boost voter turnout enough to overcome the comparative unpopularity of their positions.

What's going on is so patently obvious that it surprises me the big-labor-based Democratic Party isn't further behind in the polls. The unions' position is so manifestly selfish and the Democratic Party's support for it so obviously opportunistic -- as opposed to what is in the best interest of the state -- that it's amazing they don't do a better job of masking their symbiotic corruption.

Continue reading "New Column: Wisconsin Election as Test Case"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:55 PM

May 24, 2012

New Column: Obama and Leahy vs. Sir William Blackstone

Has President Obama's disrespectful attitude toward the United States Supreme Court caused a trickledown effect among the Democratic leadership in Congress, or was Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy's recent invective against Chief Justice John Roberts self-generated?

You will recall that in April, President Obama launched a salvo against the court about a pending case -- concerning Obamacare -- seeking to either intimidate the justices into upholding the law or lay a foundation for political criticism should they strike it.

At a news conference, Obama said, "Ultimately, I am confident that the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress."

Never mind that Obamacare did not represent the democratic will of the American people. What was unprecedented and extraordinary -- besides a piece of legislation's taking over more than one-seventh of the American economy and unconstitutionally mandating people to buy a product -- was for a sitting president to attempt to bully the Supreme Court to affect the outcome of a pending case.

Obama had already chastised the court for ruling against his political will in the Citizens United case, but at least that was after the decision had been rendered. His brazen community-organizing comments concerning a not-yet-decided case was something else again.

Continue reading "New Column: Obama and Leahy vs. Sir William Blackstone"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:49 PM

May 21, 2012

New Column: Obama's Morbid Vanity

I recently came across Nathaniel Hawthorne's haunting short story "Wakefield," and I couldn't help but notice similarities (and differences) between Wakefield and President Obama.

In "Wakefield," a man tells his wife he is leaving for a short trip, but instead, he moves in to a rental home a block away, where he remains for 20 years, unbeknownst to his wife and friends. At the end of this period, he waltzes right back into his house "as from a day's absence, and became a loving spouse till death."

Perhaps at first Wakefield isn't sure why he left. He could be experiencing a midlife crisis and trying to see how he will fare in a different environment. But he can't completely pull himself away and "finds himself curious to know the progress of matters at home -- how his exemplary wife will endure her widowhood, of a week; and, briefly, how the little spheres of creatures and circumstances, in which he was a central object, will be affected by his removal."

It's as if he tried to take himself out of his own reality, to witness that reality more objectively, as a third-party observer, and thereby discover himself. With apologies to Eastern mystics, the problem with this experiment -- or any such experiment -- is that a man cannot separate his inner self from his observing self. Wakefield cannot step outside himself to view himself in that former life more clearly, because he has taken himself out of that life. He is not in the home with his now grieving wife, interacting with her; he is outside, watching from a distance.

As he sees a physician visit his wife, Wakefield suspects she might be deathly ill, and this seems to slightly arouse his concern, but not enough to move him to return and comfort her back to health. By no means shall his sojourn in self-discovery be affected by these inconvenient stirrings of conscience; he hasn't yet decided when he will return, and this decision must be determined by his needs, not hers.

Continue reading "New Column: Obama's Morbid Vanity"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:23 PM

May 17, 2012

New Column: It's Not the Same-Sex Marriage, Stupid

People have asked what Obama could possibly have been thinking to announce the final step in his "evolution" in favor of same-sex marriage right after another state resoundingly rejected the notion and despite the fact that most Americans oppose it.

Whether or not Joe Biden forced Obama's hand on the issue, which I doubt, there is little question that Obama was going to make the announcement. The only question was when.

Many assume he decided to do it before the election to increase his fundraising among Hollywood liberals and other leftists. But all the funds in the world might not help if you are going to campaign on policies that are unpopular with the voters. So what gives?

The question isn't how popular same-sex marriage is; it's what percentage of people will pick their presidential candidate based on Obama's announced change in position.

Everyone paying attention knew already that Obama favors same-sex marriage, and his actions -- which should speak louder than his words -- have strongly supported it, as his Justice Department has been at war against states outlawing the practice. Only certain trusting and naive people believed Obama when he said he was evolving -- as opposed to pretending to oppose same-sex marriage for political reasons until he decided to make his announcement.

Continue reading "New Column: It's Not the Same-Sex Marriage, Stupid"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:23 PM

May 14, 2012

New Column: Obama Is the Extremist, Not Conservative Talkers

Some conservatives believe that other conservatives, on talk radio and Fox News Channel, are damaging the cause of conservatism by dishonestly overstating their case against President Obama to increase their ratings and profits.

More reasonable Republican politicians, they argue, would like to cooperate with Obama on bipartisan solutions but don't have the power to resist these extremists with the megaphones and so have buckled in lock step to their demands and become the party of "no" and the purveyors of gridlock.

The problem is that the presuppositions underlying those allegations are wrong. There may be some exceptions, but the large majority of leading conservative voices are doing their very best to save this nation from Obama's policies, which they believe are leading to the nation's financial, cultural and national security ruin. Obama is a leftist, very extreme by historical standards. To compromise with his positions would not be in the best interest of the nation but would advance the cause of leftism, so any pressure conservatives can bring to bear on Republican politicians to strongly oppose his agenda is laudable.

I can't conceive of too many situations in which splitting the difference with Obama has advanced or would advance the cause of conservatism or constitutional liberty. We wouldn't reduce our debt, for example, by agreeing to reduce the levels of increases in spending. We couldn't improve the quality, cost and availability of health care by agreeing to more government intervention when we believe in free market solutions. We couldn't prudently agree to a half-measure stimulus package when we believe stimulus spending not only doesn't stimulate the economy but does further increase the debt. We couldn't agree to some compromise reductions in our nuclear and conventional forces if we believe that even these lesser cuts would jeopardize our national security. We couldn't agree to meet Obama halfway on energy policy by signing on to policies that punish conventional energy only half as much and waste just half as many billions on quixotic green energy debacles.

We can get mired in a semantic argument over whether Obama is a card-carrying communist, a European socialist, an admirer of Hugo Chavez's and Daniel Ortega's or, as he says, a fierce advocate of the free market, but such quibbling is more misleading than the labels themselves.

Continue reading "New Column: Obama Is the Extremist, Not Conservative Talkers"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 10:33 PM

May 10, 2012

New Column: Time for Republicans To Take the Offensive

Two very important things happened in politics this week. First, the elections underscored just how fed up mainstream America is with extreme liberalism. Second, President Obama, with his formal endorsement of same-sex marriage, is openly casting his lot with his extremist base.

The question is: How will putative GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney interpret and respond to these events? Will he fall into the usual Republican trap of thinking he has to follow his Democratic opponent leftward to appear more moderate? Or will he show his confidence in the reasonableness of conservatism and in the American people to embrace him if he clearly articulates it?

To some extent, we are all products of our environments. We get our sense of what is "normal" from those with whom we most frequently associate, which at least partially explains liberal media figures believing that their minority views are mainstream.

They uniformly ridicule traditional American values on national TV as if they are held only by flyover throwbacks who haven't yet been exposed to the enlightened wisdom of the coasts. How else do you explain Chris Matthews' brazen characterization of the GOP as the "grand wizard" party and as flat-earthers and those who don't believe in science? Or candidate Obama's derisive portrayal of small-town Americans as bitter clingers, apparently clueless that the statement would reveal him, not those he described, as extreme?

There are countless other examples, including liberals and ex-liberals who've said that until they reached a certain age, they'd never met a Republican or conservative in their lives. And we've all seen the statistics on the staggeringly high percentage of atheism among Beltway journalists and media figures compared with the rest of the American people.

Continue reading "New Column: Time for Republicans To Take the Offensive"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 09:55 PM

May 07, 2012

New Column: Truth Is Major Obstacle to Obama's Re-election

President Obama formally kicked off his re-election campaign in Richmond, Va., and Columbus, Ohio, Saturday, and his theme was certainly not, shall we say, "it's morning again in America" -- President Ronald Reagan's optimistic re-election slogan in 1984.

Obama's central message was more like: "Hey, I realize things look bad, and I'm not going to pretend you want four more years of this. But just think how much worse it would have been without me and how much worse it's going to get if you get rid of me."

Interestingly, mainstream media journalists Chris Cillizza and Aaron Blake were certain enough that Obama wasn't sufficiently forthcoming in his speech that they co-wrote a piece for The Washington Post "parsing" it. Without a whiff of disapproval, they said, "This being politics, Obama said less than what he meant. But, that's where we come in." The two then set out Obama's "most quotable lines" and followed each with their "translation of the message he was trying to send."

The writers are obviously sympathetic to Obama's agenda and, as fellow liberals, share his end-justifies-the-means sleight of hand -- whatever it takes to keep this federal juggernaut barreling along. Let's look at just a few of the quotes they highlighted.

Obama said: "I don't care how many ways you try to explain it: Corporations aren't people. People are people." The writers said Obama was responding to Mitt Romney's earlier remark that "corporations are people," and they said Obama intended to send this message: "Romney is the business candidate. I am the people's candidate."

Continue reading "New Column: Truth Is Major Obstacle to Obama's Re-election"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:21 PM

May 03, 2012

New Column: Piers Morgan Slays Himself in Goldberg Interview

There was a silver lining for Jonah Goldberg in Piers Morgan's ambush interview of him allegedly concerning his new book, "The Tyranny of Cliches." Jonah couldn't have written a better script to illustrate his book's theme.

Someone really should explain to Morgan that when a host invites a guest to discuss the guest's book, the host ought to at least make a good-faith effort to pretend he has the slightest interest in allowing the author to expound on the book's contents -- as opposed to using the author as a prop to indulge the interviewer's own arguments against conservatives and their toxic opinions.

That someone might also inform Morgan that it's a perversion of the Socratic method for an interviewer to badger a guest into admitting the rhetorical premises of the interviewer's opinions rather than lead him through carefully constructed logical arguments to those conclusions -- never allowing the guest fully to answer his questions, never listening to his responses, making every one of his follow-up questions a classic non sequitur and putting words in the guest's mouth for the purpose of constructing and then demolishing various straw men.

The central theme of Jonah's book, which he explained in response to the only germane question Morgan posed in the interview, is that though pretty much everyone is ideological, conservatives are honest about it, and liberals are not. Liberals lie about their own ideological proclivities, mostly to themselves but also to others.

Let me briefly unpack the interview to illustrate precisely how accurate Goldberg is and how, during the interview, Morgan became a personification of the book's theme -- all without having the slightest clue he was doing so.

Continue reading "New Column: Piers Morgan Slays Himself in Goldberg Interview"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:55 PM

April 30, 2012

New Column: Obama Is Headed Anywhere but Forward

You have to hand it to President Obama and his cabal of re-election strategists; they are masters of illusion. Their newly released Web video and its accompanying campaign slogan, "Forward," are science fiction-level fantastical.

We're all familiar with Obama's penchant for deflecting responsibility and blaming his policy failures on George W. Bush, but after more than three years in office for Obama, it has gone from childish mischief to juvenile delinquency. This is a question for Guinness: Has any other president run for re-election against the record of his retired predecessor?

Indeed, Obama is still feeding us this dodge years beyond its spoil date, apparently hoping we won't realize we have salmonella until he's safely voted in to his second term.

Watch the video. In the words of The Hill's John Easley, "it blames GOP policies for the still-sluggish economy."

It attempts to draw a clear dichotomy between the dark days of the last year of Bush's term and the glorious remedial reign of President Obama, which began in January 2009.

Continue reading "New Column: Obama Is Headed Anywhere but Forward"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:36 PM

April 26, 2012

New Column: Obama Administration's Repeated Abuses Are Extension of Extreme Liberalism

Every day, we get a new kick in the gut from the Obama administration. Most recently, Environmental Protection Agency Region 6 Administrator Al Armendariz was caught on video articulating his view of the agency's role in enforcing its regulations.

Aremendariz said: "It was kind of like how the Romans used to, you know, conquer villages in the Mediterranean. They'd go into a little Turkish town somewhere; they'd find the first five guys they saw, and they'd crucify them. Then, you know, that town was really easy to manage for the next few years. ... It's a deterrent factor."

This man should be fired -- yesterday. White House press secretary Jay Carney risibly says Aremendariz wasn't articulating the attitude of the administration. Sadly, that's precisely what he was articulating.

Indeed, we've seen this attitude by the administration in countless examples, from Obama's handling of the Obamacare legislation and restructuring of the GM loans to the administration's New Black Panther voter intimidation case to Solyndra to Fast and Furious to -- oh, never mind; I have to keep this to less than 20,000 words.

None of this should surprise us. Obama is the quintessential liberal, and his administration's recurring abuses are simply the logical extension of liberal hubris born of a self-righteous certainty of the superiority of leftist ideas. This inevitably leads to dictatorial usurpations and lawlessness from the liberal ruling class.

Continue reading "New Column: Obama Administration's Repeated Abuses Are Extension of Extreme Liberalism"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:50 PM

April 23, 2012

New Column: Romney Should Choose Bold Colors, Not Pale Pastels

Mitt Romney's presidential run could turn out to be a test case to resolve the long-running debate inside the Republican Party as to whether the GOP presidential nominee should run as a conservative or more of a centrist.

How often have we heard both Democratic and Republican political "experts" reciting the conventional wisdom that during primary contests, candidates of both parties must play to their respective base voters and then shift toward the center during the general election campaign? Does anyone even challenge this edict?

The first problem with this is that it implicitly suggests that all presidential candidates are first and foremost politicians who will cater their policy agenda to whatever extent necessary to win their party's nomination and the general election. Perhaps I'm somewhat Pollyannaish, but I reject the cynical view that all politicians are, in the end, political prostitutes.

I am not saying that candidates shouldn't do their best to package their messages in the most palatable and attractive form to voters; that goes without saying. But what about their substantive message -- what they really stand for?

Well, that depends on what they stand for.

Exit polling consistently shows that nearly twice as many Americans identify themselves as conservative than as liberal. Even without that data, we know that Democrats must be convinced this is true, because most of them run as moderates in national elections.

Continue reading "New Column: Romney Should Choose Bold Colors, Not Pale Pastels"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:23 PM

April 16, 2012

New Column: Katie Pavlich's 'Fast and Furious'

Of all the myriad scandals of the Obama administration, there is one, largely ignored by the mainstream media, that could actually be its worst.

That scandal is the operation run from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, under the Justice Department, known as "Fast and Furious," through which the federal government actually encouraged and even ordered American gun shops to sell guns -- against the store owners' better judgment -- to "straw" purchasers who were funneling guns to Mexican drug gangs while the ATF sat back and watched and did nothing.

As Katie Pavlich shows in her remarkable and eye-opening new book, "Fast and Furious: Barack Obama's Bloodiest Scandal and Its Shameless Cover-Up," the whole scheme was either absolutely harebrained or, as some have more ominously theorized, intentionally designed to manufacture "evidence" for tightening gun control legislation.

Pavlich exposes how extreme gun control measures have been a top political goal for President Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder and other important leaders within the administration -- and she draws the lines that link this goal directly to the implementation of Fast and Furious. Just as importantly, she shows how the administration has shamelessly tried to obscure those links.

The operation resulted in the murder of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and the murder or wounding of some 200 Mexican citizens.

Continue reading "New Column: Katie Pavlich's 'Fast and Furious'"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:10 PM

April 12, 2012

New Column: Thank You, Ms. Rosen

Though everyone is talking about Democratic strategist and Obama confidant Hilary Rosen's insolent remarks about Ann Romney, I want to discuss them, too, because they reveal her leftist mindset.

Rosen didn't misspeak; she spoke deliberately and with passion. And when given a chance to retract or soften her remarks, she doubled down -- at least initially.

Her comments came in a segment on CNN with Anderson Cooper. Cooper pointed out that in the current economy, "women are seeing jobs come back much more slowly than men are," and he asked Rosen, essentially, whether there was anything wrong with the Romney campaign's highlighting that fact and "reaching out to women on an issue that they care about, on the economy."

"Guess what?" asked Rosen. "His wife has actually never worked a day in her life. She's never really dealt with the kinds of economic issues that a majority of the women in this country are facing in terms of how do we feed our kids, how do we send them to school and why we worry about their future."

Though Rosen's next comment hasn't received as much attention, it exposes liberal thinking. She said: "There's something much more fundamental about Mitt Romney, because he seems so old-fashioned when it comes to women. And I think that comes across. ... He just doesn't really see us as equal."

Continue reading "New Column: Thank You, Ms. Rosen"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:24 PM

April 09, 2012

New Column: Holder's Corrupt Opposition to Voter ID Laws

Can anyone think of an innocuous reason that President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder oppose state voter ID laws?

Obama and Holder appear to view almost everything through the prism of race or, at the very least, use race as an excuse to justify otherwise very dubious policies, from immigration enforcement to voter intimidation actions to strong-arming banks to make loans via allegations of racism.

In December, along these lines, Holder criticized redistricting maps that had been drawn by the Texas Legislature and used the opportunity to call for an aggressive federal review of voter identification laws in not just Texas but other states.

But what does all this have to do with voter ID laws? Well, Republicans have been engaged in lobbying for state voter ID laws throughout the nation as an effort to enhance fair and lawful elections and prevent voter fraud. These laws are simple and transparent; they would require voters to present a government-issued form of identification as a condition to voting.

Predictably, Democrats -- led by Obama and Holder -- claim that the move is a GOP ruse to suppress minority voting. Holder called on the parties "to resist the temptation to suppress certain votes in the hope of attaining electoral success and, instead, achieve success by appealing to more voters."

Continue reading "New Column: Holder's Corrupt Opposition to Voter ID Laws"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:53 PM

April 05, 2012

New Column: Obama Has It Backward; Striking Down Obamacare Would Protect Our Republic

Is President Obama such a die-hard leftist ideologue that he can't get it right on judicial review, despite having time to reflect and regroup after his impertinent comments designed to intimidate the court?

As everyone knows, Obama said Monday, "Ultimately, I'm confident that the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress." That, he said, would be "judicial activism."

For a man who promised to upgrade the dignity of the office and held himself out as a model of bipartisanship, this president manages to insinuate himself into every imaginable issue and incident on which he has a strong opinion, from the Cambridge police to Trayvon Martin to Las Vegas tourism. If he wants his administration to engage in Chicago-style political street fighting, couldn't he at least delegate the task to one of his surrogates?

What business does he have calling out the Supreme Court while a major case is pending before it (the Affordable Care Act) and issuing an implied threat that the justices had better not defy him?

Please don't protest that I'm making an unwarranted inference. It's not as if he hasn't done something like this before.

Continue reading "New Column: Obama Has It Backward; Striking Down Obamacare Would Protect Our Republic"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:23 PM

April 02, 2012

New Column: Obama Touts His Record

In his excellent daily Web news summary, "The Transom," Ben Domenech says that President Obama's speech at the Portland Museum of Art on Saturday "is likely to be Obama's campaign speech from here on out." He's probably correct, so let's take a look, with an eye to whether it's likely to work.

Obama's template is nothing new. He first repeats his claim as to the catastrophic conditions he inherited from President Bush. "It's hard to remember sometimes how perilous things were when I was sworn in."

So Obama took immediate action "to save the auto industry, to get the banks lending again" and to make sure state and local governments didn't lay off teachers and first responders. Indeed, he moved so fast that "people didn't fully appreciate the scope and magnitude of what got done in those first six months, that first year."

He acknowledged he destroyed millions of jobs and presided over the worst unemployment rates in modern times, which at their best are still more than 60 percent higher than the norm and much worse when you factor in people who have quit looking for work. I mean he said that he "created almost 4 million jobs" and that "we have seen the unemployment rate start ticking down." Companies, he said, "are hiring and investing again."

Obama related that after the inconvenient distraction of saving America from President Bush, he then got about the business of fulfilling his campaign promises. He noted that he unleashed his economy-destroying, pie-in-the-sky green energy projects and war on domestic energy, er, I mean he "followed through on commitments to invest in clean energy and doubled fuel efficiency standards on cars -- and trucks -- in an unprecedented fashion."

Continue reading "New Column: Obama Touts His Record"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:43 PM

New Column: Obama Doubling Down on His Leftist Radicalism

You can't even casually surf the Internet on any given day without numerous reminders of just how radical President Obama is -- and this is during an election year, when it should be in his political interest to mask his radicalism.

Minding my own business, I happened on an article by Jacob Laksin on FrontPageMag.com, titled "Obama's Pick for World Bank Hates Capitalism." I'd heard a bit about this before but hadn't yet studied it. I'm so used to Obama's extremism that such revelations hardly move me, much less surprise me. I know where he stands; I just wish everyone else did.

Obama has nominated Dartmouth College President Jim Yong Kim to head the World Bank. In 2000, Kim edited a collection of studies under the title "Dying for Growth: Global Inequality and the Health of the Poor."

The "book's radical central premise," writes Laksin, is that "capitalism and economic growth (are) bad for the poor across the world." Kim co-wrote the introduction, which includes the claim that the book shows "that the quest for growth in GDP and corporate profits has in fact worsened the lives of millions of women and men." It says that even in those instances in which free trade and free markets have led to economic growth, they've done so without benefiting "those living in 'dire poverty,' one-fourth of the world's population." Can't you just hear Obama himself in those words?

One thing that helps the plight of the very poor, according to one chapter, is a socialized health care system, such as the one in Communist Cuba. The chapter's author touts that system because of the Cuban government's "commitment not only to health in the narrow sense but to social equality and social justice." As we opponents of Obamacare have said repeatedly, Obamacare is hardly just about making health care more affordable or more accessible, neither of which it will do in the end, but is a stealth vehicle to greatly expand governmental control over limitless aspects of our lives to enable the leftist central planners to effectuate "social equality and social justice" under the innocuous guise of providing health care.

Continue reading "New Column: Obama Doubling Down on His Leftist Radicalism"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:40 PM

March 26, 2012

New Column: Obamacare: Will the Court Vindicate Itself?

If there has ever been a case that could vindicate the Supreme Court as a guardian of liberty or incriminate it as freedom's thief, it is the court's present consideration of the Affordable Care Act.

At the founding of the republic, the Anti-Federalist opponents of the Constitution warned that to grant the power to declare laws unconstitutional to an unelected and life-tenured Supreme Court could subvert the democratic republic and threaten our liberties.

In the Anti-Federalist papers, "Brutus" argued that though there would be strong checks on the other two branches of government, the power of judicial review would give the court the final say in overturning laws enacted by the people's elected representatives in Congress and make the unaccountable judicial branch superior to the elected legislative branch.

Brutus wrote: "The supreme court under this constitution would be exalted above all other power in the government, and subject to no control. ... The judges in England are under the control of the legislature ... but the judges under this constitution will control the legislature, for the supreme court are authorised in the last resort, to determine what is the extent of the powers of the Congress. They are to give the constitution an explanation, and there is no power above them to set aside their judgment. ... (The authors of the constitution) have made the judges independent, in the fullest sense of the word. There is no power above them, to control any of their decisions."

This was particularly dangerous, argued Brutus, because "when great and extraordinary powers are vested in any man, or body of men, which in their exercise, may operate to the oppression of the people, it is of high importance that powerful checks should be formed to prevent the abuse of it." And "this responsibility, he said, "should ultimately rest with the people."

Continue reading "New Column: Obamacare: Will the Court Vindicate Itself?"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 02:48 PM

March 22, 2012

New Column: Liberal Opposition to Ryan Plan Is Delusional Demagoguery

It's one thing for good-faith conservative Republicans to challenge the Ryan plan from the right if they believe its cuts are too small and too slow, but these liberal attacks are something else again.

How catastrophic would the nation's fiscal condition have to be before liberals recognized its urgency? Is there any scenario under which they'd consider setting aside their partisan populism to come to the nation's rescue? Are they capable of even temporarily setting aside their redistributionist myopia long enough meaningfully to address the main drivers of the national debt?

As we know, President Obama hasn't addressed and won't address our financial problems. He has never presented a budget plan that even pretends to rein in entitlement spending or comes anywhere close to reducing our annual deficits to less than shocking numbers, much less reversing the debt picture.

When Paul Ryan presented his plan in April 2011, Obama mocked, ridiculed and demonized him and Republicans as wanting to inflict pain on the elderly and autistic, among other sympathetic groups. Yet when Obama's treasury secretary appeared before the House and the Senate, he admitted the administration's plan wholly fails to address the long-term debt issue and said only that the administration doesn't like the way Ryan's plan approaches it.

We are witnessing the end results of liberal policies on a wide variety of issues -- from health care to the economy to the national debt -- yet liberals can't give them up. Instead of acknowledging that their utopian dreams haven't delivered, they are shaking their fists at Republicans and conservatives, as if it were our fault that reality doesn't conform to their fantasies. They'd be much better off reading Mark Levin's "Ameritopia," but I won't hold my breath.

Continue reading "New Column: Liberal Opposition to Ryan Plan Is Delusional Demagoguery"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 11:10 PM

March 19, 2012

New Column: They Call These Accomplishments?

If you read through the Washington Monthly's list of Obama's top 50 accomplishments, you'll quickly understand why my brother, Rush, properly wanted him to fail.

When Rush said he wanted Obama to fail, everyone knew he was talking about his policies, and for those few who pretended otherwise, he explained it a thousand times: He wanted his policies to fail because his policies are disastrous for America.

Obama has certainly failed to exhibit leadership at very important points, such as his taking a pass during budget negotiations and his legendary vacillation at key foreign policy junctures. But in terms of the general, statist direction of the country, he is captain of the sinking ship.

Obama wasn't kidding when he promised to fundamentally transform America, and he has succeeded in doing so, to the everlasting detriment of the country. Four more years of this and it's hard to imagine what kind of shape we'll be in.

Paul Glastris, Ryan Cooper and Siyu Hu co-wrote the piece for the Washington Monthly. If you want to see just how far apart red America and blue America are, you must examine their list, recognizing that they are actually bragging about these "accomplishments."

Let's take a quick look at just a small fraction of these items:

Continue reading "New Column: They Call These Accomplishments?"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 10:23 PM

March 15, 2012

New Column: Obama's Health Care Duplicity No Longer Debatable

President Obama said, "The package we've put together" will "start bending the cost curve on health care" and "cut the deficit by a trillion dollars." Even a sympathetic Congressional Budget Office has finally put the nail in the coffin of that howler.

At the time Obama made the claim, we all knew it was specious, and study after study came out showing just how fraudulent it was. There was the double counting on Medicare, the "Doc Fix" scam and a host of others. When Rep. Paul Ryan asked the CBO to rescore Obamacare with more accurate assumptions, it didn't quite make the grade -- by hundreds of billions of dollars, which, of course, are but rounding errors for the federal spending virtuoso in the White House.

Many of us knew at the time that Obama's drive for socialized medicine had nothing to do with reducing spending -- the last thing that is ever on his mind. We knew that it wasn't about increasing access to care -- because socialized medicine schemes always ultimately reduce people's access to quality care.

Looked at in a light most favorable to Obama's intentions, it was but another utopian scheme to put everyone on a level playing field. Looked at honestly and realistically, it was a Trojan horse to expand government control over our private lives that would result in less, worse and more expensive care.

No one who has watched Obama and the titanic leftist juggernaut he has unleashed on our beloved America thought he was promoting Obamacare to bend the health care curve down. If that had been the case, he wouldn't have had to go to such lengths to make it appear as though this budget buster was actually a plan for cost containment.

Continue reading "New Column: Obama's Health Care Duplicity No Longer Debatable"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:25 PM

March 09, 2012

New Column: Big Lies on Big Oil

How much truth is there in President Obama's latest favorite mantra that we consume a disproportionate share of the world's oil, especially considering how little of the world's reserves we have?

Recently, Obama said: "But here's the thing about oil. We have about 2, maybe 3, percent of the world's proven oil reserves. We use 25 percent of the world's oil. So think about it. Even if we doubled the amount of oil that we produce, we'd still be short by a factor of five."

First, let's look at the raw numbers and then examine Obama's misleading framing of the issue. This is important because he uses these statistics to justify his reckless expenditure of federal funds to pursue alternative "green" energy sources, such as the disgraceful and scandalous Solyndra project.

The United States has some 20 billion barrels of oil in reserves. By "reserves" we're talking "proven" reserves, meaning those that are certain to be recoverable in future years from known reservoirs under existing economic and operating conditions. That is, we have 20 billion barrels of oil that is recoverable at current prices and under lands currently available for development.

That definition excludes many oil reserves that Obama has declared off-limits. According to the Institute for Energy Research, we have more than 1.4 trillion barrels of oil that is technically recoverable in the United States with existing technology. The largest deposits are located offshore, in portions of Alaska and in shale deposits in the Rocky Mountain states. So the United States has more recoverable oil than the rest of the non-North American world combined. The Heritage Foundation says this is enough to fuel every passenger car in the nation for 430 years. Therefore, "it is merely semantics -- not a scientific assessment of what America has the capacity to produce -- that allows critics to claim repeatedly that America is running out of energy."

Continue reading "New Column: Big Lies on Big Oil"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 12:18 AM

March 05, 2012

New Column: Rush: At the Tip of Liberty's Spear

If you'll indulge me, I need to express this beyond my Twitter posts: I am proud of my brother, Rush, for his multiple sincere apologies to Sandra Fluke. I am not even slightly surprised that so many on the left refuse to accept his apology.

I think this entire incident is instructive. Rush is heartsick over the direction this country is going and that we arrived at a place where many people don't even bat an eye over the alarming development that our government is mandating insurance coverage -- and forcing employers to pay for it even when they object on moral grounds.

But Rush issued written and verbal apologies, and those apologies were unequivocal. They were not phrased in the passive voice. They were not indirect, e.g., "I am sorry for the pain I've caused my family." They did not seek to blame others. They did not seek to avoid personal responsibility through use of the conditional, e.g., "I am sorry if I hurt your feelings." They were not phony; they were coupled with a discrete reaffirmation of his belief in the underlying principles that led to this sad episode in the first place.

That is, he did not say he is sorry for being a conservative and for standing up for the values he believes in. He had the courage to reaffirm those beliefs in a way that did not detract from his sincere apologies for the unfortunate words he used.

Continue reading "New Column: Rush: At the Tip of Liberty's Spear"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:22 PM

February 27, 2012

New Column: Christian Conservatives Guard Religious Liberty

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution contains two clauses addressing religious liberty: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

It's a shame that in their modern misguided zeal to read the first clause as mandating a complete separation of church and state, liberals do great damage to the second clause and defeat the overarching purpose of both: ensuring religious liberty.

Ever since the so-called Christian right began its organized activism during the 1980s, liberals (and some others) have become increasingly nervous about (and critical of) Christian influence in politics, let alone the public square.

This issue has reared its controversial head during the Republican presidential primary because of candidate Rick Santorum's unashamed and outspoken commitment to his Catholic faith and Christian values. It's not just leftists who are complaining; many on the right are, as well.

For years, there has been an uneasy alliance inside the Republican "big tent," between those who embrace social conservatism and those who would just as soon see it deleted from the party platform. With our anxiety about the national debt, economic issues are naturally at the forefront of people's concerns. Some believe that those who are still articulating social issues in this period of crisis are at least annoying and possibly detrimental to the cause of electing a Republican who can build a wide enough coalition to defeat the primary culprit in America's race to bankruptcy: President Barack Obama.

Continue reading "New Column: Christian Conservatives Guard Religious Liberty"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 08:28 PM

February 23, 2012

New Column: Giving With One Hand and Taking With the Other

So we should all be grateful that President Obama is just now coming out for a corporate tax rate cut? But does anyone really believe he's had a supply-side epiphany?

That this is an election year surely wouldn't have anything to do with his apparent change of heart, would it? He's been president for more than three years, and Republicans have been clamoring all that time for a reduction in the world's second-highest corporate tax rate. So don't you think that if Obama truly favored this, it would have happened long ago?

But there's something more cynical about Obama's new proposal. It wouldn't operate as advertised.

As we get closer to the 2012 general election campaign, Obama wants to be positioned to compete with the eventual nominee on this issue. Newt would cut the current 35 percent rate to 12.5 percent. Romney would reduce it to 25 percent. And Santorum would reduce it to 17.5 percent for all corporations except domestic manufacturers, which would be exempted from the tax.

Obama calls for a modest reduction, to 28 percent, which would still be reason to cheer coming from him, but it's not quite that simple. Underneath the smoke and to the side of the mirrors, we find it's just another ploy to empower Obama to pick the winners and losers.

Continue reading "New Column: Giving With One Hand and Taking With the Other"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:25 PM

February 16, 2012

New Column: Conservatives Must Remain United

A strong move is on to demonize and marginalize social conservatives, a move that originates from the political left but is being aided by some on the right, a move that is based on assumptions that better describe the leftist accusers than they do their targets.

Obama, by rewriting the Bush rules to protect health care providers who objected on moral grounds to abortion, has breached his repeated promise to preserve them and has dealt a significant blow to religious liberties, yet he is painting people of faith as the extremists.

In his University of Notre Dame speech, he said, "Let's honor the conscience of those who disagree with abortion and draft a sensible conscience clause and make sure that all our health care policies are grounded not only in sound science but also in clear ethics, as well as respect for the equality of women."

In his propaganda speeches for Obamacare, he said, "One more misunderstanding I want to clear up: Under our plan ... federal conscience laws will remain in place."

But what about his actions? Well, a few months before his Notre Dame speech, the administration disclosed that it had begun the process of overturning the Bush protections.

Continue reading "New Column: Conservatives Must Remain United"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:02 PM

February 13, 2012

New Column: President Magoo Needs No Delphic Oracle

President Obama is nothing if not an incorrigible spendaholic, as his new budget reconfirms in spades. While the nation drowns in debt, Obama wants to buy new expensive Tinkertoys to indulge his utopian fantasies.

Legend has it that prior to embarking on his mission to conquer the known world, Alexander the Great, who had not yet established his greatness, visited the oracle at Delphi seeking a good omen. The oracle was actually a priestess who sat on a stool in the crypt of Apollo's Temple above a fissure in the earth that emitted vapors and put her into a trance, wherein she would channel messages from Apollo.

Alexander encountered a minor problem when he arrived at Delphi: The oracle was only open for "business" one day a month, nine months a year, and it didn't happen to be open then. So Alexander went around the village, searching for the priestess. When he finally found her, he forced her to accompany him to the temple. Upon arriving at the temple, in his eagerness to receive the oracle, he was literally shoving her down the ramp toward the crypt when she turned abruptly toward him and exclaimed, "Boy, there's no resisting you." With that, Alexander took his hands off her, stepped back and said, with great satisfaction, "That's the only oracle I wanted to hear."

This is precisely the attitude that possesses President Obama. He is hellbent on pursuing his agenda, and he will not be denied, even if he has to strong-arm the gods and flout the laws of finance and economics to get his way.

While he has the entire nation horrified at our imminent national financial collapse, he chooses not to steer the ship of state, but to drive his putt-putt electric car with all the acumen and obliviousness of Mr. Magoo, smiling in self-satisfied delight as he careens through the streets of our national budget, imperiling everyone in sight.

Continue reading "New Column: President Magoo Needs No Delphic Oracle"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:25 PM

February 09, 2012

New Column: Obama Invites Backlash on Conscience Rule Betrayal

As God's instrument, Moses parted the Red Sea. Well, it appears President Obama has a different idea. With a wave of his hand, he's going to reunite our bitterly divided political waters on the hottest of hot-button issues.

Don't get me wrong; Obama's conscious effort to divide Americans on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion and wealth for political purposes is alive and thriving. That's a separate phenomenon.

What I'm talking about here is his apparent conviction that by sheer force of his presence, his charisma, his aura and his gift for supernatural nuance, he can utter magical words on any bitterly controversial matter and instantly reconcile opposing factions, even on matters that do not lend themselves to neat solutions.

This exaggerated sense of self-worth, not just his visceral liberal inclination toward appeasement, is what leads him to believe he can negotiate with terrorists and persuade them to renounce their jihad against America upon witnessing his world apology tour, his outreach to Muslims in Cairo, his witch hunt against CIA interrogators, and his shoutouts to the Muslim Brotherhood. (Don't tell him, but polls show he's even less popular than President George W. Bush was in the Muslim world.)

His stunning absence of any awareness of his own limitations (Socrates' wisdom yardstick) is obviously what convinced him he could deliver a speech at the University of Notre Dame that would induce a bilateral epiphany in which both sides of the abortion debate would finally realize that until he had deconstructed the issue so elegantly, they had been looking through the abortion glass darkly. Henceforth, they would see clearly and bask in the glow of harmonic convergence where pro-life advocates would appreciate the bizarre concept of a mother's sacred reproductive rights and the pro-aborts would come to understand, er, never mind. Only one side in these arguments needs to show movement -- the side that opposes Obama's beliefs.

Continue reading "New Column: Obama Invites Backlash on Conscience Rule Betrayal"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:57 PM

February 06, 2012

New Column: Obama Says He Deserves a Second Term; Let's Consider

President Obama told NBC's Matt Lauer in an interview Sunday, "I deserve a second term." Well, let's see.

He had the courage to tell the Supreme Court off for daring to defy him in its campaign finance law ruling. And he did it during his State of the Union speech, when they weren't in a position to object, showing just what a marvelous tactician he is.

He was not about to be stymied by an obstructionist Republican House that didn't buy into his Euro-fashionable idea that we're all going to die from catastrophic man-made global warming. So when those knuckleheads wouldn't pass cap and trade, his Environmental Protection Agency lawlessly imposed its own emission standards. He showed those Republicans.

He was sick and tired of our being in Iraq, an action approved by a joint resolution of Congress, so he telegraphed a date certain to withdraw. But he wasn't going to let Republicans think he couldn't flex his own muscles in the nominal cause of freedom, so he one-upped those dolts again by intervening in Libya without consulting Congress at all, much less getting its approval.

When he crammed through Obamacare against the people's will, he adroitly claimed he was acting on our behalf. Every year he's been in office, his deficits have greatly exceeded $1 trillion, and he is on course to double the national debt in five years and triple it in 10. How many presidents could pull that off?

Continue reading "New Column: Obama Says He Deserves a Second Term; Let's Consider"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:38 PM

February 02, 2012

New Column: What Is It About 'No Free Lunch' That Obama Doesn't Understand?

Obama's latest homeowner mortgage relief plan is perfect for him: It both is consistent with his ideology -- duh -- and allows him to buy more votes with someone else's money, all the while pretending there is in fact such a thing as a free lunch.

The painfully superficial liberal approach to poverty gets old, as does its corollary tenet that conservatives who reject liberals' failed ideas lack compassion. Indeed, Obama seemed to devote half the words in his prayer breakfast speech to proving that Scripture compels liberal policies.

Obama's latest proof that he cares more than we do is his proposal to "give every responsible homeowner in America a chance to save about $3,000 a year on their mortgage by refinancing at historically low rates. No more red tape. No more runaround from the banks."

This has all the elements. He frames the program as applying only to responsible mortgagors; he personally gets credit for handing out this money from his legendary "stash"; government, not the market, dictates what the interest rate will be; government will wave its magic wand forbidding "red tape" and bureaucratic obstacles; and banks, one of his favorite targets, are demonized and lined up to be punished.

But haven't we had enough of this man's top-down manipulation of the market in the guise of helping people? Is he ever to be held accountable for similar failed programs he's already tried? How about that $75 billion mortgage relief plan he implemented in 2009? You know, the one he said would "give millions of families resigned to financial ruin a chance to rebuild"? The one he said would save 7 million to 9 million mortgages.

Continue reading "New Column: What Is It About 'No Free Lunch' That Obama Doesn't Understand?"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:22 PM

January 30, 2012

New Column: Let's Honor, Not Stretch, the Buckley Rule

In the intense heat of the present, it is easy to forget even the relatively recent past, but it seems to me that this GOP primary season is more acrimonious than the past few, probably because the stakes are so high.

When I've noted that this is the most important presidential election of our lifetimes, a few excitability-resistant conservative friends have said, "They have been saying that about every election for more than a generation." My response to that is:

"Yes, and it's probably been true every time. As we march inexorably toward socialism by incremental steps, the need to elect political leaders to take steps to reverse it increases on a linear plane. But with President Obama, we're advancing not by incremental steps, but by giant leaps, hurtling toward statism with alarming alacrity. Every day that passes before we implement entitlement reform, for example, the geometric accumulation of vested benefits makes reform more imperative -- and more difficult. So yes, every national election of the past generation or so has probably been more important than the immediately preceding one, but 2012 is dramatically more urgent. Based on the cavalier manner with which Obama is lawlessly thwarting the Constitution and the people's will, it is hard to imagine what kind of tyrannical executive power grabs he'd try (and accomplish) if re-elected, even with an opposing Congress. We are already on autopilot to national bankruptcy, and if we don't
ram it into reverse soon, America as we have known it could be gone, at least for many years."

Conservatives are fighting among themselves about not just who the best candidate would be but also who is most electable. Sure, electability has always been an issue, but now some are saying that to support someone, it's essential not only that we show he is electable but also that he is the most electable. This amounts to replacing the "Buckley rule" -- that "we should support the most conservative candidate who is electable" -- with "we should support the most electable candidate, provided he is at least marginally conservative."

Continue reading "New Column: Let's Honor, Not Stretch, the Buckley Rule"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 01:48 PM

January 26, 2012

New Column: Obama's Misstatements on the Union

Only a president long shielded from criticism and accountability could make the kind of State of the Union speech President Obama did Tuesday night. It's hard to know where to begin, given his repetition of tired ideas from his previous SOTUs, his taking credit for successful policies he resisted and omitting failed ones he promoted, his numerous misrepresentations on issues big and small, and his glaring refusal to address the main issues that threaten the nation.

Let me touch on just a few highlights in this brief space.

Excessive spending is the primary threat to our nation's and Americans' financial future, yet Obama glossed over it and distorted his record.

He said, "We've already agreed to more than $2 trillion in cuts and savings. But we need to do more." But everyone knows he's had to be dragged kicking and screaming to the cutting table. His unrelenting passion is spending. Even The Washington Post said, "Obama does not mention that Republicans forced him to accept $2 trillion in budget cuts during the debt-ceiling impasse."

Obama said, "I'm prepared to make more reforms that rein in the long-term costs of Medicare and Medicaid and strengthen Social Security, so long as those programs remain a guarantee of security for seniors." Well, that's mighty magnanimous of him, but why is he so grudging about it? As president, he should be singularly focused on entitlement reform. Yet he has obstructed and demagogued such reforms. His condition that the "programs remain a guarantee of security for seniors" is completely dishonest, because Paul Ryan's plan did just that and he rejected it while ridiculing and demonizing Ryan.

Continue reading "New Column: Obama's Misstatements on the Union"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:42 PM

January 23, 2012

New Column: The Question Is Not 'Electability,' but 'Re-electability'

Republican internecine squabbles this primary season seem to turn on the vying candidates' respective electability against incumbent Barack Obama. But if even uber-liberal New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd has finally awakened to President Obama's arrogance, what does it say about his electability?

It's understandable that a lib would take so long to turn on the messiah, having invested so much in his presidency. But I wonder whether these people ever realize how late they are to the party and how utterly devoid of profundity their belated epiphanies are.

Dowd starts off her latest column describing Obama's opening appearance at a fundraiser at the Apollo in Harlem: "For eight seconds, we saw the president we had craved for three years: cool, joyous, funny, connected."

Unless you are a liberal utopian, such as my friend Mark Levin describes in his latest masterpiece, "Ameritopia," you wouldn't place so much faith in one deliberately mysterious man to usher in a new, unspecified era, and you especially wouldn't hold on to the painfully unrealistic hope that after three years, this man will finally present himself to be someone he has never been.

Savor a few of the tardy revelations Dowd has now come to see with pungent clarity:

Continue reading "New Column: The Question Is Not 'Electability,' but 'Re-electability'"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:08 PM

January 19, 2012

New Column: Middle America Longs for Conservatives To Stand Up To Liberal Bullying

I wish Republican politicians would have faith in the largely conservative electorate and not behave as though they'll make themselves unelectable unless they pander to Generic Moderate. Who is that guy, anyway? Have you ever met him?

Recently, we've seen a few examples of the liberal narrative's rearing its oppressive head and starkly different reactions to it. The first was Mitt Romney's reportedly telling The Wall Street Journal that as a wealthy person, he thinks he lacks the credibility to aggressively push tax cuts. Mitt is also looking timid about releasing his tax returns. He needs to fight back -- consistently -- instead of surrendering to the liberal narrative that success is evil. Mitt should take a lesson from Newt Gingrich on counterpunching against false liberal charges and innuendo.

Newt put on a clinic in his defiant response to moderator Juan Williams' racially charged questions during the Fox News GOP debate in South Carolina.

I honestly like Juan Williams and believe, based on observing him over the years, that he's a decent human being with a good heart. But for whatever reason, regrettably, he was wearing race on his sleeve that evening, and his race-baiting line of questions, in my opinion, was indefensible.

Juan first tried to lay a race trap for Rick Santorum when asking him whether the time "has come to take special steps to deal with the extraordinary level of poverty afflicting one race of Americans."

Continue reading "New Column: Middle America Longs for Conservatives To Stand Up To Liberal Bullying"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:58 PM

January 16, 2012

New Column: Mark Levin's 'Ameritopia'

Mark Levin's hard work in researching, organizing and writing his new book, "Ameritopia," will be a blessing for all who read it.

Countless books chronicle the forward march of the liberal agenda and attempt to deconstruct the fallacies in modern leftist thinking. Many critique the statist policies the left has imposed on us the past half-century and their disastrous effects on our culture, our economy and our national security.

Few modern books, however, direct our attention to first principles, perhaps assuming people implicitly understand the philosophical and ideological underpinnings of conservative thinking, and even fewer truly explore the anatomy of the liberal vision.

In "Liberty and Tyranny," Levin laid out the conservative vision and contrasted it with the liberal vision. But "Ameritopia" examines more deeply the historical and philosophical roots of the utopian ideal, for it is that ideal that has always animated the liberal worldview.

Levin takes us through the seminal thoughts of some of the most noted political philosophers and writers who laid out the utopian vision -- from Plato to Thomas More, Thomas Hobbes and Karl Marx -- and then unpacks the contrasting vision of John Locke, Baron de Montesquieu and others whose ideas greatly influenced America's founders.

Continue reading "New Column: Mark Levin's 'Ameritopia'"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:14 PM

January 12, 2012

Everything Is At Stake, All Right

On this we can agree with President Obama: Everything he stands for is at stake in 2012.

Obama told 500 fawning sycophants in Chicago that he is unrepentant about his policy agenda and intends to treat us to more of the same, much more, in a second term.

Obama said, "Everything that we fought for is now at stake in this election." Lest there be no mistake, he repeated the message in the smaller settings of private homes.

We can endlessly debate whether he is such a devoted ideologue that he's blind to his policy failures, whether he's willing to sacrifice the economy and the fiscal integrity of the United States for his perceived higher good of radical redistribution, or whether he really intends to do harm, but these are moot questions anymore. Under any of these possibilities, the fact remains that he is hellbent on accelerating his present course, not reversing it, on dictating, not working within his constitutional constraints, much less building a bipartisan consensus.

Hubris and defiance are his trademarks, not humility. He said, "If you're willing to work even harder in this election than you did in the last election, I promise you, change will come."

This should send cold chills up our spines. By "change," he means more of his unpopular, failed agenda. He has repeatedly indicated that he is frustrated with the process of republican government and that he would be much more comfortable as a dictator.

Continue reading "Everything Is At Stake, All Right"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:21 PM

January 09, 2012

This Week's MSM Bias Award Goes to George Stephanopoulos

We've been dealing with liberal media bias for years, but George Stephanopoulos' performance in the Republican presidential debate Saturday night in New Hampshire was particularly egregious.

In many of these MSM-moderated debates, liberal moderators have tried to stir up personal fights between candidates, which diverts our focus from more important issues and, before national television audiences, shifts attention far away from Barack Obama and his disastrous agenda.

Yes, these are debates among Republicans and designed to bring out distinctions among the candidates, but it should be up to the candidates to initiate and define those distinctions, and it is improper for the moderators to continually steer the debate away from substance and into the personal. With the moderators constantly stirring up catfights, liberal ends are served, both in placing Republican candidates in the worst light and in creating the illusion that their primary differences are with one another rather than Obama.

If you doubt this, then ask yourself how often in Saturday night's debate the candidates were given an opportunity -- instead of showing how corrupt, immoral or inexperienced their GOP rivals are -- to distinguish their policy proposals from the others in the context of the Obama record. The narrative in these debates ought to be how each of the candidates is better-equipped than the others to reverse Obama's agenda.

In addition to misdirecting the debates substantively, the liberal moderators have also, too often, injected themselves into the debates as if they were either driven by their irrepressible egos to make themselves players rather than facilitators or so ideologically revolted by the GOP's policies that they were compelled to argue Obama's side in his absence. The moderators shouldn't be allowed to have it both ways. If they are going to direct the debate solely toward differences among the GOP candidates, they shouldn't present Obama's side for him, giving him and the liberal position a free ride.

Continue reading "This Week's MSM Bias Award Goes to George Stephanopoulos"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:58 PM

January 05, 2012

Obama's Motto

President Obama is calling for dramatic defense cuts that could threaten our national survival while obstructing structural reforms to our entitlement programs that are essential for our national financial survival. It just doesn't get much worse than this.

President George W. Bush attempted in good faith to reform Social Security, and Democrats savaged him. Rep. Paul Ryan proposed a comprehensive financial plan that would, as painlessly as possible, restore national fiscal sanity, and Obama and his Democrats have misrepresented the plan (saying it would end Medicare) and used class warfare and fear-mongering to kill it in the cradle.

Indeed, Republicans have repeatedly submitted and passed comprehensive and detailed budget plans to restore our financial solvency, and Senate Democrats have blocked every one of them. Meanwhile, the Democratic Senate hasn't produced a budget in almost three years. Three years!

It is undeniable, undebatable, irrefutable, inarguable and certain that the United States is spending at a level that will destroy it. It is equally indisputable that Democrats have shown no willingness to join Americans in tackling the problem.

Every time you confront a liberal with these incontrovertible facts, his response is not: "You are simply wrong." It is, "Bush started this." Well, Bush did spend too much, but he was a piker compared with Obama. But it doesn't much matter who caused it anymore, does it?

Continue reading "Obama's Motto"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 10:29 PM

December 29, 2011

Blind to Their Liberal Biases

I think it's very difficult for any of us to be objective about any subject, especially something we care deeply about, but my objective observation is that liberals tend to be less aware of and less willing to admit their biases.

We see this often, which I'll get to, but first, let me relate how this phenomenon most recently came to my attention.

In a conversation with a saleswoman for online college courses, I expressed my disappointment that the professor of a religion course I was considering for purchase is an avowed atheist. I said that if I were going to spend time studying the subject, I'd prefer the professor share my Christian worldview.

Don't misunderstand. I think it can be profitable to learn what nonbelieving "scholars" teach about the Bible, but the point I want to discuss here is the woman's response.

She maintained that it is preferable, for this largely secular course on the Bible, to have a professor who can approach the subject from an objective, critical and historical perspective, as if a believing professor would be incapable of that approach. But is that true?

Continue reading "Blind to Their Liberal Biases"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:39 PM

December 22, 2011

Sometimes Caution Can Backfire

There seems to be a common line of demarcation separating two basic factions on the political right in the various skirmishes we have fought against Barack Obama, from their markedly different approaches to the budget battles to their differences in sizing up the GOP presidential candidates.

On one side we have the more moderate group, which is more cautious, less risk averse, less excitable, self-consciously pragmatic and more tolerant toward an establishment ruling class, even if not per se establishment itself. On the other side are those who perceive more urgency in our current national condition, are more adamant about adhering to conservative principles to reverse this catastrophe and reject the charge that they are recklessly purist.

Many from the first group have urged restraint and pragmatism in the budget negotiations, insisting it was too risky to force a government shutdown with Obama, that the big prize is 2012 and the best way to secure it is to avoid taking a hard line, which would hand Obama 2012 propaganda ammunition.

In each round of budget battles, with a spirit of defeatism and resignation, they warned against Republican brinksmanship, because they were convinced Obama would automatically win every PR victory. It was as though they had forgotten who’d won the 2010 congressional elections.

Obviously, they didn’t believe Republicans could convince the electorate that they had the better argument, even though they were the ones drawing a line in the sand on spending, which was what caused the crisis. Also, they had no confidence that Republicans could persuade voters that Democrats were lying when they said that the government would actually default on its major obligations.

Continue reading "Sometimes Caution Can Backfire"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:51 PM

December 19, 2011

Obama and Holder Should Put the Race Card back in the Deck

President Obama led us to believe that he would be a post-racial president who would bring the races together, but it's gotten to where you can't criticize this most leftist administration in American history without someone accusing you of racism.

The most recent example involves criticism of Attorney General Eric Holder over Fast and Furious, an operation conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which was overseen by the Justice Department. It involved the indirect sale of weapons to Mexican drug cartels, which resulted in some 300 killings in Mexico, including the murder of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry. Throughout, despite having received detailed memos from DOJ officials about it, Holder has denied he was aware of it.

The scandal and Holder's stonewalling have led to some 60 congressmen demanding his resignation, and 75 cosponsoring a House resolution calling for a "no-confidence" vote on his performance as attorney general.

Holder has defiantly denied culpability, and President Obama, without betraying the slightest concern, has proclaimed his complete confidence in Holder. In a New York Times interview, Holder suggested race was partially driving a "more extreme segment" against him and Obama.

Holder said, "This is a way to get at the president because of the way I can be identified with him, both due to the nature of our relationship, and, you know, the fact that we're both African-American." When pressed for some proof to support Holder's allegation, the Justice Department did not respond. Nor has the White House distanced itself from Holder's comments.

Continue reading "Obama and Holder Should Put the Race Card back in the Deck"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:23 PM

December 15, 2011

About Those Self-Evident Truths

"We hold these Truths to be self-evident..." What truths? What has happened to our passion for liberty? I am concerned that we conservatives, instead of making our case as fearless champions of liberty, are too often on the defensive, preoccupied with trying to prove we aren't the demons the left says we are.

In the GOP primary contest, you'll hear one candidate scolding the others for lacking compassion, another demagoguing a rival for advocating essential entitlement reform, and another shaming an opponent for being too wealthy.

Shouldn't our side do a better job of proudly proclaiming our case for what we believe in rather than have our tails tucked between our legs, apologizing for conservatism and all too often neglecting our first principles?

Because we face an existential threat to the nation in our exploding discretionary and entitlement spending, we rightly aim our rhetoric against the deficits and the debt. That's critically important, but in the process, do we forget to explain that we favor smaller government also as a matter of principle? Do we make the case that we oppose a bigger and more intrusive government because a) it is incompatible with what we stand for -- robust political liberty -- and b) other than metastasizing and swallowing up the private sector and our individual liberties, government does only a few things well?

Likewise, do we connect the dots between our confiscatory tax policies and the diminution of our liberties, demonstrating a nexus between oppressive taxes and serfdom? Do we protest that we are already overtaxed and that an onerous tax system, enforced by a menacing federal agency, devours our political liberty?

Continue reading "About Those Self-Evident Truths"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:45 PM

December 12, 2011

Obama's '60 Minutes' Interview Gives Grading on a Curve New Meaning

The most disturbing aspect of President Obama's "60 Minutes" interview is how sincere he sounded when misrepresenting his record. I'm not sure whether I would prefer that he be lying or self-deluded, but there's plenty of each to go around.

Obama is a left-wing ideologue, a true believer, who is convinced that his agenda is mandated by a superior moral imperative (from who knows where) and that it must be advanced irrespective of the consequences, because no matter how bad they might be, they would have been worse without his agenda.

Indeed, such is his blind faith that his policy failures reinforce rather than shatter his belief system, and he becomes more delusional the more he fails and has to rationalize those failures.

The upshot of his message to his interviewer, Steve Kroft, was that he deserves the highest marks for all "things that don't have to do with the economy and don't have to do with Congress."

So despite his muddled, ad hoc approach to foreign policy: his mistreatment of Israel, his pattern of insulting foreign leaders, his fair-weather support for some democratic movements and betrayal of others (Iran, Honduras), his manifest unpopularity in the Muslim world, and his gutting of our military defenses (F-22, our missile defenses and Europe's, and our nuclear arsenal) while China, Russia, Iran and others augment theirs, he claims that we are now respected again around the world and that we are stronger.

Continue reading "Obama's '60 Minutes' Interview Gives Grading on a Curve New Meaning"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 08:44 PM

December 08, 2011

In Kansas, Obama Emulates Dorothy: 'Lions and Tigers and Capitalists! Oh, My!'

President Obama's much-ballyhooed speech in Osawatomie, Kan., was his best effort to put a happy face on class warfare. Though some were elated, fantasizing that he might be getting his messianic mojo back, even his reliable cheerleaders recognize there's no substance beneath the hot air rising.

Liberals get all dewy-eyed when Obama reverts to idealistic tones, as they are saps for perfect-world scenarios that never materialize. They love it when he co-opts history in service to their cause. So he traveled to Kansas seeking to identify with Teddy Roosevelt, the icon of rugged individualism, to lambast the evils of rugged individualism.

Obama misdiagnosed the problems facing America, distorted the historical record, set up straw men to excoriate, and conflated history and principles, all to demonize his opponents, divert scrutiny from his record, and build support for his cause. He offered no concrete solutions, only low-minded platitudes, because everything he's tried has failed and he has nothing left to try.

He views the national economy as a zero-sum game in which the success of some means the misery of others. He sees unequal distribution of income and wealth as a pervasive evil -- an evil caused by the most sinister of boogeymen: unregulated capitalism.

Before unpacking these themes, shouldn't we ask what they have to do with the economic stagnation we're currently experiencing? It's one thing to lament societal disparities in income and wealth, as liberals hostage to a materialistic worldview always do. But the problems are that the economy has stalled, an alarming number of people are out of work, an increasing number of able-bodied citizens are dependent on government assistance, and people, mired in malaise and uncertainty and the turmoil of a divisive president, aren't saving, investing or consuming.

Continue reading "In Kansas, Obama Emulates Dorothy: 'Lions and Tigers and Capitalists! Oh, My!'"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:21 PM

December 05, 2011

The Orwellian American Left

As I heard Barack Obama and his propaganda minister, Jay Carney, endorsing tax cuts as a vehicle for economic growth, I was reminded, again, of George Orwell's "1984" and the striking similarities between his Oceania and the American left's vision for America.

Oceania's Big Brother regime had "four Ministries between which the entire apparatus of government was divided," the Ministry of Truth, the Ministry of Peace, the Ministry of Love and the Ministry of Plenty. Each department was dedicated to the opposite principle suggested by its title. "Truth" disseminated lies. "Peace" promoted war. "Love" enforced uniformity of thought. And "Plenty" manipulated the economy to impoverish the people while enriching the ruling class. God was expelled and absolute truth abolished, while "doublespeak" was promoted.

Oceania's Thought Police was the Ministry of Love's enforcement arm, while the Ministry of Truth undertook the task of rewriting history in service to the Party slogan, "Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past."

Today the left has a Ministry of Truth, because it knows that twice as many Americans identify themselves as conservatives than as liberals and so has to disguise its policies to deceive the majority. Its Ministry of Peace would be better-named the Ministry of Bipartisanship, which, in the name of reaching across the aisle with a friendly hand, slices it off with a partisan dagger. Its Ministry of Love is more aptly named the Ministry of Tolerance, which dictates one way of thinking and demonizes dissenters. The Ministry of Plenty is alive and well in the Obama administration's cadre of economic advisers.

Continue reading "The Orwellian American Left"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:05 PM

December 01, 2011

Obama Pleads for 4 More

Instead of trying to govern, a matter about which I suppose we should be grateful, President Obama is once again galloping from fundraiser to fundraiser, straining to make the implausible case that the country needs his second term.

In New York for three events -- in which he raked in $2 million from the very type of fat cats he daily condemns -- he pleaded with voters (Reuters' terminology, not mine) to be patient with him and to give him more time to fulfill his 2008 "hope and change" campaign promise.

He told supporters: "After all that is happening in Washington, it may be tempting to believe that change may not be as possible as we thought. It has been three wrenching years for this country." I'll say.

Well, I, for one, fault him not for failing to honor that promise, but for keeping it. We've had change, all right, and precisely the kind he had in mind. One can only imagine how much more change he would have effected if he'd had his way -- if democracy, as he has complained, weren't so "slow" and so "messy." Worse still, let's imagine how much more change he'd attempt if, God forbid, he were to purloin a second term.

His words to the friendly audiences confirm what attentive observers already understand about his remaining ambitions. He said: "Every single thing that we care about is at stake in this next election. It's going to take more than a few years to meet the challenges that have been decades in the making."

Continue reading "Obama Pleads for 4 More"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 09:21 PM

November 28, 2011

A Quick Look at the GOP Field

The GOP presidential nomination process is a roller-coaster ride -- sometimes uplifting, other times discouraging, but we press forward.

President Obama and his agenda are unspeakably disastrous for the nation, so this election matters more than any in my lifetime. The national debt clock is ticking faster than Obama's heart beats for big government, and his re-election would guarantee virtual national bankruptcy. That's why the grass-roots tea party phenomenon sprouted, and it's why there is so much scrutiny of the GOP candidates.

Every month or so, a new front-runner emerges in this volatile race. We've gone from Sarah Palin (in theory) to Donald Trump (for some, anyway) to Tim Pawlenty (sort of) to Michele Bachmann to Rick Perry to Herman Cain to Newt Gingrich, with Mitt Romney persistently vying with the "generic Republican" as the first choice of an unenthusiastic, default plurality. Throughout, some have hoped in vain that Palin, Mitch Daniels, Chris Christie or Paul Ryan would agree to be drafted.

Conservatives began this election season fiercely determined to prevent the Republican Party from nominating another uninspiring, ideologically lukewarm candidate whose claim was based more on entitlement than merit. There would be no more Bob Doles or John McCains, whose centrism alone would be disqualifying.

The conservative base wants to know it can rely on the nominee to have the character and courage to govern as a conservative, and that's assuming he or she meets the essential threshold of electability.

Continue reading "A Quick Look at the GOP Field"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:32 PM

November 21, 2011

Even Obama's Cheerleaders Are Falling Away

President Obama's cheerleaders are starting to peel away along with his approval ratings, and it's a fascinating sight to behold. They offer different reasons, but they all boil down to one obvious thing -- Obama is first and foremost about Obama -- and one less obvious: He has been a failed president.

Democratic pollsters Pat Caddell and Doug Schoen, admittedly more centrist than most of their Democratic counterparts, penned an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal urging Obama "to abandon his candidacy for re-election." The authors conclude that the only way Obama could possibly win in 2012 would be "to wage the most negative campaign in history," because he has no successful record to run on. If he would happen to win in that way, he wouldn't be able to govern, they say, so he should step aside and allow Hillary Clinton to run.

Their main beef with Obama seems to be his extreme partisanship, which is a particularly damning indictment coming from fellow Democrats. Should he resign, they argue, he would be in a better position to work with Republicans toward "a more constructive dialogue about our nation's future" instead of obsessing over whether he or George W. Bush is more to blame for our problems.

I don't agree that Obama would be any easier to work with if he were to withdraw from the race, but it is significant that two credible Democrats, both still loyal to their party, concede that Obama is hyper-partisan and hopelessly mired in the quicksand of scapegoating his predecessor.

Even more interesting was the viral video of Chris Matthews explaining to fellow MSNBC host Alex Witt why his Obama-thrill is gone. This represents quite a fall from Matthews' previous perch of Obama hero worship.

Continue reading "Even Obama's Cheerleaders Are Falling Away"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:22 PM

November 17, 2011

So-Called Electability and MSM Bias

It is open season for the liberal media on any GOP presidential candidate who displays the audacity to surge in the polls, the latest targets being Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich. A reasonable case can be made for some of these criticisms, and conservatives often concede the weaknesses, but there is no justification for this same media's ongoing cover-up for the current White House occupant.

Can you imagine how differently our political climate would be if the mainstream media had the slightest inclination toward fairness and balance? The liberal media have never, to my knowledge, shined the spotlight on Obama's many embarrassing gaffes. They have rarely called attention to his deceit, broken promises and policy failures.

Part of the reason is their presupposition that because he's a credentialed left-winger, he is brilliant, and any departure from that is a mere aberration, an exception that couldn't possibly detract from his presumptive brilliance. And as a bona fide "progressive," he is imbued with superior moral standards, and his misdeeds must be excused in exchange for his dedication to policies the liberal media deem are ethically unassailable.

From the mainstream media's perspective, conservatives, on the other hand, are presumptively dimwitted or morally bankrupt, because you can't be intelligent and conservative unless you're morally depraved. Ronald Reagan was an amiable dunce, despite his unparalleled ability to communicate; Dan Quayle was irredeemably simple because he misspelled "potato." George W. Bush was too stupid to tie his shoes (but inexplicably cunning enough to con erudite liberal congressmen into supporting him in his devious plot to depose Saddam Hussein).

GOP candidates magically become less competent or more corrupt the instant they show any signs of electability. Meanwhile, the MSM continue to ignore, defend and lie about Obama's abundant gaffes, policy failures, deceptions, divisiveness and extremism.

Continue reading "So-Called Electability and MSM Bias"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:29 PM

November 14, 2011

The Same Old Obama

President Obama's various remarks at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO business summit in Honolulu over the weekend show he is simply incapable of growing in office. In just a few short statements, we saw many of the familiar practices through which he has alienated such a large percentage of the American people and damaged the economy.

Away from his teleprompter, he treated us to further insults of Americans, his unfriendly attitude toward business and the private sector, his narcissism, and his refusal to accept responsibility for his own actions.

In his Sunday evening press conference from APEC, Obama showed that he can't shake his narcissistic impulses. One would think that with all that has been written about Obama's "me, myself and I" fixation, he would at least try to pretend to be other-directed on occasion, to show he has the capacity to think of his position as something larger than himself.

In his opening remarks, he didn't say that "we" or "Americans" want other nations to buy American-made goods, but "I want them to," and so "I've been doing everything I can to make sure" we stay competitive. He didn't say, "The United States was honored to host APEC this year," but "I've been proud to host APEC this year."

When NBC's Chuck Todd asked him to clarify his "hot mic" conversation with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, in which they both insulted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he refused to comment, which means he refused to deny, much less apologize for offending the leader of our staunch ally, Israel, when he told Sarkozy, "You're fed up with (Netanyahu), but I have to deal with him even more than you do."

Continue reading "The Same Old Obama"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:36 PM

The Left's Many Double Standards

Today's liberals would have you believe they occupy the moral high ground on every political and cultural issue. But have you ever taken inventory of their double standards?

The left's inconsistency in applying their principles based on the party affiliation of those they're judging, gives fuller meaning to the concept of moral relativism. The only thing that's consistent is their reliable inconsistency, whether in the area of economic, social or national defense issues.

Let's consider just a few examples:

-- When "bimbo eruptions" threatened to derail Bill Clinton's campaign, his hit squad, the commander in chief of which was Hillary Clinton, eviscerated every accuser, inventing tales to destroy their character and distorting the facts of what occurred. When Ken Starr accused Bill Clinton of lying under oath, liberals turned their venom on him, accusing him of sexual perversion just for delving into the subject.

When Republicans argued that Clinton's serial sexual exploits, some of which had then occurred quite recently, demonstrated poor character, Democrats defiantly dismissed his actions as irrelevant to the performance of his presidential duties. These guardians of the fairer sex -- watchdogs of government corruption -- didn't care that Clinton's taking advantage of an intern in the Oval Office was a quintessential case of sexual harassment, given the power disparities between his station and that of Monica Lewinsky's. They even defended Clinton's perjury concerning the matter. Some argued that it was almost virtuous that he chose to lie under oath and protect his family rather than take the easy way out and come clean.

Continue reading "The Left's Many Double Standards "

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:34 PM

November 07, 2011

Leftist Exploitation of Race Issue

It's almost 2012, and we have a black president, yet the white ghost of racial tensions still haunts our national politics. Will it ever end?

Far too many liberals continue to paint conservatives as racists based on their ideological leanings and party affiliation. Some believe it; others know better but milk it for their political gain. Still others selfishly and recklessly cling to this view to make themselves feel morally superior, wholly indifferent to their own immorality in impugning a category of people in the same way racists categorically impugn entire races of people and wholly indifferent to the facts.

Columnist Tony Norman recently argued that "most blacks" are amazed that some blacks can make so many white conservatives feel comfortable with them. These blacks do so, in Norman's opinion, by blaming themselves for their own plight. No one, says Norman, has perfected this art more than Herman Cain.

It's the same old song; nothing has changed for those who are too embittered to quit singing it or who refuse to consider the possibility that their prejudicial assessments are wrong. Nothing will be allowed to change by others who profit politically and financially for exploiting racial acrimony.

Will any liberals criticize Norman for saying that white conservatives will only accept blacks who pander to them? It can't be that conservatives embrace Cain because he's a charismatic, competent conservative with proven leadership credentials, can it?

Continue reading "Leftist Exploitation of Race Issue"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:37 PM

October 31, 2011

Obama's Class Warfare: It's All He's Got Left

There he goes again. President, on the campaign stump, rails against the "rich," saying our "wealth gap" shows a need for a "fairer approach."

Does he really believe our economic problems have been caused by insufficient taxes on the rich? Insufficient taxes overall? If not, then what can we conclude about his insistence on hammering this point rather than addressing the real causes and real solutions?

Obama's ceaseless attack on the "rich" and his effort to divide Americans on the basis of their income and wealth can best be seen as a diversion, an attempt to distract Americans' attention from his failure to address our interrelated economic malaise and fiscal crises.

Before we can solve our problems, we have to correctly identify them. For starters, we have catastrophic national debt; reckless deficits in excess of $1 trillion since Obama took office, with no end in sight; unsustainable entitlement programs, including Obamacare, which, contrary to Obama's assurances, will dramatically drive up the cost curve further; obscene levels of discretionary spending; administration-driven anti-business regulatory policies; and a depressed economy that is exacerbating our deficit and debt problems.

How about possible solutions? There's a consensus that increasing income taxes during hard economic times, especially on the major wealth producers, is economically suicidal. Everyone also understands that economic uncertainty and excessive regulations suppress economic growth. No one can rationally deny that our entitlement programs, as presently structured, will bankrupt themselves and the nation. And, undeniably, our discretionary spending is out of control.

Continue reading "Obama's Class Warfare: It's All He's Got Left"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:40 PM

October 27, 2011

Obama's Illusory Student Loan Scheme

With his latest pseudo-compassionate expansion of the student loan program, President Obama reminds us why we ask whether he is simply unable to learn from history or he is indifferent to government waste incurred in pursuit of "good intentions."

Back when Obama was trolling for illusory savings to manipulate Congressional Budget Office scorekeepers into decreeing that Obamacare would be revenue-neutral, he proposed the ingenious scheme whereby the federal government would subsume 100 percent of the student loan industry and eliminate evil private-sector profits going to "middlemen."

The plan was a smorgasbord for big-government enthusiasts because it envisioned whacking private business, legislative trickery and growing the government in numerous ways. It wouldn't just allow the government to seize financial business in grand fascist style; it also gave Obama an excuse to expand the existing loan program.

By calculating $60 billion in savings over the next decade, Obama gleefully inflated student loans by $40 billion and boasted that he still had $20 billion left over to count toward reconciling the balance sheet on his grossly over-budgeted national health care bill.

Obama smuggled this student loan legislation into the Obamacare bill because it probably never would have otherwise attracted the 60 needed votes to pass on its own. Such relatively small-potatoes legislation, by itself, wouldn't have supported the bribes Obama used to cram through Obamacare.

Continue reading "Obama's Illusory Student Loan Scheme"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:10 PM

October 24, 2011

You Can't Wait? Neither Can We

President Obama couldn't have chosen a more fitting slogan than "We can't wait" to promote his latest legislative elixir for our ailing economy. What could be cleverer than to employ double meaning in aid of doublespeak?

CBS News reports that Obama will use the phrase to sell his jobs bill and to justify his plan to take unilateral executive action on the economy.

Obama has enlisted the phrase to argue that America can't wait on the private sector to generate economic growth. He can't wait on the people to get up to speed with his superior wisdom or for Congress to rubber-stamp his latest destructive scheme. He will not be denied; he will not be delayed; he will not wait.

So he "is going to begin a series of executive branch actions that will not require action from Congress -- or the assent of Republicans," including a "major overhaul" of the government's refinance program for federally guaranteed mortgages to assist homeowners who haven't been able to secure refinancing.

How many times do we have to go through this song and dance, in which the executive branch arbitrarily alters already-existing contracts? How many times will this policy have to fail before Obama quits trying it?

Continue reading "You Can't Wait? Neither Can We"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:35 PM

October 20, 2011

Murders, Rapes, Falling Bridges and Phantom Jobs

What are we to think about a president and vice president who blow nearly a trillion dollars in borrowed money, accept no responsibility for it and then traverse the nation trying to convince Americans that if we don't spend half that much again, people will die from dilapidated bridges and women will be raped because we can't afford cops?

What business do these two have lecturing anyone about anything, much less the conditions that might ensue if we were not to spend more printed money to pay for things they failed to finance the first time because they misappropriated the funds?

Last month, Obama, stumping for his misnamed "American Jobs Act," told his AstroTurf audience in Raleigh-Durham that "in North Carolina alone, there are 153 structurally deficient bridges that need to be repaired. Four of them are near here, on or around the Beltline. Why would we wait to act until another bridge falls?"

After attempting to scare those in the crowd into believing they were one pylon away from being crushed by a fallen bridge, Department of Transportation engineers and administrators had to mollify residents about the safety of the area's bridges.

Wally Bowman, DOT's division chief for Wake County and six neighboring counties, said, "The key thing is: We don't have any bridges that are about to fall. We don't have any bridge out there that is structurally inadequate, where it cannot handle the traffic. We make sure those bridges stay in a good state of repair."

Continue reading "Murders, Rapes, Falling Bridges and Phantom Jobs"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 02:46 PM

October 17, 2011

Obama and Occupy Wall Street Are One

President Obama acts as though he merely sympathizes with the Wall Street occupiers' "broad-based frustration" about how America's financial system works, but he's doing a lot more than sympathizing. He's fanning their flames.

Perhaps we should take a look at what, exactly, Obama is supporting and contrast it with the tea party movement he so roundly condemns.

In May 2010, when a White House dinner guest suggested to Obama that racism was a motivating force behind the tea party opposition to him, he raised nary a finger of objection and even affirmed that there was a racially biased "subterranean agenda" afoot in the anti-Obama movement. About that same time, the administration had lumped the tea party protesters into a group to be monitored as "domestic terrorists."

Ever since this authentic, grass-roots movement spontaneously erupted throughout the nation, Obama and the leftist establishment have engaged in a systematic effort to demonize and discredit tea party protesters as extremist, racist and violent. Nancy Pelosi predicted the protests would lead to a climate of violence. In a recent interview, Obama portrayed tea party ideas as extreme positions that are rejected by "a vast majority of Americans."

Those of us who identify with the movement and have attended some of the rallies know that in their false characterizations, Obama and his supporters are either lying or projecting. The protests have been remarkably peaceful, respectful and lawful. We are talking about Americana here, folks -- people who believe in American ideals and who object to the government's bankrupting us and destroying our liberties.

Continue reading "Obama and Occupy Wall Street Are One"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 08:22 PM

October 13, 2011

Obama Will Not Be Deterred

If it's not narcissism, what explains President Obama's habit of demanding something against the people's will, being rejected, refusing to take no for an answer and berating the public he is pretending to represent?

We saw it over and over with Obamacare. By now, it's part of our national lore that he delivered some 54 speeches to sell the public on his scheme yet never made a dent in the public approval numbers. Truth be told, in the end he gave far more than 54.

But that didn't stop him from pressing forward anyway, and his underhanded methods at cramming his bill through Congress will also be enshrined in our national history.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but hasn't he done the same thing with automobile emission standards and other environmental causes? He couldn't convince the people that he was right, nor could he convince Congress, so he just colluded with his fellow radical autocrats in the Environmental Protection Agency to bypass Congress and impose these regulations unilaterally.

Let's also not forget his pet project, the sainted high-speed rail, for which he's determined to spend billions and billions of dollars in brazen defiance of the people's disinterest in the project, their objection to further deficit spending, and the marked resistance of the individual states.

Continue reading "Obama Will Not Be Deterred"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:40 PM

October 10, 2011

Obama Is Occupying America

Rational people realize that President Obama's policies have been an abysmal failure, which is why his only hope for re-election is to try to sow confusion among the voters, such as those populating "Occupy Wall Street."

People often say the success of democracy depends on an informed electorate. Given his record, that's the last strategy Obama can afford to embrace. Short of a fortuitous economic miracle falling into his lap, his only hope for re-election is that enough voters are misinformed.

From day one, Obama has been savaging George W. Bush for bequeathing him "the worst economy since the Great Depression." But he hasn't scapegoated Bush alone. He also impugned "fat cat bankers" on Wall Street and other evil corporations for "creating the mess" and for being its primary beneficiaries while everyone else was hurting. Conveniently, he didn't point his accusing finger at the real culprit, the liberal affordable housing policy that he supported.

He leveraged his vague slander against Wall Street to bolster his case against free markets and "crony capitalism" and to lubricate the public for his statist remedies across the board.

His goal was to fundamentally change America -- almost overnight -- with an accelerated push toward socialism, all while insisting he was a "fierce advocate of the free market" and committed to the American ideal. He just loved capitalism, but it couldn't possibly work when all the powerful and moneyed interests were loading the dice.

Continue reading "Obama Is Occupying America"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:56 PM

October 06, 2011

Obama's Behavior Is Getting Worse

Obama's Thursday news conference was a sober reminder of the nature of the man in the Oval Office. I infer that even many of his supporters in the liberal media are finally catching on to the magnitude of his personality disorders.

How could a man in his important position continue to act so childishly, accepting no responsibility for his policies and behavior and demonizing everyone who dares to disagree with or oppose him? It's worse than embarrassing; it's unsettling.

From the conference we are reminded that Obama believes that:

--Only "big and bold" intervention by the government can get an economy moving; so long as he cites a few "expert economists" who agree with him, there can be no other legitimate opinion.

--Anyone who disagrees with or opposes him is engaging in partisan politics rather than acting in good faith, on principle and in the best interests of the country. Republicans have blocked him for partisan reasons for not just the past six months, but the past 2 1/2 years. He has "gone out of (his) way in every instance to find common ground" with Republicans. You know, as with "I won, John" and "I don't want the folks who created the mess to do a lot of talkin'" and "stay in the back seat."

--If Republicans continue to oppose his jobs bill, it will be because they don't want laid-off policemen, firefighters and teachers working again.

Continue reading "Obama's Behavior Is Getting Worse"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:12 PM

October 03, 2011

May 2012 Be a Referendum on Obama's Perverse Vision for America

It's clear that Obama's re-election strategy is to demonize conservatives and his Republican opponents as extremists, "small," intolerant and morally deficient. That's a safer course, I suppose, than running on his miserable record.

Playing to his gay and lesbian audience, Obama took out his broad brush and smeared all the GOP presidential candidates in a speech at the Human Rights Campaign's annual dinner, saying the Republican contenders are "small" for "being silent when an American soldier is booed."

Obama was referring to an incident that occurred at the Republican presidential debate Sept. 22. When a YouTube question from a gay soldier was played asking the candidates their view about "don't ask, don't tell," booing could be heard in the audience.

Blogger Sarah Rumpf was in the audience only a few rows behind the "person" or, at most, "few people" who booed. Her version of what occurred is markedly different from the liberal media's spin.

Rumpf wrote: "The booing got an immediate and angry reaction from nearly everyone sitting around him, who hissed and shushed at him. Lots of loud gasps, 'Shhhh!' 'No!' 'Shut up, you idiot!' etc."

Continue reading "May 2012 Be a Referendum on Obama's Perverse Vision for America"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 09:38 PM

September 29, 2011

May 2012 Be a Referendum on Obama's Perverse Vision for America

Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign was grounded in meaningless platitudes, such as "hope and change." His 2012 re-election effort is grounded in meaningful platitudes centered in the destructive politics of class warfare.

Despite his best efforts to paint his abominable economic record in a favorable light, Obama simply cannot run on it, unless he succeeds in completely changing the traditional yardsticks by which we have always measured economic success: growth, unemployment, inflation and general prosperity.

No, I'm not referring to the ludicrous yardstick of "saved or created" jobs, which Obama has pushed way beyond its sell-by date. There's a limit even to the liberal media's ability to convince credulous Obama supporters that down is up and depression is prosperity.

He could conceivably boast that he has indeed created jobs, as long as we understand that he's talking about public-sector jobs, many of which have been formed at the expense of those in the private sector. But he won't dare bank on the American people's sympathy for that argument.

Instead, he'll continue to milk his militant class-warfare theme, hoping to shift our focus from the unemployment, economic stagnation and thunderous debt he's orchestrated to our baser instincts of jealousy, greed and envy.

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Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:53 PM

September 27, 2011

Obama's Rehabilitation Tour, or 'I Promise I'm a Leftist'

Poor President Obama. His leftist backers have momentarily fallen out of love with him for not destroying the country fast enough. Obama must ask himself, "What would Hugo Chavez do?"

Obama decided to embark on a personal rehabilitation tour. He first stopped by the annual awards dinner of the Congressional Black Caucus and told blacks to "stop complainin'. Stop grumblin'. Stop cryin'." Don't they realize that it's the Republicans' fault that black unemployment is nearly double the national average, at 16.7 percent? "So many people in (Washington) are fighting us every step of the way."

Instead of berating them, Obama ought to count his lucky stars that he's not taking more grief. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver said that if Bill Clinton were in the White House and didn't address the problem of black unemployment, blacks "probably would be marching on the White House."

Obama's malcontent leftist friends on the Leftist Coast agree that he has not been liberal enough. So to regain their favor, he jetted out West in that covered wagon known as Air Force One and pleaded with them to understand the predicament he is in with nasty Republicans opposing him every step of the way. He is, he assured them, as radical as they are.

In Seattle, representing the downtrodden, Obama told the 65 guests who were paying a paltry $35,800 per couple, "From the moment I took office, what we've seen is a constant ideological push-back against any kind of sensible reforms that would make our economy work better and give people more opportunity."

Continue reading "Obama's Rehabilitation Tour, or 'I Promise I'm a Leftist'"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 12:41 AM

September 22, 2011

Obama's Hope and Change Promise Reconsidered

When Obama promised "hope and change" as a candidate, I think he had in mind a new paradigm, one of restructuring America's economic system in his image rather than triggering economic growth, though he wanted the electorate to believe that growth was his focus.

The economy had turned south by the time Obama was trumpeting that platitude, but that was largely caused by liberal affordable housing policies -- the very type of program Obama would promote in office.

The dismal state of the economy played into Obama's hands, but I dare say he would have pushed for hope and change regardless of economic conditions, because he was offering more than economic solutions. He presented himself as the whole package -- a quasi-deity who would transform the entire country, slow the rise of the oceans and heal the planet.

With a backdrop of spiritually bankrupt people who were ripe for the lie that government could fill that god-shaped void in their beings, Obama strategically milked his messianic mirage. He constructed Greek columns, produced ethereal voice echo effects and adopted a conspicuous head-lift affectation to build a cultlike following that even ensnared a number of frighteningly credulous self-styled conservatives, such as New York Times columnist David Brooks.

How has Obama done if we measure his promise of hope and change in purely economic terms? Well, despite his tired efforts to scapegoat former President George W. Bush and the global markets, this is his economy, and it is demonstrably worse in every imaginable category. He has given us change, but it is destructive change. He has given us hope, but it is hope that the nightmare he has engineered will soon be over.

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Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:46 PM

September 19, 2011

The Lecturer in Chief Has Forfeited His Moral Authority

As predictable and repetitive as Obama's economic speeches are, his capacity for audacity shows ever increasing signs of creativity. Do you suppose he has any ability to feel shame for what he's doing to this country and embarrassment for blaming everyone but himself?

His latest deficit plan involves further punishing millionaires and billionaires (which means all those making $200,000 or more), continuing to spend like there's no tomorrow (which there won't be if he continues doing it), phony unspecified reductions in waste, more stonewalling on real entitlement reform, and demonizing anyone who dares to get in his way. You'll be outraged if you look at the mammoth new administrative bureaucracy he wants to create in his latest stimulus monstrosity.

For those gullible or embittered enough to buy into Obama's class warfare agitation, consider that America's total tax burden under Obama is rising to the highest level in history, as per this Heritage Foundation chart: http://bit.ly/pgGd1z. Don't forget that some 47 percent of Americans pay no income tax at all.

Beneath the surface, though, Obama's plan is designed to fail because he knows it can never pass the GOP House. He knows that serious people will not join him in this destructive measure, and so his real motives are to energize his angry leftist base and to construct a plausible scenario whereby he can blame his failures on Republican obstructionism. Not that we need proof, but he hinted at this course of action in his speech before last. (His 10,000th speech I think it was.)

Did you hear the anger in his voice? Did you hear him again blame Bush's "two wars" and "tax cuts for the wealthy" for the economic and debt problems into which he has injected steroids? These would be the two wars he continued after fraudulently promising to end and the tax cuts that did not cost the government appreciable, if any, revenues.

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Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:36 PM

September 15, 2011

AttackWatch.com Is the Administration's Latest Propaganda Arm

President Obama's official re-election campaign has set up a website ostensibly to defend him against false attacks, but its obvious purpose is to smear Republicans and propagandize. What could be more shameless?

Jim Messina, Obama's re-election campaign manager, in a fundraising email announcing the website, said: "Forming the first line of defense against a barrage of misinformation won't be easy. Our success will depend on a team of researchers and writers to stay on the lookout for false claims about the President and his record, bring you the facts, and hold our opposition accountable."

Does any rational person believe these people anymore? They trade in lies and misinformation, and the only chance they have to re-elect Obama -- and it's still slim -- is to grossly distort Obama's record and fabricate fantasies about his opposition.

That's what this new website is all about. It's called "AttackWatch.com," but it should be called "AttackDog.com." It has already proved that in its first few days of existence. When I opened the website for the first time, I saw revolving pictures of Obama's currently front-running GOP rivals, Rick Perry and Mitt Romney, with the accompanying captions "Rick Perry's massive jobs lie" and "Romney's job chart shows flawed understanding of the facts." Glenn Beck's photo also rotates into view with the line "Glenn Beck twists the facts on Israel."

Do you ever remember a White House -- and make no mistake about who's behind this ruse -- soliciting hordes of followers to do opposition research for it? Then again, we've never before had a community organizer in the Oval Office.

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Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:49 PM

September 12, 2011

Memo to GOP: Social Security Demagoguery Is the Province of Liberals

It is very disheartening to see Republican presidential primary candidates racing to out-demagogue one another in denouncing Texas Gov. Rick Perry's accurate description of Social Security as a Ponzi scheme. It used to be that Republicans at least waited until the general election campaign to pander to liberals.

I admire Perry both for telling it like it is and for having the guts to stand by his statement when under fire. That shows character.

Honest people have been warning for years that our entitlement programs, as structured, are imminent train wrecks. Democrats were even saying it for a while, as Bill Clinton and Al Gore made a phony fuss about placing Social Security in a lockbox.

It's nothing short of outrageous that our politicians' instincts are to attack those who are talking realistically about entitlements instead of join them in talking realistically. I understand Democrats not doing so; I don't even expect them to anymore. But it's unacceptable for Republicans to pile on.

Surely, everyone knows by now that our out-of-control entitlement spending poses a greater threat to the nation's future even than the unbelievably dangerous path of discretionary spending we are currently pursuing. Indeed, isn't the main reason most of the Republican candidates claim to be running that they want to help save America's financial future and get the economy going again?

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Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:44 PM

September 01, 2011

The Time for Empty Talk Is Over

As President Obama's presidential term has unfolded, he has made it increasingly clear what he meant all those times he haughtily said, "I won." It's his world, and he has no intention of sharing control over it.

This was on stark display when he attempted to pre-empt the Republican debate with a grandiose joint session of Congress called solely for the purpose of delivering another round of economic propaganda.

He would have us believe that his speech will be of monumental import, but everyone knows, Democrats included, that it will be nothing more and nothing less than a sales job. There will be nothing new in this speech, no new ideas, no new information.

There is never anything new in any of his speeches, including the 50-plus orations he delivered on Obamacare, but he nevertheless keeps going back to the well. He has degenerated into a habitual pattern of presenting an idea and, after the public rejects it, making further speeches to convince us that we are the ones who are wrong. With each new speech, no matter the subject, he ends up with fewer supporters of the proposition in question, yet he remains oblivious to the diminishing returns he is achieving.

He's been talking about jobs incessantly since his presidential campaign began. When he presented his stimulus package, he wasn't equivocal; he betrayed no uncertainty. He didn't say to the American people: "Folks, I am recommending bold action. I realize we just spent nearly $1 trillion on TARP, but I'm asking you to trust me with almost another $1 trillion of borrowed money to try something that might strike you as a dangerous gamble. I'm not sure injecting this money into the economy will stimulate growth, but we have to try something, even if it very well may leave us in an even more precarious national debt predicament."

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Posted by David Limbaugh at 09:54 PM

August 29, 2011

Who Are the Real Religious Bigots?

As the 2012 presidential race gears up, leftist Christophobes are showing some signs of hysteria -- or political opportunism; it's sometimes difficult to tell.

The New York Times' executive editor, Bill Keller, in a piece in The New York Times Magazine, argues that presidential candidates should be asked tough questions about their faith. Keller wants to know whether a candidate will place "fealty to the Bible, the Book of Mormon ... or some other authority higher than the Constitution and laws of this country" and "whether a president respects serious science and verifiable history." He wants to make sure "religious doctrine" does not become "an excuse to exclude my fellow citizens from the rights and protections our country promises." His colleague, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, followed up with a hit piece on "Republicans Against Science."

Keller is insatiably curious about whether Rick Perry subscribes to beliefs of certain pastors who endorse him and about Michele Bachmann's "mentors who preach the literal 'inerrancy' of the Bible, who warn Christians to be suspicious of ideas that come from non-Christians, who believe homosexuality is an 'abomination,' who portray the pre-Civil War South as a pretty nice place for slaves and who advocate 'Dominionism,' the view that Christians and only Christians should preside over earthly institutions."

It doesn't bother me if the media vet presidential candidates on their religious beliefs and associations, provided equal scrutiny is applied to all of them, including closet secularists. One's worldview invariably informs his political views, and information about those worldviews can't hurt.

But Keller's concern isn't with the religious beliefs of all candidates, only Christians, and not all Christians, just those who take the Bible seriously. He doesn't seem to have any problem with the religious beliefs of non-Christians or about charlatans who opportunistically pass themselves off as Christians. Wouldn't an objective reporter have as much interest in someone fraudulently proclaiming a certain faith as he does in one who sincerely professes a faith he finds repugnant?

Continue reading "Who Are the Real Religious Bigots?"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:01 PM

August 25, 2011

The Job Wrecker in Chief

President Obama often tells us that his No. 1 focus is creating jobs, but his record makes you wonder what he might have done differently if his goal were to destroy jobs.

Those who've examined Congressional Budget Office data have calculated that each job allegedly created by Obama's stimulus -- and this is if you accept the fantastically generous guesstimates -- cost between $225,000 and $600,000. But that's not the only way in which the administration has shown its virtual contempt for efficient job creation and its callousness concerning job destruction.

In the name of compassion, Obama advocates seemingly endless extensions of unemployment benefits because his economic theology holds that by paying people not to work, you will create jobs. It not only fails to factor in the obvious deterrent that extended benefits have on their recipients but also falsely assumes that transferring money from one pocket to the next generates more spending -- by some mythical multiple factor, no less. Back on planet Earth, studies reveal that extending unemployment benefits results in more unemployment.

But don't worry; Obama is on it. He's spent hours on the golf course meditating on job creation. In September, he is going to announce his jobs "reset" plan in some self-ballyhooed oration. But reports of such rumination and administration powwows on jobs are as phony as Obama's insistence that he doesn't intend Obamacare to lead to a single-payer system.

In fact, Obama doesn't meditate, cogitate, contemplate or deliberate about job creation, because he thinks he's already got it figured out. The only thing he's doing is strategizing how best to convince the people, against all their reason and instincts, that his failed policies will work if he keeps trying.

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Posted by David Limbaugh at 09:45 PM

August 22, 2011

Obama Is a Robot That Needs Reprogramming

President Obama's legacy is shaping up to be a recurring cycle of rhetorical failures chasing policy failures, an endless, stupefying effort to convince us of the wisdom of pursuing -- again and again -- policies that have already failed.

This point is reinforced as we read reports about Obama's umpteenth luxurious golf outing while our economy and financial condition approach DEFCON 2 and Middle East turmoil continues apace.

From the superficial snippets we get from the liberal media, Obama doesn't seem to be too concerned with either domestic or foreign policy while on the links, but to the extent he allocates thought to either, he's contemplating his next speech more than deliberating over any substantive decisions.

From all appearances, he's not fretting over the grim jobs reports and hints of creeping inflation; he's not meditating or seeking advice about a new direction he could propose to navigate us out of this malaise.

He's thinking about his abysmal approval ratings, wondering how he can fob those off on President Bush, too. And he's thinking about how he can con the nation into permitting him to give us more doses of the same poisonous elixirs he crammed down our throats the first time.

Continue reading "Obama Is a Robot That Needs Reprogramming"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:50 PM

August 15, 2011

Obama's 'Counteroffensive'? Please!

Seeing as President Obama cannot govern, he's had to go back to campaigning -- an activity with which he's quite comfortable but decreasingly successful, as evidenced by his falling poll numbers and his endless, repetitive speeches.

I don't just throw out this governance charge lightly. The Los Angeles Times reports that Obama is no longer receiving daily Oval Office economic briefings. More troubling, he doesn't even appear to have much of an economic team left to advise him. "The economic team lacks a top-caliber economist" and "is noticeably short on big-name players -- potentially hurting his ability to find solutions and sell them to Wall Street, Congress and the American public."

The Times quotes Edward Mills, a financial policy analyst with FBR Capital Markets, as saying, "When you ask about the economic team, it's kind of like, 'What economic team?' They are very thin at a very critical time."

Not to worry. At a time when Obama doesn't even have in place a chairman for his Council of Economic Advisers, he's talking about creating yet another federal department on "Jobs." That's the ticket; he doesn't have real people in real positions, so he just creates new positions. You can't fool all the people all the time, but you hope that you can fool just enough of them to ensure re-election.

Then again, perhaps we should be counting our blessings, because no one Obama would pick, despite that person's Ivy League credentials, would have the faintest clue how jobs are created or the slightest inclination to let the private sector work its magic.

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Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:25 PM

August 11, 2011

There Is Just No Satisfying Liberals

What is 2011 if not a dramatic global outworking of the abysmal failures of liberalism? Their failures are everywhere, but liberals are no closer to abandoning their political theology than they were, say, five years ago.

Every marginally intelligent person must know that events unfolding in Britain are a likely foreshadowing of what's in store for us if we don't radically alter our ways. Unchastened and undaunted, liberals keep their collective foot on the big-government accelerator. There's no governor on the liberal golf cart.

For years, the more responsible among us have been warning about spending and unsustainable entitlements, and the left has mocked. But this past year, it's as if God has been trying, with increasingly urgent alarms, to get our attention, to no avail.

Tea partyers tried to hold the line during the debates of the continuing resolutions and debt ceiling, only to be vilified. But the national debt continues to explode as if to resoundingly validate conservatives as reasonable and their spending-addicted opponents as extremists. For liberals, too much government is never enough.

We were told that unless we lifted the debt ceiling, our credit rating would be downgraded and the markets would collapse. Most Republicans signed on to the deal under duress, which ended up neither preventing nor delaying the downgrade or the market free fall. But that was no problem for liberals, who simply changed their warnings after the fact, now saying it was the wrangling over the ceiling, not the underlying debt, that was responsible. Liberals are not to be held to account for what they said yesterday.

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Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:42 PM

August 08, 2011

Spending Is Just Our Second-Biggest Problem

Being a disciple of Saul Alinsky might not be so easy as it would appear. President Obama and his minions obviously can't decide whom to scapegoat for the nation's credit downgrade and our financial crisis.

One thing is for sure: It's not in Barack Obama to accept personal responsibility for the consequences of his actions and policies. He still won't own this economy and the exploding spending spiral, reminding us at every turn that our problems are a result of what he "inherited" from President Bush.

Instead of seeking to soothe the nation on word of the downgrade by Standard & Poor's, Obama played golf, prepared for more campaign fundraisers and avoided the cameras -- for a change. But there can be little doubt he was strategizing about whom to blame for this unfolding catastrophe.

The first and most obvious choice would probably have been his treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner -- except that to blame Geithner would have been tantamount to blaming himself; Geithner is Obama's guy. Nix that.

So why not blame Europe and the global markets? Well, there was some of that, but that's a bit too far from home, so to speak. An Alinsky-model target is usually more accessible and less sympathetic -- you know, someone or some entity against whom one can gin up white-hot hate.

So he settled on blaming S&P itself -- the proverbial messenger -- and who else? The evil tea party for the debt ceiling impasse. Pathetic. Oh, yes, and for good measure, his liberal colleague Rep. Barney Frank threw in the military and said he hopes the downgrade will force large military spending cuts.

Continue reading "Spending Is Just Our Second-Biggest Problem"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:56 PM

August 04, 2011

An Appeal for GOP Unity

Before moving on, I'd like to take one more stab at explaining the differing viewpoints of the opposing sides in the contentious internecine conservative debate over the debt ceiling and also assess the deal's winners and losers.

I honestly believe there were reasonable grounds for disagreement among conservatives concerning the best strategy and tactics to tackle what they agree -- if all Democrats don't -- to be a national debt crisis. By failing to cut one another slack, we'll only serve to divide our coalition and impede our shared agenda.

Those supporting the deal, recognizing that Republicans control the House but neither the Senate nor the presidency, believed that congressional leaders had negotiated the best deal they could with Democrats and that we should agree to it. If not, they feared, we might face a default with unpredictable fallout, hurting the economy and the GOP's chances in 2012, which both sides agree would have calamitous national consequences.

Opponents were less fearful of a default from a debt ceiling impasse. They believed the decision whether to downgrade our credit rating would be based more on the exploding debt than it would the debt ceiling and that it would be very risky to move on and put all our reform eggs in the 2012 basket. They were less concerned about taking the political hit in 2012 for finally calling Obama's bluff. They weren't convinced the GOP, which had put forth numerous plans, would take the political hit instead of Obama, who never produced a plan. They were also very opposed to the provision that allows Obama to put this issue on the back burner until after the 2012 elections, which will result in less budget scrutiny and more political cover for him -- both of which will be detrimental for the nation.

Continue reading "An Appeal for GOP Unity"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:17 PM

August 01, 2011

Obama Is Fresh Out of Ideas

One of the most striking facts about the course of the Obama presidency so far is that Obama has no constructive solutions for anything, which is one reason he campaigned on vague promises. It's why he established bogus metrics, such as "saved or created jobs."

It's also why he's always pointing the finger of blame on others for his policy failures. Everyone knows by now that Obama's reckless and corrupt stimulus package failed to restrain unemployment as he had promised and that instead of accepting responsibility for it, he blamed Bush.

He also played another familiar liberal card: He insisted his stimulus bill would have worked if he had been allowed to spend more money. So he started pushing for a second stimulus, all while increasing the government's regulatory stranglehold on business and cramming Obamacare down our throats.

All of which is to say -- with added emphasis -- that Obama is fresh out of ideas. Worse, he's the immovable force standing in the way of those who do have constructive proposals.

He didn't even submit a plan during the debt ceiling negotiations, and his party's Senate majority hasn't presented a budget for more than 800 days. We have a spending and entitlement problem, but Obama's ideology precludes him from addressing either. It drives him, instead, to insist on increasing taxes on the rich. But raising rates would further smother the economy and not significantly increase revenues.

Continue reading "Obama Is Fresh Out of Ideas"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:51 PM

July 28, 2011

Conservatives, Let's Remember Who Our Political Enemy Is

I hope that as we conservatives traverse these very difficult roads, we will always remember who the political enemy is. Our internecine fighting of late has given President Obama a bit of needed cover for his primary culpability in our nation's budget crisis.

Conservatives seem to be evenly divided on whether or not to support House Speaker John Boehner's budgetary plan to avoid a debt ceiling impasse. But the level of vitriol back and forth is increasing, with one side calling the other "crazy" and the other shouting back "RINOs," or Republicans in name only.

I believe both sides are acting honorably; they mostly agree on goals and disagree on tactics. But it's a bit more complicated than that. They also differ somewhat in their operating assumptions.

Those supporting the Boehner plan are convinced that if a deal is not done, our credit rating will be downgraded, financial chaos will ensue and Republicans will take the hit in 2012, greatly increasing Obama's re-election prospects. Opponents appear less convinced either that the nation will collapse upon a credit downgrade or that if it does, Republicans will take the sole political hit for it.

I wish we could muster half the concern over the national debt as we are over the debt ceiling. In a more rational world, the credit agencies would be threatening to downgrade our rating far more for our failure to address the debt than for our failure with the debt ceiling.

Continue reading "Conservatives, Let's Remember Who Our Political Enemy Is"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:05 PM

July 25, 2011

Obama May Be Slowly Isolating Himself

In the ongoing budget negotiations, it is becoming quite clear that President Obama, quite contrary to his posturing, is the major fly in the ointment.

Even the Democratic leadership is more flexible than President Obama, putting the lie to the oft-stated speculation that Obama is a mere puppet. He is his own counsel.

It was reported that on Sunday night, he unilaterally rejected a bipartisan deal presented to him by Senate and House leaders. "Sen. (Harry) Reid took the bipartisan plan to the White House, and the president said no," an aide said.

This is quite a different picture from what President Obama has been painting for the press. At the exact moment he said he didn't want to point fingers, he complained that he and his Democrats had been willing to compromise but that Republicans were dug into their ideological cement.

He said, "And I think one of the questions that the Republican Party is going to have to ask itself is, Can they say yes to anything?" Are you kidding me? This is the guy who still hasn't presented his own plan and obstructs all others not conforming to his unreasonable demands.

Though later reports indicate Reid may be caving to Obama's demands, this question remains: Why is Obama even willing to pit himself against his own party?

Continue reading "Obama May Be Slowly Isolating Himself"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:16 PM

July 22, 2011

New Column: Never Trust Anything From a Gang

The vaunted budget plan from the "Gang of Six" is said to be growing in popularity, but all you need to know to oppose the plan is that a "gang" is behind it. Also, President Obama and Sen. Dick Durbin both support it. But let's not stop there.

We all know the major drivers of this careening national debt train are entitlement programs, yet this plan proposes no real structural reforms. Now don't tell me this is rocket science. It doesn't take years to come up with a plan to restructure entitlements, yet the president and the Democratic obstructers in Congress continue to apply nonstick bandages instead of major remodeling.

Rep. Paul Ryan has already offered a very feasible plan; it's already there, and it's specific. Instead of lauding Ryan for doing his homework and exhibiting the courage to craft and offer a real solution, they demagogue and excoriate him.

The Democrats want to continue to put off entitlement reform and real spending cuts while demanding immediate tax increases because that's where their hearts are. If they were genuinely amenable to entitlement reform, they'd be embracing Ryan now instead of giving us empty promises for future action.

Indeed, the Six-pack promises that its plan includes $1.5 trillion in tax relief. But look behind the curtains where the tax wizards lurk. The Heritage Foundation tells us that the bill would generate an additional $1 trillion in revenue, plus $133 billion for the Highway Trust Fund. (Can these people ever pass a bill without larding it up with new spending? Can we ever forgo a project for the sake of saving the nation?)

Continue reading "New Column: Never Trust Anything From a Gang"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 01:09 AM

July 18, 2011

America's Financial Restoration vs. Obama's Ideology

There is an overarching reason we can't move toward a balanced budget, which underscores why we face ongoing stalemates over debt ceilings and continuing resolutions: President Obama doesn't want to balance the budget.

I don't say this out of extremism or to be gratuitously controversial or even provocative. It's just that his words and actions lead to the inescapable conclusion that he is unwilling to curb his appetite for big government. In the absence of any such restraint, our alarming budget trajectory cannot be reversed. The debt ceiling may be the last clear chance before the 2012 elections to force meaningful budgetary reforms.

Obama's recalcitrance is rooted in his ideology. He has been working all his adult life toward the moment that he could transform America into a fairer place. He's not about to allow an existential threat to the nation get in the way of his obsession.

Perhaps he wishes he'd acceded to the presidency when our debt picture was less calamitous. Then he might have more leeway to work his despotic magic. Then again, probably not; without the mainly Democratic-caused housing crisis falling into his lap just in the nick of time, he might not have been elected, much less positioned to make the ludicrous demand that we spend nearly $1 trillion more to "stimulate" ourselves out of debt. Alinskyite revolutionaries feed on crises, real and perceived.

Obama fundamentally rejects the American ideals of economic liberty and equality of opportunity. He's determined to use government to redistribute and equalize incomes (and wealth, truth be told), and neither the Constitution nor catastrophic debt consequences will deter him.

Continue reading "America's Financial Restoration vs. Obama's Ideology"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:18 PM

July 14, 2011

GOP: Please Do Call His Bluff and Man Your Battle Stations

Ordinarily, I'd have difficulty grasping the magnitude of arrogance driving President Obama in budget negotiations that could determine the survival of our nation, but after several painful years of observation, I've come to expect it from him.

Obama's personality type does not well handle opposition, so when House Majority Leader Eric Cantor refused to budge on Obama's unreasonable demand that the GOP agree to raise taxes during these economic hard times, which would not raise revenues, Obama blew up and "stormed out of the room."

Cantor suggested that the parties opt for a short-term deal to avert the debt ceiling deadline, but Obama adamantly refused. "Enough is enough," said Obama. "I've reached my limit. This may bring my presidency down, but I will not yield on this."

Why is it acceptable for Obama to be overtly uncompromising but express outrage that his GOP opposition is unyielding? It's as if he's saying, "How dare you be as intransigent as I'm being."

Obama also warned Cantor, "Don't call my bluff." Notice all the I's and my's in Obama's threatening language. Did anyone ever tell this narcissistic man "no" before he became president?

He acts as though the United States is his personal chattel to do with as he pleases, and no one (including members of the coequal legislative branch) and nothing (including the Constitution) dare get in his way. He masquerades as a mere bystander in all this instead of the primary mover in accelerating this financial catastrophe and the primary obstructer of the reforms necessary to avert it.

Continue reading "GOP: Please Do Call His Bluff and Man Your Battle Stations"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 02:32 PM

July 11, 2011

America's Historical Sites Inspire Us To Fight To Preserve Our Liberty

The depressing debate over the debt ceiling underscores just how recklessly the ruling class has squandered America's sacred heritage -- a heritage I had the privilege of revisiting up close this past week on a family vacation.

The contrast between the sublime historical locations we experienced during the day and the alarming news we ingested each night about the dire state of our nation's financial condition couldn't have been starker.

Upon witnessing the majesty of our historical sites, it's difficult not to be outraged at the irresponsible stewardship of our do-gooder ruling class. These elites are on the final leg of their long journey to uproot our founding principles and remake the nation in their quest for moral self-realization through public acts of philanthropy with other people's money and liberty. In the name of compassion, they have systematically undermined our founding ideals of life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness and equal opportunity under the law.

Standing firm against this relentless onslaught are patriots committed to preserving our tradition of constitutional self-governance and our liberties, and there is no greater inspiration for patriots than America's historical sites. Let me share with you, then, a few highlights of the places we visited.

We flew into Washington, where we visited the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, the National World War II Memorial, the Capitol, Ford's Theatre, the National Museum of American History, the American Museum of Natural History and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Later in the week, we went to Gettysburg and were treated to a moving two-hour tour by a personal guide who couldn't have been more informative.

Continue reading "America's Historical Sites Inspire Us To Fight To Preserve Our Liberty"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 09:20 PM

July 07, 2011

Fascism Is Not Conservatism

Someone recently emailed and asked me to rebut the claim that fascism is a right-wing system.

I have given this question considerable thought over the years; even when I was in college, liberals routinely smeared conservatism as a fascist political ideology. Indeed, how many times have we heard the mantra that communism and Nazism represented the two extremes of the political spectrum, left and right, respectively? This never made sense to me, as I knew that conservatism championed political and economic liberty and that communism and fascism were the direct antithesis of these.

I am thankful that my friend Jonah Goldberg has written the definitive work on this subject and set the record straight, in his scholarly and entertaining "Liberal Fascism." I strongly recommend it.

But let me share some thoughts I've developed over the years as to how the misunderstandings on these terms evolved, points which may or may not be addressed in Jonah's book.

Continue reading "Fascism Is Not Conservatism"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 10:55 PM

June 30, 2011

What if President Obama Had Said This Instead?

What if -- instead of blaming Republicans, big oil, the "wealthy" and corporate jets -- President Obama had used his recent news conference to say the following?

"Look I've tried my solutions, and they've had ample time to work. If they were going to work, they would have done so by now. So I'm going to ask my party to join with Republicans in focusing on the national debt instead of ginning up envy, jealousy and animosity among people who earn different amounts of money. I'm going to prove that I share the American people's fear about this debt crisis and that I recognize there will have to be structural reform to entitlements. It may involve some cuts in benefits, but if we don't do this now, eventually everyone will lose his benefits, because Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security are headed for insolvency -- and much sooner than we thought.

"Endless government spending, I now see, will not stimulate economic growth. I should have accepted that before based on the historical evidence, but my professors kept insisting that Keynesian pump priming would work if we would just spend enough money. But $800 billion wasn't enough? Come on, fellas, whom do we think we're fooling here?

"Accordingly, I'm also going to get real about discretionary spending cuts because trillion-dollar deficits are hardly sustainable. Do the math; you people aren't idiots. In order to close the gap between revenues and expenditures, I also promise to quit demagoguing the tax issue. Though I couldn't see it before, we have a dynamic economy, and I won't be able to raise appreciable revenues by raising tax rates, especially on the highest-income producers and small businesses, which, incidentally, provide so many jobs for Americans.

"Continuing to malign the wealthy and big oil -- as much fun as it is -- will simply not generate any revenue. And about these cuts in discretionary spending, I'm talking about non-defense spending. While my philosophy inclines me to drastically cut defense spending, I must admit that I'm enjoying the luxury of deploying our military assets in various places around the world, even where the United States has no discernible national interest. All this takes money, as did killing bin Laden, which, as you may recall, I did -- virtually single-handedly.

Continue reading "What if President Obama Had Said This Instead?"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:12 PM

June 27, 2011

What Was Chris Wallace Driving At?

I was disappointed that Chris Wallace asked Michele Bachmann whether she is a flake, but Wallace's behavior is hardly the most important issue involved. What he was trying to get at is another matter.

It is no secret that a good number of people regard Bachmann as a loose cannon who is given to gaffes and hyperbole. And it's not just Bachmann.

Indeed, there is an enormous elephant in the room of GOP presidential politics, which is that despite their individual popularity, both female contenders, Bachmann and Sarah Palin, are dismissed in many circles as cartoon characters.

I'm the last person who wants to inject identity politics into any equation, but I can't help but wonder what role, if any, their gender may be playing here -- not just that they're females but also that they're attractive ones.

Though I doubt these are major factors for most people, they are for some. In fact, a number of females have suggested that other women react negatively to Palin -- and presumably to Bachmann, as well -- specifically because they are women.

Continue reading "What Was Chris Wallace Driving At?"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:28 PM

June 23, 2011

Just When You Thought Our Fiscal Nightmare Couldn't Get Any Worse

I'll make you a deal: I'll quit accusing Democrats of obstructing spending and entitlement reform when they quit obstructing spending and entitlement reform.

Now we even have the nonpartisan, sterile, unflappable Congressional Budget Office virtually predicting a "fiscal crisis," yet the Democratic Senate hasn't passed a budget for 785 days. There ought to be a law.

At what point will we go into panic mode? Frankly, I can't comprehend how people are so calm now.

The major components of this fiscal doomsday outlook are entitlements -- the unfunded promises approaching $100 trillion. We need to restructure those -- radically -- so that we don't lose everything.

Sure, we know we have the capacity to turn this situation around. But it can't happen before 2012 without Democratic good faith and participation.

The Democrats talk and behave as though there were no urgency. Instead, they just accuse Rep. Paul Ryan of robbing seniors of Medicare. But the facts are that his plan would preserve benefits for those who are 55 or older and phase in benefit reductions for others. If we fail to restructure the system, we'll all end up -- within a generation -- not only without Medicare benefits but also with a fallen nation.

Continue reading "Just When You Thought Our Fiscal Nightmare Couldn't Get Any Worse"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:41 PM

June 20, 2011

A Constitutional Convention Is a Dangerous Idea

The left's assault on liberty never rests, so don't ever be sucked into supporting the dangerous idea of a new constitutional convention, even if its stated purposes purport to be limited.

Recently, CNN's Fareed Zakaria spoke admiringly of how "Iceland is actually junking its own constitution and starting anew and ... soliciting ideas from all of Iceland's 320,000 citizens, with the help of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube."

Zakaria beamed as he ticked off some of the wonderful ideas proposed by Icelanders, such as "guaranteed good health care" and "campaign finance systems that make corporate donations illegal."

Putting aside the obvious question of how Barack Obama, Russ Feingold and John McCain managed to get on Iceland's social networks, I hope idealistic Americans don't get any ideas from this tiny nation's dubious project.

Oh, wait. Our geniuses are already well ahead of Iceland's. A friend called me in February to tell me of a proposed resolution circulating in the Missouri House in support of a national convention to consider amendments to the U.S. Constitution. She asked me to help discourage the Republican leadership from pursuing this ill-considered idea. She didn't have to convince me.

Continue reading "A Constitutional Convention Is a Dangerous Idea"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:39 PM

June 16, 2011

A New Paradigm for the Left?

If you compare the Carter malaise with the Obama debt doomsday machine, any GOP 2012 presidential candidate should sail to victory with greater facility than Ronald Reagan did in 1980. But will she or he?

I am optimistic but also believe that in making his economic case, the Republican candidate will have different challenges because of the ongoing growth of our welfare state and the attitudes it has ushered in, along with heightened class warfare.

We could be seeing a paradigm shift in the way people view their social compact with government. More and more people believe that government exists not just to perform essential services as delimited in the Constitution, but as a grand equalizer of economic outcomes.

It's one thing to argue that those who earn more should pay a higher percentage of their earnings in income tax. But it's a completely different idea to suggest that the government should use the tax code and other legislative schemes not just to ensure sufficient revenues to operate the government, but to more equitably distribute people's remaining income -- or, possibly, assets.

This is not just a matter of semantics. In this new paradigm, some contend that irrespective of the government's operating needs, it has a moral right -- and a duty -- to proactively intervene to redistribute income.

Continue reading "A New Paradigm for the Left?"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:02 PM

June 13, 2011

Will the Buck Ever Stop on Obama's Desk?

If I'd heard the following words, instead of reading them, I might have assumed they were being delivered by a President Obama impressionist on "Saturday Night Live."

But the words were from Obama himself in his latest weekly radio address. "I wish I could tell you there was a quick fix to our economic problems," he said. "But the truth is we didn't get into this mess overnight, and we won't get out of it overnight. It's going to take time."

Obama has repeated this line ad nauseam ever since it became impossible to deny that reality had shattered his arrogant guarantee, more than two years ago, that he would keep unemployment below 8 percent if we would just pass his $800 billion "stimulus" package.

At the same time, he also introduced his phantom metric of "creating or saving" 3.5 million jobs -- a device that was as bloated with sophistry as Bill Clinton's verbal gyrations with the word "is." Though the claim is as improvable as it is immeasurable, our sustained horrendous unemployment levels nevertheless render it insultingly ludicrous on its face.

Obama apparently has no plays in his playbook other than to call for more government intervention and further blame his predecessor. He believes economic growth can only be rekindled through government intervention at the direction of his band of central planners.

Continue reading "Will the Buck Ever Stop on Obama's Desk?"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:54 PM

June 09, 2011

'Demonic' Is Angelic

Ann Coulter's chilling two-chapter recapitulation of the French Revolution is worth well more than the price of her new book, "Demonic," but that's just a bonus.

Also priceless are Coulter's plethora of one-liner skewerings of the liberal mob, but I digress. What make this her best book are her incisive demonstration that the revolution was the mother of the many totalitarian "revolutions" it spawned in the name of the people, her dissection of the mob mentality that drove it, and her case against today's American liberals as exemplars of this mob mentality.

She first establishes her base line, defining the mob as "an irrational, childlike, often violent organism that derives its energy from the group. Intoxicated by messianic goals, the promise of instant gratification, and adrenaline-pumping exhortations, mobs create mayhem, chaos, and destruction, leaving a smoldering heap of wreckage for their leaders to climb to power." Sound familiar? It should, because "the Democratic Party is the party of the mob. ... Indeed, the very idea of a 'community organizer' is to stir up a mob for some political purpose." No truer words.

She then systematically identifies the Democratic Party's mob characteristics and how its leaders' appeal to them -- through distortions, inflaming passions, demonizing opponents and substituting propagandist images and sound bites in place of facts, ideas and persuasive argument. The Democratic Party is nothing if not a repository of hackneyed slogans ("the laws of logic have no action on crowds"), repeated mindlessly and incessantly and designed to thwart the rational consideration of ideas with appeals to incendiary, false rhetoric: "Bush lied, people died." "No blood for oil." "Tax cuts for the rich."

Next, Coulter takes us on a gripping tour of the murderously barbaric and ghoulishly bloody years of the French Revolution and its philosophical underpinnings, which were inspired in part by Jean Jacques Rousseau.

Continue reading "'Demonic' Is Angelic"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:00 PM

June 06, 2011

Who Says History Isn't Confusing?

The liberal media's most recent effort to turn Sarah Palin into a dolt over her version of Paul Revere, on which historians are now defending her, has prompted me to share with you some confusing points of European history I have recently re-encountered in my lay study of the subject.

With apologies in advance to professional and amateur historians, here are a few fun "facts."

First, the nutshell version: The Roman Empire is not to be confused with the Roman Republic, except that the latter was an extension of the former and is sometimes included in a broader definition of the former. The Holy Roman Empire is not remotely related to the Roman Empire, other than perhaps through the desire of the former to be favorably associated with the latter. The Byzantine Empire is also not to be confused with the original Roman Empire, though some consider it an eastern extension of the Roman Empire. And the Byzantine Empire and the Ottoman Empire are entirely different animals, except that the latter helped to demolish the former and ended up dominating much of the same territory.

Continue reading "Who Says History Isn't Confusing?"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:57 PM

June 02, 2011

Only One Party Can Solve Debt Problem, and It Too Is Running out of Time

Do you think it's conceivable that yet another round of dismal economic news might cause President Obama to finally dig deeply enough in his id to find some hidden humility and consider reversing course? Let's be serious.

Why should he do that when it's much easier -- and more profitable politically -- to just demonize Republicans?

But will there ever be a time when the inescapable reality of our impending financial panic will compel him and other Democrats to act like grown-ups and help solve this problem before it "solves" itself and destroys countless people and institutions in its wake?

How long can they remain in public denial? Maybe the gravity of the crisis works against those who are attempting, in good faith, to solve it. Things surely couldn't be as bad as the prophets are warning. After all, we've been subjected to endless doom-filled conspiracy theories and Armageddon has yet to occur.

We actually have award-winning economists out there downplaying the situation and even suggesting that the problem is that Obama hasn't spent enough. Others grudgingly admit there's a problem but deny it's urgent.

Continue reading "Only One Party Can Solve Debt Problem, and It Too Is Running out of Time"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:28 PM

May 26, 2011

Time for GOP To Implement Full-Frontal Budget Assault

My advice for the GOP: No more Mr. Nice Guy. No more putting the pretense of civility above the best interests of the nation. Democrats are playing cynical games with our national debt crisis, and it's time they were called out on them -- directly, volubly and repeatedly. Senate Democrats haven't passed their own budget plan in more than two years, despite having strong control of that body. Meanwhile, the nation is teetering on bankruptcy.

I don't make that statement lightly. Our national debt is $14.3 trillion, and our federal deficit is $1.65 trillion. This might be less shocking but for the facts that our projected annual deficits as long as Obama is in charge average $1 trillion, and our unfunded entitlements exceed $88 trillion.

Just yesterday I read two shocking articles comparing the debt picture of the United States to that of Greece. The mere thought that our situations are remotely comparable should send us into anxiety attacks.

In one of those articles, Michael Tanner, in National Review Online, asks, "Which country is in worse fiscal condition -- Greece or the United States?" Brace yourselves. This year, says Tanner, Greece's budget deficit will be 9.5 percent of its gross domestic product. (Last year, it was 15 percent.) Its national debt will exceed 150 percent of GDP by year's end. When you factor in its future unfunded pension liabilities, its debt exceeds 875 percent of GDP, meaning that the debt is almost nine times greater than the value of the nation's total annual economic production. Wow.

Surely the United States doesn't even approach such frightening levels. After all, aren't these allusions to Greece just the stuff of fear-mongers like that outrageous meanie Paul Ryan? Well, let's take a look.

Continue reading "Time for GOP To Implement Full-Frontal Budget Assault"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 08:32 PM

May 23, 2011

Don't Let Liberal Establishment Choose Our Candidates

Conservatives are worried that an ideal Reagan conservative has yet to emerge and lead the 2012 GOP presidential field. But are we allowing the liberal media (and establishment Republicans) to manipulate the narrative to prevent such a result?

Obviously, the liberal media do not have the best interests of Reagan conservatives in mind when they do their "reporting." So when they tell us certain GOP candidates are unelectable or electable, common sense would counsel us to take their advice with mounds of salt. But do we?

Surely Ronald Reagan isn't the only qualified, electable Reagan conservative in our lifetimes. Nonetheless, the virtually unchallenged assumption is that Reagan conservatism is extreme and its purveyors intrinsically divisive.

The demonization always follows the same pattern. A promising mainstream conservative candidate appears and begins to gain traction and is then relentlessly attacked and marginalized into apparent unelectablility.

Compare the media's treatment of Mitt Romney with their treatment of John McCain in the 2008 Republican primary campaign. We don't need to debate here whether Romney is a Reagan conservative; all that matters for purposes of this discussion is that the liberal media thought he was -- or enough so that he had to be stopped. McCain, on the other hand, had been their darling for years for his high-profile counter-conservative stances and his penchant for administering friendly fire on his GOP colleagues. It wasn't until the general election that they turned on McCain.

Continue reading "Don't Let Liberal Establishment Choose Our Candidates"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 09:16 PM

May 19, 2011

Obama and Democrats, Not Republicans, Need to Answer for Debt Ceiling

What kind of surreal world are we inhabiting where the political party that is trying to address our debt problem is on the defensive at the hands of the reckless party that chooses to mock, demagogue and delay?

The national dialogue, at least the one being choreographed by Democrats and their amen chorus in the liberal Beltway media, has been distorted beyond measure. We are asking the wrong questions and getting the wrong answers.

Let's focus on the real problem. We are in a national debt crisis -- present tense; this is not something that might occur in the future. Medicare and Social Security trustees just issued the grim report that Medicare's fiscal hole has deepened by an additional $2 trillion and its projected date of insolvency has been moved up five more years to 2024. Social Security was already $49 billion in the red last year, and its projected insolvency date has been advanced to 2036.

Meanwhile, S&P lowered America's long-term credit rating from "stable" to "negative," and CNN Money warned that this means there's a one in three chance that S&P will downgrade our AAA credit rating within two years. Also, Pimco, the world's largest bond fund with $1.2 trillion in assets, has already sold off all of its U.S. government holdings.

So, the media shouldn't be asking the Republicans whether they intend to play brinksmanship with the debt ceiling, suggesting that if they refuse to raise the limit again they'll cause the United States to default on its obligations and plunge into a financial catastrophe.

Continue reading "Obama and Democrats, Not Republicans, Need to Answer for Debt Ceiling"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:51 PM

May 16, 2011

Obamacare Based on Fraudulent Premise

I think people are missing the main point of Obamacare's alleged "death panels": Obama has forfeited any claim to moral authority in pursuit of his so-called health care reform.

It is indisputable that the thrust of Obama's push for Obamacare was that too many Americans were being denied access to medical care, and that health care "should be a right for every American." He obviously believes insurance companies let his mother die in refusing to cover her medical bills because of her pre-existing condition.

So, Obama concluded, as a matter of morality and legality, there should be universal access to health care among Americans. Anything less is immoral.

Applying that rationale, Obama railed against the status quo. He excoriated insurance companies for their "obscene profits" and also blamed them, along with the entire health care system, for the "fact" that 46 million Americans (he sometimes said 30 million) were without health insurance.

Under his plan, all Americans would have such insurance, even those who didn't want to exercise the newly created right he fashioned out of whole cloth. Obamacare might not be perfect, but by gosh, it would take care of the access issue and so it would be worth any criticisms against it.

Continue reading "Obamacare Based on Fraudulent Premise"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:25 PM

May 12, 2011

My Recurring Obama 'Dream'

Can you imagine how insufferable President Obama would be about his record in office if he actually had abundant positive accomplishments? Have we ever seen a starker contrast between a politician's record and his self-assessment of it?

It's not as though the president just avoids or downplays his failures. It's more like he showcases them, but only after completely revising history to put his actions in a favorable light.

I have this recurring dream where I'm watching the president give a speech and he makes a claim about his record wholly at odds with what we have witnessed and I have to question my memory. Did he just say what I think he said, or did I miss a word or phrase that would have changed the meaning to something far less inaccurate -- and outrageously absurd? The trouble is, these are not dreams.

The most recent example was his speech on immigration. Perhaps he figured he'd received enough of a "bounce" from the bin Laden strike to ratchet up his militant rhetoric against border enforcement advocates. Last year, through the Arizona law, they were subjecting to possible arrest "legals" who were just out with their families for ice cream. Now they want to protect the border with a moat full of alligators.

But the people who are truly in jeopardy, as Texas Gov. Rick Perry pointed out, are those on the border who have to deal with the reality of deadly Mexican drug cartels.

Continue reading "My Recurring Obama 'Dream'"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:18 PM

May 09, 2011

Democrats' Spending and Power Addictions Prevent Debt Solutions

The Washington Examiner reports that it's been 768 days since the Democratic-controlled Senate passed a budget. What's the big deal? It's not like the nation is facing financial difficulties or anything.

I realize it's convenient for President Obama to pretend he's a bystander on fiscal matters when it suits him and to pass the buck that never stops with him back to Congress, but how about a little leadership on the issue for a change?

The Republican-controlled House has done its part, but Obama and Senate Democrats continue to dither. The only time you see much activity out of them is when Republicans force the issue, such as with Congressman Paul Ryan's plan to balance the budget through a combination of discretionary spending controls, structural entitlement reforms and a major tax overhaul. Otherwise, it's as if they're either oblivious to the nation's looming bankruptcy or cynically unconcerned.

The Examiner reveals that Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad spent a full day explaining a proposal to the Democratic caucus but nothing emerged because too many of Conrad's comrades "hate it." Guess why.

Wrong. It's not because it doesn't go far enough with spending cuts and doesn't include serious entitlement reform. It's because it cuts too much spending and doesn't raise taxes enough.

Continue reading "Democrats' Spending and Power Addictions Prevent Debt Solutions"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:45 PM

May 05, 2011

Obama's Scandalous War Against Domestic Oil

Do you remember the terrible things the left was saying about President George W. Bush when gas prices soared under his watch? Yet President Obama, whose policies and actions are actually contributing to rocketing gas prices today, gets the usual mainstream media pass.

Is it that the liberal media exempt Obama from accountability because they're on his team in general? Is it because they think he's blameless in the equation even though they sprang to the unfounded conclusion that Bush was culpable? Or could it be that they aren't critical because they share his bias against conventional energy and believe the pain caused by his policies is necessary to move us toward alternative energy sources?

During Bush's term, gas prices went down 9 percent, adjusted for inflation. Yet, preposterously, he was excoriated for allegedly colluding with "big oil" to drive up prices. When prices spiked later in his term, he took proactive steps to increase our supply and reduce prices, and they worked. But Obama has taken action to impede conventional energy sources and shove us into alternative ones. Even so, liberals ignore any possible causal links.

Obama told us he would bankrupt the coal industry. He's pushing high-speed rail down our throats despite the lack of public demand for it and our inability to finance it. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said the administration intended to coerce us out of our cars. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said, "Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe."

In view of exploding gas prices, why aren't these statements seen as scandalous? Where are the calls for investigations?

Continue reading "Obama's Scandalous War Against Domestic Oil"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 02:39 PM

May 02, 2011

2012 Is the Republicans' Election To Lose

We are living in strange times indeed when it's not laughable to suggest that President Obama will be difficult to beat in 2012. Well, I'm not buying it, even considering any positive (but inevitably temporary) surge Obama may receive with Osama bin Laden's death.

In 2008, as an economic crisis played into his hands, Obama ran against an uninspiring opponent in John McCain, campaigned on grandiose promises in lieu of a record, and cultivated and rode a mainstream media wave based on a myth of his messiahship. Yet he still only won with 53 percent of the vote.

Obama had painted a bleak picture of America, which didn't really have much to do with the immediate financial crisis we were then undergoing, though he milked that for all it was worth and incorporated it into his narrative while enjoying a complete pass for his role in creating it.

Obama described an America that had lost its way and exploited the naive idealism of youth voters, promising that he would usher in a new kind of politics and an era of "hope and change."

Obama not only got the youth vote out but also garnered an unprecedented share of it. Some 54.5 percent of Americans 18 to 29 voted in 2008, and they constituted the highest category of the electorate voting. (Seniors -- 65 or older -- constituted 16 percent.)

Continue reading "2012 Is the Republicans' Election To Lose"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:24 PM

April 25, 2011

Debt Ceiling? It's Time for GOP To Let Chips Fall

The governing class in Washington has no excuse for not having addressed our spending issues and formulating a comprehensive federal debt retirement plan before we approached another debt ceiling threshold.

At every possible opportunity, politicians convince themselves that it's always better to kick the can down the road -- Democrats because they aren't remotely serious about debt reduction, Republicans because they're afraid of their own shadow.

Democrats don't need an excuse. It's a given that they would rather continue printing money and hurtle the nation toward financial bankruptcy in the name of compassion. They want to keep paying their constituents money we don't have for a few more years so that no one will have much in a few more years as the United States finally reaches European socialist status.

The Republicans do need an excuse to ignore their mandate -- and they always have one: "If we allow the government to shut down, the people will be furious and throw us out of office" or "We represent just one-half of one-third of the federal government."

Each time we approach a leverage point (government shutdown, debt ceiling) where the Republicans could employ a little brinksmanship to force a recalcitrant Democratic Party to begin acting responsibly, they convince themselves that the possible consequences of pressing the issue aren't worth the risk. But do they ever really sufficiently make the case of how much greater the consequences would be if they were not to take action very soon?

Continue reading "Debt Ceiling? It's Time for GOP To Let Chips Fall"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:38 PM

April 21, 2011

To Retire Our National Debt, We Must Retire Obama

Everyone but the blind and reckless agrees that the United States faces a dire financial crisis. But only one of the two major political parties is offering a plan that has a reasonable chance of averting this crisis and restoring the nation to financial health.

Obama's ever-changing proposals, allegedly designed to tackle the problem, simply could not work. One of the following must be true: He doesn't agree that the crisis is grave, doesn't understand that his policies can't work, doesn't have the same vision about America as most of us, or doesn't intend for his policies to work. Some people believe he's intentionally damaging America, because they believe he's too smart not to know that we face a crisis and that his policies can't work.

I don't pretend to comprehend the inner child of his past that apparently impels him to pursue this current path of destruction. My educated guess is that his leftist ideology blinds him to the inefficacy of failed liberal prescriptions but also that this same ideology tells him that if things don't get appreciably better, then that's OK, too, because America's had more than its fair share of prosperity anyway.

Think about it. Through every fiber of his being runs a sense of injustice at what he perceives to be a grossly inequitable distribution of income in America. He largely blames these inequities on capitalism. Please don't call me an extremist for saying that, either; I hear it in almost everything he says and see it in what he does.

I correspond with liberals like Obama every day, whose angst reflexively attaches to those who have succeeded under our system: villainous corporations, oil companies, fat cat bankers and wealthy individuals. It's not just that capitalism is inherently flawed for fostering a climate that guarantees such disparities in prosperity but also that those who have exploited these flaws are evil.

Continue reading "To Retire Our National Debt, We Must Retire Obama"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:41 PM

April 18, 2011

Ryan 1, Obama 0

I am beginning to wonder whether President Obama is so cocky about his 2012 re-election prospects that he thinks he doesn't even have to be serious in his budget plan offerings.

Unfortunately, the nation's unfunded liabilities aren't so casual as the president; they are growing by more than $10 trillion per year, which means that our looming debt crisis becomes far more problematic with each passing day.

I invite you to compare Obama's recently submitted plans with either Paul Ryan's "Path to Prosperity" or his own bipartisan deficit commission's recommendations. Or, if you're the risk-taking type, you may want to wait for the findings of yet another commission that Obama has talked about forming, obviously hoping this new commission would dutifully tailor its findings to his policy preferences.

Both Ryan's plan and the deficit commission's include specific proposals to achieve what the commission has termed "sustainability" in our budget and entitlements; Obama's plan is strikingly bereft of specifics.

Ryan's plan would reduce the deficit by $5.8 trillion in 10 years, mostly with spending cuts and revenue-neutral but growth-oriented tax reforms. Obama claims he would cut $4 trillion in 12 years, but his onerous tax hikes might completely negate his spending cuts, which he has yet to specify. Ryan's plan would begin cuts immediately, but the president's plan would postpone planned cuts and savings until 2013 -- after his re-election campaign.

Ryan would freeze discretionary spending for five years to pre-2008 levels and index it to inflation thereafter. Obama's plan has no such spending caps.

Continue reading "Ryan 1, Obama 0"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:02 PM

April 14, 2011

Obama: Incorrigible Statist and Debt Menace

In my book "Crimes Against Liberty," I described President Obama as dishonest, hyper-partisan, a bully, a narcissist and a hard-core left-wing ideologue. Anyone who thinks my description is exaggerated or too harsh didn't hear his Wednesday speech on the budget.

One might have expected that a newly elected president who had "inherited" such a disturbingly high deficit, a growing national debt, and a forecast of unfunded entitlements soon to explode because of baby boomer demographics alone would roll up his sleeves and tackle this deficit and debt problem.

Instead, Obama saw that $1.3 trillion deficit, licked his Marxist chops, and used it as an excuse to double down on the profligate spending that was driving our budgetary problems in the first place. He proposed -- and secured -- an $800 billion "stimulus" package.

With messianic winds at his back, Obama proceeded to implement the plan, which couldn't have even qualified as a bona fide stimulus measure in the eyes of an avowed Keynesian. It was a combination of political paybacks, pork and unprecedented waste, with millions going to phantom ZIP codes under the watchful eye of Obama's stimulus cop, ol' sleeping Joe Biden. Adding insult to the sham claim that this money was designed to stimulate, just a fraction of the money was spent in the first year.

Hindsight confirms what many of us predicted: The stimulus did not stimulate. Unemployment became much worse, and the debt continued to explode. Obama's solution was to ignore the entitlements issue and devise new ways to bankrupt the nation, from cap and trade to Obamacare to reversing welfare reform.

Continue reading "Obama: Incorrigible Statist and Debt Menace"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:09 PM

April 11, 2011

GOP Didn't Win Budget Battle; Silver Lining: Neither Did Dems

The Republicans did not win this budget fight, but the cuts they were able to extract illustrate, ironically, that Democrats are finally on the defensive. Scorekeeping aside, we must build on this non-victory because it was also a Democratic retreat.

Last week, I argued that the GOP should not cave on the budget negotiations for many reasons, including that today is not 1995-96. Things are so much different now, especially because of the existential threat to the republic that the exploding national debt represents.

Not surprisingly, my position didn't prevail. The Republicans reneged on their promise to cut $100 billion (or the so-called pro rata equivalent of that, $61 billion) for the remainder of the fiscal year.

They caved because they apparently bought into the conventional wisdom that a government shutdown would be blamed on mean-spirited Republicans. Folks, if that's true, then why did the Democrats, who are in delusional denial about the debt crisis, agree to $38.5 billion in cuts?

If Democrats were as cocksure that the public would blame the GOP for a shutdown and punish its members accordingly, then why didn't they just avoid infuriating their base and hold fast at $6.2 billion in cuts or whatever farcical number they had proposed?

Continue reading "GOP Didn't Win Budget Battle; Silver Lining: Neither Did Dems"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:29 PM

April 07, 2011

Trump, Not as a 2012 Candidate, but as a Blueprint

My brother, Rush, said on his program Thursday that Donald Trump, in taking the fight directly to President Obama, has provided a winning blueprint for defeating him in 2012.

Rush was referring to the way in which Trump -- think what you will about him and his politics -- has boldly challenged President Obama on a number of issues, including the notorious birth certificate fracas, obviously unconcerned about fallout from the liberal media.

The issue here is not Obama's birth certificate; it is Trump's aggressive, offensive posture in challenging Obama across the board. He rightly recognizes that America's financial condition is in shambles and contends that Obama's incoherent approach to foreign policy is making the U.S. a laughingstock in the international community.

Trump is not my candidate for a number of reasons, including that I don't believe he's been reliably conservative over the years, but I have no doubt that Republicans can learn great lessons from his direct, fearless approach.

The first application of the Trump blueprint should be the congressional Republicans' approach to the budget war, in both the short-term battles over the umpteenth continuing resolution and the battle over Rep. Paul Ryan's long-term budget proposal.

Continue reading "Trump, Not as a 2012 Candidate, but as a Blueprint"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:19 PM

April 04, 2011

Democrats Not Governing, But Lying in Wait

Do you believe Rep. Paul Ryan when he says we only have a few years left to get our fiscal house in order, or we're going to face European-type austerity? How about the co-chairmen of the bipartisan deficit commission, Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, who have essentially issued the same warning?

Have you taken a hard look at President Obama's 10-year budget with a view to whether it would marginally address the crisis? Are you aware of the gargantuan deficits it projects -- averaging some $1 trillion per year -- and that this is before considering the Congressional Budget Office's scoring that revealed that its projected cumulative deficits were understated by a staggering $2.3 trillion?

Did you know that entitlements -- mainly Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid -- are the primary drivers of these deficits but that Obama has yet to come to the table with a genuine entitlement reform proposal? Or that congressional Democrats, for the first time since 1974, did not pass a budget and all of the current wrangling over continuing resolutions and government shutdowns is a direct result of their dereliction?

Can you explain why President Obama, touted as the finest orator in the modern era, didn't exercise leadership over his Democratic lieutenants in Congress to quit playing fiscal Russian roulette? Or why those Democrats proposed just $6 billion in further budget cuts for the remainder of this fiscal year -- and then, only under GOP pressure -- when the budget is $3.8 trillion? Or why they are characterizing the GOP's proposal of $61 billion in cuts (1.6 percent of the budget) as "Draconian"?

You surely know that President Obama has ceaselessly dodged his fiscal responsibilities by blaming his budgets on the $1.3 trillion deficit he "inherited." But how about that he was instrumental in ensuring the passage of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, which contributed heavily to that then-extraordinary deficit number, and that even so, the actual number is substantially lower when you factor in the TARP repayments?

Continue reading "Democrats Not Governing, But Lying in Wait"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:42 PM

March 28, 2011

There Is a Method to Obama's Libya Madness

President Obama's decision to bomb Libya is not even so multilateral as President George W. Bush's decision to attack Iraq. Nor is it ultimately driven by humanitarian concerns -- and certainly not by any vital U.S. national interest.

Despite Obama's vilification of Bush for his alleged unilateralism, "Obama's 'coalition of the willing,'" according to foreign policy reporter Josh Rogin, "is smaller than any major multilateral operation since the end of the Cold War." Obama's Libyan intervention is more unilateral than Dubya's in another respect, as well: Obama has brazenly refused even to consult Congress, much less seek its blessing.

As I argued in my most recent column, this is just the foreign policy outworking of Obama's campaign to fundamentally transform America. Notice the common thread. He is using domestic policies to effectuate "economic justice" at home, trying to cut "wealthy" Americans down to size. Now he is using foreign policy to diminish America's role and stature in the international community to cut wealthy, imperialistic America down to size.

I don't want to get bogged down here in a discussion of whether his motive is thus to sabotage America. In my view, that's the effect of his policies, but I suppose that in his view, America will be a better nation if it uses government coercion to come closer to equalizing everyone's share of the pie -- even if it results in the pie's shrinking -- and if America operates less in its own self-interest in foreign affairs. It's a bizarre mindset and one that most Americans probably don't understand -- so bizarre that they don't believe it despite the proof in front of their faces.

Think about it. Obama's secretary of defense, Robert Gates, admitted on national television Sunday that Libya poses no actual or imminent threat to the United States and that it is not a vital national security interest. This was no gaffe. Surely, Obama's team is not so incompetent and undisciplined that it didn't anticipate this question and carefully prepare the answer.

Continue reading "There Is a Method to Obama's Libya Madness"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:02 PM

March 24, 2011

Obama's Libya: Completing His Remaking of America

Everyone seems to have a different theory about why President Obama attacked Libya when he did and what his ultimate purpose is, because he has been so adamantly against similar uses of military force and reluctant even to voice his support for some democratic movements. I don't think it's that mysterious.

Commentators have been mystified by Obama's vacillation, his indecisiveness and his apparent apathy about foreign policy. I do think that Obama far prefers domestic policy to foreign policy and that he wants to focus most of his attention on redistributing wealth, administering "economic justice" and otherwise fundamentally changing America. But we should understand that fundamentally transforming America has an essential foreign policy component, as well.

I concede that he probably hadn't given much thought to how he would pursue his foreign policy beyond broad general strokes of negotiating with our enemies and "restoring America's image abroad."

It probably didn't occur to him that he would actually find himself ordering a military attack on another nation, especially a Middle Eastern nation. But I think that when the Libyan situation was unfolding, it occurred to Obama that this was his opportunity to put his foreign policy philosophy into action -- beyond the speeches he had given. I think his excursion into Libya can best be understood in the context of his views about America and wanting to recast it in his image.

The entire Democratic establishment carped at President George W. Bush's allegedly unilateral, arrogant and abusive policies, which supposedly damaged our international image. They said his policies -- invading Iraq for oil, "torture" at Gitmo and Abu Ghraib, rendition, military tribunals, etc. -- served as the best possible recruitment tool for Islamic terrorists.

Continue reading "Obama's Libya: Completing His Remaking of America"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:53 PM

March 21, 2011

2012: Our National Fiscal Armageddon?

The 2012 presidential and congressional elections are shaping up to be a referendum on whether the American people have the wisdom, the discipline and the will to save this nation.

The nation is on an unsustainable path to fiscal bankruptcy, whose leading long-term drivers are Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Yet at every turn, Democrats have obstructed reform with vicious, demagogic attacks on those genuinely trying to reform them.

George W. Bush deserves some credit for trying to propose reforms, but he was immediately savaged by scaremongers who claimed he was going after seniors and proposing a risky solution, mainly because his plan included a small privatization component.

But times have changed. We are at the proverbial crossroads. After two years of President Obama's reckless stewardship, this nation is in dire straits, and people are more informed and more alarmed. Also, new stars, such as Rep. Paul Ryan, have arisen to confront these challenges with the powerful arsenal of real facts and figures and the demeanor to command bipartisan credibility -- for now.

I say "for now" because it is a virtual certainty that Ryan won't enjoy any semblance of respect from Democrats once he formally unveils his plan to move the budget back toward sanity.

Continue reading "2012: Our National Fiscal Armageddon?"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:50 PM

March 17, 2011

Blue Over Green Energy Promises

The promises of pie-in-the-sky liberal environmentalists that we can convert to "clean" energy sources and stimulate our economy are based on dubious environmental and economic assumptions, fantastic notions about alternative energy, and a disturbing acceptance of the tyrannies inherent in command-control economies.

It would be bad enough if President Obama and his Democratic allies were pushing budget-busting green energy solutions during an economic boom and times of a manageable national debt. But it's inconceivable that they would do so under the current dire fiscal circumstances.

They begin with the assumption that we have an urgent need to restructure our energy sources for environmental, economic and national security reasons. It's interesting they don't see the same urgency in our looming entitlement crisis -- a menace that will swallow our entire budget in a few generations, absent major reform.

They attempt to bolster that assumption by manipulating the playing field to deliberately suppress our production of oil and nuclear energy and then claim we have a catastrophic supply problem. To be sure, our supply of oil isn't unlimited, but if Democrats got off their pristine high horses about domestic oil production, the problem would be considerably mitigated. A logical first step would be to admit they are smothering production, an objectively provable fact about which the president brazenly prevaricated earlier this week.

We know Democrats are philosophically comfortable with using their power to artificially skew demand in favor of their preferred sources of energy. During the presidential campaign, Obama boasted that opening a coal-fired plant would be a bankrupting proposition, and he has otherwise allowed as how he has no problem with gas prices increasing (so people will be forced to consume less). His transportation secretary, Ray LaHood, has said he wants to coerce us out of our cars, and the administration is prepared to bludgeon this society into some high-speed rail system.

Continue reading "Blue Over Green Energy Promises"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:12 PM

March 14, 2011

GOP Fear That History Will Repeat Helps Ensure It Will

Why is it that despite the Republicans' resounding electoral victory in 2010 based on their promises for real change, many of us have a queasy feeling they're not quite measuring up to the task, even in the climate of Democratic infighting and President Obama's weaknesses?

The Hill reports that there is developing dissension between Obama and Senate Democrats, whose respective "political fortunes ... are moving in opposite directions, complicating their efforts to win a titanic battle against Republicans over federal spending."

Obama is trying to stay above the fray and letting Democratic legislators twist in the wind of conflict with GOP congressmen over a possible government shutdown. His plan is to ride in just in time to take credit for the ultimate resolution and be seen as "a bipartisan problem solver."

Meanwhile, many Senate Democrats believed to be vulnerable in 2012 defected from their party's proposal to cut spending. But hardly any Democrats, including the defectors, can be regarded as serious in their approach to the debt crisis now plaguing this country.

Yet are congressional Republicans capitalizing on this Democratic disunity and incompetence? To be sure, there are positive signs, such as the diligent efforts of Rep. Paul Ryan to help craft a comprehensive plan to severely reduce discretionary spending and substantively tackle entitlement reform. And Ryan isn't alone. Other conservative representatives and senators are standing strong.

Continue reading "GOP Fear That History Will Repeat Helps Ensure It Will"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:52 PM

March 10, 2011

Time for War Against Democrats' Fiscal Sabotage

It is amazing that the American people would continue to elect Democratic politicians to national office, considering Democrats' cynical disregard for the federal budget crisis. They aren't even slightly serious about becoming part of the solution.

Consider the Senate Democrats' most recent proposal for budget cuts to avert a government shutdown. Senate Republicans, following the House plan, proposed $61 billion in cuts for the current year, while Senate Democrats proposed a paltry $6.5 billion. (The Congressional Budget Office says it's actually only $4.7 billion.) Though Obama seems to be hiding in the bushes on this one, he is said to support the Democratic plan.

Did you hear that: $6.5/$4.7 billion? This is nothing. It's an outrage. This from the clowns who say the Republican cuts, which themselves wouldn't be enough, are "Draconian." No, it's their attitude that is Draconian -- to the republic.

There's no hope from the left side of the aisle when these people are irreversibly tied to the fiction that the economy simply can't function without an ongoing federal spending explosion. And they always get their charlatan economists to enable their profligacy.

The fact that their reckless spending hasn't worked as advertised doesn't faze them. Never does it occur to them that the borrowed money they spend to "grow the economy" smothers private-sector spending and is necessarily less efficient and less capable of generating a multiplier effect than private-sector spending. Private-sector spending is actually driven by what people want and need rather than by what dictatorial federal politicians tell us we should want or need.

Continue reading "Time for War Against Democrats' Fiscal Sabotage"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:16 PM

March 07, 2011

Chicago Politics Targets High Court

The Alinskyite left is not content with cramming its legislative agenda down the American people's throats. Next stop, the Supreme Court, where it is seeking to attack and discredit justices who will pass upon the constitutionality of its overreaching legislation.

Liberals were incensed when the Supreme Court, in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, struck down a provision of the McCain-Feingold Act that prohibited all corporations and unions from broadcasting "electioneering communications" -- broadcast, cable or satellite communications that mention a candidate within 60 days of a general election or 30 days of a primary. So incensed that President Barack "New Tone" Obama departed from years of custom and proper decorum and personally lambasted the justices for it in his 2010 State of the Union speech.

Obama said: "Last week, the Supreme Court reversed a century of law that I believe will open the floodgates for special interests -- including foreign corporations -- to spend without limit in our elections. I don't think American elections should be bankrolled by America's most powerful interests or, worse, by foreign entities. They should be decided by the American people, and I'd urge Democrats and Republicans to pass a bill that helps correct some of these problems."

Obama's attack was both untrue -- they can't spend without limitation -- and highly improper, forcing the justices to remain defenseless in the face of Obama's tongue-lashing.

Justice Samuel Alito could be seen quietly mouthing in protest "not true," but that was hardly an effective rebuttal to the strident political assault Obama had just unleashed before millions of television viewers against the nonpolitical branch. Even the normally mild-mannered Chief Justice John Roberts told law students at The University of Alabama that Obama's public criticism and the surrounding democratic congressmen's catcalling reaction to it was "troubling."

Continue reading "Chicago Politics Targets High Court"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 11:02 PM

March 03, 2011

Reckless, Quixotic Fantasies

At what point do environmentalist liberals become accountable for the results of their policies instead of their allegedly good intentions? Why isn't President Obama held accountable for his ideologically based interference with lower oil prices?

Obama has repeatedly shown his willingness to use his executive authority discriminatorily to implement his preferred environmental policies. On the presidential campaign trail, he bragged that he would ensure that any company that built a coal-fired plant would go bankrupt. By charging coal-powered plants "a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that's being emitted," he would "generate billions of dollars that we (could) invest in solar, wind, biodiesel and other alternative energy approaches."

He also made no secret of his intention to pressure Americans into driving hybrids or into taking alternative means of travel entirely. His transportation secretary, Ray LaHood, arrogantly boasted that the administration would "coerce people out of their cars." In justifying the administration's push for public mass transit options, LaHood said, "We have to create opportunities for people who want to ride a bike or walk or take a streetcar." Obama's ill-conceived and cost-prohibitive high-speed rail proposal is similarly fueled by this obsession.

Have we detected any concern by the administration about the economic impact of all of this? Then again, how often do environmentalist zealots concern themselves with economic realities?

Research has shown, for example, that if the United States were to adopt the Draconian cap-and-trade policies urged by the administration, it could cause a loss in gross domestic product of $9.4 trillion by 2035 and increase each family of four's share of the national debt by $115,000. Never mind that the policies would have a trivial impact on future concentrations of greenhouse gases and have no meaningful impact on global temperatures, even by 2100.

Continue reading "Reckless, Quixotic Fantasies"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:45 PM

February 28, 2011

Hate and Violence From the Left; It's Not Right

How much longer can the Democratic Party, the mainstream media and other leftists successfully maintain the ruse that intolerance, hatred and the propensity for violence mainly come from the right in this country? The lie is getting old.

The left's ideas continue to fail in the real world, and the majority of the people reject them, which is why their proponents so often disguise their true intentions. Partially because they can't prevail on a level playing field, they use whatever means they can to advance their agenda. One of those means is to pre-emptively strike their political opponents by falsely condemning them for behavior that they -- leftists -- actually engage in. It's called "projection."

Thus, intolerant, dogmatic leftists paint the right as reality-challenged and science-averse, when leftists are the ones who refuse to allow any contradictory evidence to penetrate their blinders about alleged catastrophic man-made global warming. They insist on continuing to deficit spend our nation into bankruptcy on the rationale that such reckless spending is the only recipe for stimulating an economy, despite dispositive historical and recent evidence proving otherwise.

Instead of joining Republicans in good faith to radically curb this spending, they accuse Republicans of "Draconian" cuts. Fully aware that runaway entitlement spending is guaranteed to bankrupt us eventually -- even if we do get a handle on discretionary expenditures -- they refuse seriously to address entitlement reform. They choose to exploit the issue as a political weapon to scare seniors and other entitlement beneficiaries.

But one of the worst examples of leftists' projection is their depiction of conservatives as hateful, violent Neanderthals whose mere participation in the marketplace of ideas and the democratic process is inherently dangerous.

Continue reading "Hate and Violence From the Left; It's Not Right"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:35 PM

February 24, 2011

Obama Not Just Above the Law; He Is the Law

President Obama's brazenly calculated move to unilaterally abandon the federal Defense of Marriage Act showcases his attitude that he is above the law.

DOMA defines marriage as "only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife" for purposes of all federal laws, rules and regulations (Section 3). It specifies that no state shall be required to honor laws of other states that treat same-sex relationships as legal marriages -- effectively carving out an exception to the Constitution's full faith and credit clause (Section 2).

Congress passed this law by enormous majorities (Senate 85-14, House 342-67) in response to political pressure in some states to redefine marriage, especially a Hawaiian court's decision suggesting the Hawaii Constitution conferred the right to same-sex marriage. Congress was worried that, among other things, same-sex couples living in other states might go to Hawaii to marry and demand that their home states recognize their marriages.

It seems that in enacting this law, the federal government was quite scrupulous in deferring to the sovereignty of the states by pronouncing a federal standard for marriage applicable to federal laws but not presuming to encroach on states' authority to set their own standards. It affirmed the states' prerogative by providing that their marriage laws would not be abrogated or diminished by conflicting laws of other states but did not preclude them from honoring, if they so choose, laws of other states validating same-sex marriages.

During his presidential campaign, Obama stated that he did not support same-sex marriage but that he did believe that DOMA should be repealed. He gave no hint that he would take it upon himself to issue a presidential edict, without a congressional bill placed before him, forbidding the executive branch from enforcing the law. But that is precisely what he did this week.

Continue reading "Obama Not Just Above the Law; He Is the Law"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:14 PM

February 17, 2011

Responsible Adults Cannot Ignore These Numbers

I knew we were in for real budgetary trouble with Obama, but his recent statements on the subject make me wonder whether he is so brainwashed with liberal ideology as to be divorced from reality -- or worse.

Based on his tireless rhetoric, it would appear that he thinks -- contrary to all evidence, including the failure of his $868 billion stimulus package to create jobs -- that even more spending would finally lead to jobs. This, though even his economic advisers have warned us not to expect unemployment levels to reduce to acceptable levels for years.

In the meantime, as wrongheaded as he is about government spending's creating jobs, he's outright delusional about what he's doing to the national debt -- and that's giving him the benefit of the doubt.

On our current course of runaway discretionary and entitlement spending, we will bankrupt the nation, yet Obama refuses to get serious about meaningfully curbing discretionary spending and is obstructing and demagoguing entitlement reform.

If this doesn't get your attention, then you are asleep, in denial or irresponsibly apathetic. For if you were engaged, you would have heard or read about Obama's stunning statements on the budget earlier this week.

He said, with a startling degree of casualness, "We will not be adding more to the national debt. ... We're not going to be running up the credit card any more."

Continue reading "Responsible Adults Cannot Ignore These Numbers"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 01:35 PM

February 14, 2011

Obama Has Already Thrown in Towel on 'Winning the Future'

It's pretty hard to stomach when President Obama even talks in terms of cutting the deficit, because his entire economic philosophy compels him to keep spending as if his goal were to impoverish our children and because he continues, in fact, to spend at such bankrupting levels.

Reuters reports that Obama's proposed budget would cut the deficit by $1.1 trillion over 10 years. Are you kidding me? We wouldn't even come close to balancing the budget if we applied all those cuts in one year, but spread out over 10 years, they are insulting. Plus, many of these "cuts" would be solely the result of bringing troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan.

We also learned that Obama's deficit for 2011 would not be the outrageously obscene $1.5 trillion the Congressional Budget Office revealed last month, which was already substantially above last year's $1.3 trillion, but a staggering $1.65 trillion.

With their signature audacity and cynicism, White House officials dubbed the administration's 10-year plan a "down payment" on future deficit reduction. I'm not sure that even George Orwell could wrap his arms around such sophistry. To call an enormous increase in an already gargantuan budget deficit a "down payment" on anything (other than this nation's imminent financial ruin) does violence to the English language.

The administration would have us believe that its enormous deficits are the new base line and that as long as we keep deficits at, say, $1 trillion, we are moving toward balancing the budget -- wholly ignoring that our national debt would be increasing by $1 trillion every year.

Continue reading "Obama Has Already Thrown in Towel on 'Winning the Future'"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:28 PM

February 10, 2011

GOP Infighting Is a Positive Development

While The New York Times is gloating over "turmoil" in the GOP House "ranks," internal disagreements over spending and other issues are a healthy development and should lead to more disciplined and aggressive action.

In his State of the Union speech, President Obama presented himself as a remade fiscal hawk, promising to freeze discretionary spending for five years. Conservatives immediately called him out on his disingenuousness. After greatly escalating baseline spending the past two years, his freeze pledge, especially when coupled with his gross inattention to the looming entitlement crisis, would just lock us onto our inexorable path to national bankruptcy.

In their pledge to the nation, Republicans promised, "With common-sense exceptions for seniors, veterans, and our troops, we will roll back government spending to pre-stimulus, pre-bailout levels, saving us at least $100 billion in the first year alone."

So the stage was set for the new GOP congressional majority to make good on its promise to trim the budget back to pre-bailout levels. This was the Republicans' opportunity to build on the credibility they had richly earned in voting to repeal Obamacare.

Slowly, however, word began to circulate that the GOP House leadership's proposed cuts would be $74 billion instead of $100 billion. Some argue that even that number is overstated because it represents cuts based on Obama's proposed budget rather than on the actual budget levels in place for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. Using that baseline, the cuts would be closer to $43 billion, and when you add certain increases for Pentagon, homeland security and veterans programs, the real number supposedly would be $35 billion.

Continue reading "GOP Infighting Is a Positive Development "

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:25 PM

February 07, 2011

Potential GOP Fissures

Republicans look strong each time President Obama assaults the treasury or the democratic process, but people seem more willing to forgive his infractions than they are with other politicians. That, along with the possibility of fissures among conservatives, could make him a formidable candidate for re-election.

It's mystifying that anyone other than pure leftists and those on the public dole could even consider voting for Obama after the way he's governed and behaved in office, but he seems to have nine political lives. It's amazing that he could enjoy high approval ratings while his policies are so unpopular. But so many invested their hope in him to be the man he pretended to be, and they don't want to let it go. The mainstream media are happy to nourish that sentiment, and their job will be even easier if the economy continues to rebound despite Obama's repeated body blows to it.

All of which is to say that Republicans had better bring their best game, both in their governance and in managing the various factions inside their big (and, one hopes, growing) tent. That, I'm afraid, could be easier said than done.

Let me just point out a few problem areas and warning signs for Republicans, not as some ominous foreboding or as a surrender to pessimism, but as potential pitfalls to avoid.

The tea party movement is an enormously positive force for responsible and accountable government and for the resurgence of constitutional principles and the rule of law. Its primary contribution has been its unwavering commitment to fiscal responsibility and its refusal to be absorbed and then emasculated by the Republican Party -- to the detriment of both.

Continue reading "Potential GOP Fissures"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 02:26 PM

February 03, 2011

Obama's Discriminatory Application of Laws Abounds

Is there anything about the Obama administration that doesn't reek of discriminatory application and enforcement of laws and the arbitrary and capricious abuse of power?

Obama's best defense against the charge that he's doing outrageous things is that to correctly accuse him of committing these actions makes one look like a kook. Viewed alone, they are quite disconcerting. Taken together, especially with levels of audacity and arrogance that would impress any tyrant, they are immensely troubling.

Obama's selective and inequitable wielding of governmental power suggests that he's on a mission to correct perceived injustices, to settle the score or to exact revenge. His attitude lends credence to this.

Everything about his governance smacks of picking winners and losers and defying accountability -- just because he can and no one is going to stop him. On the accountability point, consider that his Department of Justice didn't bother to file responsive pleadings until way past the default deadline in a major lawsuit by Missouri officials against the feds on Obamacare.

Now he's openly defied Rep. Darrell Issa's document request deadline -- sending a signal that these executive thugs can just do whatever they darn well please without consequences.

Continue reading "Obama's Discriminatory Application of Laws Abounds"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:44 PM

January 31, 2011

Liberal "Tolerance" Toward Bristol Palin

Though tolerance is not the highest virtue and hypocrisy is not the lowest sin, liberals have a dearth of the former while demanding it and an abundance of the latter while forbidding it.

Washington University's withdrawn speaking invitation to Bristol Palin is a textbook example both of liberal intolerance and hypocrisy.

The university invited Palin to share her views on abstinence during its "Student Sexual Responsibility Week" in February. But when it was disclosed that the school had offered Palin $20,000 to speak, open-minded liberal students objected and the university withdrew the invitation.

Let's look at some of the reasons the university offered for reneging on its invitation to Palin -- reasons that are much more diverse than the university's acceptable range of speaker choices.

The first objection was over the size of the honorarium. While $20,000 is a good chunk of change, it's not like it was a gift. Speakers are routinely paid more on campuses throughout the United States, many of whom couldn't possibly draw the kind of crowds necessary to pay their fees. With Palin's high profile, she doubtlessly could have generated an audience sufficient to cover her honorarium. If that's the case, this objection is unreasonable, especially when schools subsidize other speaker payments. And what does it say about a public institution that it would renege on what we must assume was its legally binding commitment to pay Palin for her appearance?

Continue reading "Liberal "Tolerance" Toward Bristol Palin"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:42 PM

January 27, 2011

Obama Believes American Exceptionalism Begins With Government

Obama's latest watchword, "investments," is not, as I originally assumed, simply a euphemism for government spending. It captures his entire economic philosophy -- a philosophy that is permanently engrained in the core of his being and disastrous for America's "future."

President Bill Clinton shrewdly used the word as a more palatable substitute for income tax rate increases, saying taxpayers needed to "invest" more of their hard-earned dollars in America. But Obama's use of the term was different in two important ways. First, for him, "investments" would apply to the spending side of the fiscal equation. He would ask our support in his plan to "invest" more government money in infrastructure and education.

Secondly, and more significantly, Obama used the term to candy-coat his fundamental lack of confidence in the private sector and free market, as well as his commitment to faith in government as the primary engine for economic growth.

For all the analysis of Obama's speech, I don't think nearly enough has been made of this theme, which was interwoven throughout it. For it is the key to understanding that regardless of any promises he might make to move to the center, he will not do so willingly. It is also critical to comprehending why, despite the marked failure of his economic policies, he is virtually incapable of voluntarily changing course.

Obama's critics often say that it's important to pay more attention to his actions than his words. Though there is much validity in that, it's also true that we must not overlook his words, for he is not always careful to disguise his heartfelt views.

Continue reading "Obama Believes American Exceptionalism Begins With Government "

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:03 PM

January 24, 2011

Obama Moving to the Center? Wanna Buy a Bridge?

For those who argue that Obama deserves a second chance at proving he's not at war with American business and the free market, I ask what he has done to indicate he's changed his philosophy that drives that war.

It's admirable to give people the benefit of the doubt in personal relationships, but we are talking about more than a personal relationship here and have a responsibility not to ignore the evidence. That evidence tells us that he is still an intractable left-wing ideologue committed to destructive progressive policy prescriptions.

Most liberals, such as New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, understand that Obama's gestures toward the center during his State of the Union speech will be just that, gestures. They know that by invoking the vernacular of the right -- e.g., promoting competitiveness -- Obama will merely be engaged in what Krugman calls "packaging."

But the left is not Obama's target audience. His goal is to convince moderates and some credulous conservatives that he is willing to move to the center so that he can acquire the political capital to do precisely the opposite.

Has Obama once acknowledged that his policies haven't worked, but have driven the nation further into the financial abyss? Has he ever apologized for any policy failure?

Continue reading "Obama Moving to the Center? Wanna Buy a Bridge?"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:31 PM

January 20, 2011

House Vote To Repeal More Than Symbolic

Time will tell, but I reject the somewhat cynical view that the House Republicans' vote to repeal Obamacare is purely symbolic. I think it's quite significant.

We are engaged in a war to save our nation from crippling debt and systematic assaults on our Constitution and our liberties and to preserve our prosperity. No setback has to become a permanent defeat. But neither will any victory remain secure, for the forces working against us are tireless and relentless.

No matter how many times history has proved socialism disastrous, there will always be those promoting it, as if the past never occurred or its lessons are unlearnable.

All of which is to say that the struggle in which we are engaged has long existed and will continue as long as we are a nation. As such, we must have the long view in mind and not expect that we can always make dramatic changes instantaneously.

Our opponents certainly understand the virtue of patience. They have been pressing the welfare state for too many years to count, forever pushing their unwelcome statist envelope on a freedom-loving society, but one vulnerable to seductive appeals for government-provided economic security.

Continue reading "House Vote To Repeal More Than Symbolic"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:10 PM

January 13, 2011

Where Will Obama Go From Tucson?

President Obama is receiving uniform praise for his memorial remarks in Tucson, Ariz. Even conservatives are saying he hit the right notes, substantively and tonally. I agree, with a few qualifiers and gentle cautions.

Obama was eloquent in his tribute to the victims and appropriately acknowledged that "none of us can know exactly what triggered this vicious attack ... or what thoughts lurked in the inner recesses of a violent man's mind."

More importantly, he said: "But what we cannot do is use this tragedy as one more occasion to turn on each other. That we cannot do. ... Let us remember it is not because a simple lack of civility caused this tragedy; it did not."

Bravo. I don't know whether he was delicately reprimanding unhinged voices from the left in that statement or why, if he believes the blame game is damaging to the national psyche, he didn't use his bully pulpit earlier to condemn the hysterical accusers of right-wing talk. But I'm grateful nevertheless for his gracious words, and I applaud him for them.

I also appreciated his and some of the other speakers' elegant and fitting references to Scripture. I was a bit confused by his seemingly New Age admonition that we "use this occasion to expand our moral imaginations," but to each his own.

Continue reading "Where Will Obama Go From Tucson?"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:50 PM

January 10, 2011

The Left Is Not About To Waste This 'Crisis'

Theme: The left's immediate reaction to the Arizona shooting proves, again, that it will not forgo any chance to exploit a tragedy ("crisis"). Minor theme: In the process, mostly through projection of its own perversions, it is setting records for hypocrisy, irrationality and unfairness.

Politico reported that after the shootings, one veteran Democratic operative said that President Obama should "deftly pin this on the tea partiers. Just like the Clinton White House deftly pinned the Oklahoma City bombing on the militia and anti-government people."

Newsweek's Jonathan Alter similarly wrote, "Can Obama Turn Tragedy Into Triumph?" "Just as Bill Clinton's response to the 1995 Oklahoma City bombings helped him recover from his defeat in the 1994 midterms, so this episode may help Obama change -- at least in the short term -- the trajectory of American politics." Clinton, said Alter, "was able to use the event to ... tamp down hate speech on talk radio."

So here we have Alter bragging about Clinton's egregious smear of conservative radio, which to him equals "hate speech," by suggesting it fueled Timothy McVeigh's homicides and urging Obama to try that same tactic against his critics today.

Beyond the drive for selective censorship, liberals also seek to leverage the shootings to advance their causes of gun control and even Obamacare. As for the latter, former Democratic Sen. Bob Kerrey, out of whole cloth, opined that Jared Loughner, the suspect in Arizona, was partially motivated by his anger over the GOP's move to repeal Obamacare.

Continue reading "The Left Is Not About To Waste This 'Crisis'"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 08:31 PM

January 06, 2011

Pelosi's Final Tall Tale as Speaker

Can you imagine the sheer audacity of outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sermonizing that repealing Obamacare would do "very serious violence to the national debt and deficit"? This is the woman whose four-year tenure as speaker saw the national debt explode from $8.67 trillion to $14.01 trillion.

She's the lady who boasted, "Deficit reduction has been a high priority for us. It is our mantra, pay-as-you-go." Such is the state of Pelosi's credibility that even 19 of her Democratic colleagues voted against her for speaker.

When it comes to a wide spectrum of issues, I'm not sure which planet Pelosi and her ilk of liberals inhabit, but the Obamacare fiasco takes their otherworldliness to another level altogether -- and that's being charitable because it assumes they're innocently unaware of how wrong they are.

Everyone knows that with Obamacare's government-mandated increases in demand and in government control over prices, shortages and rationing are inevitable. (That's either why they've established their little bureaucratic boards or their excuse for establishing them; the boards will ultimately dictate decisions concerning choice of care -- including, dare I say it, end-of-life care.) Obama promised universal coverage, which won't happen, but what he didn't tell us is that his socialized plan could only increase coverage, if at all, by reducing access to, choice of and quality of care.

Obama also forgot to tell us when stumping for the bill that he would appoint Donald Berwick to run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, whose role will be greatly expanded under Obamacare to define the quality of care for every insurance plan and set Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates based on the CMS' assessment about the value in various medical treatments. If you doubted before that Obama's motive in socializing medicine was, well, socialistic, then that doubt should have been removed with the Berwick appointment. For Berwick is the man who loves Britain's socialized medicine and who said proudly, "Excellent health care is by definition redistributional." Just more evidence Obamacare was never about reducing budgetary pressures.

Continue reading "Pelosi's Final Tall Tale as Speaker"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:52 PM

January 03, 2011

Is the Constitution Senile?

The congressional Republicans' decision to read the Constitution aloud on the floor of Congress has forced some Constitution-contemptuous liberals further out of the closet, which is an instructive development to behold.

Blogger Ezra Klein of The Washington Post told MSNBC's Norah O'Donnell that the constitutional reading is "a gimmick," and "the issue of the Constitution is not that people don't read the text and think they're following; the issue with the Constitution is that the text is confusing because it was written more than 100 years ago and what people believe it says differs from person to person and differs depending on what they want to get done."

Columnist E.J. Dionne, also with The Washington Post, expressed similar irreverence for our founding document. Dionne lamented that the tea party movement has treated the Constitution "as the equivalent of sacred scripture. Yet as Gordon Wood, the widely admired historian of the Revolutionary era has noted, we 'can recognize the extraordinary character of the Founding Fathers while also knowing that those 18th-century political leaders were not outside history. ... They were as enmeshed in historical circumstances as we are, they had no special divine insight into politics, and their thinking was certainly not free of passion, ignorance, and foolishness.'"

Dionne's (and Wood's) assessment is quite a far cry from that of former British Prime Minister William Gladstone, who observed, "The American Constitution is, so far as I can see, the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man."

Though no one should argue that we should turn our respect for the Constitution into idolatry, there is every reason to believe that our Constitution is indeed unique, both in the brilliant structure of limited government it established and in its practical effect of creating the freest, strongest and most prosperous nation in history.

Continue reading "Is the Constitution Senile?"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:34 PM

December 30, 2010

The Administration's Administrative Tyranny Marches On

This administration is abusive enough when it acts outside its constitutional authority, but it is even more tyrannical when it affirmatively thwarts the express will of the Congress on matters within the legislative domain.

When Congress denied Obama authority to transfer money to the International Monetary Fund, he did so anyway, issuing an executive order promising to give that body $140 billion for redistribution to Third World countries.

Now he's made another mockery of bipartisanship and the Constitution in making six recess appointments, including two people so objectionable that a near supermajority of Democratic senators wouldn't confirm them: James Cole as deputy attorney general, whose lax position in the war on terror is disturbing, and Francis J. Ricciardone Jr. as ambassador to Turkey.

Meanwhile, Obama's Environmental Protection Agency is gearing up to engage in a defiant end run around Congress by attempting to impose cap-and-trade-type regulations by administrative fiat after Obama's failed attempt to shove this nightmarish disaster through Congress.

It obviously doesn't matter to these zealots that an overwhelmingly Democratic Congress couldn't pass cap and trade or that the Clean Air Act gives them no authority to regulate so-called greenhouse gas emissions. It doesn't matter that their proposed regulatory blitzkrieg would further damage an already anemic and precarious economy.

Continue reading "The Administration's Administrative Tyranny Marches On"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:29 PM

December 27, 2010

What if the Bible Really Is True? (Part 2)

If I had to single out one thing that played the greatest role in initially convincing me of the Bible's authenticity and the truth of Christianity, I'd choose the Old Testament prophecies, especially those concerning the Messiah. The specificity of some of the individual prophecies is powerfully probative, but the odds against so many of them being fulfilled in the person of Christ by coincidence are utterly breathtaking.

In about 700 B.C., the Prophet Isaiah specifically named the king (Cyrus) who would rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem, some 114 years before Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar destroyed it and some 150 years before Persia conquered the Babylonians and its king (Cyrus) issued the decree to rebuild the Temple. Josh McDowell summarized it this way: "Thus Isaiah predicted that a man named Cyrus, who would not be born for about 100 years, would give the command to rebuild the temple which was still standing in Isaiah's day and would not be destroyed for more than 100 years."

Biblical scholar J. Barton Payne cited 574 Old Testament verses containing messianic prophecies, and countless others have listed and explained them, but my favorite compilation is by McDowell, who highlights some 60 of them as unmistakable predictions. Let me give you just a sampling with the humble suggestion that you read and contemplate these verses yourselves.

Continue reading "What if the Bible Really Is True? (Part 2)"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:45 PM

December 23, 2010

So, What if the Bible Really Is True?

I'd like to challenge you to consider that the "good news" we celebrate during the Christmas season really is true.

You may choose to believe the Bible is merely a book of fables with nice moral lessons, but there is more abundant and accurate manuscript evidence for the New Testament than any other book from antiquity. Moreover, the number of witnesses to Christ's life, death and resurrection, as well as the nature of their testimony, is strong evidence of the reliability of the scriptural accounts, as are the corroborating secular testimony and archeological evidence.

In fact, the New Testament writers had every temporal motive to deny the resurrection occurred. Why would they fabricate and stand by a story that would lead to their being beaten, tortured and murdered?

So next time you read your Bible, consider that you're reading the inspired word of God and that Jesus really did say and do what the Bible reports, beginning with His claims about His own divinity:

He said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you know Me, you will also know My Father. ... The one who has seen Me has seen the Father" (John 14:6-8). He also said, "I tell you the truth, before Abraham was born, I am" (John 8:58). Here, Jesus claimed not only to have pre-existed Abraham but also that His pre-existence was eternal, as would have been the case had He said, "I was." More significantly, "I AM" was a name for God. He further identified himself as the God of the Old Testament, when proclaiming, "I am the light of the world" (Psalm 27:1 says, "The Lord is my light and my salvation") and "I am the good shepherd." (Psalm 23:1 says, "The Lord is my shepherd.") When responding to the high priest as to His deity, Jesus said, "I am and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven" (Mark 14:62).

Continue reading "So, What if the Bible Really Is True?"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:23 PM

December 20, 2010

Understanding the Left's Intolerance for Intolerance

It's that time of year when we are reminded just how indebted we are to the left's mega-tolerant cultural warriors. Annually, they jolt us out of our complacency to notice how imposing, intolerant and dangerous Christmas and Christianity are.

If it weren't for these valiant soldiers, this disturbing proliferation of Christmas celebrations and other Christian symbols would proceed unabated.

Each year, the examples are too voluminous to document exhaustively, but permit me to share a few highlights, which will enhance your appreciation for the sheer magnitude of the effort being undertaken by these selfless watchdogs committed to liberating our culture(s) from the oppressive chains of Christmas and Christianity. The noble work of these secular saints is global in scope because the threat they confront recognizes no geographic or national boundaries.

Researchers at Simon Fraser University in Canada have discovered that "non-Christians feel less self-assured and have fewer positive feelings if a Christmas tree (is) in the room." (Meanwhile, American sociologists have concluded that tea partyers and members of MoveOn.org experience discomfort in each other's presence.) Finally, academics are making judicious use of their precious time and resources to address compelling societal issues.

One of Simon Fraser University's researchers, Michael Schmitt, was motivated to look into the matter concerning "controversy over whether Christmas should be celebrated in public in case it offends non-Christians." Don't let it escape your notice that this example reveals that these researchers were not limiting their scrutiny to actions by any government. As dedicated soldiers, they obviously understand that their reach has to transcend constitutional questions and permeate private relationships around the globe. Bless their wisdom.

Continue reading "Understanding the Left's Intolerance for Intolerance"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:52 PM

December 16, 2010

GOP Should Slam on the Brakes

Conservatism and responsible government won a resounding victory in November's elections, and yet just a month later, we're witnessing legislative arrogance on a scale you wouldn't expect if voters had ratified the ruling class' sprint toward national bankruptcy. Can you imagine how it would be acting if it hadn't received a "shellacking"?

It seems that Washington is embracing all the principles and practices the voters soundly rejected, without the slightest indication it either received the message or cares. Are we seeing any evidence of greater transparency, a rejection of earmarks, budgetary restraint or legislative deliberation?

To me, it looks more like defiance from lame-duck Beltway elites who have again created a false climate of urgency to pressure disunited and disorganized opponents to make damaging concessions that are not worth what they're receiving in return.

There is no real urgency here, and those saying otherwise are crying wolf. This is the first Congress in the history of the budget process that failed even to vote on a budget for the next year. They've known all along this moment was coming.

On the omnibus spending bill, they can still pass a continuing resolution for another three months and avert a government shutdown. There is no excuse for them to be legislating from the political grave a full year beyond the date congressional control changes hands. It's outrageous they would even try it, and it's discouraging that Republicans are considering being rolled like this.

Continue reading "GOP Should Slam on the Brakes"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:39 PM

December 13, 2010

Memo to Conservatives: Quit Apologizing for Capitalism

Everywhere we turn these days, it seems, leftists are undermining and attacking capitalism on moral grounds. Their criticisms are directed not at merely certain corrupt corporations or individuals who abuse the system, but at the system itself.

Sadly, few conservatives, even conservative Christians, are willing or prepared to defend capitalism's virtues. Rather than tout it in terms of liberty, they sheepishly apologize for its allegedly inherent greed.

It's a testament to the power of propaganda and the appeal of emotion over reason that a system that has produced the greatest prosperity in world history is castigated on moral grounds, while those systems that have proliferated abject misery, poverty, tyranny and subjugation are hailed as morally superior.

Granted, most leftists don't openly confess their hostility to capitalism, but they come close, especially in their endless waging of class warfare.

Surely you've heard Obama say, preposterously, "A free market was never meant to be a free license to take whatever you can get, however you can get it." No one actually supports this straw man argument. American capitalism has always been subject to the rule of law. Even the fiercest free market proponents don't defend the license to steal or economic anarchy.

Continue reading "Memo to Conservatives: Quit Apologizing for Capitalism"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:25 PM

December 09, 2010

There's Compromise, and There's Compromise

There's a lot of noise today about promoting political squishiness to a virtue and endorsing the notion that compromise for its own sake is noble. I uncompromisingly dissent.

First, let's understand that compromise for pragmatic purposes or out of political necessity is wholly different from compromise for its own sake. It is the latter I reject, recognizing that the former is, by definition, sometimes the best of the bad options. Those types of decisions have to be made on a case-by-case basis with a thorough evaluation of the available options and the short- and long-term implications of settling for the imperfect solution.

We often hear that "the American people are sick of all the partisan wrangling and just want politicians to get along, compromise and get something done for the good of the nation," as if there were a consensus out there as to what is good for the nation and the only obstacles to achieving it were partisan bickering.

The recently hatched group that labels itself "No Labels" is "calling for a new politics of problem-solving." One if its label-eschewing founding members, David Frum, cites a survey allegedly showing that "61 percent of independents ... endorsed the proposition that 'Governing is about compromise, and I want my elected officials to work with the other side to find common ground and pass legislation on important issues.'"

Now that's interesting. Not even two-thirds of self-described independents subscribe to the Rodney King credo, "Can we all get along?" Thirty-two percent of those rascals "chose the contrary position that 'Leadership is about taking principled stands, and I want my elected officials to stand up for what they believe in, even if it means that legislation on important issues does not pass.'"

Continue reading "There's Compromise, and There's Compromise"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:11 PM

December 06, 2010

Elites Should Blame Selves, Not Obama, for Believing His Messianic Pretensions

Have you noticed among the Obama-supporting elite a desperate agony upon realizing that he is not quite the messiah he made himself out to be and which they so willingly embraced?

Many leftists are disgusted with Obama for supposedly betraying the cause on a number of issues, which tells us how irredeemably liberal they are. But their sense of betrayal runs deeper than ideology.

It's not just their belief that he's abandoned them on numerous policy issues. It's also their belated discovery that he's not superman.

So we're witnessing a number of liberal and conservative elites scapegoating Obama for their own foolishness in deifying him. I say "scapegoating" because no one has a reasonable right to rely on another person's self-portrayal as messianic. If they bought into his claims to personal transcendence, then they are more culpable than he is, and their anger is transferred hostility, redirected from themselves to the now-exposed mortal.

The elites' investing of supernatural hope in Obama was a product of their worldview, which diminishes, perhaps even erases, God's role and looks to man for salvation. Their subsequent deflation was inevitable because no mere human being is transcendent.

Continue reading "Elites Should Blame Selves, Not Obama, for Believing His Messianic Pretensions"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:34 PM

December 02, 2010

Gibbs Is a Window Into the Obama Psyche

If White House press secretaries are windows to the presidential mindset, Robert Gibbs continues to reflect President Obama in an unpresidential light.

Here the entire nation is in an uproar over the release of stolen U.S. State Department documents by WikiLeaks bad boy Julian Assange, and how does the White House respond?

Well, it does not respond through President Obama himself, who prefers to reserve his bully pulpit for weightier matters, such as the arrest of his friend Henry Gates by Cambridge, Mass., police. Instead, he trots out the ever-snarky Gibbs to present the administration's position. Or maybe Gibbs trotted himself out, which is even scarier.

On "Fox & Friends," co-host Steve Doocy asked Gibbs why we haven't "heard from the president on this issue."

Gibbs, in keeping with the administration's CYA policy of pointing backward toward Dubya, first reminded Doocy that similar leaks occurred under Obama's predecessor.

Continue reading "Gibbs Is a Window Into the Obama Psyche"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:12 PM

November 29, 2010

Desperate Libs Ratchet Up Extremist Label

With the advent of the tea party movement and President Obama's recent "shellacking," the left's long-established effort to marginalize mainstream conservative Americans as fringe extremists has reached a new stage of desperation.

For at least the past half-century, the dominant media culture has portrayed minority liberalism as mainstream and conservatives as shrill malcontents. From the time I started paying attention to politics as a young kid, liberals have been demonizing conservatives as reactionary throwback Neanderthal knuckle-dragging, warmongering extremists.

I'll never forget the "Daisy" ad from the LBJ presidential campaign, which featured a little girl picking petals from a daisy in a field as an ominous countdown from "10" led into footage of a nuclear explosion. The voice of LBJ then interceded with "These are the stakes, to make a world in which all of God's children can live or to go into the dark. We must either love each other, or we must die."

The unmistakable message was that Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater could not be trusted with his finger on the nuclear button. The ad resonated because the liberal media had already laid the foundation that conservative ideas were not just antiquated and obsolete but also dangerous.

Liberals similarly depicted Ronald Reagan as a bellicose buffoon itching to light up Moscow with his "Star Wars" nuclear toys; never mind that "Star Wars" was the left's pejorative shorthand for Reagan's proposed Strategic Defense Initiative, which was, as its title indicated, a defense system.

Continue reading "Desperate Libs Ratchet Up Extremist Label"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:26 PM

November 22, 2010

Save Us From the Intellectuals

Super-genius political science professor Charles H. Franklin of the University of Wisconsin, Madison recently gave loud voice to a widely held liberal belief: Ordinary Americans, especially conservative ones, are stupid.

At a conference by the Society of Professional Journalists, alternative newspaper editor Bill Lueders asked Franklin why "the public seemed to vote against its own interests and stated desires, for instance by electing candidates who'll drive up the deficit with fiscally reckless giveaways to the rich."

Franklin responded: "I'm not endorsing the American voter. They're pretty damn stupid." (Excuse my impertinence, but is there a grammatical glitch in the genius's formulation?)

First, we should note that Franklin implicitly accepted Lueders' premise as fact: The voters who claim to be motivated by a passion to end reckless Washington spending had just elected candidates who will be fiscally irresponsible because they support "reckless giveaways to the rich."

But how smart is it to mischaracterize a policy, misrepresent its likely consequences and ignore other relevant data to arrive at an ideologically preordained conclusion?

Continue reading "Save Us From the Intellectuals"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:50 PM

November 18, 2010

Just Say No to START

While we focus our scrutiny on President Obama's domestic agenda nightmare, we'd best not take our eyes off another big ball: Obama's frantic effort to get the New START ratified during the Senate's lame-duck session.

As usual, Obama is engaged in a full-court press, pretending that there is some urgency to formalizing this ill-conceived nuclear arms treaty with Russia, when the sole urgency is the upcoming change in the Senate's partisan composition.

To his credit, Republican Sen. Jon Kyl announced his opposition to a vote on the treaty this year, which sent Obama into overdrive. He dispatched Defense Secretary Robert Gates to buy off Kyl's opposition with an illusory promise to spend an extra $4 billion on nuclear programs.

Kyl was wise to see through this sham, understanding that Obama has no authority to fulfill much of this spending commitment, which would occur in later years after his term or terms expire. Plus, we've now seen ample evidence of Obama's cynical approach to dealmaking with his confession that he knew there were no real shovel-ready jobs at the time he promised otherwise in order to push through his stimulus bill. Add to that Rahm Emanuel's recent admission that the administration hasn't been sincere in its overtures toward bipartisanship. This is a confirmed group of Alinskyites who will say and do whatever they have to do to get their agenda implemented.

Continue reading "Just Say No to START"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 08:59 PM

November 15, 2010

Haste (and Ideological Blindness) Makes Waste

President Obama's fiercest obstacles as chief executive are neither recalcitrant Republicans nor the increasing complexity and demands of the job; they are his ideology and his political allegiances.

Newsweek sees it differently. In its latest issue, it laments: "The presidency has grown, and grown and grown, into the most powerful, most impossible job in the world. ... The issue is not Obama, it's the office. ... Can any single person fully meet the demands of the 21st-century presidency?"

Can you imagine any "mainstream" media publication interposing such a lame excuse for a Republican president's failures in office? Of course not, but this reflexive defense of Obama is to be expected. What's surprising is that in defending Obama, Newsweek is virtually admitting he is indeed failing -- not just with the electorate but also in his actual job performance. This is a major development, an indication that Obama's incompetence is so obvious it can no longer be ignored.

That's progress, but for a really productive discussion, the magazine should have acknowledged that Obama is his own worst enemy -- a man who persists in digging deep holes for himself with his ideological shovel.

We are seeing example after example of his costly and mostly avoidable failures, from his trial plans for 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to his disgraceful handling of the Gulf oil spill to his disastrous Asian trip.

Continue reading "Haste (and Ideological Blindness) Makes Waste"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:16 PM

November 11, 2010

Don't Be Taken In by the Deficit Commission

If preliminary rumblings from the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform's upcoming report are accurate, I'm afraid the conservative agenda -- though overwhelmingly victorious in last week's elections -- might be against the ropes again, especially with GOP congressmen praising the report.

Our astronomical deficits are the result not of low taxes, but of profligate spending. So why do we accept the premise that the starting point for deficit and debt reduction discussions must be various tax hikes, tolerating unacceptably high levels of spending, and seeming to take off the table the eradication of programs the government was never intended or constitutionally authorized to establish in the first place?

The deficit commission appears to have adopted the flawed notion that taxes and revenues are a zero-sum game -- that tax increases produce higher revenues, when more often the opposite is true. For example, does anyone doubt that the commission's proposal to eliminate the mortgage interest deduction would detrimentally impact the housing (and possibly financial) market?

Equally important, how can this commission be taken seriously if it sanctions Obamacare, which not only is wildly unpopular with the American people but also greatly burdens the federal fiscal equation?

Many are praising the commission's "boldness" in proposing to reduce the growth of the federal deficit by $3.8 trillion by 2020 from its projected growth of $7.7 trillion. That's like an alcoholic promising to cut down his liquor consumption from two bottles of bourbon a day to one. Obama, who initiated (and stacked) this commission as an Alinskyite strategy to turn the tables on Republicans on the spending issue, must be laughing all the way to the statist bank.

Continue reading "Don't Be Taken In by the Deficit Commission"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:21 PM

November 08, 2010

A Staggeringly Empty Suit

Many commentators are speculating whether President Obama will move to the center or "triangulate" in order to salvage part of his agenda and increase his chances for re-election. I don't believe he has either the inclination to move or the political skills to successfully pretend to (or otherwise outmaneuver Republicans), which leads me to conclude his re-election will depend less on his shenanigans and more on how the GOP acquits itself.

Dick Morris recently argued that Obama will not be able to move to the center or triangulate "because -- even if he wanted to -- he can't. The issues today are very different from those that separated the parties in 1994 and do not lend themselves to common ground." I agree with Dick but also think there's more to it.

Every indication is that Obama is utterly intransigent and will continue to butt his head against the leftward wall. But even if he were to employ head fakes to the contrary, he couldn't pull them off. He doesn't have the political skills in his whole body that Bill Clinton has in his pinkie.

The way Obama stormed onto the political scene, excited crowds, caused women to faint, and annihilated the Clinton machine led to the perception that he is a peerless campaigner, but I reject it.

There is no question that his shtick, backed up by a highly oiled and ruthless cabal of veteran community organizers, worked the first time around. But given what's transpired since, could it ever work for him again? I think not.

Continue reading "A Staggeringly Empty Suit"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:40 PM

November 04, 2010

Obama Doesn't Seek Compromise; Neither Should We

I take no great pleasure in having been correct in predicting Barack Obama's reaction to his Tuesday "shellacking." To borrow his terminology, he is wired not to hear the American people's opposition to his radical agenda, as painfully demonstrated in his postelection news conference.

Unhappily, Obama's answers showed even deeper intransigence than I had thought he would be willing to reveal. He is every bit as committed to his destructive agenda as he was Nov. 1 and, despite his claims, is not looking for "common ground."

He said that every election "is a reminder that in our democracy, power rests not with those of us in elected office, but with the people we have the privilege to serve." But if anyone needs to be reminded of that, it is he, because he crammed through Obamacare and other offensive agenda items against the express will of the people.

As it happened, power rested with him, not the people. He saw to that by breaking all the rules to push the measures through. And when asked whether he has any regrets about doing so, he said no. He regrets the process wasn't "healthier," but "the outcome was a good one." Translation: "Though I just said power resides with the people, I didn't mean it, as you can see by my cynical absence of contrition at having usurped their power on this bill." Again, the end justifies the means, and the people don't know what's good for them.

Moreover, he emphatically refuses to consider repealing Obamacare, saying "we'd be misreading the election if we thought that the American people want to see us for the next two years re-litigate arguments that we had over the last two years." Sorry, but there was no litigation in the first place, just a kangaroo court where he imposed his will on us like a tyrannical judge. But he's correct that we don't want to argue anymore about it. We want it repealed -- yesterday!

Continue reading "Obama Doesn't Seek Compromise; Neither Should We"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 10:53 PM

November 01, 2010

It Takes One To Know One

I'll never forget how Al Gore's Democrats tried to steal the 2000 presidential election and then spent the next eight years complaining about Republicans stealing their "democracy." Liberals: Projection is your name.

We've watched their behavior since, from the Democrats' suppression of military voters to Al Franken's larcenous Senate victory to the flagrant voter intimidation of the New Black Panther Party members in Philadelphia to untold stories of voter fraud already emerging in these congressional elections. We just saw a Delaware TV station "forgetting" to broadcast Christine O'Donnell's 30-minute campaign ad.

Sadly, Democrats are often what they accuse their "enemies" of being. They typically engage in that behavior which they decry and exempt themselves from standards they proclaim.

Item: Snarky comedian Jon Stewart issued calls for civility at his mock political rally this past weekend. "But we live now in hard times, not end times," said Stewart. "And we can have animus and not be enemies." Similarly, on his show, he has exhorted people to "stop shouting, throwing and drawing Hitler mustaches on people other than Hitler."

Yet in 2008, Stewart noted that Sarah Palin had said she really likes going to small towns "because that's the pro-America part of the country. You know, I just want to say to her, very quickly, f--- you."

Continue reading "It Takes One To Know One"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:30 PM

October 25, 2010

Don't Fall for Any Postelection Obama Spending Conversion

Riddle me this: How can anyone take Obama seriously when he says he will focus on the deficit in the next two years, seeing as his economic and social philosophies dictate that he continue to spend our money like a drunken floozy?

With Obama so intent on punishing "the wealthy," producers, and small businesses even at the expense of hurting everyone else (for example, with his insistence on increasing capital gains tax rates despite acknowledging it would decrease revenues), nationalizing health care despite its now-proven severe fiscal shortfalls, handing out $50 billion more in stimulus money though the first $868 billion was a bust, and continuing his planned trillion-dollar-plus deficits as far as the eye can see, how can anyone believe he's interested in reducing the deficit and national debt?

Yet The Associated Press began a recent story with this lead: "Preparing for political life after a bruising election, President Barack Obama will put greater emphasis on fiscal discipline."

Duh! How could he put less emphasis on it than he already has? But we must read on to find out why the AP believes he will give "fiscal discipline" more emphasis. Answer: It will be "a nod to a nation sick of spending and to a Congress poised to become more Republican, conservative and determined to stop him."

In other words, because he will be forced to, not because he wants to or believes in it. Isn't this a tacit admission that even Obama's deficit commission is a sham designed to give him political cover? The commission's report will be coming out soon, and it will give him an opportunity to seize the deficit issue, as if he's been agonizing over it the whole time and approaching the issue deliberately by seeking the counsel of a "bipartisan" group of experts.

Continue reading "Don't Fall for Any Postelection Obama Spending Conversion"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:19 PM

October 21, 2010

What Should a Republican Majority Do?

Many are preoccupied speculating about the magnitude of the impending Republican electoral victory, but I don't think it's putting the cart before the horse to caution that we also ought to be concerned -- now -- about what Republicans will do if they do recapture control.

The Republicans' power will obviously be limited, even if they emerge with majorities in both chambers, because Obama will remain in charge of the coequal executive branch. So how should the GOP proceed?

The reflexive Beltway response is that it ought to compromise with Obama to produce legislation. But there are a number of problems with that premise.

Contrary to his self-portrayal as post-partisan, Obama is a dogmatic ideologue who is so determined to "fundamentally change" America that he will remain on point, even if it means relegating himself to one term. He might pretend to move to the center, but his life's mission, from which he will not be deterred, is to move America way leftward.

But assume, for argument's sake, that Obama will approach the new Republican majorities in an authentic spirit of compromise. What then?

Continue reading "What Should a Republican Majority Do?"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:50 PM

October 18, 2010

Obama Can't Be Wrong, so We Must Be Crazy

Memo to those who believe Obama is going to move to the center following his upcoming electoral smack-down: Dream on! Many of you also told us he wouldn't be that liberal in the first instance. Is that egg on your face sticky yet?

I'm not denying that Obama might pretend to move to the center on some issues. As an accomplished Alinskyite, he'll do what he has to do to move the socialist football forward. But if he feints to the center, it will not be real. He will not deviate from his relentless quest to advance his leftist agenda. And you wouldn't, either, if you had his warped mindset, God forbid!

This guy isn't just arrogant; he's an elitist, contemptuous of the unwashed who don't have the mental clarity to see issues the way he does. It would never occur to him to actually readjust his policies.

The more we've seen him off prompter the more we've learned about his heartfelt beliefs. His notorious "bitter clingers" moment wasn't a verbal slip; it was Obama being candid. He didn't just say (in effect) that "some people out there in fly-over country don't share our values but mean well." He implied there's something wrong with them (us) psychologically, spiritually and even morally for clinging to their Bibles, their guns and their antipathy toward people who aren't like them. That is, they're simple-minded, aggressive bigots.

When Obama runs into opposition on his agenda, it never occurs to him that he could be wrong. That's why every time his policies are rebuffed, he reacts the same way: "They don't understand my plan. It's too complicated. I haven't given enough speeches on the subject or spoken to people about their core values. I want the people to take another look at my plan."

Continue reading "Obama Can't Be Wrong, so We Must Be Crazy"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:51 PM

October 14, 2010

The Sophistry of Coons' Professed Loyalty to the Constitution

It is interesting and disappointing that so many politicians treat "faith" -- at least the Christian faith -- as a poison pill they cannot touch, much less swallow. Republicans often run from it because of PC intimidation, and Democrats because it's in their DNA to do so.

There was a revealing exchange touching on this subject in the Delaware U.S. Senate debate between Christine O'Donnell and Chris Coons. O'Donnell said, "But regardless of my personal faith, when I go down to Washington, D.C., it is the Constitution that I will defend and it is by the Constitution that I will make all of my decisions, and that will be the standard-bearer for every piece of legislation that I will vote on."

I don't want to be hard on O'Donnell, whom I admire and support, but I think she articulated her position inartfully here, probably because of unnecessary defensiveness about the potential role of her Christian faith in her governance.

I suspect what she meant was that though she stands by her faith unapologetically, she would not permit it to trump the Constitution if there were a conflict between the two (a needless concern). I am convinced she did not mean that her worldview would not guide her legislative preferences.

The Constitution establishes parameters within which Congress can legislate and forbids it to legislate on matters over which it has neither enumerated powers nor powers arising from the "necessary and proper" clause. I assume O'Donnell meant that she would honor those constitutional guidelines but wasn't speaking to what would guide her policy advocacy within those parameters.

Continue reading "The Sophistry of Coons' Professed Loyalty to the Constitution"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:38 PM

October 11, 2010

Obama's Chamber Smear Is Business As Usual

The most noteworthy aspect of President Barack Obama's slander of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for allegedly "stealing our democracy" by laundering foreign corporate donations is that such disgraceful behavior is par for the course for this self-described post-partisan president.

It is a mistake to believe that he was making a mistake. The baseless charge was calculated and part of the Alinskyite strategy he and his thuggish team have used in virtually every political battle. That's all they know.

They pick, isolate and demonize targets instead of debating the merits of their policy agenda items. We saw this approach on cap and trade, the stimulus bill, Obamacare and the financial reform bill, and now they're using it for the upcoming elections.

They throw out damaging allegations knowing they're untrue and doggedly pursue them even when their hand is called. In the case of the chamber smear, CBS' Bob Schieffer challenged Obama's senior adviser David Axelrod to substantiate the administration's claim. He said, "Mr. Axelrod ... do you have any evidence that it's anything other than peanuts?"

Axelrod, displaying the signature arrogance of the administration, didn't even bother to offer anything concrete. He said, "Well, do you have any evidence that it's not, Bob?"

Continue reading "Obama's Chamber Smear Is Business As Usual"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:30 PM

October 07, 2010

Of Course Obama Hasn't Yielded to Americans' Will

Just in case anyone mistakenly believes Obama has heard (or gives a rip about) the loud voice of the American people rejecting his socialism, appeasement, unconstitutional abuses of power and unpresidential combativeness and divisiveness, let me share a few tidbits.

--After House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, issued a damning critique of Obama's economic policies, the administration's economic philosopher Joe Biden issued a rebuttal, assuring us it was their predecessor who got us into this mess. That's novel.

--Obama renewed his war on Fox News, saying it is a "destructive" force in American society, while the White House lauded MSNBC's Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow as providing "an invaluable service" to America.

--Rep. Paul Ryan reports that Obama's latest "fiscal year ends in fiscal failure." Congress broke for recess, "prioritizing election over stopping looming tax hikes." It failed to complete any of the 12 annual appropriations bills, pass a budget resolution and stop the tax increases.

--The White House produced a bizarre tax video series, with the first one claiming that "objective economists" all agree that raising taxes in this bad economy would be good for the economy. Surreal.

Continue reading "Of Course Obama Hasn't Yielded to Americans' Will"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:39 PM

October 04, 2010

The Fruits of Obama's Muslim Outreach

I realize it's unfair and, according to some, even racist to hold President Obama accountable for his failed economic policies and cynical campaign promises, but could we at least raise a question or two about his foreign policy boasts?

Was it not President Obama who said that President George W. Bush had tarnished our image in the world and that he would restore it by reaching out to the Muslim world and not "engaging in the same sort of cowboy diplomacy as George Bush"?

Obama wasn't alone. The conventional wisdom on the left, both at home and abroad, was that America's policies were partially responsible for incurring the wrath of jihadists that led to the 9/11 attacks and that President Bush's aggressive response to the attacks had exacerbated the problem.

Shortly after Obama was elected, Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town and 1984 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Desmond Tutu said that Obama's very election had turned America's (abysmal) global image on its head. He wrote in The Washington Post, "A few days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, we had our first shock, hearing your president respond not with the statesmanlike demeanor we had come to expect from a U.S. head of state but like a Western gunslinger." Tutu then proceeded to list the many alleged sins of the United States under Bush: our abuse of prisoners, rendition, torture, "hostility to the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gases," our refusal to assent to the authority of the International Criminal Court, and "the arrogant unilateralism (we have) employed in declaring to be enemies any countries (we) deemed 'against us' because they were not 'for us.'" The "Bush administration," wrote Tutu, "has riled people everywhere. Its bully-boy attitude has sadly polarized our world."

Reading this makes me wonder whether Tutu has been one of Obama's speechwriters. All the talking points are there. Could anyone read Tutu's words, which should be revolting to patriotic Americans, and deny that they mirror Obama's both on the campaign trail and during office? It's all there, from the cowboy references to torture to unilateralism to rendition and prisoner abuse to environmental wackoism to America's "arrogance."

Continue reading "The Fruits of Obama's Muslim Outreach"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:41 PM

September 30, 2010

'Finding $700 Billion Is Not Easy' -- if You're a Socialist

A couple of back-to-back statements by President Obama at a town hall rally in Des Moines, Iowa, tell us all we need to know about his economic philosophy and that we aren't going to climb out of his recession and begin to slow the growth of the national debt as long as he's calling the shots.

Voters, he said, tell him to "cut government spending." But "most spending is for veterans, for education, for defense. ... Finding $700 billion is not easy."

Yet a few minutes earlier, in response to criticism over illegal immigrants getting health care in the United States, he had said, "It is very important that we have compassion as part of our national character." (How about compassion for future generations of Americans?)

Does anyone see the disconnect here? If Obama believes our national character is deficient unless we expand the welfare state to illegal immigrants, then how could he ever preside over a balanced budget?

His wildly inaccurate statement about where the money is spent is equally revealing. For fiscal year 2010, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and other sources, benefits for veterans constituted about 3.5 percent of the budget; education expenditures were 3 percent; and defense and security totaled about 20 percent.

Continue reading "'Finding $700 Billion Is Not Easy' -- if You're a Socialist"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 10:37 PM

September 27, 2010

What Is a Narcissist To Do?

With news of President Obama's plan to swarm the heartland this week to re-energize his base, one wonders whether he's finally heard the message that mainstream America is repulsed by his agenda. Is his direct appeal to "the young and minority voters" an admission that he's beyond electoral redemption with the rest?

Well, a new George Washington University Battleground poll indicates that only 38 percent of Americans believe he deserves to be re-elected. His personal approval rating is higher -- mystifyingly -- but that is doubtlessly small comfort to Democratic congressmen, whose political fortunes are on the line in just five weeks.

Unfortunately for Democrats, the midterm elections will be nationalized like never before (including 1994), and the primary issue at play in these so-called "local" elections will be the president's agenda, just as it was with the U.S. Senate election in Massachusetts. The Republicans were smart to introduce their "pledge" notwithstanding its flaws, but even without it, the congressional elections would have been nationalized.

The Washington Post reports that Obama is focusing his efforts on his "surge" voters -- "the roughly 15 million Americans who voted for the first time in 2008" -- because the polls are "showing independent voters swinging toward Republicans in Wisconsin and the nation's other battlegrounds."

But even Obama's 2008 campaign manager, David Plouffe, acknowledges that though many of these voters still strongly approve of the president, "a lot of them aren't showing enough predilection to vote."

Continue reading "What Is a Narcissist To Do?"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:10 PM

September 23, 2010

GOP Pledge Is a Step in the Right Direction

The Republicans' "Pledge to America" is an encouraging step on the road back to recapturing America. It's not enough for Republicans merely to stop Obama's disastrously destructive agenda in its tracks. This pledge is their acknowledgment that they have heard the grass roots, too -- that they are not exempt from scrutiny or accountability merely because they are the anti-Obamas.

Rep. Paul Ryan conceded as much in an interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos when he said that the Republicans have lost their way in the past and that with this pledge, they are embracing bold steps to get this nation back on track.

That said, Ryan made clear that Republicans are not trying to reinvent the wheel. Rather, he said, "We are here trying to reclaim our country by rededicating ourselves to those timeless principles that made us exceptional." The pledge, he said, contains the basic building blocks to get us back on the right track.

Precisely correct. This is not rocket science. It's a matter of rolling back government, radically reducing spending, ensuring that taxes are not so high that they smother economic growth, repealing and replacing Obamacare, bolstering our national defense and embracing traditional values.

These are not complicated ideas, and they don't need to be. We just want to restore government to its intended role under the Constitution. These timeless principles -- not some gimmicky ideas designed by faux conservatives to appeal to "moderates" -- are what allowed America to be exceptional.

Continue reading "GOP Pledge Is a Step in the Right Direction"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:04 PM

September 20, 2010

Paradigm Shift in Politics Lost on Establishment

My immediate response to liberals who emerge from their Ouija boards to denounce Christine O'Donnell as a one-time dabbler in witchcraft is: At this point in our history, I'd vote for Elmira Gulch before I'd vote for another statist masquerading as a Republican.

The fact that O'Donnell might have done some things in her past she's not particularly proud of would make her fairly normal. I'm more concerned with where she is now, and she seems like a reliable Christian conservative with her head on straight about both religion and politics. In her television appearances, she's been quite impressive -- energetic, articulate and right on the issues.

But Christine O'Donnell isn't really the issue here. The more interesting and relevant stories arising out of her primary victory are: 1) the liberals' efforts to paint her -- along with other mainstream conservatives, including the entire tea party movement -- as extreme and, frankly, a bit wacko when the real extremism resides in the Democratic Party; 2) the liberals' efforts to fabricate a major schism in the GOP when, in fact, the real dissension of consequence is occurring in their own Democratic Party; and 3) establishment Republicans disgruntled over their inability to control the selection of candidates going forward, their apparent anxiety about the entire tea party phenomenon as rocking their world, and their resulting collusion with the liberal establishment to discredit the upstarts, who are beyond their power to manage and manipulate.

The mentally sedentary and complacent establishment types haven't figured it out yet; our nation is under a formidable assault that differs in kind, rather than degree, from the gradual liberal march toward statism we've witnessed for the past 50-plus years.

Continue reading "Paradigm Shift in Politics Lost on Establishment"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:43 PM

September 16, 2010

Extremists Calling Mainstreamers Extremists

I'm surely not the only one who notices the persistent efforts of the leftist establishment and certain establishment Republicans to portray mainstream conservatives, especially those inhabiting the tea party movement, as radicals and extremists. The more they push this theme the more they marginalize themselves.

You'll remember that Obama's Department of Defense released a manual identifying "protests" as a form of low-level terrorism. His Department of Homeland Security issued a report characterizing protesters as potentially dangerous right-wing extremists and racists, being sure to slander disgruntled veterans returning from duty overseas as part of that frightful mix. Also unforgettable is Obama's categorical derision of small-town people as bitter clingers.

We can learn a lot about people from their dislikes, as well as their likes. They reveal a great deal about themselves when they call "extremists" patriotic Americans who believe in the American ideal, lower taxes and fiscal responsibility, originalism, the rule of law, blind justice, equal protection under the law, strong national defense, limiting government to its assigned constitutional functions, the Second Amendment, the nondiscriminatory application of freedom of speech and expression, the free exercise clause, a reasonable -- not unduly expansive -- interpretation of the establishment and commerce clauses, protection for the unborn, judicial restraint, federalism, the separation of powers, the free market, racial colorblindness, the existence of good and evil in the world, equality of opportunity rather than of outcomes, law and order, immigration control and border protection, motherhood and apple pie.

That's a fair summary of a typical tea partier's credo. By definition, then, in America at least, tea partiers are not extremists. For approximately two times as many American voters identify themselves as conservatives than as liberals, and conservatives mostly believe in those things I've referenced.

Continue reading "Extremists Calling Mainstreamers Extremists"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 08:50 PM

September 13, 2010

Obama's Tiresome Tolerance Lectures

Why did President Obama choose tolerance as the subject of his speech at the Pentagon ostensibly to commemorate the victims of 9/11? Why is it that he insists on making this the overarching point at such events rather than, say, express our deep regret for the lost lives of the murdered Americans and repeat our national resolve to "bring to justice" those behind the massacre?

Then again, we are talking about President Obama here, the man who also believes the primary lesson we should learn from the Islamists' beheading of journalist Daniel Pearl is that the freedom of press is alive and well. Speechless here.

Obama's the guy who, instead of somberly lamenting the killing of 12 soldiers and a security guard by U.S. Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan at Fort Hood, began his remarks with a detached "shout-out" to Dr. Joe Medicine Crow, leaving the world to wonder just how warm the blood flowing through his veins is.

But it's not Obama's curiously bloodless behavior and strange disconnectedness (as British journalist Toby Harnden put it) that most concerns me about his Pentagon speech and the others. It's his reflexive instinct to lecture Americans, when they're not the ones who need lecturing.

His first reaction, for example, when Americans protested the building of the ostentatious mosque at ground zero was to assume Americans were being intolerant and bigoted. He came out strongly in favor of the mosque and the importance of religious tolerance. He later pretended he was talking about the Muslims' and Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf's First Amendment rights, but no one was suggesting they didn't have the right to build.

Continue reading "Obama's Tiresome Tolerance Lectures"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:43 PM

September 09, 2010

Barack Obama's 5 Cacophonous Notes

I never expected President Barack Obama to be promoting my new book, "Crimes Against Liberty," but that's virtually what's happened with his recent speeches on the economy. It's as if he's determined to validate every premise I assert in "Crimes Against Liberty."

All the elements are there: his thin-skinned narcissism, his deceit, his militant partisanship, his bullying and his dogged adherence to his disastrous policy agenda against all evidence of its failure and against the express will of the American people.

His full-throated class warfare was on clear display. With him, it's always us against them. He praised "Wisconsin's working men and women," that is union members, as if no one else works or contributes to the economy or society.

Expanding on this theme, he paid homage to the middle class -- the people whose taxes "in any form" he promised he would never raise -- before signing the excise tax on tobacco, trying to pass the cap-and-trade bill, shoving through Obamacare and its 14 to 19 new taxes, which will total some half a trillion dollars over the next decade and fall hardest on middle-income groups. A value-added tax is even on the table.

He claims to be the middle class's greatest champion but fails to explain why his economic policies -- not George W. Bush's, not John Boehner's -- are devastating that very group and bankrupting our children's futures.

Continue reading "Barack Obama's 5 Cacophonous Notes"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:53 PM

September 02, 2010

Obama's Burden of Being So Bright

Sorry, but I can't allow Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius' statement that "we have a lot of re-education to do" slip by without comment. It's amusing when avowed leftists don't even recognize the Marxist buzzwords they're sputtering.

Sebelius is attributing the public's vehement opposition to Obamacare to "misinformation given on a 24/7 basis. ... Unfortunately," she said, "there still is a great deal of confusion about what is in (the Obamacare law) and what isn't." She is especially peeved about the vulnerability of seniors, who "have been a target of a lot of the misinformation." (The target of Obama's misinformation, perhaps.)

The most remarkable thing is that Sebelius didn't actually use the term "re-education" accidentally or out of school. Perhaps unwittingly, she's quite comfortable using a term long associated with tyrannical regimes. As one of Obama's chief lieutenants, she obviously believes this administration knows better than the public what is good for them.

Indeed, one of the ongoing ironies of liberalism is that it holds itself out as open-minded, democratic and representative of the common man, when it is more comfortable dictating to and indoctrinating the masses. Just look at our universities alone if you need quick, verifiable proof. But let's consider a few other examples of this administration's employing that mindset.

When an audience member at a forum at the Kennedy School of Government told Obama adviser and close confidant Valerie Jarrett that Obama's ideas are too complex to be digested by the unwashed, she didn't protest. The participant affectionately proposed that the White House express its ideas in an easier-to-comprehend form, such as printing simple booklets -- I assume replete with large print and colorful pictures.

Continue reading "Obama's Burden of Being So Bright"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:17 PM

August 30, 2010

Obama's Appalling Mistreatment of Israel

As Israeli and Palestinian peace talks are scheduled to resume in Washington in a few days, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated that Palestinian recognition of Israel as the Jewish homeland is an essential condition for peace. Completely reasonable, yet don't keep your fingers crossed, especially with the Obama administration's attitude toward Israel.

In my new book, "Crimes Against Liberty" (I know, another shameless plug, but you'd do the same in my position), I dedicate an entire chapter to detailing the Obama administration's horrendous and unprecedented mistreatment of Israel. Can you believe we're even having a discussion about Israel's right to the land six-plus decades and numerous wars after the modern Israeli state was restored to the Jews?

It's bad enough when misfit countries oppose Israel's right to existence and always demonize Israel while downplaying the Palestinians' misdeeds, but it's shocking and disturbing when the president of the United States abuses our greatest ally in the Mideast.

It's mystifying to me that so many Jewish people in America have been so tolerant of Obama's behavior toward Israel, almost as if in denial, but what more evidence do we need?

During the campaign, it was widely suspected that Obama had strong ties with pro-Palestinian groups, not to mention his membership in the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's church -- one that is known for its sympathy for the causes of certain terrorist organizations and the Palestinian position.

Continue reading "Obama's Appalling Mistreatment of Israel"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 08:55 PM

August 26, 2010

So Is He a Christian?

My new book, "Crimes Against Liberty," has just been released, and in many of my radio interviews, hosts have been asking me whether I believe Barack Obama is a Christian or a Muslim. Though I don't address that subject in my book, I'll take a stab at it here.

First, let me confess that we can't possibly know for sure whether someone is a Christian, in the sense that we can't read another person's soul. We can sometimes get a pretty good idea based on someone's statements, professions and actions, but ultimately, Christianity is about an individual's beliefs and his faith and personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

With that disclaimer and the further admission that I'm no expert on Islam, let me share with you some factors that I believe merit our consideration on the question of whether he is Muslim, Christian or neither.

In some ways, Obama exhibits a worldview that more closely resembles a secularist than it does either a Muslim or a Christian, especially in his views on social issues. Also, he seems to place a great deal of confidence in himself and in government to bring about transformational change. How many God-fearing people have you known who would say "we (meaning I) are the ones we've been waiting for" or "generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal"? The staggering conceit of these statements cannot be overstated.

Those who mocked George W. Bush for openly declaring his faith in God and sharing that he prays to God for strength squawked about the horrors in Bush's allowing his beliefs to influence his governance. Apart from the mockers' misunderstanding of the proper intersection of faith and governance, let me pose another question. Are you more comfortable with a chief executive who, along with the overwhelming majority of Americans, humbly admits to reliance on God or one who projects the impression that he himself is messianic? Which has a firmer grip on reality or comes closer to your own worldview?

Though the mockers would have us believe the former is abnormal, this can only be true if enormous numbers of Americans are lying to pollsters about their Christian faith. It's time we quit acting as if belief in God and Christianity were some kind of oddity or government officials should or even could fence off their beliefs from their governance. Secularists certainly don't.

Continue reading "So Is He a Christian?"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:45 PM

August 19, 2010

The Judiciary's Culturally Sanctioned Allergy to Christianity Flourishes

Does anyone find it ironic that the very people who protest so loudly over supposed affronts to Islamic religious expression are often so hostile to the slightest Christian religious expressions -- even incidental expressions?

The left is going bonkers over opposition to the ground zero mosque in the name of religious freedom, but the left's assault on Christian liberties proceeds unabated. One very recent example is the ruling by a three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that memorial crosses erected and displayed along Utah public roads to honor fallen state highway troopers must be removed as unconstitutional.

In case you are wondering how highway crosses could remotely be considered to have violated any constitutional provision, the court tells us: "We hold that these memorials have the impermissible effect of conveying to the reasonable observer the message that the state prefers or otherwise endorses a certain religion."

So here we go again. Our politically correct-intoxicated culture is so allergic to expressions and symbols of Christianity that our courts leap to absurd conclusions to cordon off the chief allergen: Christianity.

To fully appreciate the outrageousness of the court's decision, you must understand that the memorial crosses were placed along Utah public roads by a private -- not public -- organization, the Utah Highway Patrol Association, which also maintains the crosses.

Continue reading "The Judiciary's Culturally Sanctioned Allergy to Christianity Flourishes"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 02:19 PM

August 16, 2010

Why Does America Always Have To Prove Its Good Will?

A caller to my brother Rush's show suggested that we were making a mistake by opposing the ground zero mosque, because this was an opportunity to show Muslims that we are better than that and that our form of government is superior. This is more muddle-headed leftist thinking, even if it did come from a caller who thinks he's conservative.

It's an outgrowth of the liberal mindset that we need to prove our moral decency to Muslim people. Since the 9/11 attacks, it has been clear that many leftists believe that to some extent, America brought on itself the attacks. They can indignantly dispute this characterization, but we see too much evidence to dismiss it. No less a central figure than our own president's former pastor Jeremiah Wright took this position. Feisal Abdul Rauf, the imam of the ground zero mosque, reportedly expressed that view, and, knowing that, Obama's State Department is making him a liaison to the Mideast.

Whether or not Obama believes we brought the attacks on ourselves, we can surely agree that he thinks, at the very least, that the United States has mistreated and antagonized the world's Muslims. His infamous Cairo speech (and countless other talks) was dripping with that message.

But on what do Obama and the left base the perverse conclusion that America has been less than gracious toward the Muslim world? We have provided bundles of foreign aid to Muslim nations and liberated millions of Muslim people. We guarantee Muslims the same First Amendment protections we do peoples of all faiths or non-faiths.

Where do they get this idea that we have given the impression that we are at war with Islam? It surely couldn't be from former President George W. Bush's frequent, adamant assertions that "we are not at war with Islam." It couldn't be from his taking great pains to describe Islam as a religion of peace. It couldn't be from Homeland Security's policy to go out of its way to profile Caucasian grandmothers in airline ticket lines before stopping Middle Eastern men for cause (excuse the slight hyperbole).

Continue reading "Why Does America Always Have To Prove Its Good Will?"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:48 PM

August 12, 2010

Equipping Children With Spiritual and Political Armor

As my friends' kids leave the nest for their first year away at college, I think of the monolithic ideas with which they will surely be bombarded in an environment that is supposed to expose them to a variety of ideas. Are they prepared to resist the seductive but destructive message?

Liberal elites have dominated most university faculties for years, but it seems they've become bolder, more radical and more militant. It is not their ideas I fear, because Christianity and conservatism stand up to truth challenges. It is the moral preening, the politicization of academics, the peer pressure, the revisionist distortions and the potential discrimination against dissenters.

You know the drill. The professorate will aggressively beat into your children's heads that America is not the greatest nation in history, but largely responsible, through action or inaction, for much of the suffering in the world and that it is imperialistic, exploitive and selfish. They'll say that Christianity is narrow, intolerant, anti-intellectual, anti-science, homophobic, hateful and judgmental and that capitalism is corrupt and skewed toward the "rich" and big corporations. They'll say or imply that political conservatism is inherently racist, homophobic, sexist, militaristic, unenlightened, close-minded, mean-spirited and uncompassionate.

As parents, are you aware that the above scenario is likely to play out to some extent at most universities? Do you disagree or think it's not a big deal? Do you believe your kids are immune from this inevitable onslaught? Are you confident that even if they are exposed to such slander, they will reject it as inconsistent with their own personal experiences?

Are you sure, for example, that your kids have the discernment to recognize the disinformation that Christianity and conservatism are hardhearted, selfish, hateful, bigoted and intellectually backward and the strength to oppose it? Apart from your kids' presumed respect for you, do they have the intellectual ammunition and the spiritual armor to resist the pressure to conform?

Continue reading "Equipping Children With Spiritual and Political Armor"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:21 PM

August 09, 2010

Democrats, Please Follow New York Times' Advice

Liberals' derision of "people of faith" as weak, anti-intellectual, anti-reason and anti-science is ironic beyond measure, given their stubborn adherence to their own discredited views on the thin thread of faith alone.

New York Times editors' "In Search of a New Playbook" provides a perfect illustration. They not only don't apologize for President Obama's failed policies but also insist that Democrats run proudly on his record.

They argue that for Democrats to retain control of Congress, "they need a sharper and more inspirational playbook." But they're talking about a playbook that deviates not from their tired liberal ideas, but simply from the way those ideas are presented. (This is reminiscent of Obama's tone-deaf reaction to his effective trouncing in the Massachusetts Senate election, when he said he would have to explain his health care ideas more clearly to the American people.)

You see, enlightened people understand the superiority of liberal positions, and the unenlightened just need more indoctrination. You'd think liberal control of the teachers unions, institutions of higher learning and other cultural institutions for a couple of generations would be enough.

The editors warn that the November elections could produce a Republican tidal wave akin to the 1994 midterms, "in part ... because the significant accomplishments of the last two years -- health care reform, the stimulus package, the resuscitation of the auto industry, financial reform -- were savagely attacked by the right and aggressively misrepresented as the hoof beats of totalitarianism."

Continue reading "Democrats, Please Follow New York Times' Advice"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:49 PM

August 05, 2010

Judge Walker's Clinic in the Power of Words To Deceive

Judge Vaughn R. Walker's opinion purporting to strike down California's Proposition 8 ballot initiative banning gay marriage is a screaming advertisement against the appointment and confirmation of renegade judicial activists like Elena Kagan.

The labyrinth of twisted reasoning Walker constructs in his opinion is a testament to the depth of deceit that inhabits the modern left's thought processes. The thinking is so bizarre I can only conclude it is the outworking of the spiritual warfare that hotly rages beneath our sensory perception. It is sheer madness!

Just read the sections of the judge's conclusions of law, "The Right To Marry Protects an Individual's Choice of Marital Partner Regardless of Gender," as an illustration of the power of words to deceive.

Walker first cites a line of cases affirming the principle that the freedom to marry is recognized as a fundamental right protected by the due process clause. He next asks whether the homosexual plaintiffs seeking to marry are asserting a new right or the same right as heterosexual couples. So far so good. But then he gives us a clinic in how a clever sophist can use words to minutely describe trees in a way that renders the forest they constitute completely unrecognizable.

He seeks to deconstruct (and then reconstruct) the definition of traditional marriage by describing its constituent elements and showing how those elements can be applied equally to heterosexual marriage and same-sex marriage, thus concluding there is no difference between the concepts. It's as if he compared my DNA with any of yours and concluded that because 99.9 percent of human DNA is the same in everyone, you and I are the same person.

Continue reading "Judge Walker's Clinic in the Power of Words To Deceive"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:21 PM

August 02, 2010

On Demagoguing, Obama Should Look in the Mirror

As the granddaddy of political demagoguery, President Obama might have outdone himself with his recent admonition to political opponents not to "demagogue" the immigration issue.

A "demagogue" is "a political leader who seeks support by appealing to popular desires and prejudices rather than by using rational argument." "Ah," you say, "Obama is onto something here. Those who oppose his open-border policy are appealing to prejudice against immigrants instead of to rational argument." Wrong.

Rather, those who support defending our borders believe in the rule of law and in law enforcement. The people of the United States -- and Arizona in particular -- have a rational interest in protecting their borders and in wanting to prevent illegal immigration. Though we've had immigration laws on the books for years, are Obama's Democrats saying they are irrationally based -- that anyone who wants to enforce these laws is prejudiced? That anyone throughout our history who favored controlling immigration was harboring racial prejudice?

It is Obama and many of his supporters who fall into the demagogue category by appealing to prejudices and fears in lieu of rational argument. Even in his invocation of the term "demagogue" to describe this issue, Obama himself is demagoguing. He must, because he has no reasonable arguments to justify his lawless policy.

Obama is implying -- and has been implying for months -- that the people of Arizona didn't pass an enforcement law to ensure their own safety or to facilitate legitimate ends of law enforcement authorities, but to discriminate against legal aliens.

Continue reading "On Demagoguing, Obama Should Look in the Mirror"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:58 PM

July 29, 2010

Another Day Another Federal Assault on Liberty

Yesterday's federal court decision to enjoin enforcement of the Arizona immigration law is the latest example of a virtually unchecked renegade federal government waging war against the states and against the liberties of its citizens.

We've seen that Obama will exercise any power he can get away with, from strong-arming secured creditors and favoring unions as he gobbled up automakers to making a mockery of due process with his Oval Office shakedown of BP. But he might have reached a new low with his assaults on the sovereignty of the people of Arizona.

Indeed, Judge Susan Bolton's disgraceful decision to grant an injunction against Arizona's new immigration law is, in the words of Mark Levin, "abominable," but let's not forget that this case wouldn't have been before Judge Bolton if Obama's Justice Department hadn't initiated it.

And let's not pretend that Obama's motives are anything other than political, the law and the rule of law be damned. He told Sen. Jon Kyl in a private meeting that he was unwilling to secure our borders because it would decrease his chances to pass "comprehensive immigration reform."

So when Arizona attempted to exercise a little self-help and work on securing its own border by passing a law carefully crafted to mirror the federal immigration law and encourage its enforcement, the all-powerful Obama feds came down on it like a furious king against his disobedient subjects.

Continue reading "Another Day Another Federal Assault on Liberty"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:24 PM

July 26, 2010

On Bullying: It Takes One To Know One

President Obama was apparently moved enough by a letter from a Philadelphia fifth-grader about bullying that he wrote back and encouraged his correspondent to continue her quest to end bullying. Oh, how rich the irony!

Barack Obama is nothing if not a bully. There, I said it, and I believe it's true, no matter how politically incorrect and inconsistent with the mainstream media's narrative it is.

Before getting to some examples, let me direct your attention to the White House's comments on the exchange and the reaction of Obama's fifth-grade correspondent, Zina Stokes.

White House spokeswoman Moira Mack said, "The president feels it is important to hear directly from the American people about their ideas and concerns."

Zina Stokes said: "He showed how he cares. I think even before his four years are up, when he gets done with the oil spill, something will be done with bullying in school."

Though those two statements appear innocuous enough, they reveal a prevalent attitude being promoted by the Obama White House and increasingly embraced by a growing dependency culture.

Continue reading "On Bullying: It Takes One To Know One"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:04 PM

July 22, 2010

Throwing Others Under the Bus and Patting Ourselves on the Back on Race

I realize that the hot topic today is racism and that both liberals and conservatives are falling all over themselves to prove how non-racist they are and, in the process, throwing anyone and everyone under the bus just to prove their bona fides.

I think it's sad, especially when the people who are emerging unscathed from this are far from blameless and those accused of the dastardly deeds of reporting this incompletely aren't quite the villains they're being portrayed as. It bothers me how little courage people have to stand up for what is right on the issue of race, mainly for fear they'll be stigmatized with charges of insensitivity toward race or, worse, racism.

It seems to me that President Obama's unchecked liberalism is in such disfavor among the electorate that supporters of his agenda often invoke the race card against opponents of his agenda both to distract attention from substantive issues and to demonize conservatives.

I truly don't believe this Shirley Sherrod story is primarily about sloppy, negligent or even malicious reporting. Obviously, fairness dictates that quotes should be reported in context. And it is indefensible for a reporter to misrepresent a person's meaning intentionally, whether from failing to provide the context or otherwise. Having met Andrew Breitbart, I sincerely doubt he reported this story with any intent to mislead.

But even if we are willing to assume, for purposes of discussion, the worst about Breitbart and condemn him for whatever reason -- e.g., because it makes us feel superior, makes us appear above racism ourselves, or serves a political cause to demonize him (and thus tea partiers and conservatives) -- where does that leave us?

Continue reading "Throwing Others Under the Bus and Patting Ourselves on the Back on Race"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:35 PM

July 19, 2010

Half-Measures Won't Work Against Tyranny

I am continually mystified by conservatives who urge Republicans to pick their battles against Obama out of fear we'll compromise our effectiveness if we oppose him every time he needs to be opposed. What a defeatist mindset!

For instance, some I respect recommend against Republican efforts to repeal the Democrats' financial "overhaul" bill. They laud the effort but believe it will reduce the likelihood of their repealing Obamacare.

I reject the notion that Republicans possess a finite amount of political capital to oppose bills that are bad for America. It's not as if they're playing "Monopoly" and must conserve their "Monopoly" money. This isn't about what's good for the Republican Party. It's about opposing -- as a matter of principle -- Obama's systematic assault on America. Americans understand that.

Those who suggest that we approach these matters delicately grossly underestimate the American people and their innate appreciation for liberty. The timid approach, the fear of governing to the right, is always what gets Republicans in trouble.

Modern history bears this out. Ronald Reagan won landslides by sticking to his conservative principles, albeit imperfectly. George H.W. Bush lost favor with the electorate, starting with his base, for defecting from conservative principles, e.g., with his broken "no new taxes" pledge.

Continue reading "Half-Measures Won't Work Against Tyranny"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:13 PM

July 15, 2010

Obama, Not the 'Post-' but the 'Most' Racial President

While President Obama has touted himself as a post-racial president, he has built a record demonstrating precisely the opposite. Is it Obama's bitterness, or is the incessant playing of the race card by him and many of his supporters merely calculated political exploitation -- or both?

Let's look at a non-exhaustive list of examples since Obama took office.

--Feb. 18, 2009: Obama's attorney general, Eric Holder, accused the nation of being a nation of cowards on race.

--April 2009: NewsBusters reported that at the behest of the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters, Democratic Federal Communications Commission Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein demanded a government inquiry into how the electronic Portable People Meter (used to measure radio ratings and which experts believe to be a far more reliable measure than the previous system) collects data. Obama's FCC indeed ordered an inquiry in the name of "diversity" because under the modern system, hip-hop ratings had declined and conservative talk ratings had increased.

--May 2009: White House press secretary Robert Gibbs warned critics of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor to measure their words carefully, implying they were race-based.

--May 2009: The Obama-Holder Justice Department dismissed a case against New Black Panther Party members for voter intimidation, even though it had already won the case. Former Justice lawyer J. Christian Adams said that the NAACP lobbied Obama to have the case dismissed and that the case was dismissed based on the Justice Department's outrageous policy of not prosecuting such cases against blacks when they involve white victims.

Continue reading "Obama, Not the 'Post-' but the 'Most' Racial President"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:17 PM

July 12, 2010

Obama's Economic Unreality

Sadly, with President Obama, each day is crazier than the previous one. His latest economic speeches border on the surreal. I just can't quite figure out who he thinks his audience is because so much of what he says doesn't square with reality.

In a speech Friday in Las Vegas, Obama painted quite a rosy portrait of his economic record to date -- at least rosy compared with what we've all experienced with our five senses.

Though I don't intend to go all "Joe Wilson" on him ("You lie!"), please let me share with you a few, shall we say, "discrepancies" in his speech, the major theme of which could be summarized as "" inherited the worst economy since the Depression, and I saved us from a new depression because I say I did."

Obama doesn"t merely ignore all empirical evidence that flies in the face of his claim; he just tells us, astonishingly, that it is positive evidence. It would be like a thief telling the judge at his sentencing that but for his heist, his victims would have been worse off. Or a student telling a math teacher that three minus two equals four. Consider:

--He twice claimed that he inherited the worst economy since the Great Depression, which is no less absurd than Bill Clinton's claim that he inherited from George H.W. Bush the "worst economy in 50 years." Both men conveniently omitted the high misery index-riddled economy of the worst president in American history before Barack Obama, Jimmy Carter. Carter's interest rates reached 15.27 percent. Inflation soared to 13.5 percent. And unemployment grew to 7.8 percent. Obama also omitted his own record, which is far worse than the one he "inherited." His unemployment figures, by the way, easily outdo Carter's.

Continue reading "Obama's Economic Unreality"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:59 PM

July 08, 2010

States Fight Back Against Federal Tyranny and Abuse

Amidst the Obama administration's crusade to consolidate power in Washington at the expense of the very sovereignty of the states and our liberties, we should be encouraged that states are fighting back.

Consider just three very recent examples.

Have you heard about the administration's propaganda campaign to adorn each federal "stimulus" project with taxpayer-funded signs to remind us that these projects have been bestowed on us by the beneficence of the Obama administration? The signs read, "Project funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act."

In the first place, they're not funded by any act, but by the American taxpayer. This type of government self-promotion is eerily reminiscent of dictatorial governments in modern history that not only deprived their citizens of freedom and private property but also demanded to be glorified for the morsels they doled back out to them.

Rep. Aaron Schock, R-Ill., isn't taking this outrage sitting down. He has put forth a proposal to prohibit funding for the $20 million that has been spent nationwide (and more than $650,000 in Illinois alone) on these "useless" signs, which haven't created "one single job" and which serve no purpose beyond touting the administration's supposed benevolence.

Schock assures us that this propaganda campaign is being directed by the administration, not some bureaucrat, as evidenced by documents the administration sends along with the construction projects that dictate how big the logos have to be and reminding those involved that they demonstrate "President Obama's commitment to spending taxpayer dollars wisely." Schock quips, "It is almost an oxymoron that we are spending money on these logos and these signs to (show) how wisely we are spending taxpayer money."

Continue reading "States Fight Back Against Federal Tyranny and Abuse"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 02:48 PM

July 01, 2010

Unprecedented Arrogance

The Obama administration grows more arrogant, cavalier and fundamentally dishonest every day. Just in the past few days, we've seen a number of troubling examples. Frankly, sometimes it's hard to keep up.

In a speech in Wisconsin, Obama was bragging about how wonderful the terrible economy is. You'll recall that during both of President George W. Bush's terms, Democrats, including Obama, castigated him for destroying the economy, despite the existence of empirically verifiable robust growth during some seven of those eight years.

Now that Obama has been in office for a year and a half and his economy is failing by all objective measures, he and his Democrats demand, once again, that we ignore the empirical evidence in front of our faces and bow down to them in reverent gratitude for ensuring that things are not worse than they are.

Everyone knows Obama promised -- he was hardly tentative about his prediction -- that if the nation followed him over the cliff with his harebrained "stimulus" scheme, unemployment would not exceed 8 percent. When unemployment soared above 10 percent, he insisted we be patient to allow his plan to work. Now that it stubbornly remains in the high 9s, he tells us that if he hadn't implemented his stimulus bill, the economy would be much worse (12 or 13 or 15 percent), so we not only are forbidden from criticizing him for this disaster but also must genuflect because only three of the four wheels of the economy are teetering over the edge of the cliff.

He said, "There may be some roads that not only were repaired but also were ... linked up to create a new industrial park that would facilitate long-term economic development beyond this immediate crisis."

Continue reading "Unprecedented Arrogance"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:56 PM

June 28, 2010

President Alfred E. Obama

Observing President Obama's relentlessly reckless approach to our nation's fiscal integrity is reminiscent of the signature phrase of Mad magazine's Alfred E. Neuman, "What, me worry?" Obama struck again last week at the G-20 conference in Toronto, urging other nations to follow his Pied Piper lead into deficit spending hell.

Unlike recent U.S. presidents who recognized and touted this nation as the world's exemplar for economic growth and prosperity, Obama is turning us into a poster nation for financial irresponsibility. While other nations at the meeting were focusing on deficit reduction, Obama was haplessly urging them to join us in Keynesian spending oblivion.

He told the conference that global economic recovery remains "fragile" and implored the nations' leaders to continue deficit spending to sustain the "recovery." The Washington Post reports that Obama's remarks "tempered the Group of 20's headline achievement at the summit, a deficit-reduction target that had been pushed by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the host of the meeting and a fiscal conservative."

Obama is wholly impervious to the historical record documenting the failure of FDR's pump priming during the Depression, which exacerbated rather than ameliorated the economic problems. He is similarly detached from reality concerning the failure of his own policies to stimulate growth of any kind to save his beloved public sector and thus recommends more of the same.

In speech after speech, he takes credit for having launched an economic recovery in the United States and for achieving job growth. Notwithstanding his economic models that stubbornly predict such results, he can point to no empirical evidence to verify his delusional boasts.

Continue reading "President Alfred E. Obama"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:21 PM

June 24, 2010

'What Would Saul Alinsky Do?'

Remember the popular motto "What would Jesus do?" which was invoked by many Christians as a moral guidepost for daily living? President Barack Obama more likely adheres to "What would Saul Alinsky do?" as most recently evidenced by his apparent defiance of a federal court order on his moratorium on offshore drilling.

Politico reports that the drilling companies who secured the court order blocking the moratorium say the administration indeed is going to defy the court order. I'm quite sure that Alinsky would applaud this move: If at first you don't succeed through proper legal channels, proceed anyway, because nothing is more important than the radical ends you seek, including the means that must be trampled in the process.

Of course, shrewd Alinskyites like Obama will always have a plausible excuse for their deceitful tactics. In this case, they are alleging newly discovered facts. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said he intends to reimpose the drilling moratorium based on information that wasn't "fully developed" in May, when the six-month moratorium was imposed. Quite convenient.

The administration is also sending mixed signals, probably to introduce sufficient confusion to cover its disobedience. The government's brief filed with the court insisted, "Of course, until a further order of this Court or the Court of Appeals granting relief from this Court's Preliminary Injunction Order, Defendants will comply with the Court's Order." But attorneys for the drilling companies warn that "Secretary Salazar's comments have the obvious effect of chilling the resumption of (outer continental shelf) activities, which is precisely the wrong this Court sought to redress through its Preliminary Injunction Order."

The companies' point, notes Politico, is that Salazar's public announcement that the administration will reinstitute the moratorium will have the same practical effect as actually doing it because companies are not about to prepare rigs for drilling when they might be shut down in a few days. The administration predictably pooh-poohs the companies' concerns and says these new "facts" present an entirely different scenario. How convenient. Whenever you can't advance the football, just move the goal posts your way.

Continue reading "'What Would Saul Alinsky Do?'"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:47 PM

June 21, 2010

Please Read 'The Grand Jihad'

Andy McCarthy is no conspiracy theorist, but that doesn't keep him from recognizing and warning us about the common goals of the Islamists and the hard left, both of whom pose a serious, active threat to America's freedom.

In his book "The Grand Jihad: How Islam and the Left Sabotage America," McCarthy, the prosecutor of the Blind Sheik and a tough-minded realist, exposes the connection between the two groups and the danger they represent to most everything we hold sacred.

This is not another book on the dangers of Islamic terrorism, but a wake-up call to Americans who might be missing the overarching goal behind that "tactic," a goal shared by the hard left in this country: the destruction of "the freedom culture" on which America was built.

Among McCarthy's major concerns is that America, indeed the entire West, is largely blind to the goal of Islamists, the destruction of America's founding institutions to make way for an Islamic-controlled nation under Shariah law.

Moreover, Islamists are not some fringe group of Muslims who have hijacked the religion. They are "very mainstream," and their theocratic goals are clearly based on Islamic scripture. At least sometimes, they've been very open about their goals, such as when the Muslim Brotherhood revealed in a 1991 internal memorandum that "their work in America is a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and 'sabotaging' its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all other religions."

Continue reading "Please Read 'The Grand Jihad'"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:37 PM

June 17, 2010

Obama's Latest Shakedown

President Obama's oil spill speech revealed, once again, how stunningly shameless he is. This relentless ideologue is not even marginally competent at masking his ongoing crusade to apply a wrecking ball to every sector of our economy and remake it in his own image.

And I do mean "his" own image. Once again, his speech was loaded with first-person references, from "I refuse to let (Gulf Coast residents lose their way of life)" to "I expect (the new commission tasked with determining the cause of the explosion) to do that work thoroughly and impartially" to "I am happy to look at other ideas and approaches from either party." More on that last howler in a moment.

Obama's MO is so predictable that sophisticated practitioners of Marxist transformation should be embarrassed. Then again, Obama doesn't need to be subtle; he is the president -- a president who rejects the constitutional limitations that applied to his mortal predecessors.

After sitting on his hands for months, he comes out rhetorically swinging with both barrels of his teleprompter blazing. First, declare a crisis -- meticulously distorting the facts, especially those relative to what caused the crisis. Second, isolate a scapegoat (along with the awful, resource-exploiting, oil-inhaling, pre-Obama America) to be demonized and bullied into conspiring with him to launch his transformational solution -- a solution that has nothing to do with solving the "crisis." In the meantime, shield the true culprits from any blame. Third, unveil his grandiose plan for salvation by the federal government, provided it first acquires structurally new powers. All the while, he not only downplays the government's culpability in all of this but also overstates its (and his) response to date.

A returning space traveler watching his speech would have assumed Obama actually had been "kicking tail" throughout this "crisis" instead of partying and playing golf. Upon watching the speech, the traveler would not have experienced the megadoses of deja vu felt by the rest of us, who had watched this movie -- starring this very president -- many times before.

Continue reading "Obama's Latest Shakedown"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:09 PM

June 14, 2010

Obama's Assaults on Liberty Proceed Unabated

I cannot be the only one who feels as if every new day brings a new assault on this nation and its people by this administration. Indeed, many people I know say they can't even watch the news anymore because it's so depressing. And it is.

Some of these assaults occur under the radar, and others are right out in the open. As an example of the former, last week, President Obama issued an executive order "Establishing the National Prevention, Health Promotion, and Public Health Council," which will focus on "lifestyle behavior modification (including smoking cessation, proper nutrition, appropriate exercise, mental health, behavioral health, substance-use disorder, and domestic violence screenings)." It will even recommend changes in federal policy to reduce "sedentary behavior."

The order also creates an advisory group within the Department of Health and Human Services that will answer to the surgeon general, who will serve as the chairwoman of the council.

In case you're wondering what authority the president launched this program under, he covers that in the first paragraph of the executive order: "By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 4001 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Public Law 111-148), it is hereby ordered..."

In other words, "I am the president, and the Constitution and Obamacare let me do anything I want to."

Continue reading "Obama's Assaults on Liberty Proceed Unabated"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 02:39 PM

June 10, 2010

MSM Reveal Own Bias in Bias Allegations

I don't know which is more pathetic, President Barack Obama's TV threat to "kick ass" or Time magazine senior political analyst Mark Halperin's suggestion that Matt Drudge's provocative headline concerning the threat intentionally played to the alleged racism of his readers.

As much as I'd like to lampoon Obama for talking tough against oil spillers to compensate for his grossly negligent aloofness on the matter, I'll go with the sanctimonious Halperin, who needs to remove his blinding liberal filter.

Obama's exact words in explaining why he consults government experts concerning the oil spill were, "We talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers so I know whose ass to kick."

Unfortunately, neither black nor white liberals will let Obama's comment or certain reactions to it pass without turning it into an incident with racial implications. The Washington Post's Jonathan Capehart wrote, "African American men are taught at very young ages (or learn the hard way) to keep our emotions in check, to not lose our cool, lest we be perceived as dangerous or menacing."

Similarly, Halperin got exercised over Drudge's headline "Obama goes street: seeking 'ass to kick,'" which, according to Halperin, "includes this photo of an angry-looking Barack Obama. I think it's all pretty clear to all of us what's going on."

Continue reading "MSM Reveal Own Bias in Bias Allegations"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:50 PM

June 07, 2010

Another Round of Obamacare Obamaganda

So much for these bizarre theories that President Barack Obama is toying with a grand triangulation strategy, whereby he abandons his Democratic congressional allies in the 2010 elections and allows Republicans to win and save his fiscal fat from the fire. The New York Times is reporting that Obama is unleashing yet another public relations blitz to sell his already passed but woefully unpopular health care bill, at least in part to help Democrats who supported the boondoggle.

As soon as Obama can spare the time to take a break from entertaining himself with publicly funded rock 'n' roll parties, he'll begin an Obamaganda campaign to convince the stubbornly unsophisticated majority that Obamacare is the panacea for not only their health needs but also the nation's financial difficulties. I wish I were being facetious.

The first stop on his tour will be Wheaton, Md., where he'll conduct a nationally televised stunt with senior citizens timed to coordinate with the mailing of the first batch of his magnanimous $250 rebate checks to Medicare beneficiaries to help pay for their medicines.

Why not? This president and his team of fellow Alinskyites are not particularly into governance. They can only dawdle, hyperventilate and scapegoat over the Gulf oil spill. They can only form fiscal commissions and make speeches about our accelerating fiscal crisis. They have no problem reverting to "community organizing," and that's what they plan to do in perpetuity -- at least on Obamacare.

The Times says the Wheaton event will be just the first in a series of "milestone moments" -- we'll call Wheaton a "senior moment" -- in which Obama "will weigh in" as various "consumer-friendly provisions" of Obamacare "take effect."

Continue reading "Another Round of Obamacare Obamaganda"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:26 PM

June 06, 2010

World Press Rushes To Condemn Israel -- as Usual

In reviewing the available facts about the Israeli storming of the Gaza-bound Turkish flotilla, two conclusions emerge: 1) The Israelis were justified in their actions, and 2) the Israelis will continue to be unjustly condemned by the world community.

Consider:

Israeli is surrounded by nations and entities either dedicated to its destruction or decidedly hostile to it. In the past five years, Hamas has fired some 10,000 missiles into Israel from Gaza.

With that background and pursuant to its existential right to self-defense, Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza to prevent the delivery of weapons into the area that could and probably would be used by Islamic terrorists in more attacks against Israel.

If Hamas' acts of war against Israeli civilians aren't sufficient to convince you that Israel's blockade was justified, then consider that Egypt has imposed a similar blockade in the area to prevent the delivery of arms to Hamas.

Israel has not completely isolated Gaza. It has been providing abundant humanitarian relief to it and routinely allows the United Nations and international groups entry into the area.

Nor did it deny the delivery of aid to Gaza by this particular flotilla, but insisted on its right to inspect the goods for security purposes before allowing their delivery. What was the reaction of the flotilla's organizer, the Turkey-based IHH?

Continue reading "World Press Rushes To Condemn Israel -- as Usual"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:10 PM

New Column: World Press Rushes To Condemn Israel -- as Usual

In reviewing the available facts about the Israeli storming of the Gaza-bound Turkish flotilla, two conclusions emerge: 1) The Israelis were justified in their actions, and 2) the Israelis will continue to be unjustly condemned by the world community.

Consider:

Israeli is surrounded by nations and entities either dedicated to its destruction or decidedly hostile to it. In the past five years, Hamas has fired some 10,000 missiles into Israel from Gaza.

With that background and pursuant to its existential right to self-defense, Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza to prevent the delivery of weapons into the area that could and probably would be used by Islamic terrorists in more attacks against Israel.

If Hamas' acts of war against Israeli civilians aren't sufficient to convince you that Israel's blockade was justified, then consider that Egypt has imposed a similar blockade in the area to prevent the delivery of arms to Hamas.

Israel has not completely isolated Gaza. It has been providing abundant humanitarian relief to it and routinely allows the United Nations and international groups entry into the area.

Nor did it deny the delivery of aid to Gaza by this particular flotilla, but insisted on its right to inspect the goods for security purposes before allowing their delivery. What was the reaction of the flotilla's organizer, the Turkey-based IHH?

Continue reading "New Column: World Press Rushes To Condemn Israel -- as Usual"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:10 PM

May 24, 2010

They're All Obama Liberals Now

Liberals have a learning disability when it comes to the impracticability of socialism. They are so steeped in the seductive lies of false compassion that no amount of logic, history or everyday experience registers. Thus, they continue to burden the market system to an unsustainable level.

Liberals have always denied they intend to unduly shackle the free market. They say America is exceptionally prosperous -- though it never occurs to them why -- and can afford robust entitlement and redistributive schemes. But in no way would they favor anything extreme that would push the market to the tipping point.

Well, now that they are completely in charge, we've seen what they will do. Obama liberals believe not in America's promise (and Martin Luther King Jr.'s hope) of equality of opportunity, but in equality of outcomes. Truth be told, Obama probably believes in a wholesale reversal of wealth distribution: not just equalizing it, but making the wealthy poor and the poor wealthy. But I'll leave the psychoanalysis to others.

Largely because of their worldview differences, conservatives and liberals will never agree on the moral merits of capitalism versus socialism.

Conservatives believe, generally, that economic and political freedoms are interconnected and that socialism, beyond the obvious, constricts and eventually smothers political liberties. (Hat Tip: Friedrich Hayek.) They believe that our rights are a gift from God and that it is both immoral and counterproductive for a central government to confiscate a major portion of some people's work product and transfer it to others. Nor is any man entitled to moral bragging rights for presiding over government-coerced theft.

Continue reading "They're All Obama Liberals Now"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:58 PM

May 20, 2010

Obama's (Axelrod's) Choreographed Media Blackout

The "most open and transparent" president in American history is still playing hide-and-seek with the press, and even the liberal New York Times has begun to notice it, as indicated by this headline: "Obama Turns His Back On the Press."

If the mainstream media were not so ideologically wedded to Obama's big-government agenda, they would be doing more than pointing out his secrecy and hypocrisy with the occasional headline. They'd be skewering him daily for his marked inaccessibility. Not having a genuine news conference since July would be remarkable for the least transparent administration, let alone one that made openness a signature campaign issue.

But not everyone in the leftist press is exercising such restraint about Obama's media blackout. CBS News' Chip Reid decided to ask Obama a question following his signing of the Freedom of the Press Act. Doing his best Hugo Chavez, Obama said, "I'm not doing a press conference today, but we'll be seeing you guys during the course of this week."

HotAirPundit posted a video of Reid explaining that he asked the question because the irony of Obama's signing the Freedom of the Press Act while rarely fielding questions "in impromptu situations" was "too rich to resist." Reid asked, "Mr. President, in the interest of press freedom, might you consider a couple of questions on BP?"

When Reid took Obama up on his noncommittal pledge and tried to ask him a question at the Rose Garden "news conference" with the president of Mexico a few days later, Obama ignored him.

Continue reading "Obama's (Axelrod's) Choreographed Media Blackout"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:40 PM

May 17, 2010

Obama's Defiant Transparency Promise Breach

You surely know the drill by heart: Barack Obama promised to run the most transparent White House in history -- avoiding lobbyists, publicizing donations and televising health care debates on C-SPAN. You also certainly know that he's broken his pledge in every possible respect. But what's even more offensive to me is his arrogance and defiance in the process.

Exhibit A -- and this was so egregious it's the only proof you should need -- was press secretary Robert Gibbs' recent exchange with WorldNetDaily correspondent Les Kinsolving at a White House briefing. I watched the video of the exchange, and it was infuriating -- infuriating to see an arrogant, youngish smart aleck in a position of power taunting and ridiculing an elder member of the press corps, who was respectfully questioning him about Obama's striking inaccessibility.

I will quote portions from the transcript, but I implore you to watch the short video at this link: http://www.mediaite.com/online/robert-gibbs-spars-with-les-kinsolving-about-obama-press-conferences. You simply can't get the full flavor of Gibbs' despicably supercilious, insulting and disrespectful attitude without watching it. There is no excuse for anyone to treat someone as Gibbs did Kinsolving, but there is infinitely less of an excuse given his position of representing the president of the United States, who owes the public and the press corps presumably representing it a profound duty of accountability -- a duty he would owe even if Obama didn't make his cynical promise of unparalleled openness.

Kinsolving asked Gibbs why President Obama has "held not a single White House press conference since last July," considering "President Franklin Roosevelt's 998 press conferences."

Gibbs retorted that Obama took eight questions from the White House press corps at the Nuclear Security Summit. "What would you call that?"

Continue reading "Obama's Defiant Transparency Promise Breach"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 02:33 PM

May 13, 2010

Berwick and Obamacare Equal Socialism on Steroids

We knew Obama was prevaricating when he told us his purpose to cram through Obamacare was to provide universal access to coverage and reduce costs, but how many people did he manage to fool? How many are still fooled?

He repeatedly complained that America spent more on health care than other nations "but wasn't any healthier." He grossly distorted the numbers of chronically uninsured. He lied about his support for a single-payer plan and in denying that the "public option" was a Trojan horse for such a plan. He misled us concerning his intention to federally fund abortions and the coverage of illegals.

He deceitfully insisted that he wouldn't interfere with the patient-doctor relationship, that patients could choose to keep their own plans, that his plan wouldn't lead to rationing and that it would increase the quality of care.

Perhaps his most cynical fraud was his line that he would not sign a bill that would add one single dime to the federal deficit. Along with the uninsured canard, this was his biggest selling point for Obamacare: Health care costs were skyrocketing, and he had the magic bullet to remedy that.

Well, we already have objective proof (courtesy of a delinquent Congressional Budget Office pronouncement) that this, too, was a lie.

Continue reading "Berwick and Obamacare Equal Socialism on Steroids"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 01:47 PM

May 10, 2010

Exploring Kagan

President Barack Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court, Elena Kagan, once wrote that Senate confirmation hearings for Supreme Court judicial nominees should explore a "nominee's set of constitutional views and commitments." By all means, let's accommodate her and begin exploring.

We could start with the presumption, given Obama's ideology and judicial philosophy, that any nominee he chooses will be troubling for advocates of judicial restraint and interpreting the Constitution according to its original understanding. But let's put that aside for this little exploration.

On my initial research, a number of problematic areas have surfaced. Consider, for starters:

--She has no judicial experience and hardly any experience practicing law. She's mainly been an academic. I confess this one bothers me less than others, for I believe an intellectually honest academic, with proper respect for the Constitution, could make a fine appellate judge.

--Kagan, as dean of Harvard Law School, joined an amicus brief in an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit and another brief to the Supreme Court challenging a congressional law that denied federal funding to universities that didn't allow military recruiters access to their campuses. Kagan was outraged at the military because of its "don't ask, don't tell" policy, which banned openly homosexual men and women from the service, once calling it "a profound wrong -- a moral injustice of the first order."

Continue reading "Exploring Kagan"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:30 PM

May 06, 2010

How Dare Arizonans Try To Protect Themselves?

Isn't it interesting that the people yelling the loudest about the imminent racial profiling that will occur under the new Arizona law are the very ones who are profiling the tea party protestors as domestic terrorists?

These egghead elitists stereotyping the protestors don't have a clue what makes people tick or, apparently, what infuriates increasing numbers of Americans about a federal government that is at war with their freedoms and their pocketbooks.

Instead of examining their actual bigotry, let's examine their false claims about the alleged bigotry of Arizonans and the state's lawmakers. On this issue, thanks to the administration and its leftist media propaganda machine, too much misinformation is passing as fact on this issue.

Arizonans didn't just gratuitously pass a bill to harass illegal immigrants. They are tired of the hundreds of violent crimes being committed by illegal aliens, with Phoenix being North America's kidnapping capital and primary location of human smuggling. An Arizonan rancher was recently murdered on his own property by an alleged illegal alien, and three Phoenix police officers have been shot by illegal aliens since 1999.

But Arizonans didn't go out and form lynching parties. They consulted with legal experts and crafted a sophisticated, thoughtful piece of legislation designed to crack down on illegal immigration in their state. I know the idea of states' rights is a bit passe today, but some still take it seriously, as they do the right to defend themselves and their properties.

Continue reading "How Dare Arizonans Try To Protect Themselves?"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:04 PM

May 03, 2010

Obama's Planned Remarks at Quincy Just as Telling

Pundits are making a great deal out of Obama's ad-lib statement during his speech on financial reform in Quincy, Ill., about profits and earnings. But his prepared remarks are just as revealing, even if not obviously so, of his profit aversion and his belief in government control over the private economy.

In his prepared remarks, Obama said: "Now, we're not doing this (financial reform) to punish these firms or begrudge success that's fairly earned. We don't want to stop them from fulfilling their responsibility to help grow our economy." But live, he added, among other things, "I do think at a certain point you've made enough money."

Let me first address his prepared comments, about which I haven't heard much criticism. He assured us he wasn't pushing the financial reform bill -- his latest socialist (actually, it's closer to fascist, but why pick nits?) monstrosity -- to punish success that's fairly earned.

Well, why do you suppose he needs to assure us he's not intending to "punish"? A little subconscious admission perchance? Remember, he protests that he's a fierce advocate of the free market. Remember also that he is allowing the Bush tax cuts -- because they are "tax cuts for the wealthy," who don't pay "their fair share" -- to expire, not to mention the host of other taxes he is imposing on the "rich" -- and many on the rest of Americans, too, despite his pledge not to.

Please put aside for now the outrageousness of this ongoing lie designed to divide America by income groups and to win Democratic votes through propaganda and demagoguery. Of course the rich -- especially the top 1 percent, 5 percent and 10 percent -- pay a higher percentage of income taxes than the poor and also pay more in actual taxes, while the bottom half of income earners pay a negligible amount.

Continue reading "Obama's Planned Remarks at Quincy Just as Telling"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:02 PM

April 29, 2010

Strikingly Unpresidential

President Barack Obama doesn't deserve the reputation he's had for his style and temperament and for being gracious, civil, bipartisan and post-racial. He is often ungracious, uncivil, hyper-partisan, race-oriented and vindictive. He mocks and ridicules almost for sport. More than any president in my memory, he often does not comport himself presidentially.

Why does this matter? Well -- if I even have to answer that -- he is the face of America. The left constantly talked about George W. Bush's swagger and his cowboy diplomacy and how that damaged our "image" in the world and our relations with other nations.

But George W. Bush was nothing if not circumspect, discreet and respectful in his dealings with foreign leaders and his dealings with his political opponents. He was exceedingly presidential, demonstrating an extremely high respect for the office he held and what it represented.

How the president presents himself does matter for all the obvious reasons, but I believe Obama's behavior and the public's perception of it are relevant for other equally important reasons. He came into office with a reputation for being sophisticated, gentlemanly, above the political fray and open-minded. But it was a facade, facilitated by good looks, a seemingly pleasant demeanor and an extraordinarily fawning -- and forgiving -- media. He has been getting a pass on his unseemly conduct for way too long, which partially explains the disconnect between his personal likability and the unpopularity of his socialist agenda.

I believe that if the public were fully attuned to how unpresidentially he has consistently behaved, it wouldn't be as approving of him personally, and in turn, politicians wouldn't be so afraid to call him out on his Machiavellian and brutish behavior, the exposure of which would have an electoral impact. If more people understood what I believe to be this man's actual character, they wouldn't -- in the face of his consistently highhanded tactics in pushing each and every one of his destructive agenda items -- reflexively assume he's such a nice guy who means well. Then, they might be more vigilant, and heaven knows we need megadoses of vigilance these days.

Continue reading "Strikingly Unpresidential"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:43 PM

April 26, 2010

Obama(doesn't)care Taking Surprise Hits

As President Barack Obama is attempting to steamroll yet another enormous policy change through Congress against the best interests of Americans, we would be well-advised to keep abreast of the frauds that are already being exposed about Obamacare.

Last week, reality dealt Obamacare twin blows -- not that Obama will care. An analysis inside his own administration and a report from New York state shed the grim light of reality on this monstrosity before its Draconian provisions have even gone into effect.

Economic experts at the Health and Human Services Department issued a report last week, conveniently after Obamacare was shoved through, finding that though more people will end up with health insurance (many of them against their will, of course), costs are going to increase. Shocker.

How could coverage not increase with the legal mandate forcing unwilling people to buy health insurance coverage? Today millions entitled to assistance don't avail themselves of it, but Obamacare will presumably be different because there will be a penalty for non-coverage -- an idea that Obama expediently mocked during the primary campaign.

But costs will also increase? I thought Obama promised to bend the cost curve down -- that he wouldn't add one dime to the deficit with Obamacare. But two dimes or a quarter are apparently a different matter.

Continue reading "Obama(doesn't)care Taking Surprise Hits"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:14 PM

April 22, 2010

Obama's Profits Allergy

I wonder why any president of the United States would feel compelled to protest, repeatedly, "I believe in the power of the free market." Has any other president said it -- at least in the context Obama keeps saying it? That's rhetorical.

Sure, Ronald Reagan talked about the glories of capitalism frequently, but never in terms of trying to convince skeptics that he really believed what he was saying.

But Obama said it again in that very context, in his Wall Street speech in New York on Thursday. "As I said two years ago on this stage, I believe in the power of the free market." Believe me; he didn't go on to elaborate on the wonders of entrepreneurship, capital formation, liberty or the robust economic growth that free markets produce and which cannot be replicated, with any faint degree of consistency, in command-control economies.

Indeed, just one sentence later, Obama added one of his ubiquitous free market qualifiers. He said, "But a free market was never meant to be a free license to take whatever you can get however you can get it."

Excuse me? Please tell me one capitalist who believes that a free market is synonymous with a license to steal. None does. They all understand that our capitalist system operates under the rule of law. We already have laws preventing stealing, fraud and the like. So why does he have to frame the issue in such distorted extremes? Also rhetorical.

Continue reading "Obama's Profits Allergy"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:46 PM

April 15, 2010

PARP: TARP On Steroids

There seems to be no limit to the Obamacrats' appetite for expanding federal power and for fabricating and exploiting crises, which must never be allowed "to go to waste."

They always have a rationale for plausibly denying their federal power grabs. But like Obama's other big agenda items, the financial overhaul bill currently in the Senate is exactly that..

Most Americans instinctively didn't like TARP -- the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program. Even those who believed it was a necessary evil to avert financial catastrophe regarded the use of government funds to bail out companies as distasteful. They considered the government's subsequent assumption of control over TARP companies as even more distasteful.

But at least they were told it would be "temporary." Just as Obama said, "I don't want to run auto companies," he said he didn't want to run banks. Right.

Apparently learning the wrong lesson from the public's outrage at their shoving through Obamacare against the people's will, Obamacrats have adopted the same model to push through their financial overhaul plan, which Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner boastfully describes as "the strongest financial reforms since those that followed the Great Depression." Have you noticed with these statists that everything has to be dramatic -- the "greatest crisis," the "most comprehensive health care plan," the "strongest financial reforms"? Believe me; we believe you. We get it. You don't like the America we like, and you want to radically change it.

Obama has fully embraced the bill, the essential blueprint for which he laid out last June with portentous language signaling that he was going to treat this problem, too, as a crisis that needs urgent and Draconian measures. Geithner said: "The damage of the crisis was just too acute. We are trying to move very, very quickly while the memory of the crisis is still in the forefront of people's memory."

Continue reading "PARP: TARP On Steroids"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 08:24 PM

April 12, 2010

Democrats Manipulate CBO

It's sobering that 58 percent of American voters support the repeal of Obamacare just three weeks after Congress passed it, and that's probably without even realizing the extent of the tainted cost estimates from the Congressional Budget Office or the tax consequences of the bill. If accurate accounting and the actual tax consequences were to be fully publicized, this nightmare would be even less popular.

The White House would disagree, of course, but don't be fooled. The newspaper The Hill reports that White House budget director Peter Orszag says the CBO numbers actually underestimate the savings from the bill.

Orszag cites two reasons. One is that "on major pieces of legislation," the CBO historically has been "too conservative rather than too optimistic" in its projections. The other is that the CBO's scoring "largely does not take into account this evolution toward paying for quality," which, Orszag thinks, "in this decade will begin to pay off."

Well, the first reason -- that the CBO historically has been "too conservative" -- says nothing about the scoring of this particular bill. We know that government estimates involving health care programs have been grossly underestimated in the past, such as the government's cost projections in 1965 that Medicare Part A would rise to $9 billion by 1990; its actual costs were $67 billion. The government's 1987 projections for the Medicaid special hospitals subsidy were underestimated by a staggering factor of more than 100; they projected annual costs to be $100 million, and they ended up being $11 billion by 1992. American voters instinctively understand this phenomenon. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed last month, Scott Rasmussen and Doug Schoen argued that the main reason Obama hasn't been able to move the skeptical public toward supporting Obamacare is that "people simply don't trust the official projections. ... Eighty-one percent of voters say it's likely the plan will end up costing more than projected."

Orszag's second reason appears to be that Obama's bureaucrats will start denying payments for treatments and procedures they deem unwarranted. That is, they'll start dictating care decisions -- something they've vehemently denied -- and they'll ration and pay only for that which they approve. So even if there are some savings here -- which is highly doubtful -- they will be achieved at the cost of patient and physician choice and the quality of care.

Continue reading "Democrats Manipulate CBO"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:38 PM

April 08, 2010

"Give Me 'Niceness' or Give Me Death"

I believe that one of the greatest obstacles facing opponents of the socialist agenda of Obama Democrats is this misguided insistence that we always have to give them the benefit of the doubt -- as if it were virtuous not to be vigilant in safeguarding our sacred liberties. Only if we first recognize and then clearly speak out against what they're truly about will we have any chance of stopping their suicidal blueprint for America.

Willful blindness has destroyed many nations from within (and without) and is well on the way to destroying us. Those who would pat themselves on the back for being too kind to call it as they see it -- or for sanctimoniously condemning those who are calling it as they see it -- should reconsider. In the words of the great Edmund Burke, "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." He might have added, "Or say nothing."

That's why Sen. Tom Coburn's statement that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is nice was disappointing.

In the first place, it is irrelevant to the future of this nation whether Pelosi or President Barack Obama is nice. That said, I respectfully disagree with Dr. Coburn's assertion.

Let's look at what prompted Coburn -- an admirably fierce opponent of Obamacare -- to make the statement. At a town hall meeting, a woman asked him whether, under Obamacare, "they can put us in prison" for not purchasing health insurance.

Continue reading ""Give Me 'Niceness' or Give Me Death""

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:50 PM

April 05, 2010

Read the Transcript and Freak

Until I read the transcript of President Barack Obama's rambling, incoherent 2,600-word answer to a simple question from "Doris" at an appearance in Charlotte, N.C., about how we can afford Obamacare when we are already overtaxed, I dismissed as absurd the notion that he's a Manchurian candidate -- a plant. I still do, but after reading his response, I seriously almost have to question his competence.

I didn't watch the video, but the unscripted answer -- no disrespect intended -- sounds as if it was delivered by a drunk on an ideological mission. His answer was a veritable clinic in narcissistic circumlocution, a mishmash of barely related talking points about his health care plan -- not about taxes, as Doris had requested.

Where are all these liberal elitists, including those masquerading as conservative intellectuals, who told us they voted for him largely based on his intellectual acuity? Pride means never having to say you're sorry. But you should be.

It's obvious how disorganized his thinking is when you read his answer. I encourage you to follow this link and see for yourself:

But his answer didn't just lack meaningful structure. It wasn't a case of his making a lot of sense on various points but just failing to tie them together. Some of the answers themselves were embarrassingly silly -- the height of unsophisticated thinking. Some were reckless, especially from the president of the United States.

Continue reading "Read the Transcript and Freak"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:28 PM

April 01, 2010

Sick Thinking From 'Mainstream' Leftists

The Obama left, realizing it has really stepped in it with the American people by cramming Obamacare down our throats, has decided to blunt the backlash against it by tarring, yet again, mainstream conservatives as racists, bigots, homophobes and violent. Its tactics are objectively despicable.

You know the drill. We conservatives, who happen to understand ourselves better than liberals do, know that we are largely a civil, respectable, peaceable bunch. Attendees to the Rush Limbaugh-inspired Dan's Bake Sale years ago can attest to the mature, wholesome behavior of Rush fans. Ditto Sean Hannity's Freedom Concert attendees and tea party protest attendees.

The leftists who actually believe the fraudulent bile they are spewing about conservatives as being violent are merely projecting. They know their own side often disrupts and shuts down debate and engages in hate speech and even anarchy. Witness the unruly leftist disruptions of Ann Coulter appearances or the sabotaging of Karl Rove's appearance by Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans, one of Obama's radical buddies. Look at the tea party violence from the SEIU left.

But the majority of leftists making these bogus claims about conservatives are either deeply warped or outright lying. There are some isolated acts of fringe violence from the right, but they are just that -- isolated and rare. With the many tea parties that have occurred, how much conservative-spawned violence have you heard about -- even with a liberal media champing at the bit to slander the entire movement? Hardly any -- beyond the fabrications.

The left wants to shut us up. Liberals say they want universal voter registration so all voices can be heard. What? They don't even want dissenting voices among already existing voters heard. After the way they cheated and gamed the system to impose socialized medicine on an unwilling public, they've forfeited their credibility about promoting the people's will -- which we always knew was a ruse anyway.

Continue reading "Sick Thinking From 'Mainstream' Leftists"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:52 PM

March 29, 2010

Obama's Gifts to the 'Outlier' Have Only Just Begun

Whatever you do, don't assume that Obamacare and the rest of Obama's statist agenda will be easy to reverse because the public is so outraged. Obama and his relentless leftist armies have only just begun to fight.

One might suspect that after strong-arming Obamacare through Congress over the objections of a substantial majority of Americans, the Obamunists would lie low for a while -- or that they would at least pretend to make conciliatory overtures to the other side to heal the rifts they've caused in this nation.

Hardly. The left wing is in full gloating mode. Liberal columnist E.J. Dionne Jr. wrote: "Yes, we did. Finally, President Obama can use those words. ... No longer will the United States be the outlier among wealthy nations in leaving so many of its citizens without basic health coverage." Yes, that evil old United States -- you know, the "outlier" who, up to now, has not forced millions of people who don't want to buy health insurance to buy it. And who will provide further insurance to millions more who already have access to federal health assistance but don't avail themselves of it.

There will be no mea culpas for the outrageous abuses they committed in passing this bill. There'll be no humility and no interest in reconciling. If anything, they're puffed up even more, as if they're entitled to kudos for thwarting the will of the people and prepared to give them more of the same -- which they are, with the likes of amnesty and cap and tax.

They are planning to sweep the nation with yet another propaganda blitz to explain to the rubes just how much better off they'll be with less freedom, less money and worse health care. After all, the bitter clingers didn't quite get it after Obama's first 100 speeches on the subject.

Continue reading "Obama's Gifts to the 'Outlier' Have Only Just Begun"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:39 PM

March 25, 2010

Exorcise Obamacare!

The Democrats' corrupt, sleazy and undemocratic methods to cram socialized medicine down our throats were only exceeded by the horrifying substance of the bill itself. But the bell has rung on round one. Round two begins, and we'd better come out swinging.

As distressed as I've been about President Barack Obama's deliberate, senseless acceleration of our national debt, I was heartened by the public's spontaneous reaction against Obama's agenda and optimistic about electing people who would turn it around.

As concerned as I was about the granddaddy of all socialist schemes -- Obamacare -- I was encouraged by Obama's difficulty in forcing this demon through both chambers of Congress -- despite substantial majorities -- because of Republican solidarity and pockets of principled Democratic opposition. (And I say "demon" advisedly, because everything about it was a lie, but it was wrapped in a seductive package disguising it as compassionate when it would destroy the best health care system in the world and achieve none of the good things it promised.)

But I was still nervous. How can you rest easy when you've witnessed the unscrupulous tactics of this administration and the congressional leadership to impose socialism across the board against the will of the people? How could you be confident that the forces for good would finally be able to resist the relentlessness of a statist leadership that fully embraced its hero's "end justifies the means" paradigm and whose members had shown their willingness to sell their votes?

Indeed, as feared, Obama did prevail in round one -- not because of superior punching skills or fancy footwork, but because he broke the rules and hit below the belt, while the aging and listless referee let him get away with it.

Continue reading "Exorcise Obamacare!"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:54 PM

March 22, 2010

The Beginning of the End or of Rebirth?

The Democrats' passage of socialized medicine Sunday night will spell either the beginning of the end of this great nation or the beginning of the rebirth of its freedom. The choice is still in the hands of Americans.

To borrow a phrase from President Barack Obama, "let's be clear" on a couple of things:

First, it's not an exaggeration to say Obamacare is socialized medicine; in fact, it doesn't go far enough simply to say it represents the government takeover of our entire health care system. It is also a major step (begun long ago) in the complete dismantling of the unique American constitutional experiment and of the social compact between Americans and their government. Obama's now-realized goal of fundamental change is to make the government the people's master instead of their servant.

Secondly, we should not suffer gladly those painfully naive people who will continue to say that Obama and his obedient congressional Democrats are not radical. It may make people feel better about themselves to promote congeniality and bipartisanship, but to fantasize about such quixotic goals under this type of radical assault on our nation is tantamount to enabling it.

Thirdly, Obama and the Democrats have been unconscionably deceptive about their aims, even though Obama couldn't help but reveal his extremism from time to time. He certainly promised "fundamental change" but was so vague that many assumed his idea of "hope and change" meant something consistent with American values. Others knew full well what grandiose plans he had in store to overthrow America's social compact. There was no mistaking his intent when you examined his radical background and radical relationships; his extremist position on human life, including supporting a form of infanticide; his promise to redistribute wealth; his obvious grudge against America; and his experience as a street agitator in Chicago.

Continue reading "The Beginning of the End or of Rebirth?"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 02:58 PM

March 18, 2010

Thank You, Bret

I pray that President Barack Obama's interview with Fox News' Bret Baier is replayed repeatedly on Fox News Channel and circulated widely on the Internet for all to see. The more who watch it the more people will realize just how drastically the unscripted Obama varies from his projected image as God's gift to bipartisanship, compromise, congeniality and democracy.

What came across most glaringly was that there is little he wouldn't do to force Obamacare on us, from lying to evading to concealing to abusing the legislative process to violating the Constitution to dividing the nation. Consider some highlights.

Baier asked Obama whether he would support the use of the "Slaughter Rule," which would deem the bill passed so as to avoid an actual up-or-down vote. Instead of answering the question, Obama mouthed his tired talking points about his plan, most of which were just outright propaganda. He said that his plan would reduce deficits and that costs would decrease for small businesses and families because they would be in the same type of pool congressmen have. But there's not a chance in Hades that any ordinary American would have such a Cadillac plan.

For starters, in counting costs, I'm sure he's not factoring in hidden costs, including taxes. In addition, care would be rationed. Is it for congressmen? People wouldn't have choices congressmen have and would be forced, eventually, out of their private plans. That's what would happen under the Senate bill; who cares what would happen under some fictionalized scenario Obama promises under his plan? He has none. This is maddening.

The closest he came to answering the question was, "I don't spend a lot of time worrying about what the procedural rules are in the House or the Senate." Neither did members of the Soviet Politburo when they promulgated their five-year plans. Those rules, Mr. President, are there for a purpose: to protect the interests and the will of the people.

Continue reading "Thank You, Bret"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:13 PM

March 15, 2010

Without Firing a Shot?

During the height of the Cold War, some feared the communists would take over the United States without firing a shot. Could it be that nearly a half-century later, we're on the verge of that becoming a reality?

President Barack Obama and Democratic congressmen won their respective elections -- no shots were fired -- and they are feverishly attempting to dismantle this nation's institutions, brick by brick.

The American people are getting a bird's-eye view of what the left, which completely dominates the Democratic Party, thinks of the Constitution, freedom and the right of the people to self-governance.

The people now attempting to govern us with an iron fist are Marxist-leaning in terms of not only the policies they support but also the ruthless tactics they employ to enact those policies into law.

As long as it served Obama's Machiavellian purposes to maintain a semblance of unity for his ambitious agenda, he donned his bipartisan cap. But as soon as he encountered intractable opposition from Republicans, God bless them, he began to show his true political colors.

Continue reading "Without Firing a Shot?"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:27 PM

March 11, 2010

Heads Liberals Win, Tails We Lose

The left habitually distorts and exaggerates to demonize and discredit its opponents but squeals like a stuck pig when conservatives use colorful language to call the left out. Unfortunately, some on the right encourage the left's squealing.

As for the liberals, it's hard to take them seriously when they register their indignation at, say, Sarah Palin for her "death panels" comment, other conservatives for describing Obama as a socialist or liberals as "liberals," or, most recently, Liz Cheney for calling seven Justice Department appointees the "al-Qaida Seven."

Liberals are the ones who knowingly lied in saying that "Bush lied; people died," that supply-side tax cuts are "just for the rich" and that Bush left people on the rooftops in New Orleans after Katrina because they were black. These weren't just harmless rhetorical barbs; they had and continue to have serious, substantively damaging consequences.

Nor are the above descriptions by Palin, Cheney and other conservatives a matter of tit for tat or a case of the left's wrong mitigating the right's. The conservatives' statements above are different because they have a strong ring of truth, and they are not just gratuitous; they serve the purpose of calling attention to what is truly going on.

I'm not advocating that we be uncivil or mean-spirited, but that we have the guts to tell the truth, using difficult-to-hear language when necessary. I dare say our failure to speak frankly and boldly has a lot to do with the horrible predicament we're in in this country. Speaking a little more truth to political correctness would be helpful. But the left's tactic of whining and crying foul at anything it chooses to be offended by, echoed by genteel enablers on the right, intimidates many from expressing truth for fear of public condemnation.

Continue reading "Heads Liberals Win, Tails We Lose"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:21 PM

March 08, 2010

Obama vs. Insurers and the People, Part 2

President Barack Obama obviously has no qualms about slandering people or industries that interfere with his agenda. In the same creepy manner he defamed the Cambridge Police Department without benefit of the facts, he is scapegoating the insurance companies based on his distorted version of facts.

In the past week, he has ratcheted up his war on insurance companies, who, he apparently figures, must be destroyed if he is to accomplish his Utopian dream of socialized health care. He made them the focus of his wrath again, in his umpteenth health care speech, Monday in Philadelphia. Even the White House blog, in a post titled "Moving Forward to Put the American People Ahead of Insurance Companies," frames this debate as between insurance companies and the people.

Who is Obama to be smearing health insurance companies for allegedly bankrupting people to increase their profits when his policy agenda is already bankrupting America to increase government power? As the late Milton Friedman asked the clueless leftist Phil Donahue, "Is it really true that political self-interest is nobler somehow than economic self-interest?"

It's not the insurance industry versus the American people; it is Obama's socialist leviathan versus the American people, with the insurance companies as necessary collateral damage.

Is it fair to accuse the insurance companies of arbitrariness when they refuse to cover what their contracts don't require them to cover? And isn't Obama implying that if the government were to take full control over health care, there would be no denial of coverage? We don't have to wait for his plan to take effect to know that's false. Everyone, including Obama, is aware of Medicare's denying or reducing reimbursements so drastically that an increasing number of doctors are refusing Medicare patients. Does he call that arbitrary?

Continue reading "Obama vs. Insurers and the People, Part 2"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:45 PM

March 04, 2010

Obama versus Insurers and the People

President Barack Obama's obsessive, opportunistic demonization of insurance companies in his quest to pass his not-yet-written health care proposal is growing tiresome. Aren't you getting sick of a president attacking American citizens and businesses as if they -- not Obama's beloved government -- were the enemy?

His repeated implication that insurance companies are the primary reason for rising health care costs is politically expedient, but it's still untrue. Government is the main culprit.

Throughout his yearlong push for Obamacare, he has called insurance companies every name in the book. He has blamed them for soaring costs, bludgeoned them for taking profits, condemned their executives' salaries and savaged them for denying coverage for pre-existing conditions.

He even says insurers are the final arbiters of who gets care and who doesn't: "And insurance companies freely ration health care based on who's sick and who's healthy, who can pay and who can't."

Obama has framed the entire debate as if it were an insurance problem. In his theatrical speech Wednesday -- while flanked from all sides by white-coated props -- he said, "We began our push to reform health insurance last March," as if the thrust of his health care efforts has been to rein in insurers and little else.

Continue reading "Obama versus Insurers and the People"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 02:55 PM

March 01, 2010

Health Care Summit Charade -- A Clinic in Obama Partisanship

For a guy who touts himself as bipartisan and demands bipartisanship from Republicans, President Barack Obama had a funny way of showing his bipartisanship during last week's health care summit.

Obama has repeatedly promised an open, honest and bipartisan process on health care reform, but from the beginning, he has quarterbacked a highly partisan, closed-door and dishonest campaign.

In his opening remarks at the "summit," he said he wanted to make sure the participants didn't just trade "talking points" or engage in "political theater." He said, "If we've got an open mind, if we're listening to each other, if we're not engaging in sort of the tit for tat trying to score political points during the next several hours ... we might be able to make some progress."

He then proceeded to a) open the curtains for his own political theater, with one anecdotal Democratic sob story after another about the horrors of American health care; b) deliver his own talking points throughout the day, including his obligatory "tit for tat" following almost every Republican speaker; and c) demonstrate his own partisanship through (i) patronizing dismissals of the Republicans' substantive contributions as "talking points"; (ii) volleying partisan barbs at Republicans; (iii) mischaracterizing his positions and those of the Republicans; and (iv) accusing Republicans of not showing a good-faith willingness to make any movement in his direction when he made no effort to compromise with them.

To invoke my own anecdotal experience here, I have worked with people like Obama before, those who sanctimoniously demand collegiality and compromise while exhibiting no willingness to compromise themselves and then -- wholly blind to their own dogmatism -- castigate you for not "meeting them halfway" (meaning: wholly embracing their proposals).

Continue reading "Health Care Summit Charade -- A Clinic in Obama Partisanship"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:27 PM

February 25, 2010

Liberal Paranoia About Christian Conservatives

The left's paranoia about the intersection of Christianity and the public square continues unabated. It's amazing how much they fear something that represents such a little threat to them.

In his column in the British newspaper The Guardian, Northeastern University associate journalism professor Dan Kennedy rails against Republicans' "intolerance" of secularism and accuses them of representing a threat to the First Amendment.

In their penchant for projection, leftists accuse conservatives and Republicans of intolerance, when in fact, their own intolerance dominates the issues of freedom of speech and religion. Liberals accuse conservatives of being theocrats, when they are the ones trying to chill religious freedom and expression.

One would expect that Kennedy, having made these charges, would provide some proof in his column that Republicans have abridged or advocated abridging someone's First Amendment rights -- such as using the authority of government to infringe on citizens' freedom of speech, press, religion, assembly or petition or somehow violating the establishment clause.

I searched in vain for the payoff. He provided no examples, no scintilla of proof that Republicans are even skirting up against an activity that could fairly be considered threatening to Americans' First Amendment guarantees.

Continue reading "Liberal Paranoia About Christian Conservatives"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:33 PM

February 22, 2010

Obama Doesn't Even Fake Bipartisanship Well

How long will it take for every last American to realize President Barack Obama is not about bipartisanship, reconciliation (other than as a process to cram his health care bill through Congress) and uniting Americans? As his latest gyrations on health care demonstrate, he will not be deterred in his quest to saddle Americans with socialized medicine, even if it greatly increases the likelihood he won't be re-elected.

Here we have Obama, frenetically busy with at least three of his hands, pushing different buttons and sending mixed signals. I guess being a self-perceived messiah means you don't have to worry about being flagrantly inconsistent, even on the same day or in the context of one speech.

He's invited Republicans to a bipartisan summit on health care, intending to create the illusion that he's interested in conservative ideas on the subject.

But at the same time -- he can't even pretend long enough to let this ruse play out -- he is threatening Republicans that if they filibuster current congressional health care proposals, he will urge Congress to pass Obamacare by bastardizing the reconciliation process.

But wait, just like a Ginsu knife infomercial, there's more. Obama has also unveiled the outlines of his own new health care proposal, but it is hardly a model of bipartisanship.

Continue reading "Obama Doesn't Even Fake Bipartisanship Well"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:54 PM

February 18, 2010

When the Facts Don't Help Pound the Table

When you're president of the United States and your primary claim to fame is your economic prowess but your economic record fails by all objective measures, what do you do? You call on your skills as a virtuoso propagandist.

With the perceived catastrophic economic crisis of 2008-09, President Barack Obama captured the presidency at the perfect time in America's modern history for him to unleash his grandiose socialist policies -- policies so ambitious that the American people would never have tolerated them under any other circumstances.

With the nation in near panic over the impending doom of the economy, Obama presented his now-infamous "stimulus plan" to artificially create government demand by spending more than $800 billion of borrowed money to "jump-start the economy."

Being a die-hard Keynesian, Obama probably believed his program would create jobs. But given his attitude about the wealthy being undeserving of their good fortune, he probably wasn't risking too much in the event it didn't work. The funds would redistribute wealth to those less fortunate and whom society, in Obama's view, has cheated. It would also force allocations of money to "green" enterprises that would never be pursued if left to the sanity of private-sector consumer demand, further expand the public sector in general and provide ample slush money to reward unions and other supporters to shore up his re-election efforts.

According to Keynesian theory, as I understand it, it doesn't matter much where the government spends other people's money -- just as long as it spends it. Once the money is injected into the economy (never mind that an equal amount is taken out of the economy from the private sector), a multiplier effect unfolds to stimulate economic growth and jobs.

Continue reading "When the Facts Don't Help Pound the Table"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:02 PM

February 11, 2010

Bipartisanship Equals Single-Payer-ship

It's not a good idea for Republicans to accept President Barack Obama's invitation to a "bipartisan" health care summit, because it would not advance acceptable health care reform. The only thing it likely would advance would be Obama's propaganda message -- and, thus, his socialist agenda.

Everyone knows Obama wouldn't be considering such a move if the American people had not so resoundingly rejected Obamacare.

From the very beginning, he has approached this issue more as a dictator than one interested in hearing genuine input from the other side. Nor has he shown good faith, having broken his cynical promise to televise the debates on C-SPAN and having misrepresented his plan in a number of particulars.

When called on the C-SPAN pledge, he glibly replied that most of the process has been televised in regular sessions of Congress and committee hearings, knowing full well that's not what anyone understood him to mean when he made his promise.

He has been as highhanded and dishonest in dealing with this issue as he has been with any other, which is quite a mouthful. He has ridiculed Republicans for their alleged obstruction and for not offering ideas of their own, when it was Republicans who first called for bipartisan talks last May and who did offer alternative plans, which Obama summarily rejected.

Continue reading "Bipartisanship Equals Single-Payer-ship"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:31 PM

February 08, 2010

Lashing Out Beats Accountability

Conservatives understand that liberals often demonize their opponents rather than debate the merits of the issues because the tactic works. But you have to wonder whether another reason they lash out is that they are angry that reality doesn't cooperate with their ideologically driven solutions and it's easier to blame others than to face up to the unpleasant truth of their failed ideas.

It's not just the tirades of liberal talk show host Ed Schultz, who said he would cheat to keep Scott Brown from winning his Senate election, or Chris Matthews, who said Republicans indoctrinate their members in the same way Cambodian communists re-educated their subjects, or the nasty outbursts of presidential adviser Rahm Emanuel.

I was also reminded of this, on a subtler level, when reading a Washington Post piece on David Plouffe, Barack Obama's presidential campaign manager, who recently returned to the Obama camp to quarterback the Democrats' election efforts in 2010 and beyond.

Plouffe said: "Politics is a comparative exercise. This isn't just a referendum on Democrats. ... It's a choice. ... Republicans right now are just sitting back and slinging arrows. We need to ... shine some light over their side of the fence."

Plouffe said he would remind voters that Democrats have spent two years trying to fix problems, whereas Republicans want to wheel a "Trojan horse" into Washington and spill out bankers and health insurance executives. Sure, why not vilify bankers and insurers when it helps your guy avoid accountability for his policies?

Continue reading "Lashing Out Beats Accountability"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:03 PM

February 04, 2010

This 'Messiah' Isn't Delivering Peace

President Barack Obama's delusional perspective on fiscal issues is only surpassed by his surreal approach to the war on terror, which he doesn't even consistently recognize as a war. The ideological extremism of his policies is only surpassed by his flailing incompetence in administering them.

During his presidential campaign, Obama repeatedly denounced President George W. Bush's "unilateralist" and "imperialistic" foreign policy.

Obama carefully cultivated an image as a domestic and global healer who could leverage his personal background to rise above internal and foreign bickering and address the root causes of this conflict en route to a peaceful resolution. Frighteningly enough, he obviously believed his own hype.

What about those root causes? Well, Obama's entire approach to the war (he seems to prefer "law enforcement issue") is driven by his belief that Muslim extremists didn't become terrorists because of their ideology but because we have mistreated them. He thinks we have goaded potential terrorists into becoming terrorists and given existing terrorists further cause to hate us. "Guantanamo became a symbol that helped al-Qaida recruit terrorists to its cause," he said. "Indeed, the existence of Guantanamo likely created more terrorists around the world than it ever detained."

Well, he was going to turn all that around with euphemisms ("man-caused disaster," "overseas contingency operations"), a flurry of lofty rhetoric (his world apology tour), a few symbolic steps (closing Gitmo) and certain policy reversals (Mirandizing terrorists and trying enemy combatants in civilian courts).

Continue reading "This 'Messiah' Isn't Delivering Peace"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:11 PM

February 01, 2010

An Unusually Bad Prevaricator, Unusually Bad

Former Sen. Bob Kerrey famously said that Bill Clinton was "an unusually good liar. Unusually good." Well, then, President Barack Obama is an unusually bad liar. Unusually bad.

Obama said in his State of the Union speech (and similar statements several times since): "By the time I took office, we had a one-year deficit of over $1 trillion and projected deficits of $8 trillion over the next decade. Most of this was the result of not paying for two wars, two tax cuts, and an expensive prescription drug program. On top of that, the effects of the recession put a $3 trillion hole in our budget. All this was before I walked in the door."

Though it's true that the deficit for President George W. Bush's final year in office was close to $1.3 trillion, it must be noted that Obama and his fellow Democratic-controlled Congress members approved the TARP bailouts and are largely responsible for the other budget expenditures leading to that record deficit.

Plus, The Heritage Foundation's blog, "The Foundry," says that Obama's claims concerning the causes for that deficit are "clearly misleading." Despite those factors, "the budget deficit still stood at just $162 billion when the recession began in late 2007. The larger subsequent deficits have been driven by the recession (which Obama did acknowledge), the financial bailouts, the President's stimulus bill, and large discretionary spending hikes enacted by a Democratic Congress."

Also, there is major disagreement over Obama's assertion that Bush's projected deficits over the next 10 years were $8 trillion. But even if you let Obama slide on that claim, the more relevant comparison, as pointed out by Rep. Jeb Hensarling, is the annual average deficit for the 12 years that Republicans most recently controlled Congress -- $104 billion -- versus that of the past three years under the Democratic-controlled Congress -- $1.1 trillion.

Continue reading "An Unusually Bad Prevaricator, Unusually Bad"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:27 PM

January 28, 2010

There Was the President's Speech, and There Is Reality

Watching President Barack Obama's State of the Union speech makes me wonder whether the reason he tells so many fibs is that he believes them himself. Either that or he is an even better actor than he is a teleprompter reader.

Obama not only wasn't contrite about his broken promises and disastrous record; he was on the attack, daring anyone to oppose his agenda -- even in the face of the Massachusetts rebuke. But let's see how some of his statements match up with reality.

On health care, he taunted congressmen to "let me know" if any of them have "a better approach that will bring down premiums, bring down the deficit, cover the uninsured, strengthen Medicare for seniors and stop insurance company abuses," as if his own plan would do those things.

Even the Congressional Budget Office has said most of the Democratic plans would increase the budget. Besides, you can't reduce overall costs when government forces an increase in demand, even if it caps insurance premiums and shifts costs elsewhere and/or imposes rationing. The CBO has also reported that with Obamacare, millions would remain uninsured. So under his plan, costs would rise, quality and choice would decrease, care would be rationed, millions would remain uninsured and, worst of all, the government would acquire an unprecedented level of control over all aspects of our lives.

Do conservatives have better ideas? Of course. Restore market forces through tort reform, strengthening health savings accounts, abolishing government coverage mandates, allowing consumers to purchase policies across state lines and eliminating the tax laws incentivizing employer-provided health care, which unnecessarily increase demand by making prices invisible to consumers.

Continue reading "There Was the President's Speech, and There Is Reality"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:45 PM

January 25, 2010

'It's Not About Me' -- Wink, Wink

The more painful exposure we have to Barack Obama -- and we're talking hyper-exposure at this point -- the more we realize how narcissistic he is. Indeed, we are treated to this overexposure precisely because of his narcissistic impulses. He can't keep himself out of the spotlight.

So it was that on the heels of his crushing personal defeat in the Massachusetts senatorial election last week, Obama's principal reaction was, "This isn't about me."

When someone says that one time or a few times, you might believe him. But when he says it repeatedly (see below), you have to conclude he is protesting too much and means just the opposite.

Given what we've learned about Obama's self-absorption, it's not a stretch to infer that when he says "it's not about me," he wants to project an air of humility while receiving personal credit for that which he denies seeking credit. What he really means is, "The causes I am working on are greater than self, but -- wink, wink -- I darn well expect you to applaud me anyway, not just for my transcendent accomplishments but also for my being humble and selfless about it."

The context of his "not about me" statement following the Massachusetts election bears this out. After the obligatory disclaimer, he added: "This isn't about politics. This is about a health care system that is breaking America's families, breaking America's businesses and breaking America's economy."

Continue reading "'It's Not About Me' -- Wink, Wink"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:08 PM

January 21, 2010

Obama's 180 Degrees Out of Phase With the People

Reading excerpts of President Barack Obama's interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos underscores how tone-deaf and self-absorbed Obama is -- and that his tone-deafness is a function of his self-absorption and rigid ideology.

Obama said: "One thing that I regret this year is that we were so busy just getting stuff done and dealing with the immediate crises that were in front of us that I think we lost some of that sense of speaking directly to the American people about what their core values are and why we have to make sure those institutions are matching up with those values. And that I do think is a mistake of mine. I think the assumption was, if I just focus on policy, if I just focus on this provision or that law or are we making a good, rational decision here ... people will get it."

Let's unpack that mouthful. It's all about him; in almost every line, he is bragging or excusing himself. No wonder he can't see any farther than his navel.

Note in the opening sentence his umpteenth gratuitous reference to "crises" he inherited; he doesn't use the word "inherited" there, but his meaning is clear.

In the next sentence, he pretends to criticize himself (for not speaking directly to the American people) as a backdrop for patting himself on the back for "just getting stuff done and dealing with the immediate crises." Even if he hadn't immediately turned the phony self-deprecation into a boast, we'd know he wasn't sincere because the substance of his statement is flat-out false.

Continue reading "Obama's 180 Degrees Out of Phase With the People"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:40 PM

January 18, 2010

A Cadillac Exemption From a Cadillac Tax From an Edsel Administration

This past Sunday marked the first time President Barack Obama graced a Washington, D.C., church with his presence since Oct. 11, but apparently it was not to sit in a pew and worship. Instead, he was doing the sermonizing and politicking -- gloriously intermingling church and state as only liberals are allowed to do in this country.

Don't get me wrong; I'm no scold when it comes to the church-state separation mania, which I think has been grossly expanded by liberals not to preserve the constitutional protection of religious liberty, but to selectively suppress it. But here I am digressing before I've even gotten started on the main focus of today's rant.

Instead of quibbling over the propriety of Obama's turning the church service into a political rally for health care, let's focus on the outrageous substance of his message.

He told the congregants at Vermont Avenue Baptist Church that Obamacare would help more than 30 million Americans -- "men and women and children, mothers and fathers" -- to get health insurance. "This will be a victory not for Democrats," he said. (He's got that one right.) "This'll be a victory for the United States of America." (Yes, once he and his party get thrown out on their ears for this monstrosity.)

But it's another one of his statements that really sticks in the craw: "This'll be a victory for dignity and decency, for our common humanity."

Continue reading "A Cadillac Exemption From a Cadillac Tax From an Edsel Administration"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:00 PM

January 14, 2010

Obama's Alternative Foreign Policy Universe

There are definitely two Americas, but not the two that fallen former presidential candidate John Edwards had in mind. There's the real America, and there's the imaginary America President Barack Obama has boasted of creating.

Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, tells us on the White House's alternative universe blog that "President Obama inherited unprecedented challenges at home and abroad," including "diminished American standing in the world. ... A year later, America is stronger because of the President's leadership."

How has Obama been able to perform this miraculous feat in such a short time?

Well, Obama's "steady diplomacy" has made America stronger and renewed its moral authority. In his superior wisdom, he realized that our real enemy isn't all Islamic extremists dedicated to world conquest, the annihilation of all infidels, and jihad, but the sole branch of that larger group, al-Qaida. So he's smartly and efficiently recalibrated our war effort against this solitary group of jihadists -- though I could have sworn his people have told us it's not exactly a war.

Through his myopic lenses, Obama apparently can't understand that terrorists would be virtually impotent against us without nation-state sponsors. Without that perspective, how can he possibly lead this nation in this "overseas contingency operation"?

Continue reading "Obama's Alternative Foreign Policy Universe"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:45 PM | TrackBack (0)

January 11, 2010

Obama Must Know His Spending Yields Bankruptcy, Not Growth

Could we all agree that we are doomed as a nation if President Barack Obama continues his deficit spending at unprecedented levels? Can you think of any reason, then, to justify this spending? Oh, our president says it's to jump-start the economy? Sorry, that dog won't hunt. So what's his real motive?

Obama has been saying from the beginning that his stimulus plan was for the purpose of spurring economic growth -- though when we did have economic growth during the George W. Bush administration, the likes of which Democrats can only fantasize about during Obama's term, they trashed it as a "jobless recovery."

On Jan. 16, 2009 -- about a year ago -- Obama said: "The first job of my administration is to put people back to work and get our economy moving again. That's why I've moved quickly to work with my economic team and leaders of both parties on an 'American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan' that will immediately jump-start job creation and long-term growth." Obama made similar statements repeatedly.

Notice he said "immediately." Here we are a year later at 10 percent unemployment after Obama promised it wouldn't exceed 8 percent. Is anyone holding him accountable for this outrage? Is he humbled? No, he wants a second stimulus, on top of his nationally bankrupting health care and cap-and-trade plans. He has the audacity to demand $75 billion more to stimulate construction jobs. A bill approving the plan has already passed the House, and the Senate is expected to take it up later this month. Unbelievable!

Obama's top economic advisers also said at the time that his stimulus package would create mostly private-sector jobs. We know how that turned out: just the opposite.

Continue reading "Obama Must Know His Spending Yields Bankruptcy, Not Growth"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:47 PM | TrackBack (0)

January 07, 2010

His 'Highness' or His 'Highhandedness'?

The more we read about Obama's health care scheme and his handling of it the more obvious his arrogance and contempt for the people become.

This is stunning behavior, really, for any administration (and his party), but especially one that holds itself out as a servant of the people and a model of transparency.

Just consider headlines from the past few days: "Obama Reneges on Health Care Transparency: As a Candidate, President Obama Promised to Put Health Care Reform Negotiations on C-SPAN," "White House REFUSES To Discuss Broken C-Span Promise," "Dems Will Bypass Conference Committee To Get Health Care Passed," "Sources: Obama, Dems to sidestep GOP on health care," "Hatch: Healthcare bill 'rich' for challenges on constitutionality," "AP sources: Obama OKs taxing high-end health plans," "Obama Pushes for Quick Health Care Deal," "Conference Committee Bypassed," "House Will Vote on Pro-Abortion Senate Bill" and -- get this one -- "Pelosi: 'There Has Never Been a More Open Process.'"

Seriously, who do these people think they are? No wonder they always assumed the worst of former President George W. Bush and then accused him of sinister motives he never had and actions he never committed. As I've noted before, they were projecting. They knew how they would behave if in power. Now, once again, they're proving it.

Think about it. Obama promised at least eight times -- memorialized in video recordings -- that he would air health care debates and negotiations on C-SPAN for all to see. If you watch the videos, you'll notice that he was even wearing that smug, self-righteous look as he made his deceitful pledge, as if to say: "When I take over, we are finally going to return power to the people. We'll be open and transparent. We won't behave as Washington politicians are used to behaving. We're better than that. We're morally superior."

Continue reading "His 'Highness' or His 'Highhandedness'?"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:06 PM

January 04, 2010

War on Terror? What War?

Can you imagine an administration so arrogant that it will not reconsider its decision to return Yemeni terrorists now being held at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility back to Yemen, much less its decision to close Gitmo in the first place?

President Barack Obama is obviously a man who won't permit any facts to penetrate his airtight ideological force field, from deficit spending to health care to global warming to his non-prosecution of the war on terror -- I mean "overseas contingency operations."

Last week, Sens. Lindsey Graham, John McCain and Joe Lieberman sent a letter to President Obama telling him his decision to transfer six Yemeni nationals back home is "highly unwise and ill-considered," especially in light of the attempted terrorist bombing of Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas Day. The senators pointed out that the terrorist, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, revealed to interrogators that he had traveled to Yemen for training and to gather explosives for the mission.

Even Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, weighed in, saying "detainees should not be released to Yemen at this time. It is too unstable." But the White House is undeterred, and even the closing of the U.S. Embassy in terrorist-rich Yemen is not causing the smug Obama to reconsider.

White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan told "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace the administration absolutely intends to continue sending Yemeni prisoners back to Yemen. "We've had close dialogue with the Yemeni government about the expectations that we have as far as what they're supposed to do when these detainees go back," said Brennan.

Continue reading "War on Terror? What War?"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 02:23 PM

December 28, 2009

It's Not the Economy, Stupid! It's National Survival!

The Washington Post's Dan Balz thinks that "with new priorities, Obama and Democrats can recover in 2010." Sorry, Dan; it's about more than priorities. It's a matter of their worldview.

Balz dutifully cites "the size of the problems President Obama inherited" and "the battles he chose to take on during his first year" as mitigating factors that may lead to the public's understanding and allow Obama an opportunity to hit "the reset button."

Balz says Obama's advisers believe he can "pivot" in the first few months of 2010 and restore his standing with the American people. Balz offers four "elements" that "might allow that to happen": refocus on the economy; move Congress offstage; get serious about the deficit and spending; and avoid overloading the circuits.

Let's briefly examine Balz's analysis -- an analysis that is doubtlessly typical for Beltway media elites.

First, Obama's free-falling approval ratings are not a result of problems he inherited. How long are he and his liberal media shills going to milk this "blame Bush" mantra like a bunch of reprobate school kids? Balz is onto something, however, in citing "the battles he chose to take on during his first year." But he's wrong that it is a mitigating factor.

Continue reading "It's Not the Economy, Stupid! It's National Survival!"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:42 PM

December 21, 2009

Obamacare Hazardous to America's Health

At least common thieves don't destroy an entire health care system and socialize the American economy when they commit their felonies. Too bad we can't say the same for our illustrious Democratic senators who sold out the nation.

In exchange for criminally unconstitutional favors for their respective states, they voted to pass the Senate health care bill just 38 hours after it had been made available to the public for review.

Everyone knows about Sen. Mary Landrieu's negotiating $300 million for her state in non-guaranteed Medicaid payouts. She was even cocky about her institutionalized larceny.

Sen. Bernie Sanders finagled $10 billion worth of earmarked greenbacks for the funding of community health centers in his home state, Vermont, to support a bill he vehemently opposed just three days earlier.

Sanders and Sen. Patrick Leahy secured additional Medicaid funding for Vermont, while senators from Pennsylvania, New York and Florida achieved Medicare Advantage protections for their constituents even as benefits from this program are being cut nationwide.

Continue reading "Obamacare Hazardous to America's Health"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:24 PM

December 17, 2009

Radical is as Radical Does

I'm wondering whether there's anyone out there with the guts to pretend that it's insignificant that President Barack Obama keeps appointing radical after radical to his czar positions. Can anyone honestly say Obama's appointments don't tell us a great deal about Obama himself -- as if we needed any further proof he is a left-wing extremist?

I don't need to make a list of his radical appointees and detail proof of their extremism. Anyone paying attention knows it's irrefutably true that this has become a deliberate pattern. Statistically, Obama couldn't accidentally appoint this many radicals in two political lifetimes. Is he rubbing these people in our faces or just surrounding himself with like-minded soul mates -- or both?

My educated guess is "both" because his general attitude toward governance has been utterly dictatorial. He knows what's best for America -- the type of America he envisions, anyway -- and he will proceed to implement it, full well knowing that he's violating the will of the majority every step of the way.

It's truly sad to me that our federal government has expanded to the point that no one flinches at the thought that we need some federal bureaucrat in charge of making our local schools indoctrination facilities for homosexuality, er, safe.

As you know, Obama appointed known homosexual activist Kevin Jennings for the position.

Why would Obama, a self-professed Christian, choose Jennings, who admitted in his 2006 memoirs that he harbored a deep-seated hatred for God and religious believers at the time he embraced a homosexual lifestyle?

Continue reading "Radical is as Radical Does"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:44 PM

December 14, 2009

If B's Were F's, Obama Still Wouldn't Deserve a B-Plus

It's bad enough for America that President Barack Obama is a committed far-left ideologue, but when you couple that with his narcissism, you've got a recipe for a major disaster.

He told Oprah Winfrey he deserves "a good solid B-plus" for his first year in office. The only things standing in his way for that coveted A are -- for the most part -- other people, such as evil Republicans who oppose socialized medicine.

It's obvious that Obama is as self-absorbed as he is delusional. While most Americans are worried about the financial destruction of our country and our resulting inability to bequeath our heirs a land of liberty, Obama is fretting over the stresses the job is placing on him.

"The biggest burden on me right now is that economic growth has happened, but job growth has not happened." Note the "burden on me." Similarly, he said his painfully belabored decision to send 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan hit him "in the gut."

Obama insists economic growth has returned and job recovery is just a matter of time, but many are not so sure of either. But all are sure that his unwavering debt path is unsustainable and suicidal.

Continue reading "If B's Were F's, Obama Still Wouldn't Deserve a B-Plus"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:25 PM

December 10, 2009

Obama Reducing the Debt? Dream On

Two recent news stories illustrate, more clearly than ever, the Obama Democrats' contempt for the free market and individual economic liberty. If given the chance, they will expand government and spend as much of our money as they can get away with.

First we learn that Obama and his party simply will not agree to keep their grubby government hands off the estimated $200 billion the banks are going to repay under TARP. Just when we finally receive this glimmer of good news to ameliorate our reasonable panic over the ever-increasing national debt, Obama announces that he intends to intercept a good portion of the debt repayments and spend it on job creation and assistance to certain debtors.

I assume we're supposed to be too dense to remember that his stimulus spending to date hasn't created jobs and that most of it hasn't even been used for that purpose. So when this administration says its first priority is reducing debt, understand we are being played -- by consummate cynics.

Likewise, the Democrats' various health care plans contemplate $500 billion in Medicare savings between 2010 and 2019. But instead of using the savings to shore up this entitlement's solvency, they are charging forward with a new entitlement: major subsidies to the uninsured to buy health insurance.

They just can't help themselves, what with their firm control of the executive and legislative branches of the federal government. They barely have to pretend to like capitalism anymore.

Continue reading "Obama Reducing the Debt? Dream On"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:59 PM

December 07, 2009

Defenseless Enviro-thugs Go On Offense

At a time when leftist enviro-tyrants ought to be hanging their heads in shame, they are, instead, taking the offensive. They are not only dismissing the staggering ClimateGate scandal as insignificant but also redoubling and accelerating their push to enslave the world with their progress-swallowing treaties, laws and regulations.

It's the same old leftist playbook: Approach every desired major policy change as a crisis, and demand immediate action. If the public begins to wise up to the distortions and exaggerations, elevate the threat warning from dire to urgent.

We saw it in our domestic politics in the United States when President Barack Obama's leftist Democrats manufactured a simulated crisis over health insurance, deliberately overstating by multiples the number of uninsured as a predicate to Obama's demand that a comprehensive bill had to be passed before Congress' August recess.

Shortly thereafter, it came to light that Democrats had also grossly manipulated the projected costs of their proposals and flagrantly lied about such issues as rationing and government-funded abortions. All the while, these "progressives" concealed from the public the underlying facts and data and their ultimate aims, obliterating Obama's pledge for greater transparency in government.

Like-minded global and American leftists know the jig is almost up on the fabricated global warming "consensus," as the public is catching on to their deception (reflected by fresh polling data) and the ClimateGate scandal has lifted the veil on the leftist scientific community's global conspiratorial corruption. They tell us to pay no attention to the ClimateGate behind the curtain and to join with them in launching the reverse thrusters on modernity and progress in deference to the global warming hoax. Meanwhile, the Obama-leftist Environmental Protection Agency has hedged its bets (in the event Copenhagen is a bust) by declaring the air that we exhale an environmental hazard.

Continue reading "Defenseless Enviro-thugs Go On Offense"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:52 PM

December 03, 2009

Gibbs: Don't Confuse Copenhagen-bound Obama With Global Warming Facts

Despite the unfolding international "climate change" scandal involving the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit, President Barack Obama's ideological presuppositions on global warming remain unshaken, and he will still happily attend the Copenhagen global warming conference.

This unprecedented fraud by a "team" of politicized scientists whose research has generated some $20 million in research grants for the CRU hasn't deterred Obama from his energy- and economy-destroying agenda any more than double-digit unemployment figures have dissuaded him from his failed Keynesian policies. Nor is Obama bothered by the incestuous relationship among the CRU, the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Copenhagen summit.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs sniffed that corruption at the highest levels of climate change intelligentsia -- corruption, mind you, that bears directly on the underlying science -- doesn't alter the president's firm opinion that "climate change is happening."

"I don't think that's anything that is, quite frankly, among most people, in dispute anymore," said Gibbs. "I think there's no real scientific basis for the dispute of this."

Oh? Is this administration so myopic as to be dangerously ignorant? So arrogant that it deems dissenting opinions unworthy of acknowledgment? Or just old-fashioned liars?

Continue reading "Gibbs: Don't Confuse Copenhagen-bound Obama With Global Warming Facts"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:14 PM

November 30, 2009

They Call It Fiscal Responsibility; We Call It Socialism

As President Barack Obama and his party conspire to destroy -- not reform -- the greatest health care system in the world in their quest to remake America into a full-blown Eurosocialist state, it is instructive to remember the premise upon which Obama launched this disaster.

In July, Obama said that if we do not control our health care costs, "we will not be able to control our deficit." He continued: "I've also pledged that health insurance reform will not add to our deficit over the next decade, and I mean it. ... In addition ... the bill I sign must also slow the growth of health care costs in the long run." Just to be sure there was no misunderstanding, Obama said, "The entire cost of that has to be paid for, and it has got to be deficit-neutral."

Those who didn't know this was hogwash in the first place have no excuse not to see it now. There's nothing deficit-neutral about the plans currently under consideration. There's nothing fiscally prudent about them. Indeed, they would greatly exacerbate our existing fiscal crisis -- not to mention usher in the largest socialistic transformation we've yet seen in this nation.

With the information that has now come to light about the costs of "reform," there is no other rational explanation for Obama's obsession to enact Obamacare than his desire to increase government control over every aspect of our lives.

As others have noted, Obama and company have employed multiple gimmicks to conceal and misrepresent the true costs of Obamacare. Like other groups wanting to destroy America from the outside, liberals are patient. By backloading their spending, they hope to deceive Americans into thinking their plan is budget-neutral.

Continue reading "They Call It Fiscal Responsibility; We Call It Socialism"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:46 PM

November 23, 2009

A National Nightmare, Indeed

In a Democratic fundraising speech in Iowa over the weekend, Vice President Joe Biden told party loyalists that opponents of the Obama administration's agenda "should be worried about us, for we are their worst nightmare." Duh.

Finally we can agree on something, Joe. Even the liberal New York Times reports that at the current level of federal spending, the annual interest on the national debt will exceed $700 billion by 2019 -- compared with $202 billion this year. Some forecasters predict it will be much higher. This additional half-trillion dollars a year in interest is more than our current combined expenditures on education, energy, homeland security and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Oh, and the Times isn't even factoring in the cap-and-trade nightmare you and Barack have in store for us, Joe -- you know, that urgent legislation to catapult the nation back into Third World status based on hysteria generated by fraudulent science and corrupt zealots and politicians.

Nor is the Times including in its calculations the additional debt that would result from Obamacare.

Joe, when The New York Times is sounding the warnings over the exploding national debt, you and Barack insist not only on not reversing your disastrous course but also on making it worse. How can reasonable people assume anything other than that you are trying to run this nation into the ground financially?

Don't dare keep telling us your hyper-ambitious spending is a necessary evil required to deliver us from a financial crisis you inherited. Whatever crisis we face is debt-related, purely and simply. Everything else is manageable. Yet you all are deliberately increasing our indebtedness as far as the eye can see, without the slightest pretense of scaling back in this millennium. In fact, you are laboring to establish further entitlements and institutional changes that would generate exponential burdens on our debt and would be enormously difficult for any responsible and financially sane successor to undo, much less reverse.

Continue reading "A National Nightmare, Indeed"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 08:34 PM

November 19, 2009

Sally Quinn on Sarah Palin -- Versus Reality

It seems the mainstream media's favorite pastime is to ridicule Sarah Palin. Of all the screeds I've read, I don't think any are snarkier than The Washington Post's Sally Quinn's "On Faith" blog post "Sarah Palin's 'rogue' Christianity."

Do we need further proof of the secular orientation of our dominant media culture than the fact that Quinn, an avowed atheist, pens the Post's "On Faith" blog? That would be like featuring a column by Fidel Castro on free enterprise and individual liberties.

On her mini-bio, Quinn writes: "I announced to my parents when I was 13 that I was an atheist. And I was a committed atheist all of my life. My view was that more evil had been done in the name of religion than anything else in the world. I saw no redeeming value in it at all. Then I met Jon Meacham and we began talking. No, Jon didn't convert me, but he did convince me that religion was not a subject to be dismissed or disdained."

If that's true, why did Quinn devote her entire blog post to dismissing and disdaining Sarah Palin's profession of faith in her book, "Going Rogue"? I must admit, though, it's difficult to tell whether Quinn is motivated more by her disdain for Sarah Palin, whom she has a history of berating, or mainstream Christianity.

Quinn says: "Sarah Palin writes that one summer at Bible Camp she 'put my life in my creator's hands and trust Him as I sought my life's path.' For Palin, this grand divine plan was 'a natural progression.' She writes. And later, 'I don't believe in coincidences.'"

Continue reading "Sally Quinn on Sarah Palin -- Versus Reality"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:26 PM

November 16, 2009

Civil Trial for Jihadists and Obama's Third World Vision for America

I can think of a number of motives President Barack Obama might have for his egregious decision to bring Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other high-profile al-Qaida terrorists to New York for trial in our civil courts. Regardless of which motives apply, one thing is clear: Our enemy is at war against us while we are in a suicidal, 9/10 state of denial.

I've heard at least three possible reasons for his decision, which fall into the categories of political, ideological and strategic, respectively. These motives are by no means mutually exclusive and are overlapping.

My friend Andy McCarthy, at National Review Online, emphasizes: "The decision ... is one of the most irresponsible ever made by a presidential administration. That it is motivated by politics could not be more obvious." Andy surmises that these proceedings will put the Bush administration on trial, giving the anti-war left, Obama's base, "its promised feast." The left's "shock troops, such as the Center for Constitutional Rights," will add each new disclosure to "the purported war-crimes case they are urging foreign courts to bring against President Bush, his subordinates, and U.S. intelligence agents." Andy's analysis is difficult to refute.

Another bright friend of mine doesn't dispute Obama's political motivations but calculates that in the end, though appeasing the hard left, his strategy will end up costing him dearly because of the national security nightmare (and public backlash) it will generate -- a scenario Andy McCarthy himself thoroughly lays out with foreboding. Given the inevitable and foreseeable blowback awaiting Obama, my other friend reasons that Obama has decided to do it because he is a true believer. That is, it's not just a matter of feeding his base. He is his base. He is a hard-left anti-war ideologue. Again, I would be hard-pressed to poke holes in this assessment.

Then we also have to consider as a motivating factor Obama's stunningly naive belief that by being solicitous toward Islam and overly kind to terrorists, we can convince them that we are good people after all and not an enemy they should attack. That Obama harbors this belief is scarcely deniable. His various statements on American foreign and domestic policy reveal his conviction that America's past behavior and attitude, up until the precise nanosecond he was inaugurated, have contributed to our unpopularity in the world and served as a terrorist-recruiting impetus throughout the world.

Continue reading "Civil Trial for Jihadists and Obama's Third World Vision for America"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:59 PM

November 12, 2009

More White House Economic Baloney

Of the many thoughts I had watching President Barack Obama's umpteenth speech on the economy Thursday morning, the most troubling was his refusal to accept responsibility for his disastrous policies.

With unemployment having soared to 10.2 percent, wouldn't it have been reasonable to expect that any Obama speech on the economy would at least acknowledge that his "stimulus" plan didn't come close to achieving the results he promised, starting with his claim that unemployment would peak at 8 percent?

Even a fallible leader would be humbled by this failed performance, but enjoying messianic stature, the expectations bar is rightfully much higher for Obama. Yet instead of showing contrition, he took to the microphone in a surreal, boastful mode, as if calculating that assuming an offensive posture would fool people into ignoring reality.

He bragged about the "bold steps" he had taken "to break the back of this recession." He said he'd prevented "responsible homeowners from losing their homes ... cut taxes for middle-class families ... and created and saved more than a million jobs." But, "We all know that there are limits to what government can and should do, even during such difficult times."

Let's examine his claims. Bold actions to end the recession and "created and saved more than a million jobs"? Well, he has engineered massive spending and debt explosions, but many weren't even calculated to stimulate the economy, especially in the short run.

Continue reading "More White House Economic Baloney"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:00 PM

November 09, 2009

Suicidal Political Correctness

Even as more and more realize oppressive political correctness is damaging our nation and killing our people, we still hold ourselves hostage to it. We can't criticize Obama on his policy agenda without absurd accusations of racism, and now our authorities' first instinct after the mass murder at Fort Hood is to victimize the identified shooter -- Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan -- rather than to protect our soldiers.

The military is the last place we should expect political correctness to flourish. We recognize, after all, that our armed forces exist primarily to safeguard our national security, not as a laboratory for social experimentation. Or do we?

Forget "don't ask, don't tell" policy for now. I'm referring to the reaction of the Army's top brass to the Fort Hood slaughter in the news conference and television interviews following the shooting.

The first question to Army chief of staff Gen. George Casey (and Army Secretary John McHugh) was whether he believed "this was a wake-up call to the nation that the Army is simply too small to carry out the tasks that it's been given." "You've been having suicide rates that are off the charts," the reporter went on. "Your soldiers are under great stress from multiple deployments."

Our military manpower is a legitimate concern, but I think it would be more appropriate for this type of question to come up in the context of whether we have the troops necessary to perform our missions in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Instead, it surfaced in relation to whether an overly stretched Army might have contributed to causing this mass murder.

Continue reading "Suicidal Political Correctness"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:32 PM

November 05, 2009

White House Postelection Arrogance

The White House arrogance on display in denying that Tuesday's election results were a repudiation of President Barack Obama's radical agenda is of a piece with its arrogance in attempting to advance this agenda against the people's will.

One of the great ironies of this administration is its promise of returning power to the people but governing with an iron fist and its back turned to the expressed wishes of the voters. The White House claims a mandate for its extreme blueprint to restructure America, but the voters had no idea Obama would go this far, even if many of us listening closely to his statements and studying his relationships and voting record did.

It's possible, given the relatively monolithic embryo in which Obama was politically incubated, that Obama believed the majority of Americans held the same contempt for America's political and economic system as he did. It should be clear to him now, though, that he's not on the same page with them -- perhaps not even in the same book. But if you're paying attention, you know that this cold, hard slap of reality hitting Obama in the face isn't slightly deterring him from pressing forward. If anything, it has strengthened his resolve to implement his agenda with increased urgency, before the public turns even more against him.

Obama's attitude in over-reading his mandate and dismissing the significance of Tuesday's elections is, I believe, consistent with the liberal mindset that liberals know better than the people what is in their best interests. Sen. Jim Webb, whose fellow Virginia Democrat was soundly defeated Tuesday, said the election results indicate that "people up here on our side need to get their message straighter."

Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., went even further, saying it is "nonsense" to suggest that the New Jersey and Virginia results represent a referendum on President Obama and that Democrats should try harder to make sure they "deliver on the promises of the last election."

Continue reading "White House Postelection Arrogance"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:59 PM

November 02, 2009

Democratic Deficit Duplicity

I nearly fell out of my chair as I read this New York Times headline: "Democrats Push for Plan to Cut Deficit." From the headline alone, I couldn't tell whether this was before, during or after they supported President Barack Obama's intentional, exponential escalation of the deficit to $1.4 trillion.

That's simply immeasurable chutzpah. But just in case you're ready to be taken in yet again by these fair-weather deficit watchdogs, the first sentence of the Times article reveals their true -- and true to form -- motive.

"Faced with anxiety in financial markets about the huge federal deficit and the potential for it to become an electoral liability for Democrats, the White House and Congressional leaders are weighing options for narrowing the gap, including a bipartisan commission that could force tax increases and spending cuts."

Those elections have a stubborn habit of forcing even drunken sailor politicians to pretend to care about other people's money they otherwise have an unlimited appetite for squandering.

But wait; I thought concern about runaway federal spending was the concern only of those "tea party" protestors the administration has dubbed "potential domestic terrorists" who were carrying "political paraphernalia" -- copies of the U.S. Constitution -- and engaging in "right-wing extremist chatter" focused "on the economy."

Continue reading "Democratic Deficit Duplicity"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:39 PM

October 29, 2009

The Public Option Is Not an Option

Can you imagine the brazenness of President Barack Obama and his cohorts in going so far as to ridicule opponents of Obamacare for rightly pointing out that its ultimate goal is single-payer socialized medicine?

These people are propaganda virtuosos of the highest order. You might expect grand artists of deception just to silently dismiss such claims from critics or, at most, to summarily deny them. But they go further and mock the critics, trying to reduce them to acutely paranoid, tinfoil-hat-wearing, black-helicopter-hallucinating Cuckoo's Nest inpatients.

What better way to distract attention from what is right in front of our faces? It's brilliant reverse jujitsu: using the outrageousness of your own plan to discredit as preposterous the allegations of your opponents about your truly outrageous plan. Shameless!

Obama and his minions are indeed conspiring to foist socialized medicine on this nation through whatever means necessary -- including outright deception over the nature and purpose of the so-called public option. But before presenting proof of that, let me pose a few questions bearing on the likelihood Obama would be involved in such a deception in pursuit of this goal.

Didn't Obama repeatedly threaten to "spread the wealth"? Isn't he deliberately indebting us through government expenditures of borrowed funds not remotely designed to appreciably increase employment? This "stimulus" monstrosity is a massive redistributive scheme not only in its direct transfer payments but also in the confiscatory tax increases it will necessitate to retire the debt it is generating.

Continue reading "The Public Option Is Not an Option"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:18 PM

October 26, 2009

Obama's War on Fox Is Liberalism's War on Dissent

Can you imagine the outrage that would have ensued had former President George W. Bush declared off-limits those media outlets he thought (correctly) treated him unfairly?

Heck, the left declared him a dictator simply because he led a war on Iraq that Congress approved. He never tried to shut down his critics. He rarely even objected to their abuse.

But liberal politicians have been spoiled with mainstream media favoritism for so long that they believe anything other than sycophancy is mistreatment. Their selective outrage is as hollow as it is risible.

In fact, Fox News seems much more conservative than it is because no other television network over the past half-century has been anything but decidedly liberal. When the media norm is liberal, liberals equate liberalism with objectivity and deviations from it as bias, just as liberals preach tolerance toward all ideas -- except conservative ones. Their self-delusion is surreal.

Thus, Fox News Channel -- which has a number of liberal hosts, scores of liberal contributors, and nonstop liberal guests -- is painted as conservative because it is the only network that has more than one token conservative host.

Continue reading "Obama's War on Fox Is Liberalism's War on Dissent"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:01 PM

October 22, 2009

Obama's Uncompromising Inner Man

It's amazing that Barack Obama still has some fooled into believing he's a model of post-partisanship. Sure, he's as friendly and congenial as they come, as long as you agree with him -- 100 percent.

When on-script, he is mostly measured, reasonable-sounding and -- being a good reader -- occasionally eloquent. But when he ventures off-script, he often sounds less sophisticated, petty and even mean-spirited. In those moments, there's no hiding the inner man.

We see his inner man on renegade YouTube clips of his speeches to completely friendly audiences where he wasn't expecting to be heard outside the venue, as with his ridiculing of small-town Americans as bitter clingers. His unmasked face often reveals a marked contemptuousness for those who don't share his worldview.

He not only doesn't practice bipartisanship but also refuses even to debate the issues, treating dissenters as ill-motivated, disingenuous obstructionists.

I was reminded of this as I played a video posted on RealClearPolitics in which Obama -- candid, un-coached and bereft of his usual trappings of urbanity -- launched into opponents of Obamacare.

Continue reading "Obama's Uncompromising Inner Man"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:46 PM

October 19, 2009

Barack's Enemies List

Sorry to disillusion those of you who are still in denial about President Barack Obama's true socialistic and dictatorial nature, but this guy's militancy against his perceived enemies puts Richard Nixon's White House to shame. His war on Fox News is just his latest salvo.

Obama's perceived enemies are all those who have the temerity not to roll over for his extreme agenda. They all must be demonized, marginalized and silenced by a president who has turned the Oval Office into a glorified street organizing headquarters to attack his opponents. Indeed, this self-described uniter is the most divisive president in memory, and his uncontrollable ego can't countenance legitimate dissent.

Consider:

--He has smeared medical doctors with reckless charges that they administer unnecessary courses of treatment for profit, e.g., tonsillectomies and limb amputations.

--He publicly berated Chrysler's senior creditors as a "small group of speculators" who "endanger Chrysler's future by refusing to sacrifice like everyone else," merely because they wouldn't acquiesce to his demands and insisted on asserting their contractual rights.

--He has demonized "big oil" and other energy producers, free market capitalists, corporate executives, pharmaceutical companies, Republicans who oppose his health care plan as dishonest and partisan, the wealthy, municipal policemen who dared arrest his Ivy League professor friend for disturbing the peace, pro-lifers, global warming skeptics, the CIA, the military, the best health care system in the world, and George W. Bush every time he needs cover for the inevitably negative consequences of his policies.

Continue reading "Barack's Enemies List"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:42 PM

October 15, 2009

This Isn't About Rush

There will be no voluntary mea culpas from Rush's race slanderers despite the irrefutable fact that they spread poisonous and damaging lies with actual malice. To the left, Rush is the most prominent face of conservatism and the most influential opponent of President Barack Obama's destructive agenda and so must be stopped -- irrespective of the despicable means employed.

The left systematically destroyed President George W. Bush with the most egregious lies, repeated to the point that people who knew better even began to believe them. The formerly respected CBS News anchor Dan Rather was so convinced by his liberal bias that Bush was evil that he refused to apologize for slandering him with a story later proved to be manufactured -- and that's giving Rather the benefit of the doubt that he was unaware the story was fabricated from the get-go. To Rather, it didn't matter because he was convinced Bush possessed the character of someone who would have engaged in the acts of which he was falsely accused.

And what was it about Bush that led Rather to the conclusion that he possessed such low character? In Rather's eyes -- though many conservatives would strongly dispute this -- he was a conservative and conservatives are evil.

The parallel with Rush's leftist slanderers is striking. It's one of the first things that occurred to me as I heard their sniveling responses, one by one refusing to utter a syllable of apology and instead using the occasion of being caught red-handed in malicious lies as a further opportunity to reiterate their libel.

"How dare you suggest that we have done anything wrong in attributing statements to Rush he never uttered? Even if he didn't say those words, you know he was thinking them or something much worse."

Continue reading "This Isn't About Rush"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:39 PM

October 12, 2009

Wealth Redistribution on Steroids

Is there no problem Obama and his mesmerized Democrats think cannot be solved with money -- other people's money? Just when you think you've heard it all, more news stories about this bunch surface to shock you.

The Sunday Times reports that the administration is considering a novel approach to the war in Afghanistan: outbidding the Taliban to persuade Afghan villagers to lay down arms.

So much for a "war of necessity," which was just an opportunistic sound bite for Obama to demonize Bush while cynically pretending to be hawkish enough in the war on terror to appeal to Middle America. No, for Obama, Afghanistan must just be another "street" to organize, another constituency to schmooze in his permanent -- now global -- campaign.

Even when the Bush administration employed strategies to win over Sunnis, it was coupled with a redoubling of our military effort and a marked alteration in our strategy to "hold" territory once we had taken it. This idea that you can reduce this war to an auction, divorced from the required steps needed to strengthen the security there, is insane.

That's not merely my independent assessment. One general close to Gen. Stanley McChrystal told the Times he was taken aback by the administration's attitude. "It surprised a lot of us -- we thought the policy decision was made to come down on the counter-insurgency course of action." The general said the notion that "we can just cut deals with the Taliban without having to do anything" is a "crazy" idea.

Continue reading "Wealth Redistribution on Steroids"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:08 PM

October 08, 2009

Cloistered Media Libs Don't Get It

CNN "senior political analyst" Gloria Borger doesn't get it. Like so many cloistered mainstream media liberals, she just can't imagine why anyone would oppose Barack Obama's agenda. To her, it's all politics.

Where was Borger when Democrats, purely for partisan purposes, pummeled President George W. Bush for eight years? But let's stay focused on the present, because Republican opposition isn't about paybacks or getting even.

Borger argues that "Republicans don't really want to work with Obama" because they stand to regain congressional control simply by opposing his agenda without offering any ideas of their own. Their opposition couldn't possibly be grounded in principle because, to narrow-minded liberals such as Borger, the only legitimate ideas are liberal ones.

"In my next life," she writes, "I'd like to be an opposition party leader. What fun to go to work every day knowing you will always be right, largely because your ideas will remain untested. ... If we were in charge, you sing, the people would have tax cuts! More money in their pockets! And no deficits! But more jobs!"

Sorry, Gloria, but our ideas have been tested -- since the beginning of this republic -- and the record is pretty solid, though you might not view America's history with similar pride, given the left's revisionist mindset about America's mythical "imperialism" and capitalistic "exploitation."

Continue reading "Cloistered Media Libs Don't Get It"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:42 PM

October 05, 2009

Obama Administration Defiantly Defends Another Radical Appointee

I continue to be amazed at the naivete of people who keep giving President Barack Obama the benefit of the doubt concerning his radical appointments, saying his administration isn't doing its job in vetting the appointees. When will they wake up to the reality that Obama is deliberately picking people, such as Kevin Jennings, who share his radical values?

When prescient commentators were warning of Obama's radical friends and colleagues, such as Jeremiah Wright and William Ayers, during the campaign, his apologists diverted proper scrutiny, saying it's absurd to judge Obama by association. Even flawed cliches can work wonders when you have the entire mainstream media flacking for you.

Then when the radicalism of "green czar" Van Jones came to light, the left's reflexive reaction was that Jones was being victimized by an extremist element on the right and that the Internet itself had now been exposed as "an open sewer of untreated, unfiltered information." It was only when Jones' own extremism became too obvious to deny that the left shifted its line of defense to: Obama's team let him down by failing to vet Jones.

As I wrote at the time, "It's not Obama who didn't vet Jones, but the MSM who have never vetted Obama. Had they vetted Obama, they would have realized that he is Van Jones."

It seems that if you wait long enough, the Obama administration will get around to vindicating its legitimate critics, such as those of us who warned that Obama was insincere when he pretended that the public option was not an indispensable component of his health care scheme. (We hear that he's recently conducted a series of secret meetings with members of Congress, trying to cobble together a majority on a bill that includes the public option.)

Continue reading "Obama Administration Defiantly Defends Another Radical Appointee"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:55 PM

October 01, 2009

Big 'D' Democrats thwart small 'd' democracy

The signature of Obama's (uppercase "D") Democrats is their systematic betrayal of (small "d") democratic principles. Just look at today's news for a flavor of their pattern of flagrantly ignoring the popular will to cram down our throats policies we clearly reject.

As much as Obama pretends to be a man of the people, he is a man for himself -- a man who will get his way, the will of the people be damned. The same is true of many of his congressional lieutenants, including Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, who recently said that Congress will pass Obamacare despite the public's objections, because it is so important. Important to whom? To Democrats -- that's who.

Obama's Democrats add insult to injury in their steamrolling style of governance by using appealing language to mask their true intentions and pretending to govern in a manner that's precisely the opposite of their actual practice. They use free market language to sell their socialistic schemes and promise transparency while concealing their legislative misdeeds.

Need proof? Glad to oblige.

--Sen. Jim Bunning's proposal to require the Senate Finance Committee to post the final language of the nearly trillion-dollar health care bill, along with the Congressional Budget Office analysis of the bill, on the committee's Web site for at least 72 hours prior to a vote on the bill was voted down 12-11, with only one Democrat voting for it. Now, why would that bill be objectionable to Democrats when their president promised long ago to follow just such a policy? Simple: The less advance notice we have the less chance we have to block their scheme.

Continue reading "Big 'D' Democrats thwart small 'd' democracy"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:49 PM

September 28, 2009

Obama's Globalism: We Are the World

Polite conservatives grow nervous when their less inhibited brethren suggest that President Barack Obama does not feel warm and fuzzy when contemplating pre-Obama-inauguration America. But considering the mounting evidence, the burden of proof has certainly shifted to the polite group to demonstrate otherwise.

Obama should not get off the hook in just one short news cycle for the shots he took at this nation in his shameful first speech to the United Nations General Assembly.

In his opening salvo, he said, "For those who question the character and cause of my nation, I ask you to look at the concrete actions we have taken in just nine months." Then he proceeded to tick off those "concrete actions," such as prohibiting torture -- as if to suggest that prior to his ascension, it had been official U.S. policy.

Note that he didn't say, "For those who question America's character, I cite to you our record of international philanthropy, benevolence, peacemaking and peacekeeping, liberating nations from brutal dictators, promoting democracy throughout the world, and leading the world in technological innovation and the very advancement of civilization."

Instead, he made it clear that he shares the view of the world's leftist critics that America has acted "unilaterally without regard for the interests of others," "arrogant" and "sometimes dismissive."

Continue reading "Obama's Globalism: We Are the World"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 02:51 PM

September 24, 2009

Obama's Competing Waterloos

Sen. Jim DeMint predicted that Obamacare would be President Barack Obama's Waterloo. While that's certainly a strong possibility, Obama has other Waterloos in the wings competing for the prize, such as his monstrous deficits and his disastrous foreign policy.

The Heritage Foundation reports that Obama's budget would produce $13 trillion in deficits over the next decade, even more than the outrageous $9 trillion previously projected. This is nation-shattering stuff, folks, and Obama and his minions remain unflappable, intent on staying the bankrupting course, sporting Alfred E. Neuman, "What, me worry?" expressions. The fact that we know they can't be that oblivious is what makes us wonder whether something more sinister lurks in their motives.

But Obama's foreign policy is shaping up to be every bit as dangerous. Because he has lived in a relatively cloistered political world -- surrounded and shielded by mostly fellow leftist radicals -- he apparently doesn't realize just how repugnant his appeasement policies and mantralike derision of this nation are to most Americans.

When I first heard that he was Mirandizing al-Qaida on the battlefield, I thought it was political satire. But it wasn't, any more than his scrapping of long-range missile defense or his apparent plan to unilaterally disarm us of our nuclear weapons.

Then there's Afghanistan, which Obama and his fellow Bush-hating Democratic machine exploited merely to bludgeon Bush on his Iraq policy. It was transparently obvious that this appeasement bunch wasn't serious when they said they wanted to ramp up our efforts in Afghanistan and evacuate Iraq because the former was supposedly part of the war on terror and the latter was not. The political strategy was simple: Let's vent our anti-war spleen on Iraq under cover of beating the war drums on Afghanistan.

Continue reading "Obama's Competing Waterloos"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:38 PM

September 21, 2009

Obama At Odds With Majority, but Undeterred

While I couldn't bring myself to watch President Barack Obama's 1,000th-1,004th health care propaganda spiels on the Sunday shows, I did read some transcripts and watch a few video highlights. What is it about this guy's personality that compels him to keep beating his head against the wall?

Why does he keep doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result?

The more Obama stumps for socialized medicine the less popular it becomes. Yet Obama keeps going back to the well, apparently believing that if he just explains it one more time -- or maybe 10 more times -- to the ignorant masses, his wards will finally come around to his way of thinking.

On the one hand, it seems that Obama truly believes that the majority of people are as sick as he is of America and reject many of its founding principles. After all, during his formative years and beyond, he was always surrounded by those -- family and mentors -- who had bones to pick with America and its "exploitive" capitalistic economy. To say that most of his role models were outright Marxists is hardly inflammatory hyperbole.

When it was time for him to make his own associational choices, he opted to continue the pattern in which he'd been raised, from the church he chose to the angry, activist, anti-establishment street agitation he embraced in Chicago.

So he very well might believe that his attitude favoring fundamental change for America is the norm and that the only ones who want to preserve the nation's "outmoded" founding principles are selfish, moneyed elites and those they control. Indeed, on the campaign trail, he was explicit about his intention to pursue fundamental change. Those paying close attention and not blinded by the Utopian slogans of hope and change were fearful Obama was quite serious about his plan to push America's reset button.

Continue reading "Obama At Odds With Majority, but Undeterred"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:38 PM

September 17, 2009

Dowd and Carter Guilty of That Which They Decry

I'm sure New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd and former President Jimmy Carter derive a great deal of self-satisfaction slandering other people with false charges of racism, but the damage they're doing to race relations is worse than any bona fide racist could dream of doing.

I ask you: Who is more likely racist, the person who sees race every time she turns around or the person who aspires toward colorblindness? Could those always pointing the accusatory finger be projecting their own discomfort with race?

Listen to how Maureen begins her snarky Sept. 12 column, in which she posited that Rep. Joe Wilson's "you lie" outburst was driven by racism. She writes: "Surrounded by middle-aged white guys -- a sepia snapshot of the days when such pols ran Washington like their own men's club -- Joe Wilson yelled 'You lie!' at a president who didn't. But, fair or not, what I heard was an unspoken word in the air: You lie, boy!"

I don't know whether "middle-aged white guys" and "their own men's club" flow more from some bitter feminist strain Dowd seems to possess or her liberal obsession with the superficial aspects of people's differences in pigment, but it is nonetheless bizarre.

Why is it that Dowd sees race in the politicians sitting beside Joe Wilson? And why is she compelled to make "white guys" a pejorative? In her world, to be white and male is to be guilty. Well, I reject the charge, thank you, and would appreciate a little due process before condemnation by such self-proclaimed open-minded liberals as Dowd.

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Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:01 PM

September 14, 2009

Memo to Dems: Spare Us the Phony Wilson Outrage

Memo to the Democratic leadership threatening to censure Rep. Joe Wilson if he doesn't publicly apologize on the House floor for calling President Barack Obama a liar on that floor: You don't have the moral authority to be demanding apologies.

Not only has their own decorum in that very chamber been abysmal at times, such as when they booed President George W. Bush during his 2005 State of the Union address; they do much worse damage every week to this nation and its institutions than Joe Wilson conceivably could have done with his temporary breach of decorum.

While Democratic leaders are wagging their fingers at the Republican Party's alleged descent into incivility over Joe Wilson's unplanned, indignant outburst, they have a very short memory about their own partywide monopoly on incivility, as they savaged President Bush throughout his presidency. I researched and wrote a 400-plus-page book documenting the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of these hypocritical scolds in 2006, in case you need a refresher course.

Unlike Rep. Wilson, these offending Democrats have never apologized for their outrages. Did Rep. John Murtha apologize for prejudging and slandering our battlefield Marines who were later vindicated? Did Sen. Harry Reid ever apologize for calling President Bush a liar? Al Gore? John Kerry? Has suspected tax evader Rep. Charles Rangel apologized for his conduct while devising new ways to confiscate even higher taxes from honest, hardworking Americans who actually pay their taxes?

Did Sen. Dick Durbin retract the substance of his remarks in comparing Gitmo to the gulag? Did House leader Nancy Pelosi repent for defaming the CIA?

Continue reading "Memo to Dems: Spare Us the Phony Wilson Outrage"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:55 PM

September 10, 2009

For O, It's 'My Way or the Highway'

Can someone explain to me how President Barack Obama's grandiose scheme destined to reduce the quality of the best health care system in the history of the world, force millions of people who choose not to purchase health insurance to purchase it, greatly increase medical costs, our deficits and national debt, ultimately reduce patient choice, and place health care decisions in the hands of heartless bureaucrats is somehow a demonstration of compassion?

Why, in the course of his countless speeches on health care, has Obama rarely, if ever, praised American health care, which is the envy of the entire world? Perhaps for the same reason he doesn't praise America about much of anything, I suppose. If he's not trashing us, he's not talking about us.

So instead of lauding our record in leading the world in treating heart disease and cancer and extolling our medical research industry for producing more than half of the $175 billion of health care technology products purchased globally, he complains: "We are the only advanced democracy on earth ... that allows such hardships for millions of its people. There are now more than 30 million American citizens who cannot get coverage. ... We spend 1 1/2 times more per person on health care than any other country, but we aren't any healthier for it."

As to his claimed number of uninsured, at least we're making progress. He's temporarily removed the illegal aliens to lower the number from 47 million to 30 million. But he's still lying to say 30 million "cannot get coverage."

Again, 18 million of these make more than $50,000 a year and can afford health care but choose not to purchase it. And millions more have access to government programs and don't access them, which, incidentally, doesn't bode well for Obama's mandated universal coverage plan. These are Census Bureau figures of which Obama is well aware yet chooses to misrepresent, which is why it's hard to take him seriously when he complains about his opponents' alleged distortions.

Continue reading "For O, It's 'My Way or the Highway'"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:25 PM

September 08, 2009

The Mainstream Media's Temper Tantrum

With the resignation of green czar Van Jones despite their efforts to protect him, the mainstream media have finally been reduced to sputtering incoherence, as they've observed the un-deification of their anointed messiah and experienced firsthand their own diminishing relevance.

The MSM are engaging in a colossal temper tantrum over their lost news monopoly -- a monopoly they forfeited through their bias, arrogance and self-imposed insulation. (Consider Rathergate and their shameless effort to "Swift boat" the Swift boaters, to name a few.)

This is an especially hard pill for them to swallow considering that during the past year, they've been stewing in the intoxicating delusion that they were again supreme, as they appeared to be getting away with their conspiratorial enthroning of King Barack Obama. And they're not handling rejection well.

On "Meet the Press'" round-table discussion, retired "NBC Nightly News" anchor Tom Brokaw and New York Times columnist Tom Friedman were protesting the grass roots' and alternative media's unmasking of Van Jones as a radical leftist.

Brokaw said: "A lot of people will repeat back to me and take it as face value something that they read on the Internet. And my line to them is you have to vet information. ... It is across-the-board ... and it's something that we all have to address, and it requires society and political and cultural leaders to stand up and say, 'This is crazy.' We just can't function that way."

Continue reading "The Mainstream Media's Temper Tantrum"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:49 PM

September 03, 2009

No Compromise, No Retreat, No Surrender

The key to stopping Obama's far-left agenda is to understand where his heart is. If politicians let their guard down and compromise, the Obama steamroller will regain its momentum and forge ahead to gobble up our individual liberties.

Obama's heart is and always has been on the farthest reaches of the left wing of politics. His driving ambition is to force fundamental change on America. That should go without saying, but it must be repeated -- and repeated -- lest people's forgiving spirits and short memories generate just enough complacency to allow Obama to get back on track.

It is remarkable that Obama has lost public favor so quickly. But the other side of that coin is that he is receiving a wake-up call early enough in his first term to allow him to recover well in time for the crucial 2010 elections.

Some erroneously believe that Obama will continue to bash his stubborn leftist head into the wall against the wishes of the public. I don't believe the modern myth that Obama is an erudite political philosopher, but I do think he's savvy enough to understand that he must significantly repackage his message in order to win back popular support for his policy goals.

The major obstacle to selling Obamacare has been the public's realization that the "public option" is a euphemism for socialized medicine. So it's time for Obama to take his Machiavellian talents to the next level.

Continue reading "No Compromise, No Retreat, No Surrender"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:16 PM

August 31, 2009

Obama's Shameless 'Torture' Prosecution Reversal

President Barack Obama is either extraordinarily politically tone-deaf or arrogant beyond bounds, as indicated by his relentless pursuit of policies strongly rejected by the American people. His decision or acquiescence in the Department of Justice's decision to reinvestigate CIA terrorist interrogators is the latest outrage.

Obama's approval ratings have cratered even further since my most recent column, and he's either Mr. Magoo, driving along in blissful oblivion, or Fearless Leader, who will do what he wants, American people be damned.

Based on Obama's oft-articulated mindset -- "I won, so the other side should just quit talking" -- I think it's safe to say he's closer to dictator than to Magoo. Besides, Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to begin a new investigation of the CIA interrogators has Obama's national security-emasculating fingerprints all over it.

Obama has been railing against alleged "torture" of terrorist detainees since early in the presidential campaign. He has endlessly apologized for American "imperialism," even going so far as to castigate our policy toward Iran of more than three decades ago, but giving that mullah-run state a pass for its egregiously hostile policies and behavior toward us.

On top of this, Obama is closing Gitmo with no plan to relocate the dangerous prisoners; he has directed that many of these terrorists be tried in civilian courts; he's abandoned the term "war on terror" in favor of "overseas contingency operations"; his administration has ordered that captured terrorists be Mirandized on the battlefield; and he's now going to further weaken the CIA by reassigning terrorist interrogation duties to an interagency entity operated out of the White House.

Continue reading "Obama's Shameless 'Torture' Prosecution Reversal"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:14 PM

August 27, 2009

Reclaiming Popular Sovereignty

It's true that Barack Obama's approval ratings began at the North Pole and are already hovering around the equator. But given what he's said and done, it is quite remarkable, frankly, that they aren't firmly planted at the South Pole.

The deceptions and contradictions are astounding. His premises for policy change are consistently duplicitous. He's embarked on a course to deliberately bankrupt the nation; he is at war with mainstream American values; he is undermining our national security during wartime (prosecuting our protectors -- and otherwise); and he's pursuing unprecedented government control of the private sector.

Just look at his handling of Obamacare. His stated goals aren't arguably fraudulent, but verifiably so. He says he's motivated to cut costs, but the Congressional Budget Office, even using static economic analysis, says Obamacare would increase costs by $1 trillion. This is without factoring in the inevitable inflation that would occur from further dissociating health care demand from market prices.

Obama also continues to use the counterfeit figure of 47 million uninsured when he knows that only a fraction of those are American citizens who both can't afford insurance and are not eligible for government assistance.

Some experts have estimated this number to be less than 10 million, and yet Obama wants to wholly revamp the system to make sure they are covered. Note I said "covered," not "given access to health care." But the CBO has projected that millions would remain uninsured after Obamacare, and history shows that access to care would shrink drastically under the socialized system Obama envisions.

Continue reading "Reclaiming Popular Sovereignty"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:08 PM

August 24, 2009

Don't Give Obamacare a Life Raft

So here I am feeling a lot better about the possibility of rolling back Obama statism, when I come across an AP report that Sen. John McCain is throwing President Barack Obama a health care life raft. It's official; the Beltway GOP simply can't stand "prosperity."

Why can't the senator read the tea leaves for once and realize America doesn't want socialism? Why can't he read history and understand that liberals never stop with socialism lite? Once in the door, the statist pushes it all the way open.

Don't you see, Sen. McCain? To them, compromise is about incrementalism. They are looking for useful idiots on the other side of the aisle to unlock that door and nudge it open.

Just look at the history of Social Security, for one. In his explosive best-seller "Liberty and Tyranny," Mark Levin details how FDR rejected the idea of direct welfare payments to the aged and unemployed because he believed it would result in Social Security's being rolled back by taxpayers forced to fund it. In order to sink in his government hooks fully, he had to make sure that "even the lowest wage earner covered by the program (would) pay the same fixed payroll tax as the millionaire." When criticized about the regressive nature of the payroll tax, FDR unapologetically said, "With those taxes in there, no damn politician can ever scrap my Social Security program."

Yet FDR, like Obama, was adept at speaking out of both sides of his mouth. In a message to Congress on Social Security on Jan. 17, 1935, FDR said that "except for the money necessary to initiate it, (the system) should be self-sustaining in the sense that funds for the payment of insurance benefits should not come from the proceeds of general taxation. ... It is proposed that the Federal Government assume one-half of the cost of the old-age pension plan, which ought ultimately to be supplanted by self-supporting annuity plans (emphasis added)."

Continue reading "Don't Give Obamacare a Life Raft"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:36 PM

August 20, 2009

Obama's Brick Wall: The American People

President Barack Obama has run into a brick wall: the American people, who cherish their liberty and revere their nation and do not want it remade in Obama's socialist image.

Obama's free-falling poll numbers are not the result of a misinformation campaign from a small sliver of unruly conservative opponents, as the administration wants you to believe. They are a reflection of the public's reaction to Obama's policies and his own comprehensive misinformation campaign to dupe the people into believing America is unsalvageable without fundamental change.

When Obama promised to bring fundamental change to America, most Americans, fortunately for him, did not take him literally. He offered them "hope" at a time when the economy was going south; political partisanship had reached new levels of acrimony, and people were weary of a protracted, albeit successful, war in Iraq. But most voters had no idea just how much change Obama had in mind.

But Obama was dead serious. If it wasn't obvious to trusting people then, it is abundantly so now. He doesn't share the majority's vision of America as the most wonderful experiment in constitutional governance in history. He sees it as a land of plenty, all right -- plenteous inequities, with maldistribution of resources, oppression and imperialism.

Surely people can now see that it is no accident that he sat at the feet of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright for 20 years, that his mother was a leftist activist and cultural Marxist, that his main early mentor was radical Frank Marshall Davis, that he was a member of the far-left New Party in Chicago, that his main vocation in life has been street organizing and agitation and that he didn't think the revolutionarily, transformative Warren court was liberal enough.

Continue reading "Obama's Brick Wall: The American People"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 01:09 PM

August 17, 2009

Public Option Not Optional for Obama

As I write this, I don't know whether President Barack Obama and his Democrats will end up pretending to abandon the public option aspect of Obamacare, but I do know that if they do, it will only be a matter of time before they resurrect it because that's where their heart is.

That's why, among other reasons, neither Blue Dog Democrats who oppose socialized medicine nor Republicans should consider compromising with left-wing Democrats to pass a bill. If they do, Obama will eventually -- and probably sooner than you think -- achieve his goal of nationalized health care.

Don't think I'm advocating Republican obstructionism. I would like nothing more than for conservative congressmen to quarterback real market reforms to the health care system. But if you understand liberals at all, you know that they'll never agree to market-based solutions for ideological reasons and because an expanding dependency class is their most essential power source.

Just watch conservatives propose an expansion of health savings accounts or an eradication of coverage mandates, including those prohibiting crossing state lines to buy health insurance, or tort reform or changing the tax code to eliminate the incentive for employer-provided health insurance and see what happens.

Obama will be all over state-run TV telling Americans that uncompassionate conservatives are going "Katrina" on the poor again. Democrats are the true obstructionists because they'll stop, at any cost, the only reforms that could reduce health care costs without rationing, creating waiting lines, or decreasing choice and quality of care.

Continue reading "Public Option Not Optional for Obama"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:55 PM

August 13, 2009

Obama's Forfeited Credibility Sabotaging Obamacare

President Barack Obama apparently came to believe the myth of his messiahship and has accordingly abused and squandered his good will and political capital and possibly self-sabotaged his socialized medicine scheme.

Of all the newsworthy aspects of this desperate "reform" effort, none is more so than the robust democratic processes it has reinvigorated in this nation. While Democrats insist the nationwide grass-roots movement against his Draconian measure is contrived and illusory, it is just the opposite.

Nothing could be so real as the American people, emboldened by their passion for liberty, standing up against a callous, dishonest government trolling for its freedoms in exchange for false promises.

All the proof we need that Obama and Democrats recognize the authenticity of this grass-roots protest is their hysterical reaction to it. They wouldn't be hyperventilating about it if they believed it to be fake, but would use their supermajorities to ram through this bill.

Indeed, that congressmen have not been able or courageous enough (against the threat of being removed from office in 2010) to pass this bill is the story of the year. Integral to that story is the unraveling of the Obama mystique, occasioned by Obama's ongoing arrogance and duplicity, most recently on the Obamacare issue.

Continue reading "Obama's Forfeited Credibility Sabotaging Obamacare"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 02:04 PM

August 10, 2009

"Conservatives, Shut Up and Step Aside"

The hubris, arrogance and deceit of President Barack Obama and the Democratic leadership are breathtaking. In their maniacal frenzy to assume control over every aspect of our lives through socialized medicine, they are behaving like the thuggish autocrats they have proved themselves to be.

The jig is up on their designs, evidenced by the very contents of the health bill they're promoting. As increasing public awareness has translated into increasing grass-roots opposition to the bill, the Democrats have ratcheted up their bullying tactics and deceit.

Our self-styled bipartisan president is telling his critics to shut up, while his partners in crime, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her colleagues, are calling them un-American and Nazis.

Understand this: The people who are showing up in droves with righteous anger befitting a body politic steeped in a unique liberty tradition are exercising the very type of bottom-up citizen protest and government watchdogging our Founding Fathers envisioned. They are not the artificially driven "AstroTurf" phonies the Democrats are depicting them to be. No, such activities are the province of Alinsky/Obama-type "street organizers" and union thugs enlisted by the administration to discredit these legitimate protests.

It wasn't enough for Pelosi to call us Nazis. She also co-wrote, with House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, an op-ed in USA Today calling us un-American and projecting her own nefarious tactics onto her opposition.

Continue reading ""Conservatives, Shut Up and Step Aside""

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:59 PM

August 06, 2009

Obama an Unwitting Catalyst for Free Market Health Care Reform?

Liberals say Republicans have no health care solutions. So their answer is to give us more of what caused most of the problems we have today: government intervention and control.

Perhaps it is true that Republicans haven't been aggressive enough in pursuing free market solutions because they are so intimidated by Democratic demagoguery at every step and so conditioned to believing that liberal lite (such as a new prescription drug entitlement) is the only product that will fly in the Beltway.

But President Barack Obama's radical socialist prescriptions might be the best catalyst for the resurrection of conservative ideas since Ronald Reagan.

Before we have a prayer at achieving sweeping market reforms, however, we must do a better job of making the case that government meddling in the health care industry to date -- e.g., mandates, laws and regulations -- has been the major source of our problems with both overall medical costs and insurance coverage.

Liberals believe evil profiteers cause price hikes, but their own do-gooder laws and regulations are the culprits. Yes, medical costs are higher because we demand (and receive) the best cutting-edge drugs, technology and treatment. But the only way to reduce these costs is to settle for lesser quality, as has every nation that has socialized health care, or to outlaw drug company profits, which would virtually end the willingness of risk-taking investors to finance groundbreaking medical research.

Continue reading "Obama an Unwitting Catalyst for Free Market Health Care Reform?"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 02:32 PM

August 03, 2009

Obama Can't Afford To Tell Truth on Health Care

President Barack Obama is spreading disinformation about health care almost as quickly as he's driving up the national debt, such as that 47 million Americans can't get health care and that a government takeover would be a panacea.

Democrats have constantly demagogued the 47 million uninsured figure to gin up public fear about the scarcity of health care access, especially for the poor. They follow up with the promise that under their plan, we would achieve universal access. But both are untrue.

In "The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care," Sally Pipes points out that while there are some Americans who simply can't afford health insurance, many millions who can afford insurance choose not to buy it and "very likely would not want to be 'rescued' by mandatory socialized medicine."

In the first place, the 47 million number is grossly inflated. The Congressional Budget Office survey generating it included those who were uninsured for any part of a year, despite the fact that almost half of these remain uninsured for an average of only four months.

Some 38 percent of this 47 million -- almost 18 million -- make more than $50,000 a year, and 10 million of them make more than $75,000. Of all the uninsured groups, this is the only one that is growing, because in a still-free country, they've made their own decision not to buy expensive insurance while (most of them) are young and healthy. The Census Bureau also reports that more than 10 million of the uninsured are not American citizens.

Continue reading "Obama Can't Afford To Tell Truth on Health Care"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:39 PM

July 30, 2009

Preparing for War: Boning Up on the Left's Health Care Myths

I am gratified that an awakened public has sent Congress an unequivocal message not to socialize our health care system, but note that this war is just beginning. Gen. Barack Obama is not the slightest bit deterred by the public's negative reaction, because he knows more than they do about what's best for them.

As we go forward, it's imperative we recognize that the current hiccup in Obama's momentum is a result of so-called Blue Dog Democrats' refusing to go along with his plan -- and this, largely because their constituents are raining down "tea party" speed bumps on their heads warning them against endorsing this disaster.

But if we're not careful, Obama will negotiate a path around this opposition, and it's important we anticipate it and prepare accordingly. The key lies in understanding the main reason for the Blue Dogs' resistance.

The Blue Dogs see themselves as being all about fiscal responsibility, even though most of them enthusiastically signed on to his budget-busting trillion-dollar porkulus scheme and his cap-and-tax debacle. Those little details aside, they have based their opposition to the bill thus far on their fear that the program wouldn't be able to pay for itself.

If that's true, then all Obama has to do to capture their support (he may already have) is to convince them it will be deficit-neutral -- or better. He can do that either by manipulating the numbers or by making adjustments to create the illusion it would pay for itself.

Let's set aside for now the canard that socialized medicine could be structured to pay for itself even with the diminution in quality and quantity it guarantees. What's relevant here is that Obama might be able to convince the Blue Dogs that it could. Then the bill would regain momentum, setting in motion the inevitable destruction of the world's greatest health care system.

Continue reading "Preparing for War: Boning Up on the Left's Health Care Myths"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:36 PM

July 27, 2009

A Teachable Moment Indeed

The Henry Louis Gates Jr./Cambridge police flap is most significant for what it tells us about President Barack Obama, his approach to the presidency, and his general attitude, including on matters of race.

In his July 22 news conference on health care, one member of the media asked Obama, "What does (the Gates arrest) incident say to you, and what does it say about race relations in America?"

Without hesitation, Obama launched into what appeared to be a pre-considered response. Had he been caught off guard by the question, we might assume he would hesitate -- at least briefly -- and then decline to inject himself into the matter.

We should expect Obama, of all people, given his reputation for coolness and sagacity, to act presidentially, not only in measuring his thoughts before speaking but also in declining to comment on local matters beyond his duties and about which he doesn't have all the facts.

But Obama's attitude toward the presidency is not particularly aligned with what our constitutional Framers had in mind. He obviously believes it is his prerogative to micromanage any and every aspect of American life, from the catastrophic to the mundane.

He's displayed this attitude in town hall meetings, where he has given advice to attendees concerning their specific problems, as if it were his place to make personal house calls on matters ranging from people's health care problems to their mortgages. All of this is consistent with Obama's perception of government's cradle-to-grave caretaker role and his effort to cultivate a dependency mindset in Americans.

Continue reading "A Teachable Moment Indeed"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 08:08 PM

July 23, 2009

Health Care Hellfire

President Barack Obama has completely discredited himself with his reckless, arrogant and high-pressure handling of his socialized medicine scheme. The only thing keeping his diving approval ratings above single digits other than blind partisanship and the dependency class he is voraciously expanding is the public's partial unawareness of the unmitigated horrors of this plan.

I have begun to go through H.R. 3200, the House bill Obama is telling us we must adopt (or some facsimile thereof) lest the world come to an end. It's a good thing for Obama that everyone doesn't have the time or inclination to do what I'm doing and that he still has an appreciable cult following that doesn't demand scrutiny in exchange for its unconditional support.

But his good will is fading fast and will fade faster the more people learn about this outrage, which explains his uncompromising demand that the bill be passed immediately -- even before he realizes what it contains.

Can you imagine the arrogance of a man who insists we have to pass a bill while simultaneously admitting he is unaware of a provision that would prohibit the reacquisition of private insurance by those who lose their coverage? Can you imagine him -- after getting caught with his pants down on this issue -- saying he will not sign a bill with such a provision yet simultaneously browbeating Congress to push through the bill that contains that very provision so he can sign it? Way beyond amazing!

I urge you to read as much of this bill as you can stomach. If you do, you'll never again doubt the Democrats' insatiable appetite for government control or their infinite trust in bureaucratic wisdom and efficiency. Marginally prudent people wouldn't place this much discretion over such an enormously complex operation in even Solomon's hands.

Continue reading "Health Care Hellfire"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:31 PM

July 20, 2009

More Health Care Lies

It's no wonder the White House is delaying release of the latest dismal budget figures. It's not just that they are grossly more dismal than the projections. It's that they will undercut already-waning public support for Obama's socialized medicine scheme.

The White House was supposed to release the budget numbers this month but has delayed their release until mid-August, which even has The Associated Press raising questions about its motives.

But you don't have to be in journalism to realize that Obama is playing hide the ball with the facts in his desperate rush to ramrod this disaster through Congress before the public wakes up. The latest Washington Post-ABC News poll shows that not only are Obama's disapproval ratings soaring but support for his health care debacle is now less than 49 percent -- a new low. And you can bet it will get much lower the more the public learns about his plan -- a plan whose promotion has been riddled with lies.

Why else would Obama, who was very tardy for his most recent news conference, arrogantly refuse to answer any questions following his terse, combative and defiant remarks about his plan? Is this the new transparency we can believe in?

Here are some inconvenient truths Obama must conceal from the American public:

--Despite White House-generated hysteria about the urgency of reform, the only urgency is in preventing this fiasco because it would destroy America's economy and liberty. Doing nothing -- even given the many problems that exist under the present system -- is far preferable to adopting this monster.

Continue reading "More Health Care Lies"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:28 PM

July 16, 2009

Calling All Blue Dogs

The most important thing to understand about the Democrats' domestic agenda is that they care more about establishing government control over our lives than they do about the stated policy goals of their proposals.

It's true of their fraudulently named stimulus packages, their cap-and-tax scheme and especially their universal health care plans.

With all of these programs and more, their driving aim is not only to acquire power for the sake of acquiring it but also to use government to impose their values on us and, effectively, destroy our personal liberties. The subject of liberty -- the very impetus for the founding of this nation -- is rarely mentioned in the public debate.

That is why we'll never convince them with evidence, from the growing scientific skepticism about global warming to the proven failed track record of Keynesian economics to the universal failure rate of socialized medicine throughout the world.

But it is also why they'll never persuade the public to go along with their mischief if the facts get out, which explains their unilateral declaration of a consensus on global warming and their refusal to debate the issue, their historical revisionism on the failures of New Deal stimuli, and their perpetual urgency in rushing their entire agenda through simultaneously -- before the public can even digest their proposals, much less organize to oppose them.

Continue reading "Calling All Blue Dogs"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:52 PM

July 13, 2009

Hell is for 'Heroes'

It appears that liberal activist group People For the American Way's smear campaign against Connecticut firefighter Frank Ricci is bearing fruit. Dahlia Lithwick has already responded with an obedient hit piece in Slate magazine, which perfectly fits the bill.

Why are liberals targeting Ricci? Because he had the audacity to challenge Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals summary ruling against him and other firefighters denied promotions because of affirmative action policies. Worse, he prevailed when the Supreme Court reversed the Sotomayor court.

Worse yet, Ricci has agreed to testify at Judge Sotomayor's Senate confirmation hearing, so liberal hardballers supporting Sotomayor's confirmation must personally discredit him -- just as they did Joe the Plumber.

You know the drill; liberals always go to the mat for the common man and for African-Americans and women -- unless, of course, those common men, African-Americans or women (e.g., Joe, Clarence Thomas, Sarah Palin) oppose their agenda.

People For the American Way triggered this opposition research campaign against Ricci in an e-mail, which cited "Frank Ricci's troubled and litigious work history." Dahlia Lithwick then helped to fill in the blanks in her article "Fire Proof." (I wish some of these lib crack investigative reporters would use their formidable talents to fill in the blanks on President Barack Obama's largely undocumented life. But here I merely fantasize -- and digress.)

Continue reading "Hell is for 'Heroes'"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:09 PM

July 09, 2009

Cap and Tax: Government vs. America

There is still time to stop the legislative monstrosity known as the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill before the Senate approves it. But for that to happen, Americans must learn how bad it is.

Let's briefly review the basics: The bill is ostensibly designed to curb man-caused carbon emissions (presumably without outlawing breathing) to retard global warming.

Even if we accept, for purposes of argument, the assumptions of radical, hysterical leftist environmentalists that man-caused global warming will destroy the planet if evil, rich capitalists don't radically curtail their own contributions to the catastrophe, Waxman-Markey would not prevent this Armageddon.

Climate scientist Chip Knappenberger, of New Hope Environmental Services, calculates that the bill would only reduce Earth's temperature by 0.1 to 0.2 degree Celsius by 2100. The Heritage Foundation's Ben Lieberman says he's found no "decent refutation of the assertion that the temperature impact would be inconsequential."

Unfortunately, the bill's negative impact on the economy would not be inconsequential. Lieberman says the bill would cause estimated job losses averaging about 1.15 million from 2012-2030, and the cumulative projected loss in gross domestic product would be almost $10 trillion by 2035. The national debt from this bill alone, disregarding the multiple bailouts, stimulus packages and health care "reform," would increase by 2035 for a family of four by 26 percent, or $115,000.

Continue reading "Cap and Tax: Government vs. America"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 02:58 PM

July 06, 2009

King Barack

Oh, how quickly times have changed. Just a few short years ago, Democrats were up in arms over King George III's (President George W. Bush's) "unconstitutional" executive power grabs. Where are these people now?

I'll tell you where they are: right in the thick of it, enabling President Barack Obama to consolidate and exercise unprecedented power.

Remember when Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy complained that the constitutional "checks and balances that have served to constrain abuses of power for more than two centuries in this country" were at risk because Republicans controlled the executive and legislative branches? How about Sen. Russ Feingold, who was looking at impeachment as a remedy to keep the president in check and prevent him from acquiring power "like King George III"?

Today these same senators are not just passively mute about Obama's power grabs; they are co-conspirators.

You might think the repeated conservative complaint about Obama's egregious lack of transparency is, by now, a tired talking point. But we're not just referring to minor procedural matters that are substantively inconsequential.

Continue reading "King Barack"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:51 PM

July 02, 2009

None Dare Call It Marxism

All right already. I won't call Obama a Marxist in this column. Instead, I'll point to some signs that indicate that Barack and Karl might well be soul mates. At least, they have similar attitudes about capital, labor and profits, er, surplus value.

Liberals, even those of the Marxist variety, take umbrage when you point out their ideological kinship with Marxism.

I suppose this dates back to the days when being a communist was tantamount to being an enemy of the United States, in that there was a global communist movement intent on -- and coming darn close to -- world domination. Though global communism has been defeated, there remains a strong contingent among us, whose nerve center is the Democratic Party leadership under President Obama, committed to obliterating America's free market.

Without getting into the intricacies of Marxist theory, suffice it to say that at the core of this political and economic philosophy is a belief in the historical class struggle. The capitalist (bourgeois) exploits the industrial worker (proletarian) by underpaying him and adding on unnecessary charges to the prices of goods and services, driving up costs to the consumer, and pocketing the profits.

In "Basic Economics," Thomas Sowell puts it this way: "Profits may be the most misconceived subject in economics. Socialists have long regarded profits as simply 'overcharge,' as Fabian socialist George Bernard Shaw called it, or a 'surplus value' as Karl Marx called it." The theory is that under socialism or Marxism, these surplus charges would be eliminated and goods and services would become more affordable.

Continue reading "None Dare Call It Marxism"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 12:48 PM

June 29, 2009

The Censorious Left's Global Warming Denier Deniers

There is so much misinformation on the subject of global warming and so little consensus -- as to what environmental changes are occurring, whether human behavior is contributing to them, whether they are causing significant environmental damage, and whether the proposed cap and trade legislation would do anything to alleviate any of this -- it is no wonder our freedom-hating majority in the House insisted on cramming it through before they could even read, much less digest, what it contained.

It would be bad enough if they passed innocuous legislation to address an alleged problem (man-caused global warming) without first verifying there is a problem and then analyzing and assessing the extent of it, but it's outrageous that they would pass a measure that could have crippling effects on our economy and American taxpayers.

Who do these people think they are -- that they can claim a mandate to do anything they want to, that they can grab as much power as they want, that they can transform our government overnight into an enemy of the people, with no fear of accountability? Oh, I know; the government has already behaved like the people's enemy all too often, but never on the scale we're witnessing today -- from a party that had the audacity to accuse President George W. Bush of abusing his authority.

Just where is the journalistic skepticism in today's dominant media culture or the professed open-mindedness of Democrats?

What is their response when people have the temerity to challenge their assertions on catastrophic global warming? It is ridicule and abuse. Not only are the doubters flat-earth Neanderthals; they are darn near treasonous, according to the dogmatic left.

Continue reading "The Censorious Left's Global Warming Denier Deniers"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:26 PM

June 25, 2009

Throw the Bums Out

Here they go again -- our faithful representatives in Washington, that is. They're about to pass, without reading its 1,200-plus pages, an incredibly expensive and destructive cap and trade bill, which has little prayer of accomplishing what it sets out to accomplish but satisfies their urgent need to pay homage to their liberal ideology and secular humanist worldview.

Do you remember when Barack Obama was forced to give an answer to justify his advocacy of a capital gains tax increase in view of such taxes' history of actually decreasing revenues? The revenue reductions are worth it because it's a matter of "fairness," he said. Spread the misery. Likewise, with cap and trade, Obama and his congressional cohorts will wreak untold destruction on the economy and get little benefit in return.

I'm not exaggerating here. Doesn't it make sense that before enacting legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for the purpose of reducing man-made global warming, Congress would investigate whether significant man-made global warming is occurring (as opposed to watching Al Gore's propaganda film and simply declaring, by fiat, that scientists have reached a consensus on the issue when they clearly have not)?

And if, after a thorough and balanced inquiry, they determine that it is occurring, shouldn't they next examine whether their proposed legislative remedy is likely to significantly ameliorate the problem?

But they not only have not conducted a bona fide examination of the man-made warming issue but also have not attempted to examine, in any remotely scientific way, how much their proposed bill would reduce global warming (assuming it exists to the extent they contend) or whether any such reductions would make any difference at all to humanity's short- or long-term health or happiness or anything else.

Continue reading "Throw the Bums Out"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 01:46 PM

June 22, 2009

Reasons for Cautious Optimism

American freedom lovers studying the reign of Obama have been in a constant state of anxiety over the administration's assault on capitalism and America's very solvency, its thuggish political style, its PR war against America's history, its radical social policies and its Carteresque foreign policy. But for the first time, there are signs that America is starting to wake up.

The latest daily Rasmussen Reports Presidential Tracking Poll has Obama slipping into negative net approval territory, with more Americans strongly disapproving of his performance (34 percent) than strongly approving (33 percent). Just 54 percent of voters say they at least somewhat approve. Even the Gallup Poll reports a decline in his approval rating to a new low, albeit still at 58 percent. The decline results from a drop in support among independents, as well as Republicans -- but not Democrats.

Can you imagine what these numbers would be if the mainstream media weren't invested in Obama's success or, better yet, if moderate Democrats weren't still blinded by their lingering excitement over regaining the presidency and their vulnerability to Obama's cultish aura?

But it's not just the polling data that are encouraging. Obama's blame-it-on-Bush mantra is starting to wear thin. Another Rasmussen survey found that 39 percent of voters now think our economic problems are caused more by Obama's policies -- a 12-point jump from just a month ago.

Also, support for Obama's most dangerous agenda item, nationalized health care, is waning. A recent ABC News//Kaiser Family Foundation/USA Today survey indicates that 89 percent of Americans are satisfied with their health care. Worse (for Obama), congressional Democrats have warned that his plan is in jeopardy because its projected costs range between $1 trillion and $1.6 trillion, according to Congressional Budget Office scoring, and it would not even reduce by half the number of uninsured (the fraudulent impetus behind the administration's manufactured crisis). Just wait until further damaging truths come to light about the horrors awaiting America's health care system if it is nationalized, including government rationing and dramatically lower-quality care.

Continue reading "Reasons for Cautious Optimism"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:00 PM

June 18, 2009

Obama Protects Cronies at Taxpayers' Expense

The more we learn about the White House's summary firing of AmeriCorps' inspector general, Gerald Walpin, the more it smells of lawlessness, cronyism and a flagrant disregard for transparency and government accountability.

Remember President Barack Obama's commitment to oversee the expenditure of taxpayer funds to avoid waste and inefficiency -- to the point that he deputized Vice President "Mean" Joe Biden as the executive enforcer?

That was then. This is now. As has proved customary with this administration, the walk has not matched the talk. Biden's casual admissions that the administration "guessed wrong" and that money has been wasted don't begin to describe the fiscal recklessness and corruption that define this White House.

Walpin -- in investigating the misuse of AmeriCorps funds by St. HOPE charity, which is under the direction of Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, a strong Obama supporter -- discovered that St. HOPE had failed to use the federal monies for the purposes specified in the grant and improperly had used AmeriCorps personnel to drive Johnson to personal appointments, run other errands for him and wash his car. On Walpin's recommendation, an official at the Corporation for National and Community Service, the organization that runs AmeriCorps, ordered Johnson's suspension.

Walpin also referred the matter to the local U.S. attorney's office for a criminal inquiry. Though no criminal charges were filed, St. HOPE agreed in a settlement to repay half its $850,000 of AmeriCorps grants.

Continue reading "Obama Protects Cronies at Taxpayers' Expense"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:59 PM

June 15, 2009

America's Fatal Attraction

Excuse my mastery of the obvious, but I have to believe the greatest obstacle to America's return to policy sanity is the electorate's cultish adoration of Barack Obama.

If it weren't for this disturbing phenomenon -- not to discount a healthy dose of blind partisanship -- it is inconceivable that the majority of people would tolerate Obama's dismantling of America's free market system, his returning America to a pre-9/11 mindset against terrorists, his increasing usurpations of power, and his corrupt ties and practices, from the public funding of ACORN to the summary dismissal of the case against the Black Panthers to his firing of inspector general Gerald Walpin apparently for uncovering corruption by Obama's friends.

I don't quite understand how people, especially religious people, can place their trust for salvation in a fellow mortal, but history shows they do, and present-day America shows they are. From MSNBC's Chris Matthews' admitting Obama sends a thrill up his leg to audience members' fainting at his speeches to young girls' kissing his statue like brainless bookends, the trend continues unabated.

Even some not entranced by his supposed charisma are indirectly affected by it, evidenced by their unbounded willingness to give him the benefit of every doubt. They are impervious to his narcissism, indifferent to his megalomaniacal pursuit of power, ceaselessly forgiving of his childish scapegoating of the previous administration, and oblivious to his extremism.

The mainstream media are his biggest institutional enablers, drooling over his every utterance, irrespective of his many contradictions, his assaults on the Constitution and our liberties, and his spate of broken promises.

Continue reading "America's Fatal Attraction"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:00 PM

June 11, 2009

From the Battlefield to the Courtroom

During the presidential campaign, when some warned against Barack Obama's soft approach to the war on terror, I doubt they had any idea he would greatly exceed their worst expectations. But he has.

A common refrain of the Bush administration and its defenders in the prosecution of the war was that prior to the 9/11 attacks, the American government had been treating Islamo-terrorism as a law enforcement problem. The 9/11 attacks forced us, kicking and screaming, into the realization that the Islamo-jihadists were indeed in a war with us and that we would have to wage war against them, as well.

This new approach seemed to have been accepted as a necessity by both parties, and the nation united -- temporarily, at least -- around our new policy to adopt a proactive and comprehensive military approach to fight terrorism. For a time, we achieved a degree of bipartisanship on such ideas as breaking down the forced walls of separation imposed by the Clinton administration that discouraged our intelligence agencies from sharing information on terrorist activities.

Before long, though, Democrats reverted to their perennial practice of politicizing every exploitable issue and began systematically attacking and undermining our newfound war-oriented approach. They began their specious assaults, in the name of protecting the privacy of U.S. citizens, against the various programs we were using to monitor terrorists and prevent future attacks.

Their war against the war included criticizing the National Security Agency's terrorist surveillance program, which they slandered as "domestic spying," the NSA's tracking "data mining" of terrorist calls to and from the United States, and the administration's Terrorist Finance Tracking Program. In all these cases, their claims were eventually shown to be overblown at best -- and trumped-up at worst.

Continue reading "From the Battlefield to the Courtroom"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:07 PM

June 08, 2009

Tickling the World's Itching Ears

The apostle Paul said: "For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from truth and turn aside to myths" (2 Timothy 4:3-4).

Indeed, this generation is loath to tolerate not only biblical doctrine but also other truths. President Barack Obama tickles the world's ears with promises of hope, change, peace, harmony, diversity, pluralism and "tolerance," but in too many cases, he has allowed truth to become a casualty -- and more than a harmless casualty. Nowhere was that more clearly demonstrated than in his speech in Cairo to the Muslim world.

Many judge Obama's speeches, not to mention his policies and actions, on his high-sounding rhetoric and professed good will. They ignore his obvious errors and contradictions, duping themselves into believing that supposedly good intentions alone will trump facts and reality and insulate us from the negative consequences that will flow from his distortions.

In his Cairo speech, Obama, as usual, served up a plentiful smorgasbord of platitudes sufficient to appeal to the appetites of almost everyone (except, notably, our steadfast ally Israel). His idolaters in the mainstream media obediently praised him for his "honesty" in trashing America and for his equal-opportunity softball scolding of the Muslim world.

Newsweek's Evan Thomas even likened him to God -- not a god, but God. Many conservative commentators similarly bent over backward to heap guarded praise on him, apparently unable to muster the courage to warn of the dangers inherent in Obama's skewed vision without throwing in the required adulation.

Continue reading "Tickling the World's Itching Ears"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:47 PM

June 04, 2009

New Column: Conservatives Aren't the Extremists

Mainstream conservatives are routinely mischaracterized as extreme by liberals and squishy Republicans, when it is America's liberals who are, by any fair measure, more extreme.

Conservatives are not the ones who sermonize about tolerance yet demonstrate intolerance toward conservative and Christian thought; support exterminating babies in the womb; apologize the world over for America; or gut the military and missile defense because of some dangerously egotistical notion that they have the magic to turn evil into goodness with their charisma and eloquence or, even worse, because they refuse to recognize evil in the world, except as emanating from the United States.

Conservatives aren't the ones who have so little faith in their fellow human beings that they diminish their dignity by expanding the welfare state and increasing man's learned dependency on government; judge people by the color of their skin instead of the content of their character; pit economic groups against one another, stoking the flames of envy and greed; punish success, reward failure and promote mediocrity; side with the world's tyrants and dictators; slavishly attach themselves to leftist propaganda about impending environmental catastrophes; promote a secular humanist worldview that considers government a quasi-deity that can perfect the human condition; or morally equate the practice of enhanced interrogation techniques to save innocent lives with that of beheading innocent people.

Continue reading "New Column: Conservatives Aren't the Extremists"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:44 PM

June 01, 2009

Obama Knew What He Was Getting With Sotomayor

It amazes me that for all the attention Judge Sonia Sotomayor has attracted for a racially charged statement in a 2001 speech, few are tying her attitude to President Barack Obama's. Just as he knew precisely what his 20-year pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, was about and approved, he knew, prior to nominating her, what Sonia Sotomayor is about and approved. In both cases, he just didn't want us to know.

In her 2001 speech at Berkeley, Sotomayor said, "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life."

Obama's apologists claim Sotomayor's statement was taken out of context. But the context of her prepared remarks makes the statement more -- not less -- incriminating.

The sentences preceding the statement were: "Whether born from experience or inherent physiological or cultural differences, a possibility I abhor less or discount less than my colleague Judge (Miriam) Cedarbaum, our gender and national origins may and will make a difference in our judging. Justice (Sandra Day) O'Connor has often been cited as saying that a wise old man and wise old woman will reach the same conclusion in deciding cases. I am ... not so sure that I agree with the statement."

First, it's important to note that she's not talking about trial judges, for example, who might be more or less lenient in their sentencing within the prescribed sentencing guidelines, but about appellate judges applying the law.

Continue reading "Obama Knew What He Was Getting With Sotomayor"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:11 PM

May 28, 2009

Democrat Lite A Big GOP Does Not Make

I see "pragmatists" everywhere I look in the Republican Party -- those who say we must always be more concerned with not offending so-called moderates than with advancing our principles. The irony is that no one is less pragmatic, in the end, than these self-styled pragmatists because their prescriptions are a recipe for failure.

Most recently, of course, the Republican branch of the political correctness sect insists that we must not oppose Judge Sonia Sotomayor's nomination for the Supreme Court because her confirmation is inevitable and by opposing it, we'll gratuitously alienate Hispanics and women -- as if they haven't already been conditioned by the liberal press to believe conservatives are ogres regardless.

What's missing from this analysis is that one of the main reasons Republicans have lost favor of late, reflected in their trouncing in the 2006 congressional elections and in shrinking GOP party identification percentages, is their alienation of the conservative base. The best-kept secret is that with 60 percent of Americans still considering themselves conservatives, Republicans only need to be true to their conservative principles to win again.

While I've always considered it hyperbolic to suggest there is no difference between the parties, I find it increasingly difficult to defend this position. Beltway Republicans, with notable exceptions, spend half their time groveling to the forces of political correctness, conceding the ideological turf wars to liberal Democrats and agreeing to operate within the four corners of the liberal- and relativist-dominant media culture without a fight.

Take, for example, the Republicans' approaches to Obama's newly announced Draconian CAFE standards and his cap and trade proposal. In response to both, they virtually concede the cultish dogma that man-made global warming is destroying the Earth, rendering them powerless to battle to save capitalism. Likewise, how many of them fight for nuclear energy instead of knuckling under to the left's destructive fear-mongering on this no-brainer alternative energy source?

Continue reading "Democrat Lite A Big GOP Does Not Make"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:01 PM

May 26, 2009

Sotomayor, Reverse Empathy and the Rule of Law

True to form, President Barack Obama -- in his remarks introducing his Supreme Court nominee, Judge Sonia Sotomayor -- said he was doing one thing while doing the exact opposite. He articulated his criteria for the optimal nominee yet chose someone who falls squarely outside those criteria -- as best we can tell.

But what's all the fuss? A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little conservative minds. Obama's mesmerized audiences are not supposed to pay attention to the meaning and context of his words, only to their aesthetic appeal and to the tonal qualities and modulation in his voice.

Obama said a Supreme Court nominee's two most important qualities are her rigorous intellect and mastery of the law and her recognition of the limits of the judicial role -- that a judge's job is to interpret law, not to make it.

Then came the "but," the exception that imperceptibly swallowed the rule. He quoted former Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes as saying, "The life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience." In other words: "Forget what I just said about how judges should interpret, not make, the law. I want my judges to have empathy. And don't tell anyone, but when I say 'empathy,' that's code for bending the law to achieve the results I want based on the selective empathy I have for certain victimized groups."

Before you fall for the upcoming protests that Sotomayor truly is a practitioner of judicial restraint, you might want to examine her record, including the case of Ricci v. DeStefano.

Continue reading "Sotomayor, Reverse Empathy and the Rule of Law"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:19 PM

May 21, 2009

Still Politicizing Our Security

Democrats are outraged that former Vice President Dick Cheney is publicly defending the Bush administration's policies regarding the war on terror. How dare he defend the Bush record in the face of the partisan slander that began during Bush's first term and continues to this day unabated? Why, he's demeaning the office he serves.

It must have slipped their minds that radical environmentalism's high priest, former Democratic Vice President Al Gore, has gallivanted the world over, maliciously excoriating the Bush administration. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe there was ever the slightest complaint from the Democratic decorum police.

Does this ring a bell? "He betrayed this country! He played on our fears. He took America on an ill-conceived foreign adventure dangerous to our troops, an adventure preordained and planned before 9/11 ever took place."

How convenient, also, for Democrats to overlook that Cheney didn't start any of this. He isn't going about the country leveling unprovoked attacks against the administration. He is responding to Democratic attacks and thuggish threats to criminalize Bush administration policies.

But it's not Gore's attacks to which Cheney is responding. He's reacting to the far more current but equally vicious (though subtler) attacks against the Bush administration by President Barack Obama himself.

Continue reading "Still Politicizing Our Security"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:57 PM

May 18, 2009

Abortion Doublespeak Part of Pattern

With due respect to the millions who adore President Barack Obama, I just don't understand what causes people to hear only his lofty rhetoric and appeals for unity while turning a deaf ear to his polarizing language and actions, for example, on the subject of abortion.

In his book "The Audacity of Hope," he seemed determined to address every issue from the perspective of achieving some kind of common ground. We'll give a little bit of this to liberals and a little bit of that to conservatives and all live happily ever after.

I'm sorry, but I believe Obama calculatingly employs this approach mainly as a smoke screen to hide his real agenda, which resides anywhere but on common ground. He specializes in paying superficial respect to his opponents' arguments while proceeding to bury them. The examples are endless.

He calls forced union membership "free choice." He masquerades as a fiscal disciplinarian while authoring nationally bankrupting budgets in perpetuity.

He endorses capitalism as a superior economic system while undermining it with other words and actions. He condemns it as "unfair" and decries achievers as "selfish" and "greedy." He's set on restructuring our economy away from the free market and toward government control, from taking over private businesses to setting executive salaries to subsidizing mortgages to nationalizing health care. But he knows better than to condemn capitalism outright, because if he did, the American people finally would wise up to his endgame.

Continue reading "Abortion Doublespeak Part of Pattern"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:48 PM

May 14, 2009

Next on the Statists' Menu: Health Care

Since Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign, proponents of socialized medicine have bombarded us with nonstop demagoguery about the 40 million-plus uninsured to create a crisis mentality sufficient to catalyze sweeping "reforms." Their efforts didn't stand much of a chance until the advent of the pseudocrisis-exploiting administration of President Barack Obama, which never met a "crisis" it couldn't leverage.

The number of uninsured people is grossly misleading. Just because you are uninsured doesn't mean you have no access to medical care. And just because you are insured under universal systems doesn't mean you will receive care.

If you don't think the administration is parlaying the crisis angle, then you must have missed the feigned urgency in Obama's declarations that "reform" must be completed this year.

Obama wasn't kidding when he promised fundamental change. With him, many big things must happen, and they must happen yesterday, for he knows he has a finite window of time available to effectuate his mischief before people finally awaken to the horrors of the Obama hurricane.

What about this 47 million uninsured figure we've heard so much about -- thanks to the Clintons, Michael Moore and armies of George Soros disciples?

Continue reading "Next on the Statists' Menu: Health Care"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:56 PM

May 11, 2009

Fearing Our Government

Of the dozens of reasons to be concerned about the ever-growing and unchecked power of the federal government under President Barack Obama, the upcoming assault against conservative talk radio may surpass them all.

It's not enough that liberals dominate the executive and legislative branches, liberals are poised to control the judiciary, and, at liberals' direction, government is absorbing ownership and control of large chunks of the private sector. They must also shut up the opposition.

We have genuine cause for alarm on multiple fronts -- and actual alarm indeed exists among increasing numbers of people, not all of whom are predisposed to excitability.

The government has declared war on innocent life in the womb in the name of "free choice." It is spending unconscionable amounts of money it doesn't have and can't possibly acquire without taxing the primary producers in this nation into abject servitude. It's set to impose "cap and trade" taxes in the name of protecting an environmental threat that exists mostly in the data-resistant prisons of their ideological minds, which will yield no environmental benefit but will cause irreparable economic harm.

It has passed constitutionally repugnant and morally odious legislation, carving out new crimes for violent acts motivated by "hate" against certain protected groups. Neither military veterans nor conservative males are among the protected groups, but pedophiles very well may be. The proscribed "hate" under the statute may not be "hate" at all, but mere political or theological disagreement with the view of the dominant media culture and the ruling class on, for example, the normalcy of homosexual behavior. Meanwhile this same ruling class and its enablers, who are so selectively indignant about certain majority opinions they mischaracterize as "hate," openly bask in the kind of behavior no one can rationally dispute as hateful at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner.

Continue reading "Fearing Our Government"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:48 PM

May 07, 2009

Memo to Capitalists: Be Very Afraid

Lately, MSNBC's Chris Matthews has been on a childish tear, taunting Republicans to admit their belief in the biblical account of the Creation. Someone ought to ask this paragon of smug self-satisfaction why, if he's so brilliant, he unquestioningly echoes the demagogic hyperbole of global warming fanatics hellbent on destroying the economic system responsible for producing unprecedented prosperity in the advanced industrialized world.

Oh, yes, it's fashionable to denounce capitalism these days, but the historical record is clear. As Richard C. Bayer documents in his 1999 book, "Capitalism and Christianity," the gross domestic products remained flat in the 1,000-year period from 500-1500 for all now-advanced industrial countries but rose geometrically with the advent of merchant capitalism (1700-1820) and modern capitalism (1820-present).

More specifically, "Real per capita U.S. GDP in 1989 ($18,317) was seventeen times what it was in 1820 ($1,048)," using 1985 real dollars. The growth rates of the other advanced industrial nations showed exponential jumps in that period, as well. But this track record didn't keep class warfare exponents in the 1930s from blaming our economic hardship on capitalistic exploitation, and it isn't keeping them from doing it today.

As long as people have different worldviews, there will be vigorous debates about the effectiveness, fairness and morality of capitalism compared with other economic systems. But common sense supports history's empirical evidence in validating the generalized notion that robust economic production will accompany political and economic liberty rather than command and control systems.

People will produce more when they are allowed to retain more of the fruits of their labor. You simply cannot expand the economic pie by separating rewards from efforts. To do so is a failsafe prescription for economic stagnation -- if not immediately, then in the long run. Yet the current administration and its wholly owned congressional partners have embarked on a course to destroy capitalism from every imaginable front.

Continue reading "Memo to Capitalists: Be Very Afraid"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:41 PM

May 04, 2009

Obama's Propaganda Campaign To Mainstream Extreme Liberalism

A fellow conservative I highly respect told me last week that he doesn't see how Republicans can ever regain the majority without reaching out to moderates, because, he said, only 30 percent of Americans are conservative. Let me try to clear up this growing misconception.

The issue is quite timely, considering that GOP-defecting Sen. Arlen Specter is rationalizing his self-serving move as necessitated by an increasingly intransigent conservatism in the Republican Party. He echoes the David Frum Republicans that the party is too conservative, backward-looking, stale and out of fresh ideas.

It's true that a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll shows that only 21 percent of Americans now identify themselves as Republicans, compared with 35 percent as Democrats and 38 percent as independents. But there's a huge difference between party identification and ideological identification.

The bipartisan Battleground Poll, as recently as Aug. 20, 2008, revealed that 60 percent of Americans identify themselves as conservative and only 36 percent as liberal.

So it's the Republican Party that's in trouble, not conservatism. The GOP's shrinkage can't be because it's too conservative. George W. Bush, our most recent Republican president, was hardly an extreme conservative. His most outspoken critics today include wide swaths of conservatives who decried his failure to rein in federal spending and control illegal immigration, among other things.

Continue reading "Obama's Propaganda Campaign To Mainstream Extreme Liberalism"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:45 PM

April 30, 2009

Gay Tail Wags Hetero Dog

Ordinarily, we would probably be wise just to move on from last week's flap over Miss USA contestant Carrie Prejean's truthful pageant answer on same-sex marriage, but subsequent news reports reveal we are drawing the wrong lessons from the brouhaha.

Prejean -- in response to the trick question from gay activist blogger Perez Hilton, one of the pageant's judges -- refused to endorse same-sex marriage, which probably resulted in her losing the crown she was favored to win.

Not satisfied with unilaterally disqualifying Prejean and possibly damaging her career, Hilton publicly excoriated her, saying she "gave the worst answer in pageant history" and calling her a dumb B-word and worse.

Prejean, in stark contrast, said that as a Christian, she loved Hilton and was praying for him, a graciousness met with further ungraciousness from Hilton.

Hilton told the "Today" show's Matt Lauer: "I personally would have appreciated it had she left her politics and her religion out, because Miss USA represents all Americans. ... The answer she gave alienated myself (and) millions of gays and lesbians. ... Miss USA is not a person that's politically incorrect. Miss USA ... represents ... all America and is inclusive and give(s) the right answers. ... I want someone who is going to (say) things that will make everyone feel welcome. ... For example ... she's a Christian, but I don't want her talking about Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, because that's offensive to all of the Jewish Americans, to all of the Muslim Americans, to all of the atheist Americans."

Continue reading "Gay Tail Wags Hetero Dog"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:37 PM

April 27, 2009

Beware Abhorrent Hate Crime Legislation

Homosexual activists aren't easily deterred. Unable to persuade even the people of California to change the definition of marriage to legitimize their lifestyle, they're resorting to a backdoor approach to accomplish the same thing: pushing federal hate crime legislation while few are paying attention.

Well, people better wake up, because the House Judiciary Committee has already approved Barney Frank's bill, H.R. 1913, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act. The full House is expected to vote on the bill April 29, and various liberal groups, from gay activists to liberal religious organizations, are engaged in a full-court press to get this bill passed.

The bill would make it a federal crime to willfully cause bodily injury to someone (or to attempt to do so with firearms or explosives) because of his or her actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.

If states want to pass their own hate crime legislation, they are free to exercise such poor judgment. But they don't need the long arm of the federal government cramming it down their throats.

Not only is there little constitutional justification for the federal government to legislate in this area but also the bill further impinges on state sovereignty by subjecting people to criminal liability for acts for which they've already been acquitted under state criminal systems.

Continue reading "Beware Abhorrent Hate Crime Legislation"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:57 PM

April 23, 2009

Lifesaving Memos

I sincerely hope our justifiable anxiety over government spending and taxes will not obscure our vision in regard to other alarming threats to our liberties resulting from radical policy changes from the Obama administration, including those concerning our national security.

The administration's endless multi-continent America-bashing expeditions, its hostility to strategic missile defense, its look-the-other-way approach to the ongoing nuclear and ballistic missile advancements of rogue nations while flirting with dismantling our own, and its reported termination of assembly line production of F-22 fighters -- while China and Russia are engaged in the full-tilt manufacturing of fifth-generation fighter jets -- are representative of its new approach.

But in my view, the second-biggest outrage unfolded this week, with the administration's gratuitous decision to release internal CIA memos broadcasting our enhanced interrogation techniques against enemy combatant prisoners following the 9/11 attacks. The ultimate outrage is the administration's green light to Congress to prosecute Bush administration officials for these policies, which manifestly prevented terrorist attacks and saved American lives. If these efforts make it past the partisan fantasies of such congressional charlatans as Sen. Pat Leahy of Vermont, the slumbering public might finally awaken to the totalitarian thuggery of the leftists currently in charge of the government.

Here are just a few things to consider as we contemplate these outrages:

--The administration voluntarily surrendered and published these memos instead of objecting to their discovery by the American Civil Liberties Union, assuring us, quite unconvincingly, that President Obama wrestled deeply with the issue.

Continue reading "Lifesaving Memos"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:36 PM

April 20, 2009

Peace Through Weakness

Observing the Obama administration's approach so far to the war on terror is somewhat reminiscent, if you'll accept the crude analogy, of watching Panamanian boxing legend Roberto Duran's rematch against American boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard. Duran was within his rights to say "no mas" and quit, but it didn't keep him from losing.

But here the analogy breaks down. While Duran could avoid further Leonard blows by quitting, a nation under attack by a warring force cannot prevent further attacks against itself simply by declaring an end to hostilities. Yet that's precisely what the Obama administration appears to be doing in the war on terror, most recently with its outrageously reckless public release of classified Justice Department memos on the legality of CIA interrogation techniques used on enemy prisoners.

Democrats ceaselessly complained about the Bush administration's allegedly misguided approach to the war, contending it was too broad (Bush should have focused almost exclusively on al-Qaida in Afghanistan), that he engaged in cowboy diplomacy, and his treatment of enemy prisoners was inhumane.

Deny it if you choose, but the gravamen of these complaints was that the United States, in many ways, was the bad guy, the aggressor nation that attacked Iraq without provocation or justification, was inflicting gratuitous "collateral damage" on Iraq and its people, and routinely -- and as a matter of policy -- was brutalizing and torturing enemy prisoners in Iraq, Guantanamo Bay and everywhere else our heartless authorities could get their hands on them.

During the campaign, then-presidential candidate Barack Obama embraced these themes wholesale, saying we'd alienated other nations with our unilateralism, stirred up the Arab street against us, and become a virtual terrorist recruitment factory.

Continue reading "Peace Through Weakness"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:11 PM

April 16, 2009

Homeland Security Slanders

There has been a lot of outrage over the Department of Homeland Security's leaked summary report on "Rightwing Extremism," but by far its most odious aspects are its implications that military veterans are fertile targets for radical, violent groups and that right-wingers are inclined toward racism.

Information from this April 7 report was provided to law enforcement officials to help them prevent terrorist attacks against the United States.

The "Key Findings" are way light on objective facts but heavy on subjective opinion -- opinion clearly colored by the worldviews and biases of those issuing the report. Right off the bat, DHS admits it "has no specific information that domestic rightwing terrorists are currently planning acts of violence, but rightwing extremists may be gaining new recruits by playing on their fears about several emergent issues. The economic downturn and election of the first African American president present unique drivers for rightwing radicalization and recruitment."

There's more. "The possible passage of new restrictions on firearms and the return of military veterans facing significant challenges reintegrating into their communities could lead to the potential emergence of terrorist groups or lone wolf extremists capable of carrying out violent attacks."

At the risk of incurring the scrutiny of the DHS, I must say that these gratuitous sentences are outrageous. In the first place, I don't know anyone playing on "fears about several emergent issues" more than the current administration, of which the DHS is a part. Even when President Barack Obama is delivering a speech on the economy purportedly geared toward reassuring Americans that things will be all right, he has to stoke their fears and anxieties about other financial shoes he expects to drop in the near future. He and his aides are the ones who have signaled they have something to gain from keeping the public in crisis mode, that "something" being the opportunity to make foundational changes to our economy and the relationship between government and the private sector.

Continue reading "Homeland Security Slanders"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:01 PM

April 13, 2009

Radicalizing Even the Faith-Based Program

President Barack Obama's recent appointment of Harry Knox to his Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships adds another redundant nail to the coffin of the irresponsible myth that he is a bipartisan unifier.

In light of the daily outpouring of evidence, one wonders whether our "moderate" Republican Obama apologists will ever admit their error in willingly suspending their disbelief in Obama's radical leftism all because of what Michael Gerson refers to as "his moderate instincts and conciliatory temperament."

Perhaps Obama's appointment of Harold Koh as legal adviser to the State Department despite Koh's unapologetic belief that American courts should sometimes refer to foreign law in interpreting our Constitution doesn't bother you. Or even his selection of Indiana law professor Dawn Johnsen to head the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel despite her taking such positions (in a Supreme Court brief, no less) that pregnancy can be comparable to involuntary servitude.

How many in-your-face radical leftist appointments must Obama make before some realize this apparently conciliatory man is indeed a polarizing radical?

Let's just look at the Knox appointment. Former President George W. Bush originally established the faith-based program, wisely or not, to help faith-based groups participate in the public square.

Continue reading "Radicalizing Even the Faith-Based Program"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:46 PM

April 09, 2009

A Christian Nation?

President Barack Obama said in Turkey: "We do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation. We consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values."

Well, I don't know what "we" consider "ourselves," but I do think we ought to examine that statement and why Obama felt compelled to make it a part of his world apology tour.

Can you imagine the Saudi king coming to America and bragging that his nation is not Muslim? I assure you that he's not ashamed of the Islamic character of his nation, even though his nation is demonstrably less tolerant of other religions.

So is (or was) America a Christian nation? If by that we mean that America is a Christian theocracy, that our government should give Christians preferential treatment, or that members of other faiths aren't welcome, the answer is an emphatic "no."

But if we are talking about the ideals that led to the very colonization of this land, our declaration of independence from Britain, and the formulation of our Constitution, then the answer is certainly "yes."

Continue reading "A Christian Nation?"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:26 PM

April 06, 2009

Somewhere Under the Rainbow

Alfred Hitchcock dedicated his 1940 film "Foreign Correspondent" to "those intrepid ones who went across the sea to be the eyes and ears of America ... who early saw the clouds of war while many of us at home were seeing rainbows."

Kind of brings into focus the old saw that history repeats itself. Only this time, it's our commander in chief who is seeing rainbows -- everywhere except, apparently, in America.

It's bad enough when the George Soros brigades continually disparage America, but it's almost unbearable for the president to do it -- and even worse when he's on foreign soil.

At a town hall meeting with French and German citizens in Strasbourg, France, President Barack Obama proved he hadn't just been posturing on the campaign trail when he castigated then-President George W. Bush for his "unilateralist" foreign policies. It's now clear that Obama wanted not only the American electorate to understand his disdain for his predecessor and the country he led but also the rest of the world to know it.

He told his European audience: "It's always harder to forge true partnerships and sturdy alliances than to act alone. ... In America, there's a failure to appreciate Europe's leading role in the world. Instead of ... seeking to partner with you ... there have been times where America has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive."

Continue reading "Somewhere Under the Rainbow"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:18 PM

April 02, 2009

Holder's Injustice

Remember the cacophonous wailing of the left over the Bush administration's alleged politicization of the Justice Department? We always knew they were just projecting, but now we have even more proof.

I first learned from my friend Andy McCarthy's blog post on National Review Online that Attorney General Eric Holder had rejected the legal opinion of his own Justice Department lawyers that the D.C. voting rights bill, which would give the District of Columbia a voting member in the House of Representatives, is unconstitutional.

Why would Holder reject the legal opinion of his own deputies? Dumb question. Because he doesn't like the answer and neither does his boss, President Obama. They both strongly support passage of the bill and do not believe a little trifle, such as an express constitutional provision forbidding it, should be permitted to get in their way. How many times do leftists have to demonstrate that they are an ends-justify-the-means bunch before it sinks in?

The Washington Post confirms that the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, "an elite unit that gives legal and constitutional advice to the executive branch," did issue an unpublished opinion earlier this year that the voting rights bill is unconstitutional. Holder couldn't let that stand, so he went back to the well, hoping for a different opinion.

Lo and behold, the solicitor general's office dutifully served up that opinion and said it could defend the legislation in court should the bill be challenged on constitutional grounds. Hmm.

Continue reading "Holder's Injustice"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:42 PM

March 30, 2009

Another Day, Another Scary Nomination

As usual, President Barack Obama is multi-tasking the dismantling of the American system on so many fronts that not all of the outrages can be properly monitored. So while you should be mortified by his dictatorial power grab with General Motors, please don't miss his recent nomination of former Yale Law School Dean Harold Koh as legal adviser for the State Department.

In his new position, Koh not only would represent the United States before international bodies, such as the U.N. and the International Court of Justice, but also would influence the degree to which laws of other countries should influence American jurisprudence.

After reading an alarming piece by Meghan Clyne in the New York Post concerning the Koh nomination and the degree to which Koh believes it's appropriate for courts to consider other nations' laws in interpreting our Constitution, I read a number of Koh's legal writings and speeches.

Clyne reported that New York lawyer Steven Stein said that Koh, in addressing the Yale Club of Greenwich in 2007, claimed that "in an appropriate case, he didn't see any reason why sharia law would not be applied to govern a case in the United States."

It turns out that on March 21, 2007, Carol Iannone, on Phi Beta Cons blog, published a letter from Stein to Dean Koh about his Yale Club remarks. Stein wrote, in part, "In your discussion of 'global law' I recall at least one favorable reference to 'Sharia', among other foreign laws that could, in an appropriate instance (according to you) govern a controversy in a federal or state court in the US."

Continue reading "Another Day, Another Scary Nomination"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:55 PM

March 27, 2009

Budget Smoke and Mirrors -- Where's the Outrage?

There has doubtlessly been great anxiety about the economy, but I think even greater anxiety exists over what President Barack Obama is doing and planning to do to this country. We've always had economic downturns, and we've always recovered, but we've never deliberately planned to spend ourselves into bankruptcy, from which we may not be able to recover.

True, our smorgasbord of entitlements has threatened our long-term solvency for some time, and reckless politicians have been negligent in refusing to reform them and, instead, have just created more. But Obama takes profligate spending to entirely new levels while pretending to be a fiscal hawk.

With all due respect to Mr. Obama, I don't recall ever seeing another president whine so much about the mess his predecessor left him, disgracing the motto of former Democratic President Harry Truman that "the buck stops here." Though childish and unpresidential, the worst part about it is that he's using it as a bogus justification to do much worse.

Seriously, how many times are we going to have to hear him say, "Republicans have a short memory, because as I recall, I'm inheriting a $1.3 trillion annual deficit from them"?

Stop right there. This is grossly misleading on many levels. In the first place, President Bush's budget deficits were declining nicely each year before the subprime crisis hit in 2008 (fiscal year 2004: $412.7 billion; FY 2005: $318.3 billion; FY 2006: $248.2 billion; FY 2007: $160.7 billion; and FY 2008: $454.8 billion). Second, Democrats took control of Congress in 2006 and thus share blame. Third, the 2009 budget, upward of $1.3 trillion, contained the extraordinary bailout and rescue expenditures, which Obama voted for. Fourth, eight months of this FY 2009 budget that Obama is blaming on President Bush will occur on Obama's watch (Jan. 20 through Oct. 1, 2009). Fifth, but most important, Obama is seeking to establish this atypical, artificially bloated FY 2009 as the new baseline from which his budgets should be compared, falsely implying that President Bush incrementally increased the deficit each year until it reached the annual figure of $1.3 trillion (the above numbers show the opposite) and that it will remain that high unless he -- Obama -- brings it down. Apparently smiling at our collective stupidity, he thus plans to disguise his increases in annual spending as decreases and take credit for cutting the budget in half by the end of his term.

Continue reading "Budget Smoke and Mirrors -- Where's the Outrage?"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 02:38 PM

March 23, 2009

Beltway Arrogance and Blind Faith

Rep. Charles Rangel's recent comments about President Barack Obama's budget exemplify the liberal ruling class's Beltway arrogance and blind faith in an ideology that compels it to press on the accelerator as we head for the cliff toward the nation's financial ruin.

How else do you explain the administration's and Congress' seeming indifference to the inevitably bankrupting consequences of their profligacy; their disguising a $1 trillion political patronage bill as an economic stimulus package when only 23 percent of it is arguably stimulative in the short term; and their audacity in forcing (and rewarding) banks to make uncreditworthy loans, pressuring Freddie and Fannie to "securitize" them, encouraging AIG and others to traffic in "derivatives," and then punishing all of them instead of taking the blame themselves? They are the ones who created this havoc and then refused to take corrective regulatory action when warned of the impending financial disaster.

Chris Wallace, the host of "Fox News Sunday," asked Rangel whether he was troubled by Congressional Budget Office estimates that Obama's deficits will be $2.3 trillion higher than the already-astronomical White House projections.

"I am more impressed," said Rangel, "with the fact that Obama is looking for a better-educated and a healthy -- a stronger work force, going into a new green economy, that this has to show that America can get off the ground with the deficit and move to where we were under the Clinton administration -- drawing a strong surplus. The only way for us to get out of this is to change our way of living in this country, and that's the direction in which the Obama budget is going, and I strongly support it."

When Rangel says we need to "change our way of living in this country," he does not mean that the solution to our unsustainable budgets is to tighten our federal belt and curtail government intervention in the market.

Continue reading "Beltway Arrogance and Blind Faith"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:25 PM

March 19, 2009

Mark Levin's 'Liberty and Tyranny'

Mark Levin's "Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto" couldn't be more relevant or important. It is a masterful restatement of conservative principles that is succinct (205 pages) and yet comprehensive. It is thoughtful and deep but highly readable. It is timely yet timeless.

Conservatism is under attack from puffed-up liberals, feeling their oats with the ascendancy of President Barack Obama and the huge Democratic congressional majorities, and from a disgruntled group of conservatives who believe that conservatism, to remain politically effective, needs a face-lift.

Liberal columnists are writing with unrestrained glee about conservatism's internecine wars, and conservatives are engaged in intramural debates about which principles and policies conservatives should be promoting. Levin's book will go a long way toward muting the liberals' premature gloating and refuting the arguments of those who, perhaps with good intentions, would hijack conservatism from within and transform it into liberalism lite, all in the name of political pragmatism. "An 'effective' government that operates outside its constitutional limitations is a dangerous government," Levin writes. "By abandoning principle for efficiency, the neo-Statist, it seems, is no more bound to the Constitution than the Statist. He marches more slowly … but he marches with him nonetheless."

There has not been a widely read conservative manifesto as such since Barry Goldwater's "The Conscience of a Conservative" in 1960. Given the unbridled assault on conservatism today, not to mention the personal attacks on its leading proponents, we must celebrate the release of "Liberty and Tyranny" as the modern road map back to our conservative roots.

Having eaten, breathed, slept and studied conservatism, politics, law and history his entire life, Levin, who is my friend and client, is uniquely qualified and situated to have written this book. In undertaking this formidable task, he stands on the shoulders of the giants who have preceded him but has made those giants very proud with this work.

Continue reading "Mark Levin's 'Liberty and Tyranny'"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:47 PM

March 16, 2009

Calling on Democratic Capitalists

I don't use the term "Marxist," in connection with President Barack Obama's policies, lightly or even to inflame, but to express my genuine fear that if we don't put the brakes on his agenda to remake America in his image, we'll end up both enslaving and bankrupting America by the end of his tenure.

Perhaps conservatives used the term "Marxist," "socialist" or even "Commie" too loosely on some occasions to describe the liberals' political sympathies, but that debatable question now seems moot, given our new president's overt contempt for capitalism.

This guy makes Bill Clinton look like John Birch, and yet to this day, few Democrats have dissociated from him. So where are the Democrats who have always professed their conservatism? How can they sit by idly as we witness this administration's ongoing assault on capitalism?

Where are those liberals who have always insisted that on economic issues, they differ with conservatives only in degree, not in kind -- that they are actually committed capitalists who just believe in somewhat greater government control, a somewhat larger safety net and marginally higher taxation? Where are those Democrats who, for the past 20 years, have been condemning soaring deficits and an exploding national debt? Is there anything Obama could say or do that would cause them to break ranks in defense of the capitalistic system to which they claim allegiance? With a few exceptions, it does not appear so.

When President Clinton initiated his class warfare rhetoric against Reaganomics and "trickledown economics," when he described a slightly slowed-down economy as "the worst economy in 50 years," he was mostly trying to get elected, and it worked. Remember "it's the economy, stupid"? True, he did raise taxes when elected, and he and his wife tried to nationalize health care. But in the end, he was more about himself than permanently transforming the country.

Continue reading "Calling on Democratic Capitalists"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:59 PM

March 12, 2009

Obama's Relentless War on the American Dream

It's probably poor form to piggyback onto another columnist's work, but Wall Street Journal columnist Daniel Henninger's disturbing discoveries about President Barack Obama's budget summary justify an exception. Those not blinded by the Obama cult fog have produced abundant evidence of Obama's grudge against capitalism, but Henninger's revelations are hard to top.

Despite Obama's later denials, he was most serious when he cavalierly told Joe the Plumber he wanted to "spread the wealth around." We've seen it born out in his policies so far and in the promises of those to come.

He will restore the Clinton tax hikes on higher-income earners, but there is so much more. He'll reduce the effective charitable gift deduction, thus reducing charitable giving. This is no surprise, though, because he believes "charity" is the province of government -- not the private sector.

He'll impose a cap and trade tax on corporations under the pretense of making them "greener," raise the tax rates on capital gains and dividends, reverse welfare reform, and nationalize health care.

He'll eliminate the ceiling on payroll tax contributions, which is presently about $110,000. This will be a major hit to those earning more than $110,000, not that Obama cultists will have any sympathy for those greedy beneficiaries of life's lottery, to borrow from the Al Gore vernacular.

Continue reading "Obama's Relentless War on the American Dream"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:15 PM

March 09, 2009

The Orwellian Presidential Bully Pulpit

Does the following statement from Melody C. Barnes, director of President Barack Obama's Domestic Policy Council, strike you as a) patronizing or b) Orwellian? "The president believes that it's particularly important to sign this (presidential memorandum authorizing federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research) so that we can put science and technology back at the heart of pursuing a broad range of national goals."

Your answer should be both a and b, especially when considered in conjunction with another presidential memorandum "aimed at insulating scientific decisions across the federal government from political influence."

The president brazenly sermonizes against scientifically challenged conservatives while triggering federal funding of research that is scientifically controversial and preparing to impose cap and trade penalties on corporate America in deference to global warming junk science.

While you won't hear much about this in the mainstream media, there is a meeting currently taking place in New York City that serves as an ironic backdrop for Obama's embryonic stem cell order.

OneNewsNow.com reports that more than 70 scientists -- representing the views of tens of thousands more scientists -- are meeting at The Heartland Institute's second annual International Conference on Climate Change to make the case that politically motivated alarmism, not science, is driving climate change activism, which potentially threatens the sovereignty of the United States.

Continue reading "The Orwellian Presidential Bully Pulpit"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:48 PM

March 05, 2009

There'll Be No Debate

While the erudite, urbane left demonstrates its sophistication and collegiality by personally attacking Rush Limbaugh, the nation is going down in financial flames, largely because of the unchecked policy insanity being unleashed by our new president. Yet his flacks in the media continue to shield him from even rudimentary questions that any other president would receive.

That's why you don't have to wait in suspense to see whether the president will accept Rush's offer to debate the issues. It would not be in Obama's personal interests to shift the public's attention from childish insults about Rush to substantive policy.

Do you honestly think President Obama wants public scrutiny of his policies? Do you think he'd feel comfortable being challenged on his inconsistencies, misrepresentations and astonishingly early breaches of his campaign promises?

You've surely seen his reactions on those rare occasions he's been challenged. Take his response to the Republicans' appeal that he fulfill his promise of bipartisanship on the stimulus package: "I won."

I suppose that if the president were in a debate, he could continue to dodge and obfuscate, but at least someone would be putting questions to him instead of giving him free rein to wreak havoc on our capitalistic system with the undisciplined destruction of a juvenile delinquent playing with his new chemistry set.

Continue reading "There'll Be No Debate"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:38 PM

March 02, 2009

This Is Way Bigger Than Rush

The Democrats, along with those on the right who seem more worried about incurring the disdain of the wrongheaded left than of their fellow patriots, are feverishly promoting their Saul Alinsky-inspired scheme to demonize and divide their most effective political opponents.

What would be amusing, were matters not so gravely serious today, is the utter juvenile transparency in the liberals' efforts to vilify Rush Limbaugh.

They've been doing it for 20 years, but this time, they're better-organized and have a broader purpose. So those who haven't had the courage to stand by him should understand that Rush is not the ultimate target here. We all are -- those, that is, who oppose their Marxist agenda and Stalinist tactics.

Have you noticed their coordinated effort to label Rush the leader of the Republican Party? Do you think it's accidental that James Carville so describes him? Do you think it's just coincidental that Obama called Rush out personally and that the entire flock of mainstream media sheep followed suit? Is it just serendipitous that liberal Chris Matthews baits his guests nightly to castigate Rush? Is it fortuitous that Obama's, er, ABC's George Stephanopoulos demands his guests, such as Republican Rep. Eric Cantor, to either defend or denounce Rush?

But again, they're not just after Rush. They want to destroy the Republican brand -- as if they need any help doing that.

Continue reading "This Is Way Bigger Than Rush"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:42 PM

February 26, 2009

It Just Keeps Getting Worse

Remember when liberals were wringing their hands and accusing President George W. Bush of being a dictator and a king? Of course, that was breathtakingly absurd, but what's really ironic is that these people actually want a king, provided they get to pick him.

As Barack Obama feverishly presses forward with his socialist agenda, one wonders whether any act of executive overreaching might cause the compliant, nay, conspiratorial Democratic congressional majorities to pause or, better yet, to resist.

I think not. Every assault Obama inflicts on the budget is met by Congress with: "Thank you, sir. May I have another?"

I realize liberals take umbrage at the pejorative terms "Marxist" and "socialist," but in invoking them, my purpose is neither to exaggerate nor to provoke. If the terms bother you, could you please tell me how Obama would be behaving differently if he were a socialist or Marxist just elected in this country?

Better yet, given the policies Obama and Congress are cramming down our throats, please tell me why you even mind those terms? Why not wear them proudly?

Continue reading "It Just Keeps Getting Worse"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:09 PM

February 23, 2009

The Usurpers

America's Founders believed that federal power was a necessary evil that would swallow the liberties their ancestors left Europe to obtain unless it was severely limited. But today we seem to have forgotten that freedom cannot survive the unrestrained governmental encroachments that are raining down daily from our nation's capital.

You need not have written a doctoral thesis on the political theories espoused in the Federalist Papers to understand that socialism impoverishes nations despite the professed good intentions of its benefactors. You needn't have a master's in history to realize that America is the freest and most prosperous nation in the history of the world because its prescient Framers devised a constitution that would maximize liberty by imposing restraints on government. And you don't need to be a rocket scientist to grasp that unless we put the brakes on our out-of-control federal government soon, we will go the way of all other great nations before us.

While there has long existed a tension between liberty's usurpers and watchdogs, rarely have the usurpers been in such ascendance. They are in firm control of the executive and legislative branches and are using the full force of the federal government to stack the deck in their favor in perpetuity. Just look at the taxpayer-funded payoffs of defaulting mortgagors, unions, governors, big-city mayors, liberal "public interest" groups, and ever-expanding dependency constituencies, including illegal immigrants.

But why can't they be honest about what they're doing? Have they even tried to dispute the charge that an untold amount of this so-called stimulus money will not be spent in the near future and that much of it, even when spent, will not stimulate? No, because they cannot explain away their subterfuge in such shenanigans as allocating billions of taxpayer dollars to community organizing groups, such as ACORN, whose real function is to secure elections for like-minded "progressives."

It's as if President Barack Obama and Congress were trying to turn us all into conspiracy theorists. Indeed, only the grossly naive believe the usurpers are not calculating their systematic power grabs.

Continue reading "The Usurpers"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:46 PM

February 19, 2009

Picking Winners and Losers by Executive Fiat

It is ironic to the point of absurdity that leftists could ever complain about conservatives threatening their liberties. Now back in power, they're in a full sprint to grab power and reduce our liberties.

Of course, we always knew the left's spurious charges against President Bush were not just rank partisanship but also classic projection -- accusing him of precisely the type of tactics they would employ if they were in power. And now they are -- big-time.

Let's consider just a few examples.

Former New York Lt. Gov. Betsy McCaughey, at the personal expense of incurring the fury of such liberal mouth foamers as MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, has helped expose hidden health care provisions in President Obama's stimulus nightmare that "will affect 'every individual in the United States.'"

The bill creates a new bureaucracy, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, which "will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective." Note: not what your doctor deems appropriate, but what the federal government does. Doctors and hospitals will face penalties if they fail to kowtow to this fiat requiring uniformity. This new bureaucracy will receive greater funding than "the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force combined."

Worse, the bill will result in the rationing of care for the elderly. But that's OK because Big Brother has determined that individuals will benefit in their younger years and will have to sacrifice later. I'm not making this up. This is one of the rationales defenders of these innovations are serving up.

Continue reading "Picking Winners and Losers by Executive Fiat"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:19 PM

February 17, 2009

Uncanny, Disturbing Historical Parallels

Recently, I reread the chapters on the New Deal in Larry Schweikart's superb "A Patriot's History of the United States" to review parallels with Barack Obama's radical economic agenda. Here is an eye-opening, side-by-side sampling, with Schweikart's observations on FDR and the New Deal, along with mine on President Obama and his policies.

Schweikart wrote, "During the campaign, FDR, a man whose presidency would feature by far the largest expansion of the federal government ever, called for a balanced budget and accused Hoover of heading the 'greatest spending Administration in ... all our history.'"

Obama's stimulus bill sets frightening new records for federal spending. But while campaigning, he said, "I'm running for president because I believe we can choose our own economic destiny ... to go another four years with the same reckless fiscal policies that have busted our budget, wreaked havoc in our economy, and mortgaged our children's future on a mountain of debt; or we can restore fiscal responsibility in Washington."

Schweikart wrote, "Roosevelt heaped dishonor on the defeated Hoover, denying him even a Secret Service guard out of town."

At Obama's inauguration, his supporters booed, heckled and chanted tauntingly at President George W. Bush. Obama went to dinner during President Bush's farewell speech and repudiated the Bush era in his inaugural address and on his new White House Web site.

Continue reading "Uncanny, Disturbing Historical Parallels"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:24 PM

February 12, 2009

The Worst of All Worlds

At the risk of beating a very live horse, the worst of all the horrible things about President Barack Obama's "stimulus" bill is that even if it worked to stimulate the economy beyond the president's wildest expectations, it would cause a further explosion of the national debt, which would become a worse "catastrophe" than the one this bill promises to alleviate.

Yet the president is so eager to start spending the people's money he can barely be trifled to acknowledge the growing debt as a concern. When backed into a corner, all he can do is attack the credibility of his critics on the issue, as if pointing fingers at the other kid in the schoolyard either exculpates him or addresses the problem.

Twice during his tightly controlled prime-time marketing infomercial, billed as his first presidential news conference, he aimed partisan fire at Republicans for daring to raise the issue.

He said: "When it comes to how we approach the issue of fiscal responsibility ... it's a little hard for me to take criticism from folks about this recovery package after they've presided over a doubling of the national debt. I'm not sure they have a lot of credibility when it comes to fiscal responsibility."

He used the same specious argument to deflect another objection to the bill: that it's long on pork and short on stimulus. He said, "First of all, when I hear that from folks who presided over a doubling of the national debt ... I just want them to not engage in some revisionist history. I inherited the deficit ... and the economic crisis that we have right now."

Continue reading "The Worst of All Worlds"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:26 PM

February 09, 2009

No Consensus on 'Stimulus' Bill

President Barack Obama has done more in the first three weeks of his presidency to validate the suspicions of his critics than I thought possible. But of all his objectionable actions, nothing compares to his falsely labeled "stimulus" bill, which he is trying to force upon us with fear and deception.

Just consider his smug assertion that "there is no disagreement that we need action by our government to jump-start the economy."

Maybe Mr. Obama has been cooped up in the White House too long and hasn't seen the dissent, such as that expressed in a strong protest letter signed by umpteen respected economists: "With all due respect Mr. President, that is not true. Notwithstanding reports that all economists are now Keynesians and that we all support a big increase in the burden of government, we the undersigned do not believe that more government spending is a way to improve economic performance." The letter cites the failed record of "stimulus" spending in the Depression era and in Japan in the 1990s and recommends lower tax rates and reduced government as the best remedies.

But even if you accept Obama's disputed premise that spending is the panacea, his bill fails his own criteria. It's just smoke and mirrors aimed at blurring his larger goal of radically restructuring the economy. But he pleads urgency anyway, as if he were trying to set speed records for breaking faith with the electorate.

The blogger Calafia Beach Pundit trenchantly observed: "Very little of the bill involves immediate stimulus or anything that might be actually stimulative; only a little over 10 percent of the money gets spent this fiscal year, and about 30 percent gets spent next fiscal year. ... About 30 percent of the money goes to transfer payments. ... Only $20 billion would be spent over the next 18 months on highway construction; and about 20 percent of the bill doesn't get spent until 2012-19."

Continue reading "No Consensus on 'Stimulus' Bill"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:22 PM

February 05, 2009

Liberalism on Full Display

Perhaps the silver lining to the new Obama administration's frenetic flurry of executive orders, proposed legislation, "diplomatic" rhetoric and autocratic commands is that people are getting a bird's-eye view into the misguided perspectives of liberals.

By deifying Obama, his cult followers in the media and grass roots stoked his already exaggerated sense of self-confidence and encouraged him to unmask his true liberalism and unleash, full-bore, his paternalistic mischief. Let's hope that with all the hype, people are focusing and will wake up to the dangers of a hyper-energetic, intermeddling federal government and the unbridled arrogance of those who believe they are better-suited to run our lives than we are.

In just these first few weeks, we have seen alarming shifts in our approach to national defense, the war on terror, international relations, ethics in government, social issues and domestic policy.

First, there was his in-your-face executive fiat reinstituting America's support for foreign agencies performing abortion and then his proactive endorsement of the militant homosexual agenda. Then his edict on automobile emissions standards. Next, his stunningly hypocritical support for nominees manifestly guilty of wrongdoing and his self-serving exemptions for appointees from rules he has promulgated.

These were followed by the outrageously inappropriate programs Obama and his congressional colleagues tried to sneak through under cover of the sheer volume and complexity of their budget-busting pseudo-stimulus package. Then there was Obama's autocratic dictate to corporate-CEO recipients of "bailout" money to reduce their salaries to what he deems appropriate.

Continue reading "Liberalism on Full Display"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:43 PM

February 02, 2009

Senate Must Reject Faux Stimulus

Americans should contact their congressmen before it's too late about their instinctive concerns over efforts to convert the world's greatest engine of free market prosperity into a socialistic leviathan under the euphemistic cover of possibly successive rescue "stimulus" bills.

The stated rationale for the original Troubled Asset Relief Program "bailout" wasn't to stimulate the economy to get it moving again, but to toss it a liquidity life raft to loosen credit markets and keep it from drowning. That is, the idea was to prevent a catastrophe, not to empower little Napoleons in government to play God with the economy.

Former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's scare tactics -- heartfelt or not -- panicked the country into action, and TARP became a reality. Yet not much seemed to change. Politicians will always be able to say that if we hadn't implemented TARP, America's economy would have tanked beyond our wildest nightmares. And being without the supernatural power to prove a negative, we'll never be able to disprove their claims.

Of all the concerns we had concerning TARP, our greatest should have been that once we opened the door to this magnitude of governmental intervention -- especially under a Republican administration -- we'd have even greater difficulty in resisting efforts by politicians to reopen it in the future anytime they pronounced there was a crisis.

Sure enough, Mr. Obama and his confidants view this "crisis" with eager anticipation as an opportunity to actualize their dreams for government to assume its rightful place as Master of the Universe and choreograph the economy on a super-macro level.

Continue reading "Senate Must Reject Faux Stimulus"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:18 PM

January 29, 2009

Targeting Rush: Saul Alinsky Would Be Proud

In his eight full years as the recipient of endless vile, often-delusional slander, President George W. Bush rarely grumbled, much less counterattacked his tormentors. Yet before he completed his first week in office, President Barack Obama -- a dedicated disciple of Saul Alinsky, who is to left-wing radicalism and social agitation what Karl Marx is to communism -- declared war on Rush Limbaugh.

This was a calculated move by a man who professes to be open to all ideas but apparently brooks no dissent. He not only does not tolerate dissent well but also really doesn't even like to be questioned, as we saw during the campaign, when he accused the normally fawning press of grilling him for merely asking a follow-up question. We caught another glimpse of this last week, when he showed irritation at the White House press corps for daring to ask him a policy question after he had decreed that the sole purpose of his visit was to press the flesh.

But Obama's effort to target Rush is not just his ego at work. He has begun a full-court press to advance his extreme left-wing agenda and was angling both to garner enough Republican support to insulate himself against future accountability for failure and to validate his self-styled image as a bipartisan uniter.

That's why he invited a group of Beltway conservatives for dinner, in a move reminiscent of Hillary Clinton's "listening tour" -- as if discerning observers believe that listening, as opposed to projecting an image of openness, was either Clinton's or Obama's purpose. That's why he surrounded himself with big-business CEOs as he unveiled his misnamed "stimulus" package. That's why he often throws meaningless, abstract bones to conservatives in his speeches while having no intention of diluting his specific concrete liberal policies.

Obama is savvy enough to realize he can't eliminate all dissent. But he's enough of an Alinskyite to know that marginalizing and demonizing his strongest opponents could intimidate the fainthearted into supporting or withholding criticism of his policies and increase his chances for success.

Continue reading "Targeting Rush: Saul Alinsky Would Be Proud"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:57 PM

January 26, 2009

Gitmo Questions for Press Secretary Robert Gibbs

During his first week in office, President Barack Obama signed an executive order requiring that the Guantanamo Bay detention facility be closed within a year. Later communications from his office disclose that he hasn't yet fully explored the potentially negative consequences of closing the facility. The problem, he said, is more complicated than it first appeared. This raises a number of questions, Mr. Gibbs:

--How can President Obama credibly maintain that the issue is more complicated than he thought, when people have been raising these problems for years? Is he just now discovering that there are serious consequences involved, or did he already know and finesse the issue during the campaign for political purposes? If he didn't know (and even more so if he did know), doesn't he owe former President George W. Bush an apology for his unfair criticisms? Doesn't he owe the American people an explanation as to how he could possibly have been unaware of such rudimentary aspects of this fundamentally important national security issue?

--Given that he now concedes there are unexplored complications, wasn't it precipitous and imprudent of him to issue the closure order? What if further research indicates there are no reasonable alternatives other than to bring these prisoners to the U.S. mainland and grant them the full panoply of constitutional rights? Or does he actually favor full-blown constitutional rights for terrorists? If so, will he not be leading America back to its pre-Sept. 11, 2001, mindset, which treated terrorism as a law enforcement matter rather than a military one?

Continue reading "Gitmo Questions for Press Secretary Robert Gibbs"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:33 PM

January 22, 2009

They're Poor Winners Too

Leftists are always lecturing Republicans and conservatives on the importance of civility and bipartisanship yet revealing, whether winner or losing, that they are the ones who need lessons in manners and collegiality.

If you aren't convinced of the left's nonpareil arrogance and nastiness from observing their behavior toward President Bush and Vice President Cheney for the past eight years, then contrast the behavior of Mr. Bush's staff leaving office and that of Mr. Clinton's, who literally trashed the White House like juvenile delinquents.

Fast-forwarding to this week, did you see Obama supporters booing President Bush at the inauguration, singing, "Na, na, na, na, hey, hey, hey, goodbye"? Pure class.

The Washington Times reported that these same Obama supporters mocked Mr. Cheney "with derisive laughter when he appeared on huge TV screens by the Capitol grounds, rolling down a ramp in a wheelchair after suffering a back injury moving out of his Naval Observatory home. 'Good riddance!' one man yelled."

Nor was it just rude mobs at the parade. "Hardball" host Chris Matthews wasn't content to bask in his euphoria over Obama's assumption of office. Like many of his colleagues, he needed to kick Bush as he was going out the door. "There'll be no more bullying of the world, no more acting like one of the bad guys on occasion. We're going to try again to be the good guy of the world and to get along with our fellow democracies. It is a dramatic change that's to come." Dramatic, indeed, Chris.

Continue reading "They're Poor Winners Too"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:44 PM

January 19, 2009

Republicans Must Turn Down the Kool-Aid

It's going to take real courage the next four years for Republicans to swim against the tide and oppose Barack Obama -- in whom so many have placed their hopes, almost to the point of idolatry. But if Obama governs in a way that's consistent with his promises, the country's future security and prosperity will depend on spirited opposition.

It's bad enough for the liberal media to deify Obama, but it's almost unbearable for right-wing commentators and politicians to jump on this bandwagon, as well, as if Obama's personal attributes have blinded them to the policy dangers he represents.

During the Bush years, the left blamed Bush for the absence of bipartisanship, when, by any rational measure, they were the ones whose relentless vitriol made bipartisanship impossible.

Forgive the analogy, but their reversal of blame is reminiscent of a memorable scene in the movie "Animal House," when fraternity hotshot "Otter" pressured the hapless legacy pledge, "Flounder," into lending him his brother's car. When Otter returned the car after having demolished it, Otter chastised Flounder for entrusting the car to him. "You (screwed) up. You trusted me."

Now, after eight years of this poison, the same specious theme from the Bush bashers has found a new application: "Republicans must work with Barack Obama and restore a spirit of collegiality to Washington," as if they have any moral authority to be lecturing, but even more importantly, as if a spirit of collegiality will solve America's problems.

Continue reading "Republicans Must Turn Down the Kool-Aid"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:12 PM

January 15, 2009

Bloodlust of the Avenging Left

There is obviously no limit to the political left's bloodlust for all things George W. Bush, as witnessed by two news items this week. If Barack Obama is as levelheaded and pragmatic as his supporters insist, he'll have his work cut out for him dealing with these avengers on his side of the ideological spectrum.

On Tuesday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers issued a 500-page report, whose executive summary boasts "was drafted to itemize and document the various abuses that occurred during the Bush Administration." The report recommends "that the new Administration conduct an independent criminal inquiry into whether any laws were broken in connection with these activities."

The same day, Slate magazine published an op-ed by Yale law professor Bruce Ackerman suggesting that 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Jay Bybee be impeached, essentially because "he was responsible for the notorious torture memos that enabled the excesses at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and other places."

Both of these items are equally outrageous and demonstrate the potential dangerousness of leftists in power. How ironic that the gravamen of each complaint is an alleged abuse of power while its recommended remedy would constitute a worse abuse (the criminalization of policy differences), especially considering the weakness of the complaints.

The Conyers vendetta seeks to criminally probe Bush officials involved with the National Security Agency's surveillance program, the tough interrogation techniques of enemy combatants, the manipulation of intelligence, the firing of U.S. attorneys, and other matters.

Continue reading "Bloodlust of the Avenging Left"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:02 PM

January 12, 2009

Obama's Conflicting Goals

President-elect Barack Obama's enormous stimulus package would be scary enough without learning the details. To inject the same staggering amount of government-created or borrowed money into the economy as has already been spent or set aside for the government bailout when there's no proof it will jump-start our economy and no thought given to how we're going to recoup this money is madness. But when you hear some of the uses he has for this money, it is way beyond madness.

Let's put aside for a moment our valid objections to the Keynesian idea that the government can create prosperity simply by printing and distributing money as if it were "Monopoly" money. If that were true, the only limit to our sustained prosperity would be the amounts of paper and ink we could produce.

Let's also put aside the enormity of the liberal hypocrisy of railing against deficit spending for the past eight years, as Obama stands blissfully poised to dwarf those records.

Instead, let's just examine Obama's inflexible commitment to two conflicting goals, as evidenced in his interview on "This Week" with George Stephanopoulos: 1) spending the "Monopoly" money in a way most likely to stimulate the economy (assuming here the validity of Keynesian theory) and 2) spending the money in a way most likely to satisfy liberal social planners.

Obama said: "Here are a few things we're going to do. We are going to double alternative energy production. We are going to weatherize 2 million homes. We are going to create a much more efficient energy system."

Can someone explain how these ideas, apart from constitutional objections, are going to do much more than lower utility bills for those the liberal planners decide are worthy and please the High Church of Al Gore? But stimulate the economy? Please.

Continue reading "Obama's Conflicting Goals"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:52 PM

January 08, 2009

To Your Battle Stations, Conservatives

The best long-term solutions for our ailing economy are to restore market forces in every possible sector, reduce the crippling tax burden, and restore responsible fiscal practices to the federal government. Sadly, the incoming Obama administration plans on moving in the opposite direction in all these areas and believes it has a mandate to do so. Are conservatives asleep or just worn down?

Too many Americans have succumbed to the propaganda that the market is inherently evil and fraught with excesses fueled by "capitalistic greed" and that such systemic corruption has led to our economic woes. Only large-scale government intervention can rescue us from this pernicious system.

Under Democratic and Republican administrations alike, we have advanced ever more rapidly away from a free market environment and toward a command and control economy. Steadily we have accepted the notion that politicians should pick winners and losers based on their ideas of fairness rather than having market forces be the ultimate arbiter.

We have swallowed the fearmongering admonitions of public officials who insist that even apart from the moral question of picking winners and losers, our government must bail out "essential" segments of the economy, such as the automobile industry, lest the entire economy be doomed for extinction. Indeed, this word "essential" has proved to be an essential tool for the left in these difficult times.

True conservatives out there -- however many remain -- must not forget the ominous words of Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, who said: "Rule one: Never allow a crisis to go to waste. They are opportunities to do big things."

Continue reading "To Your Battle Stations, Conservatives"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:49 PM

January 05, 2009

Are They All Democrats Now?

Barack Obama, itching to implement his gigantic stimulus package as soon as possible, is dangling the idea of combining his spending package with a tax cut in hopes of securing another kind of stimulus: Republican support for his package. Republicans should remember that when you polish manure, you still have manure.

Obama went to Capitol Hill Monday to promote his stimulus plan of between $675 billion and $775 billion. An estimated 40 percent of the package (between $270 billion and $310 billion) would consist of tax cuts.

Obama strategists say the proposed tax cuts are based on historical and empirical evidence of what works, not ideology. But despite his denials, Obama's intention to target the cuts to the "middle class" and exclude higher-income earners, whose stimulated activity has been shown to have the greatest economic impact, betrays his crippling bondage to ideology.

The lion's share of the relief would involve $500 tax cuts per individual or $1,000 per family for income earners and an equal amount in credits for those who qualify for the "earned-income" credit. But he would phase out those cuts and credits for households with incomes of $200,000 or more, which is inexplicable apart from ideology and class-warfare populism.

Also demonstrating his ideological motivations, Obama's plan envisions short-term relief via one-time tax credits or refunds rather than long-term changes to the tax code. As others have noted, long-term changes are far more effective at stimulating growth because producers and consumers look to the long term in making their investment, hiring and spending decisions.

Continue reading "Are They All Democrats Now?"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:28 PM

December 29, 2008

Biden's Bogus Feud with Cheney

If Vice President-elect Joe Biden were slightly less enamored with his own voice he might not confuse himself so often on issues that matter so much, such as his views of presidential and vice presidential authority.

We've all heard about Biden's feud with Vice President Dick Cheney over Cheney's supposed view of executive authority relative to the other branches of government and Cheney's view of the vice president's role.

These happen to be two separate issues. Whether the president encroaches on the constitutional authority of the other branches is a different issue from whether the vice president oversteps his bounds inside the executive branch, or in his limited role in the legislative branch.

The problem is that Biden conflates these issues. He can't seem to keep straight whether he's exercised about an overreaching executive branch or an overreaching vice president mostly inside that branch.

My guess is that he confuses the two issues because, like other Democrats and liberals, he sees Cheney as the real villain in both cases. He blames Cheney, Bush's presumed puppet master, for Bush's alleged executive power grabs and he blames Cheney for overstepping his bounds as vice president.

Continue reading "Biden's Bogus Feud with Cheney"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:44 PM

December 22, 2008

New Column: Beware of Obama's Middle-Class Task Force

When you read reports that President-elect Obama is going to establish a "task force to assist middle-class families" and that incoming VP Joe Biden will be its point man, keep a very sharp eye on what's going on here. It's an appeal to form over substance designed to convince voters he cares so much that even if he fails, he should be lauded and, of course, re-elected.

Modern Democrats have perfected the art of political propaganda, as seen in their demonization of "the Bush economy" for most of Bush's two terms despite the mostly positive economic numbers during that period. My guess is that under President Obama, they'll seek to do the reverse, if necessary: wooing the public with constant overtures to "the middle class" designed to mollify it irrespective of actual economic conditions.

Analogous to a teacher "teaching to the test," when a teacher imparts information to students to help them score higher on college entrance exams as opposed to increasing their actual knowledge of the material, President Clinton mastered the art of governing to the polls.

He had an entire team working 24/7 on enhancing his image and eulogizing his policy agenda. It's true that their task was aided by a robust economy, but the Clinton "war room" was still undeniably powerful well beyond the elections.

How much more shocking it was, then, for the young neophyte to take the Clintons to school, especially in the organizational and grass-roots aspects of the campaign. It would have been no less amazing if one of Muhammad Ali's sparring partners, such as Jimmy Ellis, had knocked Ali out instead of being knocked out himself.

Continue reading "New Column: Beware of Obama's Middle-Class Task Force"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:38 PM

December 18, 2008

Recapturing Supply-Side Coherence

It is widely assumed in conservative circles that Republicans, even under President Bush, pretty much had tax policy right but failed on the spending side. Unfortunately, there's more to it. If conservatives plan to recapture ascendancy on economic issues, they better come to a clearer understanding of supply-side theory. Then perhaps they can articulate it and recapture it as a powerful electoral weapon.

Even when history is on their side, Republicans seem to find a way not to capitalize on it and routinely forfeit the narrative to Democrats, who dwarf them in the communications department from sheer repetition, if nothing else.

The Reagan tax cuts were so phenomenally successful that it's amazing Democrats were able to recover politically as quickly as they did. Despite historical revision to the contrary, all income groups did much better under the Reagan cuts. Remarkably, a Treasury Department study showed that 86 percent of people in the lowest 20 percent of income earners in 1979 graduated into higher categories during the '80s.

The tax cuts skewered then prevailing Keynesian economic theory, producing sustained peacetime economic growth without inflation. The reductions in marginal-income- and capital-gains tax rates even increased revenues.

It doesn't matter how much we repeat this truism or how blue our faces become in the process; the relative deficit explosion during the Reagan years was not caused by the tax cuts but by increases in government spending. Yet Democrats succeeded in establishing the narrative that the tax cuts were at the expense of essential government services and that the cuts increased the deficit and the national debt, thus dubbing the '80s the decade of greed.

Continue reading "Recapturing Supply-Side Coherence"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:46 PM

December 15, 2008

What's in a Middle Name?

When I first heard that Barack Obama said he had decided to include his middle name, "Hussein," in his swearing-in ceremony, I wondered whether the satirical Web site ScrappleFace had tricked the mainstream media.

Surely, after Obama's acolytes scolded commentators for using Barack's Muslim-sounding middle name during the campaign, the president-elect himself wouldn't so quickly reverse course. But, in fact, he did.

In an exclusive interview with the Chicago Tribune, Obama said he'll use his full name in the ceremony like every other president.

I have no problem with that, as far as it goes. But Obama went further. He's not using his middle name simply because it's his middle name, but as part of a deliberate strategy to "reboot America's image" among the world's Muslims. He also plans to deliver a major speech in an Islamic capital, possibly within the first 100 days of his presidency.

Why, you might ask, is all this necessary?

Simple: because of President Bush's myriad sins against Muslims since 9/11. The Associated Press reports, as if imparting objective fact, "The U.S. image globally has taken a deep hit during President George W. Bush's two terms in office, primarily because of opposition to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, harsh interrogation of prisoners, the indefinite detention of terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and mistreatment of inmates at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq."

Continue reading "What's in a Middle Name?"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:46 PM

December 11, 2008

No More Bailouts

If our government's economic experts really knew what they were doing, they wouldn't be frenetically experimenting with the people's money, treating billions like nickels. They wouldn't be so hellbent on dampening expectations and instilling fear as if oblivious to the real impact of public psychology on the economy.

I'm just not buying their doomsaying anymore. Even if they're right and we do end up in a full-scale financial meltdown, at least it will be finite and America's best days will still be ahead of us. But if we don't stop this panic-driven government intervention madness now, the chances are we'll still face a major meltdown and pass the point of no return into the bottomless pit of socialism.

The auto bailout and future proposed gargantuan government interventions must be rejected.

Government bailout architects ominously warned that unless we adopted their original "$700 billion" bailout proposal to purchase distressed mortgage assets, we'd face catastrophic economic consequences rivaling or exceeding the Great Depression.

Just weeks later, these same architects betrayed their own warnings and said their do-or-die plan would not work after all. Buying the troubled assets wouldn't inject capital into the banks quickly enough, so instead the government would have to distribute the money directly to major financial institutions.

Continue reading "No More Bailouts"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:48 PM

December 08, 2008

Responding to the Relentless Liberal Tide

If there's one thing I've learned in my 55 years, it's that liberals are relentless and will win through sheer persistence if conservatives abandon the fight.

The incoming U.S. government stands poised to forever alter the balance between governmental power and individual liberties and to replace the free market economy with socialist planning.

And what do we hear from many conservatives? That we should be encouraged that President-elect Obama has announced certain key centrist appointees and that we should convince ourselves this means he will not pursue the agenda he plainly tells us he will pursue. Savvy liberals must be laughing themselves silly.

Pro-life forces have made inroads into the collective consciousness and against the abominable practice of abortion, and they've been gratified by the appointments of two strict constructionist justices in Roberts and Alito. That said, Americans have just elected the most life-hostile president in our history, who got a complete pass on social issues during the campaign and who might be in a position to appoint three or more liberal activist judges.

But what are many conservatives saying? That Republicans got trounced because of the Christian right's uncompromising positions on social issues. That analysis doesn't square in theory (the majority of Americans are not pro-choice) or in reality (social issues were on the backburner in the national election, and social conservatism triumphed in state ballot initiatives, even in the liberal California).

Continue reading "Responding to the Relentless Liberal Tide"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:40 PM

December 04, 2008

What the Obama Cult Factor Portends

The cult mystique of Barack Obama continues while his fawning supporters blindly accept every move he makes, proving their support for him in the general election was not based as much on policy as personality. This could play right into Obama's hands if, as I believe, he does have major change on his mind.

From a policy standpoint, Obama's campaign was fueled -- initially, at least -- by his unequivocal stance against the Iraq war. He was the only credible candidate (excluding such buffoons as Dennis Kucinich) who maintained from the outset that he opposed the war.

Apart from his charisma and superior organizational operation, especially in the caucus states, his opposition to the war might have been the single most important factor contributing to his defeat of Hillary Clinton. Clinton, thinking she was the inevitable nominee, presumably believed she could sporadically assume the role of hawk with impunity looking to the general election. By the time Hillary was done posturing back and forth on the war, no one could be sure what her position really was, other than that she would say what she needed to say, consistency be damned, to best preserve her presidential viability.

Obama shrewdly capitalized on Hillary's ambivalence, parlaying his opposition to the war to his maximum advantage. Given the nation's Bush fatigue -- no matter how unjustified from a broad historical perspective -- and Bush's very low approval ratings, it only made sense for Democratic presidential aspirants to make themselves the anti-Bush.

Because the Iraq war was perceived as Bush's greatest sin and almost all other sins flowed from Iraq or were somehow conflated with it -- Abu Ghraib, rendition, waterboarding, "unilateralism," NSA surveillance, Halliburton, Gitmo, etc. -- Obama was uniquely positioned to be the anti-Bush.

Continue reading "What the Obama Cult Factor Portends"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:46 PM

December 01, 2008

Obama a Centrist? Like I'm a Liberal

I am far less convinced than many that Barack Obama will be a centrist in office. Despite his announced future Cabinet appointees, I find it amazing that people are so willing to believe he'll change his stripes that fast.

Just what about Obama's very liberal voting record to date causes one to believe he'll be any different as president? I could see an aspiring presidential candidate establishing a centrist legislative record in the state and federal senates to make himself more electable as president, but not the other way around.

There's another red flag that should give pause to those hoping against hope -- pun intended -- that Obama will indeed govern as a centrist. The very liberal mainstream media are giving Obama nothing but plaudits for his presumed centrist appointments. If they truly believed he had changed his governing philosophy, they would be anything but sanguine.

Even the far-left blogosphere has not thrown in the towel yet. They're not ecstatic, but I think deep down, they know they have a fellow traveler about to take the oath of office. As one writer for the liberal Huffington Post put it, "He will be the president we want him to be."

Also, just because this or that appointee was in the Clinton administration does not mean Obama is a centrist. The media have whitewashed any liberalism associated with the Clintons and portrayed them as committed moderates.

Continue reading "Obama a Centrist? Like I'm a Liberal"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:20 PM

November 24, 2008

Bipartisanship: For the Common Good?

Many say that now that Barack Obama has been elected, we should all work together for the common good. That sounds wonderful until you realize that we don't all agree on what is the common good.

Notice I don't take the position that Republicans should refuse to cooperate with Mr. Obama because Democrats have been indescribably partisan, cruel and unfair to President Bush for the past eight years. Those are certainly grounds to call them hypocrites, but we must always put the best interests of the nation above petty partisanship -- obviously.

So we must ask: Would it be in the best interest of the nation for Republicans to work with Barack Obama?

The only sensible answer is: It depends on what policies Obama pursues. As much as people want to believe that getting along is the highest good, there are many more important things.

If Democrats were being honest, they would agree with that statement. Otherwise, they owe us an explanation as to why they opposed President Bush at every turn. Could it be they think their ideas on Iraq, the war on terror, education, stem cell research, judges, the environment, immigration and the rest are more important to them than simply getting along? I thought so.

Continue reading "Bipartisanship: For the Common Good?"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 01:25 PM

November 20, 2008

Evangelicals -- A Drag on or Essential to the GOP?

A good friend of mine (let's call him Bob) is convinced that unless the GOP puts abortion "aside as its focal point, it simply cannot win and regain power." That's especially interesting in light of Kathleen Parker's latest column, which disses the evangelical wing of the GOP.

Bob's point is that "we've lost a majority of women over this issue as they have become one-issue voters." It's not only liberal women but also others who believe it's simply not the government's business.

Kathleen Parker broadens the point considerably beyond abortion: "The evangelical, right-wing, oogedy-boogedy branch of the GOP is what ails the erstwhile conservative party and will continue to afflict and marginalize its constituents if reckoning doesn't soon cometh." Since the 1980s or so, says Parker, the GOP "has become increasingly beholden to an element that used to be relegated to wooden crates on street corners. ... The GOP has surrendered its high ground to its lowest brows. In the process, the party has alienated its non-base constituents."

I'll resist the temptation to respond specifically to Kathleen's uncharitable indictment of us knuckle draggers because I like Kathleen personally and because I want to respond to her and Bob's overlapping contention that certain social conservatives are dragging the party down.

Bob's opinion is largely based on his personal conversations with women, and Kathleen writes, "If one were to eavesdrop on private conservations among the party intelligentsia, one would hear precisely that ... armband religion is killing the Republican Party." But do their anecdotal reports justify their conclusions?

Continue reading "Evangelicals -- A Drag on or Essential to the GOP?"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:43 PM

November 17, 2008

Toward the Tipping Point

In the aftermath of the 2008 Republican electoral bloodbath, many are discussing what direction the party should take to recapture its vitality and viability. Liberals -- as if they have the best interests of the GOP at heart -- and so-called elitist, Northeastern Republicans seem to agree the party should tack center. I disagree.

Traditional conservatism and its advocates invariably get bad raps. They're painted as uncompromising, uncompassionate extremists who won't adjust to the realities of the 21st century.

But those familiar with modern history understand that these intramural debates have been going on for decades. I remember my father complaining about Rockefeller Republicans in the early '60s, so the schism had to have begun much earlier than that.

From what I can gather, the David Brooks and David Frum wing of the conservative movement wants conservatism to grow, sort of like liberals want the Constitution to be a "living document." Big government -- at least, an active, energetic government -- is here to stay, and we better get on board. Our debate with liberals must be one of minor degree rather than kind. We should accept, rather than resist or attempt to roll back, the leviathan and instead address how best to direct it, lest we relegate ourselves to political irrelevance.

We traditionalists should acknowledge that in one sense, the Davids have a point. After all, it was no less a traditionalist than Mark Steyn, if I may categorize him as such, who recently lamented that "settled democratic societies rarely vote to 'go left.' Yet oddly enough that's where they've all gone."

Continue reading "Toward the Tipping Point"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:25 PM

November 13, 2008

Sanctimonious Stone Throwers

God bless Sarah Palin, and shame on elitists from both sides of the aisle who have denigrated, demonized and dissed her. I don't care how many "smartest people in the room" types offer pseudo-sophisticated analyses to prove she was a drag on the GOP presidential ticket. They are all manifestly and embarrassingly wrong -- and woefully out of touch -- which is par for the course for elitists.

Speaking of elitists, it's time to address their contempt for rural and southern America, particularly their ongoing smear of the South (and, truth be told, rank-and-file conservative Republicans) as racist.

For all the accolades Barack Obama is receiving, he should acknowledge a bit of egg on his face for invoking race with his failed prediction that his opponents would play the race card. "They're going to try to … make you scared of me," he said. "You know, 'He's not patriotic enough; he's got a funny name.' You know, 'He doesn't look like all those other presidents on those dollar bills."

Then there was Newsweek's poster boy for liberal smugness, Jonathan Alter, hypothecating a scenario in which Obama could lose because of racism. Alter said the following factors would have contributed:

--"Erosion in the critical I-4 corridor near Tampa and in the Panhandle, where the astonishing Republican margins among whites could be attributed only to race."

--"The transformation of the northern part of (Virginia) couldn't overcome a huge McCain margin among whites farther south. They weren't the racists of their parents' generation, but they weren't quite ready to vote for the unthinkable, either."

Alter then cited an earlier Newsweek story, which asked, "Is America Ready (for a black president)?" "The answer: only if Obama proved close to a flawless candidate, and even then, we won't know for sure until Election Day. That doesn't mean Obama lost because all, or even most, McCain voters allowed race to be a factor. But enough did to change the outcome."

Continue reading "Sanctimonious Stone Throwers"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:59 PM

November 10, 2008

Liberal Censorship and Its Roots

The most unnerving aspects about the Democrats' sweeping victory Nov. 4 are their intolerance for dissent and their willingness to censor and otherwise suppress their opponents. Consider:

We keep hearing that Sarah Palin's criticism of Obama for "palling around with terrorists" increased death threats against him, which is bogus in the extreme but consistent with the inveterate liberal tactic of chilling conservative speech by saying it incites violence.

Ohio state employee Vanessa Niekamp said she was ordered to run a child-support check on Joe the Plumber, the man who asked Barack Obama an innocuous question about redistributing taxpayer income. Niekamp doesn't remember ever having checked into anyone else without having a legitimate reason to do so, such as discovering that someone recently came into money.

Democratic prosecutors in St. Louis threatened criminal prosecution against candidate Obama's critics. In Pennsylvania, lawyers for Obama wrote intimidating letters to TV and radio stations that aired unflattering ads documenting Obama's anti-gun record. The Obama campaign complained to the Department of Justice about the American Issues Project's ad tying Obama to William Ayers. Obama supporters flooded Chicago radio station WGN with harassing calls during its interviews of conservative writers investigating Obama.

On election night, Philadelphia police arrested a man who dared to wear a McCain-Palin '08 T-shirt at an Obama celebration rally. What's scarier is that the Obama crowd reportedly chanted with joy as cops arrested the man for exercising his freedom of political expression. According to the liberal worldview, arresting someone for disagreeing with you is not censorship, but implying someone is not patriotic is.

Continue reading "Liberal Censorship and Its Roots"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:49 PM

November 06, 2008

Conservatives, Don't Be Hypnotized

Let me first say that we conservatives should be gracious in defeat because it's the right thing to do. That does not mean, however, that we should for one minute abandon the vigorous pursuit of our ideas. The left never does, and we cannot afford to.

We mustn't be sucked in to demands for bipartisanship from those who wouldn't practice it if their lives depended on it, lest we continue down the perilous path of unilaterally surrendering our ideas in the misguided hope that getting along is our highest aspiration.

Remember in 2001, after liberals had already bludgeoned President Bush for 36 days and accused him of stealing an election they'd tried to steal, when they demanded he show bipartisanship? That is, those who lost insisted that those who won reach out to them. They said Bush didn't have a mandate and should voluntarily dilute his conservative policy proposals in the interest of getting along.

In that case, bipartisanship meant that conservatives should become more liberal on their own instead of the two factions fighting for their respective programs and letting the votes fall where they may.

Now the liberals have won, and again, they are calling for bipartisanship. But they're not demanding from themselves, as the victors, the same standard they demanded of President Bush in 2000 or 2004. They aren't counseling themselves to moderate their own positions to make them more palatable to congressional conservatives; they're saying that congressional Republicans should move toward Obama in a spirit of "bipartisanship." Heads I win; tails you lose.

Continue reading "Conservatives, Don't Be Hypnotized"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:24 PM

November 03, 2008

Sorry, but Obama Scares Me

The prospect of a Barack Obama presidency makes me very nervous.

Obama's entire campaign has been based on the need for radical, transformational change, which implies there is something very wrong with America.

It's hardly surprising, then, that he has painted the bleakest picture of America instead of acknowledging, as a starting point, that we are still the greatest nation in the world.

For the past eight years, Democrats have slandered America as an imperialistic country that always prefers force to diplomacy; that attacks nations without provocation to enrich itself and to project its power; that intentionally targets civilian lives; that encourages sadistic torture of enemy prisoners, as opposed to tough interrogation techniques to extract information to save the lives of its people; that eavesdrops on private conversations among its citizens rather than monitoring terrorist communications into its borders; and that abuses rather than goes out of its way to accommodate the savages in Guantanamo's prison. None of it is true.

For eight years, Democrats have poor-mouthed the mostly growing economy. They've lied that Bush's tax cuts for all income groups were only for the wealthy and that the cuts reduced revenues. They pretend to be deficit hawks, when Obama's new spending plans alone will make Bush look like Scrooge. They said Bush wanted to destroy Social Security, when he's the only one in the past 20 years who had the courage to try to reform it. All lies.

Continue reading "Sorry, but Obama Scares Me"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:12 PM

October 30, 2008

From Being Watchdogs to Needing Watchdogs

The mainstream media, who forgot Felix Frankfurter's admonition that "freedom of the press is not an end in itself but a means to the end of a free society," long ago abdicated their role as government watchdog and now require a watchdog themselves. Never has that been clearer than in the 2008 presidential election, during which they are covering up rather than covering Barack Obama's shady past and alliances, his knee-deep involvement in corrupt practices threatening the very core of our democratic system, and his many policy misrepresentations.

Consider some items the MSM would have explored if they were guardians of liberty instead of the Obama campaign.

--When Democrats insist every vote must count, do they also mean multiple votes from individuals and votes from dead and nonexistent people? If not, why aren't the MSM demanding answers about Obama's incestuous relationship with the criminal enterprise ACORN, whose serial crimes could alter the outcome of this election?

--How can the MSM allow ACORN's dissemblers to deflect the charge that they are seeking illegal votes with "these are registrations, not ballots," as if there is any purpose in procuring illegal registrations apart from maximizing illegal votes?

--The MSM preach that money in politics necessarily corrupts, so why do they ignore Obama's broken promise to accept public financing, his record-breaking campaign receipts, and the large number of untraceable contributions?

Continue reading "From Being Watchdogs to Needing Watchdogs"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:35 PM

October 27, 2008

Fundamental Change? Count on It

I am sincerely worried that if Obama wins, the checks and balances incorporated into our Constitution may not be enough to prevent a radical and irreversible diminution of our individual liberties because a confluence of factors has emerged to create a climate conducive to fundamental change.

These factors are: a shockingly unknown candidate, whose mysterious past and numerous shady alliances are deliberately left unexplored by a corrupt, supportive media; the candidate's charismatic qualities that inspire a cultish loyalty; his intellectual trappings that create a fascination and allure among the intellectual elite, including some hypnotized conservatives; a major financial crisis that exacerbates the people's fears and uncertainties; a largely manufactured cloud of negativity placed over America by the media and a grossly partisan Democratic Party that places its self-interest above the national interest; and an apparently discredited Republican Party and conservative movement that have been blamed for our actual and perceived problems.

All of these could lead to entrusting this man with unprecedented power, giving him a license to operate with minimum scrutiny and an opposition party effectively impotent to oppose his radical blueprint for America.

More than ever, perception is trumping reality. An unprincipled Democratic Party, aided by a morally decadent media, has demonized President Bush, the Republican Party and America itself with distortions and polarizing propaganda designed to dispirit and divide Americans on the bases of race, class and gender. Just look at the domestic and foreign policy picture they have painted the past eight years.

While we are having serious financial problems now, we had a strong economy for most of President Bush's two terms, but the media pushed the Democrats' critique that it was in perpetual recession. As for our real financial crisis, objective observers understand Democratic programs and policies primarily caused it, but Democrats have successfully blamed Republicans for it.

Continue reading "Fundamental Change? Count on It"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:21 PM

October 23, 2008

Obamanomics Abhors the Free Market

For Obama Kool-Aid guzzlers who believe Joe the Plumber was a premeditated Republican plant to trap Obama into admitting his communist inclinations (even though Obama approached Joe, not the other way around), I refer you to Obama's history of similar utterances in favor of soaking the rich.

In June, Obama said he'd designed his tax and spending policies to deal, in part, with the challenge of our "winner-take-all" economy, where the gains from economic growth skew heavily toward the wealthy. "A strong government hand," he said, "is needed to assure that wealth is distributed more equitably." He said he'd seen "no evidence" that tax cuts, particularly on business, spurred growth, calling the idea "flawed economics." He must be unfamiliar with the Kennedy, Reagan and George W. Bush years, pre-financial crisis.

In April 2005, Obama mocked President Bush's reference to an "ownership society," where "each of us are on our own, managing risks and returns in the free marketplace." When asked how "the government should help us share the risks of the new economy and reap greater rewards from the new economy," Obama replied, "Well, right now what we're seeing is the average American is reaping all the risks and not many of the rewards."

In September 2006, Obama agreed with a questioner that "there needs to be an increased focus on the common good, directing more energy and resources toward improving the income and standard of living of Americans who are not in upper-income brackets." Obama added, "I think the problem is that they've got a different idea of America than the idea that we've got." You think?

In March 2007, Obama said Bush wants government to have no role in ensuring that America is prosperous for all people and not just some. The "term for it (is) 'social Darwinism' -- every man and woman for him or herself." Obama must be kidding to suggest Bush has no commitment to a safety net, with his prescription drug and education policies, to name a few.

Continue reading "Obamanomics Abhors the Free Market"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:52 PM

October 20, 2008

OK, Let's Skip the Liberal Label

There's little doubt America is a center-right nation, which is why Barack Obama denies and conceals his liberalism and packages himself as a harbinger of hope and change.

Obama's policies represent change all right: change from almost everything our Founding Fathers considered sacred and vital to the preservation of individual liberty in America.

He also offers hope: hope for those who share his shame in what America has become, what it stands for, and what makes it unique in world history. Hope that an unenlightened America can be remade by this "transformational" man in an image pleasing to George Soros, the Hollywood elite, MoveOn.org, the Daily Kos and Michael Moore.

But if labels bother you, let's look at Obama's alliances and policies and let them speak for themselves.

If you are so intoxicated with "hope" that you believe Obama wasn't aware of and not in sync with the Rev. Wright's militantly racist and anti-American views or his black liberation theology, then it's probably too much to ask for you to be objective about his links to Bill Ayers and ACORN.

Continue reading "OK, Let's Skip the Liberal Label"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 02:24 PM

October 16, 2008

Socialism! There, I've Said It

In certain unscripted moments, Barack Obama has given us a glimpse of his socialist inclinations, but I wonder what percentage would vote for him if they truly understood the extent of his radicalism.

Yet the financial crisis has created a climate of fear and uncertainty and unleashed an unprecedented tolerance for large-scale government intervention, which is playing perfectly into Obama's hands. People are blaming this largely Democratic-spawned mess on Republicans because Bush is still president.

Maybe I'm being too much of an alarmist, but I'm worried for the first time in my life that the election of a presidential candidate could lead to a fundamental change in our system of government. Just listen to the comments of post-debate focus group members expressing a knowing willingness to accept Obama's socialism, such is their angst at the subprime mortgage mess.

Already some 38 percent of Americans do not pay income taxes, and Barack Obama wants to increase that percentage dramatically. How ironic that he and other Democrats pretend to be targeting their message to "working-class" people when many of their constituents aren't working. But such is class warfare that the upper-middle class and wealthy are demonized as not earning an honest living.

Do you suppose it has registered with class warfare-receptive Obama voters that Obama is deliberately turning the American dream on its head? Could it be any clearer that his message to the middle class is: Don't aspire to achievement, success and wealth because a) it is immoral to have more than others, b) the government will take your wealth away from you and give it to others, and c) why bother to bust your rear end to make more when you can vote yourselves money from the public trough?

Continue reading "Socialism! There, I've Said It"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:08 PM

October 13, 2008

Still Time for Voters To Wake Up

Strapped to a polygraph on national TV, I would assert quite confidently that I would strongly condemn thuggish and criminal tactics by a candidate I supported. The ends do not justify the means for me and most other conservatives I know. I wish I believed the same were true for liberals, far too many of whom are deliberately turning their backs on the corruption defining Obama's campaign.

It would be bad enough if the Stalinesque stench engulfing the messiah's campaign were limited merely to its efforts to elect him. But what we fear is that these campaign tactics are of a piece with his policy agenda and his vision for America.

Sincerely intending no melodrama here, it's hard not to conclude that Obama aims to change America in fundamental ways, the common denominator of which would be to diminish individual liberties, the most distinguishing feature of the unique American system. Sadly, most Obama supporters have no clue what Obama is ultimately about or how his innocuous-sounding ideas could permanently destroy our freedoms.

It's inconceivable that even a low-level Republican candidate could have Obama's associations and employ his campaign tactics without being driven from the race. And yet we've got a man running for the highest office in the land surrounded with anti-American allies and covert election burglars, all protected by an unprecedented mainstream-media cover-up.

Democrats tell us they place the highest possible value on the integrity of the election process, yet their uniform response to ACORN's systematic assault on the voter registration process is unmitigated indifference and denial.

Continue reading "Still Time for Voters To Wake Up"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:36 PM | TrackBack (0)

October 09, 2008

The Stealth Candidate

Democrats assume Republicans are raising Obama's many questionable relationships in a desperation effort to salvage the election. You might think this is splitting hairs, but I believe the reason is that these relationships scare the daylights out of us.

Conservatives were very much opposed to Bill Clinton for myriad reasons, but with decades in elective office in Arkansas, at least he wasn't a stealth candidate. Though rumors and mysteries abounded, Clinton was hardly a blank slate who emerged out of nowhere.

Obama is different. He burst onto the political scene and has risen with such alacrity that even many of his supporters don't have a clue what he's about or where he would take America.

It's no wonder the conspiracy types are whispering that he's the Manchurian candidate. It's not as if he's embracing his past; it's more as if he's concealing it, and for good reason. People have a right to know just how radical this man is because America's destiny is in the balance.

I've always been extremely confident that no matter which party is in power, it can only do so much damage in four years because of the ingenious safeguards our Constitution contains to preserve the essential structure of government that maximizes individual liberty. But I admit I'm more concerned today.

Continue reading "The Stealth Candidate"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:12 PM

October 06, 2008

Don't Go Wobbly; Follow Sarah

There are many reasons that Sarah Palin is energizing the conservative base. It's not just her authenticity, freshness, noble defense of traditional values, and vivaciousness. This lady is finally giving red-state conservatives a voice, and she's taking it to the other side without apologies.

Democrats are crying foul because she's confronting Barack Obama for his worrisome attitudes about America and his way-more-than-casual association with unrepentant domestic terrorist William Ayers. Some squeamish conservatives are counseling that we ignore this issue either because it is unpleasant and unfair or that it's a distraction from the "substantive" issues.

Nonsense. This issue is neither unfair nor a diversion. It is imperative that we learn the extent of Obama's intimacy with this man. It's vital that we examine whether this relationship is part of a pattern of Barack Obama associating himself with people and causes that are hostile to the foundational principles of this nation.

We must reject the Democrats' convenient talking point that McCain and Palin can't walk and chew gum at the same time. That if they focus on Ayers, they can't explore Wright, Rezko, Raines, ACORN, the Democrats' primary culpability for the financial crisis, the evils of socialized medicine, the danger to America in Obama's retreat-and-defeat foreign policy, or his hostility to the free market.

Indeed, we must applaud Sarah Palin for standing up to her opponents and returning hostile fire. We're ready for her to lead the charge, not only on Obama's sordid relationships but also in articulating the monumental differences between the liberal and conservative approaches to governance.

Continue reading "Don't Go Wobbly; Follow Sarah"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:51 PM

October 02, 2008

Election-Altering Media Bias

It would be foolish of me to deny the obvious truth in a recent e-mail message I received pointing out how different the presidential polls would be today if the mainstream media were not so liberal.

Quit complaining, you say; there's an alternative media led by your brother, you whiner. Quit calling me a whiner, especially about the current plight of Republicans. It's my party, and I'll whine if I want to.

Unlike the MSM, the alternative media are honest that they are in the opinion business and freely admit their ideological leanings. They don't pretend to exemplify objective journalism. But unlike the MSM, their ethical commitment to truth is not routinely compromised by their mind-altering bias, as with that disgraceful episode known as Rathergate.

The MSM are a case study in psychological anomalies. They don't just deny their biases to us; they deny them to themselves, all while conspiring to affect the outcome of the election.

How do you reconcile their sincere self-denial of bias with their simultaneous demonstrations of bias? An epidemic of liberal insanity, with one side of the liberal brain forgetting to inform the other of what it's up to?

Continue reading "Election-Altering Media Bias"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:25 PM

September 29, 2008

Pinning the Tail on the Donkey

I believe John McCain won the foreign policy debate hands down, but he was unimpressive on economic issues, which, in fairness, were not supposed to be the subject of the first debate. But he can redeem himself in the next debate. Thankfully, Obama is exceedingly vulnerable here, even more so than on foreign policy, which is a mouthful.

McCain must attack Obama's class-warfare assertion that every economic problem we face, including, preposterously, the financial crisis, is a result of the Bush tax cuts. If McCain's going to be a supply-sider, he must begin talking like one. He must also steer far away from the silly populist line that the free market is somehow to blame for the crisis. Leave such blasphemy to the Obama Democrats.

But McCain's first order of business must be to address the financial crisis head-on -- instead of in generalities, as both he and Obama did in round one.

McCain should not consider this a problem but a softball served up by recent history and the comparative behavior of the two political parties and the two presidential candidates that he must knock out of the park. If McCain is willing to hit Obama in the gut with the full truth about the genesis of the crisis, he could emerge from the next debate as the clear favorite.

McCain's opportunity here is even richer when you consider that on this matter, despite his scant political record, Obama has very dirty hands. He cannot be allowed to pretend to have been a bystander when it's incontrovertible that the policies leading to this crisis were vintage Obama. The people who caused it are Obama's political allies and close friends.

Continue reading "Pinning the Tail on the Donkey"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:44 PM

September 25, 2008

Hiding the Ball

Why does Barack Obama play hide the ball with his personal resume, concealing his extreme leftist ideology and denying his damning associations? Question kind of answers itself, wouldn't you say? Be concerned, very concerned.

Obama hides his liberalism for the same reason every other liberal presidential candidate has: The electorate tilts center-right. This isn't just my gut speaking or some self-serving theory I'm propounding.

The Battleground poll -- a well-respected bipartisan affair conducted by the Terrance Group, a Republican polling organization -- and Lake Research Partners, a Democratic organization, tells us 60 percent of Americans identify themselves as conservatives.

But the specifics are even more telling. Twenty percent consider themselves very conservative, 40 percent somewhat conservative, 2 percent moderate, 27 percent liberal, 9 percent very liberal, and 3 percent don't know or didn't answer.

So John Kerry in 2004 and Barack Obama in 2008 didn't deny they were the most liberal senators because liberalism has become a dirty word through a clever conservative propaganda campaign. They denied it because liberalism is a minority position in reality, albeit an extraordinarily effective vocal minority.

Continue reading "Hiding the Ball"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:44 PM

September 22, 2008

The Hair of the Dog

"The private sector got us into this mess. The government has to get us out of it," said Barney Frank, which illustrates why conservatives often say liberals have a socialist bent.

Free market conservatives understand that many problems have been caused by government's officious intermeddling in the private sector. The subprime mortgage crisis is no exception.

History has shown that liberal prescriptions don't work, but when they fail, liberals invariably not only deny responsibility for their do-gooder manipulation but also insist on even more government intrusion. Think of it as "the hair of the dog" remedy on steroids.

For example, many of our health care problems can be traced to increased government control and the reduction of market forces. Yet the liberal solution is full-blown nationalized health care. Never mind that it doesn't work anywhere in the world and always leads to waiting lines and inferior health care. Never mind that the United States has the best health care in the history of the world, notwithstanding admittedly serious problems.

Another example is Social Security. Instead of creating a trust fund segregated from general revenues, congressional liberals with an insatiable appetite for spending raided Social Security revenues from day one. The system has been one big Ponzi scheme funded by IOUs from one arm of government to another. Bill Clinton and Al Gore had the audacity to propose a "lockbox" to secure Social Security, when their ideological predecessors happily breached their promise for the original lockbox.

Continue reading "The Hair of the Dog"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:26 PM

September 18, 2008

Scapegoating Tax Cuts

One has to wonder just how much more Democrats will milk class-warfare politics before people wake up to their deception.

No matter what economic problems we face, Democrats always find a way to blame them on the "rich" and the Bush tax cuts. Why? Because it rallies their base and -- they hope -- will alienate enough others against evil Bush Republicans to give Democrats a prohibitive advantage on domestic issues.

Joe Biden even blamed the current mortgage crisis on the Bush tax cuts. He said: "We should try to correct the problems that caused this ... (which are) the profligate tax cuts to the very, very wealthy that John (McCain) wants to continue."

Never mind that low- and middle-income earners received greater tax rate reductions than the highest-income earners; that doesn't fit within the Democrats' class-envy template. Forget the reckless legislation forcing financial institutions to lend money to people who probably couldn't pay it back -- to satisfy the liberals' obsession with looking compassionate and pandering to minorities. Forget that Obama was the second-highest recipient of campaign cash from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (according to the Center for Responsive Politics), cash aimed at keeping congressional regulators off their backs. Forget that big fat cat Democrats served in executive positions at these quasi-governmental entities and milked them at taxpayers' expense. Forget that Obama chose one of those fat cats, Jim Johnson, to serve on his vice presidential search committee.

Despite the Democrats' destructive practice of blaming every economic woe -- from Enron to rising oil prices -- on the Bush tax cuts, the tax cuts had nothing to do with those problems, including the mortgage crisis.

Continue reading "Scapegoating Tax Cuts"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:02 PM

September 15, 2008

On Theocracy and Double Standards

In the next few weeks, we're going to hear a lot of hot air from Joe Biden as he tries to recapture the spotlight from Sarah Palin. One thing I doubt we'll hear from him is that rare sensible gem he uttered a few years ago about Democrats and people of faith. But he would do well to remember his fleeting words.

Biden said: "We have too many elites in our party who look down their nose on people of faith. ... That's the big problem with my party."

You can say that again, Joe. But next time, you ought to try listening to your own words instead of just talking to hear your head rattle.

If Biden was sincere, why won't he take issue with liberals in the media and elsewhere who routinely demonstrate their contempt for Christians?

Whether it's Whoopi Goldberg hyperventilating about the separation of church and state, Charlie Gibson distorting Sarah Palin's views on the intersection of faith and governance, or Obama himself disparaging small-town Christians for their unashamed reliance on the Bible, liberals just don't get it. For them to occasionally pretend they do just adds insult to injury.

Continue reading "On Theocracy and Double Standards"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:36 PM

September 11, 2008

Enduring Authenticity vs. Fleeting Charisma

Many Democrats, including Joe Biden himself, are second-guessing Barack Obama's selection of Biden, but I have to wonder how many are having even greater misgivings about Obama leading the ticket.

How quickly the political landscape can change. The dynamics of this presidential campaign have turned faster than a Jack Bauer torture target. But those praying that Palinmania is as ill-conceived and fleeting as Obamamessiahmania will be sorely disappointed. Building one's house on the rock of Sarah Palin is quite different from erecting it on the shifting sands of Barack Obama.

As the Democratic primary season was winding down, discerning Democrats began to have serious buyer's remorse about Obama, as shown by Hillary Clinton's dominance in the late primary contests.

But Democrats faced a titanic dilemma because cashiering Obama might have salvaged this election but caused a permanent exodus of black voters from the party.

These unpleasant realities, I believe, forced Democrats into denial about Obama. They might have had rumblings of awareness that he wasn't the demigod they'd assumed but clung to the illusion that he was at least partially a post-partisan paladin who could rise above the mundane milieu where mere mortals meander.

Continue reading "Enduring Authenticity vs. Fleeting Charisma"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:41 PM

September 08, 2008

Palin's a Tough, Smart Conservative Woman: Deal With It!

Liberals excel in blinding themselves to their own biases and hypocrisy and blaming conservatives for their own sins, all of which they are showcasing in their frantic reaction to the Sarah Palin nomination.

Not only are they trying to destroy Palin. They are straight-facedly denying it and accusing Republicans of manufacturing this charge to exhibit phony sympathy for women.

Conservatives, after all, couldn't possibly be supportive of female Palin based on merit; it's just a political ploy to purloin Hillary voters. Liberal captives of identity politics just can't comprehend that neither gender nor race matters to conservatives. It's all about the candidate's political philosophy, approach to governance and qualifications to serve -- not those artificial constructs that liberals have exploited through the years.

Don't get me wrong. Palin's beauty and tough-as-nails femininity are refreshing icing on a delicious cake for conservatives, but if she were not demonstrably conservative, they'd be depressed -- not energized.

But you'll never convince the liberal press, which sees everything through the lens of gender and race consciousness and indiscriminately projects that propensity onto conservatives.

Thus, Newsweek's Anna Quindlen is reduced to grousing about the "hypocrisy" of conservatives in honoring the Palins for bringing a baby with Down syndrome to term rather than scolding them with "pursed-lip accusations of promiscuity."

Continue reading "Palin's a Tough, Smart Conservative Woman: Deal With It!"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:43 PM

September 04, 2008

Get Back in the Kitchen, Sarah

If I were an aspiring sexist or racist -- God forbid -- yet still cared what people thought about me, I'd make sure I became a conspicuous liberal. I'd also make sure my targets were conservative. That's the ticket to immunity for all kinds of outrageous conduct and statements.

If you are a liberal darling, like Bill Clinton was for a decade and a half, you can exploit, abuse and sexually harass women and still be considered a champion of women's rights. When you're his equally leftist wife, you can be the commander in chief of bimbo eruptions, obliterate your husband's victims' characters, and be celebrated as a feminist icon.

If you're a liberal icon like Jimmy Carter, you can refer to Barack Obama as a "black boy" without anyone batting an eye. If you're a liberal like Joe Biden, you can "praise" Obama as clean and articulate or joke about Indians and Dunkin Donuts' with barely a whisper of disapproval from the monolithically liberal mainstream media.

If you're a liberal cartoonist like Ted Rall, you can caption Condoleezza Rice as the president's "House Nigga." If you're a liberal talk show host like Sly Sylvester, you can refer to her as Aunt Jemima. And when conservatives demand an apology, you can say: "It is with a heavy heart that I apologize this morning to Aunt Jemima. She wasn't a self-serving hack politician who got up in front of Congress and lied." And the quickest path to the top of the liberal class is to ridicule Justice Clarence Thomas.

So when it comes to the liberals' treatment of Sarah Palin, it's business as usual -- and then some.

Continue reading "Get Back in the Kitchen, Sarah"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 01:52 PM

September 02, 2008

Who's Being Hypocritical?

Liberals are outraged at the supposed hypocrisy of Sarah Palin (and conservatives) for supporting abstinence-only education and family values generally in light of revelations concerning the pregnancy of her teenage daughter. It's only fair, then, that they should be called upon to explain their own hypocrisy in the compassion, privacy, gender and race departments.

Liberals are sick and tired of conservatives lecturing them about family values. Yet it is liberals who do most of the moralizing and sermonizing, seeming to derive their entire sense of superior self-worth in favorably comparing themselves with heartless, bigoted conservatives.

Liberals claim a monopoly on compassion for the poor, minorities, women and homosexuals. Yet when they get the chance to score political points, they abandon their allegiance to these groups as quickly as Barack Obama threw the Rev. Jeremiah Wright under the bus. Just ask Clarence Thomas, Condoleezza Rice or Michael Steele.

Liberals are fed up with conservatives for trying to regulate their "private" behavior. Yet it is they who want to regulate every minute aspect of our lives, from smoking to eating to weapons to energy consumption to confiscatory taxation to health care to retirement security.

Liberals insist that what a public official does in his private life is irrelevant to his public fitness or conduct. Yet they're now telling us that the private conduct even of a relative of a conservative candidate is fair game.

Continue reading "Who's Being Hypocritical?"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:33 PM

August 28, 2008

Obama: Too Cool By Half?

Obama is the perfect candidate, not for the nation, but for Democrats, who have been waiting for Godot since George W. Bush's first-term inauguration -- someone to deliver them, to deliver America from the wretched George W. Bush.

The paradoxical Democratic Party, which holds itself as the party of the people, often manages to find a presidential candidate that is anything but a man of the people. From Adlai Stevenson to John F. Kennedy to Michael Dukakis to Al Gore to John Kerry, and now, Barack Obama. Elite, intellectual, erudite, sophisticated? Arguably so in most cases. But common? Someone who can relate? Only in their Utopian dreams.

This year, the party's unspoken, perhaps even unrealized yearning for a super-elitist nominee is an outgrowth not only of the party's self-perception as superior to red-state, flyover America but also eight long years of perceived suffering under the "reign" of George W. Bush.

We may argue over whether liberals are ashamed of their nation generally. But it is absurd to deny they're ashamed of it as long as George W. Bush is its president. To them, he is a national embarrassment and, while he's in office, America is an embarrassment.

They've demeaned Bush as a simpleton cowboy with dangerous bravado who has set us back decades in foreign relations. They can't wait to put a different face on America, one that will, in the words of Bill Clinton, have "more partners and fewer adversaries" and "rebuild our frayed alliances." One that doesn't "assault science" or defend "torture." Or, in the words of Barack Obama, an America whose people won't embarrass us because they can't speak French when in France.

Continue reading "Obama: Too Cool By Half?"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 02:32 PM

August 25, 2008

Party Unity, My, er, Eye

In one sense, it's incomprehensible that Barack Obama would forgo an opportunity to reunite his party by picking Hillary Clinton as his running mate. But in his place, wouldn't you be willing to sacrifice a little if it guaranteed you'd never have to view and smell Bill Clinton's sock feet propped up on the Oval Office desk?

But whatever will this messianic emissary of change do to unite his party? That is a legitimate question, is it not, since unity, harmony, love and bliss have been Obama's main campaign themes since his entry onto the presidential campaign stage?

How, inquiring minds wonder, can Obama join us all together -- bitter clingers and all -- in one big communal bond of sentimental good will if he can't even inspire unity in his own party?

That's unfair, you say? It's not his fault? It's those grudge-holding Clintons and their die-hard supporters who won't bury the hatchet?

Oh? I thought it was George W. Bush's fault that the countries of Old Europe wouldn't support the American efforts against Iraq. I thought it was Dubya's fault -- that evil, unilateralist, go-it-alone cowboy -- that the United Nations wouldn't do the right thing and enforce its own resolutions that Saddam Hussein had violated at will.

Continue reading "Party Unity, My, er, Eye"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 03:37 PM

August 21, 2008

The 'Swiftboating' Charge and Infanticide: A Guilty Diversion

You can always tell when you've scored points against a liberal candidate. He and his minions, following the combined examples of Bill Clinton and John Kerry, immediately assume counterattack mode -- rather than addressing the allegations -- and accuse the accusers of "Swiftboating," by which they mean smearing with false charges.

John Kerry's handlers adopted the technique when Kerry's fellow Swift boat veterans unveiled his true military record after Kerry brazenly made his record an essential campaign issue. They attempted to turn the table on the truthful Swiftees by painting them as liars.

The episode proved that the mainstream media will go to any lengths to save a floundering Democratic presidential campaign, including conspiring to manufacture a new word for our political lexicon designed to discredit and silence the accusers. Henceforth, "Swiftboating" would describe the untrue smearing of a political opponent.

The irony and injustice is that the Swiftees -- not John Kerry -- owned the truth. Never did Kerry or the mainstream media refute any of their allegations. But the Swiftees did expose Kerry -- objectively -- as having lied about his record in a surprising number of particulars. Kerry never even attempted to answer the allegations, despite repeatedly promising that he would. He didn't because he couldn't. The only option left open to him was to launch a diversionary and fraudulent counterattack.

Which brings us to the present campaign. The Democratic Party, acting like a man in heat who is driven by anything but his rational mind, lusted after Barack Obama and made him its nominee when it should have known better.

Continue reading "The 'Swiftboating' Charge and Infanticide: A Guilty Diversion"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:57 PM

August 18, 2008

Pro-Choice McCain Veep Equals Political Suicide

I hate to rain on John McCain's parade right after he trounced Barack Obama at Rick Warren's Saddleback Church forum, for which I heartily applaud him, but McCain's trial balloon consideration of a pro-choice running mate demands a response.

The prospect of an Obama presidency is so horrifying that many conservatives have temporarily put aside their misgivings about McCain to focus on defeating Obama.

They hold their noses on McCain's immigration record, his campaign finance reform zealotry and his newfound acquiescence to the propaganda narrative of environmental extremists. But they are profoundly appreciative of his tougher stance against tax increases and mindful of his undeniable superiority over Obama on foreign policy and national defense. Recent world events, including Russia's naked aggression against Georgia, magnify this already-glaring contrast.

But while national defense necessarily occupies the front burner, McCain would make a fatal mistake to assume that social issues, especially abortion, are ever off an equally blazing front burner for an inestimable number of social conservatives, the Republicans' most reliable voting bloc over the past three decades.

Last Wednesday, McCain "floated the prospect" of picking a pro-choice running mate and said that former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge would be an acceptable -- and possible -- selection.

Continue reading "Pro-Choice McCain Veep Equals Political Suicide"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:23 PM

August 14, 2008

Relentless Race Narrative

Sadly, there isn't the slightest chance liberals will forgo the race narrative in this presidential race because painting the other side as racist is essential to their need to feel morally superior.

They can't accept Obama's candidacy as evidence of progress toward racial equality. They can't permit the advancement of colorblindness because they sense it is detrimental both to their political interests and their self-esteem. After all, if liberals lost their self-anointment as moral paragons, they'd have nothing left because their policy agenda has the track record of an Edsel, with the exception that it won't ever be taken off the market.

A mainstream media favorite, MSNBC's Howard Fineman, in a piece criticizing McCain for allegedly painting Barack Obama as less American and patriotic than McCain, couldn't help but throw in a pointed reference to race.

In describing the attendees at a Pennsylvania event for McCain that McCain surrogate Joe Lieberman headlined, Fineman wrote: "The crowd comprised a slice of America that McCain needs if he intends to win Pennsylvania and the election. And that slice is: white (I did not spot a single African American in the crowd), rural, 'exurban,' and mostly Protestant, with local roots stretching back centuries."

See who always brings up this subject? What conservative would spend his time obsessing on skin color to the point of surveying the crowd for evidence of racial diversity? And what conservative would refer to American Caucasians as a "slice" of America, as if whites were some monolithic voting bloc?

Continue reading "Relentless Race Narrative"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:48 PM

August 11, 2008

The 'Making Abortion Rare' Hoax

ABC reports that the group "Democrats for Life," whose title gives new meaning to "oxymoronic," decided last week not to press the Democratic Party to restore a life-tolerant "conscience clause" to its party platform. Isn't it time the party quit this charade that it wants to make abortion "rare"?

The "conscience clause," which appeared in the 1996 and 2000 platforms, at least paid lip service to tempering the platform's express support of a woman's "right to choose," stating: The "Democratic Party is a party of inclusion. We respect the individual conscience of each American on this difficult issue, and we welcome all our members to participate at every level of our party."

But the party ended all pretense of inclusion in 2004 by replacing the "conscience clause" with a statement that Democrats "stand firmly against Republican efforts to undermine" abortion rights. And despite the obviously halfhearted efforts of Democrats for Life, the clause will also be absent from the 2008 platform.

As Democrats for Life's Director Kristen Day asked during the 2004 platform debate: "So what are they saying, that because we want to protect the rights of the unborn, our own party says we're automatically Republicans? This has to be one reason that our party is having trouble appealing to many people in churches."

Amen, Kristen. But perhaps instead you ought to be asking yourself why you are still a Democrat and why you gave up in 2008 with barely a whimper. Just how committed can you and your organization possibly be to protecting the lives of the unborn when you shamelessly roll over on the issue that presumably matters the most to you?

Continue reading "The 'Making Abortion Rare' Hoax"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:44 PM

August 07, 2008

It's Obama's Viability, Not McCain's, That Should Surprise Us

The press is shocked that Barack Obama has "yet to close the sale," given the "political logic" that favors Democrats in this election. They must not have been paying attention during the final segment of the primary season, when Hillary Clinton consistently thrashed the hollow superstar.

That said, Obama's handlers betray not the slightest concern because they believe that despite the statistical tie in the polls, Obama's supporters are much more intense than McCain supporters. "That is going to mean more favorable turnout patterns; it is going to help us register voters; it is going to help us organizationally," said Obama's campaign manager, David Plouffe.

Indeed, political analysts have been speculating for months now that Obama could transform presidential politics by energizing a whole new class of voters.

If that's true, McCain has his work cut out for him because the voters Obama is inspiring seem more enamored with his image than who he really is and what he stands for. Being largely apolitical and emotionally driven, they won't be as receptive to the ever-unfolding, troubling revelations about Obama.

While the media are stunned that Obama is not resonating in line with their expectations, others wonder how he can resonate at all, given his McGovernesque, leftist agenda and his damning associations with America-hating preachers (Jeremiah Wright and Michael Pfleger), terrorists and radicals (William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn) and a mentor (Frank Davis) who was a member of the Moscow-controlled Communist Party USA and who, according to Investor's Business Daily, "fled Chicago after the FBI and Congress opened investigations into his 'subversive,' 'un-American activities.'"

Continue reading "It's Obama's Viability, Not McCain's, That Should Surprise Us"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:35 PM

August 04, 2008

Liberal Press Circles Wagons Around Obama

The liberal media are unhinged over John McCain's recent ad campaign against Barack Obama, which erased Obama's 9-point lead in the polls and tied the race. How dare McCain challenge their anointed one?

Obama is not the only one convinced he is "the one we've been waiting for." The media are also annoyed they have to endure this irritating uprising from McCain, who is officiously intermeddling with the inexorable flow of history.

Sunday show hosts, editorial pages, and both print and TV news stories this past weekend were pregnant with outrage over McCain's "negative" campaigning -- "negative" being defined as anything, truthful or not, that places Obama in a less favorable light than they require.

Their attitude toward Obama is not unlike their approach to the global warming issue: They accept the environmentalists' edict that man-made, apocalyptic warming is occurring, and no one is allowed to dissent.

So if McCain exposes Obama's policy inconsistencies, questions his character, highlights his presumptuousness, inexperience or superficiality, lampoons the media's crush on him, criticizes his injection of race into the campaign, or responds to Obama's attacks, the media yell "foul."

Continue reading "Liberal Press Circles Wagons Around Obama"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:15 PM

July 31, 2008

Obama's GOP Support Groups

I suppose I have to accept the insanity that some glassy-eyed Republicans are considering voting for Barack Obama, but I don't have to like it.

Whether or not this is an example of the liberal media trying to create rather than report news, The New York Times is reporting that small enclaves of Republicans are meeting around the country to discuss their support for Obama. Let's call them "support groups."

One such support group in Indiana is calling its attendees "whispering Republicans." Fittingly, these renegades, as the Times called them, met over iced tea and brownies, as if to signify the sweetness of their move toward the other party's "unity" candidate. At the meeting, they "took turns explaining why they liked Mr. Obama and recalling the strange stares from other Republicans."

Why would they call disapproving stares "strange"? I'd say they were perfectly normal, considering Obama's far-left plans for America.

One member of the Indiana kumbaya group reported: "It was sort of like a group therapy session. We all wanted to make sure we weren't a little crazy."

Continue reading "Obama's GOP Support Groups"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:31 PM

July 28, 2008

Obama's Ongoing Foreign Policy Implosion

There is one unexpected gift that John McCain's presumptive nomination brings to the GOP. McCain was certainly not my choice, but if any other Republican candidate were running, it's unlikely we'd be seeing as much emphasis in the campaign on foreign policy, and Obama's unfolding incompetence in this area might have escaped essential scrutiny.

Democrats were no doubt looking to capitalize on the Iraq issue before it became apparent that the success of the surge had exceeded all but our most optimistic expectations. Because McCain is perceived as one of the most ardent proponents of the surge and Obama fiercely opposed it, Obama finds himself caught in a trap over the entire issue.

Obama's arguments, echoing the perennial anti-Iraq-war line Democrats have been peddling for years now, that we shouldn't have attacked Iraq in the first place are falling flat, given the radical reduction in violence levels the surge has produced. He is reduced to him-hawing, sputtering, spinning and misrepresenting his unequivocal opposition, which he was earlier showcasing -- during the Democratic primary season -- to contrast himself with chief rival Hillary Clinton.

In the process, Obama's worst attributes are coming to the fore: his pride and arrogance, which paralyze him from admitting any real weaknesses, such as his egregious foreign policy judgments, and his astounding shortcomings as a would-be commander in chief, starting with a profound naivete, inexperience and either ignorance or fundamental dishonesty.

Although liberals generally confer a presumption of sophistication and erudition on fellow left-wingers, they have to be shaking their heads in disbelief, wondering just what their nomination contest has wrought. They can't help but realize that Obama is proving himself daily to be woefully unprepared for the presidency.

Continue reading "Obama's Ongoing Foreign Policy Implosion"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:26 PM

July 24, 2008

The New York Times and Liberal Fairness

I don't know which troubles me more: the liberal media's fawning over Barack Obama or the great number of people who are buying into his mystique so uncritically. But what bothers me more than either of these is the arrogance of the liberal press, which sadly is typical of so many liberals.

The media's deification of Obama is largely responsible for the perception that Obama is superhuman. Their coverage of his European tour -- the most breathtakingly presumptuous junket we've witnessed in American politics in ages -- is but the latest example.

How anyone can fall for the media's Obama rock star charade, given his repeated demonstrations of unfitness for the presidency, is a subject better suited for psychoanalysts.

But we can chalk up the media's irrational exuberance to their eagerness to have someone of like mind -- someone sufficiently socialistic and appeasement-oriented -- back in the Oval Office. With their insane aversion for President Bush and their craving for undefined change, it's hardly surprising they're blind to Obama's increasingly obvious flaws.

What's more difficult to stomach is their reckless obliviousness to their own close-mindedness, intolerance, unreasonableness and conceit -- and their mistaken projection of these attributes onto their conservative opponents.

Continue reading "The New York Times and Liberal Fairness"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:20 PM

July 21, 2008

Obama: Milking His Failures

Isn't it enormously ironic that Barack Obama now finds himself the unintended beneficiary of the Iraq surge that he so vocally -- and wrongly -- opposed?

It seems that Obama's untimely calls for a withdrawal timetable have lingered long enough to have some merit in the eyes of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Al-Maliki told Der Spiegel, a German magazine, that U.S. troops should withdraw from Iraq "as soon as possible, as far as we are concerned. U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right timeframe for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes."

Assuming al-Maliki said it, and there has been some dispute, it doesn't make Obama right -- even now. But it's hard to imagine al-Maliki would be saying anything helpful to Obama's campaign today if the United States had followed Obama's disgraceful surrender policy instead of implementing the surge in 2007 -- over his strenuous objections.

Obama Democrats have been adamantly opposed to our intervention in Iraq from the beginning, including when they voted for it for political expediency and then later claimed they were duped into it.

Continue reading "Obama: Milking His Failures"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:23 PM

July 17, 2008

The Liberal Establishment's Race Race

One would have hoped that Barack Obama's presumptive capturing of the Democratic presidential nomination would have dampened the mainstream media's obsession with race, but instead, they've figured out a way to obsess even further about it since Obama's putative victory.

You almost can't read election headlines in a major newspaper without some reference to race issues. Earlier this week, Google News featured three back-to-back stories in its "Elections" section highlighting race:

"McCain looks to make gains among black voters," "Race, Foreign-Policy Plant Doubts for Obama" and "Poll Finds Obama Isn't Closing Divide on Race."

The last one is a New York Times article analyzing results from the latest New York Times/CBS News poll. It proves the Times just can't let race go, whether it's because of the liberal guilt of its reporters and editors or because they want to keep the racial pot stirred for purposes of newspaper sales or because they deem racial polarization advantageous to Obama.

The story's lead paragraph reads: "Americans are sharply divided by race heading into the first election in which an African-American will be a major-party presidential nominee, with blacks and whites holding vastly different views of Senator Barack Obama, the state of race relations and how black Americans are treated by society, according to the ... poll."

Continue reading "The Liberal Establishment's Race Race"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:12 PM

July 14, 2008

Tony Snow

I can't pinpoint the precise date I met Tony Snow, but I remember it was over the telephone. We talked about one of his passions: radio. And we became fast friends. From that point on, we talked every few months, until about three or four months ago when I could only get his voice mail.

I knew something was up because he was always good about returning calls. Still, I probably would have chalked it up to his busy schedule, except that I read news reports that he was forced to cancel a number of speeches because of illness.

I remember e-mailing a few mutual friends: Lucianne Goldberg and Kathryn Lopez. Both shared similar concerns, but we were all cautiously relieved when follow-up news stories reported Tony was OK.

I had no idea Tony had taken a turn for the worse, so the news of his death Saturday completely shocked me. The last time I talked to Tony about his disease, he was entirely upbeat and optimistic.

In retrospect, I have to wonder whether he wasn't sparing some of his friends the extent of his illness because he never wanted to dwell on himself and certainly was never seeking sympathy.

Continue reading "Tony Snow"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:43 PM

July 10, 2008

Ashamed of America?

Some say Obama's critics have taken their eye off the ball in focusing on his associations with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and William Ayers, thus giving his far-left policies a pass. But that's a false choice.

Those criticisms would have more validity but for the fact that Obama's associations and his approach to policy are inextricably intertwined, flowing from a particular -- and consistent -- mindset.

It's no accident that Obama sat for 20 years and had his children baptized in a church whose pastor revved up his congregation by denouncing America with expletives, that he had a working relationship with a professor who expressed pride in his past anti-American terrorism, or even that his wife admitted a first-time pride in the United States with the advent of her husband's electoral success.

Repeated references to Obama's close connections with these people and others are not drive-by attacks designed to incriminate Obama merely by association. Their purpose is to shine a spotlight on Obama to help determine whether he embraces or is sympathetic to the same negative views about America as his soul mates.

When you couple Obama's associations with his many statements and policies, a disturbing picture emerges, suggesting Obama might lack a robust pride in America -- at least in what he considers to be its present state. This point was driven home again this week, as Obama expressed "embarrassment" that American children can't speak foreign languages while European children can speak English.

Continue reading "Ashamed of America?"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 08:08 PM

July 07, 2008

Behind Enemy Lines

While everyone is focusing on Barack Obama's shifting positions on issues such as campaign finance, NAFTA, telecom immunity and Iraq, we're missing his incursion into enemy territory to capture those reviled, though politically coveted values voters.

His recent proposal to adopt a modified version of President Bush's faith-based initiative is just another piece of his strategic plan to seduce evangelical voters to his cause.

Obama is aiming for a threefer: wooing values voters, reconciling with small-town Americans, and neutralizing the taint of Jeremiah Wright and turning the religious issue into a net plus for his campaign. Hey, no one says this guy is politically naive.

You see, most liberals aren't really concerned about the intermixture of church and state unless it involves the Christian church, and only then if it involves the promotion of biblically based ideas and values. They have no problem with the government's endorsement of the values of other religions, New Age, or secular humanism. Even the state's or politicians' endorsement of nominally Christian values don't bother them, as long as they are watered down enough to detach them from any legitimate connection to Bible-centered Christianity and reframed to embrace the secular liberal worldview.

That's why liberals react as though the world is coming to an end when Christian conservatives promote their values in the public square and political arena but approve when Democratic politicians campaign from the pulpit of churches whose congregations are sympathetic to their political agendas. That's why the press attacked Republican Mike Huckabee for using religious symbols in his campaign ads but praised Obama for "bridging the cultural divide" when he did the same thing.

Continue reading "Behind Enemy Lines"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:49 PM

July 03, 2008

Obama Protesteth Too Much

Sen. Barack Obama spoke on the subject of patriotism this past week in an effort to undo some of the damage he has already inflicted on his own image -- through his associations, his statements and policy positions -- and to obscure his liberalism.

Liberals rightly feel defensive about their patriotism because they always seem to find themselves blaming the United States for this or that, exhorting us to be more like the "enlightened" nations of Europe or forever shouting that we are a "laughing stock" in the eyes of other nations.

It was not a conservative who wrote in an editorial this week: "Tuck the soaring speeches in a drawer for another time. This year, America doesn't deserve to celebrate its birthday. This Fourth of July should be a day of quiet and atonement. For we have sinned."

It was Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Chris Satullo, who, like so many liberals, is angry at America because he sees it as standing for torturing prisoners, imprisoning enemy combatants without hearings, rendition and other denials of human rights. According to Satullo, America isn't safer because our alleged abuses have "spawned new enemies by the thousands, made the jihadist rants ring true to so many ears. So put out no flags. Sing no patriotic hymns. We deserve no Fourth this year."

Sorry, but you just don't hear much of this type of rhetoric from conservatives. And Obama and the entire Democratic establishment know it.

Continue reading "Obama Protesteth Too Much"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:24 PM

June 30, 2008

Obama's Leftist Armies

Be afraid; be very afraid. If you think Barack Obama is arrogant and leftist, you ought to see those he will have to cater to if elected -- and, according to them, even to get elected in the first place.

These leftist "netroots" are none too pleased with Obama's feint to the center the past few weeks, his "capitulation" on retroactive immunity for telecoms for cooperating with the government to monitor terrorist communications, his alleged disagreement with the Supreme Court for invalidating the death penalty for child rapists, and his flip-flop on the D.C. handgun case.

They are abuzz about the messiah's apparent abandonment of their orthodoxy. Interestingly, though, not many of the complainers really believe Obama has left them. Like Obama's longtime pastor, Jeremiah Wright, they realize Obama is quite willing to mask his inner self to get elected. But many are disgusted that he's even playing the game.

One blogger at The Huffington Post writes: "Sen. Barack Obama is risking his brand as a political reformer, according to reports today in the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post. In recent weeks, he has moderated or changed positions on a number of politically-charged issues, leading to criticism from demoralized Democratic activists."

Will Marshall, president of the Progressive Policy Institute, added, "I've been struck by the speed and decisiveness of his move to the center."

Continue reading "Obama's Leftist Armies"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:55 PM

June 26, 2008

Evolving Standards of Indecency

The Supreme Court's barring of the death penalty for child rapists in Kennedy v. Louisiana underscores the hazards in the court's abandonment of moral absolutes in favor of "evolving standards of decency" and the court's unbridled arrogance in substituting its subjective judgment for the legislatively enacted will of the people.

In Kennedy, the court reversed the decision of the Louisiana Supreme Court to uphold the capital punishment of a convicted child rapist, holding that the Eighth Amendment's cruel and unusual punishment clause prohibits executing such offenders "where the crime did not result, and was not intended to result, in the victim's death."

A United States Supreme Court with a majority of Constitution-respecting justices would have evaluated the Louisiana statute in light of the originally understood meaning of the cruel and unusual punishment clause.

Instead, today's sometimes Obama-inclined liberal activist majority subordinated to the lowest rung the clause's original meaning in favor of "the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society."

And how does the majority identify that new, enlightened standard applicable to child rape cases not resulting or intended to result in death?

Continue reading "Evolving Standards of Indecency"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:42 PM

June 23, 2008

It's Only About Winning

The Washington Post reports that Sen. Barack Obama is aggressively trying to reintroduce himself to voters, echoing the spin of Obama's advisers that not everyone knows him yet. In reality, Obama's major campaign challenge will not be to reveal, but to conceal his true identity.

Obama is not trying to introduce himself to unreached voters, but is engaged in damage control with many he's already reached -- and insulted and disillusioned.

As long as he was soaring above the fray with the lofty rhetoric of hope, change and unity, Obama could masquerade as a quasi-messiah figure. But once forced into the nitty-gritty of contested issues and debates, his false visage began to crack. Those cracks expanded into campaign-threatening fissures when voters learned about Obama's sordid associations and left-wing elitist snobbery toward small-town America.

The Post says that in his reintroduction, Obama has "offered a clear road map for the kind of candidate he is likely to become...: an ambitious gamer of the electoral map, a ruthless fundraiser and a scrupulous manager of his own biography in the face of persistent concerns about how he is perceived."

What the Post left out is that Obama has also shown himself to be an unscrupulous master of the politics of calculation and expedience. Whether on public finance, NAFTA, Iran, Iraq, Jerusalem, special interests, Cuba, illegal immigration or the decriminalization of marijuana, Obama has demonstrated a propensity for flip-flopping that could embarrass the grandmaster himself, Sen. John Kerry.

Continue reading "It's Only About Winning"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:22 PM

June 19, 2008

Ravi Zacharias: 'Beyond Opinion,' Part 2

In my most recent column, I introduced you to "Beyond Opinion," a Christian apologetics book, edited by Ravi Zacharias, that offers suggestions on how to approach the skeptic, depending on the skeptic's background or reasons for doubt or non-belief. Before leaving the subject, let me give you a stronger flavor of this interesting apologetics method and this fascinating book.

Ravi tells us an effective apologetic "pays very close attention not just to the question but to the questioner. That, in turn, leads to the relevance of the answer." He cites Jesus' walk on the Emmaus road as an instructive example.

The disciples find themselves walking with the risen Lord, wholly oblivious to his identity and telling him -- with unmatched irony -- that he must be the only one in the world unaware of what had happened in the past few days (Jesus' death and resurrection), when, in fact, he was the only one who fully comprehended it and its significance.

Instead of just dramatically proclaiming, "It is I," Jesus "explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself." Why did he take that approach? It's not that he hadn't proclaimed his identity at other times, e.g., John 4:26. Rather, "Jesus did what was needed in this moment: he pointed out to these two disciples a vast context of fifteen hundred years to show why the event on Calvary had to take place."

Among other things, he opened their eyes to understand why their presuppositions clouded their vision of who he was. They were expecting the Messiah to bring political deliverance, crushing their Roman oppressors. Instead, they crucified him. But he showed them he had come to offer a different kind of deliverance, which only his sacrificial death could achieve. As an apologist, it's best if you -- like Jesus -- approach people mindful of their circumstances and their possible presuppositions.

Continue reading "Ravi Zacharias: 'Beyond Opinion,' Part 2"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:14 PM

June 16, 2008

Ravi Zacharias: 'Beyond Opinion'

As a former skeptic, I have a particular interest in Christian apologetics: the defense of the Christian faith. I've read and recommended many excellent books on the subject but want to call your special attention to one I've most recently read because of the uniqueness of its approach and content.

"Beyond Opinion: Living the Faith We Defend" is a compilation of essays by renowned Christian apologists compiled and edited by my friend and Christian philosopher and apologist, Ravi Zacharias, that together "suggest a new vision for Christian apologetics in this century."

I love apologetics because it helped me overcome certain intellectual hurdles that I believed, rightly or wrongly, were obstructing my faith. As I delved into the subject, I was immensely gratified to learn that most of my doubts and questions had been asked and answered by biblical scholars who embraced, rather than dismissed, such challenges.

If, for example, you can't reconcile the notion that an omnipotent, omnibenevolent God could permit evil and suffering in the world, you might be surprised to discover that your concerns are hardly new. Such questions have troubled people for millennia. Brilliant and scholarly works exist addressing such questions, as well as seemingly problematic scriptural passages.

Continue reading "Ravi Zacharias: 'Beyond Opinion'"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:19 PM | TrackBack (0)

June 13, 2008

Obama's Thinly Veiled Truculence

I was watching television the other night, and someone was interviewing people on the street about the presidential election. More than one respondent stated that they would be supporting Obama because "he can bring us together." You have to hand it to Obama for being a grand master at pulling off this unity sophistry.

Indeed, Obama is so good at this scam that he has John McCain believing it -- or afraid to state otherwise for fear he'll alienate this presumed longing of the people for unity, harmony, bipartisanship, civility, hope and utopia itself.

So as a small public service, I figure I ought to do my part to debunk this myth, mostly pointing to Obama's own words and actions. Does he really pass his own test for ushering in an era of harmonious ecstasy?

While McCain is busy excoriating North Carolina Republicans for pointing to Obama's dubious relationships, Obama is wasting no time proving that he will reciprocate with no such courtesies.

Anytime someone criticizes Obama, he responds with outrage at the mere suggestion that he is subject to criticism. He has intimidated John McCain into bringing the proverbial knife to a gunfight, while he's arming himself with rhetorical grenades and rocket launchers. Obama, for example, has set up a Web site to refute alleged smears against him and calls some of the accusers "liars" -- not the kind of truculent and aggressive language one would expect from a man promising harmony.

Continue reading "Obama's Thinly Veiled Truculence"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:33 PM

June 09, 2008

McCain's Potentially Fatal 'Exit, Stage Right'

Sen. McCain could be making a fatal strategic blunder in thinking he can cobble together a winning coalition in November via the unorthodox route (for a Republican) of courting moderates and jilting the conservative base, including Christian conservatives.

It's possible that McCain will win in November, but if that happens, it will more likely be a result of Obama beating himself -- assuming Obama's campaign doesn't disintegrate before he formally secures the nomination.

McCain must begin with the bad news that his historic appeal to centrist voters is in jeopardy in two major ways. The first concerns Obama's natural fit with these voters. His mythical narrative that he can unify Americans and usher in an era of "hope" will be irresistible to many who are hungrier for kumbaya than any particular policy agenda.

Second, McCain's favorable image among centrists could disappear as quickly as the mainstream media withdraws its opportunistic love for him -- a process that has already begun. Their affinity for McCain was purely a function of his being a thorn in the side to President Bush, Republicans and conservative causes. But now that he is the GOP presidential candidate, he represents the evil Republican Party, which must be destroyed at all costs.

If this weren't enough, he is running -- how dare he? -- against their chosen messiah, Barack Obama. If they turned on Hillary Clinton over it, McCain is way beyond crisp toast. This heretical challenge to the savior from a Republican will not be tolerated.

Continue reading "McCain's Potentially Fatal 'Exit, Stage Right'"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:52 PM

June 05, 2008

The Arrogance of Obama's Leftist Supporters

It's interesting that the main people pushing Obama in the name of unity and civility are the same ones brutally trashing Hillary (and Bill) Clinton. They seem to have no sense of their own hypocrisy in defending the Clintons yesterday for far greater misconduct than that for which they are mercilessly excoriating them today in their editorials and so-called news reporting.

The hypocrisy and absence of self-reflection of this group -- mostly the mainstream media and the leftist cabal of the Democratic Party -- is born of its profound arrogance. This arrogance is also evident in the striking incoherence of their assumption that Obama can be a unifying force while working to change America in ways that are repugnant to a large plurality, if not a majority, of Americans.

You have to recognize that something about this group is just not natural when its members, such as MSNBC's Chris Matthews, can say without embarrassment that Obama sends shivers up his leg or when swooning crowds of supporters faint in his presence.

The group's obliviousness is demonstrated in its stunning state of denial over Obama's virtual free fall since the revelations about his associations with such unsavory characters as Tony Rezko and William Ayers and his longtime membership in a Christian church whose pastors and theology seem more race-oriented than Christ-centered.

You would think these fawning zealots would take notice of the backlash against Obama since he issued his outrageously divisive critique of small-town America as embittered gun- and Bible-clingers. But their Obama-intoxication blinded them to seeing anything other than that Obama still had an insuperable lead in the delegate count.

Continue reading "The Arrogance of Obama's Leftist Supporters"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:12 PM

June 02, 2008

Obama's Unity Charade

The $64 million question is how long Barack Obama can carry forward this ruse that he is a uniter, when he has placed himself in a climate that is, at the very least, quite accommodating to an anti-white racist perspective, vulgarity and anti-Americanism. How many more shoes can drop without Obama's presidential quest completely imploding?

It strained credulity that Obama could have been unaware of the toxic environment of his Trinity United Church of Christ and its pastor, Jeremiah Wright. Actually, that didn't pass the laugh test.

But now we have the Rev. Michael Pfleger bursting on the scene -- the scene being the now-infamous Trinity Church -- and spewing the most offensive, racially charged remarks imaginable.

Truly, if Obama weren't the protected darling of the mainstream media and if the Democrats were not horrified of losing their monopolistic hold on the African-American vote, superdelegates would abandon Obama in stampedes -- yesterday.

Have you watched the video of the Rev. Pfleger's racist bilge before Obama's former congregation? Just as importantly, did you witness the approving reaction of the congregation? After all, as I said at the time the Rev. Jeremiah Wright tapes surfaced, what was as disturbing as Wright's tirades was the congregation's approving reaction.

Continue reading "Obama's Unity Charade"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 08:38 PM

May 29, 2008

McCain and National Security

I'm aware of the widely held assumption that John McCain's path to victory in November requires him to capture a healthy percentage of independents and even Democrats. But his strategy could backfire if he doesn't restrain his urge to betray conservatives.

Because of his military record, his POW experiences and his pro-defense Senate record, McCain has a decided advantage over Barack Obama on national security, the most important issue for many voters and plenty important for the rest, as well.

Even McCain's outspoken support of the "unpopular" Iraq war, ironically, adds to his favorable national security image. This despite the Democrats' propagandizing against the war, their attempt to sever it conceptually from the overall war on terror, and their phony yet persistent argument that we've diverted resources away from fighting al-Qaida. The Democratic Party goes into any election with the burden of proving it can be trusted with power during times of war.

Yet for all our talk about McCain's comparative advantage on national security, many conservatives are nevertheless mystified at some of McCain's anomalous positions on the war on terror and his penchant for moving to the left here, as in so many other areas. Of all policy areas, you would think McCain could score a 100 percent among conservatives on national security, but his apparent desire for mainstream media approval and his addiction to projecting an image of unpredictability must be overwhelming.

Just this week, The Washington Post reported that McCain appears to be flip-flopping on his earlier position in favor of granting telecoms immunity for cooperating with President Bush in Bush's warrantless surveillance program to monitor terrorist activities. McCain has always sided with conservatives to deny the liberal trial lawyers their bonanza in going after these companies for rising to the president's call.

Continue reading "McCain and National Security"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:23 PM

May 27, 2008

McCain Takes Obama to School on Iraq

On Monday, John McCain wisely urged Barack Obama to join him in visiting Iraq, something Obama hasn't done since 2006, when he declared the war lost. This is exactly what McCain ought to be doing: taking it to Obama on an issue that appears to favor Obama but in reality favors McCain.

In thrashing President Bush over Iraq since before we invaded, the mainstream media and the Democratic Party have succeeded in convincing much of the public that the war is a failure and that we must withdraw immediately. The propaganda effort has been so relentless that this perception remains to a great extent, even after the dramatic turnaround occasioned by the surge. But this is primarily because the media do their best to suppress any good news coming out of Iraq.

According to Karlyn Bowman, a public opinion researcher at American Enterprise Institute, while polls indicate a majority of Americans believe the war in Iraq was a mistake (also thanks to the Dems and the MSM), they also believe substantial progress has been made because of the surge. Surprisingly -- you'd never hear this emphasized by the MSM -- only 18 to 20 percent of Americans consistently say we should remove our troops now.

A Quinnipiac University poll conducted May 8-12 basically validates Bowman, saying 22 percent believe we should withdraw ASAP, compared to 48 percent who believe we should set a timetable and 28 percent who insist we should keep troops there as long as needed.

Admittedly, different polls show different results, largely because of the wording of the questions. An ABC News/Washington Post poll, for example, asked, "Do you think the United States should keep its military forces in Iraq until civil order is restored there, even if that means continued U.S. military casualties?" It's not surprising that only 41 percent answered yes because respondents, in order to answer affirmatively, were forced to say they favored a scenario that would lead to American casualties.

Continue reading "McCain Takes Obama to School on Iraq"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:55 PM

May 22, 2008

The Real Obama OR Change We Don't Dare Believe In

Columnist Robert Novak reports that John McCain will not yield to Barack Obama's efforts to shame him into running a vanilla campaign. Instead, he says, McCain is lining up crack research operatives. Interestingly, their charge is not to gather dirt on Obama per se, but "to focus on the real Barack Obama." From where I'm sitting, that looks like one whale of a target-rich environment.

That is, McCain's operatives don't have to dig up dirt on Obama to damage his chances; they merely have to dig through the facade and uncover the real Obama. Even with the damning revelations concerning his association with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and former terrorist William Ayers, I suspect Obama explorers have barely scratched the surface.

While Obama will continue to complain that an examination into his associations is dirty politics, it is anything but. We are known by the company we keep, and this goes for applicants for leader of the Free World as well.

But in Obama's case, the McCain researchers will just be getting started with Obama's sordid associations. Where he's really vulnerable -- the area where he most doesn't want you to find out who he really is -- is on policy.

Given his George Soros brand of extreme leftism, Obama will do his best to conceal his real policy self, except to the San Francisco environmental- and social-issues anarchists, the arts and croissants crowd of the Northeast Corridor, and the neo-Marxist professorial elite in academe. Of course, now that he knows microphones and bloggers can pop up anywhere, he won't even feel comfortable letting his guard down in these friendly venues to edify us about such things as small-town bitterology.

Continue reading "The Real Obama OR Change We Don't Dare Believe In"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 01:41 PM

May 19, 2008

Over the Top Barack

Based on Barack Obama's hysterical, paranoid reaction to President Bush's remarks to the Israeli Knesset condemning the practice of appeasing terrorists, one might infer Obama was lying in wait for just such an opportunity to capture some national security street cred.

After all, Democrats begin any presidential race with a national security credibility deficit, and this one should be no different, notwithstanding the unpopularity of the Iraq war. Democrats like to think they gained congressional seats in 2006 because of the war, but a better read is that Republicans did themselves in through reckless spending, scandals and other abandonment of conservative principles.

Despite his puffed-up posturing, Obama probably recognizes this, as well. Otherwise, why would he have lashed out so nastily at both Mr. Bush (and Sen. McCain) for assuring our closest Middle Eastern ally that we would stand by it?

Obama was so sure Bush's remarks were aimed at him that he shed his nice-guy facade and gave the nation a little glimpse of his inner anger. For those who insist Obama is all sweet and light, I challenge you to listen to his tantrums in response to the president's non-attack.

Obama shouted: "I'm a strong believer in bipartisan foreign policy, but that cause is not served with dishonest, divisive attacks of the sort that we've seen out of George Bush and John McCain over the last couple days. They aren't telling you the truth."

Continue reading "Over the Top Barack"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:53 PM

May 15, 2008

None Dare Call It 'Appeasement'

Let me get this straight. It's perfectly fair for Barack Obama and his cohorts to repeatedly disparage President Bush's foreign policy as "cowboy diplomacy" but unspeakably horrific for Bush to analogize the Democrats' approach to foreign policy to appeasing Hitler?

When Obama compared Hillary Clinton's threats against Iran to President Bush's threatening "bluster" and "cowboy diplomacy," no one batted an eye.

But when Mr. Bush, in addressing Israel's
Knesset, compared those who want to negotiate with today's terrorists and tyrants to an American senator in 1939 who lamented that Hitler's march into Poland might have been avoided "if only I could have talked to Hitler," Obama, other Democrats and the mainstream media went ballistic.

What's wrong with the president assuring our major Middle East ally that, under his watch at least, America will stand by it against our common enemies, such as the Holocaust-denying Iranian regime?

Well, plenty, if you listen to Democrats and the MSM. If President Bush is articulating a position with which they don't agree, he is politicizing foreign policy -- an unforgivable sin. Never mind that Democrats not only have been politicizing foreign policy for the past seven years but also undermining our official policies in the process. Jimmy Carter’s intermeddling with Hamas, Nancy Pelosi's junket to Syria and trips to Iraq by other Democratic members of Congress to sabotage U.S. policy are but several egregious examples.

Continue reading "None Dare Call It 'Appeasement'"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:54 PM

May 12, 2008

John McCain and the Global Warming Train

If John McCain were truly a maverick, he would publicly break from the politically correct culture that demands obedience to its global warming narrative. But sadly, he continues to do the opposite.

Liberals have denominated McCain a maverick because he has taken so many positions contradictory to his party's platform and to the conservative ideology that undergirds it. Now that he is the putative Republican nominee, you don't hear much about his maverick nature, but it's certainly not because he's changed his ways in opposing his party.

Last week, he affirmed his commitment to comprehensive immigration reform, even though earlier he stepped back from it to curry favor with conservatives. One wonders what other shoes will inevitably drop should he win the presidency, especially because he has indicated he would most likely be a one-termer.

Will he revert to his visceral revulsion to the Bush supply-side tax cuts? Many supply-siders, after taking McCain to the woodshed on the issue, assure us he can be trusted on it.

If so, their efforts will redound to the benefit of the economy and nation should McCain win the election. But some of these same supply-side advocates insist we shouldn't expect him to move rightward on too many other issues.

Sorry, but I reject that zero-sum thinking, as should my fellow supply-siders; they certainly do in the realm of tax policy. While I will vote for McCain against either Democratic opponent, I don't believe we should abandon efforts to reform the "reformer" on other issues besides taxes. Are we supposed to declare a moratorium on the expression of our principles for fear it could damage his electability?

Continue reading "John McCain and the Global Warming Train"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:49 PM

May 08, 2008

In Fairness to Hillary

The question, my fellow election watchers, is not, "Why won't Hillary do the honorable thing and quit?" but "Why won't Democrats do the honorable thing and quit trying to force her to?"

Did Democrats make Ted Kennedy quit when he fought Jimmy Carter through the Democratic convention in 1980 in an effort to dislodge pledged delegates though Carter had already secured a majority? That was far worse than anything Hillary is doing.

Until one of the candidates secures the magic number of delegates (a majority) -- and that number is a moving target, given the limbo status of Florida and Michigan -- there is no nominee. A plurality won't cut it.

Nor is the candidate with the most pledged delegates automatically entitled to the nod of the superdelegates or even most of them. The superdelegates are free agents, who may choose either candidate for any reason.

The superdelegate system was designed to give the superdelegates maximum prerogative, which only makes sense because the party bosses established it to ensure their own control over the nomination process. The whole idea was to give them the power to substitute their judgment for the will of the people if, in their political omniscience, they determine the people's choice to be not prudent.

Continue reading "In Fairness to Hillary"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:51 PM

May 05, 2008

Is Barack a Team(ster) Player?

Almost every week, a new damaging story emerges about Barack Obama. Lucky for this wounded "messiah" that his disciples in the mainstream media neglect, until the last possible minute, their duty to investigate these reports. This week, there's a brand-new one, which has surfaced too late to affect the critically important Indiana and North Carolina primaries, but demands scrutiny nonetheless.

The Wall Street Journal -- admittedly a mainstream media outlet, save the editorial page -- has started the ball rolling on this one with a May 5 article examining the possible reasons behind the International Brotherhood of Teamsters' endorsement of Obama. We'll have to see whether Barack's disciples follow up.

The public line -- both of Obama and the Teamsters -- is that Obama secured the union's support by strongly condemning NAFTA, which the Teamsters believe results in the exportation of jobs. Hillary Clinton has been critical of NAFTA, as well, and even says she opposed it from the beginning. But her assertion is almost as incredible as the Bosnian sniper-fire tale because she and her two-for-one co-president were instrumental in bringing the trade agreement to fruition.

So NAFTA might be a factor, though Obama doesn't completely toe the line on protectionism, favoring certain smaller-scale agreements the Teamsters oppose. He also opposes expanded oil drilling in Alaska against the preferences of the union and favors comprehensive immigration reform over strenuous Teamsters objection. So what does Barack have over Hillary, besides her lateness to the party in opposing NAFTA?

The Journal tells us on page A1, "Sen. Barack Obama won the endorsement of the Teamsters earlier this year after privately telling the union he supported ending the strict federal oversight imposed to root out corruption, according to officials from the union and the Obama campaign."

Whoa! What's this all about?

Continue reading "Is Barack a Team(ster) Player?"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:08 PM

May 01, 2008

'Willful Blindness' to the Jihad

You might expect the lead prosecutor against the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing to tout the criminal justice system as the premier strategy to fight terrorism. If so, you're wrong.

It is precisely because of Andy McCarthy's experience in that capacity that he understands -- in a way others can't -- the crippling limitations of law enforcement and criminal prosecutions in combating global terrorism.

Though he led the Justice Department prosecution team that convicted Omar Abdel Rahman, the "Blind Sheik," McCarthy is painfully aware that "as a class, baby-boom attorneys know nothing of war. Prosecutors included." Even this successful effort left way too many militants in place and encouraged the idea that they could attack us with impunity.

The entire orientation of the criminal justice system is to protect the rights of innocents, affording the accused due process and a litany of other constitutional protections. But we are at war with an enemy who doesn't fight wars according to conventional rules. If we continue to treat them as criminal suspects rather than enemy combatants, they'll always be many steps ahead of us in a war that only they are fighting. While our government frets over their constitutional rights -- rights to which enemy combatants have never been historically entitled -- it abdicates its duty to protect American lives.

Before the 9/11 attacks, we simply did not understand that Islamic terrorists had declared war against the United States and that to have any chance in this war, we'd have to engage them militarily.

Continue reading "'Willful Blindness' to the Jihad"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:08 PM

April 28, 2008

The Rev. Wright Just Can't Help Himself

When it comes to the connection between Barack Obama and his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright -- or to John McCain's various positions on whether criticizing Obama for his relationship with Wright is fair game -- my head is spinning.

At first, the Obama defenders said Jeremiah Wright doesn't speak for Obama. Not only have Obama's ill-wishers taken Wright's statements out of context but they have unfairly imputed those statements to Obama.

Next, we witnessed the beginning of the Jeremiah Wright rehabilitation tour. He appeared on Bill Moyers' show, endeavoring to present himself as a calm, reasonable person whose statements had been twisted against him.

Then he spoke at the Detroit NAACP dinner. Forgive me if I have a different take than most Wright critics, but I read the transcript of the Detroit speech in its entirety and did not detect too much, if any, incendiary language.

Wright presented a rather innocuous talk about the differences in human beings and how our differences do not mean certain groups are deficient -- "just different." His theme seemed to be that we should strive to overlook people's differences and work toward reconciliation because we are all made in God's image. Bravo. Who could object to that?

Continue reading "The Rev. Wright Just Can't Help Himself"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:31 PM

April 24, 2008

It's Barack, Like It or Not

Loyal Democrats should be grateful to Hillary Clinton, the Energizer Bunny of presidential politics, for her perseverance. Had she not stayed in the race against enormous pressure to bow out in favor of the media's anointed one, Democrats would have ended up nominating that "seriously flawed" candidate.

But wait. They're almost destined to anyway. They have little choice. How can they avoid nominating Barack Obama -- no matter how compromised he has become?

Just consider the magnitude of the Democrats' dilemma. They desperately want to regain the White House. They believed, as did political oddsmakers, the stars were lining up to make 2008 their banner year for both the presidential and congressional elections. Barack Obama had emerged as seemingly the most impressive candidate in years.

But when things seem too good to be true, they usually are. There was no way Obama could measure up to the supernatural image his supporters and the media painted of him. But little did we know that he would crash so far and so fast, that he was not only not messianic but also, like Hillary, "seriously flawed," in the words of Washington Post columnist David Broder.

Despite Obama's string of successes, he hasn't been able to win any major states, except for his home state of Illinois. He got blown out in Pennsylvania, even against the other "seriously flawed" candidate, who recently reminded voters, via sniper tall tales, of her propensity to prevaricate.

Continue reading "It's Barack, Like It or Not"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:47 PM

April 21, 2008

Beware: Obamutopia

Barack Obama, stubbornly clinging to his right to be charismatically shallow, at first complained that Hillary Clinton was unfairly criticizing him for being all flair and fluff with no substance. Now he's upset that Clinton and the media won't let him discuss substance. Based on some of his speeches lately, I'm thinking he ought to be grateful for the diversion because his policy proposals might not survive serious scrutiny.

Maybe it's unfair to interpret literally Obama's repeated stump speech assertion that we Americans aren't perfect but are "perfectible" and conclude he possesses a New Age or secular humanist worldview rather than a Christian one, which clearly rejects the notion of man's perfectibility.

Then again, his policy proposals do sound strikingly utopian -- almost as if he's saying we truly can achieve perfection, end poverty, eradicate health care problems, establish universal harmony, legislate away all corruption, and attain wholesale energy independence without, by the way, liberating ourselves from the shackles of enviro-policemen, who forbid us from exploiting our own resources.

Obama's pitch to fawning audiences is so hopelessly idealistic and his promises so painfully unrealistic that it's amazing he's taken as seriously as he is.

If George W. Bush were to deliver the pap Obama routinely includes in his speeches, he'd be laughed off the stage. "Saturday Night Live" skits would be hard-pressed to exaggerate the vacuousness of his utterances. In fact, I'd be surprised if sympathetic journalists weren't cleaning up Obama's quotes before publishing them. But YouTube isn't so forgiving. "We believe we can change, and that's the kind of hope I'm talking about."

Continue reading "Beware: Obamutopia"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:14 PM

April 17, 2008

Mainstream Media Oblivious to Relevancy of Many Obama-gates

The dirty little secret about Barack Obama's indictment of flyover country is that he said what liberals, including Hillary Clinton, believe. Sufficient proof of this can be found in the liberal outrage at Wednesday night's Democratic presidential debate, where Obama was pressed both by the moderators and Clinton to explain Bitter-gate, Wright-gate, Ayers-gate and Flag pin-gate.

Consider the uncannily similar reactions of columnists Tom Shales and Stephen Silver.

Shales expressed indignation that ABC News moderators Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos would dare ask Obama to justify his insulting remarks about small-town Americans and his relationships with certain anti-American people.

Shale's fumed, "For the first 52 minutes … Gibson and Stephanopoulos dwelled entirely on specious and gossipy trivia that already has been hashed and rehashed, in the hope of getting the candidates to claw at one another over disputes that are no longer news. Some were barely news to begin with."

Shales was particularly perturbed that Stephanopoulos "came up with such tired tripe as a charge that Obama once associated with a nutty bomb-throwing anarchist."

Continue reading "Mainstream Media Oblivious to Relevancy of Many Obama-gates"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:37 PM

April 14, 2008

Obama's Projections of Bitterness

One of the silver linings of the mostly dismal presidential campaign has been that Democrats have finally come to see -- perhaps admit is a better word -- that the Clintons are pathological and ruthless power addicts. But that late-coming epiphany looks increasingly irrelevant, as the ascendancy of Barack Obama delivers a whole new set of deeply troubling concerns.

Democrats -- all but committed to this fresh, charismatic figure -- are forced to deny or downplay the almost daily revelations about Obama that would have derailed less promising candidates already. But they have to be concerned.

Given Obama's uncompromising liberalism, it was only a matter of time before his pretense toward unity and bipartisanship would be exposed for the mirage that it is. The contentiousness of the Democratic contest has just accelerated the process.

As these damaging items slowly dripped out about Obama, he was able to brush them aside dismissively. You'll recall his refusal to wear a flag pin, his categorical statement that "it would be a profound mistake for us to use nuclear weapons under any circumstances," his assessment that the lives of our fallen soldiers in Iraq have been "wasted," his mindless promise to withdraw troops from Iraq according to an irresponsibly arbitrary timetable, and his naive remark that he would attach no preconditions to negotiating with the tyrants of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea.

The cumulative force of Obama's common-themed actions and statements would have compelled even a statistician to doubt they could be attributed to coincidence. Wasn't an objective pattern emerging to suggest that Obama would hardly be the fiercest guardian of America's national security interests?

Continue reading "Obama's Projections of Bitterness"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:19 PM

April 10, 2008

National Security Is THE Issue

While there is plenty of room for robust debate about Iraq, what concerns me is that the direction of this discussion has, ironically, taken our eyes off the real ball, which is our national security.

Don't get me wrong. I believe the Iraq war has everything to do with our national security. How we proceed -- whether we maintain sufficient forces there to ensure the nation's long-term stability or prematurely withdraw with reckless disregard for the consequences -- is critically relevant to our national security.

But instead of focusing on the national security implications, we are perennially bogged down in quibbling over the partisan flash points of whether we should have attacked Iraq in the first place or whether we're being perceived as liberators or imperialists.

Have any of the Democratic presidential candidates ever been asked, for example, whether they've considered the consequences of withdrawing our troops according to an arbitrary time schedule they have fashioned for political purposes?

They are forever excused for dodging this question on the illogical basis that the consequences of a precipitous withdrawal are not their responsibility. They didn't get us into this war in the first place (allowing here, of course, for a willing suspension of disbelief as to Hillary's assertion that she was deceived into voting for the Iraq war resolution).

Continue reading "National Security Is THE Issue"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 05:08 PM

April 07, 2008

Democratic Presidential Magic Goes Poof

The Democratic primary contest has degenerated from a perceived battle between the party's highest ranked superheavyweights to a fight for survival between two badly damaged club fighters.

In its early phases the campaign featured only "Hillary, the Entitled." Her inevitability had been decreed by party powers still operating under the deluded assumption that the Clinton years inspired mostly positive images, especially those of economic prosperity.

Sure, there was Bill's baggage, but the country had rejected the Republicans' attitude toward it when it punished them in the 1998 congressional elections, right? The mainstream media instantly dubbed it a "referendum on impeachment," though an equally reasonable interpretation was that the GOP losses were in line with historical midterm election trends.

But there is no denying that Bill Clinton is the only Democrat to have held the presidency since Jimmy Carter -- that's 28 years. He is the only guy that consistently stuck it to the Republicans with success, despite being politically crippled. There had to be magic with this guy -- with the Clintons.

The Clintons had become the only symbol of victory for Democrats. Even Al Gore couldn't make it to the White House when he'd won -- according to Democratic propaganda -- the 2000 election. Nor could John Kerry dispose of this Dubyah "dunce" in 2004, even with the aid of equally entrenched Democratic myths that Bush lied about Iraqi WMD, had made himself king and had destroyed our civil liberties.

Continue reading "Democratic Presidential Magic Goes Poof"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:35 PM

April 03, 2008

MSM Whiplash Victims

Hillary and Bill Clinton must be beside themselves over the way the mainstream media has treated them this presidential election cycle. If they were glass-half-full types, the power couple would be counting their blessings that this treatment didn't kick in when Bill was committing and covering up his felonies.

Had the MSM been scrutinizing and exposing the Clintons' behavior in the '90s, it's very possible Bill never would have survived his impeachment ordeal. Imagine how different it would have been had the MSM focused their investigative microscopes and analytical energies on Hillary's cattle futures bonanza; the indefensible disappearance of her law firm billing records; her heartless and capricious firings of White House travel office personnel to benefit her friends; Bill's unconscionable, unsolicited pardons of FALN terrorist inmates to shore up the Hispanic vote for Hillary's New York Senate campaign; the endless trail of corruption with Red China and North Korea; the credible rape and sexual assault allegations against Bill coupled with Hillary's collusion in defusing the "bimbo eruptions"; and much more.

What a difference a few years and the advent of a promising young liberal candidate such as Barack Obama make. Now that the media have chosen sides in favor of Obama, they've lifted their protection for the Clintons, and we're getting a glimpse of the vulnerability of the Clintons when they're separated from their MSM bodyguards.

Not long ago, the MSM was heralding Bill as the first black president, with no apparent awareness of the absurdity of this caricature. Today they're showcasing his race-baiting antics in the primaries, making no effort to obscure, rationalize or apologize for them.

Until very recently, they couldn't get enough of the microphone-grabbing, attention-starved, headline-stealing former president. Today they deride him for the very narcissism they so shamelessly enabled and are even lamenting "Clinton fatigue."

Continue reading "MSM Whiplash Victims"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 08:10 PM

March 31, 2008

Self-Destructive Democrats?

Democrats seemed determined to convert their sunny 2008 forecast into a perfect storm, which only can be diverted if either the approaching Obama front or Clinton front dissipates soon or changes directions to join forces with the other via the proverbial "dream ticket."

Until Pastor Wright managed to become Obama's potentially career-shattering albatross, Obama looked unstoppable, indeed superhuman. But as has happened repeatedly in this campaign, Hillary's persistence was rewarded -- briefly, anyway. Obama's long and close association with the incendiary pastor undercut his perceived ability to rise above both race and party.

With the passage of a little time, though, Obama appears to have recovered. Or are his rising poll numbers merely a result of Hillary's umpteenth gratuitous tall tale?

It's hard to imagine that Obama's 52 to 42 percent national lead among Democrats, his narrowing of the superdelegate gap, and his lopsided acquisition of endorsements since Super Tuesday (64 to nine) are the result solely of Hillary's fraudulent assertion of sniper-tested heroism.

It's more likely that concerns about Obama's association with Wright have diminished with the cessation of a 24/7 news cycle devoted to it. The mainstream media's reversion to Obama adoration following his dreamy post-Wright lecture on race in America hasn't hurt him, either.

Continue reading "Self-Destructive Democrats?"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 06:37 PM

March 27, 2008

The 2008 Campaign Mess

It would be fun to watch this bizarre seesaw contest between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, except for the horrifying possibility that one of them could end up being our next president.

Conservatives have long recognized the power lust and ruthlessness that defines the Clintons. Finally, many Democrats opened their eyes to this, too, as they watched Bill Clinton's deliberate ignition of racial tensions in efforts to quell the Obama surge. Who does this upstart Obama think he is, trying to disrupt the inexorable flow of history leading to a continuation of the Clinton co-presidency?

Though Bill's strategy only yielded the Clintons temporary fruit, Obama delivered them bushel baskets of his own with revelations of his longtime association with a stridently racist black pastor. Obama might have been finished but for Hillary's quasi-masochistic penchant for self-destruction.

Hillary just couldn't resist claiming she came under sniper fire in Bosnia, presumably so she could add this combat experience to her resume of otherwise mostly vicarious achievements.

Continue reading "The 2008 Campaign Mess"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 04:52 PM

March 24, 2008

Forsaken So We Could Live

I was one of seven people who each spoke at our church's Good Friday service on one of the seven sayings of Christ on the cross. I chose, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?"

In my more skeptical days, I viewed the question as odd -- almost ammunition for the cynic. Why would Christ, if he were truly God, need to ask God about anything? Also, why would an all-powerful God have been in such a vulnerable position?

I now realize that these questions are no more unique than the basic misunderstandings of Christianity and Christian doctrine that give rise to them. But interestingly, this utterance of Christ that was once a stumbling block for me has now become a powerful reinforcement for my faith.

I used to wonder how the crucifixion, no matter how much physical suffering Christ endured, could cancel out our sins. After all, other human beings have experienced similar physical punishment. But I was completely unaware of the spiritual wounding that was involved. The Scripture tells us, "The human spirit can endure in sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear?"

Continue reading "Forsaken So We Could Live"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:58 PM

March 20, 2008

Obama Not Yet Out of the Woods

Barack Obama is nothing if not smooth. He seamlessly turned a would-be apology over his pastor's racism into an indictment against society's racism.

It wasn't, "Jeremiah Wright was wrong, and I was wrong for going to his church for 20 years despite his apparently unforgiving spirit, his racist and anti-American utterances, and his vulgarity, including taking the Lord's name in vain from his very pulpit -- the one venue above all on God's sacred planet that such irreverence is inalterably forbidden. No matter what racial injustices have been perpetrated over the years by mankind toward mankind, they are never an excuse for disrespecting God, and especially in His house."

Instead, Obama said, essentially, "I reject many of Rev. Wright's remarks as divisive and perhaps even unfairly critical of America, but you have to admit, he has a point."

You can talk all you want to about Obama's "audacity of hope" theme, but the only audacity I heard in his speech was his lecturing Americans on their racism instead of explaining his longtime intimate relationship with Wright.

Obama's forte is not, as many have suggested, waxing eloquent while saying nothing. His real gift is saying one thing while appearing to say the opposite, so mellifluously and disarmingly that audiences shake their heads in affirmation of the very proposition they oppose. Without changing their minds, they believe they have agreed with him. Amazing -- and scary.

Continue reading "Obama Not Yet Out of the Woods"

Posted by David Limbaugh at 07:35 PM

March 17, 2008

Wright Connection Fatally Undermines Obama's Central Theme

The racist, anti-American rantings of Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama's spiritual mentor and pastor of the church Obama attended for 20 years, raise many red flags about Obama's supposedly best selling point: his unique capability for healing societal divisions.

Considering our deep-seated societal disagreements over cultural and political issues, promises by politicians to end societal divisiveness are dubious enough on their face. But when the promisor's personal history contradicts his promises, even further scrutiny is required.

It's difficult to gauge Obama's genuineness in standing on this kind of platform because he has such a short political history to evaluate. Stories have been written, pointing to his extreme liberalism and scant record of reaching across the aisle, that cast serious doubt on his unifying claims. Until now, his lofty speeches have obscured these inconsistencies.

But with reports of his pastor saying "blacks should not sing 'God bless America, but G-- d--- America," and, concerning the 9/11 attacks, America's "chickens are coming home to roost," the burden of proof has now shifted to Obama. He must demonstrate not only that his claims to offer healing are sincere but also that he does not actually share his pastor's and, manifestly, his congregation's deeply disturbing views on race and America.

What can Obama say to meet this burden of proof?

Before this story heated up beyond the mainstream media's ability to suppress it, Obama casually dismissed the pastor's tirades merely as "controversial" remarks -- as if they had some legitimacy and were not outright indefensible but in any event should not be taken too seriously. Now he appears to be saying he was unaware of the offensive statements. But if Obama's deepest passion in life is to heal, wouldn't it follow that he would make it his business to know -- taking the willing suspension of disbelief here to new heights -- what driving passions stir his pastor?

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