Learning To Set A Positive Agenda

I watched as much of the President Obama visit to the Republican Meeting last week as I could take – and that was very little. He was back to his ‘professor’ mode talking down to his class full of students, all of whom seemed willing to accept that premise. It was too much to take for long.
This week President Obama has issued a challenge to the Republicans to meet him in an open forum on C-Span to discuss their ideas on healthcare. He CLAIMS he will be open-minded to their proposals. Since he issued the challenge it has come to light that it was a ploy. Once of Nancy Pelosi’s aids leaked to the press that the meeting was a distraction while the Democrats went about passing the Senate bill through the House then slipping in a reconciliation bill behind it to give them the healthcare bill they have been looking for all along. Even before that come to light, I have to ask the Republicans a question: Have you lost your freaking minds?
You HAD to know President Obama was coming to the Republican Meeting for a photo op. That was evident from the time… well, from the time he decided to show up. The man arrived with a sycophantic press corps (or ‘corpse’ if you are an Obama-ite – which might actually be more accurate in describing the press’ ability for independent thought) to dutifully praise every word he utters. Republicans then allowed him to control the conversation and he got the sound bytes he went up there to get. Mission accomplished.
That meeting worked out so well for him he decided to extend the ‘openness’ with the Republicans. Now President Obama wants to meet to discuss HIS healthcare bill. The entire country has rejected it, but he wants to push on with the issue and the best way HE feels to do that is to meet with the Republicans and ridicule them for the whole country to see. He has no intention of listening to any of the suggestions the Republicans make. All he has to do is create the ILLUSION that he took them seriously and the press will run back to their little roundtables to discuss how well he ‘handled’ the ‘harsh’ Republicans.
And he wants to do it on C-Span. Uh… did anyone think to ask ‘why?’ When the REAL discussions were going on NO ONE was allowed in but Obama and the DEMOCRAT Congressional leadership. Now he wants to put it on C-Span? Suddenly ‘transparency’ is the issue? The only reason he wants to put it on TV is so he can control the conversation and hold Republicans up to be ridiculed by HIS media again. Why do it? Answer: There’s no reason to do it. The healthcare issue is dead – the American people have spoken in Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts as well as all across the country at Tea Parties and Town Hall Meetings and in every poll out there – unless the Republicans allow him to breathe life back into it.
It’s time to move on to finding jobs for the eight million of us who are looking.
Republicans have GOT to wise up. The American people are on YOUR side. It’s not just Republicans, it’s also the Independents who are finding their way home and the Blue Dog Democrats who have had enough. Americans have always been on your side if you had shown any kind of leadership skills and been willing to communicate what you stand for. Or maybe you are just figuring out what that is.
I know you think no one will give you the coverage if you start talking, but that’s because you spend too much time allowing others to control the agenda. The answer is simple. All you have to do is start talking to Fox News and Talk Radio. President Reagan had none of the cable coverage or Talk Radio support we have today, but the American people found a way to get the message out and followed him to landslide victories.
If you start practicing the skills of communicating with Americans and make it a strong Conservative message three things will happen. The majority of American voters will love you, Democrats will be frustrated and start whining attacks making them look weak and the mood of the nation will begin to change to a more positive tone.
The next problem you will have is that the OTHER networks will be screaming because you’re not talking to THEM and giving them time to dissect you. Once YOU own the initiative everyone will want to talk to you.
It’s funny how that works.

The Unemployment Numbers Fiasco Is Really Just Lying

If I did what the Obama Administration did with number manipulation I would be fired. It would be called an ‘integrity problem’ and I would become part of the unemployed faster than you can say ‘security’ – with extremely poor prospects for finding another job. Playing with numbers on the scale the unemployment numbers were manipulated last year to make the White House look better is LYING on a massive scale. Someone should lose their job for this level of LYING.
For leaving out almost a million unemployed – a number that is NOT insignificant – which made the reported numbers look better than they were, heads should have rolled. Someone should be meeting with their boss, answering questions about how it is possible to make such a gross error, the whole time worrying about wetting himself or herself with fear. And the boss who is doing the grilling should be concerned, sweating bullets of their own while trying to get answers because he/she is going to be in on the carpet in a matter of minutes answering to their boss who is going to be repeating the process until someone is in front of the President of the United States answering how this can happen.
Well, that is if we lived in the sane world where accountability is a concept someone in government understood. Let’s face it; no one in Washington has the first idea about holding anyone accountable. The only thing Washington understands is finger pointing, laying blame and rushing to the microphones to put spin on issues.
This recalibration of the unemployment numbers is a perfect example. President Obama should have been in front of the microphones explaining how a screw up of this magnitude could happen and the steps that were going to be put in place to be certain it never happened again. He should also have offered up the names of those fired for this kind of integrity failure and who is going to jail for destroying the trust of the American people. Instead, he was in front of the microphones crowing about bogus unemployment numbers that were based on faulty, manipulated data. Instead of unemployment numbers that reflect the dire state of our economy when taken in their purest unmolested form, President Obama was busy telling anyone who would listen that he was saving us from the Great Depression II. He was crowing about numbers he KNEW were false and manipulated as if they actually were pointing in a direction that was exactly the opposite of where everyone who was listening KNEW they were pointing. The unemployment rate is slowing because we are running out of jobs to cut. We’re down eight million jobs and we are still adding to the number every month. There was a seasonal slowing due to Christmas hiring and there will be an artificial slowing as the Census Bureau puts on people to count heads. The major turnaround that Obama is dislocating his shoulder patting himself on the back over has not materialized. You see, you can play with percentages all day, but the raw data tells the tale – and it is a sad one.
A major part of this equation is that the American press is acting ignorant of the whole situation. Either they are REALLY good actors or they are truly a bunch of clueless dolts. I’m going with the ‘clueless dolts.’ In spite of their high priced educations and ‘old boy networking’ they are not understanding what the average American is getting loud and clear – unemployment is still with us and showing no sign of turning around. It is all over the Internet how the numbers were manipulated and why the results are bogus. It’s not rocket science. And even if it was not, it is easy to figure out. Anyone who understands business or how numbers work understands what happened – and that we are being lied to for political gain. This is a pattern that should have Americans all across the country shuddering in fear – even the press who is studiously trying to ignore the problem. The depths to which Washington is willing to descend just to mislead us is astonishing – and criminal.