cosmoscon

President Obama admitted today that his first term as President has been a complete failure based on the critera set forth by himself and that he’ll be a failure as long as he remains President of the United States.

“The fact that we haven’t been able to change the tone in Washington is dissapointing,” Obama said, in response to a question about his greatest failure. “The most important lesson I’ve learned is you can’t change Washington from the inside. You can only change it from the outside.”

Remember that during Obama’s 2008 campaign he said that he was going to “fundamentally transform America” but now he admits he can’t even change a city. A Presidential candidate that campaigned on Hope and Change now admits that he is powerless to change anything about Washington and that change can’t come from within DC.

So to sum up – a) Obama failed to fulfill his primary campaign promise and b) he already predicts further failure if given 4 more years because you can’t change Washington from inside (by the way, you don’t get more “inside” Washington than 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue).

If Obama is really interested in change and since he just admitted that you can’t change Washington from within, I have a simple question for Obama. Why are you still running for a second term? Just quit and go affect that change on the outside.

At a minimum, this quote from Obama amounts to someone admitting defeat while still pandering for your vote but here is what really upsets me about his statement. Obama’s words today are ones typically uttered by cowards, wimps and those with small minds. Let me explain….

No matter how high you rise in your profession, you’ll always have a boss that you’ll need to satisfy. Even CEO’s of major corporations answer to the share holders and the Board of Directors and if the CEO isn’t doing what they expect, he is fired. Even Presidents of the United States have a boss since they answer to the American citizens and POTUS can be impeached by Congress if the need arises.

What just happened today was that POTUS got up in front of his boss (the American citizens who saw the interview), admitted that he had not only failed to solve the problems he was hired to fix but (and this is the clincher) he is incapable of solving these problems (because he is inside Washington) and he wants 4 more years in his current job. What would happen if you went into your boss’ office today and told him that you have failed to achieve all your most important goals, you intend to fail at them in the future and you should continue to keep your job?

The most analogous job in the Business world that compares with POTUS is the CEO of a company and if a CEO stood before the Board of Directors and freely admitted that he was incapable of solving the company’s problems then he would be rightfully fired that very day. What good is a leader who can’t lead an organization to highlight problems and solve them? He is worthless.

Poor, pitiful, victim Obama can’t keep his promises because there are too many mean people in Washington who won’t get behind him. Make no mistake, that’s really what he was trying to say here and that is the typical utterance of a person who is incapable of leading.

We have all had jobs where we needed to influence the organization but we had to do it by working with those who either weren’t on our team or didn’t directly report to us. A good leader finds ways to facilitate change in an organization and works with those who oppose him to reach a compromise or get others to adopt his policies. There are leaders in companies all over America who do this every day and many of them don’t even have a typical leadership job title!

Only those who think small and choose to play blame games throw up their hands and surrender when they encounter opposition. Obama deserves to be fired on November 6th!

The poll numbers are coming fast and furious now and this will not let up until November 7^th so I caution everyone to look a little deeper than the poll headlines before they come to any conclusions.

I use Real Clear Politics to serve as a clearing house of the major polls and you can click on the individual poll to gain further details such as the questions asked, the sample size, margin of error and (this is important!!!) party affiliation of the people polled.

I will use a recent poll from Democracy Corps as an example how you must dive into the details before you glean too much from the overall polling numbers.

From this poll, we see that Obama has a 5 percentage point advantage over Romney with 1,000 likely voters (50% to 45%).  The main question posed was:

“Thinking about the presidential election in November, if the election for president were held today and the candidates were Democrat Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney, for whom would you vote?”

Wow, this looks pretty bad for Romney!  But when we look at the party affiliation of the 1,000 people sampled we see a large bias to Democratic voters.  The results below are to the following question:

“Generally speaking, do you think of yourself as a Democrat, a Republican or what?”

Strong Democrats outnumbered strong Republicans (30% to 21%), weak Democrats outnumbered weak Republicans (11% to 9%) and Independents leaning Republican outnumbered Independents leaning Democratic (13% to 9%).  Overall, those affiliated with the Democratic Party outnumbered those affiliated with the Republican Party 50% to 43%.  That is a 7 percentage point delta in a poll that suggests Obama has a 5 percentage point lead over Romney and this poll has a 3.1% margin of error.

What if the poll were able to sample equal number of people who were affiliated/leaning Democrat versus Republican?  For fun, let’s assume that those who categorized themselves as Strong, Weak or Leaning to a party would vote for the Presidential candidate of that party.  If we were to theorize that the Democracy Corps polling sample had equal percentages of Strong/Weak/Leaning party affiliation then we would see that Romney would lead Obama by 1 percentage point.

The calculations can be seen in the table below where I redistributed the 9% delta in Strong Dem, 2% delta in Weak Dem and 4% delta in Independent Leaning Republican equally amongst the parties.

But even leveling the party affiliations is still a poor representation of how people will actually vote.  The following data from Rasmussen show that the advantage of those affiliated with the Republican Party surpasses those affiliated with the Democratic Party anywhere from 0.9 to 4.3 percentage points in 2012.

So keep in mind that any polling data that is either skewed to the Democratic side or has equal amounts of Democrats and Republicans is biased and doesn’t reflect voting reality.  As the polling data is released and the Leftists start thumping their chests, bring them back to Earth by diving deeper into the data.

After the murder of 4 American citizens in Libya, the Main Stream Media (MSM) has been more concerned with Romney gaffes and an anti-Islam movie (that hardly anybody has actually seen) than the breakdown in our intelligence system.  I offer two news stories to prove this point.

Imagine the hours it took NPR journalists Amy Morgan and Scott Neuman to write this piece on the movie that the MSM would like you to think inspired the attacks on US embassies.

“The past 24 hours have produced a few answers — but many more questions — about the anti-Islam film that became a flashpoint across North Africa and the Middle East this week.”

“NPR’s Carrie Kahn reports on Morning Edition that The Innocence of Muslims was shot in Los Angeles County last August, under the title Desert Warriors. It’s full of “choppy dialogue, bad acting and scenes of a buffoonish Muhammad,” she says.”

Read the entire article.  They tracked down the location and date the movie was shot.  They identified the Director as well as his detailed criminal past.  They identified traced phone calls and uncovered the Director’s fake name, real name and religious denomination.  They interviewed someone who knows the Producer but won’t give out his name.  They even tracked down an actress in the movie and were able to determine that the film had a crew of 80 people.

From that article, I have no doubt these two have journalist instincts and training to obtain these kinds of details but wouldn’t it have been better to use that talent to get to the bottom of the actual events that led to the murder of 4 US citizens?

Kim Sengupta from the UK paper The Independent probably asked that same question and came up with this fantastic bit of investigative journalism.

“The killings of the US ambassador to Libya and three of his staff were likely to have been the result of a serious and continuing security breach, The Independent can reveal.”

“American officials believe the attack was planned, but Chris Stevens had been back in the country only a short while and the details of his visit to Benghazi, where he and his staff died, were meant to be confidential.”

“According to senior diplomatic sources, the US State Department had credible information 48 hours before mobs charged the consulate in Benghazi, and the embassy in Cairo, that American missions may be targeted, but no warnings were given for diplomats to go on high alert and “lockdown”, under which movement is severely restricted.”

Can you tell the difference between the way Sengupta used journalistic tools to obtain information that was pertinent to the crisis and how Morgan and Neuman used their talents to dive into minutia?

Americans deserve better from the 4^th Estate and the lack of professionalism from journalists during not only the past 48 hours but the last 3+ years of the Obama regime is criminal.

Photo from Vanity Fair – http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/03/obama200803

I was watching Obama’s campaign rally in Las Vegas tonight and I saw it opened up with the crowd chanting “Four more years!”  After seeing that, the first thought to enter my mind was “How in the hell could non-mentally-challenged adults chant that after the events of the last 24 hours (not to mention the past 3+ years)?

Allow me to hit the obvious points against voting for Obama and these are listed in no particular order.

Obama’s 2009 Stimulus failed at its basic objective to keep the official unemployment rate below 8% (it’s been over that rate for 42 consecutive months).

The Labor Force Participation rate is at a pitiful 63.7% which is the lowest level in 31 years.

Obama’s Keynesian economic policies have generated anemic GDP growth which is historically counter to expectations coming out of a deep recession.

The Chicago Teachers Union is on strike because they couldn’t accept a 16% raise over 4 years even though they are some of the highest paid teachers in the nation.  Obama has yet to comment on this issue that has caused the third largest city in the country to force 350,000 children to suffer even more under an already pitiful public education system.  Maybe it’s because the CTU is at odds with the Mayor who is Obama’s former Chief of Staff.

Obama showed how anti-business he is by stating that small businesses didn’t build their wealth on their own.

Obama’s only plan to address our debt problems is to raise taxes on the wealthy but anyone who has a 5^th grade level competency in Math can show that this won’t work.

Obama has no plans to reform the Welfare programs that have expanded to the point where they have transitioned from a ‘safety net’ to an enabling program that keeps poverty rates pegged at about 11%.

Obama’s signature piece of Legislation, Obamacare, is already projected to cost more than advertised and is killing entrepreneurship, innovation, jobs and patients.  If the law is fully implemented starting in 2013-2014 timeframe we need look no further than Canada and England to see what evils await us.

Social Security is on a destructive path that will become unsustainable and Obama has offered no solutions.

Obama and the Democrat controlled Senate have not passed a federal budget since April 29, 2009.  Obama’s 2012 Budget received ZERO votes in both the House and Senate.

Under the first term of Obama, our national debt has increased by $5 trillion (more than all 8 years under Bush 43).  Our Debt to GDP ratio is now over 100% for the first time since WWII and we have Leftists to blame for this and specifically Obama.

Instead of bringing the country together, Obama chose to divide us and generate a fictitious income inequality meme that tells us that the wealthy aren’t paying their fair share.  This income inequality meme is not true and the wealthy are definitely paying their fair share when you look at actual IRS data.

And finally, over the past 48 hours we’ve seen how utterly incapable Obama is with regard to foreign policy.  The American embassies in Egypt and Libya were attacked and four US citizens, including the US ambassador to Libya, were killed in one of these attacks.  The US Egyptian embassy tweeted their outrage at an American movie maker who produced a movie (that hardly anyone has seen) that angered Muslims and then deleted those tweets.  Obama showed his support for the fallen Americans by flying to Las Vegas for a campaign rally that I mentioned in the opening paragraph of this post and after that rally, Obama compared his campaign staff to the Americans who were killed in Libya.  Earlier that day, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff found time in his busy schedule to contact a pastor in Florida in an attempt to convince him to give up his 1^st amendment rights in publicizing the movie so he doesn’t upset our terrorist enemies.

After looking at all that has happened during Obama’s 1^st term as US President, it is hard to understand how people in America want “4 more years” of this crap.  January 21^st, 2013 can’t get here soon enough.

The Democratic National Convention starts this week and a recent NPR story gave us a sneak peek about what the major themes will be.   A few quotes from the NPR article are pasted below with emphasis mine.

“Unlike what Republicans did in Tampa last week, Democrats will lay out a clear plan to get the country back on sound footing, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said during news briefing in Charlotte, N.C., moments ago.”

“We are proud of our president and we are proud of what he’s accomplished,” she [DNC Secretary Alice Germond] said. Taking a dig at what she said was the secrecy of the GOP platform, she said that by the time President Obama delivers his acceptance speech Thursday evening, everyone will have a copy of the platform.”

“We’ve made progress,” [Obama campaign’s national press secretary Ben] LaBolt said. And the president will use his speech on Thursday to lay out his plans to continue on that path.”

So here are the dual themes of the DNC convention – 1) Try and persuade the American public that Obama hasn’t been President over the past 3+ years and 2) Try and persuade the American public that we are on the right path thanks to Obama.

If Villaraigosa is saying the country isn’t on “sound footing” then he hopes that the American people will forget that Obama has led the country for almost 4 years and that his policies weren’t allowed to be passed, even though the first 2 years of his presidency enjoyed majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate.  Obama said in 2009 that if the economy hadn’t recovered in 3 years then he deserves to be a 1 term President and the DNC will do everything they can to wipe the memory of the last 3 years from American voters’ minds.  Leftists are great at shifting goal posts but they’ll have the challenge of their life if they hope to convince the American people that Obama didn’t promise an economic recovery in his first term. 

Then, if some people can’t purge that memory from their minds, they hope to convince people that we are on the right path and should re-elect Obama.  Our national Debt is greater than our GDP, our national credit rating was downgraded, US corporations pay the highest tax rate in the world, the Unemployment rate (U-3) is over 8%, the real unemployment rate (U-6) is at 15%,gas prices are higher than 3 years ago and Team Obama has no plans to address out of control entitlements like Social Security and Welfare.  That is not what I consider ‘being on the right path’ but the DNC will do their best to make that case.

They must really think the American people are stupid and I’ll assume that most thinking individuals will see through the attempts of the DNC to tell America we are on the right path.  But what about the DNC goal to paint Obama as an innocent bystander and that he is not culpable in the current economic situation?

Who pushed for and got the Stimulus of 2009 passed?  Obama promoted this bill as the savior of our economy and was supposed to keep the nation’s Unemployment rate below 8% but, as we all know, it didn’t work.  Whose fault was that?  Oh, that’s right.  Obama was confused about the definition of ‘shovel ready’ so we should totally forgive him for that $787 billion mistake.

Who pushed for and got Obamacare passed?  Is it Bush’s fault that the threat of Obamacare is already killing jobs, entrepreneurship and innovation because of this sword of Damocles hanging over our heads?  I shudder to think what will happen when it is fully implemented but we don’t have to imagine what will happen because all we have to do is look at other countries that have passed similar healthcare legislation.  We have plenty of evidence here and here that Obamacare will lower the quality of healthcare of our nation.   

Who is the president that hasn’t passed a budget 3 years?  Are we to think that 4 more years of Obama will yield fiscally sound policies when he doesn’t have to worry about re-election?

Who was the president that presided over a ballooning over regulation environment as evidenced from the DoJ, FDA and HHS?  Regulations are not only killing businesses but actually killing Americans and this increased regulatory environment came as a direct result of Obama’s direction.   

Who said the Private Sector is doing fine when in fact it isn’t?  Is it Bush’s fault that Obama is so out of touch with basic economics and small businesses?

Try as they may, the DNC can’t erase the destructive policies that have been enacted by Obama and I have faith in the American people to see through their lies.

In closing, there is one quote from the NPR article that I not only agree with but I hope comes to fruition.

“Villaraigosa, who is the chair of the Democratic National Convention, said that by the time the convention wraps up Thursday night, the party will have crystalized its platform and explained that this election is about a stark choice.”

Yes, the 2012 Presidential election is about a choice between two very different philosophies and I hope the American people understand fully the differences.  The future of our Republic and our children hang in the balance.

President Obama made the following comments yesterday at the Iowa State campus (emphasis mine):

“And, frankly, some folks, they make it their political strategy to try to make you feel discouraged. They’ll tell you over and over again how bad everything is, and then, of course, they’ll add that it’s all Obama’s fault. (Laughter.) And they’ll tell you that if you believed in change four years ago, your faith was foolish and you were being naïve. Last week, my opponent’s campaign went so far as to write you off as a “lost generation” — that’s you according to them.”

“But you can’t believe it. I don’t believe it. We knew that solving our biggest problems were going to take more than one year, or one term, or even one President. But we went ahead and we got started. (Applause.) We know we’ve still got a lot of work to do to get to where we need to be. But we are going to get there. (Applause.)”

So according to Obama – The Unemployment rate is at 8.3%, our national Debt is greater than our GDP and the economy is limping along when it should be roaring back but all that is because Republicans have brainwashed people into thinking things are bad.   That is not only desperate but insulting to Americans who are struggling every day to fight against the headwinds that Leftist policies are generating and I have faith in the American people to see through this diversionary tactic in November.

From his comments above, it also appears that Obama had known all along that it was going to take more than one term to bring our country back.  Well that is a lie and I offer you two pieces of evidence that come directly from Obama.

Stimulus to the Rescue

Remember the Stimulus in 2009 that was supposedly needed to keep the Unemployment rate below 8%?  I do and according to Obama’s plan, Unemployment rate should be below 6% right now.  I guess he hopes American forget that big miss.

Here is the graph from Obama’s economic team’s report/recommendations:

Obama’s Timetable for Recovery

I remember Obama saying in 2009 that if he didn’t fix the economy after 3 years then he’d be a one term President.

“Look, I’m at the start of my administration. One nice thing about the situation I find myself in is that I will be held accountable. You know, I’ve got four years. A year from now I think people are going to see that we’re starting to make some progress. But there’s still going to be some pain out there. If I don’t have this done in three years, then there’s going to be a one-term proposition.”

Sorry Mr. President, the internet has a huge memory and we don’t need the Leftist media in order to gather ample evidence to refute your lies.  You don’t get to shift the goal posts during this election and we’ll use your own measuring sticks against you and make sure we hold you to your word that you deserve to be a one term President in the vein of Jimmy Carter.

The November elections are less than 3 months away, the party conventions are starting and soon the debates will be on TV so this is the time when those who only follow politics once a year will start to pay attention.  Conservatives must be ready to give our arguments for our candidate in a persuasive, concise manner and this post will help you do just that.

News/Political junkies who are active on blogs, Twitter, Facebook and the original social media (face-to-face water cooler conversations) already know who they’ll be voting for and have had dozens, if not hundreds, of conversations about the election over the past year.  As someone who has been interested in politics since I was in High School, it is hard for me to grasp the fact that there are people in 2012 who have no interest in the issues and challenges that face the United States during this election cycle but since I’ve been happily married to one of these individuals for almost 13 years, I have come to understand them and this is why I think I can help those who are confused about how to deliver our political message to these political novices.

Like it or not, a vast majority of Americans are like my wife.  They are immersed with jobs, family and a host of other activities that consume the hours of the day and since politics isn’t something they are interested in, they choose to spend their valuable and all too little idle time in other valuable pursuits.  This diversity is what makes America great but in the coming months, it is the duty of every Conservative to become a missionary of sorts and deliver the Conservative gospel to as many as we can in hopes that we can make an impact on November 6^th.

Let’s face it, we will not be able to persuade a true independent voter with White Papers, graphs and links to awesome blog sites when we bump into them at the mall or at Starbucks.  We’ll need to be ready with a killer elevator pitch for our candidates and I’ll show you how to craft your own and I’ll share mine.

The Elevator Pitch

Most every person who has attempted to start a company knows what an elevator pitch is.  This is a powerful speech that you make to a potential investor that is short (less than a minute) and, not only grabs the attention of the target audience within the first 10 seconds, but delivers the main benefit of the business.  A successful elevator pitch will lead the potential investor to inquire about more information and then will result in an investment in the business.

There is a great website that gives tips on generating a winning elevator pitch and while this site is geared for business, it has value for us as we are attempting to craft a political elevator pitch for Mitt Romney as President. 

Here is a great introduction from that site on what an elevator pitch is and is not.

 “While you no doubt love, are fascinated by, and are passionate about what you are doing and could spend hours talking about it, most people aren’t like you.  In all likelihood, when it comes to the people whose help you will need to bring your Solution to life, they aren’t going to be nearly as knowledgeable about or as interested in it as you are. As a result, they are unlikely to appreciate — or even notice — the intricacies, subtleties, and details of it. Instead, they will only understand and — initially at least — be interested in the big picture.”

“One reason why so many people deliver completely ineffective elevator pitches is they don’t understand the purpose of an elevator pitch. They act like the purpose of an elevator pitch is to close the deal while in truth the purpose of an elevator pitch is to just interest the audience in continuing to talk.”

The website states that the elevator pitch has 11 components and all of them start with the letter “C” and are given below:

1. Concise

2. Clear

3. Compelling

4. Credible

5. Conceptual

6. Concrete

7. Customized

8. Consistent

9. Conversational

Remember, the elevator pitch is not meant to ‘close the deal’ but instead provide a ‘hook’ so the target audience desires to enter into a longer conversation about the topic, idea or business.

With that in mind, here is my elevator pitch for Mitt Romney.

The elections in November are, in many aspects, the most important elections in American history and they can be distilled down to a choice between two radically different philosophies. 

Romney and Conservatives believe that individual liberty, as manifested in entrepreneurship and innovation, drives wealth creation and provides the best means for all of society to prosper and provide tax revenue for the Government to carry out its constitutional duty.  History has taught us that a small government approach allows the Free Market to generate wealth that is enjoyed by all socioeconomic groups and private sector innovation can be considered the rising tide that lifts all boats.

Obama and Liberals believe that a large government approach, from redistribution of wealth through higher income taxes, does a better job of generating wealth than the private sector and they believe that US citizens should be indebted to this benevolent big government.  Obama believes that the government exists to provide for every need of its citizens and the roughly 50% of citizens who pay our federal tax revenues should pay even higher taxes to fund the government entitlement programs that the other 50% now depend on.

That pitch should take about a minute and should grab the person’s attention to ask for more details.  At this point I’ll add another 30 seconds of follow-up that will further lay out the massive problems that our country faces and describe how Obama has contributed to our problems.

Obama’s tactics to redistribute wealth have not worked for the past 4 years and we can see that by the anemic recovery and Unemployment rates above 8%.  Obamacare is already killing businesses and will be worse once fully implemented.  Obama has divided America with his Class Warfare tactics and demonized small business owners and those who have been successful in starting businesses that hire people.  The US national debt is greater than our total output from all businesses and we are on the path that is similar to Greece because we’ll soon be in a position where we can’t pay our bills because we have discouraged innovation and business.  Over 90% of the US Federal income tax revenue goes to pay for entitlement programs such as Social Security, Welfare, Medicare, Medicaid and Unemployment benefits and if these entitlement programs are left unchanged, they will destroy America.

Only Romney and Ryan have real plans to address these all too serious issues by removing government regulation that kills business, repealing Obamacare, reforming entitlement programs and balancing our federal budget.

So that is my elevator pitch (plus follow-up) for Romney and I encourage other conservatives to generate their own and be prepared to deliver it on a moment’s notice.  This election is too important to sit on the sidelines and let the Leftist media control the narrative.  It is said that in the absence of information, people will make up their own perceptions so it is up to us to counter the lies of the Left.  Be prepared!

I welcome others to leave their own elevator pitches in the comments section because another important part of an elevator pitch is to keep it fresh and I hope to build on my elevator pitch with the additional conversations from those who read this blog.

ADDENDUM – The justification for my claims in the above elevator pitch can be found here, here and here.

Today Mitt Romney made a joke about his birth certificate and it was damn funny!

“Now I love being home, in this place where Ann and I were raised, where both of us were born. Ann was born in Henry Ford Hospital, I was born in Harper Hospital. No one’s ever asked to see my birth certificate. They know that this is the place where both of us were born and raised.”

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past 4 years, you know this was a clever bit of rhetoric by our next President to poke fun at the narcissistic Obama who has been fighting claims from ‘birthers’ who say Obama wasn’t born in the US.  Of course Romney isn’t a ‘birther’ (and for the record, neither am I) and anyone who makes that claim shouldn’t be taken seriously but that didn’t stop the Leftist machine from overheating over this latest round of faux rage.  

Was this recent comment by Romney a gaffe or a cool, calculated move on his part?  Only Team Romney knows but I think it was on purpose, I suggest he do more of it and here is why.

Team Obama is running on any fringe issue they can imagine to smear Romney/Ryan and they refuse to talk about real issues such as how they’ll 1) get the economy moving forward, 2) deal with the debt, 3) balance the budget, 4) develop an energy policy and 5) address out of control entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare.   As long as Team Obama acts like children and refuses to have the mature conversations that Romney and Ryan are having, then Team Romney should mocked and ridiculed them with jokes.

Let’s have……

More jokes about Romney’s past 5 years of tax returns – “Hey, I think Obama wants us to release my tax returns because then most of his supporters will get to see what one actually looks like.”  Or something like – “I’ll give you 1 tax return for every “D” Obama got on his college transcripts.”  Or Romney could have fun with Obama’s excessive golfing habit – “I challenge Obama to a round of golf and every stroke he beats me by, I’ll release another year’s worth of taxes.  He has more time to play golf than I do so he’ll have to spot me 10 strokes.”

More jokes about Debbie Wasserman-Schultz’s lies regarding Ryan’s plan to rescue Social Security and Medicare – “We just got back from Florida where we were pushing senior citizens off cliffs and boy, are our arms tired.”

More jokes about Team Obama’s faux claim that Republicans have a war on women – “I don’t have a war on women.  I’m a lover, not a fighter.  Just ask Michelle.”  Maybe that is a bit over the top so maybe something like – “If we are fighting a war on women then I’m losing because Ann runs our house.”  Or something like this idea I just got from @Rogue1776 – “If I have a war on women, then why does Ann go to bed with a smile on her face every night?”

More jokes about Obama and Elizabeth Warren suggesting that entrepreneurs didn’t build their businesses – “I brought these hammers to help all the struggling small business owners hang some drywall.”  Or better yet, Romney could bring “starting and running a business for dummies” books to his rally and pass them out and maybe even have them signed. 

More jokes about Team Obama’s class warfare rhetoric which states the rich don’t pay their fair share.  Romney could have a large calculator and video screen set up at a rally and he could work through the simple math showing how doubling the taxes on those making over $200,000 per year still won’t cover our government’s spending for a single year.  He could have elementary school kids punching in the numbers and coming to this conclusion that Obama and the Leftists either can’t comprehend or refuse to admit.

I think you get my point.

Forgive my pitiful attempt at comedy writing above and while I’m no comedian, I suggest Romney hire one now and hit this theme of portraying Obama as someone who isn’t serious about the issues.  It is my belief, that in utilizing this tactic, he will show America that all of the Leftist memes have no real value and just amount to fodder for ridicule.

Upon repeated ridicule from Romney (and seeing it on the news every night), the Narcissist-in-Chief will implode and become even more unhinged than he is now.  And more importantly, I think the American people will resonate with this tactic and it will cause them to focus on the adult conversations about real issues that ONLY Romney/Ryan are having.

On Sunday, Rep. Todd Akin (who is competing against incumbent Senator Claire McCaskill), made the following comments about rape and abortion:

“First of all, from what I understand from doctors [pregnancy after rape] is really rare,” Akin told KTVI-TV in defense of his stand that rape victims should not be allowed to access abortions. “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”

“Akin said that even if a rape victim does somehow become pregnant, “I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be on the rapist and not attacking the child.”

Within 24 hours after this comment the Left had re-energized their War on Women meme in an attempt to make American voters forget about the high unemployment, insane Debt to GDP ratio and the sword of Damocles hanging over our heads (aka Obama care).  With the lapdog media smelling blood in the water, you can be assured that Akin’s comments will last longer than the typical new cycle gaffe and Republicans will be forced to defend their stance on Abortion and answer questions why they hate women so much.

Before this incredibly ignorant comment, it should be noted that Akin was leading McCaskill in the latest poll by 11 points.  For Conservatives, taking the Senate back is just as important as a Romney victory over Obama because if the Senate road block imposed by Harry Reid remains in 2013, America has little to no hope of restoring our country back to fiscal responsibility and getting our economy humming again with Free Market principles.

Some Conservative pundits have rushed to Akin’s defense and stated that this was a gaffe and should be excused like we do with gaffes by Joe Biden and other Leftists.  While I’m not one to give in to Leftists, I do take pride in the fact that our side should hold our politicos to a higher standard and not give them a free pass when they do something stupid.  That is why I am joining Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown and others in calling for Akin to step down immediately so the Republican Party can put a replacement on the ballot.

I do not support the removal of Akin from the ballot because of Leftist outrage but instead due to the fact that someone making this stupid comment less than 3 months before one of the most important elections we’ve had in the US shows that he is not fit for service.  Is abortion and rape something that we should be debating right now?  No!  Akin is running for US Senate, not some local city council position, and he should understand the gravity of this year’s election and realize how important it is that he beat McCaskill.  If he can’t stay focused in an election that has such monumental consequences then how can we trust he’ll serve in Washington when the white hot glare of the election is over?  This was a rookie mistake and shows that he wasn’t the best candidate for the job. 

But there is another aspect of Akin’s comments that forced me to take another look at my position on Abortion and the more I think about it, the more I believe that people who believe as Akin does – that a woman who becomes pregnant from a rape should be forced to carry the baby to term – are out of touch with reality.

True, Akin has apologized for his stupid remarks but this was such a heinous gaffe that an apology won’t cut it and ,from what I can read, he is only apologizing for using the term “legitimate rape” and still believes that someone who becomes pregnant from a rape should carry the baby to term.

Full disclosure here – I am Pro Life but have always believed that exceptions should be made in the case where a baby threatens the life of the mother and when a woman becomes pregnant as a result of rape.  My opinions have not changed but have only been further reinforced with Akin’s comments. 

Many readers will notice an inconsistency with my logic here and I fully admit to it.  How can I say that abortion is murder in one case but not in the other?

I do believe that terminating a pregnancy is a euphemism for murder at any point past the attachment of the embryo to the uterus.  Abortion is equal to killing a baby in my book, plain and simple, but like all complex issues, there are shades of gray and I’m comfortable exploring them.  

If a baby has a high probability of taking the life of the mother then an abortion is justified in my mind just like I would kill someone who was trying to kill my wife.  Killing a baby in the womb to save the mother is a heart wrenching decision that some parents must face and I can’t imagine that thought process or conversations that occur when a man and a women are presented with this dreadful scenario.  I can’t say for certain what I would’ve done if my wife and I were faced with that decision but I believe that we’d make the decision to end the life of the baby versus ending the life of my wife.  I married my wife and joined in a relationship/covenant with her before God that states, among other things, that we are joined for eternity and in my mind, my wife is the most important person in the world for me and that means she has a higher place than even my kids.  If there is ever a decision to save the life of another versus my wife, I will choose my wife 100% of the time.

But what about when a woman is raped and becomes pregnant?  It is conceivable that a woman’s life would not be threatened from a pregnancy that came about from a rape.  In this scenario I derive my beliefs based on the counsel of my wife and from the fact that I have a daughter.

I have mentioned many times to my Conservative brothers that in matters that involve a women’s body, we should have long, meaningful conversations about these topics with our girl friends or wives and use those conversations to base our opinions.  The conversations I had with my wife added great value to my position on allowing a woman to abort her child in the case of rape and it should be noted that my wife is Pro Choice, and while we disagree on the general evils of abortion, we agree that abortion should be legal for instances where the life of the mother is threatened and in the case of rape.

I have a daughter and if, God forbid, she was raped as a teenager, I could not imagine a situation where I would force her to carry that baby to full term.  If her decision, in concert with my wife’s, were to abort the baby, then I’d be the one to drive her to the clinic and be with her every step of the way.  I would fully support her decision to kill the baby that was conceived in such an evil manner.

In many respects, aborting a baby after a rape could be considered, like in the case where the baby threatens the mother’s life, justifiable homicide because the life of the mother might be in danger for those 9 months she has to carry it.  Rape is an unimaginable evil brought on women by sick men and forcing the woman (or a teenage girl) to carry the baby to term might cause irreparable harm to her life.  It might not be death but it might mean living every day in Hell and that is worse than death.  Yes, abortion in this case would be equivalent to murder of an unborn baby but let me ask the fathers of daughters this question. 

Can any father really say he would prefer to see his daughter suffer for not only 9 months but the rest of her life just so he can say that he is consistent with his Pro Life stance?

As a father of a daughter, I cannot.