DebateGate

Real Clear Politics reports a group of students asked Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) who he might tap as his vice presidential nominee if he runs for president in 2012.

Hypothetically, he told them, he'd like to pick Condoleezza Rice.

Obama is ruining the country.

Unemployment Rate rose to 9.0%

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the national unemployment rate for April 2011 has bounced back up to 9.0% from 8.8% in March.

There were a large number of state and local government jobs that persons lost.  More people were looking for work in April than in March.

13.7 million Americans were without jobs in April 2011 which is nearly double what the figure was before December 2007 when the recession started.

The underemployment rate - which counts the number of people who are working part-time as desired instead of full-time as well as people who have quit looking for work - is up to 15.9%.

http://www.examiner.com/conservative-in-national/unemployment-rate-rises-to-9-0-march-2010-report

Sorry for my language. But I'm getting madder and madder about this. Col. Gadafi is a freakin joke. We shouldn't be launching a war against him. Reagan handled this guy in '86 when he put a missile down his chimney. Bush scared the shit out of him and he gave up his WMD in 2003. We CANNOT AFFORD TO SPEND ANY MORE MONEY ON THINGS THAT DON'T MATTER. What can't Obama understand about that? We are broke. Jesus.

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Cost of Libya Intervention $600 Million for First Week, Pentagon Says

One week after an international military coalition intervened in Libya, the cost to U.S. taxpayers has reached at least $600 million, according figures provided by the Pentagon.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/george/2011/03/cost-of-libya-intervention-600-million-for-first-week-pentagon-says.html

Donald Trump on the View: Obama Needs to Show His Birth Certificate - 3/23/2011

This was a brilliant "slip" of the tongue. I like Huck.

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Leading Republican claims Barack Obama grew up in Kenya

A possible Republican presidential candidate suggested in a radio interview that President Barack Obama's childhood in Kenya shaped his world-view.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee told a New York radio station on Monday that Mr Obama's youth led him to resent the West, which he said explains why Mr Obama's foreign policy differs so greatly from that of his predecessors.

"One thing that I do know is his having grown up in Kenya, his view of the Brits, for example, (is) very different than the average American," Mr Huckabee said, pointing to Mr Obama's decision in 2009 to return a bust of former Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

"The bust of Winston Churchill, a great insult to the British," Mr Huckabee said. "But then if you think about it, his perspective as growing up in Kenya with a Kenyan father and grandfather. He probably grew up hearing that the British were a bunch of imperialists who persecuted his grandfather."

Mr Obama's grandfather, Hussein Onyango Obama, was detained in a 1952 uprising against British colonial rule in Kenya. Mr Huckabee said childhood stories of the Mau Mau rebellion would lead President Obama to want to return the bust of Churchill, who ordered a crackdown against that uprising.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/barackobama/8356132/Leading-Republican-claims-Barack-Obama-grew-up-in-Kenya.html

Since my arrival in the Senate, I've been a steady and occasionally fierce critic of Bush Adminstration policies. I consider the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy to be both fiscally irresponsible and morally troubling.

Link

He is also breaking his biggest campaign pledge in 2008. I guess we'll see how this plays out. This article also refers to the 9.8% unemployment rate as a jump, XO.

Left sees tax surrender, says Obama reelection bid now crippled



President Obama could be crippling his own reelection effort by making a deal with Republicans to extend all of the Bush-era tax cuts, Democratic strategists and liberal groups said Monday.

A two-year extension of tax rates ushered in by President George W. Bush nearly a decade ago, would ensure a resumption of today?s fiery debate in 2012, when Obama is expected to reapply for his job, strategists in both parties said.

It also is angering the left wing of the Democratic Party, which already has a long list of complaints about Obama.

?President Obama has shown a complete refusal to fight Republicans throughout his presidency even when the public is on his side ? and millions of his former supporters are now growing disappointed and infuriated by this refusal to fight,? said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.

The PCCC on Monday afternoon circulated quotes from 2008 Obama campaign staffers who expressed disillusionment with the president for agreeing to extend tax cuts for the wealthy amid signs that the White House and Republicans were edging closer to a deal.

?Obama is demobilizing the troops and demoralizing the public right before he seeks reelection,? Green said.

The compromises by the White House have also disappointed liberals in the House and Senate, who have pushed Obama to take a tougher line with the GOP. Some liberals had said it would be better for Obama to allow all of the tax cuts to expire rather than cave to GOP demands and allow tax cuts for the wealthy to be extended.

Democratic strategists are disappointed that the president appears to be fighting the tax debate on terms dictated by Republicans, who have been able to frame a tax increase on any taxpayers as detrimental to a struggling economy. Friday?s unemployment report, showing a surprising jump in the jobless rate ? to 9.8 percent ? didn?t make matters easier for the White House.

?This is only a tough fight [now] because Americans have lost faith that President Obama is fighting for their economic futures,? said Jamal Simmons, a Democratic strategist and former official with the Clinton administration.

Privately, Republican aides say they would love to have a fight over the high-end tax cuts as a central 2012 campaign issue.

?It?s ultimately a question of whether Democrats believe their own rhetoric,? said one Senate GOP aide. ?They seem to think that Americans are OK with raising taxes on small businesses. Republicans disagree and would love to debate that notion anytime."

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/132307-angry-left-sees-refusal-to-fight-as-crippling-2012-reelection-bid