President Obama

Hear it for yourself!

Now of course this was just McCain misspeaking when endorsing Mitt Romney and you can hear the entire speech and even see when Mitt informs him of what he said here, but remember this ad?

That was a video put out by Mitt Romney totally taking what President Obama said out of context. He even went on to defend that action. So since that's how Mitt wants to play, now we have one of his key endorsements actually endorsing Barack Obama. Of course if the Obama campaign actually did this I'm sure many on the right and in Romney's campaign would cry foul. You know, the whole IOKIYAR thing....

A funny thing about this Republican primary season is that you never hear the past President mentioned. The GOP field seems to steer clear of George W. Bush as though he was some married gay couple. What's this say about the GOP's track record of picking presidential candidates?

It goes beyond that. In the past 32 years we have had 20 years of a Republican president and 12 of a Democratic one. Democrats have no problem mentioning Bill Clinton, yet Republicans ever only want to mention the first eight years of their 20, which would be Ronald Reagan and when they do that they only seem to remember the second term of Ronald Reagan, ignoring the first when the Gipper did things like raise taxes. So out of 20 years of occupying the White House, the right only wants to remember 20% of their years.

This really comes as no shock. Since President Obama assumed office the right has been on a covert mission to wipe the collective American memory banks of the Dubya presidency. President Bush oversaw the largest economic collapse since the Great Depression, yet the right continues to try and insist that it was all President Obama's doing. We have even seen one Republican candidate, Michele Bachmann, go as far as to try and make us believe that Barack Obama was President in 2003 and ordered the invasion of Iraq.

With a new year and one that also happens to be an election year, I would like to see one thing happen - the left stop the childish fighting. I'm addressing two very distinctive groups here - the firebaggers and the oBots. If you read any of the blogs that fall into these groups or even follow some of the members on Twitter, hardly will a day go by where the two don't spend countless hours trying to tear each other down.

First for the firebaggers. President Obama is not as bad as you make him out to be. Sure we didn't get a public option and the individual mandate of the healthcare bill is total crap, but it is a start to some kind of change. Yes we are still fighting in Afghanistan, but that's exactly what candidate Obama said he would do in 2008.

And the NDAA does give the President the authority to detain citizens indefinitely, but do you really think that President Obama is going to go out and do that? Do you believe in a political reality that President Obama could have vetoed the bill that authorizes our national defense and not taken a serious backlash from the public, who doesn't follow politics as close?

Look at things through reality instead of a shade of anger fueled red because you didn't get everything you want from the man. He has to work with the Congress he has and your anger is a lot of times misplaced.

Now for the oBots. You guys need to wake up and realize that President Obama is just a man and not some perfect deity. Yes the healthcare bill was a step in the right direction, but it is still a far cry off from the real reform this country needs. Once the bill was passed it also become a non-issue to President Obama and the left. There has been no pushes to improve it like we were promised and might even be gone after the Supreme Court gets a hold of it.

We are all used to hearing politicians make promises they have no way of ever keeping, but the pandering done by Mitt Romney has taken it to a whole new level. Here's what Mitt Romney said in New Hampshire on Thursday:

“What I can promise you is this – when you get out of college, if I’m president you’ll have a job. If President Obama is reelected, you will not be able to get a job,” Romney said.

And you can watch the video here:

He wants you to think he's the common man, while hiding his estimated wealth upwards of a quarter billion dollars:

Mitt Romney, who is one of the wealthiest men ever to seek the presidency, said on Wednesday that he had no intention of releasing his tax returns if he became the Republican presidential nominee, breaking with a long tradition in both parties.

Mr. Romney made the statement in an interview with MSNBC on Wednesday, but the network did not show that part of the interview. Mr. Romney, a multimillionaire who made his fortune running a private equity firm, was asked whether he planned to release his tax return.

“I doubt it,” Mr. Romney said, according to a transcript of the interview provided by NBC News. “I will provide all the financial info, which is an extraordinary pile of documents which show investments and so forth.”

“But you won’t do the tax returns?” asked Chuck Todd, host of “The Daily Rundown.”

“I don’t intend to release the tax returns. I don’t,” Mr. Romney responded.

If Romney gets the nomination then we can expect to see this issue play out into the general. If Romney does become President he will have to release his tax returns and do the Republicans want any surprises there? I doubt it because it would help guarantee a one term Romney then a possible eight years of a Democratic President.

And remember that Romney isn't the only one to do this. Donald Trump kept refusing himself. He actually said he would release his tax returns if President Obama released his birth certificate. Well Obama did just that but the Don never stood up to his word.

MSNBC has published a list of the 10 highest paid CEOs in America for 2011. While going through the list, a couple of names really stuck out:

9. Ronald A. Williams

• Company: Aetna
• Total 2010 compensation: $57.8 million

Shares of Aetna, a major health insurer, were down 7 percent in 2010, underperforming the S&P 500 by a large margin. Williams’ pay was based on several factors, none of which was stock price. EPS, pre-tax operating margins and an increase in the dividend were the major measures of his performance, according to the board. The board can make the case, persuasively, that the insurance firm had a good year financially in 2010. The company’s EPS rose from $2.84 in 2009 to $4.18 last year, even though revenue fell slightly from $28.3 billion to $27.6 billion. Williams retired in 2011. The board gave Williams a relatively reasonable gift as he left, at least based on 2010 performance.

How many Americans could be insured with say only half this man's salary? A lot!

When you first glance at those numbers, it doesn't appear to be that great of a year for the insurer. I mean they ended up earning almost $750 million less than the year before, but there are other factors that go into that, like the number of American's who are unemployed and uninsured and people having to take lower policies to save money.

But the healthcare bill, that many on the right said would hurt the insurance giants, appears to not be having that affect when they can pay salaries like this.

Coming in at second we have this one:

2. Joel F. Gemunder

Republicans are getting nervous, and I mean really nervous. They have painted themselves into a corner by opposing the payroll tax cut and are now even fracturing.

The nervousness can be seen by what today's Wall Street Journal editorial board is saying:

The GOP leaders have somehow managed the remarkable feat of being blamed for opposing a one-year extension of a tax holiday that they are surely going to pass. This is no easy double play.

Republicans have also achieved the small miracle of letting Mr. Obama position himself as an election-year tax cutter, although he's spent most of his Presidency promoting tax increases and he would hit the economy with one of the largest tax increases ever in 2013. This should be impossible.

The GOP has a deep seeded hatred of President Obama. I know this sounds harsh, but their actions alone prove it. The Republicans in Congress have constantly opposed anything that President Obama wants with the simple justification that President Obama wants it.

This here is a perfect example of that. The GOP has long been the party of "lower taxes", yet right before Christmas they are viewed as the tax raisers. They have sacrificed a pillar of their parties core beliefs simply to oppose anything President Obama wants and now this sacrifice may have cost them a lot of seats in next year's election.

Just this week alone a lot of polls have come out showing President Obama's approval rating on the rise. In most of them he is only within a point or two of 50% again and for the first time in months more approve than disapprove of the way he is doing his job.

Lately I have been thinking a lot about which candidate would be better for President Obama to have to face next year. It's a very important question with the first primary voting starting in a couple of weeks. Some believe President Obama would do better against Mitt Romney, while others believe Newt's the man to take on Obama. I happen to think that Newt Gingrich is the bigger threat to Obama than Romney and want to lay out the reasons for that.

Baggage

Both candidates come with a lot of baggage. Many on the left points to Newt's baggage as a big reason he would not fair as well against Obama as Romney, but there is one big thing that plays into this.

Newt's baggage is well known. It's baggage we have seen him carry since he left the House as Speaker. Republicans know this and have accepted it. Look at his rise in the polls for actual proof of this.

Newt also is very skilled at talking his way out of these problems. We have seen this happening lately and it seems to be working.

Likewise Romney has some baggage too. His support of a mandate while he was governor and his constant flip-flopping on issues are the biggest ones. These actually hurt Romney amongst the base of the Republican Party. Romney is still viewed as a governor of a very blue state and for him to become governor there he had to share some of that state's liberal views. That is a big thing with core Republican voters, but one that could help him with Independents. Overall though I think the baggage issue will have to give Newt the advantage.

Newt's Marriage Problem And Romney's Religion

This is something the left feels is an Achilles heel for Newt. Sadly they are wrong. We live in a time that being married twice or even three times is accepted, even amongst the religious base. Newt has also taken the most important step for these people to accept him - he has found God.