Nice Thought, But Little Chance

William McGurn:

On this day in 1994, Bill Clinton’s presidency was saved.

It didn’t look that way at the time. After threatening to keep Congress in session until a health-care bill was passed, then Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell gave up and let members return home for their recess. The legislative push for universal health care never recovered, and scarcely 11 weeks later Republicans led by Newt Gingrich woke up to find that they had just won control of both houses of Congress.

Mr. Clinton’s presidency, however, did recover. And though the Republican revolution in Congress would ultimately run aground, in retrospect we can see two important legacies: It helped usher in a new era of prosperity for the American people, and in the process helped Mr. Clinton save his presidency.

Today the lesson that President Barack Obama and the Democratic leadership in Congress take from that 1994 defeat is that they need to avoid Mr. Clinton’s “mistakes.” Avoiding mistakes, however, is not a winning strategy. A far more productive strategy would be to embrace Mr. Clinton’s success, which was freeing himself from his party’s left and returning to the centrist themes he had campaigned on.

I don’t really disagree with McGurn’s take, here. But I do rather doubt Obama has the political smarts that Clinton had. Oh, he’s even more savagely partisan than Clinton and even more ruthless. But he hasn’t got the acumen or experience Clinton had learned in his years in Arkansas. And he certainly does not have high caliber advisers, as should be evident from some of the clueless responses the White House has made to any number of issues.

That and I suspect Obama’s narcissism makes Clinton the narcissist look like Mr. Altruism.

I would not hold my breath for a move to the center by Obama.

Deficits, Deficits, Deficits…..

It’s the deficits, stupid. USA Today:

Lawmakers said Sunday that President Obama must scale back ambitious plans to overhaul health care because ballooning budget deficits are undermining support for more comprehensive and costly legislation.
As the White House prepares to release worse-than-expected deficit projections this week, even Democrats in Congress said that whatever health care bill emerges this fall will have to cost less than the $1 trillion price tag contemplated earlier this year.

“It’s going to have to be significantly less than what we’ve heard talked about,” Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., one of six senators from both parties seeking a bipartisan health care bill, said on CBS’ Face the Nation. “We’ve got to have the deficit reduced as a result of this effort. That is absolutely imperative.”

Renewed criticism over the health care proposals pending in Congress comes as lawmakers hear from angry voters at town-hall-style meetings across the country during the August recess. Much of the concern has focused on the proposed government-run insurance program known as the “public option.”

Hence the distractions being thrown out to the media. Lure them away from the 30% growth in the 10-year deficit projections. Make sure they stay silent about those rising numbers.  Make sure they stay silent about Obama’s one year multiplication of last year’s deficit by a factor of four. Obscure the rising number of unemployed. Mask the fact that the US is still in recession when other country’s are already pulling out. Make sure the distraction is complete before people see what is actually happening.

Quick! Let’s Change The Subject!

The Washington Post:

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has decided to appoint a prosecutor to examine nearly a dozen cases in which CIA interrogators and contractors may have violated anti-torture laws and other statutes when they allegedly threatened terrorism suspects, according to two sources familiar with the move.

Holder is poised to name John Durham, a career Justice Department prosecutor from Connecticut, to lead the inquiry, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the process is not complete.

Durham’s mandate, the sources added, will be relatively narrow: to look at whether there is enough evidence to launch a full-scale criminal investigation of current and former CIA personnel who may have broken the law in their dealings with detainees. Many of the harshest CIA interrogation techniques have not been employed against terrorism suspects for four years or more.

The attorney general selected Durham in part because the longtime prosecutor is familiar with the CIA and its past interrogation regime. For nearly two years, Durham has been probing whether laws against obstruction or false statements were violated in connection with the 2005 destruction of CIA videotapes. The tapes allegedly depicted brutal scenes including waterboarding of some of the agency’s high value detainees. That inquiry is proceeding before a grand jury in Alexandria, although lawyers following the investigation have cast doubt on whether it will result in any criminal charges.

 This is a rather blatant attempt to shift the focus away from Obama’s rapidly-failing health care “reform” by starting a witch hunt against the CIA. Leon Panetta is not amused by this politicized hit job/attempted smokescreen against his agency:

According to ABC News, CIA Director Leon Panetta not only opposed the appointment of a prosecutor but served up a “tirade” against this move during a “profanity-laced shouting match” when the subject came up during a meeting in the White House last month. Panetta reportedly has threatened to resign. The White House denies this, but ABC News reports that senior White House staff members are already discussing a possible shake-up of top national security officials.

This is five year old news – yet everything old is new again if it distracts from Obama’s shortcomings. Panetta should resign, I think he’s basically an honorable man from everything I have read about him. And he should name names as to who is orchestrating the witch hunt – and why.

At this rate, the Democrats will still be running against George W. Bush in the 2040 election.

Save The Planet

Squash a leftist boycott. Andrew Breitbart:

The Democratic leadership – and its friends in the mainstream media – seem determined to brand opposition to the president’s legislative agenda as illegitimate, even racist in origin. Individuals and grass-roots organizations are helping the statists’ cause by advocating boycotts and other means of stifling dissent.

The strategy is clear: Intimidate people from speaking up or from attending public protests by telegraphing that anyone can be made a demon for standing up and exercising basic, constitutional rights.

To call these people hypocrites would be a grave insult to those who fail to live up to their own standards. Liberalism has never been about establishing a universal standard. Liberalism is simply intellectual cover for those wanting to gain political power and increase the size of the state.

For free-speech principles to be reinforced and free-market ideas to win the day, more people are going to have to stand up and be heard.

Mrs. Pelosi and the Whole Foods boycotters are on the wrong side of history.

The way to stand up to them is to go to “tea parties,” raise a ruckus at health care debates and – buy organic garlic, herb fresh goat cheese and three-bean salad with quinoa at your local Whole Foods store.

This time, you really could be saving the planet.

Exactly. Go buy from Whole Foods. Go to Tea Parties. Call your representatives. Make noise. Refuse to be silenced by the thuggery of the left.

(I take exception to the use of the word liberal to describe the left. They are not, in any sense of the word, liberal. They are authoritarian, they are leftist, but they are not liberal.)

Nor do they have any right to do what they are attempting to do to Whole Foods or concerned Americans who choose to speak out in opposition to Obama’s policies, plans and plots. 

Incidentally, the Facebook Whole Foods Boycott page has, according to Breitbart, some 25,000 members. That totals an awe-inspiring 0.008% of the population of the US. Keep that in mind. The left is very good at getting attention from the left-leaning media. It does not mean that their twisted views are a real part of mainstream America. Hold the center against these people and they will lose.

Yabba, Dabba, I Do

A double wedding in Britain – with the happy couples dressed up as characters from The Flintstones:

Two couples, Andrea and Simon Bean and Richard and Jill Noble, recreated The Flintstones for their weddings as they dressed in Stone Age theme for their special days.

Mr and Mrs Bean dressed up as Fred and Wilma Flintstone while the Nobles were inspired by Barney and Betty Rubble for their slapstick double dinosaur wedding.

The four good friends staged their own version of the classic children’s TV cartoon series as they tied the knot at Weston Park Golf Club, in Norwich, on Saturday.

They made a quick trip to the dinosaur park next door for an album of wedding photographs.

With 165 guests dressed as cavemen and women, two best men dressed as dinosaurs, and a tiered wedding rock cake, both Wilma and Betty entered the ceremony to the traditional organ sound of Wagner’s Bridal March.

They missed a heck of a chance to top this wedding. Congratulations to the happy couples.