I Turn 40 In The Year 2016, and Barack Obama Will Be President Then

"Hi, this is Prez O.  I'm calling for Mr. Bin Laden...Oh, that's right!  I had him killed...no message then."

 Politico Arena Question: Will President Obama lose his job?


President Obama definitely has an uphill battle to renew his lease at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and against a 'generic' republican, a second term would be in serious jeopardy.
But lucky for him he is going to face off against one of the misfit toys from this current field, and his foil will most likely be Mitt Romney. The arraigned marriage that is the Republican primary is not a love affair for the political ages. In a traditional sense, the primary electorate is not a blushing bride, but a red-face angry one because they do not have the choices they want to be their standard bearer, and they will begrudgingly at best walk down the aisles of Iowa and New Hampshire and say "I do" to their Byrle-creamed groom.

The president has a year to focus on job creation and strengthen the middle and working classes. These blocks are key to any Democratic win, and showed their off-year viability with big wins last week with conservative policy rollbacks, as with union-attacking Issue 2 in Ohio. But we must remember that now that the threat to public employees has been momentarily stopped, the focus must move to the jobless and their quest to find employment.

This effort must be sustained for the next year, and jobless Americans must have hope that their will be change in the job numbers. And as much as hard-line conservatives want to dismiss the Occupy movement, these efforts are nation-wide, sustainable, and paying attention. Citizens, especially those who are politically active, have noticed that we have changed from a system where Washington makes the rules and Wall Street makes money: now that relationship is so incestuous it is nearly impossible to separate it. Remember when as kids we had chocolate in our peanut butter? Now there are investments in my legislation! (When 60 Minutes shows up to the Rayburn Building, it's a bad day for my fellow hacks).

This is the heart of college football season, and Team Obama is in charge of its own destiny. If he makes the right choices politically and points out the ineptness of the Do Nothing Congress, the president is going back to the Rose Bowl (er, Rose Garden). Lucky for the president, the Republican field has the requirements to be president (over 35 and American-born), but not the ability. Conservatives should take this time to firm up staffs for Jeb Bush and Chris Christie 2016, cause it ain't happening this time.

The Repubs are shovel-ready, as in it is time to bury them: Barack Obama will be president in 2013.

Out of 50 States, Mississippi May Be 56th In Intelligence

Open for Bidness but Closed for Thinkin (onlyinamericablogging.blogspot.com)

Initiative 26 in MS would declare someone a person the moment their parents met at the sock hop.

Politico asks: should this pass?  HELL NO!  This legislation is beyond atrocious.  Beyond what it does to women (essentially making them handmaidens for Mississippi) but what does it say to those who might be considering moving there to, maybe...create jobs!  You all remember job creators: they sit at the right hand of Zeus on Mt. Loophole, waiting for further tax breaks to create jobs, even though taxes are at historic lows and they still aren't creating jobs cause of the tough regulations of paying a worker more than a dollar a day so let's move our factories to South America...wait, sorry...where was I?

This type of legislation (much like the 'heartbeat' bill in Ohio) speaks not to the very small population that would ever have fertility questions but to a state's population as a whole.  What does it say when you as a state tries to end run the Constitution?  It says we may be open to business, but we are closed to thinking people.  We are still hailing the amazing life of Steve Jobs, and people of all political stripes are in agreement that he was a legendary inventor and business man.  You think Jobs would locate a plant in a state where as soon as a couple starts talking about baby names that they are considered parents?  No!  Richard Florida's "creative class" is not going to make Jackson a sweet tea-laced Portland or Austin when the right to birth control is being compromised.  Take a look at the teenage birth rates in Mississippi: you think denying access to contraception is going to improve that?  Hell, they can get birth control now and they are still as fertile as the Delta itself. 

But at its heart, that is the reason this type of legislation catches on and why conservatives punctuate every sentence with "I believe it should be left to the state."  Instead of this being a nation based on the rich tapestry of different histories and personalities, we are becoming a country of "don't come to my state unless you are just like me."  Is this what taking your country back looks like?  I do not have hate for these people: I just don't understand them.  I believe they love the whole world...as long as that world is flat.

Republican candidates embrace this kind of stuff, at least in the primaries.  It allows for them to out right-to-life each other.  The sanctity of life becomes  paramount to their platforms, but they tend to forget about a sizable constituency: the living.  They are all about the idea of a person, but a real living person, like the Occupy movement, are shiftless hippies who need to get a job.  Hey, Dr. Moreau: what if these frozen embryos grow up to be shiftless, drum circle lovin' hippies?  What's you going to do then? 

How come there are people who will shoot a doctor but swear they are about the sanctity of life?  Is anyone else bothered about this?  I have a personal attachment to this argument.  Dr. David Gunn, the physician who was shot at a Florida women's clinic nearly 20 years ago, was the same doctor who delivered my baby brother in 1977.  Irony, thy name is ignorance.  They will kill for you, but once you are born, you are on your own! Thrive, rugged individualist! We love children; we just don't think we should educate them or provide them health care. 

As far as presidential candidates go, I am sure that Wednesday morning political television will have candidates like Santorum and Bachmann telling the audience their feelings and that God spoke to them about Initiative 26, much like He did about their candidacy.  I do have a question for the field: did God tell all of you that you are called to be president?  I mean, isn't that kind of cruel?  Is God like the mother from Prince of Tides that tells all her kids that he or she is her favorite?  Kind of jerk move, if you ask me.  And if God can tell you to run, how come he can't tell you how to break 10 percent, bottom dwellers?

Initiative 26 should fail:  the future of Mississippi depends on it.  But to those who push this issue that is not a concern for them: they want Mississippi to stay firmly rooted in the past.

Adios, Huevos: Perry Is The Ultimate Texas Leaguer.

Foreign Policy Experience? Cover model for International Male counts, right?  One handsome sumbitch.

Rick Perry doesn't want to debate anymore.  Wow... Perry is really killing that whole tough Texan persona...guess we know why they needed all those Tennessee volunteers to come help out at the Alamo.

The only thing that Perry is rock-solid sure of is killing people. He came out with a bold plan for tax reform (filing your taxes on a comment card, like you had a bad meal at an Olive Garden), but then saying you can also file traditionally. If the tax code is that evil and job killin', wouldn't you insist on killing it?

Guess we have to wait for the IRS to knock off a liquor store in Lubbock. Falling in the polls, guv? Then let's reach into the Republican quiver and pull out...the birther angle?! Doesn't Mr. Perry remember the president releasing his birth certificate...then days later smoking Osama Bin Laden?

It is cowardly to skip the debates. Yes, there are too many of them (hell, American Idol isn't on this much), but he wanted into this dance, and that's the price of the band.

I think the real issue is that Rick Perry and America are realizing that he doesn't have the chops to be president. The good people of Texas have elected him numerous times. He is obviously popular in his home state. But even if a person is the ugliest soul to ever walk the earth, they have a mama that thinks they are beautiful. In honor of the World Series, running for the presidency is the big leagues, not the Texas league. Hitting the pitching in the show means being able to articulate your points of view and engage in discussions of the highest importance. If you cannot do this, or do not have the passion to do it, sit down and let those who want to lead the world do the big work it takes to be there. This is the bottom line worry for Gov. Perry: he could make it through the primary by refusing to debate Mitt Romney (there's no one else up there). But if he gets the nod in Tampa next year, he will have to face off with the cool Ivy League- educated president who has killed more terrorists than the Bible got Psalms. He won't be able to beat him. He won't be able to dodge issues on stage with dog whistle statements. He will have to think on his American flag boot-clad feet. Transcripts or no, Barack Obama will show why intelligence is not something to run from, and is a key component to being leader of the free world. And at the end of the debate, the president will have owned Perry so thoroughly that the governor will have to write Obama a rent check.

Corporations Ain't People...And Other Things Children Know

In deference to the Charlton Heston classic Soylent Green, “ It’s people! Corporations are people!” And thus began our descent into madness…

There can’t be any greater of a symptom of political illness than this new role of money and the further estrangement of the citizenry. While the political machine has always been fueled by money, Citizens United and the rise of Super PACS have made the small donor the equivalent of a lemonade stand (if they are truly individuals, limit them to $2500 per election…you know…like individuals).

An elected official cannot listen to the needs of average constituents if they know that they could be run from office with millions of dollars being poured into attack ads from undisclosed sources. Even the “true believers,” politicians who began their journey to public life with visions of Atticus Finch and Mr. Smith, know that before they can save the world they have to save their seat. Elected representation is the only safeguard those without personal fortunes have in our system. To openly reject that notion makes every monument on the National Mall just hunks of concrete and steel, not nods to the greater notions of our extended and wildly successful experiment in governance.

It used to be that Wall Street made money and Washington made rules…with citizens and Super PACS those lines have been not just blurred, but destroyed.

Obama, Old Dominion, and Carolina in My Mind: Can the Prez Win Again?

 My President in a Carolina BBQ joint: cue the Lee Greenwood.

President Obama can win Virginia and North Carolina in his bid for reelection, but the playbook will be different from his inaugural victory in 2008 (and we can take back the North Carolina legislature!  Hear that, Senate Dem leadership? I'm a hack for hire: pull the trigger on that bad boy!).  Both states have large active duty and retired military populations, which is traditionally thought to skew conservative. This is the president who gave the "go" order on eliminating bin Laden, so he has a greater chance with these voters.
Virginia and North Carolina also have a unique socioeconomic geography. While great swaths of both states are rural, there are urban areas that are constantly growing. This growth is based on industry that attracts workers from other parts of the country (i.e. the Research Triangle of North Carolina), where people bring not only their abilities but their political opinions as well. (Remember: Cary, N.C., stands for Concentrated Area of Relocated Yankees). This influx of educated and involved voters came out for Obama in large numbers in 2008.

His bid for reelection is helped by statewide elections, especially in the commonwealth. Tim Kaine, a rock star if the Democratic party ever saw one, is running for Jim Webb's open Senate seat. (As Democrats, Tim Kaine's election to Virginia governor is our Woodstock: much as every baby boomer claims they were at the show in 1969, every Dem operative claims to have been part of Kaine's effort in 2005, the only pol to ever has a staff of 24 million). His popularity, coupled with his time as DNC chair, will help the president on the ground.
In North Carolina, Bev Perdue is running for a second term as governor. Although the statehouse in Raleigh is controlled by Republicans, her leadership during Hurricane Irene and the fact that the convention is in Charlotte will hope focus money and media on this area.
The citizens in Virginia and North Carolina also understand the role of government in their lives. While many on both sides of the aisle may want to limit the reach of government, the recent hurricane season reminded them that the resources that their tax dollars provided (i.e. FEMA) are good things to have in an emergency. The large coastal areas of these states, and the industries built up around them (tourism in NC, shipping and naval bases in VA) are better for it.

These states also have a great number of colleges, where he not only swept up voters in 2008 but many of his campaign volunteers originated from campuses, where they used their natural energy and social media prowess to promote his message of change. Now those students are facing uncertainty in the job market and in financing an ever increasing cost of education. The president must keep reminding the electorate that he is on the side of the voters, and that the Republican house is the cause for the stagnation seen in local economies. The president's personal story of getting through college on scholarships and loans, having nothing to fall back on but his talent and tenacity, resonates with these young people and their parents, who face their own unique struggles in maintaining the basic structures of the American dream. Fixing roads and bridges are tangible examples for taxpayers. The president is on the ground, sleeves rolled up, talking to the folks, while their Republican representatives are giving interviews from the hallways of the Capitol dome. What resonates more? There is only one thing that would really solidify the argument on behalf of the president and his push to have the jobs bill passed: his bus, the Death Star, hitting a pothole and getting a flat tire on one of these roads. Cue the press pool cameras: the president changing a tire! It writes itself!