Tag: Pres. Obama

If Republicans Wanted Prices at the Pump to Fall, They Would Go Along with Obama’s Plan

Trish

gaspump

The president is proposing a plan that would actually make a dent in gas prices. And no, it’s not drill baby, drill because, as Obama explained, there’s a big hole in that idea.

…the problem is we use more than 20 percent of the world’s oil and we only have 2 percent of the world’s proven oil reserves. Even if we drilled every square inch of this country right now, we’d still have to rely disproportionately on other countries for their oil. That means we pay more at the pump every time there’s instability in the Middle East, or growing demand in countries like China and India.

Instead, the president wants to attack gas prices both administratively — meaning acting as allowed without Congress needing to do that whole law-passing thing of which they seem incapable — and legislatively. Both strategies start by attacking the real problem — oil speculation. Obama:

We can’t afford a situation where speculators artificially manipulate markets by buying up oil, creating the perception of a shortage, and driving prices higher — only to flip the oil for a quick profit…That’s not the way the market should work. And for anyone who thinks this cannot happen, just think back to how Enron traders manipulated the price of electricity to reap huge profits at everybody else’s expense.

Obama made good a long time ago on a campaign promise to close the “Enron loophole,” which allowed traders to evade American regulations by buying and selling electronically or overseas.

So here’s what he’s asking our representatives in Washington to do.

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Third Poll in a Row Finds Romney Ahead of Obama

Jon Ponder

Dan Amira at New York Magazine:

One poll showing Mitt Romney leading President Obama could be a fluke. [1] Two polls? [2] A bit less likely to be a fluke. But three polls in a row, especially when one of them is a Gallup survey of 2,265 registered voters, probably deserves some attention. [3] Yes, even as InTrade shows Obama with a 61 percent chance of winning in November, and even as conservative pundits like George Will talk about a second Obama term as if it’s a foregone conclusion, the reality is that Mitt Romney has beaten Obama in the three national polls taken since Rick Santorum dropped out, and is therefore, at least for the moment, winning the (extremely nascent) general election.

  1. Fox News: Romney 46 percent/Obama 44 percent
  2. GOP-leaning Rasmussen: Romney 47 percent/Obama 44 percent
  3. Gallup: Romney 47 percent/Obama 45 percent

Vote on Ending Big Oil’s Government Handout Came Down to the Math

Trish

  • Since Obama became president, my dog’s hip dysplasia has gotten worse.
  • Since Obama became president, my car’s value has decreased.
  • Since Obama became president, violence in Syria has skyrocketed.
  • Since Obama became president, all kinds of sh*t has happened.

How about it? What else has changed over three years that we can blame on Obama? Anybody?

Back here in Realityland, we are amazed at the low-information people who eat up this post hoc mess, produced by the American Energy Alliance. The AEA is a lobbying group opposed to Obama’s plan to discontinue government subsidies for the richest industry in the world, which quit needing government subsidies in the days before Jed Clampett became a millionaire.

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Little Ricky Is Having a Meltdown

Trish

It was bad enough that Rick Santorum borrowed a page from Keith Olbermann’s play book when he stood before a crowd in Racine, Wis. and said Mitt Romney is “the worst Republican in the country to put up against Barack Obama.”

No, Santorum dug himself in a little deeper when a New York Times reporter asked him if that’s really what he meant to say.

Santorum accused the Times’ Jeff Zeleny of distorting his words following a question from the reporter Sunday night.

Zeleny asked Santorum if he thinks Mitt Romney is the “worst Republican in the country to run against Obama,” something he said while campaigning in Wisconsin.

In response, Santorum said “I didn’t say that. You guys are distorting what I’m saying … Quit distorting my words. It’s bullshit.

Obviously the bullshit was all on Santorum’s side as that was quite clearly what he said, with no distortion involved in understanding it.

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Dumb and Dumber Vs. Obama on Afghanistan

Trish

Mitt Romney, chanelling Sarah Palin when it comes to the difficulty of forming coherent sentences, and vividly demonstrating that he hasn’t been paying attention:

Certainly it’s time on a regular basis to review our mission there, and not to make decisions based upon some actions by a crazed gunman. We don’t determine our foreign policy based on something of that nature, but of course from time to time we have to assess what the process is there. I’m very disappointed that the president has not over the last year or two talked about what’s happening in Afghanistan, what progress is being made, describing a time table, or why his timetable makes sense or not.

Rick Santorum, hysterically demonstrating that he is an idiot (the “enemy,” had nothing to do with the recent killings by the U.S. troop), but he pays more attention than Romney:

The president putting a timeline in place has made a very winnable operation very, very difficult. It continues to unravel because the president has given something to the enemy that we should have been able to deny them, which is hope.

Pres. Barack Obama, calmly demonstrating once again that he is the only adult in the room.

I have put us on a path where we are going to have this war over by the end of 2014. That our troops will be coming out, but will be coming out responsibly. We don’t rush for the exits in a way that could end up leading to more chaos and more disaster not just for Afghanistan and the Afghan people but also for the entire region and for our own security and safety.

Borowitz: Birther Questions are Good News for the Economy

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birther

We heartily embrace this leading economic indicator from satirist Andy Borowitz.

While most economists agree that any significant improvement in the US economy is generally accompanied by an uptick in GOP questions about Mr. Obama’s place of birth, there is now an econometric tool for measuring the increase in those claims: the so-called S & P Birther Index.

The Birther Index, established in 2008, measures the occurrences of such words as “birth certificate,” “Kenya,” and “wasn’t born here” in Republican statements about the President, and has proven to be a surprisingly reliable tool for tracking improvements in the economy.

As is generally accepted, the best way for Republicans to take the White House this fall is to sabotage the economy. Failing that, they can fall back on such hot button issues as whether the president was really born in Hawaii, and how he personally is responsible for the price of gas at the pump. Then again, there’s always assailing people who provide testimony to Congressional committees.