Republicans have a golden opportunity to break Barack Obama's presidency, ensuring he will be a one-termer. Mr. Obama has backed himself into a corner on the debt-limit talks; the GOP can smash his re-election prospects if they have the will—and intelligence—to do it.
Mr. Obama has asked that the nation's $14.3 trillion debt-ceiling be raised, and he knows that cannot be done without support from House Republicans. Moreover, along with Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, Mr. Obama warns that fiscal Armageddon is coming unless the ceiling is lifted before Aug. 2—the date Mr. Geithner claims the United States begins defaulting to its debtors.
Mr. Obama seeks a "grand bargain": a debt reduction package that includes $1 trillion in tax increases to accompany entitlement spending cuts, including Social Security and Medicare. He wants to go big. His target is to slash $4 trillion over 10 years. He has repeatedly vowed to veto any "small" debt-limit increase—one that keeps America paying its bills until a more comprehensive agreement is ratified. In other words, Mr. Obama has issued an ultimatum to congressional Republicans: either break your 2010 campaign pledge not to raise taxes or else be blamed for the debt-limit debacle. As he put it, it's time to "eat our peas." The president is playing Russian roulette with the economy and our nation's future.
Yet, he has badly played his weak hand. Mr. Obama has committed a fatal mistake: overreach. The president has issued a public ultimatum that either must be upheld or he must back down from. Either way, it is Mr. Obama's political credibility that threatens to be shattered.
House Speaker John Boehner is holding all the cards. Mr. Boehner should insist on a small deal—lifting the debt ceiling accompanied with corresponding spending reductions. Every debt dollar raised should be coupled with a dollar cut. Hence, the package pays for itself. More importantly, it places Mr. Obama in a no-win situation. House Republicans will pass legislation that raises the debt-limit. Therefore, they cannot be blamed for any economic fallout should America default. Mr. Obama can veto it, which means he will be solely responsible for the fiscal calamity. Or he can sign it—publicly standing down from his earlier threats. Thus, he will be denuded among his liberal supporters and the larger electorate, and shown to be a weak leader whose words mean nothing.
Either way, it will be his Waterloo: the effective end of his presidency.
AOL Touts Masturbation Huffington-Style
America Online is now endorsing masturbation. Recently, AOL posted an item on its general page discussing how men often fake orgasms, and that they should engage in masturbation to help "discover what stimulates you." Apparently, women aren't the only ones faking it in the bedroom.
The fact that AOL would even run a lewd story like this—never mind give it top billing—reveals the change in editorial content since its merger with the far left Huffington Post. The liberal website, founded by Arianna Huffington, was acquired by AOL in February for a stunning $315 million. Moreover, the deal made Ms. Huffington the editor-in-chief of AOL's 1,200-member newsroom. AOL's stories are starting to reflect her radical views—undermining its credibility as a respectable Internet news source.
This is what now passes for informative news at AOL? Under Ms. Huffington's leadership, the popular website has become a pimp for the sexual revolution. It is peddling the Playboy philosophy, hoping to make it mainstream. Perversion and moral indecency are packaged as part of a "healthy lifestyle." What's next: the benefits of bestiality, polygamy or oral sex?
Ms. Huffington is frittering away the hard-won reputation of AOL and dragging it into the journalistic gutter.
Beck's Swan Song
Glenn Beck, the radio host and former FOX News talking head, apparently needs to capitalize one last time on his dwindling fame. His solution: publish a redundant book on the Federalist Papers.
In "The Original Argument" (Threshold Editions, 430 pages), Mr. Beck seeks to translate and adapt the Federalist Papers for contemporary readers. Therefore, many of its passages—written in 18th-century English prose—are updated to be more understandable and, hopefully, relevant. The book contains footnotes explaining the historical events or references of the time. There are short summaries of key arguments, as well as one-paragraph nuggets on the essays seeking to apply their wisdom to today's problems. "The Original Argument" is really a version of the "Federalist Papers for Dummies."
But do we really need another work on the Constitution, or the Federalist Papers for that matter? The subject has become a cottage industry. There have been countless volumes written on the topic. Mr. Beck argues that the Federalist Papers are "boring" to read and arcane, thereby there is a need for his book. This is false—and puerile. I (along with millions of students) had no trouble reading the essays in college years ago. The same held true for the Bible, Shakespeare, Plato and all the other canons of Western civilization. Hence, will Mr. Beck be coming out with his adaptation of the Bible anytime soon—maybe one for those of his Mormon faith.
Mr. Beck has cynically positioned himself as a so-called leader of the Tea Party. His rise to fame and fortune has been based on one giant gimmick: the wannabe constitutionalist professor, eye glasses and chalk-board in hand, preaching about the evils of progressivism. Yet, Mr. Beck is really a phony: He has placed Vaseline near his eyes so he could cry on cue about the suffering caused by President Obama's socialist policies. Mr. Beck is the court jester of the conservative movement.
He is a modern-day P.T. Barnum, whose act has finally worn thin. His ratings at FOX dropped dramatically. He had become overexposed—the speaking tours, the countless books and novels, the metamorphosis into a self-help guru preaching personal empowerment and bogus uplift. He is now leaving the stage, launching his own Internet-based television network (GBTV). My prediction: it will flop. Just like "The Original Argument," Mr. Beck has nothing new or meaningful to say. This is a non-book by a non-author.
No comments:
Post a Comment