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The good and the bad...presented with permission from The Patriot E-Journal

web posted January 23, 2012

"[T]he fact is that more people have been put on food stamps by Barack Obama than any president in American history. Now, I know among the politically correct, you're not supposed to use facts that are uncomfortable. ... I believe every American of every background has been endowed by their creator with the right to pursue happiness. And if that makes liberals unhappy, I'm going to continue to find ways to help poor people learn how to get a job, learn how to get a better job and learn some day to own the job." --Newt Gingrich in the debate in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

"[L]et us now, in full public view, credit [Barack Obama's] greatest public service as president: He is sending Americans back to the Constitution. ... Mr. Obama's overreach has provoked something unique. This is the rise of a populist movement with the historically unpopulist priorities of making the federal government smaller and insisting on its constitutional limits. ... You can say Mr. Obama probably will not like where a greater public familiarity with the Constitution is likely to take us politically. But you can't say the former University of Chicago professor hasn't made it exciting." --columnist William McGurn

"President Obama, man of the people, will deliver his presidential nomination acceptance speech at the Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C. -- so that Democratic Party fundraisers can reward big donors with skyboxes and other lavish perks. ... The self-proclaimed Party of the 99 Percent is reportedly busy creating special-access VIP packages for the 1 percent -- under the illusion of throwing open its doors to the masses. DNC officials refuse to disclose fundraising updates until after the convention, even as they champion their own 'openness and accessibility.' And no doubt, Obama will use his stadium-size pulpit to 'stand up' to the very same 'fat cats' who'll be watching him while sipping Courvoisier in their DNC-appointed luxury seats. Such is the audacity of progressive cognitive dissonance." --columnist Michelle Malkin

"One of the weirdest things about Cornell West's recent rant on Fox News was that he is one of the highest-paid professors in the humanities in the United States ... yet he damned those who, like himself, are rich. ... With recent news that Harvard, Stanford, and Berkeley professors, like the 1 Percenters at J.P. Morgan and Goldman-Sachs, were among Obama's most generous campaign contributors, I think we can discern the new three rules of fat-cattery: 1) Protestations of being liberal exempt you from the crime of being a 1 Percenter; 2) The less risk to your affluent status ... the more willing you are to put up with income-tax hikes, which renders you one of the good, blue 1 Percenters; 3) Damning Wall Street on Monday while shaking down Wall Street on Tuesday is just the way things are, whether for Barack Obama or for an Ivy League development dean." --historian Victor Davis Hanson

"I'm not a perfect man. I'm not a perfect president, but I promise you this -- and I've kept this promise -- I will always tell you what I believe and I will always tell you where I stand. If you stick with me, we're going to finish what we started in 2008." --Barack Obama

"The reason I was successful was not because I was a flawless candidate or I ran a flawless campaign but it was because together we were able to give voice to this shared vision of what America should be. And I want you to know that I have kept faith with that vision all these years." -- Barack Obama

"[B]y the way, you won't meet harder working folks than some of the folks in these federal agencies -- devote countless hours to trying to make sure that they're serving the American people, but they will tell you their efforts are constantly undermined by an outdated bureaucratic maze." --Barack Obama

"As opposed to the Tea Party, which was practically a wholly owned subsidiary of the Republican Party, we don't really have much of a connection with the Occupy [protesters]. In fact, they probably have some sentiments that overlap between the two [groups]." --House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

"A white president, frankly, could be pushed a great deal more than we would push President Obama because nobody would accuse him or her of having partiality toward African-Americans. So its a tough spot -- it also means that we still have a long way to go in terms of race relations in this country and the president has, I think, moved through these troubled waters about as well as any African-American could becoming the first black president." --Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO)

"Last week, President Barack Obama, at a Capital Hilton fundraising event, told the crowd, 'We can't go back to this brand of you're-on-your-own economics.' ... President Obama's vision was shared by our Pilgrim Fathers of the Plymouth Colony in modern-day Massachusetts. They established a communist system. They all farmed together, and whatever they produced was put in a common storehouse. A certain amount of food was rationed to each person regardless of his contribution to the work. ... In 1623, after much debate, a new system was set up, in which every family was assigned a parcel of land, and whatever they produced belonged to the family. ... After Gov. Bradford's establishment of what Obama calls 'you're-on-your-own economics,' harvests were so bountiful that Bradford is credited with establishing what we now call Thanksgiving. ... Years ago, typing was done on a mechanical typewriter; milk was delivered to doorsteps via horse and wagon; slide rules were used to make calculations. Should any of these products and practices have survived, or was it OK for natural selection to consign them to the dustbin of history? Try cornering the president or his supporters, and ask them whether they believe government should ensure that the unfit survive and rather than 'you're-on-your-own economics' there should be 'you're-on-somebody-else economics.'" --economist Walter. E. Williams

"Here's what I've discovered. It seems to me you have two ways of looking at wealthy people. Some of us, most of us look at people like Steve Jobs, Spielberg, Iacocca, name brands, Gates. Self-made people who deserved their wealth because they went out and swung that pick and may have failed, but they succeeded. And there's other people always looking at it this way. 'Oh he had a break. He went to Harvard, the Business School.' His old man looked out for him, he had these connections and of course he's working for Bain. How did he get that job?" --MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Mitt Romney

"When given [Obama's] education, given that he was the first to head the Harvard Law Review, he could have made millions in the private corporate world. He chose, way before anyone ever thought he would be the president, to go back to Chicago and to work as a community organizer and to serve the underserved and the ignored." --"The Reverend" Al Sharpton

"They say the stimulus didn't work. The stimulus worked. It was just too small. While we had the stimulus, employment was rising. So, you know, the president knows what to do." --Salon's Joan Walsh

"Why Are Obama's Critics So Dumb?" --Newsweek cover story

"The fact that a conversation about the attitude and disposition of Mrs. Obama remains such a hot-button topic is a major disappointment for those who thought times would change after her husband's election in 2008. Many in the African-American community were certain the mere presence of Michelle Obama on the international stage would effect perceptions of black women worldwide. Surely it would be impossible to ignore the grace, charm and intellect of the 5'11" Chicago native, with her Harvard Law degree, committed marriage, and two young daughters." --Newsweek's Allison Samuels

"We absolutely live in a bubble. So I have to keep my kids on track to do things that we would do as if we weren't here. Whether it's vacation or camp or taking a trip we would normally take. It's letting them get outside of the bubble, to get them to a place. That's so important and I fight for that, for them." --Michelle Obama on taking million-dollar vacations

"[L]ast year we made history together by finally passing health reform. But now there are some folks actually talking about repealing this reform. So today, we must ask ourselves, are we going to stand by and let that happen? I mean, really? Are we going to let insurance companies refuse to cover things like cancer screening, prenatal care, that don't just save money, but they save lives? Or are we going to stand up for our lives and for the lives of the people that we love?" --Michelle Obama at a fundraiser

"Yes, we have a great deal to celebrate [on civil rights]. But let's be clear. We have not yet reached the promised land." --Attorney General Eric Holder

"I think it's very clear that the Republicans voted against the American Jobs Act each time when the whole act was before Congress, when each component part, practically all of them, the Republicans voted against it. ... They didn't like the way we were gonna pay for it. Where we were going to have a modest tax increase on those who are the wealthiest and they oppose that. They wanted to protect the wealthiest and as a result, the direct impact is going to be all across our country we're going to see layoffs of people who provide very vital resources -- services, to our communities." --senior Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett

"[A]ccording to the Mayan Calendar, the world is supposed to come to an apocalyptic end on December 21st. I am of two minds about the prediction. On the one hand, I'd hate to think that I might never see another Christmas or another birthday. On the other hand, if, by some awful turn of events or through some political skullduggery, Obama actually gets himself re-elected on November 6th, the end couldn't come soon enough for me." --columnist Burt Prelutsky

"Michelle Obama has recently taken issue with her critics for allegedly perpetuating the idea that she is an 'angry black woman.' ... One does not have to take a leap of faith to believe Mrs. Obama to be an 'angry black woman.' It is nothing more than a logical conclusion given the evidence she has provided." --columnist William Sullivan

"During a recent interview, Michael Moore refused to credit capitalism for his commercial success in the film industry, saying 'socialist countries' have movies too. Yes. As well as jails full of dissident filmmakers." --Fred Thompson

"President Obama reportedly agreed to give his acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention in Charlotte at Bank of America Stadium. It's sure put the convention over budget. When you're sixteen trillion dollars overdrawn Bank of America's fees really add up." --comedian Argus Hamilton

web posted January 16, 2012

"For the past year, the question has been whether Mitt Romney would be acceptable to the Republican party. ... Some pundits continue to dream of a great conservative hope who will enter the race and save us from Romney -- perhaps even at a brokered convention. But the voters have now had two opportunities to speak. Two thirds of voters in New Hampshire said they were satisfied with the field. Romney has won a solid victory there. He succeeded with Tea Party supporters and self-described conservatives. And now Newt Gingrich has offered Romney a gift. By attacking him from the left as a heartless tycoon, he has given Romney the chance to campaign as the defender of capitalism and free markets. ... While it's too early to say the race is sewn up, it is looking very good for Mitt Romney." --columnist Mona Charen

"Whatever chance at a comeback Speaker Gingrich and Governor Perry had went up on the pyre they lit with their attacks [against Romney], on Bain specifically and free-market venture capital generally. The recognition that one cannot defend capitalism while attacking capital is spreading. Blaming Bain for layoffs is like blaming the lifeboats for being late to the Titanic. No matter how you judge their performances, we are a whole lot better for having venture capitalists at hand, even when they don't bat anywhere near 1.000." --radio talk-show host Hugh Hewitt

"The old saw is that Democrats fall in love with their candidates while Republicans fall in line behind theirs. It's a dubious rule of thumb -- were Democrats in love with John Kerry in 2004? With Michael Dukakis in 1988? -- but this much is true: Conservative insurgents rarely win the GOP presidential nomination. The nod almost always goes to the party establishment's candidate. This year that candidate is Mitt Romney." --columnist Jeff Jacoby

"We've been dealing with liberal media bias for years, but George Stephanopoulos' performance in the Republican presidential debate Saturday night in New Hampshire was particularly egregious. ... The narrative in these debates ought to be how each of the candidates is better-equipped than the others to reverse Obama's agenda. In addition to misdirecting the debates substantively, the liberal moderators have also, too often, injected themselves into the debates as if they were either driven by their irrepressible egos to make themselves players rather than facilitators or so ideologically revolted by the GOP's policies that they were compelled to argue Obama's side in his absence. The moderators shouldn't be allowed to have it both ways. If they are going to direct the debate solely toward differences among the GOP candidates, they shouldn't present Obama's side for him, giving him and the liberal position a free ride." --columnist David Limbaugh

"The very core of what this country stands for is on the line -- the basic promise that no matter what you look like, no matter where you come from, this is a place where you could make it if you try. The notion that we're all in this together, that we look out for one another -- that's at stake in this election. Don't take my word for it. Watch some of these debates that have been going on up in New Hampshire." --Barack Obama

"After losing more than 8 million jobs in the recession, we've added more than 3 million private sector jobs over the past 22 months. ... We're heading in the right direction. And we're not going to let up. ... [W]e've got to keep rebuilding our economy so that everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share -- and everyone plays by the same rules." --Barack Obama

"It takes you, ordinary citizens committed to fighting and pushing, inching this country forward bit by bit so we get closer to our highest ideals. That's how this country was built. That's how we freed ourselves from an empire." --Barack Obama comparing his donors to modern-day minutemen

"Republicans in Congress and these candidates, they think that the best way for America to compete for new jobs and businesses is to follow other countries in a race to the bottom. They figure, well, China pays low wages, we should pay low wages. Let's roll back the minimum wage. Let's prevent folks from organizing for collective bargaining in this country. Since other countries allow corporations to pollute as much as they want, why not get rid of the protections that ensure our air is clean and our water is clean." --Barack Obama

"Now raising the debt limit is a very routine thing that every sensible person understands we have to do. It's only in this context of this extreme right-wing takeover of the Republican party that that becomes controversial." --Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA)

"I simply will not have us engage in a this and that, last August, 10 years ago. This is about the here and now and the highly unusual circumstances we are in because the Republican failed policies, economic policies of President George Bush took us to a financial meltdown, took us into near depression, took us into deep deficits that we still have to deal with." --House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi following a House of Representatives pro forma session

"I mean, [Obama's] numbers are going up as the Republican party's numbers come down. And I think it's due to the fact that the president has more aggressively and more definitively, I would hope, positioned himself as with the people, as with the 99 percent, or the 99.99 percent in this case. It's a smart political move on the president's part and I think a sincere move because I do think if you think of his background, for example, he did not lead a privileged upbringing. His family was on food stamps for a while. He earned what he has in life, and I think he appreciates it." --Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson

"The Obama administration has put tremendous pressure on Iran on a variety of fronts -- far more pressure than the Bush administration was ever able to muster." --CNN's Fareed Zakaria

"[T]he Republican party has been in a mad rush to its extreme white wing." --MSNBC's Al Sharpton

"You should need to have a license to have a child. You should be vetted." --Geraldo Rivera

"If you believe in the centrality of family, you have to have a government that both encourages marriage and also supplies wage subsidies to men to make them marriageable." --New York Times columnist David Brooks

"Our assessment is that Congress has been in recess, and had made every indication that it will be in recess for a sustained period of time. And that gaveling in and gaveling out for seven seconds does not constitute a recess with regard to the president's constitutional authority. ... We're saying this a gimmick versus a constitutionally enshrined authority and we feel very comfortable as a legal matter that the Constitution trumps gimmicks." --White House Press Secretary Jay Carney defending Obama's decision to appoint Richard Cordray as head of the consumer protection board during Congress' pro forma session

"The president and all of our team are optimistic that our best days are ahead, and indeed, when you look at job creation over the last several years, we have been making steady progress. As we make that steady progress to establish the economic stability of the United States, it is important for us all to remember that tourism, leisure are very much a part of the job creation agenda for the United States." --Interior Secretary Ken Salazar defending the administration's decision to implement a 20-year ban on new uranium mining claims in the Grand Canyon

"[T]hat's been an image that people have try to paint of me since the day that Barack announced, that I'm some angry black woman." --Michelle Obama

"Yes, it's true that unlike some Republicans, Democrats don't 'enjoy firing people.' They enjoy 'investing' your money in exploding electric vehicles, bullet trains and other highly unprofitable but morally satisfying economic misadventures. Venture socialism is certainly empathetic. Venture capitalism, on the other hand, happens to be useful." --columnist Daniel Harsanyi

"GM plans to 'call back' 8,000 Chevy Volts to fix a problem with the battery that might cause a fire. The hard part will be getting 8,000 people to publicly admit that they bought a Volt." --Fred Thompson

"Joseph P. Kennedy III made plans to run for retiring Barney Frank's House seat. The Democrats see the polls saying America's on the wrong track. They think voters will be ready to replace the first gay congressman with a man from the First Family of Womanizing." --comedian Argus Hamilton

"Cosmetic surgeons say that three years of recession have devastated the cosmetic surgery industry. A lot of people in Beverly Hills are now starting to get the feeling back in their faces." --comedian Jay Leno

"Bain Capital shouldn't be demonized. It may not even deserve to be criticized. But in laying out a way forward, conservatives might remember that Bain Capital isn't capitalism, that capitalism by itself isn't freedom, and that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in the Gospel of Wealth." --The Weekly Standard's Bill Kristol

"Wall Street has its share of miscreants, and they should be recognized as such when appropriate. But to abominate Mitt Romney for having been a success at the business of investing in struggling American companies, connecting entrepreneurs with capital and producers with markets, is foolish and destructive. Republicans ought to know better, and the fact that Gingrich et al. apparently do not is the most disturbing commentary on the state of the primary field so far." --National Review

"We need to make sure that we tone things down, particularly in light of the Tucson tragedy from a year ago, where my very good friend, Gabby Giffords -- who is doing really well, by the way -- [was shot]. The discourse in America, the discourse in Congress in particular ... has really changed, I'll tell you. I hesitate to place blame, but I have noticed it take a very precipitous turn towards edginess and lack of civility with the growth of the Tea Party movement." -- DNC Chairwoman and Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz

"I'd NEVER politicize Tucson." -- Wasserman Schultz after GOP outrage

web posted January 9, 2012

"The Santorum story here -- and it's a good story -- is, months and months of hard work and long road trips finally paid off. After Conservatives in Iowa kicked the tires of the four other candidates: Bachmann, Perry, Cain and Gingrich; they decided to take a look at Santorum and decided he was as good as they were likely to get and they made their choice pretty clear. The problem for Santorum will be, if he contends in New Hampshire -- and he has said he will be there for 'six of the next seven days' -- and if he comes in a distant third behind a highly favored Romney and a bullet-proof Paul, then the momentum of the Santorum campaign will have evaporated in the chill air of a New Hampshire winter." --political analyst Rich Galen

"It's not cynical to say this. The twelve or so battleground states that will decide the 2012 presidential election suggest Obama's reelection strategy. These states include Virginia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Missouri. All these states have large African-American populations. The African-American community has a staggeringly-high unemployment rate under President Obama. So Black Americans will not vote for this president because of any prosperity he's brought to that community. Instead, he has to gin up their votes by painting a picture of racial conflict in which he -- and the governmental agency dealing with such things, DOJ -- is their champion." --columnists Ken Blackwell and Ken Klukowski

"Public debt has increased by 67 percent over the past three years, and too many Americans refuse even to see it as a problem. For most of us, '$16.4 trillion' has no real meaning, any more than '$17.9 trillion' or '$28.3 trillion' or '$147.8 bazillion.' It doesn't even have much meaning for the guys spending the dough: Look into the eyes of Barack Obama or Harry Reid or Barney Frank, and you realize that, even as they're borrowing all this money, they have no serious intention of paying any of it back. That's to say, there is no politically plausible scenario under which the 16.4 trillion is reduced to 13.7 trillion, and then 7.9 trillion and, eventually, 173 dollars and 48 cents. At the deepest levels within our governing structures, we are committed to living beyond our means on a scale no civilization has ever done." --columnist Mark Steyn

"[I]f you tax people who work, and you pay people who don't work, don't be surprised if you find a lot of people not working. I have never heard of a poor person spending himself or herself to prosperity. It doesn't work." --economist Arthur Laffer

"I'm a hundred percent confident that the people of Iowa and the American people will win the day on November 6th of this year when President Obama is re-elected because of his policies, because of the fact that he has brought this country out of the worst economic disaster that we faced since the Great Depression and the people of America know." --DNC Chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL)

"If there is anyone who has set an example about making sure that we reduce the influence of lobbyists and of corporate and outside special interests on campaigns it is President Obama." --Debbie Wasserman Schultz

"People who know me know that I am a softie. I mean, stuff can choke me up very easily. The challenge for me is that in this job, I think, a lot of times the press or how you come off on TV, people want you to be very demonstrative in your emotions. And if you're not sort of showing it in a very theatrical way, then somehow it doesn't translate over the screen." --Barack Obama

"Remember Yogi Berra. I don't like the food at that table and the servings are too small. [Republicans] don't like the tax cut and now they are claiming that it is too small." --House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi

"The rap on Iowa: It doesn't represent the rest of the country, too white, too evangelical, too rural. Still here, politics are personal." --NBC's Andrea Mitchell

"You know, my mother used to say, 'Something doesn't have to be illegal to be wrong.' Why don't people just stand up and say, 'We're not going to do this anymore. I don't care what the Supreme Court says'?" --CBS's Bob Schieffer on wanting to end negative campaign ads

"[Critics of Newt Gingrich's economic plan] say that fewer regulations could spur some productivity, but they also say that to really reduce the deficit you would have to include some combination of spending cuts and tax increases." --CBS reporter Dean Reynolds

"[W]e're not talking about ObamaCare, we're talking about your health care, we're talking about your Social Security, we're talking about your Medicare. When it starts coming into my house -- that's why I said when I spoke at the Martin Luther King memorial, it's not about Obama, it's about your momma." --MSNBC's Al Sharpton

"[T]he reality is that we're probably not going to be able to stop Iran from getting a bomb ... if that's what they choose to do. And the way we're going to react to it is the same way we reacted to the Soviet Union. It's going to be containment and deterrence. ... Those guys don't want to go to war again. If they got a bomb it would just be to deter Israel and Pakistan." --Time magazine's Joe Klein

"Do you fault Republican leaders in Congress for not doing more to make government work better, through more compromise with the president?" --NBC's David Gregory to GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum

"I think [Obama] inherited an impossible situation. I wish he had not been so much of a consensus-seeker. I just wanted to see a more 'gangsta' president." --actor Don Cheadle

"Let's make sure that we understand we are living in a society where people care about jobs, they care about wages. They can't get ahead because so much wealth and income are at the top and taxes are not being paid at the top to finance education, and health care and infrastructure that everybody depends on to get ahead." --former Clintonista Robert Reich

"You have to wonder whether some folks over there think somehow screwing up the economy, throwing a wrench in the works is a good political strategy for them. That someone if they can slow the recovery down -- if they can cost a half million or delay a half million, or a million jobs that that will hurt the president." --Obama strategist David Axelrod

"We can't wait for Congress to act, and if Congress refuses to act and if Republicans choose the path of obstruction, rather than cooperation, then the president is not going to sit here. This gridlock in Washington is not an excuse for inaction." --White House Press Secretary Jay Carney

"Over the next 11 months we've got an organization to grow, voters to register, and people to get fired up. I hope you'll close out this year by donating $3 or more now to help make sure we're ready for the next one." --Michelle Obama in a fundraising e-mail to Obama followers while on her $4 million Hawaiian vacation

"If your main goal is to get re-elected, avoid a controversial subject as much as you can in the first term." --Jimmy Carter offering Obama advice on avoiding being a one-term president

"Across the U.S., 40,000 new federal, state and local laws went into effect on January 1st. Next year, expect 40,000 more laws trying to fix their unintended consequences." --Fred Thompson

"What I don't get is why liberals don't get angrier with [Obama]. I mean, here's a guy who is constantly telling Congress and most Americans that we're not doing enough, but no president has ever taken as many vacations or played as many rounds of golf in three years as Obama. And as if that's not enough to make him the playboy-in-chief, between February and December of this year, he spoke at 69 campaign fund-raising events. For the mathematically challenged, that's roughly seven times a month he's taken off to bad-mouth Republicans, millions of whom have to help pay for his jet fuel, his campaign buses and his security detail. Frankly, I'm surprised that Air Force One can actually get airborne, what with having to fly this guy's ego around." --columnist Burt Prelutsky

"Brazil celebrated the news that it overtook Great Britain as the world's sixth largest economy on Tuesday. It shows the growing power of free markets in South America. President Obama gave his congratulations and asked if we could borrow a Brazilian dollars." --comedian Argus Hamilton

"Democrats finally find a tax cut they can abide, and so both sides agree to extend it. But just as they are about to partake in the bipartisan peace pipe a few days before Christmas, Congress promptly grinds to a squabbling halt threatening a $1,000-tax increase for workers and the evaporation of unemployment benefits for those out of work. Merry freaking Christmas, American people! And then when it comes to explaining themselves, Democrats walk out with straight faces and blame -- who else? -- the Tea Party." --columnist Charles Hurt

"As [2001] wore on, frustration finally boiled over in the form of the Occupy Various Random Spaces movement, wherein people who were sick and tired of a lot of stuff finally got off their butts and started working for meaningful change via direct action in the form of sitting around and forming multiple committees and drumming and not directly issuing any specific demands but definitely having a lot of strongly held views for and against a wide variety of things. Incredibly, even this did not bring about meaningful change." --humorist Dave Barry

"[O]ne of my New Year's resolutions is to make sure that I get out of Washington and spend time with folks like you. Because folks here in Ohio and all across the country -- I want you to know you're the reason why I ran for this office in the first place. You remind me what we are still fighting for. You inspire me." --Barack Obama

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