Garden State Patriot

The Internet is an amazing thing. With all of the hullabaloo over Rush Limbaugh’s comments I started wondering if I could find evidence of Democrats wanting Bush to fail. Lo and behold Fox News did a poll in 2006 and asked that very question. An article on the poll appeared in the NY Post by Craig Charney, a former Clinton pollster (I found the text of the article at sistertoldjah.com). Check this out.

A recent Fox News poll gets at the disturbing truth: A majority of Democrats say they want to see the president fail. Such deep hatred is bad news for the country at a time when America needs to bridge the partisan divide. It’s also bad news for the Democrats, who risk repeating the Republicans’ mistakes of a decade ago, driving away the centrists they need to regain power or going too far if they do manage to win.

Fox’s question was revealing: “Regardless of how you voted in the presidential election, would you say you want President Bush to succeed or not?” Democrats said “not,” 51 percent to 40 percent – where the public at large wanted success by almost two to one. [See page 4 of this document for the poll in question.--ST]

In other words, the rage extends way beyond the lip-pierced Deaniacs, aging hippies and other fringes of the Democratic Party. Lots of otherwise sensible people – suburban moms, hospital orderlies, schoolteachers, big-hatted church ladies – detest George W. Bush.

When these Democrats say they want Bush to fail, might this mean that they simply reject what they see as his far-right religious and corporate agenda? If so, it’s hard to see why independents – hardly right-wing zealots – hope he succeeds by 63 percent to 34 percent. Sadly, much of the Democratic Party wants to see this president crash and burn.

In fact, the fury against to Bush has reached unprecedented levels, even compared to the animosity among Republicans to his predecessor. Not long ago, a Washington Post-ABC News poll found that “strong disapproval” of Bush was 10 points higher than that recorded for Bill Clinton at any point during his presidency, including his impeachment. (That wasn’t during a war, either.)

[CORRECTION] Following quote from Betsy Newmark’s blog post.

Remember, for better or for worse, George W. Bush will be our president for more than two years. Hoping that he’ll fail is really hoping that America will fail. These people detest Bush so much that they don’t mind America getting a setback across the globe if it will weaken Bush.

Of course, there’s a key difference between then and now. Wishing Bush would fail meant wishing the country lost in Iraq. Wishing Obama fails means rooting against socialistic policies that threaten everything the country was founded on and our future prosperity.

Do you think the MSM, considering their whining about Limbaugh’s comments, would think to look something like this up now and then report on it? Nope, that would actually mean really reporting on something and adding some context. That would mean they couldn’t marginalize and demonize him.

Cross-posted at Conservatives with Attitude!

[UPDATED 3/9/09]

Quite a day! I had no idea this would ever happen. I actually e-mailed the story to Rush last week, but it wasn’t until Gateway Pundit and Little Green Footballs picked up on it that it got out there.

Amazingly, even Fox News picked up on this and ran a story flashing back to the poll.

Again, I didn’t do anything special here. A little light bulb went off and said let me check around and see what I can find. Any reporter for any media outfit could have done the same. The fact that they didn’t says alot about the mainstream media and their agenda.

Here’s the transcript from Rush’s show.

Bret Baier – Political Grapevine!

O’Reilly’s Talking Points!

Here’s Sean Hannity running with it!

Listen here as CNN liberal dweeb pundit, Bill Schneider, mischaracterizes Rush’s speech as “angry” while bringing back the pejorative phrase “angry white men.”

Sorry, I’m sick of these arrogant, condescending jerks in the MSM.

Rush Limbaugh delivered the final address at CPAC yesterday. In typical Rush fashion, he compellingly and wittingly made the case for conservatism and standing for our Founding principles - and railed against the Big Government, fascist agenda of Barack Obama and his cohorts. If you haven’t yet seen it, you should.

The speech ran over an hour so I am posting just the first installment. Links to the remaining parts can be found below.

Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10

For the first time, the Republican candidates for Governor (save Ass. Merkt) squared off. Considering the limited time (less than half an hour), a number of issues were discussed - ranging from taxes and the size of NJ government to abortion, gay marriage and medical marijuana. COHA and Abbott, however, did not really come up so I think there was a bit too much time spent on the aforementioned social issues. Of course, this lays the groundwork of how this primary is going to unfold.

You can watch the debate online at the NJN News web site. [UPDATE: The NJN video apparently only shows the first 5+ minutes of the debate. The debate is being shown today at 11am on NJN's On The Record. Hopefully, the full video will be available soon.]

Click here.

I caught a bit of this the another night but did not realize the context of the incident. Jim Calhoun is the UConn Men’s Basketball coach and is known for his outbursts so at first I dismissed it as another Calhoun rant.

However, as it turns out an, ahem, ‘freelance reporter and political activist’ was condescendingly questioning Calhoun about his salary which is the highest of any state employee. But Calhoun is paid this salary because he is a success as a basketball coach. If not for Jim Calhoun, UConn basketball would not be a national power and would not be able to bring in chunks of money for the school.

Yet, this no-doubt liberal dweeb reporter has the gall to question his salary. This is the mindset that we are now fostering in America. Self-proclaimed reporters feel it is their duty to question the salary of someone like Calhoun. It’s just a disgrace.

But Calhoun stood up for himself. Watch the exchange here.

Rep. Boehner gave an excellent speech at CPAC and pulled no punches – warning about the path to ’socialism’ the Democrats are leading us down.

Part 2 contains the meatiest part of the speech. To see the entire speech, here are the links for Part 1 and Part 3.

Economist Larry Kudlow has an excellent article on the damaging economic policies being set forth by Obama. This article is essential so I am posting the full text here.

Let me be very clear on the economics of President Obama’s State of the Union speech and his budget.

He is declaring war on investors, entrepreneurs, small businesses, large corporations, and private-equity and venture-capital funds.

That is the meaning of his anti-growth tax-hike proposals, which make absolutely no sense at all — either for this recession or from the standpoint of expanding our economy’s long-run potential to grow.

Raising the marginal tax rate on successful earners, capital, dividends, and all the private funds is a function of Obama’s left-wing social vision, and a repudiation of his economic-recovery statements. Ditto for his sweeping government-planning-and-spending program, which will wind up raising federal outlays as a share of GDP to at least 30 percent, if not more, over the next 10 years.

This is nearly double the government-spending low-point reached during the late 1990s by the Gingrich Congress and the Clinton administration. While not quite as high as spending levels in Western Europe, we regrettably will be gaining on this statist-planning approach.

Study after study over the past several decades has shown how countries that spend more produce less, while nations that tax less produce more. Obama is doing it wrong on both counts. [emphasis added]

And as far as middle-class tax cuts are concerned, Obama’s cap-and-trade program will be a huge across-the-board tax increase on blue-collar workers, including unionized workers. Industrial production is plunging, but new carbon taxes will prevent production from ever recovering. While the country wants more fuel and power, cap-and-trade will deliver less.

The tax hikes will generate lower growth and fewer revenues. Yes, the economy will recover. But Obama’s rosy scenario of 4 percent recovery growth in the out years of his budget is not likely to occur. The combination of easy money from the Fed and below-potential economic growth is a prescription for stagflation. That’s one of the messages of the falling stock market.

Essentially, the Obama economic policies represent a major Democratic party relapse into Great Society social spending and taxing. It is a return to the LBJ/Nixon era, and a move away from the Reagan/Clinton period. House Republicans, fortunately, are 90 days sober, as they are putting up a valiant fight to stop the big-government onslaught and move the GOP back to first principles.

Noteworthy up here on Wall Street, a great many Obama supporters — especially hedge-fund types who voted for “change” — are becoming disillusioned with the performances of Obama and Treasury man Geithner.

There is a growing sense of buyer’s remorse.

Well then, do conservatives dare say: We told you so?

SaveJersey has the scoop on where the pork’s going in NJ. And, hey, guess what? So far it’s all going to urban areas. All ~$2.7B worth.

How’s that make you Obama voters in the ‘burbs feel, eh?

See here for all the LONG list of details.

And keep track of the Stimulus waste here.

Cross-posted at Red County.

Senator DeMint has been posting on Twitter (would that be ‘twittering’ or ‘tweeting’??) regarding Un-Fairness Doctrine debate. GOP amendment banning Fairness Doctrine passed 87-11…BUT Durbin amendment which will allow FCC to regulate radio content passed 57-41. In other words, laying the groundwork for back door censorship of talk radio – just not calling it what it really is. First Amendment be damned!

Here is some audio from the debate on the Senate floor.

To join the movement to help fight this go to protectfairness.com.

Cross-posted at Conservatives with Attitude!

From ABC News:

Obama’s Budget: Almost $1 Trillion in New Taxes Over Next 10 yrs, Starting 2011
February 26, 2009 12:00 PM

President Obama’s budget proposes $989 billion in new taxes over the course of the next 10 years, starting fiscal year 2011, most of which are tax increases on individuals.

1) On people making more than $250,000.

$338 billion – Bush tax cuts expire
$179 billlion – eliminate itemized deduction
$118 billion – capital gains tax hike

Total: $636 billion/10 years

2) Businesses:

$17 billion – Reinstate Superfund taxes
$24 billion – tax carried-interest as income
$5 billion – codify “economic substance doctrine”
$61 billion – repeal LIFO
$210 billion – international enforcement, reform deferral, other tax reform
$4 billion – information reporting for rental payments
$5.3 billion – excise tax on Gulf of Mexico oil and gas
$3.4 billion – repeal expensing of tangible drilling costs
$62 million – repeal deduction for tertiary injectants
$49 million – repeal passive loss exception for working interests in oil and natural gas properties
$13 billion – repeal manufacturing tax deduction for oil and natural gas companies
$1 billion – increase to 7 years geological and geophysical amortization period for independent producers
$882 million – eliminate advanced earned income tax credit

Total: $353 billion/10 years

And we’re supposed to grow the economy in this environment? My goodness.

Cross-posted at Conservatives with Attitude!