Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said yesterday that Republican senators are prepared to filibuster the government-run public option and that on this vote there is no compromise.

You may recall that Olympia Snowe voted for the Baucus bill in committee in order to “keep the discussion going.” Yesterday, in a shot across the bow of Snowe and other “moderates,” McConnell said, “I think it’s appropriate to make the point at the outset that a vote … on the motion to proceed to this bill [to end the filibuster of the public option] will be treated as a vote on the merits of the bill.” Let me explain why.

This bill can’t be stopped by just Republicans. They have only 40 votes in the Senate – that is not enough to sustain a filibuster. Socialized medicine will pass or fail depending on what a handful of “moderate” Democrats do. If they vote with Harry Reid to let the bill come to the Senate floor, it will pass — period. The senators who most likely will control the fate of ObamaCare are:

• Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) — (501) 375-2993
• Mark Pryor (D-AR) — (501) 324-6336
• Joe Lieberman (I-CT) — (860) 549-8463
• Evan Bayh (D-IN) — (317) 554-0750
• Mary Landrieu (D-LA) — (225) 389-0395
• Max Baucus (D-MT) — (406) 657-6790
• Jon Tester (D-MT) — (406) 449-5401
• Kent Conrad (D-ND) — (701) 258-4648
• Byron Dorgan (D-ND) — (701) 250-4618
• Ben Nelson (D-NE) — (402) 441-4600
• Tim Johnson (D-SD) — (605) 332-8896
• Jim Webb (D-VA) — (804) 771-2221
• Mark Warner (D-VA) — (804) 739-0247

If you live in any of these states, be certain to call your senators and share your thoughts with them.

Iranian thug Mahmoud Ahmadinejad just kicked Barack Obama in the political groin. He said the worst thing he could possibly think of to insult Obama — he compared him to George W. Bush. Ouch! That has got to hurt. Obama and his leftwing allies have regularly defamed President Bush and suggested he is responsible for everything from hurricanes to wanton slaughter. To the Obamians, Bush is a war criminal. Obama was going to come into the White House and change America – and the world! The Texas cowboy would be forever forgotten.

Over the last five months, Barack Hussein Obama has made repeated efforts to convince Iran’s leaders that he was ready to do business with them. He sent the Iranian government New Year’s greetings; he apologized for his own country; he sent private “love” letters of respect to the ayatollah. (Maybe that made Mahmoud jealous.) But, alas, it isn’t enough. Barack Obama committed the ultimate sin – he reluctantly said people shouldn’t have their skulls cracked open and be shot simply for wanting basic human rights. Ahmadinejad is now demanding that Obama apologize for sounding like Bush.

It is probably too much to hope that as our apprentice president continues his on-the-job training, he may eventually learn that his own country is not the cause of the world’s woes but is indeed the only thing standing between mankind and another dark age.

- Excerpt from Gary Bauer’s Daily Report (6-25-09)
Sign up for his End of Day Report here.

Dear Ayatollah, From Your Friend Barack

The Washington Times has learned that President Barack Obama sent a secret letter to Iran’s “supreme leader” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei weeks before the June 12th election. In the letter, Obama reportedly laid out the prospect of a new relationship of cooperation between the United States and Iran. The letter was delivered by a representative of the Swiss embassy to the Iranian foreign ministry.

The existence of this letter helps explain, but does not excuse, Obama’s reluctance in recent days to unambiguously support the protestors who have put their lives on the line for liberty in Iran. Once again they were beaten in the streets of Tehran today.

What exactly did the letter say? Ayatollah Khamenei actually hinted at its contents in a “sermon” Friday. He told a cheering crowd of fanatical thugs that they [the Obama Administration] had written “a letter to us to express their respect for the Islamic Republic and for reestablishment of ties.” If that is an accurate description of the letter, it is disgusting. The Islamic Republic is directly responsible for the deaths of U.S. soldiers in Iraq. It is responsible for the deaths of its own citizens this very day. The last thing that regime should be getting from our president is a letter declaring our “respect.”

The president’s Iran policy is in shambles. Every assumption he made has been proven wrong. His desire even now to negotiate with the tyrants in Tehran, while blood drips from their hands, is beyond reprehensible.

- Excerpt from Gary Bauer’s Daily Report (6-24-09)
Sign up for his End of Day Report here.

Slowly Finding His Voice

As you know, we and other conservatives have been urging President Obama to speak up in support of the Iranian people who are daring to oppose the brutal Islamofascist regime that runs their country. Slowly the president is finding his voice, but it’s been a very frustrating exercise — like trying to get a two year-old to eat his vegetables. Meanwhile heads were getting cracked, dissidents were being jailed and innocent bystanders were being shot. Here is an excerpt of the president’s comments today at the White House:

“The United States and the international community have been appalled and outraged by the threats, the beatings and imprisonments of the last few days. I strongly condemn these unjust actions… I’ve made it clear that the United States respects the sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran and is not interfering with Iran’s affairs. …some in the Iranian government, in particular, are … accusing the United States and others in the West of instigating protests over the elections. These accusations are patently false. They’re an obvious attempt to distract people from what is truly taking place within Iran’s borders. …

“In 2009, no iron fist is strong enough to shut off the world from bearing witness to peaceful protests of justice. …Above all, we’ve seen courageous women stand up to the brutality and threats, and we’ve experienced the searing image of a woman bleeding to death on the streets. While this loss is raw and extraordinarily painful, we also know this: those who stand up for justice are always on the right side of history.”

Much better, Mr. President. Almost Reaganesque.

I was particularly surprised to see the president so forcefully shoot down the accusations of the Iranian regime that we were interfering and instigating the protests. After all, that had been the major excuse that he and so many in the media were offering for his silence – that any critical statements or messages of support would be seized upon by the regime as proof of our “meddling.” It was absurd to begin with (as Brit Hume notes), but the mullahs made the charge anyway. It seems Mr. Obama is no longer worried about “alienating the ayatollah.” Now that he has spoken up and removed his own fig leaf, maybe we can begin to have a real debate about a serious policy toward Iran. (More on that in the next item.)

Many dissidents assumed “Mr. Hope and Change” would be one of their strongest allies. Instead, politicians from the European Union took the lead. When France is a more aggressive advocate for freedom than the United States, the world should be worried. Let’s hope that the president’s statement is not too little, too late. Having received little in the way of encouragement from Washington, while the tyrants in Tehran terrorized their own citizens for days, the protests appear to be waning. I pray that this historic opportunity to break the back of the “axis of evil” and transform a state sponsor of terrorism is not yet lost.

Mohammed to Obama: “We need your help”

This morning I received an email from our friends at National Review that contained an excerpt from a CNN interview with one of the thousands of demonstrators in Tehran. This demonstrator, Mohammed, gives his opinion on what he thinks the United States and the rest of the world should do regarding Iran. Consider this exchange and how it contrasts with President Obama’s desire for dialogue and diplomacy based on “mutual respect”:

MOHAMMED: “Americans, European Union, international community, this government is definitely not elected by the majority of Iranians. So it’s illegal. Do not recognize it. Stop trading with them. Impose much more sanctions against them. My message, to the international community, especially I’m addressing President Obama directly — how can a government that doesn’t recognize its people’s rights and represses them brutally and mercilessly have nuclear activities? This government is a huge threat to global peace. Will a wise man give a sharp dagger to an insane person? We need your help international community. Don’t leave us alone.”

Mohammed gets it. Why is it so hard for our “experts” at the State Department and the White House? Diplomacy and appeasement do not dissuade dictators. President Obama is an impressive orator, but no one — not even Barack Hussein Obama — is going to talk a Holocaust-denying madman out of his desire to “wipe Israel off the map.” Words will not stop his work to destroy the “Great Satan,” which is how the Islamic radicals in Iran refer to the United States. The West must confront the reality that Mohammed is warning against. We need a serious plan of action, not just words. And here too Mohammed has a suggestion:

REPORTER: “Mohammed, what do you think the international community should do besides sanctions?”

MOHAMMED: “This regime is really dependent on importing gasoline. More than 85% of Iran’s gasoline is imported from foreign countries. I think the international communities must sanction exporting gasoline to Iran and that might shut down the government.”
The president should also rescind his invitation for Iranian diplomats to attend July 4th parties at U.S. embassies around the world. Obama dodged a question today about his “hot dog diplomacy” when asked by Fox News reporter Major Garrett if the Iranian government representatives were still welcome. And President Obama should immediately restore the funding that he cut for pro-democracy efforts in Iran.

- Excerpt from Gary Bauer’s Daily Report (6-23-09)
Sign up for his End of Day Report here.

Obama’s Numbers Falling

Last week, we reported that President Obama’s approval rating was starting to fall after a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll recorded its lowest figure to date. Now there is more evidence that the novelty is wearing off. For some time now, the daily Rasmussen tracking poll has also detected declining support for the president, and it recorded a new low over the weekend.

In assessing President Obama’s support, pollster Scott Rasmussen has developed a unique measurement – the presidential approval index (PAI). Rasmussen calculates the PAI by subtracting the percentage of voters who strongly approve of the president from the percentage of those who strongly disapprove. It is a measure of core support or disapproval.

For the first six weeks of the Obama administration, the president enjoyed strong support with a presidential approval index consistently in the double digits, with significantly more voters strongly approving of President Obama’s performance than strongly disapproving. That’s to be expected during the so-called “honeymoon” period that all presidents generally receive from the public. But in March, Rasmussen’s polling detected a “shift in the winds.” In more than one hundred days of polling since the first week of March, Obama has earned a double-digit PAI rating just three times.

And yesterday, for the first time ever, Rasmussen’s daily tracking poll found President Obama’s approval index was in fact negative at -2, with 32% of likely voters strongly approving of his performance and 34% of likely voters strongly disapproving. Today, his PAI remains negative at -1.

And here’s more news that must concern the president: His days of blaming everything on George W. Bush are coming to an end. According to a newly released Rasmussen poll, while a majority of voters still cut the president some slack on the economy, the number of voters who blame the current economic conditions on Bush is down eight points, while the number blaming Obama is up 12 points, a 20-point swing in three weeks.

Finding His Voice

President Obama struggled this weekend to catch up with Congress and the American people in voicing his support for freedom in Iran and expressing moral outrage for the oppressive tactics of the tyrants in Tehran. Friday, the House voted 405-to-1 to condemn the regime and support the Iranian people seeking liberty. Hours later, the Senate unanimously approved a similar resolution. Senators McCain (R-AZ) and Lieberman (ID-CT) issued a joint statement Friday, which read, “By acting now, Congress sent an unmistakable message of support to the courageous Iranian people at a critical moment in their history.” By staying silent, the Obama White House had been sending a message of support to the mullahs.

Saturday, the White House released a statement from the president. Here is an excerpt:

“The Iranian government must understand that the world is watching. We mourn each and every innocent life that is lost. We call on the Iranian government to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people. The universal rights to assembly and free speech must be respected, and the United States stands with all who seek to exercise those rights. …If the Iranian government seeks the respect of the international community, it must respect the dignity of its own people and govern through consent, not coercion.”

While Obama’s rhetoric is getting better, his policy toward outlaw states like Iran is way behind reality. He still thinks he can negotiate with Ahmadinejad to end his nuclear weapons program. By the way, that would be a form of “meddling” that would only serve to offer legitimacy to the Holocaust-denying dictator. Meanwhile, a North Korean ship continues on its way, while suspected of carrying contraband materials in violation of U.N. sanctions. What will Obama do?

There’s another area where Obama is hopelessly behind and Big Media won’t tell you about this. For years, the Bush Administration spent money to promote pro-democracy movements in Iran. And now, just as those efforts are beginning to bear fruit, what does the Obama Administration do? The president cut the funding for those programs in his first budget to Congress.

And if you don’t think that it matters one iota if Iran becomes a free nation or if the Islamic fanatics currently running Iran are allowed to develop nuclear weapons, consider the latest statement from Al Qaeda: “God willing, the nuclear weapons [in Pakistan] will not fall into the hands of the Americans, and the Mujahideen would take them and use them against the Americans.” If we ignore reality and pretend the rest of the world doesn’t matter, our next 9/11 won’t be 3,000 dead, but hundreds of thousands.

- Excerpt from Gary Bauer’s Daily Report (6-22-09)
Sign up for his End of Day Report here.

Barack Obama has been hailed as one of the greatest orators of our day, yet he has been silent in recent days, refusing to speak up in defense of democracy in Iran. Instead, the Washington Post reported yesterday that our president is trying not to “alienate the ayatollah,” all so he can keep alive his hopes for diplomacy with the Islamofascist regime, like Neville Chamberlain seeking “peace in our time.”

While the president stays tight lipped, the media are making excuses for his silence. Isolationists on the right like Pat Buchanan to left wingers like Keith Olbermann are all saying that President Obama should keep his mouth shut so that “American meddling” doesn’t become the issue in Iran. Guess what? The tyrants in Tehran are already denouncing America for “interventionist statements.” The idea that our words matter to this regime any more than they mattered to Hitler is laughable. But this president promised us that he would restore America’s moral authority around the world. Let’s think about that for a moment.

How did America win that moral authority to begin with? We won World War II and liberated Europe and Japan from tyrannical regimes. Then we rebuilt our defeated enemies and turned them into allies. We rallied the free world in defense of liberty against the evil empire that was the Soviet Union. And our free enterprise economy, combined with the generosity of American foreign aid and individual charitable giving, did more to create wealth and lift people out of poverty than at any other time in human history.

But somewhere along the way, Mr. Obama insists we lost our moral authority. How? According to Mr. Obama, we lost it when George W. Bush invaded Iraq and freed 25 million Muslims from the brutality of Saddam Hussein’s rape rooms and child prisons. Now it is the Left’s position to talk with tyrants rather than to stand with slaves yearning for freedom.

Today, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei reaffirmed the “absolute victory” of Iran’s Holocaust-denying president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. During his speech, he led the crowd in chants of “death to America,” “death to Israel” and “death to the U.K.” Thank goodness Obama avoided alienating the ayatollah!

- Excerpt from Gary Bauer’s Daily Report
Sign up for his End of Day Report here.

In a primetime special on June 24th, ABC News will be broadcasting out of the Obama White House in an effort to promote President Obama’s government-run health care plan. When the Republican National Committee learned of this planned primetime promo, it asked for the opportunity to include a spokesman for its views. (It’s worth noting that nearly 70% of doctors serving in Congress are Republicans, such as Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma.) However, ABC News denied the request. Instead, a pre-selected audience will ask the president questions in a town-hall-style format. (I suspect the questions will be pre-selected too!)

The reports of ABC’s “infomercial” for Obama’s socialized healthcare scheme have sparked a tremendous outcry against this blatant example of media bias. A major media news outlet teaming up with the White House to sell its healthcare plan sounds like something that would take place in Russia or China, not the United States. Many conservative commentators are now referring to ABC as the “All Barack Channel.”

The reaction from ABC was an arrogant statement from Senior Vice President Kerry Smith, who said, “Like any programs we broadcast, ABC News will have complete editorial control. To suggest otherwise is quite unfair to both our journalists and our audience.” Really? I wonder how many people know that the Director of Communications at the White House Office of Health Reform is Linda Douglass, a former ABC news reporter who worked at the network for nearly ten years. I’m sure that’s just a remarkable coincidence and that Douglass had absolutely nothing to do with arranging this broadcast.

TAKE ACTION: Click here to share your thoughts with ABC News about its biased coverage.

- Excerpt from Gary Bauer’s Daily Report
Sign up for his End of Day Report here.

The yearning for freedom continues in Iran, but Barack Hussein Obama remains sphinx-like in his response. He says he is “troubled” by the events the whole world is watching, but he assures everyone he remains committed to “engaging” Ahmadinejad. How about engaging the forces of democracy, Mr. President? How about one sentence from the “Leader of the Free World” urging the Iranian dictatorship to stop shooting, clubbing and arresting dissenters who simply want basic human rights. Unfortunately for those Iranians being shot, clubbed and jailed, Mr. Obama thinks that taking a stand for freedom would be “meddling.”

Has the president noticed that the demonstrators carry signs written in English? Does he realize the significance of Iranians chanting “Death to the Dictator” in our language not Farsi? They are trying to get your attention, Mr. President. They thought “hope and change” included them too. You may feel the constant need to apologize for America, Mr. President, but oppressed people of color around the world still see the country that embarrasses you as their “last best hope.”

The president has a lot on his plate, so I don’t want to be unfair. It takes a lot of hours to bankrupt a nation while running several major industries and getting ready to direct health care and control our climate. He needs to drop something from the “to do” list. Here’s my suggestion: You could stop bashing democracies like Israel, which is on our side, and instead bash tyrants that hate America.

- Excerpt from Gary Bauer’s Daily Report
Sign up for his End of Day Report here.

There is a large photo on the front page of [the] Washington Post [published June 15th] of an Iranian dissenter on the ground covering his head while government thugs beat him with their clubs. For years, analysts have told us that there are millions of Iranians like this man who want freedom and better relations with the United States. This weekend we saw evidence they exist as hundreds of thousands demonstrated in Tehran and other major cities against the Ahmadinejad regime, chanting “death to the dictator.” Any chance for good relations between Iran and the U.S. and between Iran and Israel depends on the people who are being oppressed in Iran right now eventually regaining power in their own country. But at this critical moment for liberty, Obama, Biden and Clinton are shamefully AWOL.

The explanation for their silence is simple – and disgusting. The Obama Administration has spent the last 5 months reaching out to Ahmadinejad. The president publicly stated that he is not interested in regime change in Tehran and promised a policy toward Iran based on “mutual respect.” The thirst for freedom in Iran is a complication for an administration that has already committed itself to appeasing the tyrants in the current Iranian regime. As a result the United States’ moral authority has been absent during the Iranian election and the protests that have followed. Surely even this administration will eventually become embarrassed as they fail to find any words to defend the only people in Iran with whom we may have “shared values.” At a bare minimum we should immediately increase radio and satellite broadcasts into Iran and use whatever internet tools we have to reach its people.

- Excerpt from Gary Bauer’s Daily Report
Sign up for his End of Day Report here.

PS: I’ve posted this quickly to get it out in the open. I’d be ever so grateful if you would help me add the appropriate source links to the article, if you know of any, by including them in the comments. Thanks!