President Bush was both loved and loathed for his resoluteness of purpose. But his successor has taken that trait to an entirely new level, to the point that he’s become obstinate in the face of a clear reality.

President Obama, his lieutenants and media allies claim that prevailing public anger is rooted in frustration over a Washington that’s “getting nothing done.” They are wrong. As I explain in my Human Events column today, most of the outrage is the result of a Washington that’s doing too much to push policies that have always failed.  Thank you.

The Obama Administration announced yesterday that it will “donate” $40 million of your tax money to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) to assist the Palestinians. A recent report commissioned by the European parliament disclosed that the UNRWA labor union had selected Hamas, the Palestinian terror group, to oversee UNRWA’s Gaza facilities. As a result, Canada announced recently that it would no longer fund the UN agency. We shouldn’t be funding them either. Not $1 of your money should go directly or indirectly to jihadist groups like Hamas. If Obama is looking for some money to apply to the gargantuan budget deficit, this $40 million is an easy place to start. But we know this decision won’t be reversed, because this president still thinks “peace” can be bought in the Middle East, and he is committed to a Palestinian State no matter what the costs.

As the nation approaches the one year anniversary of Barack Obama’s inauguration, administration officials are crowing about all their “accomplishments.” On the White House website, you can read about the myriad ways in which President Obama has saved the global economy, tackled climate change and made us safe.

Some of you may be dubious, but you can participate in a series of live online chats and blogs with key White House aides as they detail “what the Obama Administration has done over the past year, and where the Administration is heading on pivotal issues.” The White House may be trying to put on a happy face, but the American people clearly aren’t happy with hope and change.

Virtually every major polling outfit and news organization now finds that the president’s approval rating has tanked. Yesterday, CBS News reported that Obama’s approval rating hit a new low in its polling at 46%. Today, it’s Gallup, which reports that only 40% of Americans approve of Obama’s handling of the economy and just 37% approve of his performance on healthcare reform.

CNN and Quinnipiac University asked voters whether Obama’s first year in office had been a success or a failure. Quinnipiac found that voters were evenly divided at 45% each. CNN found 48% of voters saying Obama’s first year was a failure, while 47% said it was successful. And, after a year of Obama’s leadership, Quinnipiac found voters statistically tied when asked whether the nation would have been better off or worse off if John McCain had become president instead of Barack Obama.

Here’s a news story that you probably didn’t hear about over the weekend. Some of Obama’s staunchest supporters are beginning to question his foreign policy. Former Senator Bob Kerrey (D-NE), a Medal of Honor recipient from the Vietnam War who endorsed Obama last year, wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed Friday. He congratulated Obama on his Nobel Peace Prize but criticized his foreign policy for being too “naïve.” Kerrey also criticized Obama for “apologizing for America too much.”

Kerrey wrote, “[Obama] has made too many apologies. And at this point, his strategy is too naïve and has too little coherence to be called a strategy.” Kerrey even went so far as to praise George W. Bush on Iraq. He wrote, “Then, against all reasonable predictions, President Bush chose to increase rather than decrease our military commitment. The ‘surge,’ as it became known, worked. Victory was snatched from the jaws of defeat… Great American leaders of our past had ignored popular sentiment and pressed on during the darkest hours, even when setbacks give rhetorical ammunition to skeptics.”

Kerrey is respected in and around Washington for his foreign policy opinions. In fact, he is respected so much that he was placed in charge of the 9/11 commission. Normally, when a top supporter begins to criticize a president’s foreign policy, it is a lead story on the nightly news. But then again, the mainstream media would never want to insult this Administration.

Laura Tyson, an economic advisor to President Obama, is suggesting that the nation needs a major economic stimulus plan devoted to infrastructure spending to help the anemic economy recover. No, you’re not having déjà vu; the administration is laying the ground work for Stimulus II. Believe it or not, Tyson says the $787 billion stimulus bill was “a bit too small.”

In addition to our budget deficit, Washington is also suffering from a serious trust deficit. The trillion-dollar stimulus bill (it’s real cost with interest) was sold to the nation as an infrastructure plan full of “shovel ready” projects. We were told that if it passed, unemployment would not go above 8%. Well, infrastructure projects accounted for only 11% of the $787 billion, and unemployment today is 9.5%.

The bill wasn’t what Democrats told us it would be, nor has it done what they promised it would do. But now they are demanding a “redo.” I don’t know about you, but I want a refund!

Today’s announcement that the unemployment rate has hit a 26-year high is crushing news to millions of Americans desperately in need of employment and to those hoping that “change” was on the way. The administration promised us that the stimulus plan would hold the line on unemployment. In fact, we were told that if lawmakers didn’t waste time trying to read the bill and just voted “yes,” unemployment would go no higher than 8%. Today it stands at 9.5%, and even Obama now concedes it will hit double digits.

Twenty-six years ago, the nation was mired in a deep recession, much worse than the one we are facing today. How did we get out of it? Back then President Ronald Reagan slashed taxes and did his best to reduce spending. The world marveled at the Reagan Recovery. Today, Barack Obama is spending money we don’t have on things we don’t need. He’s also promising to raise taxes through the roof to create new programs we can’t afford. In short, he’s doing the exact opposite of what worked for Ronald Reagan, and putting America on the fast track to the “Barack Bankruptcy.”

ABC’s one hour infomercial with President Obama promoting his socialized healthcare plan was a ratings bomb for the network. Despite airing in primetime at 10 p.m. on Wednesday, the president attracted fewer than 5 million viewers. The show had the lowest ratings of all the major networks for that hour. It wasn’t as if the other networks aired their most popular shows either. NBC debuted a new show titled “The Philanthropist” and CBS aired a repeat episode of “CSI: NY.”

It appears the American people are getting sick of seeing Barack Obama everywhere. The argument the major news networks use when they receive complaints for giving Obama too much air time is that he is a ratings booster. That argument has lost credibility after Wednesday’s bomb. It is getting harder and harder for Big Media to disguise its true intentions, which is to promote a radical leftwing agenda to the American people. But evidently the American people aren’t that interested in the new ABC — the “All Barack Channel.”

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)
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Obama’s Energy Tax

Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced yesterday that the House of Representatives will be voting on “cap and trade” legislation this week. A recent Rasmussen poll found that only 24% of likely voters correctly understand the term, and I’d be willing to bet that an even smaller share of Congress has read the 1,200 page bill. Representative John Dingell, a Democrat from Michigan, summarized it best when he said, “Nobody in this country realizes that cap and trade is a tax, and it’s a great big one!”

Writing in the Washington Post several weeks ago, Robert Samuelson put it this way: “The centerpiece of Obama’s agenda is a ‘cap and trade’ program. This would be, in effect, a tax on fossil fuels (oil, coal, natural gas). The idea is to raise their prices so that households and businesses would use less or switch to costlier ‘alternative’ energy sources, such as solar. In general, we would spend more on energy and get less of it.”

Spend more and get less. That sounds like Obama’s rationed healthcare proposal too! That concept is antithetical to economic progress and rising standards of living. But it’s generally the outcome of socialism and leftwing thinking.

According to an analysis by the Heritage Foundation, the “cap and trade” bill before the House will result in a “58 percent increase in gas prices, 90 percent for electricity, and 55 percent for natural gas. Cumulative higher energy costs for a household of four from 2012-2035 would reach nearly $20,000.” The Heritage Foundation also predicts more than one million job losses as a direct result of higher energy costs.

Just think about that for a moment. Here we are in the middle of a deep recession, with the president predicting double-digit unemployment, and this White House and the liberal politicians on Capitol Hill are scheming to impose one of the biggest tax increases in history. It will affect every American who turns on a light switch, drives to work or consumes products, since just about every economic activity involves the use of fossil fuels.

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)
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