Last week, Gallup released the results of a post-Massachusetts election poll on the direction the American people thought Congress should take regarding healthcare “reform.” Two-thirds of Americans want Congress to be doing something other than healthcare “reform,” and 55% believe that the current “reform” legislation should be scrapped completely. Only 32% felt that healthcare reform should be the top priority at this time.

Politically, the administration has three strikes against it in recent weeks, having lost gubernatorial contests in New Jersey and Virginia, and the special election in Massachusetts for the Senate seat held by the Kennedy family for over 50 years. One would think the message of these three races was unavoidable: Less partisanship and more common-sense solutions.

But the administration is evidently living in a state of denial. As the president prepares to deliver his State of the Union address to Congress and the nation, the tone reportedly will be combative. Far from learning the lesson of past weeks, all indications suggest that the White House is refusing to moderate its liberal agenda and is digging in for a fight.

In fact, that’s exactly what top Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett said this weekend on “Meet the Press.” Responding to questions about how Obama will react to Scott Brown’s “stunning victory,” Jarrett replied, “He is going to fight for what he’s always been fighting for… We’re not hitting a reset button at all.” If we needed additional confirmation of this strategy, we got it in the news that Obama has brought David Plouffe into the White House. Plouffe was Obama’s 2008 campaign manager, and in spite of his cool demeanor, he is a committed ideologue.

In yesterday’s Washington Post, Plouffe outlined the lessons he’s learned from the Massachusetts election. Plouffe calls for passing healthcare reform legislation “without delay” even though “the short-term politics are bad,” doubling down on the failed stimulus spending bill with “more incentives for green jobs” and appealing to the far Left fringe. He concludes by writing, “Instead of fearing what may happen, let’s prove that … we have the guts to govern. Let’s fight like hell.”

Plouffe and the president want a fight for the heart and soul of America. I’m ready to “fight the good fight” for our values in public policy. Are you ready to rumble?

Obama Takes The Prize!

Eyes rolled across America today as the sunrise brought news that our apprentice president had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.  Obama’s name is now added to an esteemed list that includes such note-worthies as Jimmy Carter (2002), Kofi Annan (2001) and Yasser Arafat (1994).  (Somehow the Nobel Committee never got around to recognizing the achievements of Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher or Pope John Paul II, who brought down Soviet Communism and peacefully liberated tens of millions of people behind the Iron Curtain.)

All the commentators are suggesting the prize is premature because President Obama hasn’t actually accomplished anything yet to bring about peace.  That view fails to understand the mindset of leftwing elites who run international organizations like the Nobel Committee.  To them, America is the real threat to peace, particularly when we are led by men like Reagan and Bush, confident leaders who believed in American exceptionalism and willing to confront tyranny.

It also sends a message of just how much disdain the European elites have for the rest of us who dare to oppose the president’s appeasement and his socialism. George Bush’s efforts to keep America and the world safe from radical Islamic terrorism – the biggest threat to world peace today – were never deserving of recognition. But by electing Barack Obama, America got it “right,” and the liberal elites want to make sure you understand that fact, so they have bestowed Barack with one of the highest honors the international community can offer.

Today America is led by the “anti-Reagan.”  In his eight-and-a-half months in office, Obama has made apologizing for America a top priority.  He couldn’t find his voice when the Iranian regime crushed skulls.  He tells the United Nations that no country or group of countries can be above anyone else.  He has turned U.S. policy in the Middle East on its head – reaching out to Syria, Iran and Libya while regularly suggesting too many Jews in Jerusalem are the roadblock to peace.  He has dissed our allies, cancelled a defensive missile system and has been silent on human rights abuses in Cuba, Venezuela and around the world.

Just so you know, there were other nominees, including folks like Greg Mortenson, a decorated Army veteran, son of a Lutheran missionary and best-selling author. Mortenson has dedicated more than a decade of his life working in remote regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan building schools and helping to educate tens of thousands of children, especially young girls. You can read more about Greg Mortenson here.

That Mortenson’s incredible record of accomplishment lost out to Obama’s rhetoric is not surprising. If you are a left-wing internationalist who thinks the key to peace is a weaker America willing to take orders from the U.N., who in the world would you give the Nobel Peace Prize to other than Barack Hussein Obama?