It’s elastic!

By Steve Feinstein

Filed Under Race for White House 2012 on May 3 

President Obama’s reelection campaign is apparently going to center on the theme of fairness. Many political observers point out that this is nothing more than divisive class warfare, the politics of envy, the demonization of the successful. Certainly, it is a 180-degree turn away from his 2008 campaign stance as a uniter, the “post-racial President,” and his now-hollow first-run claims that, “We’re not the red states of America or the blue states of America…we’re the United States of America!”
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The optics of the narrative

By Steve Feinstein

Filed Under Race for White House 2012 on Apr 14 

There are some new words that are in vogue in the political lexicon these days: optics and narrative.

Optics refers to how something comes across, how it looks to people, the impression that it leaves.

Narrative is the overriding message one takes away from an occurrence or a politician’s approach to a situation or problem.

There are three politicians who figure prominently in the 2012 campaign whose optics and narratives are major factors.
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Supreme care

By Steve Feinstein

Filed Under Race for White House 2012 on Mar 21 

Check out this video.

The hottest ticket in town these days is for the June title game at Supreme Stadium. That’s when the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (aka “Obamacare”) is taken up by the nation’s highest court. Word has it that seats in the Court’s gallery are going fast.

To most people, Obamacare has been a puzzle on many levels for the entirety of its existence. It has been vaguely described as “Universal health Care,” with the implication that the US Government is henceforth going to provide “free” healthcare to everyone, for their entire lives.
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Dead-end approach for GOP

By Steve Feinstein

Filed Under Race for White House 2012 on Mar 16 

Interesting video presentation by Dinesh D’Souza, the well-known author and academic. He goes into detail in his new movie/documentary that we know very little about Obama as an individual, his personal background, his actual schooling history, his relationships, etc.

May be factual, may not be.

One thing is certain: No amount of personal doubt and “dirt” thrown on Obama will have even the slightest negative effect on Obama in this election. If anything, attacks and questions about his personal background will redound strongly to the president’s favor. Very strongly.
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NBC’s “assumptive” bias

By Steve Feinstein

Filed Under Race for White House 2012 on Mar 7 

Liberal media bias is a very subtle thing. Sometimes it’s not even intentional; it’s just an assumptive way of thinking, a way that the Left automatically colors their world. The latest example, in the wake of the Super Tuesday primary results, is quite illuminating. Apparently, the liberal media approaches accuracy with the attitude, “If no one notices, then we can get away with it.”

In their desperate, almost hysterical attempt to denigrate Mitt Romney (the likely GOP nominee and thought to be the toughest Obama opponent in November), NBC has resorted to spinning tales of being in a tough preliminary fight with Gingrich and Santorum as evidence of Romney’s weakness.
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A burning question

By Steve Feinstein

Filed Under Foreign Affairs on Feb 27 

Much has been made recently about the controversy surrounding the US military burning the Koran in Afghanistan, the Afghani response to it and President Obama’s apology for the whole thing.

The US military is accused of burning the Muslim holy book, the Koran. Virtually no press or coverage has been expended on why the U.S. military would have done such a thing. Has the general public been left to think that perhaps this was a wanton, indiscriminate act of reckless, disrespectful destruction on the part of our military? Has a reason been given by the Mainstream Media as to why this occurred?
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No laughing gas

By Steve Feinstein

Filed Under Domestic Policy on Feb 16 

Is there a relationship between gasoline prices and Presidential approval ratings? Gasoline prices are on the move, upward, in the wrong direction. There is no more visible and irritating reminder of the state of the economy that more directly influences an individual’s confidence and outlook regarding their own personal finances than driving by the daily scoreboard of the corner fillin’ station and seeing the home team losing, day after day. 2.57, 2.79, 3.11, 3.34, 3.69, 3.92, 4.06…….

The media seem uniquely incapable of analyzing the underlying causal factors behind crude oil pricing. As a refresher, let’s restate the four major factors here:
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They like me, they really like me

By Steve Feinstein

Filed Under Foreign Affairs on Feb 10 

With the enervated economy now seemingly headed stutteringly in the right direction—finally, despite the Administration’s clumsy over-regulation of business and finance and their imposition of so many confidence-eroding social-engineering measures—it would seem that Obama’s biggest impediment to reelection has been neutralized to a major degree.

It’s surprising, then, that has he committed damaging unforced errors in the areas of foreign policy/national security and domestic policy (the Catholic contraception/insurance issue) in recent days.

One can only blindly guess as to the impetus behind the Administration’s latest foreign policy misstep. As NBC so proudly trumpets,

“Israel teams with terror group to kill Iran’s nuclear scientists, U.S. officials tell NBC News”
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The man with a plan

By Steve Feinstein

Filed Under Domestic Policy on Jan 19 

President Obama has rejected plans to go forward with the Keystone XL pipeline that would have carried unrefined heavy crude from Canada’s Alberta tar sands fields down to Louisiana, to refineries on the Gulf Coast. Incredibly enough, it was the U.S. State Department that made the “recommendation,” citing inadequate time for study of a more ecologically-acceptable pipeline route than the current one through Nebraska. The State Department, not the Department of Energy, the Interior, or the EPA. Go figure that one. (Some arcane technicality about crossing the 49th Parallel, or some such.)
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The new standard

By Steve Feinstein

Filed Under Race for White House 2012 on Jan 13 

OK, the jobs numbers are conflicting. The Unemployment Rate is misunderstood. The economic spinmeisters are working overtime. A dizzying array of economic data comes at the public every week, and they don’t know how to interpret what they hear.

The Unemployment Rate was well over 10% not long ago; now it’s down to 8.5%. That’s a pretty significant drop.

In a February 2nd 2009 interview with the very liberal Matt Lauer on NBC’s Today morning program, President Obama was asked what would happen if he wasn’t able to turn the economy around:
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Lies, d*mn lies, and job numbers

By Steve Feinstein

Filed Under Races 2012 on Jan 9 

Last Friday January 6th, 2012, the non-farm job numbers were announced, as they always are on the first Friday of the month. This ritualistic proclamation is now a lightening rod for political commentary, with each side furiously spinning the number for greatest possible PR effect.

When the economy was shedding very large numbers of jobs per month, as it was at the very end of the Bush administration in the wake of the financial/housing markets crisis in late ’08-early ‘09, the Democrats and their liberal media acolytes were only too eager to pounce on the negative numbers as proof of the inherent flaws and unfairness of Republican economic policy. (The role that decades-long Democratic-sponsored policies played in the relaxation of time-proven home mortgage lending standards in the name of getting more minorities to qualify as ‘home owners’ was predictably omitted from all their reports. Curious, no?)
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Newt, Obama, and the debates

By Steve Feinstein

Filed Under Race for White House 2012 on Dec 29 

There is an idea floating around that Newt Gingrich will absolutely “crucify the President in the debates.” This thought is so prevalent that some people actually want Newt to win the Republican nomination just so they can have the satisfaction of watching someone put the arrogant, cold, condescending Obama in his place. Never mind that Obama is polling strongly ahead of Gingrich in a head-to-head matchup. These people are willing to take their chances in the general election just so they can see Newt mop the floor with Obama in the debates.

But the thought that Gingrich would “mop the floor” with Obama in a debate is a strained notion, at best.
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Tebow and liberal hypocrisy

By Steve Feinstein

Filed Under General on Dec 16 

What are we to make of the almost universal condemnation by the liberal media of the Denver Broncos’ quarterback Tim Tebow?

Tebow, an underperforming young NFL player who had previously failed to live up to his lofty college reputation, was recently pressed into the starting role as quarterback for the Broncos. He has responded by leading the Broncos on an extended winning streak, with several of the games being won in improbable fashion with last-minute rallies.

After each victory, Tebow gives thanks to G-d with an obvious, unashamed on-field display of reverence.
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In praise of profit

By Steve Feinstein

Filed Under General on Dec 1 

As the public spectacle of the increasingly bizarre Occupy movements continues to unfold before our eyes, one overriding theme is becoming apparent:

Big Business (and their relentless pursuit of profits) is bad, evil, and inherently untrustworthy.

Is that really the lesson we want to take away from this mess? The same old clichés, presented for the same old reasons? How trite. How tired. How wrong.
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It’s not a social values election

By Steve Feinstein

Filed Under Race for White House 2012 on Nov 17 

If the main issue in 2012 was social values, then this Dennis Prager column would be extremely relevant.

He makes the point that the Liberal left is succeeding quite handily at dismantling the very fabric of American culture and society, the very things that enabled America to be such a unique and wonderful country for these past 200+ years. (Is it really necessary to re-count all the things that have made America so ‘unique and wonderful’? The economic opportunities? The fighting for freedom without taking others’ land and resources? The industry, innovation, and medical discoveries, etc. brought about largely by an open-market, competitive environment that encourages and rewards risk-taking? And so much more.)

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Frazier, Ali, and boxing as capitalism

By Steve Feinstein

Filed Under General on Nov 11 

Former heavyweight boxing champion Joe Frazier died November 7th 2011 at the age of 67 from liver cancer. Frazier rose to professional prominence in the 1960’s after winning an Olympic Gold Medal at the Tokyo Summer Games in 1964.

As background for those readers not familiar with the state of boxing in America 50 years ago, it was a very major sport, perhaps third in overall popularity and visibility to baseball and football. Major fights received significant television and newspaper coverage. There were “boxing writers” at the big national newspapers. The general public had a solid awareness of who the champions were in the various weight divisions.
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It depends on how you look at it

By Steve Feinstein

Filed Under Race for White House 2012 on Oct 26 

An oft-heard mantra these days from the Left is that we’ve got to reduce the disparity of income between the rich and the lower and middle classes. The “rich” simply make too much more money than the rest of us and that gap has to be reduced.

Mark Thoma, writing in the Fiscal Times, recently penned an article entitled, “Why US should spread the wealth,” that suited MSN’s philosophy closely enough to be linked from their homepage.

“We hear that raising taxes is unfair and that tax increases will harm economic growth. But there’s nothing unfair about correcting the maldistribution of income that we’ve seen in recent decades, or about making sure the burden from paying taxes is more equitable than it is now.”
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Will Biden be off the 2012 ticket?

By Steve Feinstein

Filed Under Race for White House 2012 on Oct 7 

It’s funny–the liberal MSM never even floats the idea that Biden won’t be on the ticket next time, for fear of the weakness it would accurately show and the Dems’ justified embarrassment over him. He keeps saying one stupid thing after another (follow link and click video).

I think it’s a real possibility he won’t make the cut. Does anyone think he might pick Hillary to try an 11th-hour “Hail Mary?”

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Dizzy was right

By Steve Feinstein

Filed Under General on Oct 6 

Six years ago, I wrote an article explaining that liberal media bias is not as obvious as one might think. Often, what the media don’t say is as important as what they do. I used Dizzy Gillespie as an example:

“Trumpeter John “Dizzy” Gillespie was one of jazz’s all-time great performers. With his colorful on-stage antics and trademark bent-bell horn, Gillespie was widely recognized as a prime architect of the influential be-bop movement of the 1940’s and 50’s and he remained a vital force in jazz right up until his death in 1993. Once, when asked how his playing always sounded so fresh and creative, he answered with his characteristically dry wit, “It ain’t the notes you play that count, man. It’s the ones you leave out.”
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Will Obama pull out?

By Steve Feinstein

Filed Under Race for White House 2012 on Sep 21 

There has been some buzz in the last few days that President Obama, in the face of rapidly-deteriorating re-election prospects and a stubbornly bad economy that refuses (predictably, sadly) to respond favorably to any of his frantic, herky-jerky Keynesian bandaids, might withdraw from the 2012 Presidential race and let another Democratic candidate go in his stead.
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