Rebuilding Obama's Sand Castle

The Foundation

"Public affairs go on pretty much as usual: perpetual chicanery and rather more personal abuse than there used to be." --John Adams

Editorial Exegesis

"The Democrats gathering in Charlotte this week are united behind President Obama but more than a little nervous about their November prospects. The thrill of 2008 is gone, replaced by an almost grim determination. The party of hope and change has become the party of grind-it-out, slug-it-out, and hope to win as less awful than Mitt Romney. ... Democrats of the Obama era are united by cultural liberalism, but above all else they agree on the goal of expanding the reach of government. ... The vanguard of ideas for the Obama White House is the Center for American Progress, which churns out proposals for government to mediate every sphere of economic life. In this view, the entire American economy is a giant market failure -- except perhaps Silicon Valley. Health-care costs can be controlled by dictating prices and medical practice. The climate can be controlled by putting coal out of business and subsidizing wind, solar and ethanol. Wall Street can be controlled by more rules and hanging the occasional banker in the public square as an example. Most important, government spending can conjure private growth by 'investing' in whatever seems like a good idea. ... Here and there in the hinterlands, you can see a glimpse of new Democratic thinking. Gloria Romero in California wants to reduce the power of teachers unions, and treasurer Gina Raimondo dared to rein in public pension benefits in Rhode Island. Even President Obama sometimes sounds like a reformer on education, until election years when he resorts to proposing more federal spending to hire more teachers. But those reform voices won't be anywhere in evidence in Charlotte, where the message will be four more years of more of the same. ... Democrats made a generational bet in 2009-2010 that the country was ready to be yanked sharply to the left, and they know that nearly all of their grand ambitions will be undone if Mr. Obama loses. ... Thus the frowning resolve to grind out a victory by whatever means possible. It's hardly an optimistic vision and it's far from commanding the oceans, but if Democrats win, what you've seen is what you'll get." --The Wall Street Journal

Upright

"As the Democratic Party gathers in Charlotte, North Carolina this week to re-nominate Barack Obama, the big question Republicans are asking Americans to answer this week is: Are you better off now than you were four years ago? There is almost no metric that would allow a segment of the population to answer, 'Yes.' ... The Republican National Committee has published a very inventive video showing examples of what Senator Obama was saying four years ago paralleled (eerily so) with his stump speech today. Mr. Obama's own remarks indicate we haven't made much progress. ... They will continue to try and prove to American voters that Obama might not have finished paying off the promises he made four years ago, but Mitt Romney is not qualified to be his replacement." --columnist Rich Galen

"The model [for Obama's campaign] is Jimmy Carter's 1980 failed reelection bid that had two themes -- as noted by Reagan in the debate -- namely, that all sorts of uncontrollable circumstances and other bad actors were responsible for his own dismal economic record, and that Reagan was scary and would be far worse." --historian Victor Davis Hanson

"It is poetic that as the Democrats unveil their 2012 platform, their 2008-12 legacy [reached] an important milestone: The official national debt [crossed] the $16 trillion mark. There are tens of trillions more in unfunded entitlement liabilities lurking off the official books, and the Democrats' 2012 platform contains not one serious proposal for addressing these potentially catastrophic obligations." --National Review

"Women for Mitt? You're nothing but cover for 'a party that does in fact think that women should not have voices.' That's from former secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who 'can't understand why any woman would want to vote for Mitt Romney.' In case you forget, this week will remind you: Women care about abortion-on-demand and mandated contraception (and abortion-drug) coverage. Jobs? Religious liberty? The human rights of the unborn? It's background noise to the party on stage this week." --columnist Kathryn Jean Lopez

"Just about this time in 2010, the Obama administration, in the person of Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner, proclaimed to the world that the economic recovery had begun. 'Welcome To The Recovery' was the title of Geithner's op-ed in the New York Times. 'Exports are booming,' Geithner boasted. 'Businesses have repaired their balance sheets and are now in a strong financial position to reinvest and grow.' Someone at one of the debates should ask how, after a short burst of reasonable growth in 2010, George W. Bush was able to reach out and crush the Obama economy." --columnist Mona Charen

"Obama never stops taking bows for keeping America's automotive industry in business. What he fails to mention is that by turning GM over to the UAW, he not only screwed the shareholders, he put 2,200 car dealerships out of business. Thanks to Obama's stimulus, GM is still hanging around, but the American taxpayer is out over $21 billion." --columnist Burt Prelutsky

Demo-gogues

The BIG Lie: "Republican voters, if you ask them about my particular policy positions, often agree with me. So there's a difference between Republicans in Washington and Republican and Republican-leaning voters around the country. I think that after this election, we'll be in a position to once again reach out to Republicans and say that the American people have rendered a judgment, and the positions we're taking are well within what used to be considered bipartisan centrist approaches." --Barack Obama

Mr. Bipartisan: "I've often proposed ways to solve our problems that used to be embraced by Republicans. There's no better example than the health care bill, which was designed originally by the now Republican standard-bearer and is working pretty well in Massachusetts. The Recovery Act that helped us avoid a depression, a third of it was tax cuts. My hope is that the Republican Party, post election, steps back and says, 'Now that we're not so worried about beating the president, maybe we should spend a little time focusing on solving the problems.'" --Barack Obama

Now in syndication: "[The Republican National Convention] was a rerun. We'd seen it before. You might as well have watched it on a black-and-white TV. If you didn't DVR it, let me recap it for you. Everything is bad, it's Obama's fault, and Gov. Romney is the only one who knows the secret to creating jobs and growing the economy. There was a lot of talk about hard truths and bold choices, but nobody ever actually bothered to tell you what they were." --Barack Obama, who knows a thing or two about reruns

Ewww: "My expectation is that there will be some popping of the blister after this election, because it will have been such a stark choice." --Barack Obama

Stupid voters just didn't understand: "[W]e didn't have the luxury of six months to explain exactly what we were doing with the Recovery Act, which was basically a jobs act and making-sure-middle-class-families-didn't-fall-into-poverty act. And there were all kinds of things we could do to have explained that effectively, but we didn't have time." --Barack Obama

Misplaced boasts: "President Obama was a job creator from day one. It's important to know that more jobs in the private sector were created under the leadership of President Barack Obama in one year than in the eight years total of the Bush administration. So the facts have to be known to the people. The fact is, though, we're very proud of our record. We [were] one of the most productive Congresses in history." --House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

This week's "Gratuitous Nazi Reference" Award: "[Republicans] lie and they don't care if people think they lie. As long as you lie, Joseph Goebbels, the big lie, you keep repeating it, you know. First of all, you've got Republicans who truly believe the earth is flat, so I don't know exactly what, you know, what's going to do, but they, I think that when people figure out that these people say they do not care about the truth and they will lie and they don't care if they lie because it doesn't matter if they lie." --California Democratic Party Chairman John Burton, who we guarantee couldn't name a single Republican who believes the earth is flat

Amend the First Amendment: "Over the longer term, I think we need to seriously consider mobilizing a constitutional amendment process to overturn Citizens United. Even if the amendment process falls short, it can shine a spotlight of the super-PAC phenomenon and help apply pressure for change." --Barack Obama

Insight

"We can and must write in a language which sows among the masses hate, revulsion and scorn toward those who disagree with us." --Soviet dictator Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1870-1924)

"The timid civilized world has found nothing with which to oppose the onslaught of a sudden revival of barefaced barbarity, other than concessions and smiles." --Russian dissident and author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008)

Dezinformatsia

On rights: "[Paul Ryan] loves this line of 'our rights come from God and nature', which is so offensive to so much of America. Because for black people, Hispanic people and women, our rights do not come from God or nature. They were not recognized by the natural order of America. They come from the government and from legislation that happened in relatively recent history in America. So that line just bothers me to my core." --MSNBC's Touré

"[Republicans] keep saying Chicago by the way, have you noticed? They keep saying Chicago. That's another thing that sends that message -- this guy's helping the poor people in the bad neighborhoods, screwing us in the 'burbs." --MSNBC's Chris Matthews insisting that the word "Chicago" is now a racist term

Belly laugh of the week: "Four years of covering Barack Obama, he does not play the race card. Not in a negative way. He does not do that." --New York Times White House correspondent Helene Cooper

Fact-checking FAIL: "Would you concede that while many of the things you said were effective, some were not completely accurate?" --NBC's Matt Lauer to Paul Ryan

Finally, a good question: "Why is that that the Republicans have elected more women governors and have two Hispanic governors and the Democrats don't? [Democrats] don't have as many women governors and don't have Hispanic governors. Why do you think that is?" --NBC's Chuck Todd to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa

Village Idiots

Seriously? "I love that for Barack, there is no such thing as 'us' and 'them.'" --Michelle Obama

Really stretching: "I can say that we're in a better position than we were four years ago in our economy, in the sense that when this president took office, we were losing 800,000 jobs a month. And the quarter before he took office was the worst since the Great Depression and we are in a different place." --Obama senior adviser David Axelrod

"Look, let's be clear, we're way better off than we were four years ago." --Obama senior adviser Robert Gibbs

Project much? "I don't think we've ever seen a presidential campaign ever that's built on a foundation of absolute lies. And I think ultimately they're going to pay a price for that." --White House senior adviser David Plouffe, who surely meant to say "we're going to pay a price"

Divide by gender: "I can't understand why any woman would want to vote for Mitt Romney." --former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright

"You know, I've been out on the road for the president the last few days, and I have to tell you that I'm not sure it matters who he sends out as his surrogate because the difference between his policies and Romney and Ryan's policies makes the case. I just share with women what the facts are: their record on violence against women, fair pay and reproductive health, access to health care, on economic policies and that's all they need to know. When you just share the facts with the American public, it makes the case for you." --30-something Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke, who needs taxpayers to buy her contraception

Sore loser: "It's always tough to amend the Constitution, and very risky to do so. But I think it's time, I think our country would be stronger and better if [the presidential election] went according to the popular vote." --Al Gore, who evidently still has hard feelings following the 2000 election

Oops: "Cooperation with Israel between our military and intelligence communities has never been closer. Assistance provided to Israel by the United States has never been greater than it has been under ... Obama. We have an extremely close relationship with Israel, which is appropriate given our unshakeable commitment to Israel's security." --White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, who neglected to mention that Democrats removed all reference to U.S. cooperation with Israel from their platform

Short Cuts

"The Democrat Convention is being held at Charlotte's Time Warner Cable Arena, which makes sense. Because America called on Obama to fix things and he still hasn't showed up." --NewsBusted's Jodi Miller

"At a campaign rally, Michelle Obama encouraged people to 'get to the polls on November 2nd.' I don't usually support Obama voters, but this is a movement I could get behind." --Fred Thompson, noting that Election Day is Nov. 6

"Mitt Romney arrived in Tampa for the GOP Convention Tuesday, leading in the polls for president. His numbers are definitely improving. According to one poll, his support among African-Americans is zero percent, but that's up ten percent from the month before." --comedian Argus Hamilton

"A man in Florida has been arrested for wearing a President Obama mask while robbing a McDonald's. To show you how good this guy's disguise was, instead of a holdup note he was reading from a teleprompter." --comedian Jay Leno

Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus et Fidelis!
Nate Jackson for The Patriot Post Editorial Team