The Foundation

“National defense is one of the cardinal duties of a statesman.” –John Adams

Final Debate Memo to Mitt From Mark Alexander

Last week, I met with one of the brightest Republican Senators in Congress, a longtime friend. I asked him if he thought Obama’s October surprise could be a “rice paper” agreement of some sort with Iran over their nuclear production program – something to help Obama look like a strong “foreign policy president” ahead of his final debate on that subject with Mitt Romney.

We have asserted in The Patriot Post for weeks that Obama would pull this prospect out of his political hat. I even closed my 11 October essay, “Obama’s October Surprise,” with this note: “There are still four weeks for a diversionary ‘October Surprise’ to bolster Obama’s stature as a ‘foreign policy president.’ Expect a ‘rice-paper’ (easily dissolvable) agreement from Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, puppet of Ali Khamenei, promising new negotiations on their uranium enrichment plans. Additionally, expect BO to drop a few 500 pounders on some peasant villages in Libya and claim direct hits against those who attacked our embassy – since the diversionary 500 pounder they dropped on that anti-Islamic web video did not suffice.”

We repeated this assertion in editions on 15 and 19 October.

My Senate friend replied, “It’s not going to happen. Besides, we are running out of time for October surprises,” proving yet again that even the smartest Republicans tend to underestimate the duplicity of Obama and his socialist cadres.

Over the weekend, The New York Times led its Sunday edition with this sensational headline: “U.S. Officials Say Iran Has Agreed to Nuclear Talks.”

The Times noted, “Iranian officials have insisted that the talks wait until after the presidential election, a senior administration official said, telling their American counterparts that they want to know with whom they would be negotiating.” That implies that if Obama is not re-elected, there would be no talks.

And then comes this “keen sense of the obvious” analysis: “News of the agreement – a result of intense, secret exchanges between American and Iranian officials that date almost to the beginning of President Obama’s term – comes at a critical moment in the presidential contest, just two weeks before Election Day and the weekend before the final debate, which is to focus on national security and foreign policy.”

A “critical moment” indeed.

Of course the White House denied the report – which allows The Times to “break” the good news for Obama rather than have the administration accused of an “October Surprise” and more intelligence leaks. The administration’s denial is a charade.

Ahead of tonight’s final presidential debate on foreign policy, here is our advice from our Memo to Mitt From Grassroots Americans, a topical talking point advisory on what grassroots Americans want to hear in the debates.

The current 24-hour news recyclers are pressing the Libya question, who knew what and when, ad nauseam. Of course the reason Obama is obfuscating the facts on Libya is that he would like Americans to believe that al-Qa'ida died when he (actually Navy SEALs) killed Osama bin Laden. Thus, Obama insisted that protests over a web video insulting Islam led to the deaths of Americans in Libya. That smokescreen dissipated quickly when Congress pressed for answers.

The reality is, al-Qa'ida cells around the world are alive and well, and their ultimate objective remains to disable the U.S. economy (as they temporarily did in September 2001, in order to undermine our political, military and cultural support for liberty around the world). Their plan to accomplish this objective centers on OBL’s “American Hiroshima,” which calls for a nuclear attack on several American urban centers. Al-Qa'ida’s goal is to obtain several low-tech nuke devices from one of their terrorist state backers (Iran), and detonate those devices, most likely in the harbors of East Coast urban centers.

Romney shouldn’t get mired in the minutiae of who knew what and when in Libya. The real issue regarding our foreign policy in the Middle East and elsewhere is Obama’s appeasement of our enemies – from the “apology tour” after his election, to his smirking snubs of our most significant ally in the Middle East, Israel. Romney must focus on the grievous failure of Obama’s foreign policy overall and the fact that al-Qa'ida is a clear and present danger.

Additionally, Obama’s politically timed announcement of Osama’s death in Operation Neptune Spear greatly undermined our ability to act on all the intelligence gathered in that raid. The flood of administration intelligence “leaks” since is the subject of a bold new video from Special Forces operators, condemning Obama for endangering American military personnel. (An Obama operative called the SEALs’ criticism “gutless.”)

Oh, and Obama snuck in a reference to the “47 percent” video in his closing remarks after the second debate, Romney should highlight Obama’s remarks, caught on tape, to then-Russian President Dmitri Medvedev about watering down our national security: “After my election I will have more flexibility.” Medvedev responded, “I understand. I will transmit this information to Vladimir.” That would be current Russian President Vladimir Putin. Whose side is Obama on?

Make the case that Obama can’t be trusted to do what is necessary to protect our national interests. Then shift the conversation back to the economy by noting that al-Qa'ida is not the greatest threat to our national security; Obama, Senate Democrats, and the crushing burden of our national debt they have dumped on our nation is the greatest threat. It’s time for a president who will work with Congress to solve the debt crisis, not grow it.

The bottom line is that, whether we’re talking about the economy, the national debt or national security, Obama can’t be trusted.

Opinion in Brief

“Barack Obama chose to ram down the nation’s throat a polarizing, statist agenda, energized by the sort of hardball politics he had learned in Chicago. Rather than bring the races, classes, and genders together, he gave us an us-versus-them crusade against the ‘1 percenters’ and the job creators who had not ‘paid their fair share,’ accusations of a Republican ‘war on women,’ and the worst racial polarization in modern memory. Statesmanship degenerated into chronic blame-gaming and ‘Bush did it,’ as he piled up over $5 trillion in new debt. Financial sobriety was abandoned in favor of creating new entitlement constituencies, and job creation was deemed far less important than nationalizing the health-care system. And so here we are, three weeks before the election, with a squandered presidency and a president desperately seeking reelection not by defending his record, but by demonizing his predecessor, his opponent – and half of the country. What, then, was Obama’s first term? Jimmy Carter’s ends justifying Richard Nixon’s means.” –historian Victor Davis Hanson

Government

“The Affordable Care Act established a federally funded risk pool – the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan – that allows individuals with such disqualifying conditions to buy a policy for the same premium a healthy person would pay. About 82,000 people have signed up as of July 31, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation’s statehealthfacts.org. That is not a misprint. Out of a population of more than 300 million, some 82,000 have the problem that was cited as the principal reason for spending $1.8 trillion over the next 10 years and in the process turning the entire health-care system upside down. … [T]he federal risk pool will be closed down in 2014, when ObamaCare will begin prohibiting insurance companies from charging premiums based on the health conditions of applicants. … [W]hen insurers are forced to charge the same premium to all applicants, regardless of expected health-care costs, prices will be wrong for everyone – and both buyers and sellers of health-care policies will have perverse incentives.” –John C. Goodman, president of the National Center for Policy Analysis

Essential Liberty

“We often look back to the founding of our country and think that everything went smoothly and the Founding Fathers agreed on everything. They had, in fact, very differing opinions, on many important topics. But they realized one critical fact: in their war against tyranny, it was essential to be united. Ben Franklin recognized this. Before the signing of the Declaration of Independence, he stated, ‘We must indeed all hang together, or most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.’ We find ourselves in the same situation today. There are too many among us who are quick to point out the flaws and shortcomings of Mitt Romney and thereby excuse themselves for not supporting him. To them, he is not the ‘ideal’ candidate. We, like the Founding Fathers, don’t live in a world of absolutes. There is no such thing as an ideal candidate. We have our presidential ticket, and it is Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. They do espouse the principles of free government, and they will defend the Constitution. … Our country may be able to recover from the economic destruction that Obama has encouraged, but our Constitution may not recover from four more years of this tyranny.” –columnist Todd White

For the Record

“To say that ‘our society creates poverty’ is breathtakingly ignorant. In 1776, the U.S. was among the world’s poorest nations. In less than two centuries, we became the world’s richest nation by a long shot. Americans who today are deemed poor by Census Bureau definitions have more material goods than middle-class people as recently as 60 years ago. Dr. Robert Rector and Rachel Sheffield give us insights in ‘Understanding Poverty in the United States: Surprising Facts About America’s Poor’ (9/13/2011). Eighty percent of poor households have air conditioning. Nearly three-fourths have a car or truck, and 31 percent have two or more. Two-thirds have cable or satellite TV. Half have one or more computers. Forty-two percent own their homes. The average poor American has more living space than the typical non-poor person in Sweden, France or the U.K. Ninety-six percent of poor parents stated that their children were never hungry during the year because they couldn’t afford food. How do these facts square with the statement that ‘our society creates poverty’? To the contrary, our society has done the best with poverty.” –economist Walter E. Williams

The Gipper

“The American people and their elected leaders will continue to be faced with hard choices and difficult moments, for resolve is continually being tested by those who envy us our prosperity and begrudge us our freedom. … Great nations which fail to meet their responsibilities are consigned to the dust bin of history. … We must shoulder our burden with our eyes fixed on the future, but recognizing the realities of today, not counting on mere hope or wishes.” –Ronald Reagan

The Last Word

Editor’s Note: Obama and Romney both gave speeches at the 67th Annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner Thursday night. Here are some of Romney’s best lines:

“I was actually hoping the president would bring Joe Biden along this evening, because he’ll laugh at anything. … [A]s President Obama surveys the Waldorf banquet room with everyone in white tie and refinery, you have to wonder what he’s thinking. So little time, so much to redistribute. And don’t be surprised if the president mentions this evening the monthly jobs report where there was a slight improvement in the numbers. … [H]e already has a compelling new campaign slogan, ‘You’re better off now than you were four weeks ago.’ … I have special admiration for the Apostle St. Peter, to whom it is said, ‘Upon this rock, I will build my church.’ The story is all the more inspiring when you consider that he had so many skeptics and scoffers at the time who were heard to say, ‘If you’ve got a church, you didn’t build that.’ … [I]n the spirit of Sesame Street, the president’s remarks tonight are brought to you by the letter ‘O’ and the number $16 trillion. … President Obama and I are each very lucky to have one person who is always in our corner, someone who we can lean on, and someone who is a comforting presence. Without whom, we wouldn’t be able to go another day. I have my beautiful wife Ann, he has Bill Clinton. … I recognize that [the press] have their job to do, and I have my job to do. My job is to lay out a positive vision for the future of the country, and their job is to make sure no one else finds out about it. … Let’s just say that some in the media have a certain way of looking at things. When suddenly I pulled ahead in some of the major polls, what was the headline? ‘Polls Show Obama Leading from Behind.’” –Mitt Romney

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