September 17, 2015

Hillary Isn’t Biden’s Problem — Obama Is

Is Vice President Joe Biden in or out? Many praised Biden’s “honesty” for saying to Stephen Colbert on CBS’ “The Late Show”: “I don’t think any man or woman should run for president unless, number one, they know exactly why they would want to be president, and two, they can look at folks out there and say, ‘I promise you, you have my whole heart, my whole soul, my energy and my passion to do this.’ And I’d be lying if I said that I knew I was there. I’m being completely honest. Nobody has a right, in my view, to seek that office unless they’re willing to give it 110 percent of who they are.”

Is Vice President Joe Biden in or out?

Many praised Biden’s “honesty” for saying to Stephen Colbert on CBS’ “The Late Show”: “I don’t think any man or woman should run for president unless, number one, they know exactly why they would want to be president, and two, they can look at folks out there and say, ‘I promise you, you have my whole heart, my whole soul, my energy and my passion to do this.’ And I’d be lying if I said that I knew I was there. I’m being completely honest. Nobody has a right, in my view, to seek that office unless they’re willing to give it 110 percent of who they are.”

Actually, a completely honest answer would have been, “I’m watching the polls to make sure Hillary Clinton is completely dead, and I’m secretly meeting with donors to insure I’ll be the recipient of their money when she implodes.”

Biden may think the main issue is whether Hillary Rodham Clinton has sunk far down enough for him safely to jump in. But his problem is more fundamental. A Biden candidacy represents a third term for Obama. For what reason, on what grounds, should Americans give the policies of the Obama administration four more years?

The latest poll of likely voters from Rasmussen Reports found 64 percent think the country is on the “wrong track” and only 29 percent believe it’s headed in the “right direction.”

As to the economy — the top reason most voters cast their vote — a majority considers America on the “wrong track,” reports The Atlantic in its new poll on the “American Dream” conducted with the Aspen Institute. Pollsters found that 75 percent of the general population believe “the American Dream is suffering,” and 69 percent thought “obstacles to realizing the American Dream are more severe today than ever.” Among the top economic obstacles cited were “personal debt,” “lack of economic opportunity” and “cost of healthcare” — a problem Obamacare was supposed to have solved. Also blamed as top obstacles to achieving the dream were “big government,” “high government spending,” “Obamacare,” “excessive government regulations” and “lack of government policies to support economic growth.” The biggest problems in America today, said poll respondents, are “healthcare costs” (cited by 29 percent), followed by “national debt” (23 percent), “too much government spending” (22 percent), “unemployment” (20 percent), “illegal immigration” (20 percent) and that “taxes are too high” (18 percent).

According to the Bank of America’s annual Small Business Report, as we enter the sixth year of this recovery, only 21 percent of small businesses say they’ve “fully recovered.” According to Karen R. Harned, executive director on the National Federation of Independent Business Small Business Legal Center, small businesses cite, as the primary reasons, lack of sales, taxes and regulations.

As to regulations, Harned writes: “The reason for this is simple — small business owners directly feel the impact of federal regulation in the daily life of their businesses. The small business owner is often the main person in a business who bears the burden of complying with regulations and paperwork requirements. According to a 2010 study, small businesses spend $10,585 per employee on regulation, which amounts to 36 percent more per employee than larger companies spend. …

"Always entrepreneurial, with a keen focus on the bottom line, the American small business owner looks for ways to minimize the time and money spent on things other than running his or her business. Since many of these regulations wisely exempt the smallest of small businesses, some employers purposefully do not increase hiring because they do not want to have to comply with the regulatory regimes that await businesses that expand to 10, 15, and 50 or more employees.”

This presents a dilemma for Biden, as it does for any sitting vice president in an administration with a lousy economy. He must break with Obama, slam the economy and risk being perceived as disloyal. Or he can ignore the polls and insult the voters by claiming things are great.

Biden, during a speech on the U.S. economy to kick-off a Labor Day march in Pittsburgh organized by the AFL-CIO, did say, “It used to be when productivity went up in America, everybody got to share. The people who caused the productivity increase, they got to share. They got a piece of the action. Something is wrong, folks.” But that’s as far as he went. He didn’t say what was wrong, let alone blame taxes or regulations or offer any policy to address what’s “wrong.”

This raises Biden’s second dilemma. How is this tax-spend-and-regulate Democrat going to differentiate himself from an administration that has taxed, spent and regulated its way to the very “recovery” that Americans describe as on the “wrong track”? Please tell us, Joe.

COPYRIGHT 2015 LAURENCE A. ELDER
DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.