Palin's Prose

A dozen U.S. presidents have been threatened with impeachment over this country's history, including Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and now Barack Obama.  The House or Representatives has voted to impeach only Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, but the Senate later acquitted each of them.

Calls for presidential impeachment have increased in recent times, as the country has grown more polarized.    It is an attention-getting device for opponents to attack a president and his policies.  It can also be an effective way for politicians to pander to their base, raise money and get television airtime.

So is the case for former Alaska Governor and 2008 vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who is a master of strident and senseless hyperbole.  Palin's latest screed, which was posted on Breitbart.com Tuesday, begins, "Enough is enough of the years of abuse from this president.  His unsecured border crisis is the last straw that makes the battered wife say, 'no mas.'"

Palin accuses President Obama of a "purposeful dereliction of duty" that has led to "an untold number of illegal immigrants...competing against Americans for our jobs and limited public services."   She adds, "Without borders, there is no nation...Obama knows this.  Opening our borders to a flood of illegal immigrants is deliberate. This is his fundamental transformation of America. It's the only promise he has kept."  Of course, illegal immigration and border security have been a daunting problem for decades.

Her conclusion is, "It's time to impeach," adding, "The many impeachable offenses of Barack Obama can no longer be ignored.  If after all this he's not impeachable, then no one is."

The man who brought Palin to the national stage as his Republican running mate, Senator John McCain, did not join her call for Obama's impeachment.  When asked, McCain told the Huffington Post, "I always respect other people's opinions."   Really?  McCain then said, "Am I proposing that the president be impeached? No."  And on Wednesday, when House Speaker John Boehner was asked if Republicans should impeach President Obama instead of suing him, as Boehner is doing, he replied, "I disagree."

There are a number of conservative Republican Congressmen who have at least suggested that Obama's impeachment be considered.  Republicans hope to gain control of the Senate in the upcoming midterm elections by capitalizing on the president's unpopularity in several key Senate races.   But an attempt to impeach the president would only strengthen the party's "obstructionist" image, and not sit well with a majority of the American public.   That would jeopardize the party's 2014 midterm results.

Of course, the chances of impeaching Obama are nil, but that doesn't matter to Palin.   Her goal is to stay in the limelight.  And she knows that her loyal following will always admire her puerile prose, whether on Facebook or cable television.   After all, in Palin's own words, "What is the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick."   How about, "No mas" Sarah Palin?

Pivot Point for Democrats

 The 2014 midterm elections are little more than six months away, and already the Republican Party is feeling giddy about the prospect of big wins in several U.S. Senate races, perhaps enough to give the GOP control of both houses of Congress. This may appear to be surprising if one considers that Republicans are in the minority nationally on most key social and economic issues, especially among Blacks, Latinos and women.

Most Republicans want to repeal the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare, but they can't agree among themselves on how to replace it. And they were dealt a bit of a blow when President Barack Obama announced Tuesday that more than seven million Americans had signed up for health care by the deadline, far exceeding expectations. That number is likely to be much higher when the final count is in.

Now the health care law is starting to pick up some positive momentum, with a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll showing 49% of all Americans now support the law, while 48% oppose it. That is nearly a 10% swing to the positive since last November. And the ACA's favorability rating is likely to improve since the enrollment numbers were so strong, and most of the Republican lies and myths about the law have been shown to be untrue.

So a Republican controlled Congress will likely do all it can to bring an end to Obamacare, even if it is piece by piece. What makes Obamacare so repugnant to many Republicans is that it is viewed as another "government handout," like food stamps, unemployment insurance and many social programs. Their view is that the poor and hungry are largely freeloaders. So if Republicans get their way on Obamacare, several million people who now have signed up for the ACA will lose health care and have nothing to replace it.

A majority of Americans across the nation do not agree with Republicans on most social issues, like same sex marriage and equal pay for women. Many states, heavily gerrymandered following big GOP wins in the 2010 state legislative and gubernatorial races, are slowly rolling back existing social reforms.

The Republican Party is made up largely of older and white voters. These are the very people who are most likely to vote during off-year elections, especially when Republicans play on their fears. For instance, the fallacious cries of death panels? Or the ridiculous charge that Obama has become the "imperial president." Or, that Obama is violating the constitution and should be impeached!

Unfortunately for Democrats, many of those who are mobilized by fear and anti-Obama feelings are typically not well informed. They are easy prey for GOP political spinmeisters. And there is no penalty for lying about your opponent.

President Obama was reelected by a sizable margin with the help of young people, minorities and women. But these voter groups do not usually turn out in large numbers for midterm elections. To make matters worse for Democrats, Republican controlled state legislatures are doing all they can to restrict voting access in many states. For instance, some states have voted to end voting on Sundays, the only day many minorities, who work long hours and travel great distances to work, can vote without a loss of pay. Some Republican controlled statehouses have reduced the number of polling places, frequently choosing to close those in more heavily Democratic districts. Republicans claim this is all due to incidents of voter fraud, but the facts show that the number of voter fraud cases nationally is minuscule.

Of course, Republicans are against any meaningful immigration reform. They believe that most immigrants who become citizens will also become Democrats. I wonder why that would happen?

Meanwhile, in Washington Tuesday, Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI), the party's budget guru, drew fire from all sides with his latest federal budget proposal. The Ryan budget calls for deep cuts in so-called safety net programs, education, job training, Pell Grants, and for transforming some social programs into "block grants," which will leave each state to deal with the program. He also proposes huge tax breaks for the rich. Democrats see Ryan's budget as a real liability for Republicans. But, not surprisingly, conservative Republicans think it doesn't go far enough.

Take, for instance, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. "The latest Ryan budget is not an April Fool's joke," Palin wrote on her Facebook page Tuesday, "But it really IS a joke because it is STILL not seeing the problem; it STILL is not proposing reining in wasteful government overspending." The Palin posting reflects the vast schism that currently exists within the Republican Party.

Yet, because more "red state" senate seats are up this election, Republicans are poised to make some major gains. The challenge for Democrats will be to mobilize the Obama coalition.

You think there is gridlock in Washington now? If the GOP wins both houses of Congress in November, nothing meaningful will get done for two years, and many good social programs will come under crippling attack. Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA) will endlessly bask in the television lights as he wastes even more American taxpayer money investigating everything from Benghazi to the First Family's dogs.

Democrats must begin a full court press around the many accomplishments of President Obama, especially Obamacare. Democrats must go on the offensive now, and rally party supporters, especially the young, minorities, and women, from coast to coast. Democrats must make sure that all Americans fully understand what they may lose if they do not vote this coming November.

Huckabee Misspeaks?

Mike Huckabee has not declared he is a candidate for president but the latest NBC/Wall Street Journal poll shows he is now the favored candidate among Republicans. 25% of those polled supported the former Arkansas governor and Fox News contributor, edging out former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, who had 21% in the poll.

Huckabee, who ran for president in 2008, has always played the nice guy. In his latest book he writes, "If you've come here looking for a personal attack on President (Barack) Obama and those in Washington, you should head to another shelf in the bookstore." The book, which he is busy promoting, is called, "A Simple Government: Twelve Things We Really Need From Washington (And a Trillion That We Don't!).

Of course, Huckabee was a preacher in Arkansas for twelve years beginning in the early eighties. Television evangelist James Robinson, Huckabee's mentor, said of him, "His convictions shape his character and his character will shape his policies. His whole life has been shaped by moral absolutes." But there is one absolute that this former and future presidential aspirant will not be so moral about, the need to win the Republican base.

The other day conservative talk show host Steve Malzberg asked the former preacher about President Obama, "How come we don't have a health record, we don't have a college record, we don't have a birth certificate?" Previously, Huckabee dismissed questions about President Obama's birth certificate. Not this time!

"I would love to know more," Huckabee said, "What I know is troubling." Shockingly, Huckabee went on to talk about the president's upbringing in Kenya. "If you think about it, his perspective as growing up in Kenya with a Kenyan father and grandfather, their view of the Mau Mau revolution in Kenya is very different than ours," Huckabee said, "because he probably grew up hearing that the British were a bunch of imperialists who persecuted his grandfather."

President Obama did not grow up in Kenya; he grew up principally in Hawaii, as in the U.S.A., and Indonesia. His father, who he met only briefly as a boy, did not raise young Obama. And the riff about the British appears to have been manufactured out of whole cloth. Subsequently, a Huckabee spokesman said that the former governor "misspoke" and instead meant to say, "he grew up in Indonesia." Indonesia was never British. By the way, is anyone going to talk about the president's mother and her family since they raised him? Well, of course not.

It appears Huckabee is beginning to believe he can win the Republican primary. Most of the potential candidates for the GOP nomination are flawed. Romney has "Romneycare", Newt Gingrich was kicked out of office, Sarah Palin isn't ready to lead the nation, Indiana's Mitch Daniels and Minnesota's Tim Pawlenty have no charisma, and Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour has made questionable comments about the Civil Rights era. Even better for Huckabee, Chris Christie, the energetic and articulate New Jersey governor, has repeatedly and emphatically said he is not running for president in 2012. Although Governor Christie now says he could win!

The former preacher and state governor from Hope, Arkansas, also President Bill Clinton's birthplace, is now making his move. He will have to win over the Tea Party, the GOP establishment and he will have to re-energize the Christian coalition. Some good old Obama bashing will play well with all of these groups. So it's no more Mr. Nice Guy!

Tragedy in Tucson: Two Speeches

One heinous act in Tucson Saturday by a lone gunman left six people dead and more than a dozen injured. For five days the nation gasped in horror as it tried to search for answers.

On Wednesday, President Barack Obama traveled across the country to attend a memorial ceremony, held at the University of Arizona, to speak with emotion and compassion of Saturday's tragic shootings. President Obama announced to the cheering arena that Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who had been shot through the left side of her brain, had opened her eyes for the first time since her surgery. He also recognized the heroes of the incident, the families of the victims and focused the closing portion of his speech on nine-year-old Christina Taylor Green, who had been killed in the assault. Recently elected to her school's student council, Christina had gone to the scene to meet her Congresswoman.

Earlier in the day, and four thousand miles away, Alaska's former governor, Sarah Palin, broke her silence on the shootings by releasing a nearly eight minute heartfelt and sincere video statement on Facebook. In the immediate wake of the shootings, Governor Palin had been criticized for the tone of her campaigning, especially by the left. In particular, for posting on her website a map that displayed crosshairs over target districts, including Democrat Representative Giffords' Arizona district.

Here are excerpts from their speeches:

President Obama: "I have come here tonight as an American who, like all Americans, kneels to pray with you today and will stand by you tomorrow. There is nothing I can say that will fill the sudden hole torn in your hearts. But know this: The hopes of a nation are here tonight. We mourn with you for the fallen. We join you in your grief. And we add our faith to yours that Representative Gabrielle Giffords and the other living victims of this tragedy will pull through."


Governor Palin: "Our exceptional nation, so vibrant with ideas and the passionate exchange and debate of ideas, is a light to the rest of the world. Congresswoman Giffords and her constituents were exercising their right to exchange ideas that day, to celebrate our Republic's core values and peacefully assemble to petition our government. It's inexcusable and incomprehensible why a single evil man took the lives of peaceful citizens that day.

President Obama: "If this tragedy prompts reflection and debate -- as it should -- let's make sure it's worthy of those we have lost. Let's make sure it's not on the usual plane of politics and point-scoring and pettiness that drifts away in the next news cycle. The loss of these wonderful people should make every one of us strive to be better."

Governor Palin: "Like many, I've spent the past few days reflecting on what happened and praying for guidance. After this shocking tragedy, I listened at first puzzled, then with concern, and now with sadness, to the irresponsible statements from people attempting to apportion blame for this terrible event."

President Obama: "We may not be able to stop all evil in the world, but I know that how we treat one another, that's entirely up to us."

Governor Palin: "If you don't like a person's vision for the country, you're free to debate that vision. If you don't like their ideas, you're free to propose better ideas. But, especially within hours of a tragedy unfolding, journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn. That is reprehensible."

President Obama: "If there are rain puddles in Heaven, Christina (Taylor Green) is jumping in them today. And here on this Earth -- here on this Earth, we place our hands over our hearts, and we commit ourselves as Americans to forging a country that is forever worthy of her gentle, happy spirit."

Governor Palin: "America must be stronger than the evil we saw displayed last week. We are better than the mindless finger-pointing we endured in the wake of the tragedy. We will come out of this stronger and more united in our desire to peacefully engage in the great debates of our time, to respectfully embrace our differences in a positive manner, and to unite in the knowledge that, though our ideas may be different, we must all strive for a better future for our country."

Representative Gabrielle Giffords continues her slow but remarkable recovery. She faces a difficult and uncertain journey. So do all Americans.