As we sprint toward the first official vote of the Republican primary season – to decide who will (hopefully) replace President Obama on January 20, 2013 – it is essential that we focus on the real goal. Rather than go after each other, the candidates must continue to confront the policies of the most inept President in modern times.
The following is a selection of issues the candidates should emphasize as the rationale for replacing our current President:
1. Gibson Guitar – The Obama Administration entered the headquarters of an internationally-renowned, iconic American company and treated it like it was a drug cartel. Based on an obscure law in India, Obama’s Fish and Wildlife Service raided the company. Almost four months and millions of dollars in legal fees later, the company has still not been charged with any crimes nor has its inventory been returned. One does not need much more evidence of Obama’s anti-business attitudes.
2. Boeing in South Carolina – You may not need more evidence, but you can get it right here. Obama used the another arm of government – the National Labor Relations Board stacked with union lackeys – to stifle construction of a new production facility by Boeing because they felt it would be transferring jobs from a union state to a non-union state. The fact that Boeing has a multi-year production backlog – from customers who could easily switch their orders to Airbus, thereby killing thousands of American jobs – did not come into calculation for these anti-business zealots. To them, jobs are only jobs if they are held by union members.
3. The Pipeline – This one is just a doozy. This one in itself is reason to throw this administration out in a landslide. Because Obama and his gang don’t believe in fossil fuel, they will do whatever they can to stifle its development and use. Our Canadian neighbors want to ship a million barrels of oil a day to us, but need a new pipeline. This pipeline, just like umpteen others, would reduce our dependence on oil from such charming countries as Venezuela or unstable Middle East sheikdoms, and would create tens of thousands of well-paid jobs in a sluggish market. But Obama did what he usually does – booted the decision until after his “reelection,” specifically to appease his environmental extremist supporters. Someone needs to tell these buffoons that the Canadians made clear from day one that a pipeline was being built – and that it was either going south to the U.S. or west to feed China. By killing the pipeline, Obama would just shift the location of the environmental risks and cost us billions of dollars and thousands of jobs. This is a definitive example of the fact that every decision made by this administration this year – and that means every one – has been about reelecting Obama, and not what’s in the interests of the American people.
4. Solyndra – You certainly know about the $528 million that Obama and his genius Energy Secretary flushed down the drain. But you should probably also know about the other $4.75 billion in loan guarantees recently pushed out by Secretary “I have a Nobel Prize” Chu, of which $2.7 billion was provided to a Spanish company. All of this waste is to create a market for the far-left’s dream of solar energy. Listen to this – ten years and billions of squandered dollars from now, we will still be paying through the nose for solar energy with little beneficial effect.
5. Jeffrey Immelt – President Obama put Immelt (GE Chairman and CEO) in charge of the Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. Immelt then cut a deal with China to go into competition with Boeing. Obama does not fire the guy or publicly admonish him. Not only was this a deal to create Chinese jobs, but it will also transfer technology and customers to the Chinese. Refer to #2 above – a double slap in the face to the nation’s biggest exporter.
6. Voter intimidation – Illegalities regarding our election process can sometimes be questionable. But the intimidation in Philadelphia during the 2008 election was on video tape. There was no question that these people were guilty. Obama and his Attorney General were too busy selling guns to Mexican cartels to even charge these thugs.
7. Fast and Furious – I have stated before that this makes Iran-Contra look like a brilliant strategy. Selling guns across the Mexican border with the hope of making an argument for gun control may have been as stupid as stupid gets. Now they are doing their best imitation of Richard Nixon by claiming that their redacted documents are enough information for Congress.
I can go on a lot longer and will do so in future columns. If you have some choice Obama moments, please forward then to bruce@bialosky.biz and remind the candidates and your friends to “Focus Folks, it’s Obama.”