According to the polls, most Americans agreed that…

According to the polls, most Americans agreed that the country is on the wrong track, but yet they voted to keep everything pretty much the same as it was. Is it me or is something fundamentally wrong with this picture?

Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it.

— Newton’s First Law

New Dawn? Or Final Twilight?

Most of the mainstream media and political pundits will spend countless hours in the days to come reflecting on who did what right or wrong. While the postmortem might be interesting, I don’t see where it serves any constructive purpose. Any so-called insights would continue to be argued across party lines and when we once again find ourselves at this same crossroad, the landscape will be different and the insights either meaningless or forgotten. After all, voters just elected a President whose campaign motto was Forward and we’ve already spent the day dwelling on yesterday.

Obama’s small popular vote victory tells me that now — more than any other time in our political history — we have an opportunity that doesn’t come along all that often… one where we should be taking stock in who we’ve become and the direction we’d like to see for this great country of ours. This opportunity will last but a brief while because before you know it, it’ll be business as usual and nothing changes.

Today is the day to start building the Republican Party of tomorrow and if you’re not willing to do that — right now, this minute — you’ve already lost the future. I think the phrase of the day is that the Republicans do not possess a broad appeal across all demographics. That statement is already a step in the wrong direction. Every time I hear it, the first image in my mind is of a used car salesman trying to close the deal by making you focus on the clunker’s shiny new paint job while he’s standing between you and the hood to prevent you from looking at what’s inside.

If you really want to accomplish something great, then fix what’s under the hood. Replace the parts that are broken to the point where you’re proud to open it up for all the world to see. Take a long hard honest look at what you believe in, rebuild the foundation of the Republican Party on those core values and let those beliefs determine the way you govern. Do that… and while most of today’s Republicans will disappear, a new breed of leader will emerge with a level of optimism, character and resolve we’ve not seen since the American revolution. Build that kind of leader and you might be able to guarantee your existence into the decades to come.

I’m not nearly as worried about the size of government as I am about its complexity. I think one reason the Democratic Party is growing is because they’ve managed to convince people that a bigger government will simplify their lives — “don’t you worry, we’ll take care of everything”. It’s like lawyers burying the other side in paper to make it harder to get at the truth, leaving you so overwhelmed you’re thankful when the media spoon-feeds you the cliff note version, albeit not necessarily an unbiased one.

Rebrand yourselves as the new kind of leader that practices integrity, sensibility and accountability above all else and refuses to be defined by anyone’s standards but your own. If you can’t sell it, then just let the Republican Party die with dignity because there really isn’t anything you can do to save it.

The Morning After

I used to think Laffer was just an interesting theory, but this morning I find myself wondering why I’ve worked so hard to succeed and whether it has been worth it. Now I’m not only disappointed with my country’s choices, I’m disappointed with myself. Happy?

Tax Rates Wouldn’t Be Such A Big Deal If People Actually Understood The Tax Code

I’m having an interesting online conversation in response to a YouTube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsa4uLmTw0M&lcor=1&lc=3OOQtti0eix24lBV9PulW3gvqPxFr7QVvRwepXiZ2TI&lch=email_reply&feature=em-comment_reply_received

The comment that caught my eye (and has since been removed) was “I pay 25% and I think people making $250,000 should do the same”. And the conversation went downhill from there…

Me: I’d love to pay the same 25% tax rate you pay. Unfortunately, my rate is 33%. If Obama gets elected and has his way, we’ll be paying 39% or more. Please tell me which part of the progressive tax code you don’t understand. I’d love to have an opportunity to explain it to you.

Them: Oops my apologies I did the math wrong on my paycheck. 36% is what I pay. My apologies for my bad figure. So your progressive tax theory has a hole in it!

I’m completely speechless… but the whole “I make less money and pay more taxes” argument is starting to make a lot more sense.

Do yourself a favor. Teach yourself something about the tax code before you start spewing nonsense. For this year’s rules, you can start with Forbes.

The Truth About Obamacare

What truth? I think the title of this article sums it up pretty accurately: The Election Is Tomorrow, and Americans Still Don’t Understand Obamacare.

Love has been extremely outspoken in her opposition to Obamacare and her desire to see it repealed, even though she hasn’t proposed any reasonable alternative plans. (When asked about her own health care proposals during the event, Love offered up measures that had already been passed as part of Obamacare.)

That’s not all that surprising. I think most people regardless of party would admit there are some reasonable if not good things in the bill. But anyone who says they’ve read the entire thousands of pages and agrees with every point is either a toe-the-party-line push-over who doesn’t understand economics or lying.

I’m in the camp that wants it repealed. Not because I think it’s all bad… but because I think the bad parts are really, really, really bad.

The October Surprise? Not!

If Obama should lose this election, many will say it was because the economy was weak and because the president is black. Actually, it will be because he fought it as a failed progressive rather than a successful centrist.

[snip]

Every voter who chose Obama in 2008 still wants him to succeed. But not all are convinced he can, and that’s partly because he has stopped trying to be the president he said he’d be. The need to fix Washington, the need for a bridge-building, post-partisan presidency was uppermost in centrist voters’ minds when they elected Obama, and he’d made that the core of his campaign. Washington is still broken – more so than before – and Obama is no longer even trying to mend it… The president’s error wasn’t that he refused to compromise. It was that he compromised so reluctantly, denying himself ownership of his own policies and making every accomplishment seem like a defeat.

Clive Crook Obama’s Blunder Was in Ceding Political Center to Romney

I’ll take that understatement and raise you one fact: Obama never tried to be the president he said he’d be.

If Obama Wins, Will We Get The Same Speech?

My fellow citizens: I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors.

I thank President Bush for his service to our nation as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.

Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath.

The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, and true to our founding documents.

So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.

That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age.

Homes have been lost, jobs shed, businesses shuttered. Our healthcare is too costly, our schools fail too many, and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.

These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable, but no less profound, is a sapping of confidence across our land; a nagging fear that America’s decline is inevitable, that the next generation must lower its sights.

Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real, they are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this America: They will be met.

On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics.

We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less.

It has not been the path for the faint-hearted, for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame.

Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things — some celebrated, but more often men and women obscure in their labor — who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.

For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life. For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West, endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.

For us, they fought and died in places Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn.

Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.

This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions — that time has surely passed.

Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.

For everywhere we look, there is work to be done.

The state of our economy calls for action: bold and swift. And we will act not only to create new jobs but to lay a new foundation for growth.

We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together.

We will restore science to its rightful place and wield technology’s wonders to raise healthcare’s quality and lower its costs.

We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age.

All this we can do. All this we will do.

Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions, who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short, for they have forgotten what this country has already done, what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose and necessity to courage.

What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them, that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long, no longer apply.

The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works, whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified.

Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end.

And those of us who manage the public’s knowledge will be held to account, to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day, because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.

Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched.

But this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control. The nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous.

The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our gross domestic product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on the ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart — not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.

As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals.

Our founding fathers faced with perils that we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations.

Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience’s sake.

And so, to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and we are ready to lead once more.

Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with the sturdy alliances and enduring convictions.

They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use. Our security emanates from the justness of our cause; the force of our example; the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.

We are the keepers of this legacy, guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort, even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We’ll begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people and forge a hard- earned peace in Afghanistan.

With old friends and former foes, we’ll work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat and roll back the specter of a warming planet.

We will not apologize for our way of life nor will we waver in its defense.

And for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that, “Our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken. You cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.”

For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness.

We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and nonbelievers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth.

And because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.

To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect.

To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict or blame their society’s ills on the West, know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy.

To those … To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history, but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.

To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds.

And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to the suffering outside our borders, nor can we consume the world’s resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.

As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains. They have something to tell us, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages.

We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service: a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves.

And yet, at this moment, a moment that will define a generation, it is precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all.

For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies.

It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break; the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours.

It is the firefighter’s courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent’s willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.

Our challenges may be new, the instruments with which we meet them may be new, but those values upon which our success depends, honesty and hard work, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism — these things are old.

These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history.

What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility — a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character than giving our all to a difficult task.

This is the price and the promise of citizenship.

This is the source of our confidence: the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.

This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed, why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall. And why a man whose father less than 60 years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.

So let us mark this day in remembrance of who we are and how far we have traveled.

In the year of America’s birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by nine campfires on the shores of an icy river.

The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood.

At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:

“Let it be told to the future world that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet it.”

America, in the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words; with hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come; let it be said by our children’s children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God’s grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.

Thank you. God bless you.

And God bless the United States of America.

– Barack Obama’s inauguration speech, January 20, 2009

Text of Barack Obama’s inaugural address

You Say “Tomato”…

a·pol·o·gy [uh-pol-uh-jee] noun, plural a·pol·o·gies.
1. a written or spoken expression of one’s regret, remorse, or sorrow for having insulted, failed, injured, or wronged another: He demanded an apology from me for calling him a crook.
2. a defense, excuse, or justification in speech or writing, as for a cause or doctrine.
3. ( initial capital letter, italics ) a dialogue by Plato, centering on Socrates’ defense before the tribunal that condemned him to death.
4. an inferior specimen or substitute; makeshift: The tramp wore a sad apology for a hat.
dictionary.com

a·pol·o·gize [uh-pol-uh-jahyz] verb (used without object), a·pol·o·gized, a·pol·o·giz·ing.
1. to offer an apology or excuse for some fault, insult, failure, or injury: He apologized for accusing her falsely.
2. to make a formal defense in speech or writing.
dictionary.com

sor·ry [sor-ee, sawr-ee] adjective, sor·ri·er, sor·ri·est.
1. feeling regret, compunction, sympathy, pity, etc.: to be sorry to leave one’s friends; to be sorry for a remark; to be sorry for someone in trouble.
2. regrettable or deplorable; unfortunate; tragic: a sorry situation; to come to a sorry end.
3. sorrowful, grieved, or sad: Was she sorry when her brother died?
4. associated with sorrow; suggestive of grief or suffering; melancholy; dismal.
5. wretched, poor, useless, or pitiful: a sorry horse.
dictionary.com

Fact-Check: Arming Syrian Rebels

Mr. Obama said that the administration was mobilizing support for the opposition there but that it wanted to make sure that “we’re not putting arms in the hands” of people who could eventually turn them against the United States or its allies in the region.

Fact-Check: Arming Syrian Rebels

Good. Glad to see Fast And Furious wasn’t completely lost on the current administration.

Fact-Check: Romney’s Bipartisan Success

Earlier in the debate, Mr. Romney said that bipartisan cooperation with an overwhelmingly Democratic legislature allowed him as Massachusetts governor to balance the state’s budget for four straight years and propel the state’s schools to first in the nation on standardized tests. Many experts, however, say those claims are less than fully credible.
Mr. Romney’s assertion that he and the legislature came together to balance Massachusetts’s budget omits the fact that the state constitution requires a balanced budget.

Fact-Check: Romney’s Bipartisan Success

If the Massachusetts legislature had chosen to ignore the constitution, leaving the state budget unresolved as our U. S. Senate has done since 2009, would Mitt Romney have let them slide?