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« on: May 02, 2016, 08:34:27 PM » |
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The Patriot Post Digest 5-2-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
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Mid-Day Digest
May 2, 2016
THE FOUNDATION
“I have no ambition to govern men. It is a painful and thankless office.” —Thomas Jefferson (1796)
TOP RIGHT HOOKS
Hoosier State Hectoring1
The all-important Indiana primary is Tuesday, and that means the presidential candidates are upping the ante. Ted Cruz hit back after John Boehner called him “Lucifer”2 and all but endorsed Cruz’s rival. “Donald Trump is attempting to perpetuate one of the greatest frauds in the history of modern elections, which is he is trying to convince people that he’s some sort of outsider,” Cruz said. “Donald is the essence of the Washington insider. He has been enmeshed in the corruption in Washington. One of the things that illustrated that powerfully this week was when John Boehner went out of his way to attack me, to call me the devil, and then he praised two people. John Boehner praised Hillary Clinton, and he praised Donald Trump. He said Donald was his friend, was his golfing and texting buddy.”
Cruz also joked, “I kind of wondered if Boehner was auditioning to be Donald Trump’s vice president. You know, a Trump-Boehner ticket would really say ‘The Washington Cartel’ in all its force. One has been funding the cartel. The other has been giving in to Democrats for years.”
The Hoosier State has been lightly polled so far, but a recent one shows Trump with a 15 point lead. Another shows Cruz winning by the same margin. So, as usual, the only poll that matters is the one on Election Day. Cruz is certainly hoping the endorsement of Gov. Mike Pence3 will give him a boost, and that Boehner’s virtual endorsement of Trump will put Cruz over the top.
Cruz isn’t done wrangling for delegates to bring to a possible contested convention4 either. The Texas senator managed to win a large majority of Arizona delegates at the state’s convention. Trump won the state, and thus secured the first-ballot votes of all 58 of its delegates, but should Trump fail to reach 1,237 before the convention and balloting goes beyond Round One, Cruz will have nearly three-quarters of Arizona’s 58. At first glance, Cruz is looking much stronger on the second and third ballots in a number a state delegations, but with the major caveat that those delegates may waver5 if Trump continues to gain momentum.
On a final campaign note, violent protesters once again interrupted a Trump rally, smashing police car windows and waving Mexican flags. Is there any better way to say “Vote for Trump”?
Biden Tries to Fix Broken Iraq6
Joe Biden’s helicopter touched down at the American Embassy in Baghdad Thursday as America’s second in command made a surprise visit with Iraq’s leaders in an effort to protect the stability of the government. Over the last several weeks, the state of Iraqi politics has deteriorated (who could’ve seen that coming?). Biden’s staff scheduled appointments with Iraqi leaders but reportedly didn’t know if they would be in office by the time Biden could meet with them. The prime minister is weak. The parliament is fractured and notoriously corrupt. It would have been an embarrassing visit for Biden even if nothing happened afterwards. We’ll come back to that.
In 2010, Biden boasted7 that abandoning Iraq “could be one of the great achievements of this administration.” It was during the time that the Obama administration was peddling8 its “success” story in Iraq to pave the way for the 2012 campaign narrative. Not only will American troops be gone, the veep promised then, “You’re going to see a stable government in Iraq that is actually moving toward a representative government.”
How’s that working out? On Saturday, hordes of protesters stormed9 the Iraqi parliament, scrambling over blast walls and entering a room forbidden to the general public for the last 13 years. A state of emergency was declared. Some of the lawmakers went into hiding. Others fled the country. Most of the protesters were goaded by an anti-American Shiite cleric named Moqtada al-Sadr.
And all this is happening while the Islamic State sits a five-hour drive away in Mosul. “Mr. Biden’s diplomatic fly-ins are no substitute for the consistent presence that 5,000 or 10,000 U.S. troops could have provided,” opined10 The Wall Street Journal. But it gets Biden in the news demonstrating a highly visible (if ineffectual) foreign policy visit to boost his prominence in case Hillary Clinton gets indicted and Democrats need that Biden-Warren ticket to save the day.
Army Keeps Soldier Who Beat Child Rapist11
Turns out the U.S. Army will not remove Sgt. First Class Charles Martland from service. In January, the Army planned on punishing the Green Beret because in 2011 he slammed to the ground12 an Afghani police commander after he discovered the man had abducted and raped a child. Because Martland violated the U.S. policies on respecting Afghan culture, rapey bits and all, Martland was going to be kicked out of the military March 1.
But thanks to inquiries by Rep. Duncan Hunter, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan himself as a Marine, the Army decided to retain Martland. Hunter said, “The Army did the right thing and we won — the American people, won. Martland is who we want out there.” As for Martland himself, he simply and humbly said, “I am real thankful for being able to continue to serve.”
BEST OF RIGHT OPINION
Peggy Noonan: Simple Patriotism Trumps Ideology13
David Harsanyi: The GOP Has Been Bad. But Not as Bad as You Think14
Joseph Horton: Conservative Solutions for Just Wages15
For more, visit Right Opinion16.
FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
Obama’s Economic Escort Service17
By Robin Smith
“It isn’t so much that liberals are ignorant. It’s just that they know so many things that aren’t so.”
Ronald Reagan’s famous quip sums up Barack Obama’s recent use of Leftmedia to defend his abysmal economic record.
In a laughable puff piece entitled “President Obama Weighs His Economic Legacy18,” The New York Times' Andrew Ross Sorkin assumed the role of what we’ve dubbed the “presstitute.” Willing to accept opinion and biased analysis for fact, Sorkin opened his piece with this shocking quote from one of Saul Alinsky’s top students:
“I actually compare our economic performance to how, historically, countries that have wrenching financial crises perform. By that measure, we probably managed this better than any large economy on Earth in modern history.”
Did you get that, folks? Obama lays claim to the best managed recovery of “any large economy on Earth in modern history,” and a supposed journalist offers no challenge or follow-up — instead shaming the American public for not appreciating the alleged benefits of Obama’s economic policies.
Ultimately, the Times' piece as a whole is more self-congratulatory than it is informative — with Obama delivering an assessment of his performance that is nothing short of narcissistic. It’s a case once again of someone who knows “so many things that aren’t so” and speaks of so few things that are true.
The numbers, however, speak the truth of our economy.
For the first quarter of 2016, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) — the total dollar value of all goods and services produced within the time measured — grew a paltry 0.5%, demonstrating a continued decline following 1.4% and 2% of the previous two quarters ending 2015. Translation: The American economy is not growing and is still mired in the worst “recovery” in history.
Yet, if you read CNN’s review of the New York Times' piece, Obama laments “the fact that public perception about the economy remains negative despite important gains in recent years.” He blames Republicans “that deny any progress,” and laments his only fault: “If we had been able to more effectively communicate all the [economic] steps we had taken to the swing voter, then we might have maintained a majority in the House or the Senate.”
So if Reagan was the Great Communicator — at first a leftist pejorative to explain away The Gipper’s success — Obama is the Failed Communicator of terrible policies. And that on top of the fact that, as even Bill Clinton acknowledged, Democrats set the stage for the 2008 collapse19. |
