2012 Presidential Election

Trifecta : Wikileaks — is President Obama a “gutless wonder?”

Continued here:
Let’s Not Mince Ralph Peters’ Words

Daily Caller – Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and the congressmen spearheading the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act made a last-minute plea to the House  – “in the name of the child” — to support passage of the act on Wednesday.

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Democrats urge Congress to pass Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act
(Daily Caller)

AP – Senate Democrats will turn to Sen. Patty Murray of Washington to steer the defense of 21 Democratic seats up for re-election in 2012.

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Murray to lead Democratic effort in 2012 races
(AP)

The Ticket – Should President Obama be courting Republicans? No, says ex-Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who warns that Obama is risking his re-election and the future of the Democratic Party by taking progressive voters for granted. Obama, Dean tells the Associated Press’s Beth Fouhy, has “clearly upset members of his base” on issues like tax cuts and “Don’t

Excerpt from:
Dean warns Obama that he’ll lose in 2012 if he doesn’t reclaim the Democratic base
(The Ticket)

The Ticket – Behind closed doors, Republican senators vowed earlier this month to abolish earmarks for the next two years and send a message about their shared disdain for “pork-barrel” spending. But out from behind those closed doors today, Republicans weren’t all on the same page. Eight Republicans voted with Senate Democrats today against taking up an earmark

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No Republican consensus on earmark ban
(The Ticket)

AP – Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean has a message for President Barack Obama: Reclaim progressive voters or risk both re-election and the future of the Democratic Party for years to come.

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Dean tells AP Obama must reclaim progressive base
(AP)

First, I’ll say right out of the gate that I think the term “terrorist” applied to Julian Assange is a bit much. Jerkwad scavenger, yes. Analogous to generations of terror and murder for a faith that believes it’s OK to beat your wife so long as it doesn’t leave a bruise? No. I don’t want “terrorist” to become the new “racist.” The fallout from Wikileaks is incomparable to 9/11, the USS Cole, numerous embassies, et al. Second, I think the focus on Julian Assange is misguided, though if he and Bradley Manning can be prosecuted (the latter definitely), do it to it. Dudes like this wouldn’t have wares to peddle in the press if people in government kept secure things secure . This is a problem because our government allowed it to become one. Wikileaks wasn’t a problem months ago because the focus wasn’t Obama didn’t lose political capital over it. Now he does. What’s more shocking: that Assange published tabloid information on our foreign relations or that three million-plus people had access to the same classified information and it didn’t leak sooner ? Or that a 22-year-old Lady Gaga fan who can lip sync “Telephone” dumped classified information on a rewritable disc that he was somehow allowed to transport with him into supposedly secure areas? Big Journalism’s Jeff Dunetz gave the run-down of the diplomatic cables . People are scared of Iran, Italy’s PM is a whore, Putin’s an alpha male, there are some real shockers in there, let me tell you. That Hillary Clinton wanted spies in the U.N. comforts, not shocks, me. Considering the place is a bossy cabal of women-beaters, oppressors, sex traffickers , and despots (and our membership in a group that wishes to make our law secondary to international law is a total joke), I hope the place is crawling with U.S. spies. They owe us that much and more since their ginormous headquarters amasses so much space in Manhattan and we mostly subsidize them. The entire point is missed though with this entity and that entity haranguing the rosy-cheeked 22 year-old Gaga fan who nabbed the data over an eight-month period and snotty foreigner Assange: the Obama administration’s kabuki foreign policy theater isn’t as slick as it’s marketed. If Bill Clinton isn’t losing nuclear codes, Obama can’t get his administration to shut their mouths and not betray the confidences of foreign ambassadors and leaders. Comical, too, is the way in which Assange broadcasted to the world what he was going to do and when. The administration, instead of focusing on Bradley Manning and tracking down who else, out of the three million, may have accessed this info, are instead sending Eric Holder to Switzerland to lobby for the World Cup. The media isn’t asking these questions. They don’t seem at all concerned about limiting the damage – or evening discovering its extent. Three million people had access to this stuff; perhaps foreign intelligence now has classified information that Manning wasn’t able to get?  No, the media is too busy crafting a cushion for the administration’s soft landing . The lack of urgency inherent to this administration continues and the media assists.

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Media Limits Focus To Assange, Ignores Bigger Picture

The Ticket – Emerging from their first sit-down since Election Day, President Obama and GOP leaders called their White House meeting “productive” and reiterated promises to “work together” on behalf of the American people. But even as Obama heralded the get-together as a “good start,” both sides acknowledged that the true test of bipartisanship lies ahead, as Democrats

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Obama and GOP leaders again vow to ‘work together,’ but admit it won’t be easy
(The Ticket)

An unidentified Senator caught on a live mic, talking about the lame-duck session: “ It’s just rigged .” UPDATE : It’s my home state junior Senator, Mike Bennet .

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That’s a Kinsley Gaffe

Here’s the telling detail in Politico’s write-up of the earmarks ban vote in the Senate: “Coburn had hoped to get to 40 and was hurt by the defections of eight Republicans, many prominent in the Appropriations Committee.” You just can’t pull these piggies away from the trough — until the next primary, that is.

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Stampeding RINOs