As I have written to you for some time now, the war in Afghanistan is exacting a major price on America’s military and treasury. Alfred S. Regenery writes in The American Spectator that during the Obama administration “more than 600 U.S. soldiers have died in Afghanistan-more than died there during George Bush’s entire time in office.” If there was one thing I was hopeful about at the ascendency of the Obama administration, it was that there would be a change in the approach being taken in Afghanistan. That was obviously too much to hope for.
I certainly don’t question the military leadership. General David Petraeus is top notch, and surely doing the best anyone can given the circumstances. The problem is the task he has been asked to perform is not one with a military objective, it is nation building pure and simple.
Regenery rightly asks, “what is our goal?” The original goal in Afghanistan was to kill or capture al Qaeda terrorists. That mission has been accomplished. Even the government has recognized that only around 100 al Qaeda still exist in Afghanistan. But the approach taken in the country is not being dictated by common sense, it is being dictated by a strategy based on domestic politics here in the United States. Barack Obama thinks that if he ends the war in Afghanistan now that Americans won’t vote for him in 2012. A big question is, if he doesn’t end the war now, will the same left-wing anti-war groups that assaulted the Bush administration show up to denounce the Obama administration? If president Obama is looking for an electoral win, he should think about changing his strategies across the board, because if 2010 is any indication, 2012 is going to be a blood bath.
Obama’s surrogates are already being hammered in polls across the country. Deval Patrick, governor of Massachusetts and close Obama associate, is having his heels nipped at in his race for reelection by Republican Charlie Baker. In what could be a repeat of the Scott Brown miracle, the people of Massachusetts are poised to elect a Republican to a statewide office. Rasmussen Reports indicates a lead of about 5% for Patrick, with independent Tim Cahill throwing the score a bit. Baker, like Scott Brown before him, is picking up strength as Election Day nears. Baker wants to cap state pensions, raise the state employees’ retirement age, and cut both income and sales taxes in Massachusetts. All of these measures would contribute to a healthier state balance sheet.
Conservatives around the country are under attack, like Baker, today with massive negative advertising campaigns. These campaigns are full of deceit and distortions of the facts, a tactic that is common when incumbents can’t run on their records. Dick Morris and Eileen McGann lay out the terrible slanderous advertising done by Democrats during this election cycle. Rather than bring up their votes for TARP, Cap and Trade, Dodd-Frank, and Obamacare, Democrats are ginning up bogey-men and lies about their opponents to scare the electorate. Morris and McGann rightly conclude that the negative advertising worked for a short-time, when this disgusting form of campaigning was fresh in the minds of Americans. But, now that success is being rolled back as Americans remember that Democrats tried to bring them Cap and Trade, Card Check and amnesty for illegal immigrants, and succeeded in bring them Obamacare.
Many Congressmen who voted for Obamacare were hoping that, as Nancy Pelosi said, once the bill was passed, Americans would find out what was in it and beging to like it. Well, once the bill was passed, Americans did find out what was in it, and their opinion of the bill has only gotten worse. With companies needing exemptions from the bill in order to keep their employees insured, new taxes cropping up everywhere, major corporations losing money from the bill, and doctors in the dark about what this means for them, Obamacare has been an utter failure.
Democrats across the country have to account for their failure. They stood in line to do Nancy Pelosi’s will, and now they are getting whacked for it at the polls. Michael Barone lays out a laundry list of Democrats who are getting pounded because of their votes for Obamacare. Don’t think these are the only ones. This is a nationwide revolution against bad government.
Congressman Pete King has circulated a petition to allow the House to repeal Obamacare. Recently even a Democrat signed the petition, scared for his electoral soul. Congressman Gene Taylor of Mississippi is actively running against his party’s president and leadership, probably the only winning tactic for Democrats this year. Deroy Murdock writes that Taylor, and other Democrats in conservative districts, are doing their best to separate themselves from the radical Obama administration. It’s a very good idea.
Keep it Simple – E.J. Smith
“It doesn’t take a lot of words to say that we just want to be free. Free to lead our lives as we please, so long as we don’t infringe on the same freedom of others”, Freedom Works’ Dick Armey and Matt Kibbe in their book “Give us Liberty: A Tea Party Manifesto.
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