Eric Cantor - Less Talk and More Action needed from Obama

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor says he hopes President Barack Obama will avoid during a visit Friday to a House GOP retreat in Baltimore “the kind of rhetoric and lecturing that occurred in the State of the Union.”

Obama told Republicans in his address Wednesday night that “saying ‘no’ to everything may be good short-term politics, but it’s not leadership” and that they share in “the responsibility to govern.” Stepping up his own efforts at bipartisanship, he said he plans “monthly meetings with both Democratic and Republican leadership.”

Cantor, the No. 2 House GOP leader, said he “appreciated his offer” but said Obama has made calls for bipartisanship before.

“There are words and promises, and there is delivery,” Cantor, 46, said at his Capitol Hill office in an interview for a POLITICO video series,“Inside Obama’s Washington.” “There’s not been much action put behind those words over the last year. I’m hoping when he comes to our retreat that we’ll hear a different President Obama and, frankly, a willingness to say, ‘OK, I understand my agenda may not be what the majority of this country wants. Let’s work together.’” - Politico Story

Democrats Whining Over Supreme Court Decision

Senate Democrats are furious with Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito — and Alito’s silent State of the Union rebuke of the president is the least of their concerns.

Democrats say Alito crossed the line when he mouthed the words “not true” during President Barack Obama’s speech Wednesday night. But worse, they say, both Roberts and Alito misled them during their confirmation hearings when they represented themselves as jurists who would respect precedent.

“You bet they misled,” said Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the assistant majority leader and a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

At issue is the ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the campaign finance decision Obama was discussing Wednesday night when Alito mouthed his objections.

In last week’s 5-4 decision, a majority of the justices — including Roberts and Alito — ruled that the government cannot restrict corporations and labor unions from spending general funds on advertising to support or oppose specific candidates in federal elections. Some analysts predict that the decision will open the door to a flood of campaign advertising by corporations and unions leading up to Election Day — and that Republicans will be the primary beneficiaries.

The decision overruled a 1990 case that upheld restrictions on corporate spending as well as a 2003 ruling upholding a portion of the campaign finance law written by Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) that dealt with regulations on labor union and corporate financing.

Supporters say that Alito, Roberts and the three other justices in the majority simply returned to the original meaning of the First Amendment — that the ruling was intended to uphold the right of free speech. - Politico Story

It is quite a shame that when the Supreme Court upholds the Constitution that they have to deal with the politics of the Left. Not only was the President out of line when he bashed them in a State of the Union address, but now Democrats are whining and crying foul.

Everyone is already painfully aware that Political Officials in Washington feel like they are above the law, but to whine and cry when you don't get your way?

ABC News Tries to Rebuild Credibility After Blowing Mass Senate Election

You know it’s a strange new world when Gary Langer, the director of polling at ABC, attacks a Democratic polling firm. By the way, the good folks at Public Policy Polling (PPP) took the attack in stride. The firm's Tom Jensen noted that “one of the most amusing things Langer and others in his cohort claim is that polls should not be judged by their accuracy.”

One might be tempted to blame the spat on the fact that Public Policy Polling found Fox News to be more trustworthy than ABC News. If that’s all it was, it could be written off as another episode of shooting the messenger like the effort that Rasmussen Reports recently endured.

But the real story has to do with the changing media landscape, most recently on display in the coverage of the Massachusetts special Senate race.

Rasmussen Reports is a new media outlet, digital from birth, and we informed our audience that this was a race worth watching two weeks before the stunning upset victory by Republican Scott Brown in an historically very Democratic state. Our first poll showed Brown within single digits and even closer among those most likely to vote. Our coverage was picked up by all sorts of new media sources and helped define the race for those in the Bay State. Looking back, The Politico’s Ben Smith wrote, “The overwhelming conventional wisdom in both parties … was that [Democrat] Martha Coakley was a lock. It's hard to recall a single poll changing the mood of a race quite that dramatically.”

ABC has an old-school media mentality and chose not to share the news of a close race with their audience. In fact those who rely on ABC News didn’t learn anything unusual was happening in Massachusetts until just four days before the election. By that time, Rasmussen Reports and PPP both showed the race to be a toss-up but trending toward Brown, and President Obama had decided to attend a campaign rally to help Coakley's floundering campaign. - Rasmussen Reports

Despite Speech Obama and Democrats Raise Debt in Last Ditch Effort

In a last gasp of their fading 60-vote majority, Senate Democrats on Thursday pushed through a record $1.9 trillion increase in the federal debt ceiling, all but assuring Congress won’t face the painful issue again until after November’s elections.

The House is poised to follow quickly next week, and the deal was sealed when Senate Democrats included a statutory pay-go amendment that has been a major priority for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Blue Dog fiscal moderates in her caucus.

Sen. Judd Gregg, the ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, ridiculed the process as “Swiss cheese-go,” given the billions in tax and spending provisions still exempt from the deficit rules. And the New Hampshire Republican angrily accused Democrats of taking the debt issue “off the table” rather than learning from their defeat in last week’s Massachusetts special Senate election.

“The people of this country have a right to know whether or not this Congress is going to do something about controlling the rate of growth in the debt — before the next election,” Gregg said. “The American people don’t believe it ought to be off the table; that’s what Massachusetts was all about. They’re worried about this debt.”

Indeed, Thursday’s power play will be impossible for Democrats to duplicate once Republican Sen.-elect Scott Brown, the Massachusetts victor, takes his seat in early February. With time running out, the White House played a major role in bringing fiscal moderates together around the package. - Politico Story

Obama Fails to Re-establish himself

If the President was trying to re-establish himself and his goals it appears he failed drastically.

NBC is running a poll that shows only 41.1% thought he did just that. more than 52% thought it was a nothing new or not good at all.

See the poll

Wisconsin's Sen. Russ Feingold in Trouble in Wiscosin Election?

One more Democratic senator who has long been regarded as a safe prospect for reelection may be facing a challenging year in 2010.

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely voters in Wisconsin finds Republican Tommy Thompson edging incumbent Russ Feingold 47% to 43% in a hypothetical U.S. Senate match-up. Five percent (5%) like some other candidate, and four percent (4%) are undecided.

Any incumbent who attracts less than 50% support at this point in a campaign is considered potentially vulnerable.

Thompson, who served as governor of the state from 1987 to 2001 and as secretary of Health and Human Services in President George W. Bush’s first term, is being urged by Republicans to enter the race. However, it remains unclear if he will enter the race. Feingold is seeking a fourth six-year term in the Senate this November. - Rasmussen Reports

Obama Didn't Do Much to Bolster His Standing with Voters

During his State of the Union address tonight, President Obama touched on a number of topics that Rasmussen Reports has current polling data on measuring the attitudes of the American people.

In his speech, for example, the president called for taxing banks to repay bailouts. Most Americans like the general idea of a tax on large banks to help repay the bailout money. Voters think that only banks that received the bailout should pay the tax though, and 72% believe that other financial institutions like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should also pay the tax.

The president presented the $787-billion economic stimulus package as a success story. However, just 35% of voters believe the stimulus plan has helped the economy, while 31% believe it hurt. At this time, 39% are concerned the government will do too little to deal with the economy while 49% fear it will do too much.

Obama said the unpopular bailouts saved the economy. He’s right that they’re unpopular. By a two-to-one margin, voters still believe they were a bad idea. Voters are evenly divided as to whether they helped or hurt the economy in the short-term. However, voters overwhelmingly believe the bailouts are bad for the long-term health of the economy. - Rasmussen Reports

Fact Checking the President

(AP) EDITOR'S NOTE - An occasional look at assertions by government officials and how well they adhere to the facts.

President Barack Obama told Americans the bipartisan deficit commission he will appoint won't just be "one of those Washington gimmicks." Left unspoken in that assurance was the fact that the commission won't have any teeth.

Mr. Obama confronted some tough realities in his State of the Union speech Wednesday night, chief among them that Americans are continuing to lose their health insurance as Congress struggles to pass an overhaul.

Yet some of his ideas for moving ahead skirted the complex political circumstances standing in his way.

A look at some of Mr. Obama's claims and how they compare with the facts:

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OBAMA: "Starting in 2011, we are prepared to freeze government spending for three years. Spending related to our national security, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security will not be affected. But all other discretionary government programs will. Like any cash-strapped family, we will work within a budget to invest in what we need and sacrifice what we don't."

THE FACTS: The anticipated savings from this proposal would amount to less than 1 percent of the deficit - and that's if the president can persuade Congress to go along.

Mr. Obama is a convert to the cause of broad spending freezes. In the presidential campaign, he criticized Republican opponent John McCain for suggesting one. "The problem with a spending freeze is you're using a hatchet where you need a scalpel," he said a month before the election. Now, Mr. Obama wants domestic spending held steady in most areas where the government can control year-to-year costs. The proposal is similar to McCain's. - CBS News Story

McCain Says No to Jobs Bill

Sen. John McCain said he wouldn't support President Barack Obama's push for a new jobs bill, saying it would just be a repeat of failed policy.

"It's a stimulus bill again. It's failed. They said when we passed the last stimulus bill that we'd have 8 percent unemployment. That was their commitment. It's 10 percent [now]. Most Americans don't believe that mortgaging our children's futures is the way to go about it, particularly with the kind of stimulus package that failed in the past," the Arizona Republican said on CBS' "The Early Show" Thursday.

Job creation was a major theme of President Obama's State of the Union address Wednesday. So was bridging the partisan divide between Democrats and Republicans, particularly on health care.
But McCain's balk at the jobs bill may show just how hard it will be to accomplish both of those goals.

On health care reform, McCain said Republicans would "of course" compromise, "but we've got to be brought in on the negotiations. We were not. Nor have we on any other issue."

"If there's true bipartisan negotiations, if they will bring us in on the takeoff, hopefully we can be in on the landing. But the facts are that they figured that had they had 60 votes at the beginning of this health care debate … and they decided they would ram it through.

McCain rattled of a list of Republican proposals that he hoped Democrats would consider in a new health care reform package. Among them: medical malpractice reform, the ability to go across state lines to get insurance policies, rewarding wellness and fitness, establishing risk pools for people with pre-existing conditions and encouraging health savings accounts. - CBS News Story

Obama stood and preached about the Republicans being the "party of no". What he didn't preach to was the fact that on every bill that the Republicans were the party of no was because the Democrats felt that they had the votes and certainly didn't need to work with Republicans. He forgot that there was no transparency in the negotiations. He forgot about the big money used to buy Democrats votes. He forgot about the public saying emphatically NO. He forgot that he promised bipartisanship and has been the most dividing President.

Obama is a great speaker. He can stand there and tell you what you want to hear with a straight face. He can BS with the best of them. What he doesn't have is the leadership to follow through and get things done.

Obama had a whole year with all the cards in his favor and still couldn't get it done. At one point in the speech he said you can't point fingers and blame. Yet every single day of his Presidency he has done nothing but blame someone else.

If Obama wants change, start with himself.

Ford Posts $2.7 Billion in Profit - Without Taxpayer Help

Ford Motor Co. made $2.7 billion in 2009, its first annual profit in four years.

The automaker on Thursday also forecast a full-year profit in 2010. Earlier it had only promised to be "solidly profitable" in 2011.

Ford benefited from cost-cutting, a $696 million profit in its credit arm and popular cars and trucks like the Ford Fusion midsize sedan and Ford Escape small sport utility vehicle. It gained market share in North and South America and Europe, despite the worst U.S. sales climate in 30 years.

"While we still face significant business environment challenges ahead, 2009 was a pivotal year for Ford," Ford CEO Alan Mulally said in a statement. - ABC News Story