Obama has tough sell

A reluctant warrior, a war exhausted public and a skeptical congress set the tone for tonight's presidential address. 

Obama attempted to convince congress and the public that it was in the national interest to threaten Syria with military action for using chemical weapons which is a violation of international law. Is the US willing to confront dictators who violate international law?  Apparently the rest of the world is unwilling to do so. We must be willing to use our resources when a dictator  decides to violate the most serious crimes against their own people. 

To decide or not?

As the administration was moving the US towards a limited strike and proclaiming that there was an urgent need to respond to Syria's use of chemical weapons the administration now decides it will seek congressional approval..

Obama does not need congressional approval. It will take longer for this to get through congress than the airstrike itself. It sends a message to doctors that America does not have strong leadership. 

I could understand if we were committing hundreds of thousands of troops but this is expected to take just a few days like Libya. This should give the opposition some breathing room and does not commit us to a long term stay. 

Saudi Arabia has expressed public support. 

Bachmann quits, Graves too?

Michele Bachmann's sudden announcement that she was bowing out of the 6th CD. She won a hotly contested but close race last time around. Here presidential campaign was also under investigation by the office of confessional ethics.  She definitely made an impact on MN politics. At least she was the one politicians name everybody knew considering most can't name their member of congress. 

Jim graves should have stayed in the race if he was serious about running for office. So was he not serious about representing the citizens of the 6the CD? 

GOP at crossroads at CPAC

GOP activists and politicians gathered at their annual retreat to discuss the future of the party.
The divide is either going back to our roots or rebranding our party.
The truth is we need to do both and we can. We desire to get back to the core that made this country great. However, we must recognize that there is a serious demographic shift taking place. We can no longer just simply rely on the white vote anymore.
Our values are consistent with most Americans. However some people do need some help from the government.
As Pawlenty once called it not limited government but effective government. We need to take the power back from the democrats. We will lose a generation of Americans if we are unable to convince them that we are for them. The good news is that the democrats can not continue to
sell welfare because there won't be any more money to spend. Look at Europe and how they thought that they could spend their way to a socialist utopia .
Both parties must confront their bases and tell them that we can't continue on the path we are are going without serious consequences.

GOP balks at bill

The GOP caucus continues to have heartburn over increased revenue with no serious commitment to spending cuts. Unfortunately regardless of the outcome of this bill, it would still not address serious issues regarding the structural and long term deficits considering that we are still having to increase the debt ceiling.
The media continues to blame the te part wing of the GOP for being so difficult but if we do not deal with the debt then we will have to take far more drastic measures and then how will the democrats sell this to their constituents?

So who will blink first?

The Speaker suffered an embarrassment by failing to have the votes to pass his Plan B which would have raised taxes on income over$1million dollars. Polls suggest the republicans would get blamed if thee is no deal. Regardless of any deal the bottom line is that we need to cut spending. A tax increase might even be necessary because the fact of the matter is that both sides have been benefiting from the taxpayers for decades. The democrats have used federal money to promise money for their constituents and the republicans have given tax subsidies to companies who were already profitable. At some point the public trough was going to dry.

Romney concedes to Obama