LIVE AT FIVE: 07.16.12

Jammie Wearing Fools recently pointed out that the June fundraising numbers inspired a sense of panic at Obama HQ, with one anonymous Democrat saying, “If people are freaked out, I think they should be freaked out.” And you can expect the Democrat freakout to intensify next Friday when we get the official FEC reports for June.

Why? Because, as one Republican source mentioned to me last week, while Team Obama admitted they got out-raised by $35 million in June, they didn’t report their cash-on-hand total. Hint, hint.

What my GOP source was suggesting was that the Obama campaign’s burn rate is already so high — their staff overhead is enormous, and they’ve been pouring on the attack ads in battleground states — that they’ve substantially depleted the cash advantage they enjoyed in May, when they ended the month with more than $100 million cash on hand (compared to a mere $17 million for Romney, as I’ve previously explained). The Campaign to Re-Elect the SCOAMF had counted on that financial cushion as their ace in the hole. If nothing else worked, they could bury Romney in attack ads down the home stretch in October, but it’s only July and if the Obama campaign is already burning through that cash at an unsustaintable pace . . .

Well, there’s a good reason they’re “freaked out,” you see.

If the polls start shifting toward Romney now, the scenes inside Obama HQ in Chicago will be Hitler-in-the-bunker Downfall parody stuff.

Furthermore, with indications the economy is getting worse instead of better, the Obama campaign’s increasingly desperate attempt to smear Romney as a latter-day robber baron shows that they’ve switched their message from “Hope and Change” to “Fear and Loathing.”

Obama has already “shot his wad,” as Jennifer Rubin puts it, and the incessant rants about Bain Capital and outsourcing don’t seem to have moved the polls significantly in Obama’s direction. Democrats appear to be apporaching that point at which Pete Da Tech Guy likes to invoke the famous words of General Sheridan yelled to his cavalry: “Ride right through them — they’re demoralized as hell!”

(Pete knows what happens to demoralized Democrats, because he was there the night Republican Scott Brown won Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat.)

What kind of crazytalk are Democrats hearing from the voices in their heads? James Carville and Stanley Greenberg proclaim that the middle class is in the throes of a “humanitarian crisis,” as if suburban America were a sort of domestic Darfur.

As crazy as this kind of “crisis” talk sounds, the fact that Democrats are taking the Carville-Greenberg analysis seriously shows just how desperate Democrats have become in their hunt to find something — anything — to distract from Obama’s policy failures. And you know that the Carville-Greenberg analysis is being taken serious because Obama just spent several days on the campaign trail giving speeches in which he chattered incessantly about the middle-class.

The phrase “middle-class families” appeared four times in Obama’s speech Saturday in Centreville, Virginia, as the president contrasted these virtuous hard-working folks with those evil greedy rich people who vote Republican:

[Republicans are] proposing, on top of continuing all the Bush tax cuts even for the wealthiest Americans, to also then have another $5 trillion in tax cuts, 80 percent of which would go to the wealthiest Americans.

Uh . . . one slight problem there, Chief: Centreville isn’t exactly the kind of Rust Belt blue-collar town where you’ll score a lot of political points trashing “the wealthiest Americans.” Badmouthing rich people won’t get you too far in Fairfax County, which just happens to be the third richest county in America, with a median annual household income of $105,416.

One other problem, Chief: Insofar as the “middle-class families” in Fairfax County have a problem, they blame your policies:

Tami Hurley stood beside Union Mill Road waving a sign in the hot mid-summer sun Saturday afternoon, awaiting President Obama’s arrival at Centreville High School. She was not alone. The Fairfax County businesswoman was one of more than 200 protesters who responded to the announcement of an “emergency rally” sent out by the Northern Virginia Tea Party. On her American flag T-shirt, Hurley displayed a pin that concisely summarized her situation in the Obama era: “Officially Screwed: Small Business Owner.” She explained that her family runs a heating and air-conditioning business that employs 14 people, a business that the Democrat’s administration seems determined to destroy.
“They’re going to increase all of our prices,” Hurley said, explaining that regulations enacted recently by the Environmental Protection Agency mandated a 40 percent decrease in the manufacture of R22, a refrigerant commonly used in air-conditioning systems. “Our price doubled in January, and we have to pass that along to our customers.”
The EPA’s mandate is part of Obama’s environmental agenda, enforcing an international anti-global-warming treaty called the Montreal Protocol. Hurley sees the president pushing a different sort of “climate change,” creating a climate that is hostile to free enterprise. “Obamacare is going to really hurt us, as well,” Hurley said, expressing a widespread concern among small business owners that the president’s health care program will impose costly mandates, decrease the quality of treatment, and require massive new taxes to fund it. Hurley pointed out that one of her young sons has epilepsy. Her son was also among the crowd of protesters who turned out Saturday in Centreville, waving a hand-lettered sign that said, “Obama = No Hope.”
Hostility to small business owners is unmistakably a matter of policy for the Obama administration, and Hurley is not deceived by the president’s rhetorical attempts to portray himself as a champion of the middle class. . . .

Please read the whole thing at The American Spectator.

Category: Barack Obama, Election 2012, Mitt Romney, Virginia

FMJRA 2.0: A Day Late And A Dollar Short

Posted on | July 15, 2012 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho

East Coast Opium Kingpin Alex Pareene Writes About ‘Standard-Issue Right-Wing Character Assassination’ of Kimberlin

Brett Kimberlin: ‘I Want to Be Left Alone’

Neal Rauhauser Boasts of Access to Secret Congressional Staff ‘Policy Intel’ Network UPDATE: Don’t Believe the Hype?

Hereditary Genius

Damn Dirty RINO

‘Concentrated Campaign of Harassment … to Terrorize People into Silence’
UPDATE: Parallels to Rauhauser

Zilla On Da Tech Guy’s Show

Zilla of the Resistance

FMJRA 2.0: Still Aging

Brain B’asploding #Bacon Burger

Rule 5 Sunday: Touch And Go

Do Not Let Spam Emails Name Your Children, Please

Obama Seeks Tax Increase on ‘Rich’

MSM Meme: Oh, Noes! Rich People Are Giving Money to Republicans!

Team Obama: ‘Ruh-Roh’

The Columbia Journalism Review Is (Still) Depraved and Decadent

Andrew J. Patick

Essay Contest Winner: ‘Why I’m Not a Democrat, in Three Words’

Permit Me to Remind You: Obama Still Has More Campaign Cash Than Mitt

The Coming Implosion of Salon.com

Separated At Birth: Beckel Boy / Tommy Boy Edition

The Daley Gator

LIVE AT FIVE: 07.11.12

Confirmed: ‘Occupy’ Movement Is a Wretched Hive of Villainous Scum

Federal Bureaucracy: Doomsday Machine

Mitt Romney: Scrappy Underdog?

I Can AZ ~~Cheezburger~~Rehab?

American Glob

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TrogloPundit

Useless Clown Who Hasn’t Passed A Budget In 3+ Years Now Sexual Position, Bleated Something Re: Olympics

The Daley Gator

Why Would Mitt Romney’s Campaign Manager Deliberately Insult Me?

The Conservatory

Hoping To Fake Change Successfully

Daily Pundit

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The (Perhaps Slightly Less) Lonely Conservative

Obama Explains His Unpopularity by Scapegoating Stupid Voters

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The Daley Gator

Obama In Northern Virginia 14Jul2012

American Glob

Northern Virginia Tea Party Protests Barack Obama, Supports Mitt Romney In Centerville, 14 July 2012

Posted on | July 15, 2012 | 5 Comments

by Smitty

Stacy McCain already laid down the 5 W’s on the protest yesterday, but here are more pictures to keep the Tea Partiers stoked.
Clicking on images will open them at full size in a blank tab:

The Tea Partiers mustered in the parking lot of a nearby elementary school, so that parking would not be a challenge.
	The guy carrying this sign had a megaphone, and was completely unafraid to use it.
Shortly after 1 O’Clock yesterday afternoon, there was a line going from the front of the school to the street, down a block to the south, and back into the parking lot.
With only about a day’s lead, the Tea Partiers were outnumbered, but completely undaunted. The Obama supporters were mixed in at the start, but kind of melted away after a while.
	This is one of the pictures that I sent to my Twitter stream. Having a smart phone with a full charge and a Twitter client like Seesmic is very handy for events like this.
Some of the Tea Partiers braved the Commie radiation emitted by the Obama supporters. Brave souls, indeed. There was a curious absence of patriotic emblems amongst the Obama supporters. That may have had to do with security restrictions for the presidential visit.I hope that when Romney runs for re-election in 2016, bringing flags and such to a political event will encouraged.
	I thought this was the best sign I saw. Chains we can be leavin‘.
I’ll have mine iced, and hold the sugar. Get off me: I’m not a born Southerner, and I don’t need diabetes.
	Also a well-done sign.
Good sign, too many words. Brevity.
	Overall, he is hiding his wretched, boring mediocrity.
Hope isn’t hiring, but it still wants credit, because if hope could have just told its story a little more hopefully, it was hoped it could have hopped to success.
	She knew this; you know this; I know this; the thousand lemmings across the street awaiting the Pied #Occupiper, not so much
Nice colors, and right about the limit for content, in my estimation.
	The oft-repeated point about being conservative and being lovely.
No mistaking the neon yellow.
	These were the interns from the bus, of which Mataconis still disapproves, AFAIK.
Robert Stacy McCain interviews the mastermind of the Northern Virginia Tea Party’s plot to restore representative democracy and Constitutional order, Ron Wilcox.

Update: Linked at Blue Crab Boulevard.

Category: Barack Obama, Tea Party, Virginia

For @dmataconis: Romney Campaign Bus In Centerville, VA

Posted on | July 15, 2012 | 8 Comments

by Smitty

Doug Mataconis is a sharp guy and frequent interlocutor on Twitter. While I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting him in person, but he taps into my lingering well of resentment toward all of the preppy, teacher’s pet, condescending snobs back in high school. May I be wrong, and have the pleasure of discarding that false impression later. But there it is:

Stupid RT @PeterHambyCNN: The Romney bus will be following Obama around VA today yfrog.com/esnoxonj

— Doug Mataconis (@dmataconis) July 13, 2012

Well, here is some documentary evidence of the bus in question:

So the bus operates both as a mothership for interns, and a rallying point for Romney supporters. That is in addition to whatever psychological effect, if any, it has on the Obama campaign. You’d think, as a self-labeled libertarian, Mataconis might take the indifferent view that, so long as no laws are broken and necessary permits obtained, Romney can drive his bus into the drink off Chappaquiddick Island.

But maybe I don’t fully grasp libertarianism.
To Mataconis, in the immortal words of Sgt Hulka:

Category: Election 2012, Mitt Romney, Virginia

Axis Of Fedora Puts Another Two Under The Brim

Posted on | July 15, 2012 | 12 Comments

by Smitty

Yesterday at the Barack Obama Elizabeth Warren channeling (quotation is from Roanoke, but I doubt they reloaded the teleprompter) the Axis of Fedora enrolled a couple of new members, joining the ranks of SWAC Girl and Fishersville Mike. Welcome aboard, Marooned in Marin

and some guy named Aaron Worthing.

The Axis of Fedora respects the individual privacy policies of members. Not everyone is comfortable with their face and name being bandied about on the ‘net. Now get your doggone blog on, guys!

Update: Daily Pundit points out some of the ambiguities of the English language.

Category: Blogging, Da Tech Guy, Virginia

World’s Youngest Blogger: Don’t Make Me Get On My Soap Box

Posted on | July 14, 2012 | 5 Comments

Category: humor, World's Youngest Blogger

‘Ground Zero’ in Fairfax County

Posted on | July 14, 2012 | 56 Comments

Frederick Peterson III protests outside Obama event in Centreville, Va.

CENTREVILLE, Virginia
When President Obama came to this prosperous suburban community, he was greeted by a contingent of Tea Party activists and local Republicans. The number of protesters were estimated variously between 100 and 300, but their enthusiasm — standing for hours in the July heat, waving signs and shouting slogans — could not possibly be underestimated.

Molly Ball of the Atlantic Monthly thinks Obama may be able to skate to victory in the Old Dominion, but if she’s willing to stake $100 on that proposition, I’ll be happy to cover her bet. Money talks, and Obama’s bullsh*t isn’t likely to walk very far here in Fairfax County.

“This is Republican territory,” Virginia state Del. Tim Hugo told me, standing among the protesters across Union Mill Road from Centreville High. “More importantly, these are the people who will take it on the chin with Obama’s tax increases. These are the job-producers, the dual-income families . . . This is Ground Zero for the Obama tax increases.”

Indeed, Fairfax County is one of the wealthiest counties in America, a place where the median houshold income is more than $100,000 and the average home price is more than a half-million dollars. The western side of Fairfax County is also staunchly Republican. GOP Rep. Frank Wolf carried this district with more than 60% of the vote in 2010. Hugo has represented the Centreville area in the Virginia House of Delegates since 2002 and he was standing with another GOP delegate from Fairfax County, Barbara Comstock, who is statewide co-chairman for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign.

“We’ve got people out door-knocking,” Comstock said, explaining the strong GOP turnout at an Obama event on a summer Saturday afternoon. E-mail bulletins sent out by Americans for Prosperity and state Tea Party leaders also helped generate an impressive crowd.

“It’s amazing how many people are here,” said Hugo.

“Our people are energized,” said Pat Herrity, a Fairfax County supervisor. “People around here are angry.”

The recent Supreme Court decision upholding ObamaCare has helped inspire Tea Party activists to renewed efforts. “Our attendance has doubled since the Supreme Court decision,” said Ron Wilcox, a Fairfax County resident who is an organizer for the Northern Virginia Tea Party.

UPDATE: Now, for a selection of photos from today’s event:

This is Tami Hurley of Burke, Va., and her button (click to enlarge the photo) says: “”Officially Screwed: Small Business Owner.” Mrs. Hurley explained that her business has 14 employees and is being wrecked by regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency and will be further hurt if ObamaCare goes into effect.

Sarah Falk, her friend Margaret Baker and Margaret’s daughter Emily Baker.

UPDATE II: Still more photos:

Tami Hurley’s sons Brian, 12, and Kevin, 14, with a guy named Henry who didn’t want to give his last name.

Hey, some of us weren’t fooled the first time . . .

Smitty still can’t understand why the Thad McCotter presidential juggernaut fell short. But he’s happy with his second choice.

Barbara Comstock, Pat Herrity and and Tim Hugo talk to a reporter.

UPDATE III: Marooned in Marin has many more photos as well as videos. He estimated the protest attendance as “a couple of hundred.”

UPDATE IV: Linked by Jackie Wellfonder — thanks!

UPDATE V: Jazz Shaw says Obama decided yesterday to get in touch with his inner Elizabeth Warren. He’s 1/64th Cherokee, y’know.

UPDATE VI: Michael D. Shear of the New York Times reports on the president’s Virginia campaign trip:

CLIFTON, Va. — President Obama barnstormed through this swing state on Saturday as his campaign relentlessly hammered at Mitt Romney’s business record, releasing a mocking new ad that shows Mr. Romney singing “America the Beautiful” as it accuses his former firm of shipping American jobs overseas.
Mr. Obama, speaking first to a drenched crowd during a downpour in the Richmond suburb of Glen Allen, and then at Centreville High School in Fairfax County, accused Mr. Romney of investing in “companies that have been called pioneers in outsourcing.” . . .
“My opponent and his allies in Congress, they believe in top-down economics,” Mr. Obama said. “If you cut through all the stuff, what they are really saying is tax cuts for the wealthy, roll back regulations. That is essentially their plan.”

Whereas Obama and the Democrats want to raise taxes on everybody and regulate everybody out of a job. That is essentially their plan.

Welcome, Instapundit readers! The Professor quotes Centreville readers who point out that (a) many of the supporters attending the Obama rally were from out of the area, including some from Maryland; and (b) Obama skipped the larger facility at nearby George Mason University to speak in a high school gymnasium but didn’t fill up even the smaller venue.

Still no word on whether Molly Ball is willing to bet $100 on Obama winning Virginia. Is she bluffing? C’mon, Molly, bet me.

Category: Barack Obama, Election 2012, Virginia

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The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

LIVE AT FIVE: 07.16.12

‘They’re Demoralized as Hell!’

FMJRA 2.0: A Day Late And A Dollar Short

Northern Virginia Tea Party Protests Barack Obama, Supports Mitt Romney In Centerville, 14 July 2012

For @dmataconis: Romney Campaign Bus In Centerville, VA

Axis Of Fedora Puts Another Two Under The Brim

World’s Youngest Blogger: Don’t Make Me Get On My Soap Box

‘Ground Zero’ in Fairfax County

THE FULL METAL JACKET REACH-AROUND AWARD

HIT THE FREAKING TIP JAR!

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