Right Pulse

I know it is not how it works in the US, but Republicans should just settle on Romney as the de facto opposition leader. From Politico:

Mitt Romney is the early favorite for the 2012 Republican Presidential nomination among the party’s voters in Colorado and Florida. Romney also led recent polls in New Mexico and Texas, and was second behind Mike Huckabee in both Georgia and North Carolina. Sarah Palin has not had the lead in any of the six states we’ve polled over the last month.

Sarah Palin is Obama for Republicans.

Ever since Barnaby Joyce became opposition spokesman for Finance he has been hounded by the ALP, unions and their sympathetic media for comments he made about the risks to US sovereign debt. In this context he also has warned about the risk to Australia of continually racking up more Federal debt.

I’ve outlined on a number of occasions why Barnaby is right on the mark. Virtually every month more evidence comes out supporting Barnaby’s position. Here are two such examples I highlighted in January and February. Here is another example supporting Barnaby this month.

Investors should avoid government securities, including U.S. Treasuries and the debt of other nations, because of the risks associated with excessive borrowing, a leading U.S. fund manager said on Tuesday.

“The most dangerous market there is national government debt because the borrowing doesn’t seem to be ending soon — and it’s not just a U.S. phenomenon,” Dan Fuss, vice chairman of investment manager Loomis Sayles, told Reuters.

The important point here is perception and confidence.

I’ve being covering the risk to the US’s sovereign credit rating for a while now, at least since November 2008. Well a little while ago Barnaby Joyce was hounded down by Wayne Swan and his financial commentariat in the press for suggesting that a US downgrade was a growing distinct possibility. Well guess what?

Moody’s Investors Service fired off a warning on Wednesday that the triple A sovereign credit rating of the US would come under pressure unless economic growth was more robust than expected or tougher actions were taken to tackle the country’s budget deficit.

This is not the first time such a warning has been fired off. Moody’s previously issued a veiled warning last year. It seems now they are manning up to the reality of the US’s dire fiscal position.

“Unless further measures are taken to reduce the budget deficit further or the economy rebounds more vigorously than expected, the federal financial picture as presented in the projections for the next decade will at some point put pressure on the triple A government bond rating,” the rating agency added in an issuer note.

And why wouldn’t it? The US is lucky to have the rating it does now. Printing money to devalue your country and monetise your debt is not exactly likely to impute investors with confidence. Given the way the US Federal Budget is put together by both President, Congress and Congressional Committees – all responsibility but no accountability – there seems no prospect of bringing spending under control.

The cavalier way in which the government dismissedJoyce’s previous warnings makes it clear that Rudd is more concerned with attacking his opponents and savings his own skin than preparing the nation’s budget for the economic mess that would be created from a US downgrade. Certainly it would make the cost of borrowing in Australia more expensive, but I don’t see that stopping Rudd’s spend-a-thon.

Dick Cheney has been ranked as the number on US conservative by the UK’s Telegraph:

Obama is finding out that the Islamist threat was not something dreamed up by Cheney and Bush. The President has been repeatedly rattled by Cheney, as illustrated by his decision last May to time a speech so that it would coincide with the former vice-president’s address at the American Enterprise Institute. It was Cheney who framed Obama’s delay on deciding his Afghanistan surge strategy as “dithering” – and the characterisation stuck.

Cheney is also a good friend of Australia, having visited the place on a number of occassions. The same cannot be said of Obama and his VP.

Get ready with the bucket and mouth wash (I couldn’t actually bring myself to watch the entire video):

With all the Sarah Palin hopenchangin’ going on right now, selling nearly 500,000 copies of her book in the first week, one might be surprised to learn that in a recent poll Romney tied with Obama, while Palin was behind. I think people are looking for a little less hopenchangin’ going rougin’, and a little more of boring competent technocrat deliever on jobsandeconomyin’.

Eastley should stick to radio, where the format is determined by producers, instead of trying his hand at blogging. According to ABC journalist Tony Eastley, critics of Obama are just racist.

The euphoria which existed in the United States when the bright, young, eloquent former lawyer, Barack Obama from Chicago was elected was remarkable; but it was by no means unanimous…

Wink, wink, everyone else is racist for opposing such a ‘bright, young, eleoquent’ person. And who are the critics: ‘hardline conservatives, zealots and oddballs.’ So given that Obama’s approval rating is currently at 48 per cent, the other 52 per cent that oppose him must be a bunch of ‘hardline conservatives, zealots and oddballs.’ Talk about impugning a nation.

…Widely read American columnist Maureen Dowd wrote in the New York Times that she was now convinced that some of her fellow Americans could not accept that their leader was a black man. Maureen Dowd’s comments could be set aside if it weren’t for the thoughts of a well-regarded US statesman and former US President, Jimmy Carter.

They certainly were not sought by the White House.

Well-regarded only be the loopy left. Carter’s comments were rejected by the White House, which accepts that just because someone disagrees with the administration does not make them a racist; something lost on Eastley. It also begs the question why tax-payers are having to pay for this overtly left-wing blog?

The ABC has released a typically biased report, in which they paint Obama as a the victim of a nasty right wing attack machine, over Obama’s upcoming speech to high school students.

Next week President Obama will visit a Washington area high school where he intends to deliver a 15 to 20 minute speech encouraging students to work hard and continue on in school.

It is a conservative message and one impossible to dispute.

Yet in a sign of how dysfunctional and poisonous politics in America has become the White House has been asked to release the text of the President’s message well ahead of delivery so that parents can decide whether or not they will send children to school on that day to hear the address.

Conservatives like Andrea Tantaros are comparing President Obama’s address to the propaganda of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il.

In other words, conservatives will stop at nothing to undermine the great Obama.

Conservatives have their eye on the mid-term elections and the White House in just over three years’ time. They have already been whipped into a frenzy by right-wing radio and commentators.

They will do whatever it takes even if it means undermining a message with which they agree just because it is a Democrat President delivering it to the country’s 13 to 17 year olds.

How does the ABC know that Obama will be delivering ‘a conservative message and one impossible to dispute’ if Obama has not yet released the text of the speech? It is clear who the ABC is giving the benefit of the doubt to.

Glenn Beck interviewing Rush Limbaugh

I am a tad disillusioned with local politics right now. Sounds as if Turnbull is ready to roll over on Rudd’s carbon cap and trade plans. I suppose it was inevitable he would. Right out opposition is the go. The Coalition could then campaign in every working class, mining, rural and regional electorate about the adverse effects Rudd’s scheme would have on employment, the cost of living and overall standard of living; and do so without any exaggeration or hyper-bole. But alas, it seems even though Howard’s conservatism bought 12 years of power the moderate and lefties like Julie Bishop, et al, in the Liberal Party all of a sudden think they know best.

On a brighter note:

If the 2012 presidential election were held today, President Obama and possible Republican nominee Mitt Romney would be all tied up at 45% each, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

3 per cent are undecided and 7 per cent want another candidate. 45 per cent is a very good opinion poll result for MR, especially considering that Obama’s approval numbers are still in the mid to high 50’s – although the margin is narrowing. Palin only scored a losing 42 per cent. Certainly in Australia, Turnbull would be over the moon with an even 45 per cent result and MR has not even decided if he will run again. Consider that Nixon, Reagan and GWB Senior all ran twice before they won the top job.