Friends -

It is time to give President Obama credit for keeping a commitment.

This is, for this President, a pretty remarkable achievement.  I am not blaming him for the fact that the rise of the oceans has not slowed or that the planet has not begun to heal; only his true believers, i.e., the mainstream media, believed all that campaign rhetoric anyway.  On a more mundane level, President Obama promised to reduce the deficit in half by the end of this term; instead he has added more than $1 trillion to the nation’s debt each year he has been in office.  His Administration projected passing his $800 billion plus stimulus plan would keep unemployment below 8 percent; unemployment went above 8 percent in February of his first year and has yet to return.  The President promised repeatedly to change the tone in Washington and to unite Democrats and Republicans; he did succeed in convincing the House recently to unanimously reject his budget, but I don’t think that is what he meant.  The President campaigned against Hillary Clinton’s individual mandate and John McCain’s tax increases on certain health plans, and included both in Obamacare.  That would be the same Obamacare he promised would result in our premiums being reduced by $2,500.  He has promised every year in office to offer his own plan to reform entitlement programs, but a curious nation still waits.

Perhaps we should only give the President partial credit, since the commitment he has kept was not one he personally made.  His Energy Secretary, Steven Chu, infamously said even before the election in 2008, “Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe.”  I should mention, since the President never fails to, that Secretary Chu is a Nobel Prize winner.  Sounds like Chu is getting advice from Al Gore, yet another Nobel Prize winner.  The President, who also has his own Nobel Prize, and Secretary Chu have done a remarkable job.  National average gasoline prices doubled since he took office, and, even more impressively, in 2011, the average annual prices of a barrel of oil and a gallon of gas were higher than at any time in the last 150 years.  As President Bush might say, “heck of a job.”

Even though then-Senator Obama was quick to blame President Bush for rising gasoline prices, he now complains current prices are not his fault.  For once, I think the President is being too modest, for clearly his actions have contributed to rising prices, reduced availability of domestically produced energy, and continued dependence on foreign countries.  I truly believe in an all of the above strategy, including oil and gas, nuclear power, wind and solar power, conservation, biofuels, other renewables, and clean coal, that leads to more affordable energy, an expanding manufacturing base, and an improved standard of living, whereas the President’s strategy seems to be based on a more European worldview of less consumption, higher energy prices, and more government regulation of our lives.  Trade in your SUV’s and suburban homes, and prepare to bathe less frequently!

The President has clearly been reading the polls and has promised in an election year to focus on the economy, make the creation of jobs his top priority, and work to reduce energy prices.  What can President Obama do to show this is not mere campaign rhetoric that will be quickly forgotten after the election?

First, the President should show through his actions that he understands the law of supply and demand.  While President Obama likes to take credit for higher domestic oil production, he fails to disclose these levels are based on decisions made before he took office and that much of this activity is taking place on private lands.  To put it simply, he was against domestic production before he was for it.  Despite a recent boost in activity, the average number of deep-water drilling permits approved monthly is down nearly 30% from the historical norm before the BP spill.  In 2011, lease sales for onshore drilling on federal lands reached an all-time low, since 1984, when discounting for leases sold in previous years.  Opening new fields means increased supply which means lower prices.  Certainly, our Ivy League educated President understands the importance of opening new fields, e.g., ANWR, and increasing supply; if not, he should demand a refund from Columbia for any tuition he paid towards economics courses.

Second, the Administration should stop sending a muddled message on fracking and instead provide predictability to companies making expensive multi-year investments that are opening up shale plays across the country and transforming the marketplace for natural gas.  This industry already supports more than 600,000 jobs, has helped reduce domestic natural gas prices by more than 75%, and caused companies to start the process of building multi-billion dollar terminals to export and not just import liquefied natural gas.  Falling natural gas prices mean more than a cheaper and cleaner heating and transportation fuel; natural gas is an important feedstock, and lower prices have already helped convince companies to invest billions of dollars and to create thousands of manufacturing jobs in America.

Third, President Obama should instruct his Cabinet to cease and desist all regulatory actions undermining safe, affordable domestic energy production.  For example, clearly suspending Tier 3 gasoline standards that are expected to increase gasoline prices by as much as 25 cents a gallon.

Fourth, President Obama should end the EPA’s hostile stance on domestically abundant clean coal energy.  Then-Senator Obama described flawed cap and trade proposals that would “bankrupt” anyone wanting to open a coal plant.  China now produces more than three times as much coal as we do, and is the world’s largest importer.  Shutting down coal plants in America, while China continues to burn every pound of coal it can get its hands on, does not reduce global emissions; it simply makes our electricity more expensive.

Fifth, the President should reverse his decision on the Keystone XL pipeline, linking our Gulf Coast refineries to production facilities in Canada and the booming Bakken oil fields of Montana and North Dakota.  This decision would create 20,000 construction jobs and 100,000 indirect jobs, and reassure our friends to the north that their future lies with us and not China.  After facing intense criticism, the President did relent and approve the portion of the pipeline from Cushing, Oklahoma to Texas.  He was against the pipeline, before he was for it.  This is certainly a step in the right direction, but someone needs to buy the President a map to show him how far Oklahoma is from Canada.  Perhaps he should request Columbia also refund his tuition paid towards any geography courses.

Sixth, President Obama should stop singling out one industry for tax increases in favor of crony capitalism that rewards countless Solyndras, and should instead advocate for a flatter tax code with lower rates and no loopholes.  Let the different energy companies compete in the marketplace.  He must understand higher taxes mean higher prices for American consumers.

Many Republicans criticize the President for his incompetence on rising energy prices, but I believe this to be unfair.  I think the President’s radical environmental ideology, not his Administration’s incompetence, is to blame for his failure to adopt a comprehensive energy policy that makes the rational choices that would lower energy prices.

-Bobby

Respectful columnist George Will has also made a strong case for Jindal:

Here are two excellent choices:

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Louisiana’s Gov. Bobby Jindal, 40, was a 20-year-old congressional staffer when he authored a substantial report on reforming Medicare financing. At 24, he became head of Louisiana’s Department of Health and Hospitals, with 12,000 employees and 40 percent of the state budget. Back in Washington at 26, he was executive director of the National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare. In 1999, he became president of Louisiana’s state university system, which has 80,000 students. In 2001, he served as an assistant secretary of health and human services. He became governor after three years in Congress.

Even 2008 standard bearer Sen. John McCain agrees that Jindal is an excellent choice!  And he may be on the verge of a huge educational reform that in effect establishes a limited state-wide voucher system:

Gov. Bobby Jindal’s education reform agenda could be coming to a head in the Louisiana State Senate this week where the vote is expected to be close on some key bills. Jindal has proposed converting the New Orleans voucher program into a statewide option, expand the number of charter schools, and interlink tenure with student and teacher performance. The governor has encountered stiff opposition from the state’s two teachers unions—the Louisiana Association of Educators and the Louisiana Federation of Teachers. Jindal is also now the target of a recall effort initiated by individual teachers whom the unions have not yet formally embraced.

Here are some details of the Orleans Parish voucher plan passed in 2008:

Under the legislation enacted in 2008, the Student Scholarships for Educational Excellence (SSEE) program provides low-income families in Orleans Parish with the option to select a public or private school. Over 1,800 students in grades K-6 have received scholarships in the current 2011-2012 school year.

To be eligible, household income cannot exceed 250 percent of the federal poverty guidelines, which would be $55,875 for a family of four in 2011. Moreover, the student must have attended an “F” rated public school the previous year, or be entering kindergarten. The Louisiana Department of Education has published a list of the schools participating in the Orleans Parish program.

This article from the Alexandria Town Talk is breath-taking.

Gov. Bobby Jindal triumphed Thursday in his bid to embark on a historic overhaul of public education in Louisiana, receiving final House passage of his centerpiece proposals.

In a state where student performance lags that of the nation, the complex bills will make it harder for teachers to gain tenure while establishing a statewide voucher program for private school tuition and multiplying the ways to establish charter schools. The bills also lessen local school board authority in hiring and firing decisions, expand online schools and restructure public financing of education.

***

Vouchers will be available to at most an estimated 2,000 new students to attend private schools with public tax dollars in the fall. New charter schools will take at least a year to get through the application and approval process. And the earliest a teacher can lose tenure under the new evaluation system is spring 2014.

Of course, the usual stuff from the other side:

“I have no doubt that there’s going to be a courtroom in the future for both bills,” Louisiana Federation of Teachers President Steve Monaghan said in an interview Thursday.

***

Opponents say the governor’s initiatives will siphon dollars from public schools and leave some of the neediest students in schools with fewer dollars to educate them. They complain private and parochial schools won’t be held to the same accountability standards as public schools even though they’ll get public funding. They criticized the record speed at which the bills were pushed through a session that doesn’t end until June. And they accused Jindal of advancing the ideas to boost his conservative credentials nationally.

***

Rep. Patricia Smith, D-Baton Rouge, said the voucher proposal and “pop-up” charter schools will take enough dollars away from traditional public schools that they will bankrupt school systems.

“This is a national agenda to do away with public education,” said Rep. Rogers Pope, R-Denham Springs, a retired school superintendent from Livingston Parish.

Let me say this as kindly as I can:  We’ve tried it your way for many years.  We have declining test scores, metal detectors, and psychobabble for history.  School choice is the wave of the future.  Bobby Jindal ought to be Vice President Biden’s worst nightmare.  He might even let Hillary have the job to avoid debating Gov. Jindal.  That debate will be like one of those one-sided boxing matches called for mercy!  Bobby Jindal should be the Vice President of whoever is nominated.

At 7:08 am, Governor Johnson will be on WCHV (1260 AM and 94.1 FM) taking questions.  Call at 434.817.7653!  Try to mention Virginia Right (or Conflicted Libertarian) while you are at it!

From 1pm to 2pm, Governor Johnson will be the guest on the Rob Schilling Show (A great show by the way!) on WINA AM 1070 (see http://schillingshow.com)  Ask him a question!  Call 434.977.1070.  Don’t forget Virginia Right!

At 7pm that evening, Governor Johnson will speak at the Northside Library in Charlottesville.  I strongly recommend you go.  If I did not have a church meeting that night, I’d be there!

Goldwater’s supporters began as early as 1961 to win precincts and win over conservative activists. The Tea Party is following a similar trail. But they work for a stricter conservative establishment, not a singular conservative challenging the moderate establishment. A Republican dark horse will likely only emerge if he or she can become that singular conservative.

It’s important to get involved in the local GOP.  In 2008, constitutionalist Delegate (state representative) Robert G. “Bob” Marshall was in a tight convention battle with former Virginia governor James S. “Jim” Gilmore, III.  There was a battle among the RonPaul supporters as to what to do – work within the party or opt-out.  I recommended that the Paul supporters get involved in the local party and run for delegates to the local and the state convention.  They did sign up to the local (Hanover County) convention where there was a tight local party chair race.  I brought a small county flag as the symbol to rally around the we sat together.  All who prefiled went to the state convention.  But the first ballot for local party leader (where we decided to support one of the candidates) ended in a stunning tie!  Thus there was a second ballot.  Many left the convention thinking it was decided and the liberty contingent became a crucial part of the election of the new local party chair (who is still there and is doing a fabulous job). 

But there’s more:  When the Hanover liberty contingent went to the state convention in Richmond, they were joined by others:  loud and vocal.  Although the Paul delegates were not siginifcant in influencing the national delegate selection or bring about major debate, they did make the Marshall/Gilmore race much closer than expected.  The final vote was about 52-48 percent.  This was a encouraging moral victory where virtually every establishment politician endorsed Gilmore. 

There’s still more:  In 2009, at least one pundit (Soren Dayton at the Next Right) credited the Republican Liberty Caucus and Ron Paul supporters in nominating Ken Cuccinelli for Virginia Attorney General.  Cuccinelli’s election is a powerful tale of what can happen when Paul supporters work within the system. 

Being a precinct captain is not glamorous work but it is how a political party stays true to its grass roots.  When I was elected precinct captain in Ohio, I was a member of the county central committee.  I also served once in Prince William County as a magistrial district chairman (a district that elects a member of the board of county supervisors) and I was again on the county committee but with a more important duty. 

At the Daily Paul is the report of a liberty supporter who was elected his precinct committeeman in Iowa and as a result he will CHAIR his local caucus in 2012.  One of those posting support said this:

Point of Order!
Great job Patriot!
In 2008 I ran for Precinct chair in Texas to support Ron Paul. I won 142 to 141. I am back on the ballot for the March 2 election.  I’ve spent the last 2 years spreading the message of Freedom, Supporting Dr. Paul and now Debra Medina.
Everyone who would be interested,think about running for precinct chair as a lot of the chairs are vancant (sic) and you can run unopposed.

I confess that right now I have so many other irons in the fire (curling, National Day of Prayer, Toastmasters, leadership at church) I am not especially active in my local party committee but I plan to get more active as time goes on.  I also have a boring election (Cantor is my congressman and he will not have a serious opponent) so I can be a bit inactive.  I ran into Donna Holt at my local tea party in Richmond that I was a bad libertarian but I blog for the cause.  She was very encouraging and said keep on blogging that is a real talent and a help.  Donna Holt is a hero of mine as she is our state Campaign for Liberty coordinator and worked hard to get Virginia to pass anti-REAL ID legislation and also some new laws this year.  I would guess that C4L needs many local leaders as well.  Contact C4L for more information.  Also consider joining your state Republican Liberty Caucus.  If on or near a college campus, check out the YAL, Young Americans for Liberty.  Find a local constitutionalist leader to support – a candidate for school board or county commission.  Or BE the candidate.

His first was about Ron Paul:

Still, the presidential race is eons in the distance, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a wide-open contest at the start. That is good news for libertarian Ron Paul, who, startlingly, finished just one vote behind Romney. His organizers are the most intense of all.

This may well be great news.  If Paul and former NM Governor Gary Johnson can make the deal and run together as a libertarian ticket, they may have a force to reckon with. 

Fineman’s OTHER observation concerns my other political hero:  Bobby Jindal.

Other than former Oklahoma congressman J. C. Watts and RNC Chairman Michael Steele, who spoke to the gathering, I don’t think I saw a single African-American at the event. I’m not sure I saw a Latino or Asian person there, either—except for Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. I shouldn’t have expected anything else, of course: “Southern, white, Republican, conservative” is a quadruple redundancy. They have as much right to hold a meeting as any other group. But I couldn’t escape the feeling that, as amped up and potent as this crowd felt inside the ballroom, there is another, larger world—and another generation—rising elsewhere.

See what I mean about tone?  I would think there were many African-American, Latino and Asian attendees at the SRLC.  If you were one, write to Fineman.  But Fineman makes a point that if someone like Romney were to be nominated, he may well seek out Jindal and persuade him to be his running mate for demographic reasons.   There are better reasons.  I think the nation might be in for a surprise.

Paul spoke against the new “diet police” threat.  I was pleased to see it.  The fast food companies are scared and they should be:  The treatment of big tobacco forced a legal settlement approved by Congress (where is that in the Constitution?) and now fast food may be in the sights of the same nannies who unfairly targeted big tobacco.  I agree that cigarettes are bad.  Tobacco is however, just like hamburgers, a LEGAL product. 

C-Span quoted Paul as saying this:  “The reason the American people have awoken is because the country is broke and the people in Washington won’t admit it.”  He also asserted that the Obama adnministration is not socialist but rather a corporatist ideology. 

I was particularly impressed with Rep. Thaddeus McCotter.  McCotter represents the 11th district of Michigan and I had never heard of him or heard him speak before.  He spoke softly but powerfully about the intellectual and ideological basis for conservatism.  His sense of duty has a Calvinistic ring to it.  Congressman McCotter is determined to do right no matter what.  Try to catch him on the third day of SRLC on C-Span.  He is the chair of the House Republican Policy Committee.  He travels every week to DC for sessions.

McCotter is at about 3:45.  He began with a sentiment I agree with:  Sharing in the prayers and mourning of the Polish people in the loss of their president and many leaders. 

Several McCotter highlights:

“I am just a simple country lawyer from Detroit.”

They sometimes ask in the grocery store:  “Are you him?  [pause]  That depends on if you like him or not.”

McCotter asks:  Can a nation based on self-evident truths survive “the cancerous growth of moral relativism”?  Could Calvin has said it better?  Nor would Francis Schaeffer.  His answer is no:

“Our truths are self-evident not relative.”

McCotter also said that, “Liberty is from God not the government.”  I told you he sounded like a Calvinist!

“Our prosperity is from the private sector not the public sector.”  AMEN!

McCotter said there were two fundamental differences between President Obama and the GOPers at the Blair House Health Care Summit.  Here’s his second (and most important):

“No administration…has the right to divide and defy the American people’s judgment on their own health care.”

Finally this brilliantly cadenced coda:

“They measure progress by the expansion of big government and bureaucracy and we measure progress by the expansion of self-government and liberty.” 

Wow. 

Calvin Coolidge said the business of America is business.  McCotter says much the same thing.  His ending is too long to quote here from the video.

If a speechwriter wrote this short address, he deserved a bonus if not a raise.  If Thaddeus McCotter wrote it, he is one of our most eloquent leaders today.  He uses cadence and language as a chessmaster would develop his pieces.  One my one he builds power until you are beaten.  I am keeping an eye on this representative for the future.

The title is the nod to the extremely worldly (but alas extremely popular) movie, “Revenge of the Nerds”, but this may be the year of the nerd, dork, wonk, etc.  A friend advised me that DC is “Hollywood for ugly people” (a nod to yet another movie:  Because Washington is Hollywood for Ugly People) but regardless, The thing that Jindal, Ryan and Daniels bring to the table is an intense intellectual curiosity and a desire to solve problems. 

Cong. Ryan has a plan to get the nation out of debt and protect Medicare and Social Security.  Shawn Tully at Fortune has a useful synopsis of the plan and the man.  It’s not without some loss of benefits but that is part of the necessary sacrifice.  He wants to reform the tax system to have a choice – the regular tax return or a simplified tax return at either 10 or 25% with no deductions.  Even the CBO admits the Ryan plan will work.  But, Speaker Pelosi criticized it (Yes, that’s may be best evidence Ryan’s on the right track) as hurting the elderly:

Obama noted that Ryan had “made a serious proposal” to rein in the deficit and then praised him for at least addressing entitlement spending. Following those apparently peaceful words, Democrats launched a withering assault over the next three days as budget director Peter Orszag, Democratic Congressional Campaign chairman Chris Van Hollen, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi all pummeled Ryan for threatening the safety net for the elderly and providing tax breaks for the rich.

Ryan elected to take on the President at the Health Care Summit:

Ryan got his chance to confront the President at the health-care summit Feb. 25. Seated across from Obama, Ryan addressed him directly with a six-minute, numbers-laden, wonkish analysis of the Senate bill that contradicted the administration’s pledge that the plan wouldn’t add to the mountainous deficit.

Ryan correctly stated that the bill projects that Medicare will lower reimbursements to doctors by $371 billion over the next 10 years, yet Congress would cancel those cuts in a separate bill, all part of an attempt to mask the true size of future deficits through “gimmicks and smoke and mirrors.” Obama steered the discussion away from Ryan’s numbers, and the White House hasn’t challenged his analysis.

The nerdy fun seems to be spreading to candidates.  Rick Snyder is a GOP candidate for Governor of Michigan.  His “One Tough Nerd” ad drew chuckles but also increased his polling numbers from less than 1 percent to 12 percent.  RCP explains this in the nerds article:

Snyder has gone from political zero (polling at 3 percent) to a potential-nerd hero. The ad is one big reason. And this story gets nerdier.

The Michigan firm EPIC-MRA recently polled likely primary voters. Only the contenders’ names were first read. Snyder placed third among the GOP candidates, at 12 percent. Then pollsters read candidates brief biography. The Gateway geek rose 10 points and took second place. Among “strong Republicans,” Snyder’s biography moved him from third to first place.

Here’s the ad.  Judge for yourself.  I like Snyder (I also like Michigan, too) and think maybe the issue is we need competence not flashiness.

“On Solid Ground: Returning to America’s Core Values,” to be written by Jindal and Hoover Institution research fellow Peter Schweizer, is scheduled for release on July 12 but can be pre-ordered through a variety of book outlets such as Amazon.com, Borders.com, Booktopia.com and Booksamillion.com.

This book should highlight the accomplishments of Jindal.  It might do more:

“In his new book, Jindal tells his own inspiring story and reveals his plan for putting conservatives and America back on solid ground,” the promotional capsule states. “From health care and national debt to how we can fundamentally transform Washington, Jindal tackles controversial issues and offers fresh solutions. … ‘On Solid Ground’ provides the leadership voice Republicans seek and the guidance America needs.”

Mark Ambinder of Atlantic Magazine (cited by NOLA) speculatesthat Jindal may be interested in the White House.  Ambinder asserts that Jindal was a frontrunner until the imfamous speech of 2009 (I think Jindal was badly advised as to the delivery and audience; compared it with Governor Bob McDonnell’s speech this year) but he is still a respected policy voice:

Since his national political star rose, and fell, Jindal has been considered a policy whiz in the GOP, rising through Louisiana’s state government at an impressively young age. Writing a book seems to be the mark of presidential ambitions–Romney, Palin, and Mike Huckabee have all published and toured to promote books in the last year–and it will be interesting to see just how much policy is included in this book, and whether or not his publicity rollout constitutes an aggressive move back onto the national political scene.

My admiration for Jindal is based on a combination of immense accomplishments and social conservatism packaged in a diversity-friendly package.  He is also an evangelical who is not shy
about his faith.  I will always be conflicted about Jindal versus Paul. 

Paul captured 31% of the activists (and I wasn’t even there to help!) at CPAC, beating Romney by 9 points and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin by 24 points (she got 7%).  This is an amazing turnout.  The conservative activists had mixed feelings about the results.

Pro:

With participants naming “reducing the size of federal government” as their top issue, the 74-year old libertarian hero captured 31 percent of the 2,400 votes cast in the annual contest, usually seen as a barometer of how the GOP’s conservative wing regards their potential presidential candidates.

Con:

The announcement of Paul’s win, a surprise victory unlikely to have a major impact on the 2012 presidential contest, drew a volley of loud boos from the CPAC audience.

That discontent could be seen in the poll results: A majority of participants said they wished the Republican Party had a better field of candidates to choose from.

But I disagree with CNN’s analysis:  I think this WILL have an impact on the 2012 race.  The better test is the CPAC poll for next year.  I would think that Lord willing Paul will win again going away.  Paul does not change his views and has been a paragon of integrity in Congress.  He is also a social conservative.  Young activists realize we are running out of time to change the course of our country.

But the CPAC straw poll is out and there are two surprises:  In a solid second place, just six points behind former Governor Mitt Romney is Bobby Jindal.  That’s right.  Governor Jindal had 14 percent.  This is more surprising when you consider that Romney is unofficially campaigning for President and Jindal has disavowed any interest in the White House. 

The other surprise is that Cong. Ron Paul came in fourth, right behind former Gov. Sarah Palin.  He had 13% of the straw poll votes.  This shows that Paul has made inroads into the conservative activists who frequent CPAC and related events. 

Next year’s straw poll will be critical:  I have indicated my interest in being a credentialed blogger for CPAC and if selected, I’ll live blog from there.  Can I cast half a vote for Jindal and half for Paul?  In the meantime, read my friend Tom White’s blog!