And he won it huge.

President Obama has, at least temporarily, killed the Keystone XL pipeline.  The project would've created an estimated 20,000 jobs in the next 3 to 6 months, and many more in the years to come.

It also would make us somewhat less dependent on oil imports from countries that are not always our friends. 

For all the hoopla over the "shovel ready" jobs that were supposed to be created by that epic failure which was the "stimulus" bill, this project really has those type of jobs.  Bowing to pressure from the "environmental" lobby (which is actually the anti-cheap energy lobby), the President refused to move it forward. 

A perfect example of how Mr. Obama really feels about our out of work fellow citizens:

He doesn't care. 

 

I've already written one response to the media spin over Newt Gingrich's recent comments, that some of our nations child labor laws are stupid.  The implication that Newt believes we should go back to a time when 10 year olds had to work in factories is clearly absurd.  But, like many of this ideas, his takes on this are fairly complex and so easily exploited by his opponents.  The Speaker leaves few thoughts unexpressed, so finding something to lift out of context is pretty easy.

Last week the Obama Administration went further than it ever has into expanding it's power and defying our Constitutional system of check and balances.  This happened when the President recess-appointed Richard Cordray to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 

The trouble is that a recess appointment can only be made, as the name implies, when the Senate is in recess.  The Senate was not in recess, but Obama made the appointment anyway. The fundamentals of the controversy are spelled out in this excellent column by Michael Barone. 

Senate Republicans had been blocking Cordray's appointment pending legislation to significantly change the structure and power of the Bureau and it's chief.  The changes are much needed, as the CFPB is one of the most pernicious aspects of the Dodd/Frank financial reform law.  That is really saying something, as Dodd/Frank is one of the worst bills ever passed.  It should be repealed, and I hope if Republicans have solid gains in the election this fall, it will be.   In the mean time, the reforms being sought are a good idea.

Under current law, the CFPB will greatly increase the cost of borrowing, crowding many consumers out of the credit and housing markets.  Funny, since the agency is supposed to protect those very same consumers.  It will also put immense pressure on small local and regional banks, who don't have the large reserves of capital it'll take to deal with the mountain of new regulations the agency will undoubtedly generate.  Also ironic, since it wasn't these banks that played a role in the finance crisis of 2009, but the "to big to fail" mega banks.  Wise public policy would support smaller banks instead of placing roadblocks in their path.  But as we know, wisdom is in short supply in DC these days.

Here's hoping legal challenges to Cordray's appointment will successfully slow this agency down. 

If it does, hopefully that will serve notice to Barack Obama that this is still a Constitutional Republic, not a Monarchy.  And he is a President, not a King.

Mitt Romney has to be one real happy ex-Governor right about now. 

The former chief executive of Massachusetts won in convincing fashion last Tuesday.  Romney tallied 39% of the vote, beating his closest competitor, Texas Congressman Ron Paul, by 15%.  For the first time we saw him get more than 25% of the vote.  His victory speech was tremendous.  It featured one of my favorite lines of the campaign so far: "The President has run out of ideas, now he's running out of excuses.  And (together we will) make 2012 the year he runs out of time." 

The die is increasingly being cast in this race.  So far Mr. Romney has had all the answers.  The South Carolina primary is in 8 days, on January 21st.  If Romney wins there in decisive fashion, this will pretty much be over.  Sad but true, as it seems like we're just getting started, but if someone is going to establish some momentum against him it'll have to be at the next contest in South Carolina.  Even though he'll still be far from the 1144 delegates he needs, Romney has a lot of money and a huge, well organized campaign operation.  If he couples that with his wins in Iowa and New Hampshire and then adds a win in South Carolina, his nomination will begin to appear inevitable.  If that happens, his opponents fundraising will start to dry up, and it will do so at just the time when money becomes far more important.  As we move into bigger states like Florida, the ability to spend on advertising becomes crucial.

The biggest loser of the night Tuesday was definitely Jon Huntsman.  His campaign was totally focused on New Hampshire, and he came in third, 6% behind Ron Paul and tallying less than half of Romney's votes.  He promises to press on, but he'll be spending his own money to do it.  He has a lot, so he can hang around for a while, but his chances of being nominated are, precisely, zero.

 

While we're talking about people with no chance, we have Congressman Paul.  He will continue to be a factor, but not one in terms of winning the nomination.  He appears to want very much to play a roll in writing the party platform.  So be it.  But he's polling at around 10% in South Carolina, and less in Florida.  Not a recipe for gaining momentum.

It was also a bad night for Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich.  Perry got around 1% of the vote, but never mounted much of a campaign there.  Gingrich, the leader in national polls just 5 weeks ago, got only 9%, tied with Rick Santorum.  For Gingrich and Perry, South Carolina is likely to be their last stand.  Actually that's only true of Gingrich.  Perry is toast, and it's time someone told him so.  He's polling at around 5%.  If the Governor of Texas can't do better than 5% in South Carolina, it's time to pick up your marbles and go home.

Going forward, the story lines developing in South Carolina are really interesting for a political junkie like me.  There is a rough justice in the attack ads that have been launched against Romney in the last couple weeks.  Don't get me wrong.  I think the assertions that Bain Capitol, the company Romney ran in the 80s and 90s, was some sort of corporate raider that broke companies up and sold off the pieces, are complete and utter nonsense.  Bain mainly provided capital to start new companies, and they achieved some great American success stories, including Staples and The Sports Authority.  At the same time, Gingrich's lead in Iowa was torpedoed largely by attack ads from a Romney Super PAC. Ads that were frankly full of lies.  So as much as I like the Governor, I have no sympathy for him having to answer these attacks.  He didn't have to be the first person in this race to go negative, but he was.  If there is a tab for doing that, I will personally enjoy watching him have to pick it up. 

The math here has not changed.  If the more conservative parts of the Republican party want someone besides Romney, they have to coalesce behind one opponent.  If they continue to remain split, Romney will soon build a lead so large that he can't be caught, even with delegates being awarded proportionally.

The person with the best chance to accomplish this unification would seem to be Rick Santorum.  Socially conservative South Carolina is more his kind of state than New Hampshire, so the momentum he had coming out of Iowa could continue there. 

I still hope that person will be Speaker Gingrich, but a second comeback?  That would be a tough trick to pull off.  Still, the latest polls in South Carolina seem to show him closing the gap.  Newt had a big lead there before Christmas.  That lead dissipated over the holidays.  (We can't tell exactly when, because pollsters deserve some time off, too.)  However, in the four polls that have been released since New Year's, Romney's lead over Gingrich has gone from 19 to 9 to 7 to 2.  A trend?  We'll have to wait and see.

Stay tuned.

 

 

The traditional first in the nation Presidential primary is today. It will reveal one more piece of the puzzle of who the ultimate Republican nominee will be.

Mitt Romney is expected to win handily.  It is essentially his home state, being from nearby Massachusetts, and he's been campaigning there more or less full time for five years.  This will be the best chance yet for Mitt to break through that 25% ceiling he has seen both in polls and in his narrow victory in last week's Iowa Caucuses.  If Romney wins tonight with a percent of the vote above the mid 30's, that is a big win for him.

Second place will be important.  Whoever finishes second is the only candidate who can certainly claim strength moving on from here.  This is especially true if it's a close second, less than 10%. 

Jon Huntsman has been working hard in New Hampshire, and polling suggests he will do quite well tonight.  It might be his last stand, however.  His numbers in the next couple primaries, in South Carolina and Florida, are abysmal.  His only real hope is to do well tonight and see if that translates into new momentum.  Unlikely. 

Rick Santorum is trying to capitalize on the big bounce he enjoyed just as Iowa was voting, but it seems he is not getting much traction in the Granite State.  New Hampshire is more libertarian, and less traditionally conservative, so Santorum's social-issues-first message isn't resonating quite as well there as it did in Iowa.  He could finish fourth or fifth tonight.  

Ron Paul will be factor as well.  Again, the importance of organization and get-out-the-vote efforts are magnified in smaller states, so Paul's very enthusiastic core supporters will make a difference.

Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry are only making a token effort.  Both of them appear to be betting big on South Carolina and Florida.

Tune in tonight and we'll see what happens!!

Of all the things President Obama has done that I find personally offensive, and townhall.com doesn't have enough bandwidth to chronicle them all, one of the worst is his war on the Gibson Guitar company.  As an old Rock and Roll fan, it's astounding to me that his Justice Department not only seems to be conducting a vendetta against Gibson, one of the great "Made in the USA." brands, but they've found they have to use foreign law to do it.

Last September, Newt Gingrich wrote this column for Human Events describing and condemning the  persecution of Gibson.  It appears the administration will not rest until they've pushed Gibson to move it's operations, and it's jobs, overseas.  The story is ongoing.    

The Gibson story is a perfect case study in how this President and his party have, time after time, attacked the exact parts of our society where economic recovery and jobs will have to come from.

 

 

Uber-analyst and election night number cruncher extraordinaire Michael Barone had this column yesterday on what he sees coming in Iowa.   A real good professional counterpoint to my takes, below.