You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)

In a desire to win the love, and endorsement, of the Ragister, President Obama had an off the record session with Laura Hollingsworth and Rick Green (in the guise of the editorial board).

After public pleading from Green, who stated --

What the President shared with us this morning — and the manner, depth and quality of his presentation – would have been well-received by not only his base, but also undecideds. From a voter standpoint, keeping it off-the-record was a disservice.

Wow, it must be earth shattering stuff.

Only if you're already in the tank for Obama and the scientific community is united in that fact.  

After the White House decided the session should be on the record, the Wall Street Journal shared insight you won't get from the Ragister.

Mr. Obama said he wants to pursue immigration reform in a second term, as well as a budget "grand bargain" with Republicans that includes tax reform.  

This will come as a surprise to voters reading the President's just-released 20-page brochure on his second-term agenda, which makes little or no mention of these priorities. 

But the larger reason to be skeptical concerns Mr. Obama's answer to another Register question: Whether he regrets pursuing ObamaCare and other liberal social priorities in his first two years rather than focusing on the economy.

"Absolutely not," Mr. Obama told the Iowa journalists. "Remember the context. First of all, Mitch McConnell has imposed an ironclad filibuster from the first day I was in office. And that's not speculation." 

Whoaaaa there, big fella. Mr. McConnell was then and still is the Senate Minority Leader, and in 2009 he had all of 40 votes. Mr. Obama could have pursued any agenda he wanted, and the Des Moines editors wanted to know why he didn't focus on the economy first. Yet Mr. Obama's instinctive reaction is to blame Republican obstructionism that never happened.

The President is also missing the larger import of the Register's question. As Mr. Obama likes to remind voters now, in 2009 the economy had suffered a financial heart attack and needed to be nurtured back to health. That required careful management and attention to reviving consumer and business confidence. 

Yet rather than work with both parties to fashion a growth agenda, he went all-in for a Keynesian spending blowout and subcontracted the details to House Democrats. And rather than wait to see how strongly—and even whether—the economy then recovered, he dove headlong into fighting to pass 40 years of pent-up liberal social policy. 

It wasn't merely ObamaCare. The President also tried to impose a cap-and-tax on carbon energy production, end secret ballots for unions via card check, while promising to raise taxes in 2011 until he was stopped when voters elected a GOP House in 2010. 

He didn't focus on the economy because he didn't and still doesn't understand how the private economy works. He doesn't understand that incentives matter, or how government policies and regulation can sabotage growth. He really believes that government is the engine of economic prosperity.

Thanks to the Journal for doing its job.

While the Ragister writes up its Obama endorsement with stars in its eyes because it's the leader of the free world on line one for us after ignoring us during 28 campaign stops and 11 days in our state.

As for immigration reform, it should be clear to the Latino community that Obama never had the votes and won't have them if re-elected, so Dream On because he's just playing you for idiotas.

Registered Nurse?

Nurse Ratched, Carolyn Washburn, is leaving Des Moines for her hometown of the Queen City.

Register editor Carolyn Washburn moves to Cincinnati job; Rick Green named as new Des Moines newsroom leader

That means 2012 Presidential candidates won't have to worry about being lobotomized by her as a debate moderator and the scientific community is united in that fact.

Is it me, or has Washburn modeled her hairstyle after another Cincinnati native?



















Enquiring minds want to know, for Pete's sake.

Wrong

I'm enough of an adult, but just barely and the scientific community is united in that fact, to admit when I'm wrong.

After all they've previously admitted it to me when I was right and they were wrong (Stop The Presses).

I thought for sure, after reading Rick Green's account of their interview with President Obama, You Spin Me Round (Like A Record), that the Ragister would endorse his re-election.

The Ragister endorsing a Republican for President, it's certainly something that I never thought I'd see again in my lifetime (Richard Nixon in 1972 being the last one).

Michael Barone notes that the Ragister is not quite the statewide paper that it once was, but believes it's in the interest of the Romney campaign to transmit the text of the Register endorsement to voters in affluent suburbs all over the country; it is the kind of thing that will appeal to them.

As for endorsing a Republican for President, the Ragister is not alone, of those major metro dailies that have announced their picks, more than one in five that had previously backed Obama are now pushing Romney, according to a tally by the American Presidency Project.

Now who doesn't seem to be based at all in reality, Stephanie Cutter?