^{Divided Government to the rescue.}

I am not one to say “I told you so”. But – just this once – I would like to take this opportunity to mention that – um – I told you so.

^{X-posted from “Divided We Stand United We Fall”}

Obama, GOP freshmen win in jet engine budget fight

WASHINGTON (AP) — Determined to reduce deficits, impatient House Republican freshmen made common cause with President Barack Obama on Wednesday, scoring their biggest victory to date in a vote to cancel $450 million for an alternative engine for the Pentagon’s next-generation warplane.

“Right here, right now was a surefire way to reduce spending,” declared Rep. Tom Rooney of Florida, a second-term lawmaker whose summons to cut money from the F-35 fighter jet was answered by 47 Republican newcomers…

Strictly by the numbers, the vote was a bipartisan one, with 110 Republicans and 123 Democrats supporting cancellation of the funds, while 68 Democrats and 130 Republicans wanted to leave them in place. But that breakdown obscured the change wrought by the voters last fall. A similar vote in May ended in defeat for opponents of the alternative engine.”

Let’s review. The alternate engine is a defense pork barrel project that will not die because it is supported by legislators determined to bring home the bacon to their respective district or state. It was opposed by Presidents Bush and Obama, as well as both of the their Secretaries of Defense as unneeded and a waste of taxpayer money. Nevertheless, Congress continued to allocate billions on an engine the military did not want or need.

Last May, with a Democratic President and large Democratic majorities in both the Senate and House, this project continued to be funded, passing in Nancy Pelosi’s House of Representatives by a vote of 231-193.

Last week, in the Republican controlled House of Representatives, with Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner supporting the continued funding of the unneeded engine, it was finally defeated. Credit to President Obama, Defense Secretary Robert Gates for reaching out to Republican legislators and the new crop of Tea Party supported freshmen Republican representatives who stood up to their own leadership.

Of course, this is still not over. The Democratic controlled Senate may yet restore the funding. Having demonstrated my difficulty identifying Senator party affiliation in a previous post, I’ll leave it to the reader to figure out where the problem in the Senate may lie:

Postscript: Some of you may remember Justin, who used to be a regular contributor here. He had some things to say about this very issue shortly after the election.

From his post:

“If Republicans are serious about tightening our belts, cutting the budget deficit and the overall deficit, then programs like this need to be shelved. Tea Partiers, I’m looking at you. Want to prove you’re more than just a marketing gimmick? Take a stand on issues like this.”

From his comments:

“If it is revealed that a wide swath of GOPers don’t agree with his assessment, I will write a post about that. Trust me, I would GLADLY write a post about that.”

I am considering offering him an opportunity to follow up with a guest post.

In a post about excerpts of Obama’s health care speech released earlier today I predicted the following…

Republicans who don’t want health care reform to pass will be out in full force filling the airwaves with disinfo. That’s nothing new, but this time they’ll be desperate because this speech will be positioned as a game changer and they’ll most likely overreach in some embarrassingly stupid way.

I didn’t think it would happen during the speech, but Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina made it so…

Dems were understandably upset, but John McCain came out in force…

House Democratic Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) called Wilson’s outburst “embarrassing,” while McCain said it was “totally disrespectful” and that there was “no place for it in that setting or any other.”

McCain said Wilson “should apologize for it immediately.”

Wilson has since called the White House and apologized.

I don’t use the “I Told You So” category often, but there’s a time and a place for everything.

And so it goes…

As I suspected immediately after her convention speech, she only appeals to the base…

The 60 percent who now see Palin as insufficiently experienced to step into the presidency is steeply higher than in a Post-ABC poll after her nomination early last month. Democrats and Republicans alike are now more apt to doubt her qualifications, but the biggest shift has come among independents.

In early September, independents offered a divided verdict on Palin’s experience; now they take the negative view by about 2 to 1. Nearly two-thirds of both independent men and women in the new poll said Palin has insufficient experience to run the White House.

What’s more, I think the damage is done. She can’t recover with only 4 weeks left in this election cycle.

And contrary to the common wisdom that she’ll win the debate is she simply holds her own with Biden, I think she needs to clearly demonstrate that those interviews were complete and utter flukes in order to “win” anything.

Romney or Pawlenty would have been much better picks…especially Romney. I mean, can you imagine how Mitt would handle the economic crisis right now? He would have already had five press conferences and been on every single news show that would let him on. And that would have been a serious problem for Obama. Hindsight, hindsight…

And on a side note, I think the GOP ticket in 2012 will be Romney/Pawlenty. Romney will brand himself as the new conservative standard bearer in the mold of Reagan and he’ll use the “Sam’s Club Conservative” line that Pawlenty pioneered to win the nomination. Also, he’ll try to frame Obama as an out-of-touch Jimmy Carter liberal who doesn’t understand the needs of the common folk.

You heard it here first.

As I said from the beginning of this nonsense.

Ed Morrissey covers the story:

“Sarah Palin issued a response to the Troopergate investigation yesterday by releasing internal memoranda that show Walt Monegan got fired for insubordination on budget matters and not because of his refusal to fire Palin’s former brother-in-law. Monegan went behind Palin’s back to attempt to revive a project Palin had vetoed, which “stunned” the Office of Management and Budget Director. On another occasion, Monegan held a press conference with Hollis French to dissent from Palin’s budget priorities — the same Hollis French pushing the ethics complaint against Palin… According to the papers filed by Palin’s legal team, that was not the only instance of insubordination from Monegan… From this presentation, it looks like Monegan had decided from the start to be a loose cannon in the Palin administration. The wonder of this isn’t that he got fired — it’s how he managed to hang onto his job as long as he did… Monegan served as a political appointee, at the pleasure of the Governor. Obviously, Monegan didn’t act to support Palin’s budget initiatives, often acting in opposition to them. In anyone’s administration, that will result in dismissal. “

In an odd way, this does bring up a question of Palin’s leadership style. She is trying to get things done, and a political appointee was working actively against her.

She really should have fired him sooner.

Well now you can, courtesy of Scribd (larger version available at that link).

First, the quote from one of McCain’s advisers…

“Please keep running those 3:00 A.M. ads about who you want to answer the phone, because we like those.”

Then the take from Foreign Policy:

That’s how Randy Scheunemann, who is overseeing foreign policy issues for John McCain’s campaign, just summed up the obvious in a Council on Foreign Relations event here in Washington. [...]

In other words, the more Clinton and Obama keep talking about how inexperienced the other is, the more it sticks for both.

Obama and Hillary may have raised over $90M last month, but that doesn’t mean ANYTHING to security moms.

Dems, take note.

UPDATE:
Ha! Rasmussen actually did a poll about it!

The commercial was credited as one factor enabling Clinton to turn her campaign around in Texas last week. But, 42% of all voters said the person they’d most want to answer the phone was John McCain. Among all voters, 25% picked Clinton and another 25% named Obama as the person they’d want in the White House when a foreign policy crisis call arrived.

Among Democrats, 46% said they’d like Clinton to take that call while 36% named Obama.

Among Republicans, 79% named McCain while neither Democrat reached double digits.

Thanks Hillary!

That was what I said on a post more than a year ago, commenting on Obama’s February 10, 2007 announcement to run for President, and well before I started posting here at Donklephant. In light of all the speculation on a Democratic Dream Ticket here this morning, I thought I’d reprise a portion of that old post here:

“Apparently he is building his campaign on on a foundation of Baby Boomicide. One has to ask – why the generational focus? I submit, that this is a realistic political calculation by a young, self-assured, very smart, very ambitious politician, who understands that his path to the presidency requires a stepping stone as Vice-President. A key element in the selection of any Vice-Presidential candidate, is to identify what constituency they bring to a ticket. From a purely political perspective, it is interesting to ask – Exactly what constituency does Barack Obama bring to a Democratic ticket? It is not his home state. Illinois is already True Blue. It is not the black vote, Hillary Clinton outpolls Barack Obama among blacks. But if Barack can bring a generational constituency, if he can mobilize a demographic block that historically cannot even be bothered to vote, then Barack would be a formidable addition to any Democratic ticket. This is a campaign to capture that constituency and trade it for a spot on the ticket. Obama for Vice-President!“

Since then, Obama has proven me wrong on several points, most significantly that he is very much running for President and close to being nominated. But on the larger point, I think this may yet prove to be prophetic. He may no longer be running for Vice-President, but I expect that is exactly how it will turn out.

Oh, and while we are on the subject of prognostications, let me just get this out of the way as painlessly as possible: I told you so, Justin.

Could mw be right? Could Andrew Sullivan’s worst nightmares come true?

Two polls show Hillary closing the gap and even leading in Texas.

First, Public Policy Polling (pdf) shows Hill with 50% to Obama’s 44%.

Then, Rasumuseen shows a dead heat:

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey, conducted Sunday, finds Barack Obama with a statistically insignificant one-point lead over Hillary Clinton. It’s Obama 48% Clinton 47%. Five percent (5%) are undecided and 6% say they could still change their mind.

These results show the race has gotten a bit closer in the past few days. Last week, Obama enjoyed a four-point lead and the Illinois Senator had been gaining ground steadily for two weeks. Now, it appears that Clinton has at least temporarily halted Obama’s momentum. It remains to be seen whether she car reverse it.

Things are getting interesting!

UPDATE:
I added an “I Told You So” tag to this post, just in case mw’s predictions prove to be right. And if Hillary wins, look for his post with the title, “Nana-Nana Boo Boo.” It’s sure to be filled with humility and deference.

UPDATE 2:
Commenter “kritter” suggests a “Boy Was I Wrong” tag. This too is for mw. :-D