The American Pundit

He doesn’t like that people are asking just how much she’s making while he’s publicly using her as a prop to raise taxes. Apparently he’s supposed to be able to use her politically but we’re not allowed to question if his claims and the case he’s making are accurate.

Yeah, well, here’s the thing: Republicans didn’t drag her onto the national stage. Buffett did. Republicans didn’t invite her to the State of the Union address to be used as a prop. Barack Obama did. Republicans aren’t the ones using her for political gain. Democrats are.

He says of Republicans:

They can’t attack the facts, so they attack the person. It’s ridiculous

Republicans want more facts. Buffett wants us to set national policy based on the tax filings of one person. So who is it not interested in facts again?

This is so typical of leftists. They want to use people as political props, and sympathy cards, and not have their claims challenged. Ask for facts or challenge assertions and you’re a hateful, evil person.

I’m not going to review how I’m wrong. Just go back here and read it if you’re that interested.

I pretty much trust Plinkett (guy on the left) based on his past reviews and my similar opinions of the movies in question. If you’re unaware, this is the guy who famously did the multi-part YouTube reviews of Star Wars films. That went viral and for good reason.

Anyway, the subject matter — the Tuskegee Airmen — is great. And indeed, there was a movie done in 1995 about them (starring Fishburne, Gooding, and Lithgow) that was pretty good. But it sounds like Red Tails failed in the execution. And screenplay. And computer graphics. And acting. And…you get the idea.

My only concern with the trailer had been the very clean nature of the scenes. That is, no grit or grime. It looked like everything had been sterilized. Whereas movies like Saving Private Ryan and the series Band of Brothers — both excellent — were gritty and more realistic, this seemed like animation done for a made-for-TV movie.

The two guys also say the acting is pretty bad, particularly on the parts of the white actors. Which may be why the studios were hesitant to pick this one up despite Lucas’ name attached. You can suppress the fact the scenes are sterilized. You can even get past a bad script. But sterilized scenes, a crappy script, and bad acting? Too distracting. Not enjoyable.

All of which sucks because I was actually looking forward to this. I don’t know. Maybe I’ll still see it. But my expectations have been lowered significantly.

They were even shown a photograph of her. Didn’t help.

Yeah, I know: You’re shocked the guy who just a few years back described himself as “progressive” and not wanting “to return to Reagan/Bush” has a history of donating to Democrats.

Another development today: Romney actually voted in the 1992 Democratic primary. There’s a nugget he’s been quiet about, huh? Gee, I wonder why.

Too unpopular. Besides, we’re talking about a woman who “joked” (but not really) about suspending elections so Barack Obama & Co. could do what they view as best without having to worry about this stupid, fickle voters. That wasn’t going to play well with voters.

Political Wire says the development has North Carolina Democrats scrambling for a replacement. I’m not sure it matters. Barack Obama will be at the top of the Democratic ticket in November and Republicans in the state will turn out in droves to defeat him while Democrats are less than enthused.

There’s no end to the scorn Mitt Romney’s campaign has for Republican primary voters. They’re like a better-funded Huntsman campaign.

Another Romney adviser was more derisive of the Anybody But Mitt Republicans.

“They like preachers,” the adviser said of the tea party demographic. “If you take them to a tent meeting they’ll get whipped into a frenzy. That’s how people like Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich get women to fall into bed with them.”

And from a supporter invited to speak:

Tampa attorney Paul Phillips illustrates the gap. He came to Romney’s Tuesday morning State of the Union pre-buttal dressed for a business meeting, sporting a blue pinstriped suit and a smart polka-dot tie.

“I’m an educated elitist,” Phillips said before Romney spoke in a warehouse that has closed during the economic recession. “I mean seriously, I don’t view the tea party with a very good light. Most of them quote the Constitution and don’t understand it. It’s pretty scary, actually.”

Yeah, it’s totally scary how those people, like, quote the Constitution. And want the government to live within its bounds. Massachusetts liberals like Romney must be free to do for us what they believe is best, surely.

This comes one day after another Romney adviser, Norm Coleman, admitted Mitt Romney wouldn’t repeal all of ObamaCare. Instead he’d take a step-by-step approach, leaving much of it intact.

Your Republican nominee, guys.

Even as Barack Obama demonizes the “wealthy” for not paying more in taxes, his own advisers are skipping on their “fair share”. An analysis finds that 36 of his aides owe a combined $886,000 in back taxes.

A new report just out from the Internal Revenue Service reveals that 36 of President Obama’s executive office staff owe the country $833,970 in back taxes. These people working for Mr. Fair Share apparently haven’t paid any share, let alone their fair share.

Previous reports have shown how well-paid Obama’s White House staff is, with 457 aides pulling down more than $37 million last year. That’s up seven workers and nearly $4 million from the Bush administration’s last year.

Nearly one-third of Obama’s aides make more than $100,000 with 21 being paid the top White House salary of $172,200, each.

The IRS’ 2010 delinquent tax revelations come as part of a required annual agency report on federal employees’ tax compliance. Turns out, an awful lot of folks being paid by taxpayers are not paying their own income taxes.

Meanwhile, Obama and his cronies are demonizing investors and small businessmen for not forking over more than is legally required to the federal government. They want to raise taxes on the “rich” while their own well-paid employees evade the tax man.

Very, very bad news for the Obama campaign. Especially considering the (rather optimistic) Federal Reserve says it could fall as low as 8.2% by the end of the year. Put another way, even the most optimistic assessment has the rate still significantly higher than when President Obama took office in January 2009.

That will be a powerful talking point for Republicans. Four years later, trillions of dollars spent, promises left and right, grand speeches and claims…and the unemployment rate is higher today than when Obama took office. Our national unemployment scenario is actually worse than when he took over the reigns four years ago.

No president since the days of Franklin Delano Roosevelt has been reelected with such a high national unemployment rate. People talk about Reagan attaining reelection despite a high unemployment rate. That rate in November 1984? 7.2%. A full percentage point lower than the best case scenario for the coming year.

Mitt Romney better start getting better at this whole campaigning thing. Or he’ll be left in the dust.

A new poll has Newt Gingrich up by 18 points in Minnesota, taking 36% to Romney’s 18%. Minnesota caucuses on February 7th.

But of course that comes well after Florida, which votes on January 31st. Gingrich leads Romney there by nine points.

Polls are as of yet unavailable for other upcoming states like Colorado, Maine, and Nevada. There’s a chance the governor could make up his losses there.

But right now we’re looking at Romney losing Iowa, carrying New Hampshire, losing South Carolina, losing Florida, and losing Minnesota. Just a few weeks ago he was on his way to a coronation.

But of course not. ObamaCare is based on RomneyCare — a government-run health care initiative Romney remains proud of to this day. He only changed his tune about RomneyCare on the national level once polls shifted. Until then he was full speed ahead on an ObamaCare-like system.

“You will not repeal the act in its entirety, but you will see major changes, particularly if there is a Republican president,” Coleman told BioCentury This Week television in an interview that aired on Sunday. “You can’t whole-cloth throw it out. But you can substantially change what’s been done.”

Romney, by the way, has — despite his previous positions on the issue — promised to fully repeal the legislation. His own advisers apparently are less-than-convinced he’ll live up to his word. And who can blame them. Romney changes positions more often than Paris Hilton changes wardrobes.

Ben Domenech makes the case that Coleman’s statement is an even bigger deal than we imagine now because the former senator may well end up running the Department of Health and Human Services in a hypothetical Romney Administration.

If Coleman is correct—and I think it’s possible he is—the next Republican president is likely to go through an experience along these lines: an attempt to repeal the whole bill will be made, passing the House but being filibustered in the Senate. Reconciliation can only go so far, and in the wake of a Supreme Court decision knocking down the individual mandate, the right’s political push to repeal the whole of Obamacare is likely to become less pressing (ironically, the Court’s getting rid of the worst part of the law from the public’s perspective may undercut these efforts). The Senate is likely to force instead a compromise position, in which Obamacare is “fixed,” not repealed – made “more market friendly”, as Coleman suggests.

This may be a good end result for many of the stakeholders and the politicians involved. As for the American people, well, that’s a different story.

In other words, ObamaCare remains intact with a few minor PR changes. Something along the lines of the “spending cuts” the Republican House “secured” that amounted to little and were actually just reductions in projected future spending increases. Good for public relations but little structural change.

We can’t have Romney’s advisers surrendering the field before the battle even begins. And yet that’s exactly what Coleman is doing here.