Why Am I Not Surprised?

So Obama's fiscal 2013 budget proposal allows for the interest rates on federally-funded student Stafford loans to revert from the current 3.4% back to 6.8%. The rates would kick in July 1, 2013 (after the November election). So even though Obama has been traipsing the country telling college students that his administration would leave the rates at their current level but that the Republicans would allow them to rise, in point of fact, Obama's own budget has already got the rate increase in place. In other words, his budget plans and the Republicans' plans on this matter are the same.

Obama is cynically counting on college students' tendency to take his words at face value. How many college students will bother to fact-check these claims (or do what I do, which is get my news and information from the New Media rather than rely on mainstream news outlets)? Obama understands that college kids can't be bothered to double-check his claims. Most of them have already decided he's on their side, so he can say whatever he likes and they won't question it. This article mentions a Harvard poll showing Obama leading Romney among college aged voters. I'm not surprised--I interact with thesekids  on a daily basis. Most of them are not inclined to be skeptical of Obama.

I'm getting weary of this president's deceptive claims, his demonization of good people (yes, Republicans), his outright lies, his distortions. Are there any twenty-somethings out there who can see through his trickery and start speaking out? Will my own kids? their friends? their friends' friends?

Show me college aged kids who think and don't just feel, and I'll show you a path out of the mess Obama has made of this country.

Obama's Budget Would Double the Interest Rates on Student Loans After the Election

We've Come a Long Way, Baby?

Any woman--Democrat, Republican, Independent, Libertarian--viewing this embarrassing Obama/Biden "Lifetime of Julia" graphic who is not offended deep in her gut has either lost touch with her inner feminist or has totally sold out. I mean, come on, sisters.

We've come a long way, indeed...right back into daddy/hubby Obama's arms.

I'll wait to see what the feminists have to say about this one, but I won't hold my breath. I suspect they'll figure out a way to cut him some slack.

THE LIFE OF JULIA

Update: I guess I'm coming to this story late to the party. Lots of people out there (conservatives, natch) echoing these thoughts. Michelle Malkin, for example, says it so much better than I ever could:

We free-market-centered small-business women can “grow the local economy” and raise our children and improve our schools just fine without the meddling, patriarchal hand of President Obama taking credit for our every last success. After hyperventilating for months about the Republican “war on women,” Democratic new-media gurus inadvertently have exposed the real Barack Obama: a chauvinistic control freak who would tether every last woman and child to his ever-expanding, budget-busting Nanny State. Mamas, for the sake of your family’s freedom and our republic’s survival, don’t let your babies grow up to be “Julia.”

Touché, Michelle.

Here's the article.

Election 2012: A Choice Between Competing Ideas, not Candidates

Plebiscite: a vote by which the people of an entire country or district express an opinion for or against a proposal especially on a choice of government or rule. (Had to look that word up.)

Dennis Prager makes an important point in this article. This election is not about individuals ("Romney" vs "Obama"). It's about ideas. Prager maintains that leftist values aren't American values, so a vote for Obama (a man of the left) is a vote for leftism, which is antithetical to America's core values. The 2012 presidential election is a choice between competing ideas, competing visions for America. Prager asks, What kind of America do we want to live in? The answer to this question can guide us in our decision.

I would add that even if we don't like the bickering and the partisanship, it's counterproductive to say, essentially, "a pox on both your houses" and either sit out the election or vote for a third party. Obama was elected on the idea that he would "fundamentally transform" America. If that's not what you want, then not only should you not vote for him, but you should vote for Romney.

Because like it or not, come November, one of these men will be our president. There's no idealistic, murky middle.

Whose vision of America do I want? I choose Romney's.

"A Plebicite, Not an Election," by Dennis Prager