———–

Barack Obama hasn’t had an honest-to-goodness press conference with the White House press corps since April. Helen Thomas is gone, but a fair number of them are still on his side.

Instead he has deigned to be interviewed by such tough critics as Jon Stewart, Jay Leno, David Letterman, the ladies on The View, MTV, and a few ridiculous local radio shows.

They’re all good at what they do, but they are there to entertain, not to hold a president’s feet to the fire and insist on answers to tough questions.

So how in the heck did Kyle Murphy Clark slip past the guard? To be sure, he was only doing the job any good reporter should do: recognize the issues of the day and ask the unresolved questions. But that is exactly what Obama and his people have avoided the past six months in every forum apart from the debates.

Murphy Clark asks a tough question on Benghazi, then follows up with a more direct question when Obama said many words but did not answer. Recognizing that Murphy was actually being a reporter and not just another entertainer Obama began to filibuster. Murphy only got in a few questions, but he made his questions worth it.

Watch the whole thing:

Obama in Columbus: “You give a tax break to millionaires, what’s he going to do with it? You can only buy so many yachts.”

— Alan Johnson (@ohioaj) September 17, 2012

It was supposed to be a laugh line, I assume. A real gotcha. Because Mitt Romney is rich and another tax break would mean he would have more disposable income, with which he would clearly do nothing productive but would just buy another yacht. The nerve.

It’s basic populist, class warfare rhetoric. It’s also a symptom of why this disaster of a president’s policies have caused an economic crisis to turn into a societal and economic malaise. It’s also sloppy.

For starters, I wonder how all those people who manufacture yachts and yacht accessories, or the raw materials used in yacht production, would feel about their livelihoods being slighted.

Yachts don’t descend from Mount Olympus, whole and entire, clad in platinum and birds eye maple, landing gently in some small New England harbor where they wait, sleek and pretentious, until T. Coddington van Voorhees VII comes by in one of his chauffeured Bentleys that runs on the tender tears of baby seals to snap up another one. To use for firewood.

Someone builds those yachts. In fact, a whole lot of someones build those yachts in New Jersey, Wisconsin, Florida, Tennessee, California, New York, Washington state, North Carolina, South Carolina, and other states. They get paid to build them. Chances are good that the majority of those who labor to build them cannot afford to buy them. So if more are purchased that means more people are doing more work to build them. If more are purchased, more people are hired and paid money to build them, which means more people have money to live their lives.

Stimulus!

Second, any president who, in the midst of an economic crisis, would chuck around $6.5 billion of taxpayer money down money sinkholes like Solyndra, Ener1, and Abound, and push stinkers like the Chevy Volt with massive taxpayer-funded subsidies has no right to lecture anyone else on what is an appropriate thing to do with their own money.

Third, millionaires like Mitt Romney didn’t *become* millionaires by buying another yacht. Self-made millionaires make their money by working hard, taking risks with their own money, and investing their own money wisely in companies that prosper. In the process healthy companies grow and hire more people. Unhealthy companies close, thus freeing up resources—including laborers—to contribute to the economy in a company that will progress and grow.

So, if you give tax cuts to those who pay lots of money in taxes they then have more of the money they earned to use either to buy stuff, which spurs economic activity, to directly invest in companies, which spurs economic activity, or to donate to worthy philanthropic endeavors, which spurs some economic activity and good deeds.

But don’t just take my word for it, check out what Obama’s former chief economist said about tax cuts and tax increases.

Behold: John Kerry's foreign-built $7 million sailing yacht "Isabel."

(Side note: anyone else remember the time John Kerry—a millionaire who did not earn his millions but married into them—was caught docking his brand new yacht—a 76-foot, seven million dollar, foreign made behemoth, I might add—in Newport, Rhode Island, rather than Massachusetts to avoid paying Massachusetts taxes on his luxury liner? Fun times.)

So if the intention is to spur economic activity then even by the standard set in Obama’s own demagoguery, a tax cut for millionaires would not be a bad thing. Whether he millionaire buys another yacht or invests in a startup or even, perhaps, a company with a new energy saving technology (read: green energy)—but one that is *worth* investing in on the business merits—the tax cut for the millionaire seems like a good idea.

Election 2012

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty endorses Mitt Romney for President. http://cvote.to/2k Political analyst Larry Sabato says that Pawlenty is unlikely to be Mitt’s running mate since they are both northern governors. http://cvote.to/2l Katrina Trinko of National Review Online notes that at the last debate, Pawlenty didn’t just criticize Romney’s health care plan, but also Romney’s record of high state spending and liberal judicial nominees. http://cvote.to/2m

GOP presidential debate in Tampa tonight at 8 p.m. ET on CNN. Politico has six things to watch for in the debate (hint: Social Security). http://cvote.to/2n The L.A. Times interviewed seniors in Tampa about Rick Perry calling Social Security a ‘Ponzi scheme.’ The responses should that the issue is thorny, but not a death knell. http://cvote.to/2n

Political analyst Larry Sabato outlined some Electoral College scenario possibilities for the 2012 presidential election, including the real chance of a nightmare 269-269 tie, which would throw the presidential election into the U.S. House of Representatives. http://cvote.to/2t There’s a simple way to prevent this possibility: Increase the size of the House by one. Yours truly outlined this almost a year ago. http://cvote.to/2u

Special elections happen tomorrow in Nevada’s 2nd and New York 9th and Republicans might win both. The New York race is to fill the seat of Democrat Anthony Weiner, who left office after a sending inappropriate images to women who were not his wife. Republican Bob Turner is a pro-life and pro-marriage Catholic who might just win an upset in this district that covers parts of Queens and Brooklyn. Polling for a Democratic firm show him leading over Democrat David Weprin 47% to 41%. The poll noted that Jewish voters upset over President Obama’s stance on Israel were supporting Republican Bob Turner, who leads with the Jewish vote 56% to 39% http://cvote.to/2p.  The National Organization for Marriage noted that this poll showed another major reason that Bob Turner might win tomorrow. In that PPP poll, a plurality of voters in the 9^th District opposed so-called ‘same-sex’ marriage 45% to 41%. Of those polled, 55% said the issue of SSM was either very or somewhat important in deciding who they will support tomorrow. http://cvote.to/2q

Over in Nevada, the latest polls show Mark Amodei cruising to victory 50% to 37% over Kate Marshall (endorsed by EMILY’s List) in Nevada’s 2^nd. http://cvote.to/2o The race is being held to replace Republican Dean Heller who was appointed to the Senate seat of Republican John Ensign, who resigned several years after ethics complaints surrounding his extramarital affair.

The Chairman of the Pennsylvania Republican Party wants Rep. Pat Meehan, Rep. Jim Gerlach, or Rep. Charlie Dent to face off against Democrat Sen. Bob Casey next November. http://cvote.to/2x

Other articles of interest:

The President’s jobs proposal is nothing but a “$447 billion reelection plan” says James Pethokoukis of Reuters. He cites economists at Moody’s and George Mason University who note it will do little to boost the economy. http://cvote.to/2r

Green subsidies are a “breeding ground of corruption” says Tim Carney of the Washington Examiner, noting that companies with ties to the Democratic Party received billions in subsidies from the federal government. http://cvote.to/2s

Catholic schools in Indiana see a surge in enrollment because of a recent voucher bill became law. Amazing what freedom brings. http://cvote.to/2v

Pat Archbold recounts the horror of a young woman who so casually and loudly called a group of mentally handicapped runs ‘retards.’ http://cvote.to/2w

C'mon, the smog in DC isn't *that* bad!

[Update: If you agree with the people at Power Shift or are one of them, I encourage you to watch this video also, before you comment.]

I’m not pointing and laughing at these people. Really, I’m not. The temptation is there, sure, but I’m not.

I’m also not sharing this out of uncharity. If I were pointing and laughing at them then sharing it here would be uncharitable. So I’m not being uncharitable.

I’m sharing it because Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, former Obama green jobs czar and current Hugo Chavez admirer Van Jones, and Al Gore are all tied to this gathering pretty significantly. Power Shift is, in their own words, the crowd they are counting on to lead the future.

Just watch.

Seriously. Some highlights from the video:

• Van Jones says the “children of every species” are counting on this crowd.

• One attendee asks, “Do we ever think about us as a species, and transcending the planet?…To be able to leave the planet and to see the planet reproduce another species like ourselves that has the ability to reach a higher awareness and a higher level of  life?”

• They call for complete revolution: social, economic, political, and cultural.

• One of the major issues in the climate change issue is “our addiction to economic growth” (you know: the flourishing of human ingenuity and talent, rightly ordered to the mutual benefit of all involved in the free exchange of private property).

• Home gardens and urban gardening initiatives followed by canning tomatoes will solve the food problem and prevent having to ship food across the country.

• While specifically eschewing the “socialist” moniker, one attendee calls for “highly localized economies based on solidarity.”

• And Nancy Pelosi (Catholyc D-California) greeted them, thanked them, and looks forward to seeing them again on Capitol Hill.

• There was also the group of girls who dropped their pants to display their matching underoos (not unsafe for work, just silly).

• Oh, and the guy who, while milling about a group that eschews money, hates capitalism, and wants to push for a more “green” economy (the sort that all sane people know will absolutely murder job creation), carries a briefcase asking “Where are the jobs?”

All in all, a stellar compendium of jaw-dropping moments from people who want a society, polity, economy, and man-made religion based on planet worship and some gauzy concept of human solidarity based in nothing but nature. Hobbes said something about that sort of life, and it wasn’t pleasant.

To think it all happened at one rally in Washington, D.C., just a few days ago.

Even if they mean well, having such a poor grasp of human nature and the true nature of what Really Matters in human relations doesn’t happen accidentally—-it has to be learned, or one has to have a significant amount of self-delusion. If nothing else, a cursory study of the history of the 20th century ought to disabuse anyone of such notions.

Alas: those who study history are doomed to be surrounded by those who don’t, who will then attempt to repeat it.