President Obama and his re-election strategists seem like moths circling the glow and heat of a candle as they cozy up to the Occupy Wall Street crowd. This just might be a grassroots movement we can call our own, they must be thinking.  Bad idea.

Occupy Wall Street was planned last summer in Vancouver, Canada by the anti-capitalist group AdBusters, and, in early October, the SEIU unveiled its plans to have the protesters march on the homes of wealthy New Yorkers.

Occupy Wall Street has turned out to be less of a movement and more of a place to be for those who simply long for a place to be or for others who harbor a wide variety of grievances–some legitimate, some simply far-left tropes, and some downright malevolent.  Terribly disturbing is the repetition of language railing against the rich paying less taxes than the middle class (which, of course, is simply not true), tax breaks for private jet owners and the evil millionaires and billionaires. These are all populist and divisive themes eerily similar to those crafted by Team Obama strategists.

According to a Washington Post report, “President Obama and his team have decided to turn public anger at Wall Street into a central tenet of their reelection strategy.”   Vice President Biden ‘s inference that those who oppose the President’s proposed tax on millionaires and billionaires will be responsible for increased rape and murder are the coming attractions for the campaign theater that is about to open. (more…)

President Obama officially kicked off his 2012 reelection campaign today. Noticeably absent from his new campaign is the phrase, “Hope and Change,” the hallmark catch phrase of his 2008 successful presidential bid.

Interestingly, the president appears only briefly in his opening video, as featured supporters make no mention of any accomplishments of his current term- an omission that perhaps speaks more loudly than any video the GOP could create. Further, the video seems bent on continuing the familiar theme of drumming up sympathy for the president- “He’s got a job now so we have to help him”- and idolatry for no apparent reason.

On the other hand, will a low-key start to his campaign, in contrast to the last one, be effective as a means to portray him as a more mature person who is busy with his job and not concerned about “thrills” up anyone’s leg?

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All presidents take their share of lumps and tough breaks from the unpredictable nature of things in the world. Criticism, fair or not, is as much apart of the office of the presidency as Air Force One. President Obama is no different and has received his share. Considering healthcare and the hyper-partisan and corrupt way the debate was handled, his Department of Justice and its race baiting chief, Eric Holder, the economy and the associated stimulus, the several gaffes and political miscalculations; furthermore, holding the presidency during a time in which Americans view the country as divided and politics more partisan than ever before, President Obama has remained relatively popular. However, his total detachment or disinterest, or both, in what has gone on in Libya, and Egypt before that, and Iran even before that, is starting to make Obama look indecisive and unwilling to make tough executive decisions.

Certainly one could argue that President Obama is on the same side as the majority of Americans in not calling for a No-Fly Zone in Libya. I am in that camp myself. Not because I am anti-military action or American strength abroad, I am anti-dealing with and assisting the schizophrenic Middle East. President Obama’s predicament though is something different. He called for the Gadaffi to step down and, then later, ramped up the rhetoric and said he must go. To quote the President during his campaign, “Don’t tell me that words don’t matter.” They do matter and as President of the United States they matter a great deal. When a president fells to follow-up and act according to those words, he looks weak, unsure, and ineffective. If the president wanted to stay out of the fray and let Europe handle the matter, since Libya is in their backyard, fair enough than; but he should have stated his case exactly like that and carried on like a president.

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There’s been a lot of chatter about Mike Pence and a potential Presidential bid by him. From National Review to the Washington Examiner, to George Will to others at the Washington Post, even to Erick Erickson’s post on RedState, people are wondering will he or won’t he. Supposedly he’s making his decision this weekend about whether he will run for President or Governor of Indiana.

I think he should run. While not denigrating the other potential GOP candidates for President in 2012, ask yourself: do any of them really excite you? That should clear out half the field right there, if not three fourths. Then ask yourself who has held true to his or her principles under fire, time and time again? I’m not saying standing up and proclaiming this or that: words mean nothing to me. It’s what you actually do, and Mike Pence’s voting record has shown from No Child Left Behind to Medicare Part D to TARP to the stimulus bill, even taking a stand against the recent tax compromise, he has talked and walked the walk.

Then ask who you think has the ability to excite the base and not alienate independents? Keep asking yourself questions along these lines, and throw in the fact that Mike Pence is a very good communicator of the ideas we hold dear, and you start to realize a Mike Pence for President bid could really take off.

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A week before the Election I had occasion to be on the hot Fox Business show Money Rocks, hosted by Eric Bolling. Also on the panel was former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson. In the brief discussion Johnson impressed me deeply. A Libertarian Republican in the Ron Paul tradition, Johnson is an outspoken and articulate critic of our failed war on drugs and a proponent of legalizing Marijuana.

The topic on the show was gang violence and kidnapping on the Mexican Boarder but Johnson turned that deftly to a discussion of how drug legalization would end Mexican gang violence. It was a tour de force.

There is high demand, It’s a huge cash crop and it’s not going away. Johnson makes a strong case that it’s dangerous only it is because it is illegal. People are forced to go to drug dealers and it funds gangs and terrorists. The government continues to spend $70 billion a year on the most failed policy in U.S. history.

Johnson points out marijuana is considerably less hazardous than alcohol, and even arguably less a public health risk than sugar and processed foods given the national expensive epidemic of diabetes and heart disease. Marijuana is easily grown virtually anywhere and despite billions spent to stem its use, it is as easy to acquire today as it was before the war against it was launched. Marijuana is easier than cigarettes for children to acquire, specifically because it is peddled by drug dealers as opposed to licensed and monitored providers.

The war on marijuana is costly, makes criminals out of otherwise law-abiding citizens, and costs resources better spent on other efforts.

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