A Local Republican’s View: Why Obama Should Lose
BY DEAN LEDBETTER
His comically timed words elicited hoots and hollers and thunderous laughter from the debate room crowded with Republicans of all stripes and colors from all over the state of Florida. Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson said,”My next door neighbor’s two dogs have created more shovel ready jobs than this President.”
Front and center were the top tier runners, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Texas Gov. Rick Perry duking-it-out over Social Security, Healthcare, Immigration and the EPA. After the debate, well moderated and run by FOX news, audiences liberally spread over the nation seemed to think Romney won the fracas.
Notable moments from others included a re-write of President Ronald Reagan’s quote by the history professor and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich when he said,” If your neighbor is out of a job, it’s a recession. If you’re out of a job, it’s a depression. If Barrack Obama is out of a job, it’s a recovery,” followed by the naturally thunderous approbation from Florida’s conservative strand.
The one thing on which all the candidates agreed was that Barrack Obama would be a one-term President.
I keep waiting for someone to quote Democratic consultant James Carvelle’s words from President Bill Clinton’s first campaign against President George Bush Sr.: “It’s about the economy, Stupid.” Although that would appear to be unkind and no one wants to start calling names, except rabid political operatives, of course. Especially this early in the conflict, before the nominee is even selected.
Businessman Herman Cain was given a special opportunity to reveal his humanity, in his criticism of Obama’s healthcare plan. Cain told the audience, “If Obamacare had been in place five years ago, I would not be alive today.”
You see, in his personal fight with cancer, Cain was able to get the care he needed on his schedule and according to his doctor’s desires as opposed to allowing the Obamacare bureaucracy to decide what he was permitted to have by whom and when as opposed to what was needed. “My doctors told me, that one of the reasons I am alive today is because I was able to respond quickly and decisively to this disease. Bureaucracy creates delays. I would not want that for me and I would not want it for the American people.”
His revelation that he was a five-year cancer survivor put Cain on a higher moral ground in his opposition to Obama’s national new healthcare plan. For a moment, we were all Herman Cain, and very proud of his victory in his fight.
So they ridiculed Obama, and his work or lack thereof for the nation. They called him a do-nothing president, a president without a policy for energy, for peace in the Middle East, for strength in the world, and for the economy in particular.
His record on jobs is abysmal. His divisive attitude toward Republican’s reveals his hypocrisy.
His penchant for the pejorative when the plain and simple will do fine speaks to his insecurity as our Chief Executive, and well he should be. We need a higher quality of leadership that any on the panel could provide. He is simply not up to the job.
Jobs, jobs, jobs, is the mantra of the moment. So I’ll not say it but you can think it for the man without a policy or a plan. Hey Barrack, it’s about the economy, ____!
(Dean Ledbetter was one of Broward’s earliest Republican activists. He was Republican when few admitted to it! Ledbetter is a business consultant and remains passionate about politics.)
September 26th, 2011 at 10:40 am
Buddy, to call me one of the earliest political activist does great disservice to all those who came before, like Jack Moss, Bill Duke, Bill Stevens, Fred Guadabassi, Rob Dressler, Grits Kearson, Bob Cox and may others, too many to mention. I am reminded of the day when Broward was a Republican stronghold in the state. Then came Hawaiian Gardens, Century Village, the influx of Hispanic voters from Dade county after hurricane Andrew. Now it is solidly democrat. Can’t wait for that to change.
September 26th, 2011 at 10:49 am
and the republicans are for what, placating the uber rich and the religious talibans, we need a new party to defend the moderate middle.
September 26th, 2011 at 11:05 am
Buddy, this guy is not prime time. He is a DingleBerry! He just describe George W.’s eight years of faiiiiiilllllluuuuure!
Come on, Dean, Herman Cain!???????????! We live on the planet EARTH, Dean!!! Do you care to come from out of outer space and join us??!!
Buddy, banish Dean to the also rans category! Hell, I’d rather read Sam Field’s way too long ramblings!
September 26th, 2011 at 11:42 am
Mr. Ledbetter. Hello?? I know you must live in the Fox News/AM Radio bubble, but your example of how Cain described the healthcare act is pathetic. Did you know that under the healthcare act, AS ADOPTED, Mr. Cain would be able to go to the doctor of his choice. There is no restriction for rich people to go to the doctor of their choice. Show me that I am wrong. What the health care act does do, is it will provide the opportunity for people who don’t have any insurance and access(except for emergency room care when it’s too late – I know, I can hear the Tea Partier cheers), to have a chance to be diagnosed and treated as well. Tell me this is a bad thing that America can’t do. No one ever said the healthcare act was perfect. It can surely be improved. But to advocate nothing, or pretend the total fix is tort reform, is shameful.
September 26th, 2011 at 11:49 am
Of course, Herbert Cain can get any treatment he wants. He is an ex-CEO and has plenty of money for the finest health insurance. For many, the cost and availability of health insurance is questionable if not impossible.
The definition of a Democrat is a Republican who lost their job and found out they can’t get health insurance.
September 26th, 2011 at 12:48 pm
Cain purposely misinterprets the Healthcare Reform Act as it does not preclude him from seeing any doctor he wants. He is either disingenuous (LIAR) or too stupid to get it. Obama’s healthcare reform does not force any care on millionaires like Cain, it only provides more access to people who can’t afford healthcare.
If he was poor under his version of healthcare He would die.
Hopefully the GOP will expire this year with all the despicable rhetoric they are flinging.
September 26th, 2011 at 12:56 pm
These Republican candidates and the party decided their strategy would be to fight against anything Obama or dems wanted to do, even if it meant driving the economy and families into crisis.
When they say mention his record on jobs, they never say what they would do except cut taxes on the rich. Even when Obama proposes ideas supported by republicans, they say no.
They complain he drove up the debt, with 2 wars he inherited (2 wsars financed with debt not increase in taxes, removing any sense of responsibility) and an economy in crisis months before he even took office. They accept no responsibility at all — it is as if the Bush years did not exist.
Their strategy is to undermine any smart ideas at the expense of the American people for one reason and one reason only — to help the big corporations and the super rich.
Cain would eliminate the EPA … is he nuts? Yea, let the nations corporations run wild and unregulated because they have demonstrated such a wonderful track record.
They say regulations are the problem — what regulations?
Repubs are a bunch of silly slogans meant to be no longer than necessary for the dumbest to remember.
September 26th, 2011 at 4:13 pm
The Republicans are getting to be as extreme as the Tea Party. No matter what President Obama says, does, or proposes, it is wrong. However, when the President travels and speaks, crowds and crowds of people come to hear him and cheer him on……….
Shouldn’t the wealthy class of people pay more taxes than the poor class of people (no more middle class of people)?
Been to the grocery store lately? Every single politician should go to the grocery store with their families once a month, check out prices, they increase weekly. When does it stop?
It is great that Mr. Cain beat Cancer, he’s very lucky. But what about the people that can’t afford healthcare and receive the type of care Mr. Cain received? These are real live people, they matter, give them a chance to have healthcare. Why is that so hard to understand?
Mr. Buffet said it all, he wants his secretary to pay less taxes not more than he pays! Yes, Mr. Buffet, I agree, and he has the intelligence and means to help the poor working class to comvince the Congress and Senate to pass a new tax law for the wealthy to pay their “fair” share of taxes finally! It is time!
Thank you,
crabgretch
September 26th, 2011 at 5:17 pm
I try to look at things objectively and factually. The President sabbotaged his changes for a successful healthcare plan by giving up on a public option without which there is no low cost baseline for private sector health insurance competition. He did that to appease Republicans and it cost him.
The President was begged by the outgoing Bush Administration, Republicans and Democrats alike to approve a stimulus plan that had some effect in avoiding a depression. That it did not solve the recession entirely seems to be the basis for attack on the President. But he agreed in order to help form consensus.
The President could have called the Republican bluff on the debt ceiling with the 14th Amendment argument. Instead he chose to negotiate with the Republicans in order to form consensus.
The President’s jobs bill is dead on arrival because it calls for tax increases and the Republicans will not give that to him under any circumstance.
So the pattern here is that of a President that tries to get things done in a consiliatory way yet fails because he doesn’t seem to know how to negotiate outcomes from a position of strength. But he’s trying. You also see a pattern of obstructionist behavior on the part of Republicans to keep this President from succeeding no matter how much harm it does the country. They are good at it.
If America doesn’t re-elect Barack Obama it will signal to the Democrats that they are to use the same tactic against any Republican elected President. The nation will turn into a blood bath of political back biting.
Obama has tried to make a difference but he has demostrated inability to govern as measured by results. Republicans have acted reprehensibly and more to blame for the President’s failures than Obama himself. Meanwhiel the nation languishes in economic times that should be much better and the thieves on Wall Street are laughing their way back to the bank.
That in a nutshell is America today.
September 26th, 2011 at 10:20 pm
The question of the continuation of the presidency of Barrack Obama should be totally separate from the question of what party he is a member. But that’s not the way Washington and our national government works. Unfortunately, party politics trumps national need in the current situation. We saw it at the end of both Bush’s first term. We are seeing it again, now at the end of Barrack’s. Such are the vagaries of the two party system. If you have a problem with that you have two alternatives: try to change it from the inside or go live somewhere else. You choose, dingleberry, or not.
George Washington spent the greater part of his farewell speech at the end of his presidency warning against the party system of government. No matter how the nation tried it could not avoid it.
Friedrich Hegel’s thesis/antithesis/ synthesis occurs naturally with intellectual development and progress. It is always true that once a position is defined the opposite will be as well. So as long as there are people saying yeah, there will be the nay sayers, information being imperfectly distributed and true understanding being as rare as a four leaf clover. People tend to associate with like minded people. Thus we have the Rush Limbaugh/ Glen Beck/ O’Reilly crowd and the MSN/ ABC/CBS/NBC/CNN group.
The danger is that in the like minded group may miss reality because a tunnel develops and your words and ideas keep coming back to reinforce themselves. So its important to get out of your comfort zone once in a while. For those who enjoy denigrating other people, here is my position.
Name-calling is for the immature, the uninformed, and the overzealous. If you want to talk issues I am ready. A fruitful exchange of ideas brings truth, wisdom and light. If you want to waste precious time and bandwidth with pejorative slurs, be my guest, just don’t count on me responding to your wasted intellect beckoning from the darkness.
September 27th, 2011 at 7:30 am
Any CEO who comes in and takes a deficit that took 8 years to build coupled with 2 wars and in only 3 years manages to TRIPLE that deficit and add a war should get the boot.
September 27th, 2011 at 8:48 am
Dear Mr. Leadbetter, my fellow American. I agree, we should all get out of our comfort zone, and I try to do that. Do you? I watch Fox News and, once in a while, I will even listen to Rush. These programs are clearly propaganda with politics coming before fact. Yes, MSNBC leans left (or forward, I guess), but just yesterday, I saw Scott Walker be treated like a superstar on Morning Joe (no liberal is Joe) – on MSNBC! Please name the “left leaning” program on Fox? I also reject your implication that NBC/CBS/CNN are left-leaning, unless you meant that they are fact/real-news based as opposed to the political propaganda of FOX and Rush. OK, I’ll buy that interpretation for the most part. Heck, CNN is in bed with the Tea Party idiots. Now, your “response” to many of the posts was mostly an appeal to “we should get along” and “don’t pick on me.” OK. But you didn’t respond to many of the specific comments. For example, I challenged you to show me how Mr. Cain’s story about the healthcare act was true. I’m waiting. One last note – a nitpick maybe – President Obama’s first name is spelled Barack, not Barrack.
September 27th, 2011 at 9:24 am
Dear Mr. Leadbetter
Re: Your comments on the changes in Broward demographics.
Hispanics that moved up from Dade were Cubans and likely to be Republicans.
Instead of lamenting the influx at “Hawaiian Gardens and Century Village” why not say what you really mean. I’m sure you miss the good old days when you could walk into a Fort Lauderdale hotel and feel at home seeing the sign that opined “NO DOGS OR JEWS ALLOWED”.
September 27th, 2011 at 11:01 am
Mr. Ledbetter, your little story about Herman Cain and his cancer treatment assumes that his statement, “If Obamacare had been in place five years ago, I would not be alive today,” is true. A good applause line at GOP gatherings, of course, but it’s not based on any obhective facts.
Now it would be nice if we all had Mr. Cain’s resources; a lot of money certainly provides more options. But Mr. Cain is not representative of the vast majority of Americans.
If, instead of running the company, Mr. Cain made or delivered Godfather’s pizzas, I’m sure he would have a different attitude.
It seems the attitude of the Republican Party nowadays is “All of the rights, none of the responsibilities.”
September 27th, 2011 at 11:21 am
Thank you Dean, for some refreshing common sense and a little insight from the “right side”. Also, thank you Buddy, for allowing the column. I don’t know if you realize it or not, but your blog has taken a severe left turn recently, both in your “news” content and in your quest columns. This has driven off most conservative commenters as they realize they are not contributing to an objective forum.
And Sam, you will always be Sam. Pretty hopeless, really. In the 70s and 80s, Cemetary Village(s) and Hawaiian Gardens were huge liberal voting blocks of predominantly transplanted Northeastern Jews. At the same time, liberal northeasterners from all backgrounds and religions filled our suburbs. Jews, Catholics and other religions but almost all liberals. Isn’t that when you came here too?
Nobody wants to go back to when there were signs that said “NO JEWS”, but I would like to see the day when there are signs put up that say:
“NO LIBERAL JERKS (especially Sam Fields)”
September 27th, 2011 at 1:34 pm
Dear Miracle,
You’re wrong again. In the name of Fifth Amendment property rights there are many Republicans that would love to repeal or overturn the Public Accommodations provision of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
It was that law that made those signs and segregationist policies illegal. Along with the expected bigots (mainly Southern Democrats) opposition to the law came from Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan.
I would bet my bottom dollar that Dean Ledbetter held similar feelings.
September 27th, 2011 at 1:39 pm
Dear Miracle,
You’re wrong again. In the name of Fifth Amendment property rights there are many Republicans that would love to repeal or overturn the Public Accommodations provision of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
It was that law that made those signs and segregationist policies illegal. Along with the expected bigots (mainly Southern Democrats) opposition to the law came from Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan.
I would bet my bottom dollar that Dean Ledbetter held similar feelings.
Let me go step further and suggest and that based on a revival of what is known as the Lockner Doctrine (you’ll have to look that up) there are at least three and possibly four votes on the United States Supreme Court (including Clarence Thomas) that would overturn the 1964 Civil Rights Act in whole or part.
September 27th, 2011 at 2:36 pm
@Sam – your comments are not only off the mark they are offensive. I should think better of a man of your caliber. Am I wrong to regard you so highly? Have you missed the subtle change in the attitude of the hispanic demographic political leanings? Tut tut. Does Jim Kane have a student? He’s speaking at the Forum tomorrow you know.
@Floridian – H. Cain’s comments are H. Cain’s comments, they are a great story of personal challenges and triumph with which many identify and to which more aspire. Nothing more, nothing less.
@What – As for the veracity of Cain’s perspective that is another question entirely, one that I will leave to those who aspire to actually read and absorb the hundreds of pages of legalese in that bill. Please note most of the congressmen who voted for the bill did not read it either, much less understand it, but now they’ve got to defend it. For the record I am the ultra-skeptic when it comes to anything of governmental origin. The words of the document itself are not sufficient proof of their proper application. I argue with lawyers all the time about the meaning or words regulations and the intent of those in authority for their application.
As for your problem with my misspelling Obama’s name, I blame it on its Arabic origin, my lack of appreciation of that particular semetic language and MS spell check.
September 27th, 2011 at 3:48 pm
Dale,
You did not respond to my assertion that in 1964 you stood with Goldwater and Reagan in opposuing the Civil Rights Act.
September 27th, 2011 at 3:50 pm
Spelling correction . It is Lochner and not Lockner
September 27th, 2011 at 4:04 pm
Thanks for the response. It looks like you will just take Mr. Cain’s word as far as what is in the healthcare act, because that fits into your worldview of being a skeptic of government. I guess being a skeptic of whether Mr. Cain, who wants to be the President of the United States, is relaying the truth is not so much important to you. I’m glad Mr. Cain has survived cancer. I know people who died of cancer due to a lack of decent healthcare. But, they were not CEO’s and “job creators,” I guess.
September 27th, 2011 at 4:29 pm
Those signs like “NO JEWS OR DOGS ALLOWED” were allowed in the segregated South ruled by Jim Crow laws enagted by … drum roll… Democrat- controlled legislatures and City Councils. Yes, Jim Crow was a Democrat. In the same manner the ban on gay adoption was passed by a Democrat-controlled legislature and signed into law by then Governor Bob Graham. Historical revisionism is a funny thing… Somebody always actually knows the truth.
September 27th, 2011 at 5:05 pm
David, I’ll assume you are not a moron. But you do need to educate yourself. Look up “Civil Rights Act of 1964” and “Nixon’s Southern Strategy” on Google and you will find a wealth of information of how the Republican Party is now home to the racist element in this country. Yes, the “Democrats” were in control in the old south. These people are now called “Republicans.” Look it up.
September 27th, 2011 at 10:36 pm
And remember those people called Communists? They are called Democrats now.
September 28th, 2011 at 9:13 am
Sam or Buddy.
Can you check this out please.
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/09/27/329416/florida-muslim-republican-denied/
This would be an amazing feat of the GOP uniting Jews and Muslims in the US via both demographics going to the Dem party because of GOP craziness.
The GOP would have a ready made issue about how the Dem party is now in bed with the Terrorists and dangerous if USA Muslims figure out that they are not much different than non whites, women who are not subservient, Spanish speakers, gays, uninsured, young people in school, kids with autism and their parents, people with disabilities, teachers, scientists, Canadians with health care, the poor, the working poor, the middle class, elderly on Social security and Medicare and lawyers among others in the eyes of the current crazed cheap AM Talk Radio led GOP.
September 28th, 2011 at 10:32 am
Shifrel – you are probably one of those people who calls Obama a communist, socialist and a nazi. Don’t confuse actual history and completely different political ideas with your talking point of the day. So, do you deny that the “old south Democrats” (i.e. Jim Crow supporters) of yesteryear generally moved on the the Republican Party during the 1960’s? Ever hear of Strom Thurmond, for example? By the way, I probably could have been more precise above. I could have wrote that the old Jim Crow Democrats are now called “Tea Partiers.”
September 28th, 2011 at 10:33 am
Defeating Obama?
What about the battle for BREC…
Richard versus Javier, Red Broward/Tom Lauder versus Javier. Is there going to be a coup?
Obama? in Broward BREC is focused on bigger things.
September 28th, 2011 at 12:37 pm
Sam in 1964 I was in the 4th grade in Athens, Ga. where my dad was working on a Ph.D. in chemistry. Yes, I supported Goldwater, but not for the reason you think. Being a Chemist’s son in a college town, I liked the AU+H2O symbol of his name. Remember I was in the 4th grade. In Reagan’s second term I was a full-fledged supporter as a delegate at the Republican National Convention in Dallas. By that time, I was working on a Ph.D. of my own. I am guessing based on the level of maturity in your missives that you were not even born then. Enlighten us will you?
September 28th, 2011 at 9:26 pm
@What? Are you referring to the racist Dems like Robert Byrd and Al Gore Sr. who stayed in the Dem party until they died? Thurmond was one example of a young man who was racist and a Dem but matured out of his racism and his Democrat Party to be a Republican. As far as Republicans and Tea Party being racist, sorry, that just does not fly. The Tea Party stands for lower taxes and responsibility in government spending, there are no racial aspects to any Tea Party ideals, nor are they strictly Republicans. But you would know nothing of that because you have never been to a Tea Part event and only regurgitate what you hear on MSNBC. The Republican party, unlike the Dems, believes in ideas and merit, not a person’s skin color. It is the Dems that force race into every equation.
And as far as our Fearless Leader, Barack Hussein “Barry” Sotoero Obama, I would not call him a Nazi because he does not rule, er, I mean govern with racism or ethnicity in mind, excepting, of course, the Black Panthers thing in Philly for the Just-Us Dept and all his snubs to Janitors, I mean Jews and Israel. He DOES show a lot of Fascist, Socialist and Communist tendencies though. Fascism in taking over the Auto industry and bullying the Banking and Oil industries. Socialism in his Obamacare, among others. Communism in his feelings that he should just rule without having to deal with those pesky Legislators or Supreme Court Judges getting in the way. Fascism, Socialism and Communism are all pretty much the same thing, to varying degrees. They all seek to expand the power of government and limit the freedom and choices of individuals and society. That describes Fearless Leader to a “T”.
@EX Com Con- you are just whistling past the graveyard. Jews are abandoning Obama in droves and Blacks will either stay home on election day or vote for a racist Republican like Herman Cain. I’d like to say you heard it here first, but I know you have been hearing it whispered in your Democratic Club meetings for some time now.
September 30th, 2011 at 11:17 am
Shifty, you are a lost soul.