Day508 Thursday 01/19/12

ran 2.2 miles
President Barack Obama seems to have run out of people and organizations to blame his problems on. He has actually sunk to the level of blaming the press for forging an image of him that was “aloof and disconnected” from the rest of Washington. Who will this guy not blame? Here is the story.

Isn’t this the same press that painted a messianic picture of him in 2008? That’s no way to thank the people who control the information and decide what is and what is not printed---especially when they have served his needs for so long.

I think this is what people are talking about when they say someone is “spineless”, or refuses to take responsibility for their own actions. I wonder if our president has ever genuinely asked himself if maybe he was “aloof and disconnected”, not only from Washington but from America, too.

On that note, here is a great ad to kick off the 2012 presidential election cycle:



529.8 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day143.

Day507 Wednesday 01/18/12

ran 5.2 miles

Thank you Wikipedia, Mozilla, Google, Reddit, Wordpress and the more than 7,000 other websites that protested SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect Intellectual Property Act) today by blacking out your sites or supporting the protest by offering information on what these bills mean.

SOPA is a Senate bill and PIPA is a House bill. As usual our politicians have managed to tack on a fancy name to some new bills that may sound decent on the surface but are actually gateways to an unprecedented amount of power to censor and control the Internet. This is free speech we are talking about and that is something the federal government has no right to pry its grimy, manipulative tentacles into.

If you want to be fed news selected by and written by your government, and you want to be limited to only certain sources or portions of information, move to China or North Korea. It does not belong in America and it is a disappointment that the House and Senate are even proposing ideas like these.

Another story in the news, President Obama said “no” to the Keystone pipeline today. Goodbye jobs. Goodbye tax revenue for the federal government. Goodbye economic growth. Goodbye self-reliance on our own energy resources. There will be no strengthening of our economy or opportunity for Americans from the Keystone pipeline. And, if Canada does not feel like waiting until November for a new American president who has a greater interest in creating jobs and wants to work toward refining its own resources, then they will direct it to China instead.



532.0 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day142.

Day506 Tuesday 01/17/12

ran 3.3 miles
Some stats and polls from Rasmussen Reports:

• Barack Obama’s presidential index rating shows that 22% of American voters strongly approve of his performance while 41% strongly disapprove, giving Obama a presidential index rating of –19.

• Overall, 46% of voters at least somewhat approve of Obama’s performance while 53% at least somewhat disapprove.

• Generic Congressional Ballot: Republicans 44%, Democrats 38%

• Election 2012: Republican 47%, Obama 42%

• South Carolina: Romney 35%, Gingrich 21%, Santorum 16%, Paul 16%

At this point in time, after three years of Obama, it is no longer even worth the time to discuss issues like why his college transcripts are locked away, but lets have some fun and do it anyway. For all of the speculation that surrounded Barack Obama early in his term, such as college transcripts, a lack of fellow students to say they went to school with him, professors to say they taught him, and even his reticence to hand over his birth certificate until Donald Trump inflated the issue, today his past once again resurfaced during a press conference with press secretary Jay Carney.

A Fox News reporter, Ed Henry, asked Carney why President Obama hadn’t released his college transcripts. Carney simply said, “I would refer you to the campaign.” Then he started talking about something completely unrelated.

Nice dodge.

537.2 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day141.

Day505 Monday 01/16/12

ran 3.7 miles

I had a radio interview this morning on KPEL965.com. For you out-of-towners that is a station in Lafayette, Louisiana. I was able to discuss why I started this blog and what I am trying to achieve. If you’re new to RunningAgainstObama, take a look around and keep checking in!

540.5 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day140.

Day504 Sunday 01/15/12

Today ends week seventy-two of running against Obama. I ran 23.7 miles this week, averaging 3.39 miles per day.

Tomorrow morning I will be interviewed on a local radio station around 7:35. The station is KPEL 96.5 FM for readers in Lafayette. For any readers not from this area there is a free app you can download, radiopup, and stream it live. KPEL's website also airs the morning show.

Thanks for following this blog and I hope you tune in!

544.2 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day139.

Day503 Saturday 01/14/12

ran 3.3 miles

In an article from Investors.com, written by John Merline, we can take a close look at how uniquely unsuccessful Barack Obama’s efforts have been to create jobs. Merline titled the article “Nearly 1 Million Workers Vanished Under Obama” and here are some of the numbers to prove it. And keep in mind the failed stimulus package Obama pumped into the economy, which our children and grandchildren will be born into America owing, when you read them.

It has been thirty months since the recession officially ended and approximately one million people have slipped through the cracks of the labor force. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the labor force has diminished by 170,000 in just the past two months.

In the past nine documented economic recoveries, the labor force numbers had increased by an average of 3.5 million by this point.

The number of people either working or seeking employment compared to the total working-age population is currently 64%, down from 65.7% when the recession was declared over in June of 2009. That is the lowest level since women started joining the workforce in far greater numbers decades ago. The current official unemployment rate of 8.5% would adjust to 11% if this drop were taken into account. And, to raise that number even higher, only those individuals who actively seek work are actually counted as “unemployed”.

547.7 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day138.

Day502 Friday 01/13/12

ran 2.6 miles

This was an ad from the 2010 midterm elections. That election was pivotal in slowing down Barack Obama's agenda and firing a huge number of Democratic members of congress who voted for the legislative pieces that an obviously large number of Americans did not want. There is going to be an information overload and a lot of distractions between now and the 2012 presidential election but one important thing to keep in mind is this:

What has changed? Why should November 2012 not be a repeat "shellacking" of Barack Obama and his congressional counterparts? All the blame he lays on congress is actually blame he lays on American voters because we voted his majority out of the House and we nearly voted out his majority of the Senate. We replaced these individuals with new elected officials who campaigned on the ideas we, as a majority of people from across the country, wanted. The 112th Congress he blames is simply performing the task we elected them to do.

I have some exciting news! I am going to be interviewed on a Lafayette radio station on Monday, January 16. Check back in for more details over the next couple of days.

551.0 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day137.

Day501 Thursday 01/12/12

Another $1.2 Trillion?



ran 4.0 miles

Barack Obama requested another $1.2 trillion today. We need more monopoly money to pay off our debts. Our current president is on pace to outspend every other president combined if reelected. At the risk of sounding completely materialistic, our economy and our national debt are a couple of my top issues as a voter. These topics are essentially one of the few things I want to here candidates talk about.

What is more important than stopping America from losing all credibility, going bankrupt and eventually losing the identity it has held for so long as the greatest nation on Earth? How important are the other issues we value in America if our nation falls into a state of economic chaos similar to what happened in Greece?

And while we are dangling off the edge of a cliff by a single finger, let's go ahead and figuratively cut that finger off with an expensive health care overhaul that a majority of this country wants no part of.

553.6 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day136.

Day500 Wednesday 01/11/12

ran 3.6 miles

Today ends 500 days of running against Obama. After 500 days of campaigning against him, this is what I have come to realize.

I have never taken on an endeavor of this size in my entire life. I have set out far less time and energy-consuming goals, which I came nowhere close to following through on, but this man and his ideas compel me to make a stand with a determination I have never before experienced.

This president had two years to do anything he wanted with Democratic majorities in the House and Senate. Ever since his “shellacking” on November 2, 2010, his fire of the first two years was put out and since then he has been blowing on the embers to get it started again. Frustrated by Republicans throwing sand on every flame he painstakingly sparked, he has been backed into a corner, due to his own actions and America’s disapproval of them, and there is little left for him to do but simply get out of the way or blame Congress for all of our woes. He has chosen the latter.

America was on the cliff’s edge of a recession, possibly another Great Depression, in 2009, and Barack Obama came along and signed sweeping health care legislation in tandem with a colossal stimulus package that amounted to nothing. Almost immediately he executed these actions with no regard for the dire circumstances our nation was in.

For decades Washington D.C. has been kicking the can down the road and prolonging the inevitable moment for this wasteful bubble to pop, just like the housing bubble and the banks, waiting and waiting, packing as much air into that balloon until it would explode. Well, it popped Mr. President. And your solution was to enact some of the most immediately costly health care legislation in America’s domestic history and to stimulate the economy with monopoly money, giving China and other nations even more ownership of America, which was spent to no avail. What we needed in 2008 was a hero with a different sort of hope and change. We needed a boot to kick this country in its rear-end and to step on the greedy fingers of what we have come to know as the typical politician. Barack Obama was the exact opposite of that.

Two nights ago I had posted about Barack Obama’s newly appointed chief of staff, Jack Lew, who will take the place of Bill Daley. This guy was the chief operating officer of Citibank’s alternative investment division in 2009. He received a bonus exceeding $900,000 that year after billions of American tax dollars bailed Citibank out for the housing crisis they played a part in. His outrageous bonus was paid for by taxpayers.

Digging even deeper in the rabbit hole, Bill Daley, the current chief of staff who is stepping down, is the brother of the former mayor of Chicago. Bill Daley’s father was the mayor of Chicago before his brother. And Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s first chief of staff, is currently the mayor of Chicago, who took the place of Bill Daley’s brother.

Maybe you don’t feel it but this gets under my skin. It makes me feel helpless as I grasp for logical reasons why America has gotten to the point it is at. 2012 welcomed in a national debt that actually exceeds GDP. Our president is weeks away from requesting a trillion-plus dollar debt-ceiling hike. None of this makes any sense and I have no answer for why our federal government continues in the direction it does. It is a helpless and chaotic feeling to be a part of something you cannot understand.

This is why I run.

557.6 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day135.

Day499 Tuesday 01/10/12

ran 3.2 miles
Romney’s success in New Hampshire comes as no surprise but Paul finishing second is impressive. Huntsman earning third place behind Paul, leaving Santorum and Gingrich to fight for the scraps of the Granite State, had to have been disappointing for him. He put a lot of time, money, and confidence into his campaign in New Hampshire and third place might not be pivotal enough for him to keep stride.

South Carolina is next and this particular state will stand as a historic barometer of where America stands. The state has a thirty-year track record of successfully picking the Republican candidate who eventually goes on to be the presidential nominee. Not bad.

And after that comes Florida. This South Carolina/Florida combo of primaries, almost within a week of one another, will serve as a broad leap into severely narrowing down the speculation surrounding which one of these guys will finally be nominated to face Barack Obama on November 6, 2012.

561.2 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day134.

Day498 Monday 01/09/12

ran 3.5 miles
Obama’s chief of staff, Bill Daley, is stepping down and heading back to Chicago. Daley filled the position after Rahm Emanuel stepped down to run for and eventually win the position of mayor in Chicago, a position that Bill Daley’s father and brother had once held, and he will now be replaced by Jack Lew. Coincidentally, Lew received nearly $950,000 in bonuses in 2009 while serving as chief operating officer of Citibank’s alternative investments division. This was mere months after billions of dollars in bailouts were paid to Citibank with tax dollars. Here is the story.

Here are some stats and polls from Rasmussen Reports:

• Barack Obama’s presidential index rating shows that 23% of American voters strongly approve of his performance while 42% strongly disapprove, giving Obama a presidential index rating of –19.

• Overall, 44% of voters at least somewhat approve of Obama’s performance while 55% at least somewhat disapprove.

• Among voters, 52% think repeal of health care law is likely,

• National GOP Poll: Romney 29%, Santorum 24%, Gingrich 16%

• Generic Congressional Ballot: Republicans 44%, Democrats 38%

• Only 30% of Americans expect to earn more a year from now.

• Among voters, 22% say U.S. is heading in the right direction.

564.4 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day133.

Day497 Sunday 01/08/12

ran 3.0 miles
One of my favorite videos.

Today ends week seventy-one of running against Obama. I ran 24.8 miles this week, averaging 3.54 miles per day.

567.9 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day132.

Day496 Saturday 01/07/12

ran 3.5 miles
The final numbers are in for waivers from ObamaCare. All together there were 1,231 waivers issued to companies. From the DailyCaller, labor unions representing 543,812 union workers were granted waivers from Obama since June 17, 2011. The private sector received waivers for only 69,813 employees.

And, in case you don’t remember this story, the Department of Health and Human Services tightened their rules for issuing waivers when a DailyCaller story broke last May reporting that 20% of that month’s waivers went to businesses in Nancy Pelosi’s district in California.

For the most part, union’s backed Obama’s health care plan and now that it has passed over half a million of those union’s employees are exempt from it.

Many would argue that these waivers represent such a small faction of America that they are only a small bump in the road for the ultimate transition into full-blown nationalized health care, but many others would say they represent 1,231 small cracks in a concrete dam that will eventually, sooner than later, turn into much larger cracks.

570.9 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day131.

Day495 Friday 01/06/12

ran 1.9 miles

Barack Obama continues to exercise his executive powers blaming Congress for all of America’s woes. Feeling disenfranchised and not supported by his own Congress, he has little else choice but to blame others as a child would do. His actions defy and take advantage of the other branches of government, which were put in place to prevent this exact breach of power from occurring.

Here is a man, Senator Marco Rubio, who has the brass to let him know.

January 6, 2012

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Mr. President

Any day now, news reports suggest you will ask Congress to approve yet another increase in the debt ceiling. The expected request is another $1.2 trillion, adding to a three-year debt binge that has totaled $4.5 trillion on your watch and that has enabled our overall debt to surpass $15 trillion. Your latest request will push the federal debt limit well above $16 trillion.

This pending request will be the sixth time during your Presidency that Congress is being asked to keep allowing government and spending to grow at rates that are unsustainable. In other words, you have made it a routine part of your job to ask for more room to spend without any plan to reduce our debt.

Instead of making debt ceiling increases a routine Washington exercise, we need to make it routine to actually spend no more than we take in. Until then, I will oppose your request to continue borrowing and spending recklessly.

As I wrote in The Wall Street Journal in March 2011, I will oppose a debt ceiling increase unless such an authorization is accompanied by a real plan to tackle our debt. Ideally, such a plan would feature both pro-growth elements and spending restraints, including fundamental tax reform, regulatory reform, meaningful cuts to discretionary spending, a balanced-budget amendment, and reforms to save Social Security and Medicare.

If we had done this in mid-2011 when we last debated the debt ceiling, we could have set America on a path to economic growth and prosperity. This would have led to more jobs and, in turn, to more duly employed taxpayers generating more growth-driven revenue to help us pay down our debt. Instead, you failed to lead, punted the tough decisions and, in doing so, our credit rating was downgraded for the first time in our history. It’s a tragic reality but, on your watch, more and more people have come to believe that America is becoming a deadbeat nation inevitably heading toward a European-style debt crisis.

When you served in the Senate in 2006, you called raising the debt limit “a sign of leadership failure.” Using your own standard, this request will mark your sixth “sign of leadership failure” on the debt ceiling issue alone. Throughout our history, Americans have revered courageous leaders and celebrated them as profiles in courage.

Unfortunately, the first three years of your presidency have been a profile in leadership failure. While you may choose to run your reelection campaign against a “Do-Nothing Congress,” your insistence on doing nothing to meaningfully tackle our debt poses a direct threat to America’s exceptional character and is leading us towards a diminished future.

America deserves leaders who will stand front and center, level with the American people about our challenges and offer real solutions to solve them. Instead of simply asking for another debt ceiling increase, I urge you to come forward with a real plan to tackle our debt in 2012.

Sincerely,

Marco Rubio
United States Senator

574.4 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day130.