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.

Day494 Thursday 01/05/12

ran 3.5 miles
On this day in history, President Harry Truman gave his “Fair Deal” speech in the form of his State of the Union address. The year was 1949 and Truman declared that every American deserves a fair deal from their government.

Sound like a familiar idea here in 2012? I agree every American, every legal American, deserves a fair deal, in which they have every opportunity any other individual has, but that “fair deal” or opportunity has nothing to do with the federal government granting it.

President Harry Truman laid out a plan for domestic policy reforms including nationalized health insurance, public housing, civil rights legislation, federal aid to education, increased minimum wage, government assistance to farmers, extension of Social Security, and immediate anti-discrimination policies regarding employment.

I’m not suggesting these are bad ideas but the ruthless haste most presidents use in implementing their ideas far too often leaves a wake of unexpected disaster elsewhere. Barack Obama’s use of stimulus packages and introducing his health care bill in the first half of his term amidst a full blown recession are two examples of cramming futility down the throat of logic. Many would argue things would be worse had he not invested so many monopoly money tax dollars into so many things that have unraveled as complete failures; I would argue that if he had invested in resources and technology, such as drilling for oil, that we as a nation already have a firm grasp on then his stimulus package could have been a success rather than a monumental failure.

In 1949, much like in 2012, politics were shifting to the right and anti-communist sentiment was increasingly slowing down Truman’s agenda, just as Barack Obama’s agenda is becoming more and more difficult to fulfill. The “Fair Deal” was being interpreted more and more as socialism by Americans.

In Truman’s second term minimum wage was almost doubled, he succeeded with his “Housing Act”, which provided 800,000 new houses for the poor, and Congress approved his extension of Social Security benefits. As far as nationalized health care was concerned, Congress obviously rejected the idea.

In 1950, the Korean War and the Cold War were too big of distractions for Truman to pursue his more important domestic interests any longer.

What was the theme of that speech Obama gave last month in Osawatomie, Kansas? “Fair Deal”, was it? No, it was the “Fair Shot” speech.

576.3 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day129.

Day493 Wednesday 01/04/12

1,500 MILES!!!

ran 4.6 miles

Back from Hawaii and with the dust still clearing in Iowa from last night’s caucus, Barack Obama has yet again demonstrated his arguable overreaching of powers. From a Washington Times article written by Stephen Dinan and Susan Crabtree, Obama utilized his recess appointment powers today to name a head for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and three new members to the National Labor Relations Board.

Who the appointees were is not nearly as important as the defiance our president exhibited when he usurped Congress to make his own decisions. The Senate is still in session and the president is not authorized to make a recess appointment until three days of recess have passed. The number of recess days needed for him to make an unapproved appointment was actually even longer until 2010 when Obama’s top constitutional lawyers made an argument to the Supreme Court that the waiting period should only be three days. Apparently, it is now zero days.

The reason we have a President, a Senate, and a House, is to act as watchdog over one another. And the people of America or the fourth watchdog. This is what our forefather’s intended from the beginning.

“I refuse to take ‘No’ for an answer. I’ve said before that I will continue to look for every opportunity to work with Congress to move this country forward. But when Congress refuses to act in a way that hurts our economy and puts people at risk, I have an obligation as president to do what I can without them.”

Barack Obama

After our president’s first two terms, Americans from all over the country voted during the mid-term elections and they sent Barack Obama a direct message. Now he blames Congress for our woes, but a majority of Americans who were disappointed in Obama’s decisions fired many of the members of Congress who supported them. The 112th Congress he accuses of being the problem is simply doing the job they were hired, or voted for, to do by the people. Who’s really to blame here?

Can you imagine if Americans were as ignorant and as uninformed as our federal government assumes us to be? What would be happening right now if the people of this nation simply had not cared and had not shown up at their precincts to vote in November of 2010? Where would we be if Barack Obama still had control of the Senate and the House? Voters served their role as watchdog and leveled the imbalance of power that had existed and was obviously not working in a majority of our interests.

1,500 miles!!! Thanks for reading!

579.8 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day128.

Day492 Tuesday 01/03/12

$15,222,940,045,451.09

ran 4.7 miles
The numbers are in and the U.S. Treasury has closed out 2011 with an official $15.2 trillion in national debt. U.S. debt to GDP is now sitting at 100.3%. In simple terms, our boat is about an inch away from filling up completely with water regardless of how much we are throwing out over the side with our useless government-subsidized buckets. We need bigger buckets and a new captain.

Check this page out. The U.S. National Debt Clock has America projected at $23.9 trillion by 2015. Only three short years away. This is clearly unacceptable and enough water to sink any ship, so do we continue in Barack Obama’s direction or do we elect someone else who will stop spending incomprehensible sums of money that do not even exist?

The Iowa caucus is the first mile on the street of 2012 leading to November 6. From USA Today, here is the rapid schedule of primaries and caucuses after Iowa:

Jan. 10: New Hampshire primary
Jan. 21: South Carolina primary
Jan. 31: Florida primary
Feb. 4: Nevada caucuses; Maine caucuses begin
Feb. 7: Colorado, Minnesota caucuses; Missouri primary*
Feb. 28: Arizona, Michigan primaries
March 3: Washington State caucuses
March 6: Super Tuesday — Primaries or caucuses in Alaska, Georgia, Idaho, Massachusetts, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia. Wyoming caucuses begin.
March 10: Kansas caucuses
March 13: Alabama, Mississippi primaries; Hawaii caucuses
March 17: Missouri caucuses
March 20: Illinois primary
March 24: Louisiana primary
April 3: District of Columbia, Maryland, Texas, Wisconsin primaries
April 24: Connecticut, Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island primaries
May 8: Indiana, North Carolina, West Virginia primaries
May 15: Nebraska, Oregon primaries
May 22: Arkansas, Kentucky primaries
June 5: California, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, South Dakota primaries
June 26: Utah primary
*Non-binding primary; Missouri delegates chosen at March 17 caucuses.Source: USA TODAY reporting

584.4 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day127.

Day491 Monday 01/02/12

ran 3.6 miles
This is Ron Paul’s final television ad in New Hampshire before the primary begins in eight days. It begins airing today and it will be the last spot to air in New Hampshire before the primary begins.

Ron Paul has a strong and wide following but he turns a lot of people off when it comes to foreign policy. This is my interpretation of Ron Paul. Regarding civil liberties and economical matters, the man is incomparable to any other candidate. His voting record is a solid line of consistency. He has never voted for a tax increase. He says things the way he sees them regardless of what you or any other person may think of him, and those ideas are based on his beliefs in our Constitution and what our forefathers intended.

But, when he begins talking about pulling troops from all over the globe and letting Iran do as they please with nuclear weapons, Paul gets tuned out immediately by a lot of people and the varying views and beliefs they hold as important.

But ask yourself this question. What is more important than ending the wasteful spending we have been piling on ourselves and on unborn Americans for so long? Our economy is on the brink of collapse. The numbers speak for themselves. It is not even necessary to speculate at what injury will be put on our nation if Obama finagles another term out of American voters. But we can speculate at how center-of-the-aisle Romney and Gingrich are. I like Romney and Gingrich and would vote for either of them as well as any other candidate instead of Barack Obama, but while we still have options Ron Paul is the man who is best suited to reverse our economical woes. Rick Santorum is another candidate I like and I am very curious to see how he does tomorrow in Iowa. But, ultimately, more and more, I want the tough love, relentless, genuine, conservative, hard working, economy repairing principles of Ron Paul.

Ron Paul is a radical, just as Barack Obama is, but he is on the opposite end of the spectrum, which I believe to be the far more productive and American extreme. What better candidate to neutralize Barack Obama and his extreme policies than the one who most represents the precise contradiction of everything our current president holds as important?

Here are the final polls for Iowa:

Romney 24%
Paul 22%
Santorum 15%
Gingrich 12%
Perry 11%
Bachmann 7%

589.1 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day126.

Day490 Sunday 01/01/12

ran 0.1 miles

Welcome to 2012. Last night, while we were ushering in the new year, Barack Obama seized the opportunity to sign the National Defense Authorization Act. This act, among other things, allows indefinite detainment of American citizens with no trial for any reason our government sees fit.

Any time our federal government signs something into law on Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve, I think it is safe to say that what they signed is usually a huge injustice to the American people. It’s a sucker punch. It’s a cheap shot. And they only get two of them per year so you know they choose the most controversial laws they can find for these two holidays. For example, the Senate passed Obama’s health care bill on Christmas Eve, 2009.

The reason they pick these holidays to enact absurdity is because the media is reporting holiday stories the next day---and, people don’t want to think about the nonsense that is churning daily in Washington on Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve. So they swoop in and pillage while we are distracted by warm, pleasant holidays with friends and family.

President Barack Obama released a signing statement after signing the act. While most of it strikes me as disingenuous fluff, this one particular quote caught my attention.

“Moreover, I want to clarify that my Administration will not authorize the indefinite military detention without trial of American citizens. Indeed, I believe that doing so would break with our most important traditions and values as a Nation.”

There are so many things wrong with this statement. This is a pledge coming from the same man who said he would be a one-term president if the economy was not fixed in three years. It’s been three years and the economy is far from fixed. Those are some strict terms but he set them, not us.

Obama has lost credibility when it comes to the economy. However, the one area he has thrived in is dealing with terrorists. And now that every American is a potential terrorist threat and can be snatched up in the middle of the night, just not under his administration, Obama does have credibility in Bill of Rights defying nightmares like this. He signed this monstrosity into law, but as a consolation he claims that his administration will not authorize “the indefinite military detention without trial of American citizens”. Beyond the fact that those words mean nothing, what about the next administration and the one after that? Barack Obama has signed into law the biggest threat to civil liberties we have seen in a very long time. He has cracked open a gate and eventually this gate will be wide open.

“…I believe that doing so would break with our most important traditions and values as a nation.” Traditions and values? These are laws. These are laws that America was built upon. They are the essence of America.

Almost forgot...today ends week seventy of running against Obama. I ran 20.7 miles this week, averaging 2.96 miles per day.

592.7 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day125.

Day489 Saturday 12/31/11

ran 2.9 miles

Here is a short video explaining the history, meaning, and method of voting for the Iowa caucus. Republicans and Democrats each have their own unique process. I learned a lot in just over a minute. Tuesday, January 3, is the big day.

Hope 2011 was a good year for you and happy New Year’s Eve! Bring it on 2012!

592.8 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day124.

Day488 Friday 12/30/11

16 MONTHS!!!

ran 3.2 miles
A little more than ten months of running against Obama to go. It’s been a long journey to this point but November 6, 2012, will be here before we know it. Thanks for reading the blog and keeping up with the miles. It is going to be a turbulent ten months and not one thing will surprise me along the way or shock me once we reach the final destination of election night.

When I started running sixteen months ago I had the naïve idea that somebody, anybody, would emerge as a hero much like Reagan did against Carter, ultimately achieving a similar landslide victory. Reagan took 44 states to Carter’s 6 (plus D.C.) in 1980. In 1984, he carried 49 states to Walter Mondale’s 1 (plus D.C.). Sixteen months later, I don’t foresee anything like that happening in 2012. Rather, America seems to be dividing in the middle and pulling apart in both directions.

Division. Here’s a mathematical analogy for America. One side wants to divide 5 by 2, which appears to be a perfectly natural idea on the surface, but the other side demands there be no decimal points. One side wants 2+2 to equal 5 and the other wants it to equal 3. The idea of two plus two equaling four is unacceptable in the political arena.

That being said, there is a lot of blame to pass around for our current state but Barack Obama has done little to dig us out of our hole and much to bury us deeper. And as he continues to raise our national debt I feel no consolation when he says things like “it would be worse if we hadn’t taken these measures”. That is a statement that cannot be proven and I expect more from a president than mere speculation about such consequential decisions regarding our economy and the debt that unborn generations are going to be born into owing upon arrival.

Ten more months, America. What’ll it be? Barack Obama or Someone Else?

595.7 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day123.

Day487 Thursday 12/29/11

ran 3.5 miles
Three more states to go. Here are some stats and facts about the state of West Virginia (to check out stats and facts about more states click on “states of the union” on the right):

• West Virginia was the thirty-fifth state to join the union on June 20, 1863, one year before Nevada and two years after Kansas.

• Population, as of 2010, is 1,852,994.

• Senators are Joe Manchin (D) and John Rockefeller (D).

• Representatives are David McKinley (R), Shelley Capito (R), and Nick Rahall (D).

• West Virginia has five electoral votes. An interesting fact about West Virginia is that the state seceded from Virginia after Virginia had seceded from the union during the Civil War. Historically, West Virginia has voted blue 20 out of the last 37 presidential elections, but red for the last three elections. The state historically swings from red to blue but is expected to lean Republican in 2012. In 2008, McCain defeated Obama 56% to 43%.

And here is a little something extra. While certain states exhibit their sovereign interests in slowing down the gates of illegal immigration, Barack Obama has established a hotline for illegal immigrants to call for help if they were so unlucky as to be apprehended. The hotline exists for detainees to call in case they may be U.S. citizens and not realize it or in the event that they feel they were victims of a crime. Here is the story.

598.9 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day122.

Day486 Wednesday 12/28/11

ran 4.2 miles
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 41% strongly disapprove, giving Obama a presidential index rating of –18.

• Overall, 45% of voters at least somewhat approve of Obama’s performance while 54% at least somewhat disapprove.

• Only 20% of American voters polled believe America is heading in the right direction.

• Building the Keystone XL Pipeline earns 53% approval.

• Election 2012: Generic Republican 45%, Obama 44%.

• Among American voters polled, 53% favor repeal of Health Care Law

And from A CNN poll, Iowa has Romney at 25%, followed by Paul with 22%, Santorum with 16%, and Gingrich with 14%.

And one last thing, there is a lot of chatter about Hillary Clinton switching jobs with Joe Biden for the 2012 election. Aside from being a national insult to Joe Biden, the move would be a plus for Democrats. If Obama does wiggle his way into another term, Clinton would be a much more feasible presidential candidate in 2016 to continue Democratic leadership compared to Joe Biden and his tenacity to constantly say the worst possible thing at any given moment. But that is just speculation at this point.

602.4 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day121.

Day485 Tuesday 12/27/11

ran 2.0 miles
Barack Obama is obviously not the only member of our government-spending machine that is up for reelection in 2012. Every House seat is up for grabs every two years, but I haven’t heard much about the Senators whose jobs are in jeopardy so I took the liberty of looking it up.

Thirty-three Senators are up for reelection or have decided to retire. As of today, in fact, Democratic Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska announced he would be retiring, topping the list so far of seven Democratic Senators lining up to retire.

There are twenty-one Democrats, two Independents, and ten Republicans up for reelection or retirement. Those are some good numbers for anyone interested in the possibility, albeit a slim one (this is Washington D.C. we are talking about), of lowering our national debt and empowering the private sector, among many other things. Here they are.

Democrats:

Akaka, Daniel K. (D-HI)
Bingaman, Jeff (D-NM)
Brown, Sherrod (D-OH)
Cantwell, Maria (D-WA)
Cardin, Benjamin L. (D-MD)
Carper, Thomas R. (D-DE)
Casey, Robert P., Jr. (D-PA)
Conrad, Kent (D-ND)
Feinstein, Dianne (D-CA)
Gillibrand, Kirsten E. (D-NY)
Klobuchar, Amy (D-MN)
Kohl, Herb (D-WI)
Manchin, Joe, III (D-WV)
McCaskill, Claire (D-MO)
Menendez, Robert (D-NJ)
Nelson, Ben (D-NE)
Nelson, Bill (D-FL)
Stabenow, Debbie (D-MI)
Tester, Jon (D-MT)
Webb, Jim (D-VA)
Whitehouse, Sheldon (D-RI)

Independents:

Lieberman, Joseph I. (ID-CT)
Sanders, Bernard (I-VT)

Republicans:

Barrasso, John (R-WY)
Brown, Scott P. (R-MA)
Corker, Bob (R-TN)
Hatch, Orrin G. (R-UT)
Heller, Dean (R-NV)
Hutchison, Kay Bailey (R-TX)
Kyl, Jon (R-AZ)
Lugar, Richard G. (R-IN)
Snowe, Olympia J. (R-ME)
Wicker, Roger F. (R-MS)

606.6 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day120.