Communications

Good afternoon, just minutes after Senator Harry Reid blocked a REPUBLICAN motion to vote on Obama’s jobs bill in the Senate, Team Obama blasted an email entitled “they won’t even vote on it,” showing yet again that Obama is more interested in scoring political points and campaigning for his job than he is in creating jobs for the rest of the country.

@SamYoungman: bad timing for an email from Messina reading "They won't even vote on it."

From: Jim Messina, BarackObama.com <info@barackobama.com>
Date: Tue, Oct 4, 2011 at 3:02 PM
Subject: They won't even vote on it

West Virginia Governor’s Race Not Looking Good…Because Of Obama…

Obama Drags Down Democrat In West Virginia Governor’s Race. From WaPo: “President Obama’s unpopularity is threatening Democrats’ hold on the governor’s mansion in West Virginia. Sources close to Tuesday’s special election for the remaining year on now-Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-W.Va.) term as governor say the race continues to move in favor of Republican nominee Bill Maloney, who appears to be winning over the many undecided voters in the state. The race is now looking more and more like a toss-up, though Democrats remain confident they will pull it out in the end. Regardless of where operatives come down on the final results, both agree that the reason for its narrowing is simple: Obama.” http://wapo.st/oBUcR2

Obama’s 2008 Besties Won’t Be By His Side In Missouri…

McCaskill Won't Be In Missouri For Obama Visit. From The Hill: “McCaskill, a fiscally conservative Democrat who took her seat from a Republican in 2006 by a ... more

Excerpts from the Washington Post:

 “A Silicon Valley investor and senior administration officials warned the White House to reconsider having President Obama visit a solar start-up company because of its mounting financial problems, saying he might be embarrassed later.

“A number of us are concerned that the president is visiting Solyndra,” California investor and Obama fundraiser Steve Westly wrote to Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett in May 2010. “Many of us believe the company’s cost structure will make it difficult for them to survive long term. ... I just want to help protect the president from anything that could result in negative or unfair press.” …

"Last year, there were others besides Westly who raised alarms about Obama visiting Solyndra, according to the e-mails released Monday.

“Officials at the Office of Management and Budget fretted, too.

“One OMB official wrote to a White House staffer: ‘I am increasingly worried that this visit could prove embarrassing to the ... more

Solyndra Could Be Obama’s Icarus Moment
Albuquerque Journal
Michael Coleman
September 25, 2011
http://www.abqjournal.com/main/2011/09/25/politics/solyndra-could-be-obamas-icarus-moment.html#ixzz1Z415AjXr 

“Just when it appeared things couldn’t get much worse for President Obama, the Solyndra scandal reared its ugly head this month. 

“The California-based solar panel manufacturer filed for bankruptcy after pocketing a $528 million loan from the Department of Energy. Not only are taxpayers on the hook for the half-billion dollars, but it appears the Obama administration pressured the Office of Management and Budget to speed its loan review so Vice President Joe Biden could trumpet the company at a 2010 press event. 

“The White House clearly wanted to use Solyndra as a poster child for the clean-energy jobs the president promised as part of the 2009 economic stimulus package. Instead, it looks like Solyndra will become congressional Republicans’ poster child for wasteful government ... more

Today President Obama arrives in Ohio to champion his Stimulus 2.0.

The focus of an undoubtedly campaign-style speech will be Brent Spence Bridge, a "functionally obsolete" structure that he claims he can repair if only Congress will "pass this bill now."

But the President should really fact-check his speeches.

The truth is, there are already plans well under way to rebuild Brent Spence Bridge.  That's rebuild -- not repair.  There's even a whole website explaining the project.  Public hearings are set to begin in a few months, but bureaucratic and environmental hurdles mean that construction can't start until 2015.  In other words, this is no shovel-ready project.  It cannot begin for another four years.  The unemployed really can't wait till 2015 for their stimulus-funded jobs.

And if it were shovel-ready, why wasn't it a part of the first stimulus?  The bridge was already "obsolete" then.  Was it not worthy of any of the $825 billion of Stimulus 1?

So why does the President ... more

As President Obama’s approval numbers plummet, the Democratic National Committee is trying to save his reelection hopes with a new television ad airing in states the president carried in 2008. Out of ideas to fix the economy, President Obama held the country and Congress captive for yet another speech to trot out a new $447 billion stimulus that doubles down on his failed policies.  After failing to create a single job last month, Democrats are going to need a lot more than TV ads to convince voters to support more of the same ineffective policies that have failed to put our country back to work.

STIMULUS II: NOT GOING TO WORK 

The New York Times' Motoko Rich: “The dismal state of the economy is the main reason many companies are reluctant to hire workers, and few executives are saying that President Obama’s jobs plan — while welcome — will change their minds any time soon.  That sentiment was echoed across numerous industries by executives in companies big and small on Friday, ... more

President Obama’s campaign manager Jim Messina is “offended.”  He’s offended that successful businessmen, America’s job creators, disagree with the direction Obama has taken this country. 

In an email to campaign supporters, Messina whined about businessman Charles Koch’s recent comments at a private event in Colorado.  There, Koch explained that defeating Barack Obama must be a priority in 2012, and every job creator and unemployed American understands why: this President’s policies are not working.            

The Koch family employs over 50,000 Americans.  Companies like theirs create jobs and hire American workers.  Our economic recovery depends on the ability of such businesses to hire the unemployed.  Yet the President and his allies would prefer to fire political attacks at them and punish them with regulations and job-killing taxes. 

Ironically, the President will champion businesses like solar power company Solyndra, which recently laid off 1,100 workers after closing its ... more

It was reported yesterday that Maryland Governor O'Malley "will attend the joint session of Congress as a guest of President Obama."  Given their record on jobs and the economy, it is no surprise that the two will be sharing this special evening together as President Obama decides to give another speech on the economy and offer no concrete plans to create jobs or help our economy. 

It’s rather fitting that President Obama who has been a complete failure when it comes to job creation, would invite the governor of the state that has been dead last in job growth over the past year to his economic address.   When it comes to jobs, Governor O’Malley and President Obama’s tax-and-spend policies have been nothing more than a roadblock to economic recovery.

Maryland Floundering Near Last Place For Job Creation

Maryland tied for the fastest pace of job loss in the past year in June, the federal government estimated Friday, the second month in a row that the state was at or near the bottom ... more

After the White House announced Obama requested a joint session of Congress to give his jobs speech the same day and time as the GOP presidential debate, WaPo’s Chris Cillizza and NBC’s Chuck Todd were on MSNBC and called it for what it is: 1) not a coincidence and 2) purely political.

Cillizza: “Coincidences at the presidential political level do not exist.” 

Todd: “It politicizes though a joint speech to a Joint Session of Congress.”

Transcript:

CHUCK TODD:  “Well, which political story will make headlines in the next 24 hours? Chris Cillizza joins me now. Chris, we know what's making headlines today. I sort of -- I should have seen this coming. I was hinting that this was going to be State of the Union-like old school, that they would unveil their plan and start selling it around the country. I didn't know they literally really wanted to do a State of the Union.”

CHRIS CILLIZZA:  "Fascinating. You know, my favorite part of that, Chuck, is Jay Carney, the White House spokesman ... more

After promising to present a jobs plan after his Vineyard vacation, we still don’t have a date, time or any details about said jobs plan. Now, news out of the White House is that they are scrambling to put the plan together and there is division in the West Wing as the clock continues to tick and millions of Americans remain without jobs.

White House Scrambles on Jobs Plan

CHUCK TODD: "The West Wing is divided over how big to go and to pick a fight with Congress or not or to go tactical and the legislative route and try to put some points on the scoreboard.  The president teased the speech yesterday, but offered few details."

MSNBC’s Chuck Todd: “Will the president go big on his jobs plan? As the White House finalizes the plan ahead of next week's speech, the West Wing is divided over how big to go and to pick a fight with Congress or not or to go tactical and the legislative route and try to put some points on the scoreboard. The president teased the speech yesterday, but ... more