Obamacare "navigators" are out in the shopping malls this holiday weekend, hoping enough "stupid Americans" (to use adviser Jonathan Gruber's phrase) will sign up to meet the paid hustlers' quotas.

Visitors to the White House might hear strains of the tune "Walkaway Joe" in the air as Vice President Joe Biden continues to put distance between himself and his unpopular boss. The Washington Times headlined a story saying Biden and Hillary Clinton are "increasingly walking away" from President Obama. Both are considered prospective candidates for the 2016 Democratic nomination for president.

The first family's Thanksgiving dinner menu was not an appropriate example for First Lady Michelle Obama's anti-obesity crusade. Harsh rules for school lunch selections do not apply to White House meals. The Obamas dined on turkey, ham, two kinds of stuffing, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes and six different types of pies.

Happy Thanksgiving

Is Secretary of State John Kerry next in line -- after Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel -- to be booted from President Obama's cabinet? Probably not. But people are talking after news leaked out that after Obama directed harsh rhetoric toward Russia in a speech at the UN General Assembly meeting in New York in September, Kerry said privately to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, "Just ignore Obama's statements." At least Kerry didn't say what most Americans are thinking: "You can't believe anything he says."

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., must be suffering from amnesia. Schumer voted for Obamacare in 2010 and has been one of its strongest defenders. But Schumer, facing reelection in 2016, now says Democrats should not have passed the law. "It wasn't the change we were hired to make," he said.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel heard seemingly unending praise from President Obama after he announced Hagel was leaving his post, but Pentagon insiders widely reported he was being dumped. An unnamed "senior administration official" was quoted as saying Hagel "just wasn't the man for the job." More likely, Obama wants someone who doesn't challenge his decisions.

President Obama is following a "pick and choose" policy on executive orders. Asked in an interview if his action to change immigration laws was precedent for a future president to apply to taxes, he replied, "absolutely not."

Granting amnesty to 4 million or more undocumented immigrants would impose staggering costs on American taxpayers, according to a Washington think tank. An expert at the Heritage Foundation calculates the net cost of providing additional government benefits to those affected would amount to around $2 trillion over their lifetimes.

Surely President Obama meant it was a compliment to Hillary Clinton in discussing her expected candidacy for president in 2016, but it might not have been the best choice of words for him to say the American people are going to want "that new car smell."

Four words could spell the fate of Obamacare, according to a USA Today article. The Supreme Court, in a case likely to be decided by early summer, will dissect the meaning of the phrase "established by the State" in the law's reference to providing tax credits through exchanges, or online marketplaces. Only 14 states have set up exchanges.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC., didn't mince any words in saying what he thought about a House Intelligence Committee report on the Benghazi terrorist attack that found no wrongdoing of Obama administration officials. "I think the report is full of crap," Graham said on CNN.

America's would-be king, Barack Obama, is on the road again, trying to justify his imperial decree that some 5 million illegal immigrants may forthwith enjoy the privileges of citizenship. In the most glaring flip-flop in White House history, Obama usurped the legislative powers given by the Constitution to Congress after repeatedly telling Latino groups he had no authority to do so. He defied the will of the people and their elected representatives should protest.

It's not just Republicans that are critical of President Obama's executive action on immigration. His former press secretary, Jay Carney, said Obama contradicted his own words by suspending deportations. Mediaite.com reported Carney's view as "Obama doing exactly what he once said was unconstitutional."
 
The Obama administration must still be counting on the "stupidity" of Americans to achieve national health care. The candid confessions of a key Obamacare adviser let citizens know they were flim-flammed in the crafting of the law. Their mistrust in government has been heightened by clumsy attempts to pad the current enrollment numbers. HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell brushes it off as a "mistake" in calculation.

If President Obama thinks using executive power to grant amnesty to millions of illegals will bring more Hispanics to the Democratic party, he may have a rude awakening. National Journal reporter Ron Fournier says Hispanic Americans "know when they are being pandered to and they're being used politically, and they can see through this."


Hillary Clinton has put off announcing she will run for president in 2016, but she already has drawn a challenger for the Democratic nomination. Former Sen. James Webb, D-Va., announced he is forming an exploratory committee, an initial step in the
 campaign.

"He is the greatest builder of the Republican Party since Ronald Reagan." - Columnist George Will, crediting Barack Obama with Democratic losses in Congress, governor's offices and state legislatures.

Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., saw her hopes for reelection go down in the Senate vote against the Keystone XL pipeline as some of her liberal colleagues pushed by the environmental lobby denied her the one vote necessary for victory. Republicans will make a new effort next year.

Next year's Congress will contain a new caucus: the "hell no caucus" of liberals. That's the term a writer for politico.com used to describe the group of senators largely responsible for defeat of the pipeline legislation.  Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D- R.I., a member of the unofficial caucus, said: "We will have more tools in the minority than in the majority."
  

Fathers of brides know weddings can be costly, but are taxpayers aware of how much it cost for President Obama's Labor Day weekend trips to attend the wedding of White House chef Sam Kass after fundraising appearances in Wisconsin and New York? The total tab was $1,539,402, including expenses for a round-trip flight to Washington to "sleep in his own bed."

President Obama is poised to violate the Constitution by changing the immigration law by executive action, and Senate Democrats could be willing co-conspirators. Democratic leaders sent a letter to the president supporting his plan, rather than do their job and enact legislation.

Did Eric Holder actually say something nice about the Koch brothers? Democrats regular condemn the billionaires for their support of conservative causes. But when the outgoing attorney general learned they had donated a substantial amount to the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, he said the Koch brothers "should be applauded." Strange words coming from this highly partisan Democrat.
 
Loretta Lynch, President Obama's nominee to succeed Holder, is a big Democrat contributor. Records show Lynch, as a U.S. attorney, gave more than $10,000 to Obama and other Democratic candidates between 2004 and 2008. While she was with a private law firm she donated $14,800 to Democrats running for Congress.

“I get a big kick out of them using the word ‘progressive.’ My gosh, they’re just straight old dumb-ass liberals.” -  Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, to a meeting of the Federalist Society.

Obamacare adviser Jonathan Gruber called Americans stupid and got paid more than $4 million in taxpayers' money. He's right. We are stupid.
 
Democrats suffered disastrous losses in the midterm elections because they weren't liberal enough, says Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. "The American people want government to act on their behalf and are progressive (read liberal)," Sanders said. Not surprising, coming from a Socialist.

Is it time to start questioning MSNBC's credentials as a loyal, dedicated media outlet for liberals? The hosts of the Morning Joe program tried to come up with an explanation of why Hillary Clinton should run for president ... and were stumped. Joe Scarborough compared her to the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, who was unable give a reason why he was running for president in 1979.
 
Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who was House Speaker at the time the Obamacare was passed, pretends she doesn't know MIT economist Jonathan Gruber, whose now-public comments reveal how President Obama and other Democrats lied and cheated to get the votes for passage. But the Democratic leader of the Senate, Harry Reid, in 2009 heaped praise on Gruber, calling him "one of the most respected" in his field. He got $400,000 of taxpayers' money for his work on Obamacare.

 Want to buy an island? Big liberal Democrat Ted Turner has one he'll sell you for only $23.7 million. The CNN founder offers a 4,680-acre private sea island with subtropical forests, white beaches, and spectacular views with a five-bedroom house (plus one for a caretaker) and self-sufficient energy. St. Philips Island is located off the Atlantic coast near Hilton Head, S.C.

Democrats talk a lot about the middle class, but we have one of their big names, Vice President Joe Biden, to thank for givi
ng us a definition. If someone is labeled middle class, says Joe, "In Washington, that's not meant as a compliment -- it means you're not sophisticated."

How Your Taxes Are Spent
The National Institutes of Health spent $9,091,409 million to develop a video game about a teenager that must escape a town full of fat people and almost $2 million more for research on how these games can fight obesity.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., viewed as a potential rival of Hillary Clinton's for support from the left, may gain more visibility through a special Senate leadership post. Reports are circulating that the Senate's Democratic leader, Harry Reid, D-Nev., has that idea up his sleeve.

Republicans rolled a lucky seven Senate pickups on Nov. 4 and added an eighth seat after Alaska finished its vote count. Dan Sullivan, a former George W. Bush State Department official, will replace Democratic Sen. Mark Begich. Louisiana's Senate race will be settled in a Dec. 9 runoff.

White House power figure Valerie Jarrett has a new title -- Scapegoat-in-Chief -- conferred on her by Washington media reporter Howard Kurtz. He writes that Jarrett, a personal Chicago friend of Barack and Michelle Obama, is the target of blame by the national press for the midterm election debacle. Kurtz admits Jarrett does have some defenders.


The Obama administration was well represented at the "Concert for Valor" on the National Mall, supposedly to honor military veterans. Vice President Joe Biden and President Obama's senior adviser Valerie Jarrett were present to see Bruce Springsteen sing an anti-war song and Eminem performing a rap laced with expletives.  

A glaring example of deliberate deception in the crafting of President Obama's health care law has come to light. MIT economist Jonathan Gruber, known as the "Obamacare architect", says in a video that just surfaced a "lack of transparency" and the "stupidity of the American voter" enabled the bill to get enough votes to pass.
 
The new secretary of veterans affairs, Robert McDonald, has announced a vast restructuring of the agency in the wake of a shocking scandal which revealed that thousands of veterans were left waiting or never got health care. More than 1,000 VA employees could lose their jobs. Let's hope this housecleaning will restore the services that veterans are entitled to receive.
 
How to insult an important trade partner: In Beijing, President Obama turned up his nose at the offer of a Chinese limousine and later emerged from his own limo casually smacking gum. China's news media criticized his behavior.

President Obama must be downright giggly in announcing his support for "net neutrality" --  tighter FCC rules  on broadband service for computers. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, blasted the idea as "Obamacare for the Internet."

As if President Obama didn't look silly enough on "Face the Nation" finally admitting "we got beat" in the midterm elections, he went to China and donned a purple "Star Trek" costume for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

"We got slaughtered. I think it's important for Democrats to recognize that." - Mitch Stewart, senior adviser for Ready for Hillary. The name of that group is out of sync with voters.

In 2006, when President George W. Bush lost six seats in the Senate and 30 in the House, he called it a "thumpin'." In 2010 President Obama lost six Senate seats and 63 in the House and called it a "shellacking." This time Obama is trying to chalk it up to two-thirds of the electorate not voting. He should have learned by now the voters are fed up with political spin.

How Your Tax Money Is Spent
The Lifeline program handed out more than 13 million free cellphones and wireless service plans across the country in the first six months of this year. The "Obamaphones" cost taxpayers $2 billion. The CBS4 TV station in Denver turned up alarming cases of fraud and abuse of the program in an undercover investigation.

Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., the first black senator elected in the South since the Reconstruction era, has a blunt message for race-baiting Democrats: "The voters said 'No.' They rejected this." Scott was appointed to replace Sen. Jim Demint, who resigned, and was re-elected for a full term Nov. 4.

President Obama, before the election: "My policies are on the ballot."
President Obama, after the election, a resounding defeat of supporters of those policies: "I hear you."
Maybe -- but he didn't get the message. He served notice that he will continue to push for his liberal ideas that were overwhelmingly rejected by the voters.


Having a famous name doesn' t guarantee success in electoral politics. Just ask former American Idol star Clay Aiken, who lost a bid for a North Carolina House seat by 17 points. Sandra Fluke, whose complaint about not being able to pay for birth control put her into the national spotlight failed in a try for a seat in the California State Senate by a 61-39 vote. 

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, toppled from his lofty position in the Nov. 4 Republican wave, has turned conciliatory. The Nevada Democrat, whose arrogant, dictatorial control of the Senate was a leading cause of congressional gridlock, now says he wants to work with the new Republican majority next year "to get things done."

"How does the president not read this as a rejection of his name, of his party, of his agenda?" - Liberal MSNBC host Chris Matthews on the Republican wave of victories in the mid-term election.

Ego-driven President Obama injected himself into the TV election coverage with a White House announcement that he had invited the top four leaders of Congress to meet with him on Friday. A little late for that, isn't it?

What's in a family name? George P. Bush, former president George H. W. Bush's grandson, was elected Texas Land Commissioner.  Jason Carter, grandson of former president Jimmy Carter, lost a race for governor of Georgia.

"I was born on Nov. 4, which is election day ... My birthday has made more men and sent more back to honest work than any other days in the year." - Will Rogers. 

The IRS scandal widened on the eve of congressional elections as it was linked to a Democratic senator, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire. Correspondence between Shaheen and IRS officials revealed her involvement in a plot with IRS chief counsel William J. Wilkins and Lois Lerner, target of congressional investigations into IRS harassment of conservative non-profit groups during the 2012 election.

"I do talk about health. But I think that a good victory for Democrats ... should be rewarded with some fried chicken." - First Lady Michelle Obama in a message to black voters.