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Annotations & Elucidations

Headaches For The Regime

I don’t know where to start. This certainly is one of our most gripping News Stands ever —all sorts of angles, topics and perspectives. We have sources and writers debuting today, such as BigGovernment.com, RealClearPolitics.com and NewsOK.com. We even have a link to a short ABC News report about Neil Armstrong slamming President Obama (on the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 13 flight) for completely cutting NASA’s manned flight space program. Not easy to go up against a living legend and international hero, so the president is predictably looking to retreat. On top of that headache for the regime is this embarrassment: The White House press corps is getting sued by a media organization for doing the president’s “bidding.” If that’s not funny enough, John McCain is disavowing the “maverick” moniker and the RINO U.S. Transportation Secretary, Ray Lahood, is moving us toward a bicycle society that has raised objections from even the sleepiest corners of the policy realm.  

Not that it’s all sweetness and light out there. A GOP couple was beat up in New Orleans while attending the Southern Republican Leadership Conference. Jim Hoft of BigGovernment.com fingers the suspects. More: radical liberals are practicing what Saul Alinsky preached and are moving toward a confrontation with Tea Party activists. Brent Bozell and Michell Malkin both have a look.

In political news, Sean Trende of Real Clear Politics makes a compelling case for as many as a 100-seat GOP House gain in November, while the AP looks at the pending doctor shortage. Tony Blankley and James Antle both caution against GOP caution, in the elections and in opposing the next Supreme Court Justice nominee. The Wall Street Journal deconstructs liberals’ arguments for extended unemployment insurance by quoting top Clinton and Obama economic advisor Larry Summers, while the great Walter Williams sets the record straight on the job-killing minimum wage. So: Get your taxes done, take a breather, and get to reading. Lots of informative and enlightening words today. Enjoy.

News

Virginia tax revenues increased in March (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

McDonnell: Critics are “uncivil and partisan” (The Daily Press)

McDonnell spokesman says voting rights letter sent to felons ‘without approval’ (Washington Post)

New Virginia law kills free online tax-filing program (The Daily Press)

Budget tweaks lift manufacturers, public workers (Norfolk Virginian-Pilot)

Fimian calls for a ban on Earmarks (BearingDrift.com) 

Perriello pulls in $600,000 in donations this year (Lynchburg News & Advance)

Analysis

How Bad Could 2010 Really Get For Democrats? (Sean Trende/RealClearPolitics.com)

Doctor shortage? 28 states may expand nurses’ role (AP/GOPUSA.com)

National News

Neil Armstrong Criticizes President’s Space Plan (ABC News video :46/RealClearPolitics.com)

White House press corps sued for doing Obama’s ‘bidding’ (WorldNetDaily.com)

Gay Day of Silence a Waste of Tax Dollars, Critics Say (FoxNews.com)

Agitated McCain: Don’t call me a maverick (Politico.com)

Big Easy Beatdown . . .GOP Official and Boyfriend Savagely Beaten Leaving SRLC Dinner (Jim Hoft/BigGovernment.com)

Transportation’s bicycle policy hits potholes (AP/GOPUSA.com)

Aide to Democrat ex-congressman files harassment complaint (AP/GOPUSA.com)

Huckabee likens gay marriage to incest, polygamy (AP/Richmond Times-Dispatch)

Commentary

Incentives Not to Work: Larry Summers v. Senate Democrats on jobless benefits (Editorial/Wall Street Journal)

Minimum Wage Cruelty (Walter E. Williams/GOPUSA.com)

Tea Parties vs. Hard-Left Protests (L. Brent Bozell, III/NewsOK.com)

John Paul Stevens Republicans (W. James Antle, III/The American Spectator)

Alinsky’s Avenging Angels: Tea Party Saboteurs (Michelle Malkin/GOPUSA.com)

No More Profiles in Caution (Tony Blankley/GOPUSA.com)

Annotations & Elucidations

Obama’s 17-Minute Non-Answer; George Orwell Proven Right?

We lead off the News today with our own Victoria Cobb interviewed about the McDonnell administration’s prices of filling 900-plus positions on state boards and commissions. The Richmond Times-Dispatch was intrigued by conservative activists (namely us, see here) urging conservatives to get involved and apply. Otherwise, the state’s political media remains obsessed with the attorney general.

Nationally, there is intrigue of another sort: Republican U.S. Senate primaries. Former U.S. Representative J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.) is putting up a serious challenge to incumbent John McCain while former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani endorsed former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio in the hotly contested GOP nomination fight which also includes current Governor Charlie Crist. Speaking of the GOP, the fallout from the wacky fundraiser has one resigning and Chairman Michael Steele under fire.

Commentary is abuzz with The Answer — President Obama’s 17 minute ramble to a simple question from a woman about taxes! Bobby Eberle, David Limbaugh and Debra Saunders share their thoughts. We gladly feature the great Thomas Sowell, again, and Harris Sherline expounds on something mentioned here from time to time: George Orwell is more right than even he had a right to expect.

News

*McDonnell urges online applications for boards, panels (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

GOP has dream activist in Cuccinelli (AP/Danville Register & Bee)

Cuccinelli casts a shadow (Norfolk Virginian-Pilot)

State employee argues to Va. Supreme Court that he was fired for being gay (Washington Post Virginia Politics Blog)

Analysis

Supreme Court prospects are Kagan, Wood Garland (AP/GOPUSA.com)

National News

Hayworth defines Ariz. race as tea party vs. DC (AP/GOPUSA.com)

RNC official steps down, but Steele stands firm (AP/GOPUSA.com)

Gingrich tells GOP: Back off RNC’s Michael Steele (AP/GOPUSA.com)

Giuliani endorses Rubio for Senate seat in Fla. (AP/GOPUSA.com)

Whitman chips in $20M more in Calif. gov. race (AP/GOPUSA.com)

Karl Rove ad urges residents to fill out census (AP/GOPUSA.com)

Commentary

Race and Politics (Thomas Sowell/GOPUSA.com)

Just think if Obama had to answer a hard question (BobbyEberle/GOPUSA.com)

Didn’t Obama Get the Memo that His Bill Passed? (BobbyEberle/GOPUSA.com)

Read the Transcript and Freak (David Limbaugh/GOPUSA.com)

Obama’s 17-Minute Non-Answer Answer (Debra Saunders/GOPUSA.com)

Congress Has Become an Institution of the Useless (Doug Patton/GOPUSA.com)

George Orwell’s Predictions Come True (Harris R. Sherline/GOPUSA.com)

In his thumping of Creigh Deeds Tuesday night, Bob McDonnell nearly garnered as many votes as . . .

Marriage.

Yup, that’s right. McDonnell’s 1,160,365 votes (as of this posting) fell just 168,172 short of the 2006 marriage amendment. That proposal received 1,328,537 supporters. Talk about a “bipartisan,” “center,” “mainstream” vote, marriage is the model. 

We also found some interesting tidbits from Tuesday’s exit polling (yes, I know, exit polling . . . but it makes for good fodder).

According to exit polling from CNN, 34 percent of those voting identified themselves as “Evangelical/Born Again” and, of that block, a whopping 83 percent cast their vote for Mr. McDonnell. Now, if you run the numbers that equates to nearly half of all voters that cast their ballot for McDonnell were of the “Evangelical/Born Again” group. (To our liberal friends, breath, breath . . . there you go, breath. It’ll be ok. Breath . . . .)

So, as all the pundits, experts, campaign consultants, etc. inform us that the campaign Mr. McDonnell ran is the “model” for future GOP candidates, lets all remember that the “model” only works if “the base” is motivated. Otherwise, well, see John McCain. And Jerry Kilgore. And . . . well, you get the idea.

From Karl Rove:

There are 63 House Democrats who represent districts won twice by George W. Bush. Of those, there are 49 such Dems who represent districts won the last three elections by Mr. Bush and John McCain.

How will they vote on socialized medicine?

A Barack Obama presidency has me scared for a long time for a number of reasons. There’s the pending economic socialism and the disregard for innocent human life, among many urgent issues. During the campaign the many to whom I expressed my concern would respond with the conventional wisdom that he’ll mess it up and the country will swing back to conservatism in the mid-term elections, as in 1994. (That’s a big “if,” predicated on whether the so-called conservatives in Congress remain scared of their own shadows and remain addicted to “big-government conservatism.”) 

I would reply to those who responded that way, “Not so fast.” Conventional wisdom and the old models don’t apply anymore. With such large majorities in Congress and control of the White House, the extreme, Angry Left will ram through several initiatives to permanently seal its institutional advantages. For example, the liberal media, which crossed from only being biased to all out left wing advocacy this campaign, will be cemented by the passing of the so-called Fairness Doctrine, minimizing (if not completely eliminating) conservative talk radio. Advantage, Left Wing Media.

How about the so-called Freedom of Choice Act? Senator Obama said it’s the first bill he would sign. It would eliminate all state restrictions on abortion. (No need for state legislatures, then, huh?) Gone would be all parental consent, notification and regulations against partial birth abortion. Advantage, the government grant and profit machine known as Planned Parenthood (see LifeSiteNews.com, here).

The union card check bill, if it becomes law (see The Las Vegas Sun, here), will end the secret ballot in union organizing campaigns. This will create countless new union shops. Aside from the economic peril of making American industry less competitive, this bill will add tens of thousands of new union members to union rolls — along with their compulsary dues, which go to union political action committees and used to elect leftist candidates. Advantage, corrupt Leftist union bosses.

The public education establishment, which largely dumbs down children K-12, and the college education establishment, which largely indoctrinates them because, by then, students have been conditioned to feel rather than think, will get new, large amounts of federal grants to run their politically correct campus societies, further preaching liberal doctrine under the guise of teaching, both in the classroom and in campus regulations such as speech codes. Advantage, Leftist educrats and teachers union leaders.

I could go on. But someone else has for me. Give me one more minute.

When I extolled this theory, some saw credence. Some thought the conventional wisdom would magically re-write history in two years. Many thought I was looking for the man on the grassy knoll. My response was that I would write a thesis on it. End of minute. I don’t have to write the thesis. Quin Hillyer, of The American Spectator, has. I don’t know whether to celebrate that my theory has been vindicated or mad that I didn’t publish it and get compensated for the idea first. Regardless, Hillyer’s “Saul Alinsky Takes the White House” (click here) is a must read to understand what Christian conservatives and those who believe in traditional family values and limited constitutional government will face starting January 20, 2009. It is something we need to be prepared for and ready to work against — work very hard against.

Here’s an excerpt:

Watch what Michael Barone called the Obama “thugocracy” use the Justice Department to stifle dissent. Anybody who complains about vote fraud will be charged with “vote suppression.” Anybody who complains about DoJ’s actions will be charged with interfering with an investigation. Anybody who denies having interfered will be charged with perjury. Likewise, anybody who peacefully protests abortion clinics or the use of state-sponsored racial quotas will be charged with a civil rights violation. And the accused won’t be able to look to the Supreme Court for help: Anthony Kennedy’s “evolving standards” of justice will evolve to match the new zeitgeist, providing a 5-4 majority for the administration. Meanwhile, of course, Obama’s other appointments will be filling up the rest of the judiciary at a rapid clip, with nobody able to stop them.

Other ways the Obama axis will tilt the playing field: “card check” legislation to eliminate secret ballots in unionizing and to force union victories in contract negotiations. Provision after provision giving favors to the trial bar so it can sue enemies into submission. Copious new regulations, especially environmental, to be used selectively to ensnare other conservative malcontents. Invasive IRS audits of conservative think tanks, other conservative 501 organizations, and PACs.

What Ohio officials did in rifling through so many of Joe Wurzelbacher’s files will serve as ample precedent. (Just watch, by the way: Nobody ever will be effectively disciplined for the violation of Wurzelbacher’s rights.)

And, only when the time is right and the ground (or air) has been well prepared, will come the grand-daddy of all fights, the re-enactment of the misnamed “Fairness Doctrine.”

It’s not just Joe the Plumber. Remember Barbara West, the Florida anchor who dared asked Joe Biden tough questions? Her station was blacklisted. Three newspapers who endorsed John McCain had their political reporters thrown off the Obama press plane (see The Washington Times, here). That’s before he was elected! But surely there are bigger fish to fry — perhaps IRS and government intimidation of churches and pastors? By the way, what’s with the 250,000 member security force Senator Obama promised? (See Blue Collar Muse, here.)

The coming socialist, one-party state only will be a crazy conspiracy theory if people fully understand what’s at stake and decide to get engaged, stay vigilant, remain active and work hard. Work very hard — starting now.

Tomorrow, the citizens of the freest nation in the world will once again choose their leader. This time, however, it seems certain that the choice is not just about a person or a party, but about the very essence of our nation.Tomorrow, we will choose between a candidate that has a quarter century record of voting to protect human life in its most vulnerable form, or a candidate that believes it is in the nation’s best interest to allow newborn children who survive late-term abortions to simply die.

Tomorrow, we will choose between a candidate that believes the definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman is worth defending, or a candidate that believes the definition of marriage is malleable.

Tomorrow, we will choose between a candidate that believes parents should have the option to send their children to whatever school they wish, public or private, or a candidate that believes teaching sex education to kindergartners is good for America.

Tomorrow, we will choose between a candidate that believes hard working families should be free to keep more of their hard earned incomes, or a candidate that believes continuing to allow families that freedom is bad for America and that income should be redistributed as the government sees fit.

The differences between John McCain and Barack Obama are staggering. You can read more about these differences at The Family Foundation Action Web site (click here). (Also while there, review the Congressional voter guide that shows the vast differences between candidates for U.S. Senate, Jim Gilmore (click here) and Mark Warner (click here), and Congressional races.)

But in truth, this election is not simply about the issues listed above. It is about freedom.  It is about the freedom to make decisions about our families, our incomes and our faith that the government has no business being involved with. It is about whether or not the document that “holds these truths to be self evident” is still relevant in our society. 

We are not ready to give up on the Founding Fathers vision! We are not ready to turn our lives over to a bureaucrat in Washington, D.C., to determine what my health care needs are, how we can or cannot live our faith in the public square, how our families’ income should be spent, or how the very institutions on which society is based are defined.

This nation and its Judeo-Christian heritage are worth getting up early, standing in line, bringing a family friend or neighbor or fellow church member along with us, and casting our ballots for the candidates who believe in the sanctity of human life and the sanctity of marriage and the freedom to prosper. This nation is worth ignoring the prognosticators, the polls, and the media’s overwhelming and blatant disregard for facts and truth — and the blatant and below the belt attacks this year on candidates of faith, who respect life, traditional marriage and traditional values.

In short, it is worth your vote. Please, tomorrow, vote. Vote for the God ordained values and truths that our society must protect in order to survive. 

Tomorrow, pray, vote, then go home and pray more.

Even the local Mainstream Media is getting into the act. It can’t stand the success of Governor Sarah Palin (who will campaign again in Richmond Saturday) and how she has created an immense amount of enthusiasm, not just among Republicans, but among women and men Democrats and independents of all socio-economic backgrounds to the McCain-Palin ticket (see the ticket’s remaining Virginia campaign schedule here). But it’s not even the typical MSM. It’s the entertainment MSM. Who cares what they think? But they want in on the action, too, I suppose.

After Governor Palin’s last visit to Richmond, the Richmond Times-Dispatch pop music critic thought it necessary to ridicule the Hank Williams, Jr., song “McCain-Palin Tradition” that he sang as a warm up to the governor’s speech (click here to hear). According to the critic, Hank Jr.’s original hit, “Family Tradition,” on which the campaign song is based, has some lyrics not in tune with “family values” voters (see article here).She mentions some Democrat instances as well, but clearly aims for what she thinks is a double standard among conservatives. Apparently, we’re not allowed to have a good time — or at least it has to be good as defined by an elitist standard. But guess what?Even the celebration of Christmas was based on a pagan holiday. Guess we ought to stop celebrating, then. She continues with a litany of liberal recording artists who have demanded of Republicans to stop using their songs. Hard hitting stuff.

What’s funny is this critic’s view of Christians, values voters and conservatives in general — a stereotypical view of the types of people she thinks conservative politicians appeal to. It’s as if she is saying conservatives don’t have fun and live completely cloistered lives. Maybe she’s the one who needs to get out more . . . or at least to more diverse entertainment venues to learn about the folks — that there’s more out there than smokey bars and concert halls — and stop generalizing.

She also needs to learn some history. She claimed Ronald Reagan’s 1984 campaign theme song was Bruce Springsteen’s “Born In The U.S.A.” Wrong. It was Lee Greenwood’s “Proud To Be An American.” Then again, he’s just a values guy. No one relates to his music, right?

Finally. With only a little more than a week to go before America elects its next president and vice president, after two years of nonstop campaigning, one of the two on the Democrat ticket got some tough, but very fair, questions. Joe Biden, to whom the questions were asked, became unhinged, masqueraded the truth, attacked the messenger and changed the subject — as per the usual liberal attack M.O. (A good, short commentary on the incident, ironically, is the Canada Free Press, here, by American writer and “recovering liberal” Joe Lillpop.)

If you haven’t heard, the Internet, and even some of the Mainstream Media, is buzzing over a satellite television interview between Democrat vice presidential candidate Joe Biden and Orlando, Fla., WFTV news anchor Barbara West. It was conducted last week but only now is getting recognized outside that market. Ms. West asked, among other things, how can Barack Obama not be called a socialist when he wants “to spread the wealth around.” Biden scoffed at the socialist suggestion and attacked Ms. West personally.

Ms. West, who once worked for the late ABC News anchorman Peter Jennings and had the typically normal credentials liberals love about the MSM. “Had” because not anymore. Not after she asked the hard, legitimate questions so many have for the most liberal national ticket ever assembled, but which have gone begging for months.

In fact, after the interview, the gruff Senator Biden, not at all acting as the compassionate and pastoral type as he did when he redefined the faith on Meet The Press several weeks ago, must have whined about his treatment to the “messiah” himself (not sure whether he whined that the “messiah” put him in such a untenable position with his policy pronouncements or whether he whined about getting beat up by someone seeking the truth) because the Obama-Biden campaign immediately cancelled all interviews with WFTV, including one already scheduled with Mrs. Biden.

If Senator Biden thinks these questions were tough, there are several more we’d like to hear asked of him. For example, when he sarcastically asks Ms. West “Who is writing your questions?” in response to her “socialist” question, we would have replied to the caught and admitted plagiarizer, “Senator, who is writing your answers?” Look at this old NBC News report from Biden’s first run for president in 1987. Oh yeah, one of the men mentioned in the report, then-British Labour Party Leader Neil Kinnock, whose speeched Biden plagerized . . . is a socialist!

When he completely contorted his remark from last week that Barack Obama is not ready to be Commander-In-Chief to somehow mean he was saying John McCain wasn’t ready because, as Biden put it, Senator McCain had been wrong on some foreign policy issues, we would have asked him about how many times his views were disasterously wrong. Never mind that Senator Biden’s charges are false, let’s look at “wrong” by the man chosen by Senator Obama because of his so-called foreign policy expertise:

Wrong on the nuclear freeze.

Wrong on aiding freedom fighters in Central America.

Wrong on deploying missles to NATO countries.

Wrong on giving in to the demands of the Soviet Union.

Wrong on missile defense.

Wrong on the Gulf War.

Wrong on the troop surge in Iraq.

Wrong on partitioning Iraq.

Wrong on drilling offshore.

Wrong on the initial phase of Operation Enduring Freedom.

How much more wrong can one be and still run for vice president?

But that’s just us. Ms. West more than held her own. Now, the Obama-Biden campaign, the epitome of tolerance, won’t give any more interviews to this WFTV. That’s the way to take your ball and go home!

Here’s the interview in its entirety. It’s about 4:30 minutes long.

There is a lot of talk about the economy these days by candidates, commentators, journalists, financial professionals and anyone else with a camera, microphone or Web page. These issues are important for families who are stressed with providing for their children and even their older parents. One complaint people have is that many types of jobs once prevalent in America now are done overseas. This is true and it makes the corporations that move those jobs overseas easy targets for demagogues who do not understand economics or the purpose of a business enterprise, which is to make a profit (creating jobs is byproduct of profit, not the other way around). The big target lends to the easy caricature of certain companies as villains, and demagogues always look for villains to prey upon the fears of people who are uncertain about their futures.

So, how to slay the villain? In a political/economic sense, it’s to hit them with higher taxes — that’ll teach’em. Besides, “paying taxes” is the new “patriotism,” according to Joe Biden, and you better learn that now (See YouTube video here). Nothing could be more misguided and nothing could be a more serious threat to the economic well being of the country and American families looking to improve their lives. Understanding why it’s misguided is something we all understand at heart, though it gets lost in the anxiety of troubled times and easy to strike out at undeserved blame and believe in false solutions.

Everyone knows (or should remember) that corporations don’t pay taxes — they simply pass the costs they incur through taxes to the price of their goods and services — which we pay at the pump, the store, the restaurant (see this short list of prices affected by taxes). It’s that simple. So companies look at taxes as an expense, just as they look at energy, machinery, maintenance, supplies, etc., as expenses. If it can lower expenses  by moving a factory near a supplier, companies do it. We see it all the time. So doesn’t it make sense that if their tax expenses are greater here, than say in Ireland which has a low, flat tax, they will move where they can cut costs? Raise the corporate tax all you want to get even with those evil businesses and not only will you lose more jobs, you create more inflation by jacking up the prices they inevitably will charge. So we get hit from both sides.

How to solve the conundrum? Simply lower the corporate tax rate. You know the U.S. corporate tax rate must be high if it is more profitable for some companies to move operations overseas rather than have the convenience of domestic operations and transportation, etc. Exactly how high is the U.S. corporate tax rate? It is the second highest of the 30-member Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development at 39.3 percent (see list here). Only Japan is higher. Communist China, which is not an OECD member, has a 25 percent rate (see here). Furthermore, see how our individual states stack up against the OECD. It’s none too pretty.

This is basic economics and it is a direct reflection on the travesty of public education that more people do not understand these simple, basic concepts, which leaves them open to persuasion by the play to emotional demagougery by liberal politicians. In 1972, George McGovern ran on a similar platform to Barack Obama’s: Raise taxes on the rich and corporations and give everyone else a paltry redistributionist check of a few hundred dollars. He lost 49 states to Richard Nixon. Just losing to Richard Nixon was an accomplishment. To get comprehensively dismantled by Nixon shows how out of touch McGovern was (and there was an unpopular war, then, too, that people wanted over). That Obama’s almost cloned economic plan has not made him a laughing stock is remarkable. Has America’s economic IQ disintegrated that fast? (See short, but instructive blog post from the Cato Institute, here.)

Obama showed his utter lack of economic IQ in the second debate when he responded to John McCain’s (see here) charge that his plan to tax people who make more than $250,000 would kill small businesses by saying, “there are only a few small businesses” that make that much. Really? Many small businesses are incorporated so that the owner’s income is the business’ gross income. That’s why expensing deductions and low taxes are essential for this sector of the economy which produces 70 percent of American jobs. Obama’s retort was one of a man who’s never worked in the for-profit world. If a small business isn’t grossing $250,000, it’s not in business at all — at least, not in the hiring/job creation part of business (i.e., it’s a self-employed, individual contractor or consultant). 

In fact, according to Americans for Tax Reform, three out of every four businesses in the top 5 percent tax bracket is a small business. There are 26 million small businesses that employ 116 million Americans and hundreds of thousands of those businesses — sole proprietorships, partnerships, S-corporations and family farms — who pay taxes at the individual or joint-filing rates would get hammered under his “tax the richest  5 percent” plan. Forget their employees. The families of the family-owned businesses, who are paying for college, a car payment, a mortgage, etc., would face real devastation. (National Review adds more light to the conversation, here.)

We’ve all heard the expression we get the government we deserve. When it comes to the economy — and therefore opportunity and financial security for families — it comes down to this: When the Chinese communists undertand tax policy better than Americans, we deserve the economy we get.

Yesterday, we posed six questions we’d love to hear asked during tonight’s final presidential debate between Senators John McCain and Barack Obama.

However, now that we have Democrat Congressman Steve Cohen teaching the Gospel from the House floor (whatever happened to the separation of church and state?) and calling Jesus a “community organizer” and Pontius Pilate a governor (see here), more than implying Obama is the “messiah” and Governor Sarah Palin (see video, slide show here) is a murderer; and now that America’s most lovable and respected religious figure, Louis Farrakhan, has prophesied that Obama is the “messiah,” (see here) this is what we hope to hear CBS News reporter, and tonight’s moderator, Bob Schieffer, ask Senator Obama:

Is Representative Cohen right: Was Jesus a community organizer? If so, is Louis Farrakahn right — are you, in fact, the “messiah”?

After all, isn’t time we hear from the man himself on this issue? A world anxiously waits to know if it is in the presence of the Second Coming.

God help us if Obama replies, “It is you who say I am.”