Budget, Leadership, and Character Deficits in Washington D.C.

President Obama will be giving a speech later today laying out his plan for reducing the budget deficit. This, of course, comes after the fact that in his first 19 months in office alone, he created larger deficits than Presidents Washington through Reagan combined and the fact that the current deficit is up 16% in the past 6 months. This also comes after he formed a deficit commission to formulate potential solutions to the deficit only to largely ignore their suggestions. The whole idea of him speaking on deficit reduction is on par with President Obama running a pitching camp or Vice President Biden teaching a math class. Nonetheless, we all know actions speak louder than words, and President Obama and many of the politicians in Washington D.C. have not only created massive budget deficits, they themselves have shown large deficits in leadership and character amongst our nation's politicians.

Last week, President Obama, Senator Reid, and Speaker Boehner came to a "compromise" regarding the FY2011 budget. This compromise was touted by GOP leadership as a $38.5 billion spending cut, but putting that in perspective, during the eight days prior to the compromise, the deficit grew by $54.1 billion, more than $15 billion more than the was supposedly cut. When the dust settled, the spending cuts actually amounted to only $14 billion, and the budget weighs in at $778 billion higher than the 2008 budget. It isn't any wonder that during budget discussions, Governor Palin referred to those involved in negotiations as a "leaderless" government and referred to President Obama's actions as "petulant obstruction" and "appalling". It's become increasingly clear that the budget deficit is due in large part to a deficit in leadership. When Speaker Boehner was agreeing to pseudo budget cuts like unspent construction and census money while also allowing spending increases for some of President Obama's favorite programs, Governor Palin asserted that the Tea Party wasn't getting what it wanted from the deal:

Well, what the tea party wants is for government to be smaller and smarter. So, you know, when you consider that we just saw an increase in government spending by about 28% and saw a little chip out of that to the tune of 1%, I would say that no, the tea party and Americans in general who are concerned about the fiscal health of our country did not get what they wanted. We have a lot of work to do to help educate Congress when it comes to the expectations that we have when we send our politicians to DC to do the job of making sure that our country is solvent.

Governor Palin has shown a surplus of leadership, both inside and outside of office. Leadership is not a title you carry; it is a characteristic you display. While in office, Governor Palin cut her budget 9.5% over her predecessor This included vetoing hundreds of millions of dollars in spending and cutting federal earmark requests by more than 80% in a state known for bringing home the bacon. This is not only leadership; it is courage. As Governor Palin has stated, it takes "courage and real leadership" to make cuts during a time of plenty as she did. During her time as Governor, she put $5 billion in state savings while paying down unfunded pension programs and forward funding education, and her policy legacy has given Alaska a current $12 billion surplus.

Outside of office, Governor Palin has led in opposition to Obamacare, in support of border security, and in warning about coming inflation due to the problems of quantitative easing. She has also taken the lead in real fiscal reform and addressing the budget deficit. She was the first and only potential presidential candidate to support Congressman Ryan's road map. When Congressman Ryan released the House GOP's FY2012 proposal last week, Governor Palin called it a "good start", but she also noted it still didn't stop deficit spending. What is the solution then? As she later said on Judge Jeanine, "everything is fair game" when it comes to addressing the spending/deficit/debt problem in Washington. Governor Palin said that both entitlement programs and discretionary spending need to be dealt with, and she stated that budgets should start first with constitutionally mandated services, not with other programs. These are ideas of a bold leader, not of one who cannot even give an answer on how to address entitlement reform.

The leadership deficit in Washington is closely tied to character deficit. Washington politicians claim to be future focused, but their lack of seriousness in addressing spending merely means that they will play "Kick the Can" with the future of America. You cannot win the future when you are already losing the present by being unwilling to address spending problems. Governor Palin characterizes our nation's massive debt as "generational theft" and "immoral". She sees that the problems in Washington as a deficit of character, not simply poor economics. Politicians are more apt to do what is politically expedient rather than what is right for the country. The budget deficits our so called leadership have accrued are immoral because they are stealing from the prosperity of the future. Leaders of true character recognize this and are willing to address it by cutting spending and addressing entitlements.

Character goes beyond simply doing what is right; it also is refusing to engage in wrong and unethical behavior event when it is pervasive. Crony capitalism and corrupt corporatism have infested state capitals and D.C. far too long. Governor Palin called out the unethical behavior Alaska GOP chairman and fellow oil and gas commissioner, Randy Reudrich. Governor Palin took on the crony capitalism in Juneau by re-vamping the corruption tainted oil tax structure in addition to passing ethics reform. She has called out the Obama administration for their revolving door with the financial industry. Governor Palin has shown character driven leadership in the face of pervasive corruption.

Washington D.C. faces a serious deficit spending problem, but that problem will only continue if the issues of leadership and character deficits are not simultaneously addressed. These two traits are not gained by reading piles of policy white papers, nor are they achieved through focus group testing. One must have a strong moral compass and an ability to draw from life experiences. As Governor Palin said in her most recent Facebook post, " there's a leadership vacuum in the White House right now, but that's nothing that another good old fashion election can't fix".

Updated: This supposed compromise is worse than even estimated earlier this week. The Congressional Budget Office states that this "deal" cuts spending by a mere $353 million, not $38.4 billion or even $14 billion. By contrast, during her time as Governor, Governor Palin cut spending by roughly three times that much--$1,127,400,000--in her FY2010 budget compared to her predecessors FY2007 budget. This is cutting at the state level with a smaller pool of revenue and a much, much small number of constituents than at the federal level. Governor Palin was right again. They were simply arguing over " peanuts".

Crossposted here.

The Character of Governor Palin

The Tennessean has an excellent piece highlighting how Governor Palin's character has shone brightly through adversity:

Though few admit it, Sarah Palin has shaken up both parties. Character and ideas have consequences. It has not been lost on the political professionals that, after two years of observation, the American people show a greater affinity to the constitutional attitude of the hockey mom than to that of the "constitutional scholar.''

Political professionals never rest, and the worst of them never let a crisis go to waste. That is why a tragic, but local, event that men of integrity would have faced with dutiful strength and perspective has instead been whipped into a national spectacle of character assassination and cheap self-advertisement.

You can read the whole piece here.

The shooting in Arizona was indeed a tragic event--the loss of life and the injury--all perpetrated solely by a madman who had no particular political party leanings. The actions of the media during the aftermath of the shooting proved to be saddening on a different level. However, in this week following the shooting, the true character of many has been illuminated. For the media, the pundits, and the Left (yes, perhaps I'm being redundant), their reporting during the week following the shooting showed a continued reporting not based upon facts, but based upon a political agenda. This, of course, is nothing new, but that does not make it any more excusable. With any tragedy, emotions run high, and people seek to apportion blame. Blame can only be attributed when facts are known. However,as the fact became known and a character sketch of the shooter yielded not even a tangential connection to Governor Palin, blame was still wrongly placed upon her. When Governor Palin make a articulate, heart felt statement, they criticized her use of the phrase "blood libel", ignoring the numerous times they themselves had attributed that phrase to the falsely accused. They criticized the timing of her video posting, as if it were akin to the opposing party giving their response before the President gives a State of the Union address. Whatever Governor Palin had done, it would have been wrong. Had she not said anything, she would have been wrong. When she did respond, she was accused of inserting politics into the Arizona shooting story, even after the media complained she hadn't responded to the tragedy yet. Had she spoken after President Obama's memorial rally speech, she would have been criticized for trying to take the spotlight from the President's address. She chose to share a message earlier in the day, and she was criticized. This past week has continued to reveal the media has a purveyor of a political agenda, rather than a source of unbiased news.

The Left's character, or lack thereof, also was illuminated. Last Sunday, Senator Dick Durbin accused Governor Palin of using "toxic rhetoric" while ignoring his own past usage of toxic rhetoric, including comparing American soldiers to Nazis. For the Left supposedly being the ideology that best supports women, Congressman James Clyburn called Governor Palin attractive, only to state she was intellectually incapable of understanding what happened in Arizona. Yesterday, J. Eric Fuller was arrested for issuing a death threat against a Tea Party leader in Arizona. Fuller, one of the victims of the Arizona shooting and a supporter of Congresswoman Giffords, blamed the shooting on the rhetoric of Governor Palin, Glenn Beck, and others, only to later be arrested for verbally threatening someone else. While no one should have to face the emotional and physical trauma of being shot, this is not an excuse for engaging in the same type of behavior that one speculates that caused the shooting. These men certainly did not heed the call for civility that their friends in the media proposed, nor did they use words that heal instead of wound that their Democratic counterpart President Obama called for later in the week.

Character is not only revealed in words; it is also revealed in the silence. Despite the character assassination attempt on Governor Palin, outside of Talk Radio and the blogosphere, Republicans and conservatives stayed relatively quiet in their defense. Those who did speak did not do so in pure defense of a party counterpart who had been severely attacked. Governor Pawlenty stated he felt Governor Palin was being wrongly accused, but offered caveats to his support of her campaign messaging. Governor Christie criticized Governor Palin's "scripted" response, rather than supporting and defending her against baseless allegations. This event and the fallout showed that the character of these men was more concerned with their political expediency rather than doing what was right.

The past week has also shown that Governor Palin's character is principled and consistent. The past few years of Governor Palin's life has yielded a steady stream of challenge and adversity. On a personal level, she faced an unexpected pregnancy knowing that the child would be born with Down Syndrome. Her teenager daughter also was faced with an unexpected pregnancy. Her oldest child was sent to face the dangers of war in Iraq. Politically, she was placed on the national stage as a vice presidential candidate only to face a media in the tank for her political opponent and to work with campaign staffers who were more concerned with their next campaign job and own personal agendas than they were with supporting her as their candidate. She faced a barrage of baseless ethics complaints following her return from the campaign trail aimed at derailing her political career. Almost immediately following her return, her church was burned in a case of arson. Over these past more than two years, she has faced unfounded criticism and attacks from the press, Democrats, and some Republicans who have questioned her intelligence, her motives, and her integrity. During this past week with the media attack reaching new levels of vileness and falsehoods, Governor Palin has received an unprecedented level of death threats, which sheds further light on the lack of character of those who oppose her politically. What has been Governor Palin's response to all of this? A consistent display of strong character. When others falsely accused her and millions of Americans to being accessories to murder,Governor Palin condemned the spread of false accusations, but praised and encouraged debate:

America must be stronger than the evil we saw displayed last week. We are better than the mindless finger-pointing we endured in the wake of the tragedy. We will come out of this stronger and more united in our desire to peacefully engage in the great debates of our time, to respectfully embrace our differences in a positive manner, and to unite in the knowledge that, though our ideas may be different, we must all strive for a better future for our country. May God bless America.

For Governor Palin, those are not just empty words, they are how she lives her life. Her response was one of grief for the victims, prayers for those affected, and an embrace for the fundamental freedoms that are America's greatest strength. This is character. While others are choosing silence when someone is being unfairly criticized, Governor Palin has chosen to defend such people, including defending both Laura Schlessinger and Juan Williams, both of whom have had harsh words for her in the past. She has embraced differences in a positive manner, as she spoke of last week. In a world where ideological agendas trump truth, double standards are the norms, and integrity is sacrificed for the sake of political expediency, Governor Palin's character shines brightly.

H/T ErinMC

Crossposted here and here.

When Character Is Queen: Governor Palin's Qualifications for President

Last week, a couple of Palin endorsed candidates were asked if Governor Palin was qualified to be President. The relevance of that question to a Senatorial campaign and the campaign strategy employed by sidestepping the question could be addressed, but instead let us take a look at the question itself.

There are, of course, Constitutional qualifications for President, but the general intention when a "journalist" asks the "qualifications question" is to determine if a candidate has the necessary tools to effectively govern the nation. However, when qualifications are addressed in a Presidential campaign , such qualifications aren't determined by journalists, political pundits, politicians, or the political class with their words; they are determined by everyday Americans with their vote. Sometimes qualifications to be president, as determined by the American people, are often the qualities that are lacking in the current administration or at least lacking in the party of the current administration. Such was the case in 2008 when more Americans voted that then Senator Obama was more "qualified" than Senator McCain to be president. Obama was perceived to possess Presidential "qualifications" in greater measure than Senator McCain, and he offered a greater change from the perceived (and sometimes actual) bad policies of President Bush. Beyond the incumbent/challenger comparison, the American people generally look to see which candidate has "greater qualifications" in the areas of leadership skills, proven track record, strong stance on the issues, gravitas, ability to communicate with the public, character, and a whole slew of intangible factors.

The last twenty months have shown to us that we have a President, who despite running on a platform of transparent and accountable government, has closed the doors to government transparency meetings, did not show health care reform discussions on CSPAN as promised, and hid information regarding the severity of the largest oil spill in the nation's history. On the other hand, Governor Palin during her time as Governor, put the state checkbook online so that her constituents could see where state money was being spent and ensured that all Alaska Gasline Inducement Act (AGIA) applicants' proposals were available for public consumption.

During his time in office, President Obama's has added more to the national debt than Presidents Washington through Reagan combined through massive spending projects like the nearly trillion dollar stimulus package, jobs bill, and health care reform act. President Obama promised to not sign any legislation with earmarks, yet broke this promise. During three legislative sessions as Governor, Governor Palin invested $5 billion in savings and cut spending 9.5 % between her FY10 budget and her predecessor's FY07 budget. She also cut earmark requests by 80% in a state that has been known for bringing in the D.C. pork.

There are qualifications for President, then there are the Constitutional roles of the President. The Constitution spends a whole section of Article 2 focusing on the President's role as "Commander-in-Chief"; the Founders saw this as an important role of the President. President Obama has given a speech on both the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and has only mentioned the word "victory"once between the two speeches; there were three references to an exit strategy in the two speeches. President Obama has cut funding for missile defense, desires to reduce nuclear arms, and is suing the state of Arizona for striving to secure her borders. By contrast, Governor Palin cannot give a speech without recognize the men and women who are fighting to bring victory and defend our freedoms. Governor Palin has spoken against the cuts to missile defense and the desire to reduce nuclear arms, and she stood strongly with Governor Brewer in her desire to secure the border.

President Obama reversed the Mexico City policy, allowing federal funding of foreign abortions as one of his first acts in office. He has signed health care legislation that allows for federal funding of abortion in America. He also has employed a health care adviser who advocates a "complete life system" which states that an individual with special needs "lack the potential to live a complete life". Governor Palin has given numerous speeches on the pro-life message raising thousands of dollars for the cause and rarely does one of her speeches not support the cause of families with children who have special needs.She has spoken against federal funding for abortion, against the Obama administration's health care advisers, and lives out the pro-life message every day.

So with regards to the juxtaposition of Governor Palin's accomplishments and stances (aka "qualifications") with an unpopular potential incumbent/challenger, Governor Palin is indeed more than qualified. However, qualifications extend further to a litany of other characteristics that the American people look to in determining such qualification.

With regards to leadership, Governor Palin has led a town, a state, and has co-led a family. She has private sector experience in working in journalism and her family's fishing business. She has public sector experience with her time as city councilwoman, mayor, and governor. She has experience with negotiations between the public and the private sector with her works on AGIA. She worked across party lines with ethics reform legislation. Since stepping aside from the Governor's office, she has been the leading voice of conservatism. When other supposed leaders are busy sticking their finger in the wind or sitting on the fence when it comes to current policy, Governor Palin has stood strongly for conservative values and commonsense.

With regards to political achievements, in three legislative sessions as Governor, in addition to what has already been mentioned, she forward funded education, passed major ethics reform, revamped the oil taxation code to make it more inline with the Alaska constitution, and increased funding for children with special needs. She rejected stimulus funds that were unsustainable and had strings attached. She stood firmly for the 10th amendment on numerous occasions and was a constant proponent of energy independence. She took on the Establishment of both parties and won.

Regarding a strong stances on the issues, despite the fact that the political class claims she is polarizing, she is in lock-step with the American people on the majority of the issues: immigration, health care reform,off shore drilling, extending the Bush tax cuts,the mosque at Ground Zero etc. Regarding gravitas, Governor Palin has written, spoken, and commented on issues ranging from the devaluing of the US dollar to the bureaucratization of health care to the Obama administration's stance on Israel to the overreach of the EPA. She is comfortable discussing social, economic, environmental, regulatory, foreign, and national security issues.

On the "qualification" of the ability to communicate effectively, there is no one better. No one else has equal comfort in speaking to a group of business people in Hong Kong, a group of donors at a college in California, pro-life supporters in Indiana, small town people in Illinois, conservative leaders in Florida, or supporters of political candidates across the country. No other politician is able to use nearly every form of media--television, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, books, op-eds--as a means to communicate directly to the America people. On a face-to-face level, she is able to connect with voters and communicate to them who is she is and what she desires for this country.

On the issue of character, Governor Palin has that in spades. No one carries themselves with the perfect balance of self-confident humility like Governor Palin. When a candidate wins a primary due in large part to her endorsement, Governor Palin always shrugs off any credit and places the credit on the candidate themselves. As oil and gas commissioner, Governor Palin called out the unethical practices of members of her own party. As Governor, she sought to end the back room deals and improper relationships between oil companies and politicians. In spite of all the frivolous ethics complaints, false accusations, misrepresentations, and smear campaigns that have been thrown at her, she carries herself with class, dignity and grace every step of the way. She wears her patriotism on her sleeve and is always cognizant of both God's grace at work in her life and the sacrifices of American soldiers for our freedoms. She embraces American exceptionalism, and never passes up an opportunity to express her optimism in the American people and a health skepticism in government. Peggy Noonan, for all of her elitism and squishy moderate views, had the opportunity to see the Reagan presidency from the inside, and this led her to write a book called When Character Was King. When the political career of Governor Palin is viewed in retrospect, it would be likely be equally fitting to title a book about her career When Character Was Queen.

So, in short, is Governor Palin qualified to be President? Of course she is. Governor Palin is the anti-Obama. She encompasses leadership, has a sterling record, stands strongly on the issues, communicates effectively, and has abundant character when character seems to be in short supply. The political class may vocalize their thoughts on her qualifications, but Governor Palin's words, actions, and character speak volumes.

For more on Governor Palin's qualifications, see here, here, and here.

Crossposted here and here.