Rare is the race with both sides running ad after ad while one candidate enjoys a fifty point margin. In the California governor’s race, Meg Whitman enjoys a huge lead over Steve Poizner. Even with such a wide margin, both candidates are airing multiple ads, with a vast majority of them being attack ads.

A curious note in this primary is that social issues are being nearly entirely ignored, with attention focused on jobs, spending, and the economy. These are clearly the top priorities for all Americans outside the Obama White House, but in most elections, all issues would at least get lip service.

That hasn’t happened here.

Neither the website for Meg Whitman nor the site for Steve Poizner include any sort of information about their stances on social issues, not even gay marriage, which has gotten a lot of attention since Prop 8 was passed in 2008.

There are two possible reasons for that. One or both of the candidates could be very conservative socially, and are afraid that may hurt them in the general election (remember, this is California). Alternatively, one or both could be rather liberal socially, but are afraid those views may anger the conservative base.

For Meg Whitman, I think it’s a smart strategy (Poizner isn’t overcoming a 51 point margin so I’m done talking about him). She has a comfortable lead and sits in a liberal state. Why publicly oppose gay marriage or some other polarizing issue when no one is talking about it in this election?

Barack Obama is still the President, so there’s no reason to think the economy will improve or jobs will be created. Knowing this, Whitman just needs to focus on those issues. She can become more popular the more she pushes for jobs and less spending, as Washington will be doing nothing on either issue and Obama will be too busy campaigning for healthcare.

In the hills of Southern California, deep within one of the liberal strongholds of America, sits the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, perhaps the last beacon of conservsatism in the area.

Simply put, the Reagan Library can easily be called a Mecca of conservatism. Besides being a museum of his life, there are videos playing that highlight some of the great moments from the Reagan presidency. From winning the Cold War to shrinking the size of government, the library demonstrates how Ronald Reagan was perhaps the greatest president of the 20th century.

It’s only fitting that a piece of the now-torn down Berlin Wall stands outside the Reagan library.

For all the interesting artifacts in the museum, the most impressive has to be the recently retired Air Force One. Along with a retired Marine One and Reagan’s presidential limosuine, the jet used by Presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and Bush 43 is simply awesome.

If you stop and really think about everything as you take the tour, it’s impossible to not think about the impact President Reagan had on conservatism, as well as the country as a whole. Today, we need to remember what he stood for, and how those beliefs are curently under attack from Washington.

As liberals in Washington try let government slither further into our lives, some of us wonder what Reagan would have said of done. Reagan knew this was a threat, and in 1961, he spoke out against oversized goverment and socialized medicine.

One of Reagan’s greatest quotes comes into play here:

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.

If we aren’t careful, Obama and Pelosi will radicalize our government, and we will become that generation that let freedom die in our country. We must fight to make sure that we, nor any other generation, are not the ones to extinguish the flame of liberty.

Tom Hanks must have been cast away on that island talking to Wilson when terrorists attacked us on September 11, 2001.

The only reason we are fighting any war is because we were attacked that day. Tell family members of fallen NYPD officers that we are just out to impose our will on people because they are “different from us”.

While most people will see Hanks and his opinion and laugh, the problem is that there are clowns out there who believe him. We are also left with countless Hollywood brainless idiots who keep saying things like this.

On Wednesday, President Obama will visit St. Charles High School in suburban St. Louis for yet another campaign speech promoting his healthcare overhaul. Seems like a great opportunity for St. Louisans to see their President and what he has to say about his plan.

Just one problem. The public isn’t allowed in.

Can I, as a citizen, get into this speech? Nope.

Could I work my way in as a media member? Not a chance. Here I sit, less than 10 miles from where the President will be speaking, but it seems I’m not enough of a blind soldier of the left to merit an invitation.

The man declaring his presidency to be transparent has made this an invitation only event. What that means is that Democrat officials and other leftists will be the only people allowed in the gymnasium.

Joe Schmo, the guy whose small business will be wiped out by this bill, doesn’t get a chance to see the President because (gasp!) he might boo or do something besides act like a rubber stamp and applaud every bit of nonsense that Obama spews out onstage.

Seeing Obama speaking in such protected conditions in such closed surroundings reminds me of a similar situation from the merry ole land of Oz, when the curtain was pulled back to revel the true Wizard.

It’s ironic that the curtain Obama hides behind is a curtain of transparency and populism. When we pull away the curtain however, we see what is happening in St. Louis, where Obama speaks to a bunch of far left-wingers because they are the only ones who would do anything besides boo Obama off the stage once he began to lie about us keeping our doctors.

What’s really fun about this is that liberals are left with two choices: blindly support Obama despite the clear unpopularity of anything he touches or oppose him and have a naked Rahm Emanuel confront you in the shower like the now former Democratic Rep. Eric Massa of New York after he opposed the Senate bill.

I, along with many other conservatives, enjoy seeing liberals make their choice and watching the Democrat Party tear itself to pieces.

Despite the chaos on the left, if the House passes the Senate bill, that’s the ballgame. Obama will sign that bill as quickly as he can and the left will have won the victory against the will of the American people. Because of this threat, it’s still critical that we keep pointing out that the Obama some people are still following is just a man hiding behind a curtain pretending to be something he’s not.

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This past weekend, I was in Columbia, Missouri, for the Mizzou basketball game against the evil foe to the west, Kansas. It was the fourth time I’ve been to this game, and for the first time, the most annoying and dumbest thing I saw did not involve something Jayhawk.

The U. S. Census showed up a few hours before the game started to advertise. It was simply amazing to see what our tax dollars are paying for. Never mind the millions of uninsured President Obama thinks the government should pay for; never mind the millions standing in unemployment lines. No no, instead, let’s advertise for the census!

First, a van drove onto the plaza in front of the stadium. The van was painted with the census logo all over it, and when its doors opened, we could see stacks of boxes tightly packed into the back. It was then that it became clear that we would be staring boxes of wasteful spending right in the face.

The first thing brought out was a seat cushion.  Hundreds if not thousands of yellow seat cushion were passed out to fans as they entered the Arena. If that wasn’t enough, they also passed out pocket-sized flashlights with the census logo on the side.

Make no mistake, everyone should fill out their census information when they get it later this month. It helps determine representation in the House and it determines funding to states and towns. That said, there is no reason the government should be spending millions of our tax dollars on seat cushions and pocket flashlights. Mizzou Arena is surely not the only place the government has targeted as a place to advertise for the census.  Some of the spending on advertisements is beyond belief.

Yesterday at the end of the NASCAR on FOX broadcast, they listed sponsors on screen for a few seconds as part of the “promotional considerations provided by” blip. Listed right in the middle of all that was none other than the U.S. Census.

If the Census Bureau did not go on this spending binge, would we still have massive debt and deficits? Of course. The thing is, these types of programs and unneeded spending add up and at the end of the day, these programs balloon the deficit more than it should.

In a time when billions are being wasted in the stimulus plan and the so-called jobs bill, stories like the Census Bureau giving away seat cushions and flashlights on our dime may not make as many headlines. That does not mean the spending is any less wasteful.

I guess the question we need to ask of ourselves and the government is simple: Is getting a high response rate from the census more important than helping the unemployed and uninsured?

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A large number of Americans have conceded that journalism as we know it in this country is dying if not already dead. If you need any more evidence, we’re here to dissect an article from the Associated Press reporting on the latest unemployment figures.

Once again, the AP is doing their best to portray the new numbers as cause for celebration. They want us to be thrilled that 36,000 people lost their jobs because it was “lower than expected”.

Heard that one before?

After excusing the job losses as being not as bad as expected, the AP continues by blaming the recent snowstorms across the country. It seems companies looked out the window, saw snow on the ground, and used that as a basis to lay off employees or not hire new ones.

Only after making your way toward the end of the article do you find stats painting a much bleaker picture than the AP would have its readers see.

We continue to lose all these jobs despite the fact that the Census Bureau has looking to hire a total of 1.2 million people, according to McClatchy Newspapers.

It’s not until the reader is nearly at the end of the article that the AP writer slips in the stat showing a growth in underemployment (unemployed+people forced into working part-time while seeking full-time work). That number, which I feel is a better indicator of where we are as a country, rose from 16.5% to 16.8%.

The White House called these numbers part of the “gradual labor market healing”. Where is the healing? Losing jobs is hardly any form of healing.

Liberals everywhere are touting these numbers as improvement, when we are simply getting worse. Harry Reid called these job loss numbers “very good”.

President Obama once again took to the podium to talk about healthcare Wednesday. While some news was made, most of the speech was a regurgitation of sound bites we’ve heard countless times before. I’m here to translate what Obama said into reality.

Obama started the speech off by trying to soften up the audience, throwing the “government-run” option under the bus. Interesting how the first time he refers to the public option as being “government-run” is when he is trashing it.

The President continued by stating that further regulating insurance companies, which are private businesses, was a way to give more power to the American people. That’s about as accurate as if Hitler had said blitzkrieg and Auschwitz were in the name of human liberty.

If this new plan is implemented, it will cost $100 billion a year. Obama also spoke of tax credits for those who still couldn’t afford healthcare. Despite these government expenditures, Obama claimed the plan would reduce the deficit by $1 trillion over 20 years.

To put that in perspective, we’re supposed to believe that by spending $100 billion a year, we can cut $50 billion a year from the deficit. Got it.

Perhaps the part of the speech that will grab the most headlines was when Obama called for “an up-or-down vote”. It was clear that Obama was calling for reconciliation, but he made a point to not specifically label it as such. That tells us that he knows reconciliation is an unpopular idea that will anger most Americans.

What does it mean that he still is pushing for it?

It’s clear from this that Obama knows people don’t want this healthcare plan, but that he simply doesn’t care.

In an attempt to make the bill appear bipartisan, a few ideas proposed by Republicans were added to Obama’s proposal, such as cutting waste and fraud.

Read that again.

Cutting waste and fraud is a Republican idea? Does that mean that if Republicans hadn’t mentioned it at the healthcare summit that Democrats would have allowed fraud and waste to continue?

The President said in his speech that Americans need to “make your voice heard”. Americans have done so, and are sure to continue their opposition to this plan. If the American people voice their opinions, will Obama listen?

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Remember in July 2008, when gas prices were out of control? In Missouri, gas prices hit four dollars a gallon, and that was one of the cheapest rates in the country. People were riding bikes to work, carpooling, and doing everything possible to avoid driving when possible.

Since then, cheaper gas prices have been perhaps the only positive byproduct of the recession. Gas is barely half the price we faced less than two years ago. With the economy still growing slower than a blade of grass on one of Al Gore’s melting icecaps, you’d think President Obama would want to ease the strain on the American people as much as possible.

A Harvard study suggests the exact opposite.

Early in his presidency, Obama mandated that greenhouse gas emissions be cut 14% from 2005 levels by 2020. Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs is set to release a study that suggests gas prices will skyrocket to seven dollars a gallon if Obama gets his way.

Think about that. It would take $98.00 to fill a 2009 Chevy Malibu with gas.

Why the increase? Companies would be slapped with taxes for carbon dioxide, and that would be passed onto consumers.

Fantastic.

When nearly 20% of Americans are underemployed, let’s jack up gas prices to levels nearly double the already unbearable record set in 2008. I guess that makes about as much sense as every other plan of Obama’s, so I shouldn’t be surprised, but it’s unbelievable how devastating this would be to Americans everywhere.

Next time you fill your tank up with gas, look at how much it costs, and wonder how your life would be different if the prices was three times as much.

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