Who Can Beat Obama?

Obama Virtually Tied With Generic Republican Candidate In 2012
Huffington Post | February 11, 2010

Registered voters nationwide favor Obama by a slim margin -- 44 percent to 42 percent -- over a generic Republican candidate. That gap is within the poll's 4 percentage point margin of error. Three percent said they would vote for a different candidate, and 11 percent had no opinion.

RELATED

Ron Paul wins CPAC straw poll
By Alex Pappas | The Daily Caller | 02/20/10
A fired up crowd of young conservatives said Ron Paul is their man this afternoon, as the Texas congressman and former 2008 presidential candidate won the annual CPAC straw poll with 31 percent of the vote.

LTE: Shuler

Government should mostly stay out of health care reform
Tim Peck | Asheville Citizen-Times | February 11, 2010

I urge my representative in Washington, D.C., Congressman Heath Shuler, to persist in his opposition to socialized health care and continue to vote against it whenever it raises its head. Not because the health care reform proposal does too little or needs improvement, but because it's wrong; morally and practically. It's a public policy clunker and should be scrapped.

Instead, Rep. Shuler should support free market health care reforms -- such as establishing interstate insurance markets and promoting Health Savings Accounts. Why? Because it would be both good policy and good politics. According to CNN, 8 of 10 Americans are happy with their current health care, but are legitimately concerned about rising costs. Such reforms would address these concerns and preserve quality of care without coercing unwilling Americans into a costly government-run health care regime that would mandate individuals purchase health insurance as a condition of citizenship.

President Obama has recently implored Congress to move forward on health care, "even if it's difficult." That it is becoming difficult is precisely why it should fail. A health care reform failure would be a big win for Shuler -- and America.

TIM PECK
ASHEVILLE

Anti-Speech Laws

"The recent Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Committee knocked down long-standing restrictions on corporate and union contributions to political campaigns and was a definitive move toward the restoration of free speech in America. Yet many Americans are up in arms over the ruling, viewing the decision as an invitation for rampant corruption in Washington. While people are right to be concerned about political corruption, there’s a serious misunderstanding about what gives rise to it and how it can be eliminated."

War On Free Political Speech
Yaron Brook | 03.21.08

[...] Can't large contributions buy political favors? They can--when politicians have power to grant special favors to special interests in the first place. . . It's not money that corrupts--it's the lure of arbitrary political power. A true crusader against political corruption would not strip American citizens of their right to free speech; he would seek to put an end to the government's power to grant special favors to any group...

Campaign Finance Reform: A Libertarian Primer
by Robert A. Levy | January 28, 2010

[...] As for money, it's just a symptom. We have a big money problem because we have a big government problem. By restraining the regulatory and redistributive powers of the state, we can minimize the influence of big money. Restoring the Framers' notion of enumerated, delegated, and limited federal powers will get government out of our lives and out of our wallets. That's the best way to end the campaign-finance racket, and root out corruption without jeopardizing political speech...

Andrew Breitbart at Tea Party

Tea Party Movement Says "Don't Tread on Me"

Palin Speech at Tea Party