Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Democrats Fear Obama May Lose

Democrats Fear Obama May Lose


WASHINGTON (AP) — In growing numbers, once-confident Democrats now say President Barack Obama could lose the November election. 
The hand-wringing reflects real worries among Democrats about Obama's ability to beat Republican rival Mitt Romney, who has proven to be a stronger candidate than many expected. But it's also a political strategy aimed at rallying major donors who may have become complacent.

The Coming DNC Disaster

The Coming DNC Disaster

There aren't Greek columns tall or wide enough to camouflage Barack Obama's impending North Carolina catastrophe. In September, the campaigner-in-chief will travel to Charlotte for his party's presidential nominating convention. For once, the incurable jetsetter may wish he had stayed home.
Obama's stage managers envision a triumphant, unifying coronation reminiscent of their 2008 DNC production in Denver. But the southern swing state is turning into a Democratic disaster zone.

Obama in Denial

Obama in Denial

WASHINGTON -- One would think, given so much practice, that the Obama White House would have been better prepared for last week's wretched jobs report.
Instead, we witnessed the five stages of bad public relations. Delusion: It was a "step in the right direction." Dismissiveness: Don't "read too much into any one monthly report." Grudging acceptance: "It's still tough out there." Cliché: "There are no quick fixes." Self-pity: "I suspect that most people in Cincinnati would acknowledge that I've tried real hard."

Are the Dems Doomed?

Are the Dems Doomed?

Is it time to start talking about the inevitable demise of the Democratic Party?
Since the 1990s there's been a thriving cottage industry of doomsaying about the Republican Party. The gold standard of the genre is undoubtedly 2002's "The Emerging Democratic Majority" by Ruy Teixeira and John Judis, which argued that the Democrats were destined to become a majority party because demographic and cultural trends were on their side. The increasing cultural liberalism of professionals, the dramatic growth of Latinos and the increasingly liberal attitudes of (single) women were celebrated by Teixeira and Judis as proof that time was on the Democrats' side. 

Jobs Versus Net Jobs

Jobs Versus Net Jobs

One of the reasons for the popularity of political rhetoric is that everybody can be right, in terms of their own rhetoric, no matter how much the rhetoric of one side contradicts the rhetoric of the other side.
President Obama constantly repeats how many millions of jobs have been created during his administration, while his critics constantly repeat how many millions of jobs have been lost during his administration. How can both of them be right -- or, at least, how can they both get away with what they are saying?

Transparent hypocrisy

Hypocrisy, thy name is David Axelrod.

President Obama’s senior campaign adviser last week called Mitt Romney “the most secretive candidate we’ve seen probably since Richard Nixon,” citing Romney having assets in offshore accounts.
Amazingly, Axelrod said this just two weeks after his client invoked executive privilege — a term practically synonymous with Nixon and Watergate — to block the release of subpoenaed documents in the “Fast and Furious” scandal.
This is especially ironic considering Obama’s vow, immediately after the 2008 election, to lead the “most open and transparent [government] in history.”
Getty Images
President Obama
Has that actually happened? Hardly.
Across the board, this White House is arguably the most secretive since, well, since you-know-who.
* The administration has used the 1917 Espionage Act six times to prosecute federal whistleblowers who leaked information to the media — twice the number brought in the entire previous 95 years.

Faber: ‘Massive Wealth Destruction’ Coming, Well-to-Do ‘May Lose 50%’

Faber: ‘Massive Wealth Destruction’ Coming, Well-to-Do ‘May Lose 50%’

The critical question over the next decade isn’t “where will my returns be highest?” but “where will I lose the least money?”

That, according to economist and investor Marc Faber, is the scenario facing investors today.

As the author of the Gloom, Boom, and Doom Report, Marc Faber is a well-known contrarian, earning celebrity status because of his ominous predictions.

So his pessimism during a recent appearance on CNBC wasn’t surprising for a man whose nickname is “Doctor Doom.” What was surprising was the level of “wealth destruction” he sees in the not-too-distant future.

Why ‘angry money’ beats ‘smart money’

headshot 

Michael Barone

There has been a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth as, in the spring, it appeared that forces supporting Mitt Romney would be able to raise about as much money as those supporting Barack Obama. There’s even more now that it seems likely that the pro-Romney side will raise and spend more money than the pro-Obama side.
Four years ago, the Obama forces heavily outspent those supporting John McCain. That made the Democrats spoiled. The prospect that the other side would have as much money as they do struck them as a cosmic injustice. The prospect that it would have more — heaven forfend!
McCain: Massively outspent by Obama in 2008 — with no uproar.
AP
McCain: Massively outspent by Obama in 2008 — with no uproar.
They like to blame this situation on the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision, which allows corporations and unions to spend money on political speech. They did so even after their defeat in the Wisconsin recall, in which Citizens United had no effect because fund-raising was governed by state law.
What’s really interesting is that, if current projections are right, this will be the third election in a row in which the party holding the White House will be outspent by the opposition.

A pathetic ‘tax cut’

O’s sad gambit

headshotJohn Podhoretz
So we have come to this: President Obama is now treating not raising taxes as though it were the same as providing a tax cut. Gene Sperling, his top economic adviser, even dared to refer to Obama’s proposal yesterday of a partial one-year extension of the Bush rates as a “tax break.”
Up is down. 2+2 = 5. Leave a tax rate intact and it’s the same as cutting taxes. No wonder the White House believed not buying a health-care policy should be considered an economic activity to be taxed and penalized.

Tuning Out a President

By Victor Davis Hanson
Tuned-out Presidents
Somewhere around early 2006, the nation tuned out George W. Bush for a variety of reasons, some warranted, but many not. Most thought the Katrina aftermath catastrophe was due to state and local officials (do you recall the utterly incompetent loudmouth Mayor [“chocolate city”] Nagan, or the clueless FEMA director Michael [“Brownie”] Brown?), while the president’s culpability was largely political: he flew high over, rather than waded into, the muck on the first day of the recovery.
No matter: either the media or his opponents succeeded in confirming the narrative of an out-of-touch president at best, and at worst one indifferent to the plight of African-American poor in particular. The more the president talked of help and rescue, the more we heard absurdities from a malicious Nagan and inanities from an incompetent Brownie.

Steps in the double-talk direction

Steps in the double-talk direction

headshotCharles Gasparino
Our president has a funny way with words when it comes to describing the lousy economy. Even for an election year, some of his whoppers would be laughable — if they weren’t coming from a man who wants to remain in charge of the country and its floundering economy for another four years
Speaking after last Friday’s jobs report, President Obama said the economy is taking a “step in the right direction.” Really?
Economic growth as measured by gross domestic product is falling; it’s now less than 2 percent. The Friday report showed that 80,000 jobs were created last month, vs. 77,000 the month before. So, yes, there was an increase — but, earlier in the year, the economy created an average of 226,000 jobs a month. The trend line is actually falling — i.e., we’re headed in the wrong direction.
AP
Barack Obama

Mitt Romney's Secret Weapon - If He Can Bring Himself to Use It. by Jim Powell

By upholding Obamacare, Chief Justice John Roberts has given Mitt Romney a significant opportunity in the election campaign. But he could blow it if he doesn’t use a “secret weapon.”
The Supreme Court decision assures that Obamacare will be among the top campaign issues, and polls continue to suggest that a majority of voters don’t like it.
Roberts offered what might become known as trans-gender justice (first it’s one thing, then it’s another) that seems to have outraged many independents as well as Republicans who want to uphold the Constitution, not sanction arbitrary power. Roberts’ decision could spur a higher turnout among voters critical of Obamacare.

US Sails into Dangerous Waters. by Ted Galen Carpenter

For several years the United States has pursued rapprochement with Vietnam, its bitter adversary during the Cold War. Although the establishment of cordial relations should be beneficial not only for both countries but all of East Asia, basing that new relationship on military cooperation threatens to pervert the process and produce greater tensions in the region. Instead, US officials should build a closer relationship with Hanoi primarily on economic, diplomatic, and cultural ties. That approach would not only improve bilateral relations, but more extensive economic links in particular would help draw Vietnam further into the global economy. Such a development would be all to the good.

Rise of the Global Tax Collectors. by Richard W. Rahn

The Constitution gives Congress the exclusive right to tax Americans at the federal level. Yet Congress continues to give away this most fundamental responsibility to international organizations, the most dangerous of which is the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Most Americans probably would not approve of their tax dollars being used to support an international organization that undermines their fundamental liberties and promotes giving their hard-earned money to other governments, often run by corrupt or dictatorial regimes. This is precisely what the OECD is doing, with the blessing of the majority members of Congress.

Why Long-Term Unemployment Has Doubled under President Obama. by Jim Powell

The media has focused on prolonged unemployment over 8 percent, while generally downplaying a shocker: the soaring number of people unemployed for more than 6 months.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, back in January 2009 when Barack Obama was sworn in, there were 2.6 million people unemployed for more than 6 months. By June 2012, the ranks of the long-term jobless soared more than 100 percent to 5.3 million.
President Obama has promoted long-term unemployment by adopting policies that make it harder and more expensive for employers to hire people. He has relentlessly pushed for higher taxes, higher energy costs, compulsory unionism and, of course, Obamacare. One doesn't need a Harvard degree to figure out that when government makes hiring more difficult and expensive, there's likely to be less of it.

Obama's Accomplishments. by David Boaz

As he runs for re-election, President Obama wants to point to his accomplishments in office. Trouble is, he's having trouble identifying them.
He killed Osama bin Laden, for sure. But after that...
He'd like to say that the economy is getting better, but the slow recovery is hampering his ability to sell that idea to the public. He likes to say that he saved General Motors and Chrysler; his critics argue that he really spent $23 billion of taxpayers' money to force the companies into bankruptcy and save the United Auto Workers Union. The president also has tried to claim that federal spending was increasing more slowly on his watch than in any presidency in 60 years, but the data don't bear out that narrative.

Political Capital Matters in the Case for Fiscal Reform. by Alberto Mingardi

Though the concern is that governments may not manage their fiscaI burdens with only a limited mutualisation of debt, I see the issue quite differently. My fear is that, with a deep mutualisation of debt, the reform process in member states will stop in its tracks.We know that successful federations feature regional bonds without bailout guarantees, as in the US, for example. The current crisis has its roots in irresponsible behaviour by European member states. The inordinate growth of public spending left some with too much public debt. Cutting spending is difficult in modern democracies but not impossible. Northern social democracies such as Finland and Sweden succeeded; Canada (now considered a country relatively resilient to the global crisis) did it in the 1990s; and Latvia and Estonia tightened their belts more recently.

Friday, July 6, 2012

The John Roberts Doctrine: Stopping at Red Lights is Optional

The John Roberts Doctrine: Stopping at Red Lights is Optional

Are you required to stop your car at a red light?
In his opinion declaring Obamacare's individual mandate constitutional, Chief Justice John Roberts constructed an absurd doctrine of legal interpretation that, if consistently applied, would hold you are not.
The Roberts Doctrine of Lawlessness can be summarized as follows: You need not stop at a red light as long as you can afford to pay the penalty for running it. Red lights merely give motorists a "choice" of whether to stop or keep moving and pay the fine the government imposes for not stopping.
Let's see how our chief justice applied his doctrine to Obamacare:

Constitutional;' Romneycare Was a 'Penalty,' And It's Constitutional, Too

Romney 2012
FILE - In this June 28, 2012 file photo, with the Capitol in the background, Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks in Washington. A day after the Supreme Court's landmark ruling, Romney said the high court's decision to uphold President Barack Obama's health care overhaul has created new urgency in the presidential contest. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)
(CNSNews.com) - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney told CBS's "This Morning" on Thursday that the Supreme Court has ruled that Obamacare is a tax, "so it's a tax," while the health care mandate he signed into law as governor of Massachusetts is a "penalty."
Romney said both Obamacare and Romneycare should now be considered constitutional.
"The Supreme Court has the final word, and their final word is that Obamacare is a tax. So it's a tax. They decided it was constitutional, so it's a tax and it's constitutional. That's the final word. That's what it is," Romney said.
"Now, I agree with the dissent--I would have taken a different course, but the dissent wasn't in the majority. The majority has ruled, and their rule is final," he said.

Army Manual Outlines Plan To Kill Rioters, Demonstrators In America

Army Manual Outlines Plan To Kill Rioters, Demonstrators In America








Paul Joseph Watson

A newly leaked US Army Military Police training manual for “Civil Disturbance Operations” outlines how military assets are to be used domestically to quell riots, confiscate firearms and even kill Americans on U.S. soil during mass civil unrest.
Army Manual Outlines Plan To Kill Rioters, Demonstrators In America New Orleans Katrina military police patrol Canal St. 090505 by AP
The document (PDF), which is dated 2006 and was used for a self-learning course at the U.S. Army Military Police School at Fort McClellan, makes it clear that the operations described in the manual apply to both “CONUS and OCONUS,” meaning inside the Continental United States and outside the Continental United States.
The document outlines how military assets will be used to “help local and state authorities to restore and maintain law and order” in the event of mass riots, civil unrest or a declaration of martial law.
The primary function of military assets will be focused around, “breaking up unauthorized gatherings and by patrolling the disturbance area to prevent the commission of lawless acts,” states the document, adding, “during operations to restore order, military forces may present a show of force, establish roadblocks, break up crowds, employ crowd control agents, patrol, serve as security forces or reserves, and perform other operations as required.”

PM Netanyahu's Message for July 4, 2012 US Independence Day

The Obama Deception HQ Full length version

The best anti-Obama video ever made הסרטון הטוב ביותר נגד אובמה

Thursday, July 5, 2012

U.S. Exit Risks Afghan Economy as Cash Pumped Into Dubai


Afghan central bank inspector Fahim Satari stands in Kabul airport in front of a local businessman headed for Dubai, counting by hand the stack of $100 bills that police found the passenger carrying to the gate.
Satari declares the cash to be under the $20,000 limit imposed to stem the flood of money leaving through the terminal, which swelled to $4.6 billion in the year to March and equals almost one-fourth of the economy. While Satari’s team has slowed the airborne outflow, Kabul brokers who arrange informal transfers say business has jumped. In a country where only 7 percent of the population has a bank account and 15 percent of the economy depends on opium, cash is fleeing Afghanistan.
An Afghan money changer, center, in Kabul. Photographer: Massoud Hossaini/AFP/Getty Images
A man walks past residential buildings in Kabul. Photographer: Massoud Hossaini/AFP/Getty Images
Da Afghanistan Bank building stands in Kabul. Photographer: Massoud Hossaini/AFP/Getty Images
Afghan youth stand on a diving platform at a swimming pool on the Wazir Akbar Khan hill in Kabul. Photographer: Shah Marai/AFP/Getty Images
Noorullah Delawari, governor of Da Afghanistan Bank displays Afghan currency at an event in 2005. Shah Marai/AFP/Getty Images
The lost billions are undercutting U.S. efforts to stabilize the country as it prepares to withdraw its troops by 2014 and exit an 11-year war with the Taliban. President Hamid Karzai needs to build an economy capable of financing long-term security and spurring the development that can help unite a nation fractured by decades-old ethnic rivalries.

A Big Deal: Canada and Mexico Join the Pacific Trade Pact

 

Accounts of the G-20 summit in Mexico largely miss the most significant development.
The most significant development during the G-20 summit in Mexico occurred on the sidelines and was largely buried in media reports: The decision to invite Canada and Mexico to join negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP). Adding Mexico and Canada to the current nine-member TPP will result—if negotiations are successful—in a free trade area covering some 658 million people and about $20.5 trillion in economic activity.

A nation of dog walkers: Where the jobs are — and are not

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070512
Some interesting factoids from today’s WSJ story on non-exportable (or non-tradable) jobs and those jobs machines can’t (yet) do such a home-health aide, personal trainer, and something called “nonfarm animal caretaker.” Here is the good news:

The Costliest Regulation You’ve Never Heard Of

 

A proposed regulation could cost the U.S. banking system hundreds of billions of dollars, in turn costing our economy billions of dollars, and achieving no discernible benefits for banks, depositors, taxpayers, or the U.S. economy.
One of the costliest regulations to come down the pike of late has nearly managed to escape detection. Earlier this year, the Treasury Department published its “Guidance on Reporting Interest Paid to Nonresident Aliens,” which would require banks to report to the Internal Revenue Service the amount of interest they pay to non-resident aliens with a U.S. bank account. While the Treasury and the regulatory apparatus insist that the cost and inconvenience of adhering to this law are next to nothing, the reality is that this rule could cost the U.S. banking system hundreds of billions of dollars in lost deposits. In turn, this will cost our overall economy billions of dollars, while achieving no discernible benefits for banks, depositors, taxpayers, or the U.S. economy.

The Healthcare Myths We Must Confront

 

As debate about whether ObamaCare is a good idea continues, rejecting four major misconceptions about healthcare is crucial to any chance of our eventually emerging with a better system.
In the wake of the Supreme Court’s ObamaCare decision, we must refocus. The Court’s decision was never about whether ObamaCare was a good idea, only about whether it was constitutional. The Court found a convoluted way to uphold the law.
That’s done, but the debate on whether ObamaCare’s provisions are good ideas will continue. To date, this debate has been unable to shake off a lot of mythology—things believed about healthcare and our healthcare system in general, or ObamaCare specifically—that simply are not so.

 

ObamaCare may be constitutional but it isn’t the answer. A refundable tax credit is.
The Supreme Court has just told us that ObamaCare’s mandate to buy health insurance is constitutional under the government’s taxing authority, but this decision will not settle the debate. Republicans have vowed to repeal and replace ObamaCare—and if Mitt Romney wins the presidency, they just might succeed. But Republicans have been vague about the replacement. Here’s a suggestion: Replace ObamaCare with a refundable tax credit funded by taxing employer-provided health insurance.

Chávez’s Dangerous Liaisons with Tehran

 

U.S. diplomats have been silent on these growing alliances. However, fresh revelations about Chávez’s alliance with Iran demonstrate what he is capable of doing when he is not provoked.
Hugo Chávez admitted on June 13 that Venezuela is manufacturing Iranian drones and that Iran has built several explosives and chemical facilities in his country. However, Chávez is trying to throw international observers off his scent by acknowledging an unmanned aerial vehicle program for “peaceful purposes.” What  he did not disclose are the many other troubling aspects of the extensive military cooperation between the two rabidly anti-U.S. regimes—not the least of which is that Venezuela secretly shipped an F-16 to Iran in 2006 that could be used today to test the air defenses around Teheran’s illicit nuclear facilities.

The Ghost of Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes Gets a Second Chance

 

The parallels between these New Deal laws, particularly the National Industrial Recovery Act, and ObamaCare practically write themselves.
Few commenters on the Supreme Court’s decision on ObamaCare accept that a legal thinker as sophisticated as Chief Justice John Roberts could really believe that the law should be upheld under Congress’s taxing power. In any case, if the Court was going to go baying off down the taxing power track, the issues needed much more analysis than the throw-away treatment they got in the course of the litigation.
So the question is, what was Roberts up to?

Scalia’s Wise Dissent

 

Critics of Justice Scalia’s dissent have lambasted him for his reference to Obama and have mocked his admission that his mind was ‘boggled’ by the government’s arguments. Yet none has addressed the heart of his quite powerful argument.
In the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling on Arizona’s immigration law, I came across several liberal commentators who treated Justice Scalia’s dissent as if it were the ravings of an unhinged lunatic. Naturally, I expected a bit of bias on their part, and decided to look over Scalia’s dissent for myself. As I glanced over it, I was struck by the names of two long-dead European thinkers whom Justice Scalia cited, Samuel von Pufendorf and Emer de Vattel. This grabbed my attention. Why Vattel and Pufendorf, I wondered. Was Justice Scalia simply showing off his erudition or had his hatred of Obama driven him to find solace in musty old volumes of antiquated philosophical musings? At any rate, I was intrigued, and promptly began to examine Scalia’s argument, along with Justice Kennedy’s opinions and the dissents of Justice Thomas and Justice Alito. Eventually, after some reflection, I began to see what Justice Scalia was up to.

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

17 Reasons To Be EXTREMELY Concerned About The Second Half Of 2012

What is the second half of 2012 going to bring?  Are things going to get even worse than they are right now?  Unfortunately, that appears more likely with each passing day.  I will admit that I am extremely concerned about the second half of 2012.  Historically, a financial crisis is much more likely to begin in the fall than during any other season of the year.  Just think about it.  The stock market crash of 1929 happened in the fall.  "Black Monday" happened on October 19th, 1987.  The financial crisis of 2008 started in the fall.  There just seems to be something about the fall that brings out the worst in the financial markets.  But of course there is not a stock market crash every year.  So are there specific reasons why we should be extremely concerned about what is coming this year?  Yes, there are.  The ingredients for a "perfect storm" are slowly coming together, and in the months ahead we could very well see the next wave of the economic collapse strike.  Sadly, we have never even come close to recovering from the last recession, and this next crisis might end up being even more painful than the last one.
The following are 17 reasons to be extremely concerned about the second half of 2012....

Kicking The Can Down The Road

Has Europe finally been saved this time?  Has this latest "breakthrough" solved the European debt crisis?  Of course not, and you should know better by now.  European leaders have held 18 summits since the beginning of the debt crisis.  After most of the preceding summits, global financial markets responded with joy because European leaders had reached "a deal" which would supposedly solve the crisis.  But a few weeks after each summit it would become clear that nothing had been solved and that the financial crisis had actually gotten even worse than before.  How many times do they expect us to fall for the same sorry routine?  Nothing in Europe has been solved.  You can't solve a debt problem with more debt.  European leaders are just kicking the can down the road.  More debt will relieve some of the short-term pressure, but in a few weeks it will be apparent that the underlying problems in Europe continue to grow.  Unfortunately, there is not an unlimited amount of EU bailout money, so once all of these "financial bullets" have been fired European leaders are going to find that kicking the can down the road will not be so easy anymore.  The truth is that the financial crisis in Europe has not been cancelled - it has just been put off for a few weeks or a few months.

Are You A Slave Of The System?

If you went out and took a poll of the American people on July 4th (Independence Day) and asked them if they are free, what would the results look like?  Of course the results would be overwhelmingly lopsided.  Most Americans believe that they live in "the land of the free" and that they are not enslaved to anyone.  But is that really the case? Slavery does not always have to involve whips and shackles.  There are many other forms of slavery.  One dictionary definition of a slave is "one that is completely subservient to a dominating influence".  I really like that definition.  Today, millions of Americans are slaves of the system and they don't even realize it.  Debt is a form of slavery, and millions of Americans having become deeply enslaved to our debt-based financial system.  When someone enslaves someone else, the goal of the master is to reap a benefit out of the slave.  You don't want the slave to just sit there and collect dust.  Today, most Americans have willingly shackled themselves to a system that systematically drains their wealth and transfers it to the very wealthy.  Most of them don't even realize that they have been enslaved even as the system sucks them dry.

Is Wal-Mart Destroying America? 20 Facts About Wal-Mart That Will Absolutely Shock You

America absolutely loves Wal-Mart.  100 million customers visit Wal-Mart every single week in this country.  But is Wal-Mart good for America?  That is a question that most people never stop and ask.  Most of us love shopping in big, clean stores that are packed with super cheap merchandise, but the truth is that Wal-Mart is destroying America in a lot of ways.  As you will see below, Wal-Mart has destroyed tens of thousands of small businesses and countless manufacturing jobs over the past couple of decades.  Wal-Mart has become a gigantic retail behemoth that sells five times more stuff than any other retailer in the United States.  Unfortunately, about 85 percent of all the stuff sold at Wal-Mart is made overseas.  What that is costing the U.S. economy in terms of lost jobs and lost revenue is incalculable.  But Wal-Mart is a perfect example of where our economic system is headed.  Our economy is becoming completely and totally dominated by highly centralized monolithic predator corporations that ruthlessly crush all competition and that will stoop to just about anything in order to cut costs.  In the future, will we all be working for gigantic communal entities that funnel all of the wealth and economic rewards to a very tiny elite?  That sounds very much like how communist China works, and red-blooded Americans should want no part of that.  America is supposed to be about free enterprise and competition and working together to build up this country, and Wal-Mart is destroying all of that.

Calvin Coolidge's '150 Anniversary of the Declaration of Indepedence' Speech


Calvin Coolidge is the only president in U.S. history to have been born on Independence Day.  He is also one of the few who understood the Declaration of Independence’s spiritual moorings. “Silent Cal,” as he was called, was thought to be a quiet introvert in interpersonal communication.  And this was largely true.  Once, Coolidge was at a dinner party and a woman informed him that she and a friend made a bet that she could get him to say more than two words to her.  Coolidge turned to her and said, “You lose.”
Still, once on the rostrum, Coolidge could deliver powerful truths marked by crystal clear language.  When President Ronald Reagan was asked which presidents influenced him most, Reagan named Calvin Coolidge.
Coolidge delivered the speech excerpted below on July 5, 1926, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  In it, he  celebrates the 150th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence by demonstrating the inherently spiritual nature of the American spirit, as well as the conservative essence of one nation, not under government, but under God.   
Read it.  You'll be glad you did.

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