HALF-FULL REPORT 03/30/12

Something rare happened this week.  The story to which the news media devoted the most attention actually was the most important story.

Before the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the constitutionality of Obamacare, Jeffrey Toobin, CNN’s liberal legal analyst, thought the Court would uphold the individual mandate by a 7-2, perhaps even an 8-1 margin. After two days, a stunned Toobin declared:

"This was a train wreck for the Obama administration. This law looks like it’s going to be struck down. I’m telling you, all of the predictions, including mine, that the justices would not have a problem with this law, were wrong. Justice Kennedy, the swing vote, was enormously skeptical."

Peter Wehner had the same take as Toobin, but was a lot happier about it:

"To hear Justices Scalia, Alito, Roberts, and even Kennedy slice and dice Solicitor General Donald Verrilli was sheer delight, as they exposed one bad argument and one flawed premise after another."

Liberals were so surprised because of their nearly impenetrable parochialism. New York Times columnist Gail Collins, wrote Wednesday:

"How can this law not be constitutional?… Really, I have my hands over my ears. Not listening."

We won’t know until June how the Supreme Court will rule.  But  James Carville and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid already are spinning defeat for Obamacare as a victory for Obama.  The Politico isn’t buying it.

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Back to normalcy.  The race grievance industry was off and running after George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer in Sanford, Florida, shot and killed black teenager Trayvon Martin during an altercation Feb. 26.

This was murder, motivated by racism, liberals said.  They expressed outrage that Sanford police hadn’t arrested Zimmerman. Attorney General Eric Holder said the Justice Department will investigate whether Trayvon’s civil rights were violated.
 
Zimmerman pulled the trigger, but it was "conservative, right-wing policies that are to blame" for Trayvon’s death, said AFL-CIO Vice President Arlene Holt Baker.
 
MSNBC guest host Karen Finney linked the shooting to comments made by GOP presidential candidates Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, and radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh. "In the case of Trayvon, those festering stereotypes had lethal consequences,"  she said.
 
Rallies calling for "justice" for Trayvon were held on college campuses, and by Democrats on Capitol Hill.  Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Chicago) wore a "hoodie" resembling the one Trayvon wore on the floor of the House.  The New Black Panther Party offered a $10,000 bounty to whoever would make a "citizen’s arrest" of Zimmerman."  Filmmaker Spike Lee tweeted what he thought was Zimmerman’s home address, forcing the elderly couple who actually lived there to flee in fear of mob violence.

Liberals leaped to their conclusions about Zimmerman and his motives without benefit of evidence.  Now that evidence is emerging, and "an open and shut case is cluttered up with facts."  The Associated Press has an uncharacteristically evenhanded report on the basic facts here.

Zimmerman says he shot Martin in self defense.  The two argued, then Martin punched him, jumped on top of him, and banged his head against the sidewalk, Zimmerman said.  Zimmerman’s story is consistent with the evidence, police say.
 
There were at least six witnesses to the incident, according to the police report.  One who talked to an  Orlando tv station backed Zimmerman’s story.

Martin was over six feet tall.  Zimmerman is 5’9." Even if it was self defense, Zimmerman would not be absolved of blame if it were he who provoked the confrontation.  The Sanford police officer who wrote the report mentioned above thought Zimmerman ought to be charged with violation of Florida statute 782.11, "Unnecessary killing to prevent unlawful act."

Gun crime expert John Lott thinks Zimmerman’s actions were lawful, but cautions, we should reserve judgment until all the facts are in.

Liberals may regret they did not.  Trayvon was not the little angel initially portrayed.  There is no evidence of a racial motive in the shooting.  Black friends of Zimmerman defend him here and here.

Zimmerman’s mother is Peruvian, which makes him as much Hispanic as Barack Obama is black.  He’s a registered Democrat. This has no bearing on his guilt or innocence.  But it does have implications for the wisdom of President Zero’s decision to interject himself into the case.

"It is unclear whether (Zimmerman) voted for President Barack Obama in 2008," said the Washington Free Beacon.
 
I bet he won’t this year.  Zimmerman’s father sure isn’t happy with the prez. Zero stepped in it in 2009 when he declared police "acted stupidly" in arresting Harvard Prof. Henry Louis Gates.  He may have done so again.

Liberals don’t learn from experience.  In 2006, the journalistic equivalent of a lynch mob formed immediately after a black stripper accused three members of the Duke lacrosse team of rape.  But she was lying; the lacrosse players innocent victims of "a tragic rush to accuse." The Trayvon Martin case reminds him of the Duke Lacrosse case, says Glenn Garvin of the Miami Herald.
 
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As the Trayvon Martin narrative headed south, the Washington Post acknowledged the last phony story liberal journalists hyped has fizzled.  "Fewer than Five" national advertisers left the Rush Limbaugh program after his comment about Sandra Fluke.

"Boomeranged" may be a better description.  His ratings are up 10 to 60 percent, Rush says. New advertisers are beating down his door.

The boycott organized by George Soros-funded Media Matters has been an epic fail.

William Jacobson thinks:

"The biggest damage has been to Media Matters, which put its reputation for intimidating advertisers on the line, and failed."

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At the Nuclear Security Conference in Seoul, South Korea Monday (3/26), Zero had what he thought was a private conversation with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, but wasn’t.  Captured on an open mic was this exchange:

President Obama: "On all these issues, but particularly missile defense, this, this can be solved but it’s important for him to give me space."

President Medvedev: "Yeah, I understand. I understand your message about space. Space for you…"

President Obama: "This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility."

This suggested to Karl Rove Zero is preparing to do something the Russians will like, but Americans won’t.  The next day, Obama reinforced concerns he’s a duplicitous bastard by lying, clumsily, about what he and Medvedev were discussing.

Democrats are panicking about the political implications, says this liberal reporter.

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The House voted on various budget proposals this week.  President Obama’s budget was defeated, 414-0. Yes, not one single Dem voted for this turkey. Paul Ryan’s budget passed, 228-191, after a conservative alternative was rejected, 136-285.  Various liberal plans also went down in flames, but even the silliest of them, offered by the Congressional Progressive Caucus, got 78 more votes than Zero’s budget did. 

I was surprised that a bipartisan proposal based on the recommendations of the Simpson-Bowles Deficit Commission attracted so few Democrat votes.  It was defeated, 38-382.  House Dems appear hooked on fiscal Kool-Aid.  But their detachment from reality is not so great as to cause them to embrace Zero’s flight of fancy.

Back in the Reagan years, when every Reagan budget proposal was pronounced "dead on arrival" when it came to Capitol Hill, it could rely on substantial GOP support, and became a fixed point from which serious budget compromises would then be hammered out.  Obama’s budget was dead before it left the White House, and is irrelevant to any serious effort to confront our fiscal abyss.

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Zero has spent more money on his campaign than Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum combined have spent on theirs, and his poll numbers still suck. 

This Democrat president spends campaign cash like it was taxpayer dollars. In January, even with no big TV buys, the Obama campaign burned through 158% of what it raised (vs 60% for Bush eight years before).

This does not bode well for when there will be a Republican nominee, and he’ll attack the president rather than his primary rivals.  Romney is about to redirect his fire.

Zero has held a record number of fund-raisers, but is meeting resistance from big donors.  Only 7 percent of those who gave him money in 2008 have contributed so far to his 2012 campaign.  When he ran for re-election in 2004, George W. Bush did far better, with less effort.  So Obama is focusing on small donors.  For $3, they get a chance to dine with the prez.  But this most recent effort is pretty pathetic.

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This has been the worst week of Barack Hussein Obama Jr.’s presidency, Charles Hurt thinks:

"Somehow, Mr. Obama managed to embarrass himself abroad, humiliate himself here at home, see his credentials for being elected so severely undermined that it raises startling questions about whether he should have been elected in the first place – let alone be re-elected later this year."

The whole month has been terrible, no good, very bad for the Left, says Steven Hayward.

I agree, so this week, the HFR is more than half full.  And on that note, I’ll bring it to an end.  Jack Wheeler will return from Africa next week.  It’s about time, Jack!  Welcome back.