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IBD/TIPP Poll: "The Great Distracter" has failed to distract from his failures as his support among women and independents falls. And it will only get harder to make voters forget the weak economy. The latest IBD/TIPP survey, which polled 778 registered voters over the eight days ended Wednesday, found that while same-sex marriage is viewed positively by many independents, President Obama's support among that key voting bloc has fallen since his switcheroo on such unions. On top of that, his support among women has suffered — at a time when Democrats are conducting a coordinated effort accusing likely GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney of waging a "war on women." The president's attempts to distract voters from the nation's economic woes are apparently failing. The dismal reality of 8%-plus unemployment — four years after the 2008 financial crisis — remains at the front of their minds. Obama still leads overall in the IBD/TIPP results, 43% to 40%, but that's a drop from the at-least 46% support in our previous polls this year. Among independents, Romney now leads Obama 39% to 35%, with 17% unsure. by OutloudOpinion.com For more Podcasts visit www.outloudopinion.com

WikiLeaks: The sleazy criminal organization dedicated to publishing U.S. secrets may loudly deny its leaks led to the hanging of a man in Iran Tuesday. But that's irrelevant because WikiLeaks gave Tehran the pretext it sought. A 24-year old Iranian man was the latest victim of the mullahs' monstrous tyranny this week, executed as a spy for Israel, supposedly for killing an Iranian nuclear scientist on behalf of his Zionist masters. That's a whiff of the twisted kangaroo court verdicts typical of Iran. In reality, Majid Jamali Fashi was a young kick-boxing instructor who visited Baku, Azerbaijan, for a tournament in August 2009. That was a month before a U.S. Embassy cable went out describing a meeting with an Iranian "coach and trainer" who told embassy officials about how Iran was pressuring athletes to join its government goon squads. WikiLeaks turned that into a death warrant by illegally leaking the mundane cable in late 2010 just as the crazed mullahs, under pressure for the mysterious killings of its nuclear scientists, wanted to arrest someone. As novelist Richard Grenier once wrote: They put two and two together and came up with 22. It was easy for Tehran to do, because WikiLeaks blacked out the Iranian's name from the stolen U.S. document. That let Iran put any old name it liked in its place and construct the pretext it wanted to accuse a likely innocent man of murder and execute him. by OutloudOpinion.com For more Podcasts visit www.outloudopinion.com

Leadership: The president's narcissistic self-insertion into official presidential biographies would have us believe the Great Communicator would agree with the Great Teleprompter Reader on taxes. Well, there he goes again. Not willing to wait until his visage is enshrined next to actor and donor George Clooney on Mt. Rushmore, President Obama's helpers have notoriously inserted their fearless leader into the official White House biographies of virtually every former president back to Calvin Coolidge, except for Gerald Ford. The White House defended the practice of appending presidential biographies by saying it is common Web practice to provide links to ease navigation and increase traffic. What we have here is an Orwellian rewriting of history akin to the fictional Winston Smith doing it on a daily basis for the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell's novel "1984." Inserted into the official bio of the late President Ronald Reagan was this lie: "In a June 28, 1985, speech, Reagan called for a fairer tax code, one where a multimillionaire did not have a lower tax rate than his secretary. Today, President Obama is calling for the same with the Buffett Rule." by OutloudOpinion.com For more Podcasts visit www.outloudopinion.com

The Obama Record: The president has made Mitt Romney's Bain Capital a target of his re-election campaign. That's one way to divert attention from poor performance. It's also a way to undermine capitalism. At a New York fundraiser Monday night, Obama called the free market "the greatest wealth generator ever devised by man." Those are fine words for a campaign stop among the moneyed set. But those words aren't backed by the actions of a president who only months ago claimed the free market "has never worked." The same day Obama flopped back to his "capitalism is good" position, his team set out to taint Bain Capital, the private equity firm Romney co-founded and ran as CEO. In a campaign video, Romney is described as a "vampire" and "job destroyer." The Obama camp charges him with taking profits "at great cost to American workers and their communities." That's the work of the real Obama, who's just another of those malcontents who has become a success, thanks to capitalism yet rants regularly about its evils. During Obama's 40 months in the White House, he has undermined capitalism and impugned business as a matter of routine. The former community organizer had just entered office when, in the summer of 2009, the federal government gave General Motors $49.5 billion in aid, including a $6.7 billion loan, to finance its bankruptcy. The result: Washington, not private shareholders, took roughly 61% ownership of GM. by OutloudOpinion.com For more Podcasts visit www.outloudopinion.com

Health Reform: Faced with being forced to abandon its conscience while emptying its bank account, a Catholic university finds its students can't keep the health insurance they like as it becomes prohibitively expensive. Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, finding itself at the nexus of cost and conscience regarding the demands and expenses imposed on it and other Catholic institutions by the onslaught of ObamaCare, has announced it will neither comply nor participate in the nationalization of health care and drop the health coverage it offers to its students. It's the first shoe to drop in what will be a cascade of such decisions. Franciscan University was able to drop its coverage, but as the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops has warned, other institutions and charities may be forced to close, sell off their assets or turn them over to secular operators in the wake of ObamaCare's unacceptable mandates and costs. "This is putting people in a position where they are having to choose between their faith and their morality — and now an unjust cost," said Mike Hernon, vice president of advancement at the university. "These sorts of regulations from the government are forcing our hand in a way that's really wrong." Hernon said students must have insurance — either through their parents' policy or through the university's basic plan. That plan now costs about $600 a year. However, Hernon said the school's health care provider has served notice that under ObamaCare, the policy would double to $1,200 and then triple the year after. by OutloudOpinion.com For more Podcasts visit www.outloudopinion.com

Regulation: A leftist movement to pass local "responsible banking ordinances" is sweeping the nation. Now banks will be harassed into making risky loans by city, not just federal, diversity cops. The two largest cities this week approved laws requiring banks doing business with them to meet race-based quotas for mortgage and small-business lending. They'll also have to stop foreclosures on previous bad loans and vow to open new branches in urban neighborhoods. New York and Los Angeles officials who voted for the laws say they're trying to "build on the Community Reinvestment Act." This is the same federal banking regulation that fed the subprime bubble by requiring banks to make riskier mortgages in "underserved communities." Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a strong President Obama ally who agrees the CRA's power and scope should be expanded, is expected to sign the ordinance. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is likely to veto it, though the city council will be able to override it. The moves effectively turn local authorities into bank regulators along with the federal government, adding another layer of CRA enforcement and creating additional pressure on banks to make risky loans. They also create an unnecessary paperwork burden for banks in these large markets. Bank officials now have to regularly report lending data to city contracting agencies, in addition to federal bank regulators (who already post CRA ratings for any city official to see). This added compliance cost ultimately will be passed on to bank customers. And taxpayers will have to pick up the cost of the new city bureaucracies that will be set up to police bank lending practices. Still, New York and Los Angeles are joined by several other major cities in passing such social banking laws, including Pittsburgh, Kansas City and Cleveland. In addition, San Diego, Oakland, Seattle, Boston, Austin, Philadelphia and Portland have drafted similar laws. by OutloudOpinion.com For more Podcasts visit www.outloudopinion.com

Budget: Congressional Democrats plan massive tax increases and crippling defense cuts after November. Why not now? Because the voters would realize the Obama presidency has set the stage for fiscal catastrophe. 'The way to deal with sequestration is put revenues on the table." That is third-ranking Senate Democrat Charles Schumer of New York's coded way of telling congressional Republicans that if you want to prevent the budgetary devastation of the U.S. military, you'll have to break your promises to voters and agree to major tax hikes. After the presidential and congressional elections this November, a lame-duck Congress will address an impending fiscal calamity. Without action, the Bush tax cuts once again are set to expire at the end of the year and some $110 billion in indiscriminate, across-the-board spending cuts will take place automatically. House Speaker John Boehner is already wisely demanding "cuts and reforms greater than" any debt limit increase. Heritage Foundation senior fellow and former Treasury Department tax economist J.D. Foster recently warned that on New Year's Day, "some $494 billion in tax hikes will crash down on America's taxpayers and economy" — not just the expiration of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts that gave us a boom and cut unemployment to under 5%, but "a jump in the payroll tax rate," "the return of the death tax," " a bigger, badder" Alternative Minimum Tax, and the tax hikes for ObamaCare. by OutloudOpinion.com For more Podcasts visit www.outloudopinion.com

High-Speed Rail: It says something that even struggling California may be willing to lose a $3.3 billion federal bullet-train grant. Maybe it senses some risk. Now how can that be? The Golden State is not known for its fiscal sobriety, but at least some of its top lawmakers are thinking twice about accepting the Obama administration's invitation to waste money. Last week, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said a promised $3.3 billion federal grant to start the state's high-speed rail system is at risk unless the state budgets $2.7 billion from bond funds for it this June. State Senate leaders, bucking Gov. Jerry Brown as well as LaHood, want to put off a decision until August. LaHood said that's "too late for us." On the contrary, even August is too soon for the state to jump into rail construction. Never would be better. But the stalling is a good sign, as is the apparent willingness to give up the federal grant rather than be rushed into a rash decision. It seems the state's legislative leaders, if not its governor, see trouble ahead. The federal money may be enough to start the work, but it doesn't ensure a project's success or solvency. On the contrary, it can be a ticket to fiscal disaster. by OutloudOpinion.com For more Podcasts visit www.outloudopinion.com

Trade: Six years after it was signed, the U.S.-Colombia free-trade agreement took effect Tuesday, giving our economy a shot in the arm. Tell us again why this pact was a bad thing? Look at the Port of Long Beach. Monday, port officials drove the first golden pile into the water for their $1.2 billion upgrade and expansion, hailing a modernization that will double the port's traffic when completed in 2019. The project restores the California port as the U.S.' biggest, and competitively answers the Panama Canal's $5.25 billion expansion. Increased trade capacity makes that possible — and nothing turbocharges trade more than free trade treaties. With the U.S.-Colombia free trade pact going into force Tuesday, the U.S. stands to gain $1.1 billion in new sales to Colombia, meaning plenty of demand for Long Beach. In anticipation, U.S. trade with Colombia increased 19% last year alone. And ports like Charleston, Miami, Houston and New Orleans may reap even bigger benefits. That means jobs — lots of them. by OutloudOpinion.com For more Podcasts visit www.outloudopinion.com

Job Creation: With just 7% of Americans considering gay marriage the top issue, the presumptive GOP nominee asks: What about the 23 million Americans who are out of work, underemployed or have simply given up? The battle of the steel ads between venture capitalist Mitt Romney and venture socialist and incumbent President Barack Obama has ended with the advantage going to Romney. The Obama spot dubbed "Steel," but which perhaps could have been labeled "Vampire," will be run once during the evening news on Wednesday in five key battleground states and then be withdrawn while people stop laughing. Such ads depend on talking-head analysis to get the word out rather than the actual ad buy, and for Team Obama the reviews have not been good. The attack ad blaming Romney and his investment firm Bain Capital for the failure of GST Steel, a Kansas City, Mo.-based company, fell flat after it became known Romney left Bain two years before the company failed in 2001. That was also a time when 17 other steel companies that Bain had nothing to do with failed as prices imploded from the dumping of foreign steel in the U.S. market. The 750 jobs lost at GST are fewer than the 1,100 employees who lost their jobs at Solyndra, the stimulus-backed manufacturer of solar panels, and certainly fewer than the job losses at the "bailed out" Government Motors, its suppliers and the workers at the closed GM dealerships. by OutloudOpinion.com For more Podcasts visit www.outloudopinion.com