Barack Obama has not turned out to be the President whom Europeans expected he would be. And if public opinion serves as a guide, the President has been a disappointment for Americans as well.

These were among the points I made in an address to the prestigious Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Berlin last week. The Foundation, which is aligned with the conservative CDU party of Chancellor Angela Merkel, is a major force in German politics, and its staff and supporters are well connected to the European political scene.

When Barack Obama addressed several hundred thousand Germans at Berlin’s Victory Column in 2008, it came at a time when President Bush’s standing in European public opinion had reached its nadir. Obama would present the starkest break from the policies of the Bush Administration, and the European public responded with glowing approval and anticipation.

Yet today, even the left-leaning European press has turned against America’s chief advocate of “hope” and “change.” While… Read More

Assemblyman Brian Jones, a Republican legislator from San Diego County, asks “Are you kidding me?”

… Read More

Eric Linder finished in second place in the AD60 Primary Election, coming in just behind the only Democrat on the ballot. But, he finished a full 8-points ahead of the next nearest of his two Republican opponents. In a seat that should go Republican in November, this means Eric Linder should be replacing Assemblyman Jeff Miller come November.

Eric is a young, energetic, impressive leader in our Party. He’s the Vice-Chairman of the Riverside County Republican Party. That he made it to the run-off in November as the Republican nominee isn’t a story. But how he managed to pull of that victory certainly warrants telling.

Just two weeks prior to the Filing Deadline, Linder was still going back and forth about whether to run.

On the one hand, there appeared to be an opening. Neither of his two other Republican opponents had been posting impressive fundraising numbers. And, neither had much by way of ties within the Party.

On the other hand, obvious obstacles certainly also existed. Both of those opponents were prominent elected officials. Both of them were law enforcement professionals: one a recently retired… Read More

On Friday, the Legislature passed the state budget and, while I don’t want to sound like a crank, I have to ask: Really? This is how we do things in Sacramento? This is how we govern the nation’s most populous state? This is how we pass the budget – the single most important piece of legislation we’ll consider all year?

I serve on the Budget Committee and thought we had scraped the bottom of the procedural barrel last year. The committee hearing on that final budget lasted only about 45 minutes before the committee chairman cut off questioning to take a vote so that Democratic members of the committee could “catch airplanes.”

But we hadn’t hit bottom. This year, incredibly, the process was worse.

For example, the Budget Committee never even held a hearing and vote on the budget we passed on Friday, so I guess last year’s 45 minutes wasn’t bad. Instead, we had an “informational” presentation of a budget “framework.” In some news reports, Sacramento’s ruling Democrats called it a “concept” for the budget. In any event, there was no vote, even on the “concept” for this year’s budget. Moreover, the language of the budget… Read More

Rather than deal with reality, the Legislature has once again sent a fantasy budget to the Governor.

This fantasy budget foolishly assumes overtaxed Californians will vote this November to send even more of their hard-earned dollars to Sacramento.

When voters approved Proposition 25, they didn’t anticipate it would allow one party to make all major budget decisions in secret. Not only were Republicans shut out of the process, but so was the public.

Rather than make real reforms to increase private sector paychecks, this budget plan relies on taxes, borrowing and gimmicks to keep legislators’ paychecks flowing.

The Governor should veto this budget, scrap his proposed $50 billion tax hike and propose a new plan that requires government to live within its means.… Read More

Before the June election we were the first to post the official slate of Romney delegates for the RNC Convention. Since Romney carried all 53 House Districts in California, all of his delegates will be seated. In addition, for every delegate there is an Alternate Delegate as well. While these folks, for the most part, won’t get to cast a vote for Romney, they do get great seats to see the show, and of course get invited to all of the great parties. You can see the delegate list here, and the just-released alternate list here.… Read More

The final chapter….sounds dramatic, doesn’t it? I’m just taking my cue from Desperate Housewives and House and such to draw you in. Maybe this will be as big as the last episode of M*A*S*H?!

Except that I’m not going to be satisfied with cable channel reruns like those shows. No, you will continue to hear from me about a variety of matters. But, it is time to wrap up our series on how we can fix our economy.

In the previous VIII Episodes, I have talked about strategies to address the too big to fail problem, repair our deficits, and set housing, energy, health care, education, infrastructure, and manufacturing all on a path to prosperity. Most of these strategies are built upon tenets that could elicit bipartisan support. And, every single problem I’ve addressed can be successfully resolved in the United States regardless of what happens in Europe or China or anywhere else. But, before I sign off from this series, there are 3 more points I would like to make:

Absolutism Will not Work: There are some of my colleagues on the right who believe that tax cuts can cure anything. There are some on the left who believe that… Read More

Californians are demanding real change to the failed status quo and on June 5th, based upon the primary election results, they sent an unmistakable message to Sacramento – stop overspending or else.

That message was clearly delivered by the voters. Victories for pension reform in San Jose and San Diego, and the looming defeat of a higher cigarette tax, are an encouraging outcome for fiscal responsibility in California. In the Democrat bastion of San Jose, voters overwhelmingly approved a measure that will force current city workers to either contribute more of their own money to their existing pension plan or enroll in a less generous plan with a higher retirement age. Future workers will receive retirement benefits that are somewhat similar to what private sector workers receive. San Jose’s voters approved this reform mainly because the city’s pension costs rose from $73 million in 2001 to a whopping $245 million this year. Residents have seen less police and fire services and more potholes as city government spent more money to fund out-of-control pension costs for retirees. The voters understood that every additional dollar… Read More