Chad’s Morning Brief: Barack Obama Wants You to Leave Susan Rice Alone, Romney Says Obama Gave Out Gifts, & More

Here is your Morning Brief for the morning of November 15, 2012. Give us your feedback below and tune in to The Chad Hasty Show for these and many more topics from 8:30 to 11 am.

1. Obama on Rice (link)

President Obama would really like it if you'd stop attacking Susan Rice. Besides, she was just saying what the White House told her to say. According to Obama at least.

President Barack Obama revealed at his press conference this afternoon that he is responsible for sending U.N. ambassador Susan Rice to speak to the American people a few days after the September 11 Benghazi terror attack.

"As I said before, she made an appearance at the request of the White House in which she gave her best understanding of the intelligence that had been provided to her," Obama said at the press conference, defending the statements the ambassador to the U.N. made regarding the Benghazi attack.

Rice has been widely criticized for giving misleading statements about Benghazi. She maintained that the killing of four Americans stemmed for a spontaneous protest that got violent.

Later evidence, however, revealed that U.S. officials had real-time updates from Americans on the ground in Benghazi, and that terrorists were immediately suspected.

"When they go after the U.N. ambassador, apparently because they think she’s an easy target, then they’ve got a problem with me," Obama said today.

The President also said that Rice had nothing to do with Benghazi, yet he sent her out in front of the world to talk about it.

It looks as though Republicans are gearing up for a fight over Rice if she is nominated for Secretary of State.

2. Romney on Why He Lost (link)

Mitt Romney is speaking out about why he lost the election. One of the reasons he claims he lost is because of the "gifts" to key demographics from Obama. According to the Washington Post:

Mitt Romney, on a call with top donors on Wednesday, referred to some of the policies enacted under the Obama administration as “gifts” that helped him win young, minority and low-income voters.

Here’s The New York Times’s account of the call:

 

“In each case they were very generous in what they gave to those groups,” Mr. Romney said.

“With regards to the young people, for instance, a forgiveness of college loan interest, was a big gift,” he said. “Free contraceptives were very big with young college-aged women. And then, finally, Obamacare also made a difference for them, because as you know, anybody now 26 years of age and younger was now going to be part of their parents’ plan, and that was a big gift to young people. They turned out in large numbers, a larger share in this election even than in 2008.”

According to that account and another in the Los Angeles Times, Romney also apologized to donors and said he was surprised by the loss.

I see what Romney is saying here and I don't really disagree with him. Though, young people isn't the main reason he lost. Those who have been getting handouts don't want them to end. Many viewed Romney as the guy who would end the freebies.

Bobby Jindal disagrees.

“No, I think that’s absolutely wrong,” he said at a press conference that opened the RGA’s post-election meeting here. “Two points on that: One, we have got to stop dividing the American voters. We need to go after 100 percent of the votes, not 53 percent. We need to go after every single vote.

“And, secondly, we need to continue to show how our policies help every voter out there achieve the American Dream, which is to be in the middle class, which is to be able to give their children an opportunity to be able to get a great education. … So, I absolutely reject that notion, that description. I think that’s absolutely wrong.”

He reiterated the points for emphasis.

“I don’t think that represents where we are as a party and where we’re going as a party,” he said. “That has got to be one of the most fundamental takeaways from this election: If we’re going to continue to be a competitive party and win elections on the national stage and continue to fight for our conservative principles, we need two messages to get out loudly and clearly: One, we are fighting for 100 percent of the votes, and secondly, our policies benefit every American who wants to pursue the American dream. Period. No exceptions.”

 

What do you think?

3. Amnesty? (link)

Will President Obama make a push for amnesty for illegal immigrants? It could happen. According to the Daily Caller:

President Barack Obama began pushing Wednesday for a critical move toward a Democrat-boosting immigration amnesty, declaring that an increased Latino “sense of empowerment and civic participation … is going to be powerful and good for the country.”

“I do think that there should be a pathway for legal status for those who are living in this country,” he said during the post-election press conference in the East Room of the White House.

Previous Washington efforts to provide amnesty to illegal immigrants have failed amid bipartisan push-back from voters, however, even when the economy was growing and unemployment was low.

I'm looking forward to see what Republican lawmakers will come up with. Republicans have to balance making the "base" happy while not turning away more Latino voters.

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These and many more topics coming up on today’s edition of The Chad Hasty Show. Tune in mornings 8:30-11 am on News/Talk 790 KFYO, streaming online at kfyo.com, and now on your iPhone and Android device with the radioPup App. All guest interviews can be heard online in our podcast section after the show at kfyo.com.