Medicare claims the national ad is not political and is meant to educate seniors about new benefits available next year (source) but as with all things Obama, it is filled with nothing but vague promises and the unmistakable odor of a never-ending political campaign.

No official word on how much the ad cost to produce including how much Mr. Griffith is being paid for what amounts to a celebrity endorsement of the unpopular grovernment program. But however much was spent, it should have come from the coffers of the Democratic Party, not the American taxpayers.

"Americans are sick and tired of their elected leaders making backroom deals to ram through unpopular, 2000-page bills that no one has read," said Chairman Price. "They are sick of out-of-touch politicians, and they are tired of being ignored. A number of Democrats, including members of their leadership, have recently expressed a desire to ignore the public will and use a lame duck session to pass liberal legislation Americans do not want. Today I gave my Democrat colleagues an opportunity to show they are finally ready to listen to the American people.

"Our system of government rests upon the consent of the governed, but it is quite clear that Democrats no longer have Americans' consent. The public's trust in this Congress has been repeatedly broken. Voting for a national energy tax and other items on the liberal wish list in a lame duck session would shatter it beyond repair. Republicans are fully prepared to do what is necessary to restore Americans' trust in their elected representatives. We know it will be a long road, but it is one well worth traveling." (source)

The resolution calls for Congress not to assemble on or between November 2, 2010 and January 3, 2011 except in the case of an emergency requiring immediate action. It cites reasons including the 111th Congress' loss of the public's trust "by engaging in unprecedented political procedures to advance a partisan agenda." (View the full text of the resolution.)

Is Chairman Price just being paranoid? It doesn't sound that way when you hear what many Democrats have been saying about their plans before a likely Republican majority takes over:

• "I've got lots of things I want to do” in a lame duck, Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-West Virginia) told reporters in mid June.
  
  
• Kent Conrad (D-North Dakota) wants a lame-duck session to act on the recommendations of President Obama's deficit commission due to report on December 1. "It could be a huge deal," he said last month. "We could get the country on a sound long-term fiscal path." By which he undoubtedly means new taxes.
  
  
• Representative Raul Grijalva (D-Arizona) told reporters last month that for bills like card check (the measure to curb secret-ballot union elections), "the lame duck would be the last chance, quite honestly, for the foreseeable future."
  
  
• Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said during a radio interview in June that "to those who think [card check] is dead, I say think again...We're still trying to maneuver" a way to pass some parts of the bill before the next Congress is sworn in. (source)
  
  

An up or down vote on the Price resolution would force these and other lawmakers to either agree to abide by the voters' decisions on Election Day or admit they will ignore what the majority of Americans want and keep on pushing the far-left Obama agenda until the last possible second.

Not surprisingly the House Democrats' choice was to simply delay a vote on the resolution.

Touting that "We've always found this to be an effective way to communicate," an administration official sang the praises of using online video to reach the American people. Few could quarrel with the fact that it's a great way to get a message out. But this new White House production is more than just the dissemination of information. It is the President of the United States spending his time acting in a commercial for a web site which allegedly helps the public understand the Affordable Health Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare).

In keeping with his "creating jobs is my number one priority" line, couldn't the prsident have hired some out-of-work actor while he tended to something more presidential? Wasn't there something of substance he could be doing instead of making what amounts to yet another speech on his hugely unpopular and obscenely expensive idea of health care reform?

Proving yet again that this president is little more than a huckster perpetually trying to sell government programs the majority of Americans don't want to buy, we have now been given another three minutes and twenty seconds of Barack Obama pitching...as always...Barack Obama:

According to the White House director of new media Macon Phillips, the video aims to achieve two basic goals. "One is to show people how easy it is to use. It's also to show that healthcare.gov is a place where people can learn about all of the benefits and aspects of the new health reform law." (source)

He seems to have left out the most obvious goal: to promote the weakening Obama brand.

Meanwhile fellow Democrats are trying to distance themselves from the Rangel issue. At a news conference intended to detail the party's message during the August recess, reporters insisted on asking Rangel related questions to which House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland) responded, "I think everyone would like to have it go away in the sense that this is not a pleasant process."

Two Democratic House members, Representative Walt Minnick (D-Idaho) and Representative Betty Sutton (D-Ohio), have called for Mr. Rangel to resign and several have returned campaign funds they received from him to avoid the appearance of any connection with the scandal. (source) But Representative Rangel remains defiant in light of this underwhelming support from his party.

When asked about the charges which are expected to include his failure to disclose assets, pay taxes on rent from a Dominican villa, and using office letterhead stationery to raise money for a center named after him, the former Chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee snapped, "Why don't you wait until you know what the facts are?" (source)

We'll all get a good long look at those facts on Thursday as long as Mr. Rangel and his fellow Democrats don't orchestrate some sleazy backroom deal to hide the truth and avoid responsibility before then.

Of course this is the right thing for this president to do if he wants to keep the support of at least some of the politically uninformed who watch daytime talk shows. Certainly it's safer for him to be fawned over by uber-liberal comedienne Joy Behar and actress Whoopi Goldberg than to answer serious questions from actual journalists on NBC's Meet The Press, ABC's This Week or (gasp!) Fox News Sunday.

Sure The View has its token conservative in Elisabeth Hasselbeck but does anyone really expect her to allienate the show's core audience of liberals by asking a real question or openly doubting President Obama's summer of recovery propaganda?

No, this will be just another packaged performance by a president who believes that if he tells the American people often enough that the economy is improving they will believe it. I'm sure he will temporarily entertain and maybe even charm those who remain willfully blind to current events and economic indicators. But once the show is over the American people will be left with their own view; the one they see from their own homes in their own lives and no amount of yukking it up with Whoopi is going to change that perspective.

According to the most recent poll, US Representative Roy Blunt (R- Missouri) leads current Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan (D) by 6 points (48% - 42%). With 10% of voters still undecided, that is not an insurmountable lead, but the same poll also found that 57% of respondents disapprove of President Obama's job performance while only 34% approve. (source) Unfortunately for Ms. Carnahan, she and Mr. Obama share more than just a political party.

Earlier this month, the president traveled to Missouri and appeared with Ms. Carnahan at a pair of Kansas City fundraisers. During one that drew about 750 people to the Folly Theater Mr. Obama declared, "We are moving in the right direction and I know that Robin Carnahan gets it - she's going to help us keep on moving in the right direction."

Even the president seemed to realize the damage his policies and Ms. Carnahan's support for them can do to a political career as he added, "She's not going there to represent me, although she's a great friend. She's going to Washington for only one reason, to represent one constituency, and that is the people of Missouri." (source)

So either she "gets it" and is going to help Obama & Company keep moving the country to the left or she's going to represent the majority of her would-be constituents who disapprove of the Obama agenda. Lucky for the voters of Missouri, they don't have to figure out which of the president's conflicting statements is true. Instead they can choose to keep the seat in Republican hands and it looks like that's just what they'll do.

Netroots Nation ((formerly known as the YearlyKos Convention until all things Kos became widely known as the far left-fringe with which no reputable government official would associate) is a large group of liberal activists meeting over the past few days at the Rio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. Those in the group stand for progressive ideas and support progressive policies - in effect they are the political opposite of the Tea Party movement. Of course they have every right to gather and speak their minds but who are they supposed to be fighting?

Obviously not the current administration or Congress for although those people may not be moving fast enough to appease the far-left fringe, they are definitely moving left and it is doubtful that President Obama would encourage the group to fight himself or his accomplices.

Could the urge to "keep up the fight" refer to a fight against Republicans in power? No since the Republican Party is currently out of power in Washington DC and the Democrats enjoy huge majorities in both the House and Senate.

Certainly the president knows those attending Netroots Nation have no need to fight against the mainstream media as those alleged journalists have been faithfully championing progressive causes and the Obama agenda for years.

So who is left for this group of progressive activists and bloggers to fight? Those Americans who dare to disagree with the far-left. And the President of the United States has chosen not to encourage civil discourse or rational debate or the sharing of potentially convincing information. No, he is urging them to "keep up the fight" against their fellow citizens.

Obviously Mr. Obama desperately needs to galvanize what used to be a large part of his political base and he is more than willing to pit Americans against Americans in his attempt to cling to power.

According to the poll, Mr. Manchin has the support of 78% of Democrats while Mr. Raese would win only 56% of Republicans if the election were held today. Mr. Raese has a 12 point lead among voters not affiliated with either major political party. (source) These are the all-important independents that most experts believe will determine many midterm elections.

But more than party affiliation, the outcome of this race may depend on the Obama Factor. The president's approval rating in West Virginia is a dismal 34% (source), two years ago Hillary Clinton defeated Candidate Obama in the state's Democratic primary by over 40 points and Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) won West Virginia handily in the 2008 presidential election.

Although Governor Manchin is considered a centrist, he has strongly supported President Obama's far-left policies including health care reform. "I think if I was Joe Manchin right now...I'd be doing some denouncing now of what's going on in Washington," Mr. Raese recently said. "And I don't hear a lot of denouncing." (source)

In short, the race in the Mountain State will most likely be between a Democrat strongly supports the Obama agenda and appointed a place-holding Senator for the sole purpose of voting for the Obama agenda versus a Republican with a pro-business, low-tax, low-regulation platform and plenty of his own money to finance a campaign sure to get his message out. And it will all happen in a state that strongly disapproves of President Obama.

Once the August 28 primaries are held and the campaign begins in earnest, expect some serious erosion of the Democrat's lead and a possible Republican upset in November.