The contrast between the speeches they gave last week suggests that when the 2012 presidential campaign begins in earnest, the news media will have difficulty maintaining the story lines they've been pushing about Barack Obama and Sarah Palin. His opponents agree Mr. Obama is a better speaker than he is a president.  But the fiscal policy speech he made at George Washington University last Wednesday (4/13) -- during which Vice President Joe Biden nodded off -- indicates he's not that terrific an orator, either. The speech "was not just weak, but pitiful,' a "waste of breath," said Clive Crook, editor of the Atlantic magazine.  And he's a staunch supporter of the president. Barack Obama these days speaks only before friendly audiences.  On Saturday (4/16), Sarah Palin journeyed to Madison, Wisconsin where she braved snow, cold, and union protesters who tried to disrupt her Game On! speech by beating drums and blowing whistles. "Sarah Palin rides to the sound of the guns," noted Reuters columnist James Pethokoukis.  Barack Obama doesn't have the courage to.  Which is why their respective poll numbers will be changing dramatically.

Some people, in their pursuit of profit, benefit their fellow humans by creating new or better goods and services, and then by employing others. We call such people entrepreneurs and productive workers. Others are parasites who suck the blood and energy away from the productive. Such people are most often found in government. Perhaps the most vivid description of what happens to a society where the parasites become so numerous and powerful that they destroy their productive hosts is Ayn Rand's classic novel "Atlas Shrugged." The just-released movie version is an entertaining, tension-filled struggle between the productive and the parasites who ally themselves with the envious and evil. Go see it - here's the theatre list nationwide . Bad policies come about from the actions of specific people - individuals in Congress and government agencies - not the Congress or the administration as a whole. Washington is filled with people who are more destructive than constructive. It is useful to name some of the most destructive people in the hope that they will either reform or leave.

If you can't wait for May 6th, you're not alone.  This will be TTP's 10th Rendezvous - Rendezvous X - and we plan to make it our best yet.  Miko has the full hour-by-hour schedule - from opening at 6pm Friday May 6 to closing at 12:30pm Sunday May 8 - below.  Let me fill in the details.  We have a program I think is a real mind-blow.  Here we go.

So many bad things are happening all at once that it's hard to decide what to worry about most. Inflation.  In February, we had the highest monthly increase in the price of food since 1974.  In March the price of corn set a record high.  The price of gasoline has doubled since Barack Hussein Obama became president, and is expected to reach its record high by Memorial Day. The government says the risk of inflation is low, but it doesn't count the cost of food and fuel -- the stuff we have to buy -- in its measure of "core" inflation.  Under the old method of calculating inflation, the annualized rate for February was 9.6 percent. With wages flat, those who have jobs will lose ground.  And for those poor souls without jobs... Yes, there'a unemployment, lack of economic growth, massive debt... the list goes on.  What could be the sum of all these problems?

The Department of Health and Human Services has so far granted more than a thousand waivers to Obamacare.  Most have gone to labor unions and to other organizations which support the administration. The law Congress passed contains no language authorizing anyone in the Executive Branch to grant waivers.  The Obama administration claims the authority is implied by the broad powers the legislation grants to the HHS Secretary.  The Founding Fathers beg to differ. Prior to the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688 (in which James II was deposed in favor of  his daughter Mary and her first cousin William of Orange), English kings asserted the right to exempt favored subjects from the provisions of a particular law (called a dispensation) - or to suspend the law entirely (called non obstante:  the law "notwithstanding").  Kings claimed this because of their "divine right" to rule as they pleased, Parliament be damned. This was not a popular view with Parliament.  James II was deposed in large part because of his many dispensations.

The most fatuous proposal (so far) for ending the war in Libya has come from Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-CA.  We should get a warrant for Libyan dictator Muammar Ghadafy from the International Criminal Court, and "go in and arrest him," Ms. Feinstein told Andrea Mitchell of MSNBC. Sen. Feinstein opposes putting in U.S. ground troops.  So who does she imagine would serve the warrant? The US Military ended conscription ("the draft") 28 years ago, moving to an All Volunteer Force that has proved so vastly superior it would be insane to go back.  But in this life, there is a downside to everything. When we had a draft, most of our political leaders got some military experience.  The number of veterans in Congress has fallen by two thirds since the end of the draft in 1973, says the Military Officers Association of America. Thus the only thing clear about our policy in Libya is that it's being made by people who haven't a clue about what works and what doesn't in war.