“I told you so!”

“You did not!”

“Yes, I did!”

“It never happened.”

“Yes, it DIIIIIDDD!! It did, it did, it did!!”

Believe it or not, this exchange did not take place between two under-five-year-old siblings in front of my cash register. It is taking place between the staff of two of America’s best-known politicians.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first100days/2009/04/09/rove-calls-biden-liar-bush-aides-challenge-vps-boasts/

Vice President Joseph Biden claimed, on two occasions, to have privately (or semi-privately) spoken with former President George W. Bush during Bush’s tenure in the White House and was, shall we say, candid about his feelings on the Iraq War and general policy.

Meanwhile, former Bush aides are claiming that the two occasions never took place.

My big question: so friggin’ what?

I look at the exchanges, and I chuckle. I know that former President Bush is a good sport, and he has a good sense of humor (if not always the quickest tongue). I also know that Vice President Biden is blunt, clever, and (based on what I know of his career) more-than-less genuine. The two exchanges strike me as completely plausible. I would believe that the two men might, indeed, have met based on Biden’s experience in the Senate and Bush’s good nature.

If the exchanges didn’t happen, then the Vice President exaggerated a story or two to make a point. Big deal. Who among us hasn’t done that? Granted, it may seem a bit unprofessional for the Vice President of the United States to employ this particular storytelling technique, but, like any politician, statements given by him must be taken with a grain of salt.

Now, my regular readers may notice a disproportionate amount of slack cut towards Vice President Biden even going back to the VP debates during the campaign. That’s because, simply put: I like Joe Biden. I will readily admit that, although I may completely disagree with him on numerous issues, I am able to follow his logic and generally respect his opinion. The Vice President remains one of my favorite currently-serving Democrats. That’s my little disclaimer.

I can’t claim to speak for former President Bush, but I can’t help but think that he finds this whole thing absurd. In the grand scheme of things: who gives a damn who said what, when? This feud needs to end. It was stupid for it to ever begin. If the Vice President invented a story, then he was merely making a point and keeping audiences interested. If it actually happened, former Bush staffers are having a bad reaction to the idea that they didn’t know every little detail of what happened over the course of an eight-year period.

Guys, it’s time to move on and get to governing. Let’s let this media-exaggerated feud die while I still respect both of you.  

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123690358175013837.html

Shocked? Don’t be.

For those of you who didn’t bother to click the link above, I’ll synopsize: President Obama’s approval ratings have slipped from 65% on January 21 to 56% as of March 12, according to Rasmussen Reports. That’s a 10-point drop in two months. Ouch!

Now, I’ll ask again: Shocked? Don’t be.

There is a reason that Republicans warned America about Obama’s Carter-esque leanings during the campaign. We’ve seen this picture before: threats of nationalization, a stock market in free fall, taxes on the rise, and government promises that they can fix it all. Sure.

But, as I said, this is not new territory. In 1982—Carter just finished up his roll in the hay with Speaker O’Neil and Reagan was taking over—the unemployment rates were at approximately 10.2 percent. That’s roughly two points higher than it is now. And, prior to the 1980 election, Congress showed no signs of slowing down on the spending and accompanying tax hikes that marked Carter’s four years.

Plus, according to former Clinton advisor Dick Morris, the national deficit has reached approximately 15 percent of America’s GDP. For comparison, Japan’s national deficit never topped 10 percent during their downturn.

President Obama has proven himself good at only one thing thus far: spending our money. Most Americans are against spending projects in general, and therefore disapprove of all of the astronomical spending projects—such as the $3.6 trillion budget—that have come to symbolize the President’s agenda.

Now, realistically, 56 percent is not really something to worry about. If Obama were to change course now and to actually cut wasteful spending, as he promised to do during the campaign, he could realistically maintain solid approval ratings. But I do not see that happening.

My prediction: President Obama will continue to cater to Speaker Pelosi and her far-left cabal, and this slight dip in the polls is but mere foreshadowing of what’s to come. By the end of the year, the President’s approval ratings will be below the 45 percent mark. Possibly lower, depending on how the foreign policy situations pan out. But primarily based on economics and Democratic budgeting, the Obama administration will grind to a PR halt just as quickly as the Obamamania hype began.