It’s Our Birthday!

Today, one year ago, I launched thelobbyist.net.? thelobbyist was an idea that was burning a hole in my back pocket for a couple of years.? For good or bad, most of my peers will tell you I’m very opinionated.? Admittedly, often to the point of needing to shut my mouth. (My mother often reminds me of this).? But I had never delved into the foray because my attention was focused on finishing school, work, finishing grad school, and then getting back to work.? Finally, last Fall, after watching the Shawshank Redemption for the umpteenth time and hearing the immortal words of Andy Dufresne, You gotta get busy living, or get busy dying, it dawned on me that I would most likely never be less pre-occupied.? It was now or never.

So I began the tedious process of putting together what I imagined would be a seldom viewed blog of my thoughts on politics.? In late October I mentioned what I was doing to my close friend Tom Qualtere, currently the Research Assistant for Ed Feulner at The Heritage Foundation.? He was ecstatic about the idea and wanted to get on board as well.

After a few months of us blogging, to our surprise we were gaining a fairly sizable audience for our scope.? Between our first month with roughly only 300 visitors, we had moved to about 4,000 unique visits. (To be specific, a website usually receives many more visitors, but much of the traffic is repeat visitors.? A unique visit is characterized as 1 visit per unique individual.? In other words, a website may received 2000 total visits, but only 500 were unique.? Meaning that each unique visitor visited the site roughly 4 times.)

It was at this time we decided to step it up a notch and revitalize the image of the website into a true commentary presence on politics.? Our friends Dustin Siggins and RJ Caster jumped on board and have been a real boon to our efforts.

Since that time we have grown by leaps and bounds.? This month we are on track to break 20,000 unique visitors and over 100,000 total visits.? That communicates to us that our audience loves what we do, and our growth is obvious evidence of this.? If it wasn’t for our audience, we would obviously just be talking to ourselves.? We thank our fans and friends, who have helped push us forward and keep us motivated to do what we do!

I would also personally like to thank Tom Qualtere, Dustin Siggins, RJ Caster, and Wallace Forman for their fantastic work every month.? And additionally, a special thanks goes out to our contributors Sam Theodosopoulos, Catherine Helsley, and our brother-sister duo of Nick J. and Annie Rohrhoff.? Thanks for all your hard work!

We’ll keep doing what we do, and strive to continue doing it better.? And you guys keep coming back, and we will look forward to celebrating our birthday with you again next year!

-nick r brown

thelobbyist Featured on HotAir.com

HotAir.com has linked to yesterday’s piece by Tom Qualtere on Michael Moore here on thelobbyist. I just wanted to take a minute to congratulate Tom on some really great work and getting featured on Michelle Malkins fantastic site.

You can see Tom’s piece featured on HotAir.com’s front page here under “Headlines”.
And you can find the original piece posted yesterday here.

Thanks for the link Michelle, and keep up the great work Tom!

-nick

The Moore You Know About Obama…

In politics, knowing what your opposition thinks and says about you and your team is critical. But listening to what they?re saying about their own side can sometimes be even more telling.

In the latest issue of Rolling Stone, Michael Moore insists that Barack Obama?s ambitions are much farther left than he lets on. Thus, the President has been deliberately lying to us about everything from health care reform to the war on terror. But contrary to the Bush years, when perceived presidential deceit evoked liberal rage and a film to go with it, Moore adoringly approves of what he now sees as a necessary ?rope-a-dope strategy? to advance his side?s cause.

The interview, part of a larger round table discussion also including Paul Krugman and David Gergen, asks the ?three leading political observers? to analyze and discuss the first six months of the Obama presidency. The most startling perspective Moore provides is in regard to the current health care debate:

I take all of the things that make me nervous about the decisions that Obama has made, and I look and them through that lens ? that it?s some kind of master plan. It?s like his continued support of a government-run option for health care. If a true public option is enacted ? and Obama knows this ? it will eventually bring about a single-payer system, because the profit-making insurance companies won?t be able to compete with a government plan and make the profits they want to make. At some point most of them will probably have to bow out of the business.

Moore?s frankness even earns praise from the far more temperate David Gergen:

I?m glad to have someone of Michael Moore?s honesty say that the public option on health care is, in fact, designed to be a pathway to a single-payer system. Because the Democrats have essentially said, ?That?s not true.?

Moore?s view of Obama on Iraq is similar. While the Fahrenheit 9/11 director demands ?more than a truth commission ? a serious criminal investigation? into the Bush administration?s supposed ?lying to convince Congress to back an invasion of another country that did nothing to us,? he also tells the magazine:

Look, this guy [Barack Obama] is a very good basketball player ? he fakes right and goes left. He says he?s going to keep 50,000 troops in Iraq. But I would be shocked if, three years from now, there are 50,000 troops in Iraq. He says these things to keep the wolves away from the door, and it works. The other side seems to buy it. That?s why I admire his craftiness here.

?Same with Afghanistan,? he claims. While adding, ?I don?t think there was a reason for the war? because ?the Taliban are not an invading force ? they are citizens of Afghanistan? and therefore ?it is up to the citizens of Afghanistan whether they want to be oppressed,? he makes clear:

When [Obama] said he was going to send in 20,000 new troops, I thought, ?He?s again trying to create this illusion so that the opposition will be kept at bay.?

(Think about it: When the far left thought ?Bush lied??about WMDs, remember??they cried for impeachment. But for Obama, it?s just matter of admirably creating crafty illusions in order to trick his pesky opposition into silence and submission. Consider it liberalism by any means necessary.)

The way Moore sees it, even when it comes to serious national security issues like prosecuting terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, ?I think he gets the opposition to shut up by telling them what they want to hear.? Indefinite detention? ??Indefinitely? for Obama,? he says, ?might mean ?two more months.??

Overall score from Moore?

I would give him an A if my theory about the rope-a-dope strategy he has employed turns out to be right. If I?m wrong about that, then I?ll have to mark it down to a C-minus. Right now, I?m going to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Eventually, Gergen confronts the filmmaker about the openness of his ?fakes right, moves left? rhetoric and asks, ?Isn?t that the same critique the Republicans have been making about the president for some time?? Moore bluntly responds:

Yeah, and nobody will listen to them! I feel sorry for them. They think they know what he?s doing and they try to point it out, but Obama just acts all innocent and says, ?No, I?m not doing that.? I probably shouldn?t be saying this, but I?m counting on the fact that Republicans won?t be reading this in Rolling Stone.

Team America?s ?giant socialist weasel? counted wrong.

Back in 2004, the idea that ?Bush lied? begat plenty of fits, a film, and much more from the far left. But that, of course, was when a Republican was president. Five years later, half-truths and deceit from a liberal Democratic president are not only commendable, it seems, but absolutely vital. Apparently Barack Obama?s real plans are just that unpalatable for the public to swallow.

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Tom Qualtere?currently serves as research assistant to the president of The Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. This column among many others can also be found at NewMajority.com.