State of the Union 2014 Address: President Obama's FULL SOTU

Republican Response to President Obama's State of the Union

Chris Christie fires more people in 24 hours than Obama has in 5 years

Chris Christie at the 2011 Time 100 gala.

by Ken Gardner

Chris Christie fired Bridget Kelly after learning that she lied to him about her role in the New Jersey bridge story. He also removed Bill Stepien from his political positions at the state Republican Party and Republican Governors Association.

Obama promoted Susan Rice after she lied to the American public about the attack in Benghazi.

Indeed, more people have been fired over the NJ bridge story than over Benghazi, the IRS scandals, and the Obamacare rollout -- combined.

This is what a stark contrast in character and leadership looks like. Regardless of what you think about Christie's policies, he demonstrated how leaders build credibility with voters.

He came out so strongly and so quickly and then answered so many media questions that he had to be telling the truth -- otherwise, it will be ridiculously easy to prove any lies and destroy any future political career as a GOP politician (Democrats don't care so much about liars in office).

Moreover, Christie's personal apology to the mayor and people of Fort Lee should enhance his popularity as a person -- another essential ingredient of successful GOP politicians.

Ken Gardner is a contributing writer to Dyed in the Wool Republican..

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This inspired us here at Dyed in the Wool Republican to do a little research and here is what we found.

It is interesting to note that according to opinion writer for the Washington Post, Dana Milbank, Christie said the words I, I'm, I've,  Me, My and Myself 1,095 times in the 108 minute press conference.

Word	Count
I	692
I'm	119
I've	67
Me	83
My/Myself	134
TOTAL	1,095

That is 10.14 times per minute that Christie mentioned himself in some way. Is that good or bad? It is hard to say. Did he avoid personal responsibility? He fired the person responsible and repeatedly said he knew nothing about it. Maybe we should count how many times he said "apologize" or "embarrassed" or "humiliated". How about "them" and "they".

Milbank titles his article "New Jersey Narcissist" and of course presents Chris Christie in a bad light.

This thing is already being called "Bridge-gate" but it makes us think of the "Bridge-to-Nowhere" and is already being referred to as Bridge to Nowhere 2016. Google it.

Although he has a reputation as a micro-manager, Christie said he delegates “enormous authority” to his staff. So it is possible they did things without his knowledge. They pulled this prank thinking they were "getting back" at someone that did not support him. It is a strange form of loyalty. It is possible he didn't know.

As we've already noted, it will be pretty easy to prove any lies he may be telling and his presidential hopes would probably be over. Time will tell. Stay tuned.

If you missed it, here is the whole press conference. All 108 minutes!

Robert Gates, former defense secretary, says "It was all about getting out"

Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War

Robert Gates, a Republican, is a retired civil servant and university president who served as the 22nd United States Secretary of Defense from 2006 to 2011 under President Bush and President Obama.

In his new memoir, "Duty" former defense secretary Robert Gates has harsh judgment of President Obama’s commitment to the Afghanistan war, writing that he had concluded President Obama “doesn't believe in his own strategy, and doesn't consider the war to be his. For him, it’s all about getting out.”

The defense secretary makes a serious charge against the commander in chief when he says the president was “skeptical if not outright convinced his Afghanistan strategy would fail,” all the while he was sending forces into combat.

On a FOX NEWS show liberal commentator Alan Colmes said Gates liked Obama on one page and disagreed with him on the next, declaring the book full of contradictions. Some how this was supposed to mean his perspective was not valid. Charles
Krauthammer says Gates’ allegation against Obama are the worst yet.

Fox News with Charles Krauthammer video:




I look forward to reading the entire book..

Click the following link to read more about the book and author:

Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War

Here are a few excerpts from the book that may surprise you.

"All too frequently, sitting at that witness table, the exit lines were on the tip of my tongue: 'I may be the secretary of defense, but I am also an American citizen, and there is no son of a bitch in the world who can talk to me like that. I quit. Find somebody else.' It was, I am confident, a widely shared fantasy throughout the executive branch."

"Both [Bush and Obama] were most comfortable around a coterie of close aides and friends (like most presidents) and largely shunned the Washington social scene. Both, I believe, detested Congress and resented having to deal with it, including members of their own party. And so, unfortunately, neither devoted much effort to wooing or even reaching out to individual members or trying to establish a network of allies, supporters -- or friends," Gates writes. "They both had the worst of both worlds on the Hill: they were neither particularly liked nor feared. Accordingly, neither had many allies in Congress who were willing to go beyond party loyalty, self-interest, or policy agreement in supporting them." However, Gates adds, "I liked and respected both men."

"I witnessed both of those presidents make decisions they believed to be in the best interest of the country regardless of the domestic political consequences, both thereby earning my highest possible respect and praise. Although, as I've said, political considerations were far more a part of national security debates under Obama, time and again I saw him make a decision that was opposed by his political advisers, or that would be unpopular with his fellow Democrats and supportive interest groups."

Gates writes that he spent $40,000 on lawyers to help him fill out financial disclosures and other government paperwork. Before his 2006 confirmation hearing, he filled out a 65-page questionnaire from the Senate Armed Services Committee. At one point, Bush's chief of staff, Josh Bolten, "asked if I had any ethical issues that could be a problem, like hiring illegal immigrants as nannies or housekeepers.
"I decided to have some fun at his expense and told him we had a non-citizen housekeeper. Before he began to hyperventilate, I told him she had a green card and was well along the path to citizenship. I don't think he appreciated my sense of humor," Gates wrote.
He told his wife, "I have to do this, but I just hope I can get out of this administration with my reputation intact."

Gates writes that an encounter with a woman in a restaurant who had two sons fighting in Iraq drove home the human dimension of the job. "I couldn't finish my dinner, and I couldn't sleep that night," he wrote. "Our wars had just become very real to me, along with the responsibility I was taking on for all those in the fight."

By early 2011, "My fuse was really getting short. It seemed like I was blowing up -- in my own, quiet way -- nearly every day, and no longer just in the privacy of my office with my staff ... I had blown up at (National Security Adviser Thomas) Donilon and the vice president at a meeting on Libya on March 2 and at House Defense Appropriations chair Bill Young on the third, and had come close to openly arguing with the president in the NSC meeting that same day, and had gone off on Donilon again on the fifth. Partly, I think, I was just exhausted from the daily fights."

"from the wars we were in and from new wars -- was clouding my judgment and diminishing my usefulness to the president, and this has played a part in my decision to retire."

Gates left that June, with Obama awarding him the Presidential Medal of Freedom -- the highest U.S. civilian honor.