FIELD NOTES FROM THE MEG WHITMAN CAMPAIGN
On Wednesday, I was grateful to receive the endorsement of the Riverside County Taxpayer’s Association, an organization that has worked hard to protect California’s taxpayers.
The association was an early opponent of Proposition 1A, helping to defeat what would have been one of the largest tax hikes in the history of our great state. I look forward to working together with them to stand up to big-spending Sacramento politicians and restore fiscal discipline in our state government.
And on Friday, I’m heading to the California Republican Party’s Spring Convention in Santa Clara. I will be joining my friend Mitt Romney, several of California’s elected officials and many hardworking Republican delegates and volunteers. This is always a great time.
I look forward to the Republican gubernatorial debate on Monday. It will be a great opportunity to discuss the issues facing California.
Breaking News:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told her members Friday to brace themselves for a climatic health care vote as early as next week, warning them to clear their schedules for next weekend and promising to stay in session until the landmark vote, people present at the meeting told POLITICO. President Barack Obama has postponed an overseas trip until March 21, and Pelosi said, “I am delighted the president will be here for the passage of the bill. It will be historic.”
For more updates visit politico.com
I’m pretty sure someone in Dante’s Inferno is condemned to spend eternity listening to C-SPAN panels on community rating.
By: Jonah Goldberg
The time for talk is over.
So proclaimed the most talkative president in modern memory. I can’t remember when Barack Obama said that. Maybe it was during the first “final showdown” on health care. Or maybe it was the third. The fifth? It’s so hard to tell when pretty much every week since the dawn of the Mesozoic Era, either Obama or Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid has proclaimed that it is now Go Time for health-care reform.
So you’ll forgive me if I’m somewhat skeptical about the possibility that the health-care reform debate is about to come to an end.
The president recently said, “Everything there is to say about health care has been said, and just about everybody has said it.”
But wait. If everything, pro and con, has been said about a subject by everybody, that means someone isn’t telling the truth, right? I mean, if you’ve said X and not-X, that means you’ve probably said something that isn’t true.
That, at least, is the impression I got this week listening to Obama make his closing arguments for health care at rallies in Pennsylvania and Missouri. It’s telling that the president — long in favor of a single-payer system — is selling his health-care plan on the grounds that it will increase “choice” and “competition,” reduce “government control,” and “give you, the American people, more control over your own health insurance.”
You know your sales pitch for a government takeover of health care hasn’t worked when you have to crib rhetoric from free-market Republicans. And that’s after you’ve already tried to pin your plan’s unpopularity on the ignorance of the American people.
Obama’s talking points track reality about as well as the screenplay for Avatar. Indeed, the same week he was hawking competition, choice, and less government, Obama backed a new Health Insurance Rate Authority that would do even more to cement big health-insurance companies into their new role as government-run utilities.
This latest gambit is of a piece with the White House’s demonization of the health-insurance industry. I have no love for that industry myself, but let’s get some perspective. As of August, the health-insurance industry ranked 86th in terms of profit margins — behind anemic industries such as book publishing (38th), specialty eateries (71st), and home-furnishing stores (84th), according to data compiled by Mark Perry of the American Enterprise Institute.
Insurance companies account for less than 5 percent of American health-care spending — less than hospitals (31 percent), doctors (21 percent), and medicine (10 percent). But because health-insurance companies are unpopular, Democrats are beating up on them, even though if Democrats are serious about containing costs, the cuts will have to come from those other slices of the pie.
Read more at NRO
By: Michelle Malkin
Republican Tom Campbell, who served in the House of Representatives for ten years between 1989 and 2001, is currently running for the U.S. Senate seat occupied by California Democrat Barbara Boxer. While the incumbent has acted as little more than a rubber stamp for the Obama agenda, it is by no means clear that Campbell would represent much of an improvement.
His credentials as a self-anointed “fiscal conservative” are tainted by several unsavory elements: an apparent hostility toward America’s staunch ally, Israel; an inability to comprehend the aggressive and hateful nature of radical Islam; an eagerness to appease Islamists who have intimate ties to known terrorists; and a propensity to repeatedly massage the truth until such time as his prevarications are publicly discredited with clear and compelling evidence – at which point Campbell typically concedes that he may have inadvertently goofed. These are hardly the qualities of a man who could be depended upon to help advance a conservative resurgence in America.
Consider, to start, Campbell’s most recent falsehood. In a February 24th interview, the candidate was asked whether there was any truth to an allegation that in 2000 he had accepted a campaign donation from Sami Al-Arian, the University of South Florida professor who was, at that time, the North American leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) – a terrorist organization whose objectives include the destruction of Israel.
Campbell replied emphatically, “I received no contribution from Sami Al-Arian,” though he did concede it was possible that Al-Arian’s wife had given him some money that year. When a Federal Election Commission report subsequently showed that Al-Arian had in fact made a $1,000 donation to Campbell on May 2, 2000 – and that Al-Arian’s wife, Nahla, had given an additional $300 – Campbell reluctantly let the truth drip out:
“I apologize, but I made a mistake. I was aware that Sami Al-Arian had asked others to contribute to me … I did not realize that [he] had contributed himself. It was an honest mistake, with no attempt to mislead.”
Read more at Front Page Mag
In keeping with my new tradition of posting something Irish on Friday mornings, just to get the ball rolling for the weekend, here is a charming video featuring the great Irish actor Peter Seamus Lorcan O’Toole. Peter is a great story teller as you will soon find out and his drinking bouts and Irish pub crawling are legendary.
My favorite story from this video is his choice of a epitaph for his gravestone. Don’t be put off by that, it is really an uplifting story.
~~John Cronin~~
“First the New Black Panthers now ACORN…”
Craig Edwards
Obama Justice Department Shut Down Federal ACORN Investigation According to Documents Obtained by Judicial Watch
WASHINGTON, March 11 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has obtained documents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) detailing federal investigations into the alleged corrupt activities of Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). The documents reference serious allegations of corruption and voter registration fraud by ACORN as well as the Obama administration’s decision to shut down a criminal investigation without filing criminal charges.
Read Complete Article at breitbart.com
By: Jake Wagman, Blythe Bernhard, Mark Schlinkmann
President Barack Obama brought his health care road show to the St. Louis area Wednesday, announcing a crackdown on waste and fraud in hopes of persuading a gridlocked Congress to pass sweeping health insurance reform.
After delivering a speech in St. Charles, Obama appeared at a downtown St. Louis fundraiser for U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. Hundreds of protesters appeared in St. Charles and in downtown St. Louis, many to express opposition to the health care plan.
Obama’s speech in a stuffy gymnasium at St. Charles High School, his second health care address in three days, is part of a White House push to take the debate from the halls of Congress directly to voters, allowing the administration to frame the issue in its own terms.
Earlier in the week, Obama used the prospect of rising insurance premiums to make the case for health care reform. On Wednesday, in front of an invitation-only crowd in St. Charles, he offered a new angle, announcing additional oversight of federal programs.
Obama was joined on stage by McCaskill, a former state auditor whom the president praised as a person who “just pinches pennies.”
“Washington is a place where tax dollars are often treated like Monopoly money,” Obama said, “where waste — even billions of dollars in waste — is accepted as the price of doing business.”
Obama signed an executive memo Wednesday calling for greater use of “payment recapture audits,” which allows federal government departments to hire private auditors to find taxpayer funds paid in error or through fraud. The auditors can be paid based on the amount of improper payments they reclaim, providing incentive to root out waste.
The audits could be used to prevent overpayment in Medicare, Medicaid and, potentially, any new or expanded health care program.
The audit plan, which has bipartisan support, comes as Obama attempts to pick certain Republican ideas that could make his health care package more palatable across the aisle. Obama also expressed interest in a proposal from U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., to use undercover investigations to combat fraud.
The White House says expanded use of payment recapture audits could return $2 billion in taxpayer money over the next three years.
Hours before Obama’s speech, as many as 2,000 people gathered for a Republican rally at the St. Charles Convention Center.
“I have a question that I respectfully ask of my president,” Missouri Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder said. “What part of ‘no’ don’t you understand?”
Kinder and several GOP state legislators spoke in person at the event, while others delivered remarks from Washington via videoconferencing, displayed by a large TV screen. All were well-received by the enthusiastic crowd.
“This is so much more fun than watching C-SPAN, isn’t it?” remarked the announcer, local radio host Jamie Allman.
Among the long-distance speakers was the event’s organizer, U.S. Rep. Todd Akin of Town and Country, whose 2nd District includes St. Charles, and U.S. Rep. John Shimkus of Collinsville.
Akin called Obama’s bill “a threat from within and a danger from Washington, D.C.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., also was taken to task by speakers.
“This is Pelosi versus the people, and we stand with the people,” Kinder said, adding that Democratic measures would turn the country “into something that is unrecognizable.”
“But we the people will have the final say,” he added.
Obama’s visit to St. Charles offered an opportunity to refocus attention on health care and attempt to blunt the opposition.
“The plan that I’ve put forward … incorporates the best ideas of Democrats and Republicans, even though the Republicans have a hard time acknowledging it,” he said, calling it a “common sense approach to protecting you from insurance company abuses and saving you money.”
He said the bill would force insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions and ban insurers from dropping customers when they get sick. It would also offer a pool for individuals and small businesses that the president said would lead to lower premiums for many.
Obama — with sleeves rolled up and no jacket in the tightly packed gym — spoke with teachers and staff from the high school who were standing behind him. Most of his comments were met with applause from the invited audience of local officials and party activists.
Frank Scimo, 64, of Ballwin, said he helped organize a group of about 100 people outside the high school who came to support the president and health care reform.
“I believe the people should have health insurance,” he said. He pointed to his stepdaughter, who he said was denied insurance because of a pre-existing problem with her knees.
Amy Smoucha, an organizer with the nonprofit Jobs with Justice, said she left the speech feeling confident in the president and his plan. “I’m happy to see he is so sincere about fixing the health care system,” said Smoucha, 42.
Even those who don’t agree with Obama’s approach on health care came to catch a glimpse of the commander-in-chief.
“I am sincerely honored that the president of the United States has chosen to come to our county and my hometown,” said St. Charles County Executive Steve Ehlmann, a Republican. “I’m just not buying what he’s selling.”
Obama has asked Congress to deliver an “up or down” vote on health care by the end of next week. Each branch of Congress has approved its version of a health care reform bill, but, in order to take effect, lawmakers must agree to one identical bill.
If the administration musters the 216 House votes needed to pass Senate legislation, the next step would be the so-called reconciliation process, under which Congress hammers out a final version to submit to the Senate for an up-or-down vote requiring a simple majority.
Polls show split public opinion on the direction of health care. Outgoing U.S. Sen. Christopher “Kit” Bond, R-Mo., said the president’s speeches in St. Charles and elsewhere — he was in Philadelphia on Monday and will be in Ohio next week — are an attempt by Obama to use oratorical skills to sell a plan Americans don’t want.
“He is trying to cram it through. He has shown that he is not listening,” Bond, who is retiring when his term ends this year, said. “He thinks if he talks very slowly, we will understand.”
U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., who is running for Bond’s seat, proffered a more measured approach to health care, endorsing incremental steps — such as limiting lawsuits and allowing patients to shop across state lines for insurance.
“Go back to the things that everybody believes would change the system. Do a handful of those in the next couple of years. Then see what needs to be done,” Blunt said.
This week’s visit was Obama’s third trip to the St. Louis area since he took office last year.
At Wednesday’s speech at St. Charles High, Obama was joined by several local Democratic officials. One noticeable absence was Democratic Senate hopeful and Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, who has attempted to distance herself from Obama. Carnahan, the state’s chief security regulator, was in Washington on Wednesday talking to lawmakers about financial reform.
A White House official said Wednesday that Carnahan’s visit to Washington was planned before the president’s trip here was scheduled, and that Carnahan has already asked to appear with the president at an event soon.
McCaskill, who flew to St. Louis with Obama on Air Force One, did not have to wait.
On Wednesday evening at the Renaissance Grand hotel downtown, Obama headlined a fundraiser for McCaskill, who is not up for re-election until 2012. Tickets ranged from $25 for standing room to $25,000 for dinner and a photo with the president.
Outside, several hundred protesters representing a wide spectrum of viewpoints stood on nearby street corners, chanting slogans and yelling at one another through bullhorns.
A large group of local Tea Party activists gathered on one corner, while a smaller group of Obama supporters set up shop on another corner. Across the street was a mixed bag of protesters and activists who seemed less vocal.
Rose Green, 70, had never seen a sitting president in person before watching Obama talk Wednesday downtown.
“A president, a black president. It’s history, and I’m a part of it,” Green said. “It was worth the wait.”
Related Reading at STLtoday
Justice Roberts: State of the Union a ‘Political Pep Rally’
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts ruffled feathers Tuesday when he criticized Obama for scolding the Supreme Court during his State of the Union address in January. Speaking to law students at the University of Alabama, Roberts called the speech a “political pep rally”:
Read More at theatlanticwire.com
Once again, Obama’s most adamant supporters are now becoming his critics. The gloves are off.
Craig Edwards
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus are headed to the White House for a meeting on jobs Thursday, and they’ll have a few words to say about how President Barack Obama is doing his.
The 43-member caucus is fighting through one of the most difficult periods in its 39-year history, and some members and aides said they’re getting far too little support from the nation’s first black president — a man they once believed would be their strongest champion.
Read more at Politico
By: Michael Gerson
Whatever the legislative fate of health reform — now in the hands of a few besieged House Democrats — the reformers have failed in their argument. Their proposal has divided Democrats while uniting Republicans, returned American politics to well-worn ideological ruts, employed legislative tactics that smack of corruption, squandered the president’s public standing, lowered public regard for Congress to French revolutionary levels, sucked the oxygen from other agenda items, reengaged the abortion battle, produced freaks and prodigies of nature such as a Republican senator from Massachusetts, raised questions about the continued governability of America and caused the White House chief of staff to distance himself from the president’s ambitions.
It is quite an accomplishment. For the president, it must also be quite a shock, because he thought he was taking a reasonable, middle path on health reform.
At the start of this process, many Democrats preferred a single-payer health system — essentially, Medicare for everyone. Short of this goal, they advocated a public option that would compete with private insurance companies and prove the superiority of government-run care. But President Obama rejected a single-payer approach and signaled early that the public option was expendable.
Read more at The Washington Post
Ever since Scott Brown’s historic come from behind upset of Massachusetts Democrat Martha Coakley, the Shawmut Group of political consultants have been one of the hottest commodities in the business. They are the group that helped Scott formulate the message that obviously resonated with the voters in the Bay State.
Now word comes that the Shawmut Group is working with John Loughlin who is campaigning in Rhode Island to replace retiring Democrat Patrick Kennedy. They have been instrumental in honing in on several hot button Rhode Island issues, including the long overdue switch in policy toward accused unlawful combatants from “molly coddlle and lawyer up” to,” press them hard for intelligence and then clamp them in leg irons on the flight down to Gitmo.”
Mr. Loughlin is also campaigning on the need to get the economy back on track in a state that suffers from high unemployment.
The Shawmut Group is also working on Rick Lazio’s Gubernatorial campaign in New York as well as several other New England contests.
It is fascinating to see a team built up in response to what has been happening in America for the last 14 months. A huge opportunity lies before the GOP and it is evident that the Shawmut Group and others recognize the opportunity. It remains a mystery how Obama and Co. could have had their finger on America’s political pulse well enough to get elected and then be struck completely tone deaf within 60 days of the Inauguration.
The political consultancy groups are doing what this administration will not or cannot do…..listen to the voter’s concerns and respond with policies that will make their lives safer and more prosperous. Obama’s top down approach is not working and poll after poll confirms this. On the flip side of the arrogant, we-know-what’s-best-for- you- poor-schlubs, is the approach that the Shawmut Group is taking. Stay close to the voters, know what’s on their minds and give them a voice in Washington that expresses how they feel about what’s going on in their lives and what they want to see from government. They deserve that and they haven’t been getting that these past 14 months.
Hopefully the upcoming mid term elections will see a marked change from the hard left politics of the tax, borrow and spend crowd to a let’s put America back to work crowd.
~~John Cronin~~
When I think of how ‘Obamacare’ has dragged on, I can’t help but compare it to Roman times. If ‘Obamacare’ was fighting with gladiators, it would’ve been on the ground begging for mercy. The Coliseum attendees would’ve given the verdict thumbs down, and ‘Obamacare’ would be a distance memory. A majority of the American public are hoping someone will pull the plug on ‘Obamacare’, preferably the Democrats themselves. In the post ‘Scott Brown’ world of politics, ‘Obamacare’ was so dead in the water, it caused Massachusetts to vote Republican.
Several political pundits have pondered why the Obama Administration have spent over a year urging ‘Health Care Reform’, especially trying to implement reform during one of the worst economies since the ‘Great Depression’. As America’s economy sinks, the jobless rate rises, the deficit climbs to new highs, ‘Health Care Reform’ is barely a blip on the priorities index. While ‘Health Care Reform’ could be seen as Obama fulfilling a campaign promise or implementing leftist ideologue, it appears more likely the pursuit of ‘Obamacare’ is Obama’s procrastination.
Let’s face it, ‘Health Care Reform’ was just far easier for Obama to deal with rather then fixing the economy, creating non-government jobs, or reducing the endless deficit spending. When ‘Obamacare’ dies, Obama’s next topic of procrastination will just be cap & trade, immigration reform, and then creating imaginary green jobs.
As Obama and Pelosi both hijack the Democratic Party to drive it over the cliff, House Democrats should be wise enough at this stage to avoid seeing the Massachusetts result in their district. As ‘Obamacare’ heads for the ‘up or down’ vote in the House, the Democrats could defeat ‘Obamacare’, but Obama’s next round of procrastination will be waiting around the corner.
The ‘Change’ they really need, could start with changing a house speaker.
Craig Edwards
Can Nancy Pelosi Get the Votes?By MICHAEL BARONE
Are there enough votes in the House to pass the Senate’s health-care bill? As of today, it’s clear there aren’t. House Democratic leaders have brushed aside White House calls to bring the bill forward by March 18, when President Barack Obama heads to Asia. Nevertheless, analysts close to the Democratic leadership tell me they’re confident the leadership will find some way to squeeze out the 216 votes needed for a majority.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi has indeed shown mastery at amassing majorities. But it’s hard to see how she’ll do so on this one. The arithmetic as I see it doesn’t add up.
The House passed its version of the health bill in November by 220-215. Of those 220, one was a Republican who now is a no. One Democrat who voted yes has died, two Democrats who voted yes have resigned, and one Democrat who voted no has resigned as well. So if everyone but the Republican votes the way they did four months ago, the score would be 216-215.
Read Complete Article at WSJ.com
Vice President Biden Says Palestinians Deserve ‘Viable’ State
Ramallah, West Bank (AP) – Vice President Joe Biden said Wednesday the Palestinians deserve a “viable” independent state with contiguous territory, seeking to reassure them of U.S. support after Israel announced plans to expand a Jewish neighborhood in disputed east Jerusalem.
The Israeli move has overshadowed Biden’s visit, meant to promote a new round of U.S.-led negotiations, and drawn Palestinian accusations that Israel is not serious about peace. Israel apologized for embarrassing Biden with the timing of its announcement, but made clear it has no intention of reversing its plan.
Read Complete Article at CNSNEWS.com
Patrick Kennedy: MSM DespicableBy Amie Parnes
Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) railed against the mainstream media on Wednesday, calling the press corps “despicable” and saying that reporters are “not covering the most significant issue of national importance.”
In a speech on the House floor, an angry Kennedy turned a speech on Afghanistan into a finger-pointing lecture to the Washington press.
“If anybody wants to know where cynicism is … cynicism is that there is one … two press people in this gallery,” Kennedy said, angrily pointing to the press gallery where reporters sit. “We’re talking about Eric Massa 24/7 on the TV. We’re talking about war and peace, $3 billion, 1,000 lives and no press?”
Read Complete Article at Politico
By Bill Lambrecht
POST-DISPATCH WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF
03/10/2010 WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama will try to rally a skeptical public behind his health insurance overhaul in a speech in St. Charles today that may remind Missourians of Obama’s days as a hard-charging candidate.
Hoping to bring a sense of urgency to the debate, the White House is pursuing a campaign-style approach that aims broadsides at the insurance industry and warns of a rash of higher premiums.
When Obama takes the stage at St. Charles High School before about 400 people this afternoon, he is expected to skewer the industry, as he did repeatedly during a speech Monday outside Philadelphia. The president also is ratcheting up the rhetoric about what he sees as an out-of-touch Congress attuned to politics rather than the needs of Americans.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Obama thought people needed to be aware of plans by some health insurers for double-digit premium increases.
“The president wants to make the case again for what happens if we walk away, what happens if we start over,” Gibbs said.
Read Complete article at STLToday
[Editor's Note: KMOX radio in St. Louis is reporting that an anti-Obamacare rally led by conservative Republican stalwart, Todd Akin, has drawn such a large crowd that two partitions in the room where the rally is being held had to be removed to accommodate the overflow crowd that is triple the size that Rep. Akin's staff had expected. Stay clicked as this developing story continues to unfold.]
~~John Cronin~~
Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Wednesday shows that 22% of the nation’s voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-three percent (43%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -21. That matches the lowest Approval Index rating yet recorded for this President
The Feast of St. Patrick is celebrated on March 17 and although throughout the Irish countryside, it is treated as a Holy Day to commemorate one of the greatest Evangelists in Church history, in America it is known for it’s boisterous parades and parties where our fellow Irish/Americans deal successfully with the “great thirst” that as built up since last St. Patrick’s Day.
Although the Irish are always up for a party, let’s not completely forget the more serious side of the day. I have reposted a brief article from CATHOLIC ONLINE that gives some of the history surronding this great Saint. ~~John Cronin~~
St. Patrick of Ireland is one of the world’s most popular saints.
Apostle of Ireland, born at Kilpatrick, near Dumbarton, in Scotland, in the year 387; died at Saul, Downpatrick, Ireland, 17 March, 461.
Along with St. Nicholas and St. Valentine, the secular world shares our love of these saints. This is also a day when everyone’s Irish.
There are many legends and stories of St. Patrick, but this is his story.
Patrick was born around 385 in Scotland, probably Kilpatrick. His parents were Calpurnius and Conchessa, who were Romans living in Britian in charge of the colonies.
As a boy of fourteen or so, he was captured during a raiding party and taken to Ireland as a slave to herd and tend sheep. Ireland at this time was a land of Druids and pagans. He learned the language and practices of the people who held him.
During his captivity, he turned to God in prayer. He wrote
“The love of God and his fear grew in me more and more, as did the faith, and my soul was rosed, so that, in a single day, I have said as many as a hundred prayers and in the night, nearly the same.” “I prayed in the woods and on the mountain, even before dawn. I felt no hurt from the snow or ice or rain.”
Patrick’s captivity lasted until he was twenty, when he escaped after having a dream from God in which he was told to leave Ireland by going to the coast. There he found some sailors who took him back to Britian, where he reunited with his family.
He had another dream in which the people of Ireland were calling out to him “We beg you, holy youth, to come and walk among us once more.”
He began his studies for the priesthood. He was ordained by St. Germanus, the Bishop of Auxerre, whom he had studied under for years.
Later, Patrick was ordained a bishop, and was sent to take the Gospel to Ireland. He arrived in Ireland March 25, 433, at Slane. One legend says that he met a chieftain of one of the tribes, who tried to kill Patrick. Patrick converted Dichu (the chieftain) after he was unable to move his arm until he became friendly to Patrick.
Patrick began preaching the Gospel throughout Ireland, converting many. He and his disciples preached and converted thousands and began building churches all over the country. Kings, their families, and entire kingdoms converted to Christianity when hearing Patrick’s message.
Patrick by now had many disciples, among them Beningnus, Auxilius, Iserninus, and Fiaac, (all later canonized as well).
Patrick preached and converted all of Ireland for 40 years. He worked many miracles and wrote of his love for God in Confessions. After years of living in poverty, traveling and enduring much suffering he died March 17, 461.
He died at Saul, where he had built the first church.
Why a shamrock?
Patrick used the shamrock to explain the Trinity, and has been associated with him and the Irish since that time.
In His Footsteps:
Patrick was a humble, pious, gentle man, whose love and total devotion to and trust in God should be a shining example to each of us. He feared nothing, not even death, so complete was his trust in God, and of the importance of his mission.
