Such is the plight of the race obsessed that in the absence of any George Wallace rhetoric Democrats are inventing new racist rhetoric. Four years ago I wrote about how Dallas city Commissioner John Wiley Price claimed that the term “black hole” was racist. What? Racism is real, it exists, and the nation (and the world) has an embarrassing history in regards to race. It’s one thing to be sensitive and it’s another to be obsessed.
I’m all for exposing racial bigotry. It shouldn’t be tolerated in politics today. That’s why I don’t have time for Jesse Jackson. When Jackson goes around telling people they’re “not black enough” there’s a problem. In October, 2011, Juan Williams was fired from NPR for making “insensitive” comments about Muslims. Shouldn’t Mr. Williams be cognizant about the stupidity of “veiled racism?” Apparently not…
The language of GOP racial politics is heavy on euphemisms that allow the speaker to deny any responsibility for the racial content of his message. The code words in this game are “entitlement society” — as used by Mitt Romney — and “poor work ethic” and “food stamp president” — as used by Newt Gingrich. References to a lack of respect for the “Founding Fathers” and the “Constitution” also make certain ears perk up by demonizing anyone supposedly threatening core “old-fashioned American values.”
The code also extends to attacks on legal immigrants, always carefully lumped in with illegal immigrants, as people seeking “amnesty” and taking jobs from Americans.
But the code sometimes breaks down.
I didn’t know that blacks didn’t respect the Founding Fathers. Or that the “entitlement society” was racist. Most people on food stamps are white as are most people who make up the “entitlement society.” Also, the Republicans in this race have gone through painstaking detail about immigration. It would be very difficult to characterize Romney’s or Gingrich’s position as anti-immigration. Mr. Williams finishes his rant with this head scratcher:
The problem is not a lack of work ethic on the part of the poor, who are disproportionately minorities. The problem is there are few good jobs for blue-collar people with the best work ethic.
The problem is a lot more complicated than the lack of good jobs. There will never be “good jobs” for unskilled and uneducated people. I wish people like Juan Williams would get over all this racist crap and start talking about real problems. There’s an increasing number of unskilled and uneducated people. The common denominator with most of these people isn’t race, it’s family, or more accurately, the lack of it. Out of wedlock births are the underlying cancer of our society. For every feel-good story you see on CNN about a single mother who raised her kids there are 15 stories of tradegy.
Racism didn’t create this problem. Racism isn’t perpetuating the problem.
Last week I declared that Mitt Romney would win the GOP nomination. Nothing has changed my mind since last Saturday. Romney hasn’t sealed the deal yet, but Gingrich is crashing and the former governor should win Florida on Tuesday. At this stage it would take something incredible to keep us from an Obama versus Romney match-up.
Much will be written about head to head polls between Romney and Obama, but I’m here to tell you that they don’t matter. Ronald Reagan trailed Jimmy Carter by over 30 points six months before the election. President Obama trailed John McCain two months before the election. President Obama will be judged on his record and on the economy. Say what you want about Mitt Romney, but trying to brand him as an extremist will not work.
Mitt Romney is boring. He’s not quite as robotic and uncharismatic as John Kerry, Al Gore, or Bob Dole, but it’s not a stretch to compare him to those gentlemen. Romney is the steady hand. He’s the guy you call when everything else has failed. In other words, he’s the guy who will beat Obama if the economy doesn’t improve before November.
President Obama’s problem is that people have tuned out. Obama has no plan to make the economy better. He’s out of ideas. After all the adulation and all the grand speeches, what is Obama’s core conviction? Sure, the liberals still love him, but they loved Clinton. Democrats are a loyal bunch. It’s a collection of voter blocs. Give us your subsidies, affirmative action, unions, trial lawyers, hand-out recipients and those who’ve been brainwashed into believing that abortion is the ultimate civil liberty. The Democrats love to pat themselves on the back for their diversity, but no one is immune from the pandering hand outs. That is why the Democrats are fundamentally opposed to reducing the size of goverment.
If you reduce the size of goverment the Democrats would suddenly have issues with their voting base. Can any argue otherwise? How many people on food stamps vote for Democrats? Wouldn’t it bad for Democrats if any of the people dependent on the goverment could take care of themselves? So President Obama is out of ideas. If he allows pipelines, invests in real energy, or really reduces the size of the goverment he would be hurting his political party.
In the grand scheme of things far too many people are dependent on the goverment. It will be nearly impossible to roll back the tide. However, there aren’t enough dependents to keep Obama from losing. If gas prices go up over the summer Obama could lose in a landslide. The Republicans could have a super majority in the Senate. That would be the true test of our goverment. Would the Republicans have the guts to starve the beast? It will be very unpopular. Look how the union thugs in Wisconsin have behaved. Liberals and conservatives have very different ideas about the role of goverment. The reckoning is here.
I had hope that Obama would be a president that transformed the debate in the United States. Instead, he made things worse. He loves to talk about himself except when he’s blaming others. I don’t dislike the President. He seems like a nice guy. Most Americans like the 44th president, but that doesn’t mean they think he should continue.
Will Mitt Romney be any better? I doubt it, but could he be any worse?
Over the past four years it’s been widely speculated that Matt Drudge has a soft spot for Mitt Romney. No one knows the real story, but there’s little doubt that Mr. Drudge is in an all out offensive against Newt Gingrich this week at the Drudge Report. For Mitt Romney Florida might be the most important election of his life. If he wins he stops the Gingrich surge (at least for now), but a loss would be a terrible blow.
Perhaps that’s why Drudge is on the offensive.
Last night in Tampa, Florida was another horrible debate. Brian Williams asked a series of pointless questions about sugar subsides, manned missions to Mars, and the candidate’s “path to the nomination.” I’m not going to go into it any further detail because we’ve written about these dumb leftist moderators ad nauseum. Who can be shocked that Brian Williams turned in another Gossip Girl performance?
The most obvious change in last night’s debate was the audience. There was no cheering or jeering. I prefer the hushed tones instead of the near gladiator style debates that were held in South Carolina. These are supposed to be debates and not an angry mob scene. Newt Gingrich is threatening to pull out of the remaining debates if the crowd continues to be silenced. It’s understandable that Gingrich prefers the red meat style debate audiences since he’s basically carved a path to the nomination by seizing the heart of the mob.
In 2008, I thought that the Democrats brainless adulation of Barack Obama could never be topped, but the rise of Newt Gingrich is at least a close 2nd. Americans are increasingly skipping the details and settling for the narrative. You see this in almost every avenue of American culture. We are prisoners of the moment.
During the height of the Lewinsky scandal Speaker Newt Gingrich wrote that “the American presidency is viewed worldwide as a rough equivalent of the Jerry Springer show.” That was over thirteen years ago. A lot has changed since then. Apparently so has the attitudes of conservative voters. South Carolina looks set to give Gingrich a victory today in their state primary. The outcome isn’t likely to stop Romney from winning the nomination, but it says a lot about how much the GOP has changed since the Lewinsky days. Being a debate showman is a lot more important than moral character.
This week was the perfect storm for the Gingrich campaign. Such is the disdain for the mainstream press by the average GOP voter that they rallied around Gingrich when his ex-wife launched a scathing attack against the former Speaker of the House. The South Carolina crowd cheered when Gingrich summoned his best angry response at the most obvious question in the world.
Was it really that shocking that CNN’s John King asked a question about the biggest campaign story at the time? Such is the disdain for President Obama that Republican voters a hungry for a candidate to stick it to the President. That’s never going to happen in the current presidential debate format and it’s causing people to overlook how bad it would be if Gingrich won the nomination.
Gingrich’s response to King’s question correctly pointed out that no one is perfect. President Clinton said as much thirteen years ago. Everyone has dirty laundry of some kind, but Gingrich has over thirty years of dirty laundry, ethics violations, and high profile meltdowns. Shouldn’t GOP voters be concerned about character?
Wouldn’t a Gingrich administration be the very definition of the Jerry Springer show? The GOP rallied around Herman Cain when his sexual harassment allegations surfaced, but it eventually killed his campaign. The big loser this week is Rick Santorum. Gingrich’s surge will eventually end and Romney will win the nomination. Republicans need to realize that every time dirt surfaces on a GOP politician it’s not part of some elaborate left wing conspiracy.
Last June I wrote that time was running out for candidates to get in the race. In the case of Texas Governor Rick Perry he waited far too long to get in race. Perry bowed out of the race today after getting trounced in Iowa and New Hampshire. While political junkies wring their hands over the next two weeks the race is already over. Newt Gingrich may surge, but Mitt Romney has been running for president for six years. The Romney campaign is a well oiled machines with boots on the ground in every major state.
This system of selecting the president is not what the founding fathers intended. To be a serious candidate for president you have to have millions of dollars in infrastructure. The other issue is exposure. For candidates entering the race late the media scrutiny is intense (unless you’re a Democrat). In 2008, then Senator Obama seemingly came out of nowhere, but he had been receiving glowing press since 2004. There was no question he was going to run for president in 2008. Part of the reason why people like Romney and Gingrich seem to have escaped all their political baggage is because it’s old news. Romney has RomneyCare, but what else is there to write about it? Voters have short memories.
For those who were getting to know Rick Perry in the fall of 2011 there was a lot to digest. Perry’s ideas about immigration hurt his chances, but that was nothing compared to what happened next. For those unfamiliar with Perry the first impression of the governor of Texas was his weak debate performances. Then November 9th happened. There’s absolutely no way to recover from that kind of brain freeze especially if you’re trying to introduce yourself to the American public.
So here we are two days from the South Carolina primary and there’s no true conservative in the race. It’s basically Romney versus Gingrich. Santorum is still in the race, but he’s almost irrelevant. If Gingrich pulls out a win in South Carolina it’s unlikely he’ll win in Florida, Nevada and Maine. The race is over and Mitt Romney is the nominee.
Mitt Romney soundly stomped his rivals last night in New Hampshire. The closest competitor was Ron Paul and most of his voters aren’t even Republicans. In third was Jon Huntsman and then Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum rounded things out. It was a terrible night for Santorum, who didn’t get much bounce out of Iowa.
Remember when every AP picture of Obama in 2008 was fantastic. Mitt Romney will not be gettting the same coverage. Here's the AP's version of Robot Romney.
It was fun watching people spin the results last night. This race is over. It would take something huge to change this race. The field is scattered and no one is in Romney’s league when it comes to money and organization. The other candidates are struggling to get on the ballot in several states. Romney’s victory speech last night sounded like an acceptance speech.
To amuse myself I watched about 30 minutes of MSNBC. They had one Republican and five deranged liberals attacking the candidates. That’s what they consider “coverage.” Rachel Maddow was the voice of reason. It’s comical that Al Sharpton is on that network. The MSNBC panel was really disturbed that Romney compared Obama’s vision for America as European. Why you ask? They love Europe and don’t get it. Europe’s big goverment entitlements and unused mass transportation systems have bankrupted the state. Liberals haven’t been able to put two and two together.
The race moves to South Carolina and then on to Florida after that. Romney is the only candidate running ads in Florida right now because he really the only candidate left on the GOP side.
This guy did stuff and no one cares.
Last night was the last debate before the Iowa caucus on January 3rd. Once the voting is over in Iowa we’ll likely see the end of Rick Santorum and Michele Bachmann. Bachmann has been a fire thrower for the past two months, but she’s not gaining any ground. Santorum is a manikin that talks about itself in the third person. Rick Perry is getting better in these debates, but I’m not sure what that means. Ron Paul is really outside the mainstream on Iran and foreign policy in general.
Most of the analysis will be about Mitt Romney vs. Newt Gingrich, but I don’t have the motivation to cover what happened tonight. There have been 13 debates in 2011 and there’s nothing new coming out of these exercies. Mitt Ronmey looks like a political opportunist even if he’s not and Gingrich is all over the place. In the end, Romney is the safe choice. That should tell you all you need to know about how bad things are for the GOP. Oh yeah, Jon Huntsman was there.
These so-called moderators shed no light whatsoever on the Republican candidates or their policy positions. Their intent was to divert attention away from the abject failure that is the Obama administration and focus on the Republican candidates' warts, especially Newt Gingrich's. It's time for these pretentious, shallow mainstream media people to go away.
I was one of a few people who caught the Republican debate on ABC Saturday night. It was awful, mainly because moderators Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos continued to prove how irrelevant, out of touch and shallow the so-called mainstream media really is.
The style of questioning was more appropriate for American Idol, The X Factor and Jersey Shore than it was a serious debate among people vying for the highest office in the land. Rather than substantive policy questions, the entire debate was geared toward the usual Gossip Girl nonsense… “So and so said you’re an idiot. Do you agree with that?”
So, for 15 or 20 minutes we were treated to the spectacle of the candidates nitpicking each other instead of addressing the issues that really matter to voters. It got so bad that Gardasil came up again. It was exhausting to watch the pointless back and forth.
When health care came up, we had to suffer through the usual rehash of Romneycare and Newt’s flirtation with the individual mandate. I really don’t care what either candidate did or believed in the past about health care. What I really want to know is what their ideas about health care are going forward.
The low point of the evening came when the so-called moderators asked how important marital fidelity was in a presidential hopeful. This was an obvious dig at Newt and a blatant attempt to get the other candidates to take turns ripping on Newt. (Ironic, wasn’t it, that Stephanopoulos worked for a serial adulterer; I don’t recall the mainstream media or Stephanopoulos being overly concerned about marital fidelity and the presidency then.)
Perry was asked first, and blathered on about how faithful he is, etc. His response should have been: “Why don’t you ask Newt since you’re so obviously talking to him? I’ll pass on this until you ask a real policy question.” The candidates should have nipped the ridiculous questions in the bud and asked the moderators to ask real ones. Instead, they took the bait.
Say what you will about Donald Trump, but I trust this modern-day P.T. Barnum to ask better questions than clowns like Stephanopoulos, Sawyer, Williams, Cramer and Cooper.
What about Jon?
What a mess! The GOP field has turned into a comical escapade. The whole spectacle is depressing. Looking back, why did Tim Pawlenty get out of the race? I’m sure Pawlenty is kicking himself now. Since Pawlenty got out of the race we’ve seen the rise and fall of Rick Perry and Herman Cain. We’ve seen the resurrection of Newt Gingrich as the new conservative champion, even though he’s not really that conservative. Through it all Mitt Romney has remained the parachute choice. When all the other candidates crash and burn Romney is there as the “safe” pick.
The race has been so volatile I wouldn’t want to predict what will happen next. There’s still plenty of time for Gingrich to blow up. Then what? The inevitable Perry resurrection? Will Jon Huntsman come out of nowhere? Heck, things are so bad I’m warming up to Jon Huntsman. Why not Jon? The oxymormon candidacy!
I know, crazy right? Huntsman is far from the pure conservative choice. However, so is Gingrich and Romney. I’m not endorsing Huntsman. There’s a lot of stuff I don’t like about him, but if the GOP is picking candidates based on debate performance then I’d take Huntsman over Gingrich. C’mon, a man with the balls to rip a Nirvana joke at a GOP debate won’t flinch in the face of foreign threats. And by foreign threats I mean most of the Northeast and West Coast.
One thing for certain is that as it stands right now I can’t see myself voting for anyone in 2012. I’ll go to the ballot box and vote in the local races, but to pick someone just because they’re “not Obama” isn’t going to cut it. If the Supreme Court rules against ObamaCare it will make my choice easier.
There has been some talk that the GOP is headed toward another Goldwater disaster. I don’t agree. Four years ago, I read a book by J. William Middendorf II entitled A Glorious Disaster about that election. This upcoming election doesn’t share much in common with 1964. Lyndon Johnson was relatively popular. He was perhaps the most powerful president in the United States history and he wasn’t afraid to use that power. LBJ used the FBI to illegally monitor the Goldwater campaign; it was one shenanigan after another.
Goldwater lost because LBJ successfully scared Americans into believing Goldwater would get us into war (LBJ ended up getting us in to Vietnam). 2012 is setting up to be the weirdest election I can remember. It looks a potential glorious disaster for someone.
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