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?
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.
After three long years President Obama has finally found some part of goverment he wants to cut. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure it out. Democrats will only ever cut one part of government, and that’s defense. The President has outlined a plan to reduce the number of military personnel by 490,000.
I’m sure Republicans will be up in arms because they never ever want to cut defense. The entire budget needs to be cut and defense is one of those areas. But let’s be real: this President is a pandering coward with no real intention of reforming our nation’s budget. The fact is that we could eliminate our entire defense department and still be on the road to bankruptcy. Cutting defense is the only move a Democrat will make because it won’t hurt them with their voting bloc.
What is Obama’s plan to fix our fiscal nightmare? Raise taxes, subsidize companies going bankrupt and eliminate defense. That’s the reality. President Obama’s poll numbers aren’t great right now, but they’re not as bad as they should be. He could still get reelected. Obama has done nothing to address our fiscal crisis. He’s just stepping on the accelerator.
For over a decade I’ve marveled at liberals’ paranoia about people without health care and about climate change. It’s shocking because the biggest problem facing mankind isn’t health care or the weather. If the United States goes bankrupt the world with fall into a type of chaos that hasn’t been seen since the 1930s. Enjoy it while it lasts, America. The freeloading is almost over and you’re living on borrowed time, both figuratively and literally.
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.
“But what is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary… The great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.”
-James Madison, Federalist No. 51
Occupy Wall Street and its spinoffs are 99 percent hipster dufus; naive, economically illiterate babies who believe that storks bring them their iPhones, clothing, transportation and coffee beans.
I continue to puzzle over the notion that people turn into angels when they’re elected to public office or become part of the machinery of government. It’s not my notion, but it seems to be a dearly held belief by those who are politically left of center. Why else would one vote for a Democrat, particularly now?
There are those on the left who claim to be skeptical of government. They’ll say things like, “Well, they’re all corrupt,” or, “We should throw them all out of office,” and so forth. But then they’ll turn around and vote Democrat, the party dedicated to making government larger and more intrusive.
I sometimes agree with the sentiment that it would be nice to throw all the bums out of office, but barring that I vote Republican simply because a Republican will at least grow government more slowly. Even Republicans, supposedly dedicated to limiting government, can’t help themselves and the relentless march away from limited government and toward limitless government continues.
I suppose a limitless government would be fine, “if men were angels,” but they’re not, regardless of whether they work in the private or public sector. Again, “if men were angels,” there would be no need for government in the first place.
Every human being has a self-centered profit motive. There are exceptions to this rule, but those exceptions do not reside in Washington, D.C., Madison, Sacramento, Denver, Austin, or any other seat of power. Self interest is a powerful motivating factor and the consistently aberrant behavior of our representatives is a constant reminder of this fact.
Duke Cunningham, the former Republican California congressman, used his office to enrich himself as much as possible. He resigned after pleading guilty to accepting bribes in the neighborhood of $2 million. Cunningham was also the Navy’s only flying ace in the Vietnam War. He served his country well and honorably, but once given the power that comes with public office he succumbed to the temptations.
I use Cunningham as an example because there’s no need to get into a tug-of-war debate about which party is more corrupt. Corruption crosses party lines and can grasp those who were once honorable and ethical. That’s because the seed of corruption is in each of us.
Therefore, it seems quite logical to me that, as Madison warned, government is under an obligation to control itself. Government is not controlling itself when it spends a gazillion dollars on “jobs” bills and whatnot. Who in their right mind believes that money is being well spent? These bills are thinly disguised as legislation, but are designed to launder tax dollars through connected political interests in order to find their way back into campaign coffers.
Meanwhile, economically illiterate hipster dufuses protest because corporations have a profit motive. People who run corporations and those who work for them have the same propensity toward corruption as anyone in government. The difference is that I’m not forced to buy a corporation’s product. I am forced to buy the government’s product, whatever it may be and however much it may inconvenience me.
I’ll admit it. I’m in the tank for corporations because they serve my interests. The irony of free market capitalism is that in serving its own interests, a corporation must serve mine. Just a quick glance around the room tells me they’re doing a damn fine job of it, too.
Let’s see, computer equipment from Dell, HP and Cisco, landline courtesy of AT&T, cell phone courtesy of Verizon, semi-electric guitar and amplifier by Fender (thanks Henshaw!), re-writable DVDs from Memorex, stapler from Swingline, furniture by some corporation somewhere, camera from Canon, and on and on and on it goes.
You can’t get away from the evil corporations! That’s how evil they are! They made me buy all this stuff to make my life more convenient! Wait a minute… I chose to buy that stuff, and I hope each and every corporation I mentioned is making a huge profit.
Where do these hipster dufus protesters think all of their modern conveniences come from? Do they think that if government planned and ran our economy that products would be self innovating and appear magically at our doorsteps? It’s religious to believe all will be well when government takes over and the evil corporations are punished for making things easy for us. Big government is suddenly Jesus feeding the multitudes from five loaves and two fishes.
Let’s say one of the corporations from which I buy products makes a really bad investment in a solar energy company. In order to recoup the half billion they wasted they then raise the prices of their products. Chances are I’ll find a competitive corporation from which to buy those products. I love what they make, but I don’t love it that much.
Then let’s say the federal government makes a really bad investment in the same solar energy company. They raise my taxes, so I move to Honduras? That’s my only choice, because government makes me pay dearly for its mistakes and throws me in jail if I don’t pay for its mistakes.
Let’s further postulate that the product I love is actually manufactured in China. I think it’s supposed to bother me that it’s made elsewhere, but I get a great price and have more disposable income. Our government’s product, which I suppose is the growing number of overpaid bureaucrats, are made and paid in the USA. Yeah! Only… they’re overpaid because their union negotiated with the government to ensure not only a fantastic paycheck, but one helluva benefits and pension package.
The same people who negotiated with the union and come up with new bureaucracies to employ even more public employees get kickbacks in the form of campaign contributions to help ensure the cycle continues. Oh well, at least my money stays in the USA, except for the foreign aid that’s likely remodeling some penny ante dictator’s personal castle.
I leave you with Milton Friedman and Phil Donahue discussing greed and capitalism back in the day, a day that was apparently more civil than ours…
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWsx1X8PV_A
Over the last two months all we’ve heard from the left is the supposed extremism of Michele Bachmann/Rick Perry/ Ron Paul. Actually that’s all we ever hear about anyone to the right of Joseph Lieberman. Justice Robert Bork was too extreme. Ronald Reagan was too extreme. Even Justice Roberts was labeled an extremist. It’s tiring and it’s just lazy, but no one calls the press and the left out for it.
When Barack Obama ran for president in 2008 the media overlooked his relationship with a former member of the Weather Underground and dismissed his twenty-year relationship to a psychotic pastor. The title of Obama’s book The Audacity of Hope was inspired by a sermon by Jeremiah Wright. Nevertheless, the press issued a pass and the world moved on. It was an amazing thing to behold. Barack Obama was one of the most unqualified people ever to be elected. There was literally nothing known about the man and yet the press failed to do its job because they were so enamored by his candidacy.
In 2008, the Obama campaign ran under the flag of hope and change. His administration was supposed to find common ground and bring the nation together. Three years later the nation is more divided than it has been in a generation. There is always someone else to blame for the nation’s problems. Obama blames the economy on his predecessor. He blames gridlock and partisanship on the GOP even though Democrats have enjoyed huge majorities for two years.
When Obama enjoyed large majorities he didn’t concentrate on the economy. The President decided that it was time to push a massive new entitlement through Congress. The hubris by Obama and the left has been amazing and virtually unprecedented, excepting Oedipus Rex. The nation is upset because the government is out of touch. When Medicare and Social Security were made into law they were popular from the onset. ObamaCare is still massively unpopular. Instead of dealing with this reality all I hear from the left is “death panels.” They still have no concept about rationed care. Two years of constant debate and the left still hasn’t learned anything.
After the tragedy in Arizona in January the left was quick to blame Sarah Palin for the attack even though no one knew the attacker’s motivation. When it turned out the guy was a sociopath that had no political leanings there was no apology and the myth lives on..
If the left is so passionate about extremism it’s time for them to call off the dogs. At an Obama campaign rally Labor Day event AFL-CIO leader Jimmy Hoffa said the following:
“We got to keep an eye on the battle that we face: The war on workers. And you see it everywhere, it is the Tea Party. And you know, there is only one way to beat and win that war. The one thing about working people is we like a good fight. And you know what? They’ve got a war, they got a war with us and there’s only going to be one winner. It’s going to be the workers of Michigan, and America. We’re going to win that war,” Jimmy Hoffa Jr. said to a heavily union crowd.
“President Obama, this is your army. We are ready to march. Let’s take these son of bitches out and give America back to an America where we belong,” Hoffa added.
Not to be outdone Vice President Joseph Biden called Republicans “barbarians.” It’s really unbelievable stuff. Just a few weeks ago Biden was overheard calling Congressional Republicans terrorists. Will the White House apologize for this stuff? If there’s enough outrage I’m sure the White House will give a speech about it. That’s what this administration does well: talk. In January, Obama called for “civility” in public discourse and for people to talk “in a way that heals, not a way that wounds.”
Even if Obama is reelected the legacy of this administration is sealed. What could this President ever offer the American people at this point? He’s an ineffectual leader who only makes pretty speeches. The gig is up. No one cares anymore.
You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Matthew 7:16
We’ve had three years of words that do not match actions. His administrations has fanned division instead of healing, Instead of solving problems he blames everyone else. The true test of the man came after his major accomplishment. When the United States killed Osama Bin Laden the President was quick to point out how he helped make it happen. Beware of a person who is quick to say “me” when things go well and quick to say “you” when things aren’t going well. That’s the legacy of President Obama.
Election season is fast approaching. Knowing what happened in 2008 is the key to recognizing what will happen in 2012. Many progressive still haven’t realized how Obama got elected. There wasn’t a groundswell of first-time voters. There wasn’t a huge turnout, and the same amount of young voters participated in the process. Barack Obama defeated the unpopular incumbent party represented by John McCain. There wasn’t a change in the electorate.
Americans were fed up with out-of-control spending, massive debt, and big government. Barack Obama’s campaign was a nebulous cloud of hope and change. It was a campaign about nothing. Thanks to the media’s adoration of Obama he was allowed to campaign on nothing. No GOP nominee for president will ever receive the press coverage that Obama received. I’m not sure any candidate from any party will ever be the beneficiary of the same hands-off coverage Obama received. If you’re still not convinced, just read this from November 2008:
The 12-question, multiple-choice survey found questions regarding statements linked to Republican presidential candidate John McCain and his vice-presidential running-mate Sarah Palin were far more likely to be answered correctly by Obama voters than questions about statements associated with Obama and Vice-President-Elect Joe Biden.
Most Obama voters are still unaware of what happened, but many of them know they’ve been had. The reality of the Obama administration is that he isn’t a forward thinker. Obama’s solution for every problem is the same solution Democrats/Republicans have been using since the New Deal.
After 9/11 the nation faced an issue where our vast government bureaucracies in the CIA and the FBI were not in communication with each other. What was the solution by President Bush? He helped create the Department of Homeland Security. Now we have three vast government bureaucracies that will not communicate with each other. Bush was no conservative. His idea of a solution was a New Deal type of solution; that government can do just about everything. This philosophy is the exact opposite of America’s founding philosophy.
After the financial crisis the nation faced an economy with a crisis of confidence. What was President Obama’s solution? An $800 billion dollar stimulus bill filled with pork that hasn’t accomplished anything. This wasn’t change. It wasn’t a new idea. This is buyer’s remorse. President Obama is so brainwashed into the status quo that he’s out of ideas. Reduce the size of government? Reduce regulations? Tort reform? There are the ideas of the extremists. It’s the great irony of the modern Progressive that bitterly clings to thoroughly archaic programs and ideas.
When the GOP nominee is finally declared the President Obama and the Democratic party will call the person extreme. They’ve been doing it for over 50 years. It’s not just the Democratic party. An editor of a major newspaper has told Douglas Mackinnon off the record that “we plan to declare war on Rick Perry and do all in our power to crush him.” Why wouldn’t anyone believe that statement? Here’s a President Carter campaign ad from 1980.
The Tea Party movement isn’t the racist result of having an African-American in the White House. It’s the result of decades of government spending, regulation, massive debt, and taxation. It’s the result of Americans getting fed up with two parties that promise to change, but stay the same. Democrats tried to tell the nation that Ronald Reagan was too risky to be president. How much really changed because of the extreme President Reagan? Maybe it’s time we quit worrying about extreme change. At this point the nation is in desperate need of real change that empowers the individual, not government.
Eventually the financial reckoning will come and our leaders could have prevented it.
The current debt ceiling debate is one of the most depressing episodes I can remember. Well, ObamaCare comes to mind. Democrats are suddenly consumed with the fear of default. Consider me unimpressed. Democrats didn’t care about the debt when they passed an $800 billion stimulus. The economy wasn’t improved, but the Democrats got their pork. They didn’t care when they shoved ObamaCare down the nation’s throat with every sleazy legislative maneuver they could muster.
CNN has published two op-ed pieces by John Avlon in the past week where he blames the GOP for the current problem. Why is it that Democrats are never responsible for any partisanship? I don’t think Avlon has thought about it very much. A few weeks ago the GOP passed a debt ceiling bill and the Senate, led by Democratic Senator Harry Reid, tabled it. In other words, they killed it. Reid never offered a bill of his own. Now the GOP is attempting to pass a compromised version of the bill and Senator Reid is threatening to kill it and Obama is threatening to veto it.
Speaker Boehner’s new bill offers $22 billion in savings this year, and $917 billion over 10 years. Please note that those are billions, not trillions, which is the actual term used to describe how far in debt we are. Is it surprising that the new members of Congress are reluctant to get on board? The freshmen members of Congress were elected to right the ship, not to ignore the iceberg. The Democrats are refusing to adopt a bill that barely covers the stimulus money we spent two years ago. The nation has $114 trillion in unfunded liabilities. Saving just shy of a trillion dollars over a decade is chump change.
Political posturing is nothing new. It happens every year. It happens around every election. What kills me about this issue is that we’re supposed to be believe the GOP’s plan is “extreme.” It doesn’t actually cut anything. No one in Washington is talking about real cuts. These are reductions in the rate of growth. How am I supposed to believe liberals are serious about fiscal restraint when they characterize the opposition’s ”non-cuts” as extreme? What would Democrats call me? I believe the entire federal government should be reduced by 20% across the board.
So many Americans are fed up with politicians of every kind. They complain about lobbyists, corporate money, corruption, and the lack of term limits. Americans like to feel like they have no power because it absolves them of guilt. Americans are to blame for this mess. Americans continue to elect corrupt politicians. Americans continue to remain ignorant about economics. Americans are addicted to unsustainable government handouts. We the People are the problem.
The GOP members of the House are being raked over the coals for endorsing a plan that doesn’t cut anything. How are we ever going to cut anything if this is the status quo?
History tells us that the President almost always wins a standoff with Congress. The President has the bully pulpit. President Obama has wielded this power with three press conferences in three weeks. Obama is also aided by a press that is unwilling to point out his hypocrisy and the fact that he has no plan. Obama is the king of nebulous rhetoric. Pay no attention to what he says because the true measure of the man are his actions.
Back in December President Obama refused to raise taxes and in the past he’s on record as saying, “You don’t raise taxes in a recession.” Obama’s obsession with raising taxes would be bewildering if you believed he had the nation’s best interests in mind. Obama fanatics love to cite the President’s “intelligence,” but his current position is sickest form of cynical politics. The President’s position is political. He has chosen his political future over the nation’s economy. New Jersey Governor Chris Cristie’s characterization of the “old playbook” is the embodiment of Obama.
The 2008 Obama campaign slogan was hope and change, but the President’s true mantra is to lie, deceive, obfuscate, make it to the next election. President Obama’s position is to appease the left. They have become disillusioned with some of Obama’s policies, but nothing fires up the base up more than tax increases. Obama also hopes to splinter the GOP and blame Bush for the economy. If he’s able to get tax increases he hopes it would crush the GOP. He is far from a brilliant tactician because this move would seal his fate as a horrible one term president.
Obama will not be running against the House GOP in 2012. He’ll most likely be running against a Washington “outsider” who will point out that Obama raised taxes during the worst recession in a generation. The President can blame Bush until he’s blue in the face but raising taxes now is dumb. Obama will be the President who faced an entitlement crisis and shrugged. The President decided it was more important to increase entitlements, spending, and taxes.
The only thing that can rescue Obama’s presidency is luck. How much more can he have left? So many people on the left cited Obama as the arrival of a new kind of politician. I know most liberals have their blinders on and can’t admit to themselves what is happening. He’s the worst kind of politician. All of his promises were lies. Liberals, you’ve been had. For the first time in Obama’s life he’ll have to run on his record. President Obama’s record is debt, taxes, war, new entitlements, and a bad economy.
Governor Rick Perry isn’t even officially a candidate for president but he’s already driving liberals crazy by just being alive. Liberals love GOP candidates whose families donate to the Democratic Majority Leader. However, if you’re a real conservative prepare to be hated. Heck, even Kathryn Scaglione likes Jon Huntsman. Anyway, here’s a good example of what liberals are thinking about Rick Perry:
Mr. Bitterness is upset that Perry called Twitter “Tweeter.” Liberals like to imagine that all Republicans are stupid so they can take the intellectual high ground. That’s why every Republican president in my lifetime has been called stupid. I’m not sure why “progressives” continue with this shallow attack. Liberal comedian Jon Stewart did this Sunday on FOX News when he claimed that FOX viewers are “the most consistently misinformed media viewers.” Actually, it’s Stewart who is misinformed.
Note to liberals… come up with something original that doesn’t involve calling your opponent stupid, racist, or a bigot.
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