Iowa Caucus

Personality DOES Matter: Why Chris Christie Will Never Be President!

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New Jersey Governor Chris Christie may be described as the most centrist Republican Presidential candidate, and also as one of the “Establishment” Republican Presidential contenders, which includes Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney.

But we have NEVER had a person as confrontational, as rude, as bullyish, as loudmouth, as obnoxious, as Chris Christie has been with ordinary New Jersey citizens who dare to challenge or question him!

Can one imagine such a person as President, speaking to foreign leaders, directly or indirectly, in such a undiplomatic manner? We would have World War EIGHT, as he would inspire wars just with his dripping sarcasm and lack of tact!

It might be entertaining to some in New Jersey that Christie is such a character, and we have seen staff and supporters around him who laugh heartily when he goes after a tax payer, a parent, a critic, but there is nothing laughable about such behavior!

We have never had a President with such a personality, and have never had a nominee with such a personality, and we are not about to witness that happening!

Chris Christie, if he enters the Presidential fray, will be repudiated in the Iowa Caucus in January of next year, not only for his comparative moderation on issues and views, but also on his brusque personality, which does not wear well in the Midwest, a comparatively low key, friendly environment of people who are laid back in nature, and do not like rudeness or nastiness. And New Hampshire citizens in their primary, and New Englanders, will also not take well to Chris Christie’s New Jersey “in your face” mannerisms and speech!

So the best suggestion for Chris Christie: Stay out of the Republican Presidential race, and avoid embarrassing yourself, and being soundly repudiated1

Republican Front Runner In Iowa Is Mitt Romney? Is This The Best The Party Offers?

Ronald 2 Comments

A poll in Iowa, which will hold the first votes of the 2016 Presidential campaign when it has its caucus in early January 2016 shows former Massachusetts Governor and 2012 Republican Presidential loser Mitt Romney far in the lead, an absolutely amazing development!

With all of the multitude of names bandied about, the true chameleon, the “flip flopper” par excellence, the man who will say anything to get your vote, and then change his story tomorrow, is seen as a viable candidate, when it is absolutely clear that he has ZERO chance of winning the Presidency, and had the least government experience of any nominee of either major political party since Wendell Willkie was the GOP nominee in 1940!

Romney seems to be warming up to running again, although he had said he was not interested, but his ego has been stroked, and clearly, he finds the attention hard to resist.

There are those who would say that, after all, Bob Dole ran three times for the nomination, and Ronald Reagan ran three times, but let it be made clear, no matter what their faults and shortcomings, Mitt Romney is not the experience of Bob Dole, or the charisma and two term gubernatorial experience of Ronald Reagan.

The reality is that Mitt Romney has no principles, except his own aggrandizement, first in financial manipulation on Wall Street, and then his belief that he can lie, deceive, manipulate, with the best, and somehow, the American people are suckers enough to believe anything he says.

Mitt Romney would be nearing 70 if he ran in 2016, and while Joe Biden will be five years older, and Hillary Clinton will be seven months younger but nearly 70 as with Romney, the reality is that Mitt Romney is no Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden in background and experience!

So do not put betting money on Mitt Romney, either to be the GOP nominee, or the 45th President of the United States! It is NOT going to happen!

Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley Goes To New Hampshire And Iowa: Sign Of Presidential Planning, Despite Hillary Clinton!

Ronald 2 Comments

Just as almost everyone imaginable seems to think Hillary Clinton is running for President, and will be the next President, we are seeing the emergence of Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley as a potential challenger to Clinton for the Democratic Presidential nomination.

O’Malley makes the case that he is simply preparing If Hillary, ultimately, does not run, and he is boning up on domestic and foreign policy issues, and emphasizing his broad experience as an executive, as Mayor of Baltimore for eight years, and now finishing up eight years as Governor of Maryland.

But is is certainly possible that O’Malley might decide to challenge Clinton if she does run, and that would place him on a short list of potential Vice Presidential nominees, and therefore, the possible heir apparent to Clinton after eight years as Vice President.

O’Malley’s candidacy is, certainly, more legitimate than that of former Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer, who has seemed more of a long shot, and just did a lot of damage in the past week with his comments about Eric Cantor and Dianne Feinstein.

All the other potential challengers on paper are officeholders, making the job of running for the Presidency a lot more difficult, with the list including New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, New York Senator Kirsten Gillbrand, Virginia Senator Mark Warner, Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

Of course, there is also Vice President Joe Biden, who would become the immediate frontrunner in the Democratic battle for President were Hillary Clinton to shock just about everyone, and announce she was not running for the Presidency.

Meanwhile, Martin O’Malley is drawing attention by making appearances and speeches in the early caucus and primary states of Iowa and New Hampshire, and is making a good impression upon citizens!

Des Moines, Iowa, Republican Presidential Debate On ABC Most Crucial Debate Yet!

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Saturday night, there will be another in a long line of Republican Presidential debates, sponsored by ABC News, taking place in Des Moines, Iowa.

This is the most crucial debate yet, as it comes three weeks before the Iowa Caucuses, and at a time when the Republican Party is demonstrating its internal conflicts more than ever.

Former Speaker of The House of Representatives Newt Gingrich, surging in the polls, is receiving lots of opposition from “Establishment” Republicans and former House colleagues, and many conservative journalists, such as Peggy Noonan, see him as a horror for the party and the nation,

But there is no love lost for Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts Governor, in many ways reminding those old enough to remember, what the feeling was for Governor Nelson Rockefeller in 1964, when the right wing was able to control the Republican convention, and nominate Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona for President, but leading to a total electoral disaster in the Presidential Election of 1964.

In many ways, the Gingrich-Romney battle is a replay of that election, except that Romney is trying to make himself LOOK more conservative than he really is, while Rockefeller made no attempt to declare himself a conservative.

The only person who still, if he does well in New Hampshire, might have a shot at the nomination, is former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, who in many ways reminds us of Pennsylvania Governor William Scranton, seen as an alternative to Rockefeller and Goldwater in 1964, but unable to overcome Goldwater.

The result was a total disaster for the Republican Party, and the promotion of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society programs. Hopefully, the country will be so disgusted with the Republican move to the far right, and the obstructionism of the House Republicans, and the anti labor Republican Governors and legislatures, and give Barack Obama the re-election victory he deserves in 2012!

The Negatives Of Mitt Romney Growing, Making His Nomination For President Less Likely Scenario!

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Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has long been thought to be the frontrunner for the Republican Presidential nomination, but as we get closer to the Iowa Caucuses and New Hampshire primary, about a month from now, his problems and challenges are growing rapidly!

Romney is now seen as very vulnerable in many different ways, including:

1. Romney may be respected, but is not loved, as Time Magazine reports this week.

2. Romney, being a Mormon, a subject he tries to avoid discussing, is becoming a growing issue to many evangelical Christians and other Protestant religious groups, who feel that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is a cult, and not Christian, but instead a phony religion.

3. Romney, being extremely wealthy (estimated $250 million minimum) comes across as part of the elite, the one percent, as one of “them” against the rest of us, and with his comments advocating the destruction of the auto industry in Michigan and elsewhere, his support of accelerating home foreclosures, and his bad joke about being “unemployed” , that image is hard to overcome.

4. Romney, being from the Northeast, and specifically Massachusetts, a Democratic state, is unappealing to a party which gets its major support from the South, Midwest and Mountain West.

5. Romney has an image of being a moderate, in fact to some as liberal, due to his support of a state health care plan in Massachusetts, which became a model for Barack Obama’s push for health care reform, and Romney cannot escape that image and advocacy no matter how hard he tries.

6. Having moved from liberal to moderate viewpoints when first running against Senator Ted Kennedy unsuccessfully in 1994, and then successfully for Governor in 2002, and now claiming to be a conservative who has completely transformed himself and his views, he comes across as a massive “flip flopper”, possibly one of the greatest such cases in American history, and therefore, is seen as not genuine, not honest, not believable, not reliable that he will keep the views he now professes.

7. Romney comes across as arrogant, haughty, not liking to be challenged, snobby, and seemingly believing he is “entitled” to be the next Repubiican nominee as the so called “next in waiting” runner up candidate in the past, just like John McCain in 2008 and Bob Dole in 1996.

So Mitt Romney is in deep trouble, and many are starting to think he may not be the GOP nominee for President in 2012!

The GOP Race Down To Four Candidates: Bachmann, Perry, Romney, Huntsman!

Ronald 1 Comment

So the 2012 Republican Presidential race is down to FOUR candidates in the real world: Establishment Republicans Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman, both happening to be Mormons: and Tea Party Republicans Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann, born evangelical Christians who promote combination of church and state and have followers who believe Mormons are a cult and not truly Christians!

What a mess the Republicans are in, and it should make Barack Obama feel very comforted after the rough times he has had lately with the Debt Ceiling debate, the lowering of the credit rating from Triple A to Double A Plus by Standard and Poor’s, and the stock market gyrations of the past week!

The Republican Party may boast that they are on the way to defeat of Barack Obama, but instead they are on the way to a bloodletting in the caucuses and primaries, with the Iowa caucus likely to be a battle between Perry and Bachmann, and the New Hampshire primary likely to be a battle between Romney and Huntsman. The South Carolina primary will likely be a battle between the survivor of Iowa and the winner in New Hampshire, and then Florida will play a major role, as the fourth largest state, in determining who the leading candidate will be.

But likely, the battle will go on into the other caucus and primary states and could drag out to June, and severely weaken the party, and strengthen Obama.

So forget Rick Santorum, Herman Cain, Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich completely, and Tim Pawlenty has already bowed out ot the race!

And realize, after the bloodletting that will go on in the GOP, the only real hope that will exist for the Republicans to defeat Barack Obama will be IF they nominate either Romney or Huntsman, with the hope by Establishment Republicans that neither will have been fatally wounded during the caucuses and primaries!

If either Perry nor Bachmann end up as the nominee, the election will be a “cakewalk” for Barack Obama.

The upcoming battle can only benefit Barack Obama, as it demonstrates the right wing extremism prevalent in the Republican Party!