Day: April 30, 2009

A group of Republican leaders, led by former Florida Governor Jeb Bush,  Senator John McCain of Arizona,  former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal,  and House Minority Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia,  formed today the National Council for a New America, which plans town hall meetings around the country to produce Republican ideas on education, health care, energy, national security and the economy,  as alternatives to the programs of the Obama Administration.

The group is separating itself from Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele,  demonstrating that a split has developed as to tactics to be utilized.

Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina,  Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine,  and George Voinovich of Ohio have argued for a "bigger tent" in order to expand the party base.  They argue that the party must move from the narrow conservative party which turned off young voters, Hispanics, women and Independents,  to a party of inclusiveness.  As it is now, the Republican party, originally the party of Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt, has become the party of the Old Confederacy and of narrow minded leaders, including Sarah Palin, Mark Sanford,  Rick Perry,  and Michele Bachmann.

So the GOP is involved in its own "civil war",  and the public utterances of Rush Limbaugh and Dick Cheney only make the possibility of Republican success in the future less likely.  When only 20 percent of those polled identify themselves as Republicans,  we are indeed witnessing the disintegration of the party as we knew it.  The road from the political wilderness to power will be a long, hard trek, and one must wonder if a new party will form and replace the GOP as the loyal opposition.

Congresswoman Michele Bachmann of Minnesota is comic relief in difficult times, but again, as always, she is actually quite terrifying in her conspiracy theories, so the Democratic party is keeping an alert on her in the hopes of defeating her in  the midterm election and also to help raise money to promote the Obama agenda.

Her latest assertion is to wonder of the oddity that just as in the last flu scare in 1976, the President is a Democrat, although she makes it clear that she is NOT blaming Obama for the swine flu crisis.  Thanks so much for that, Michele!  For once, Obama is not directly being blamed for everything wrong in this world.  :)  LOL

However, Michele, you have your facts wrong.  In 1976, the President was a Republican Gerald Ford, not Jimmy Carter, as you claim.  Not only are you loony, but you are also wrong in your history.  Somehow, that is not surprising, considering the source of this statement.  :)  LOL 

However, a thought crosses my mind.  Maybe Michele is claiming that Gerald Ford, a moderate Republican with a so called "liberal"  Republican, Nelson Rockefeller, as his Vice President,  is not REALLY a Republican, but a Democrat in disguise, because, of course,  we all know the only GOOD Republicans are CONSERVATIVE Republicans.  After all, to conservatives, the name ROCKEFELLER is like a curse because he was that LIBERAL!  :)  LOL

So, in her narrow world, Michele thinks that ONLY conservative Republicans bring fortune to the country and keep it safe.   Like, for instance, the record of the Bush years from 2001-2009.  They were GREAT years, Michele, right?  LOL

As the First Hundred Days are completed, one must marvel at the accessibility and transparency of the 44th President of the United States.

Barack Obama has been more in public than any president since John F. Kennedy, and his wife has become the most glamorous First Lady since Jacqueline Kennedy.

We have not had as cool and calm a leader since JFK either, and Obama’s public persona gives people the hope and confidence that Franklin D. Roosevelt offered the country during the tough years of the Great Depression.  It is appropriate that in this greatest economic crisis since then,  that our President have some of the same traits of FDR, acknowledged as the greatest President of the 20th century.

One can see elements of many presidents in Barack Obama at this point.  He has not only connections to JFK and FDR, but also to Abraham Lincoln,  in putting his rivals and strong personalities in his cabinet and as advisers; to Lyndon Johnson, in his desire to do as much as he can as fast as he can, taking advantage of the moment; to Theodore Roosevelt in his level of energy and activity; and to Harry Truman in his courage and decisiveness of action in a time of great challenges in foreign policy.