Month: September 2011

Why Chris Christie Is Not Qualified To Be President!

Now it turns out that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, despite constant statements that he is not interested in being President, and is not experienced enough yet to be President, is allowing himself to be courted by wealthy corporate and Wall Street executives to run for President, indicating that he is reconsidering!

What a terrible decision that would be, for so many reasons, including:

1. Chris Christie does not have the “fire in his belly”, which should be a requirement to run for President, and has no conception of what it means to announce for President, the work required and the sacrifices he would have to make to run for President, particularly at such a late date when Republican Presidential opponents, particularly Mitt Romney and Rick Perry, have big treasure chests and advisers and campaign structures all set up, while Christie has none.

2. Chrisitie is, as he himself said, not qualified to be President based on less than two years in high elective office, and could not run the Presidency in the manner that he has run the Governorship–like an authoritarian dictator who takes no prisoners! The Congress would not kneel to him as the state legislature may have done, and the powers of the New Jersey Governorship in some ways are far greater than the domestic authority of the Presidency!

3. Chris Christie has a horrible, bullyish personality, refuses to consult with his own state’s Democratic Senators and Congressmen, and treats critics publicly in a way no other politician does. It may humor some people who hear it, but it is actually totally unprofessional and unacceptable behavior, and Christie shows evidence of the need for anger management on a grand scale!

4. Chris Christie is no model for good health, being extremely obese, not acceptable considering the stresses that he would face in a campaign and in the White House! We may have had heavy Presidents, including Grover Cleveland and William Howard Taft before, but the Presidency was not the heavy duty, high stress job then, that it is now! He is no model for children, and already there is evidence that his bad health is a threat to his ability to do the job he has, having been forced to go to the hospital this summer for an asthma attack. And his problem with anger also undermines his health. This is not just the story of anyone being morbidly obese, but the story of the leader of the free world! He would need to set an example on losing weight, but that is not an easy thing to do in any case!

5. Christie’s personality and bluntness would undermine relations with other nations, and threaten peace in the world, as diplomacy implies the use of tact, not nastiness and confrontational attitudes! He has also shown no understanding of American foreign policy!

6. His treatment of labor unions, teachers, firefighters, police officers, and other public servants demonstrates that he is not respectful of the sacrifices of people, and yet is willing to concede to corporate masters, including the Koch Brothers. This is not what we need to lead our nation in the future!

Governor Christie needs to gain more experience in office, open up his mind to new ideas, change his personality approach, and lose weight, before he seriously considers running for President. And if he is honest with himself, he would still realize that he is ill qualified in so many ways to be our Commander in Chief!

Let’s Give Rush Limbaugh What He Wants: A Lunatic Right Wing Tea Party Presidential Nominee!

Now Rush Limbaugh has started to attack Chris Christie, the newest suitor for the GOP Presidential nomination, even though Christie has said he will not run!

Limbaugh criticizes the lack of social conservatism of Christie, his outspoken criticism on some hot button issues of the Tea Party Movement!

So now Limbaugh and others are faulting Christie, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, and Jon Huntsman, and ridiculing Ron Paul'[s libertarian stands, and have problems with Newt Gingrich’s past as well.

As a result, Limbaugh recommends the likes of Herman Cain, Michele Bachmann, and Rick Santorum instead!

It is time to do what Limbaugh and other whackos want! NOMINATE Cain, Bachmann or Santorum! Give the extreme Right what they want, and it will kill them off for a generation, much like the nomination of Barry Goldwater in 1964 delayed their cause for a generation, and softened the stands on issues by the time Ronald Reagan won the Presidency in 1980!

Nominate one of these three, and it will be a massive victory for Barack Obama, and a repudiation of these loud mouths who care not a whit about doing harm to the nation and its future!

Rick Perry Attacked From The Right: How No GOP Candidate Can Please The Lunatic Fringe!

Texas Governor Rick Perry seems to many like the ideal conservative Republican, except he isn’t!

This is further proof that NO ONE can ever fully satisfy the extreme Right Tea Party Movement, and that the Republican Party needs to tell the Tea Party Movement to go to hell in a hand basket!

Rick Perry is a horror to most sane people, what with his secession comments, his record on capital punishment, his attacks on the Obama Health Care Plan, his criticism of the Federal Reserve, his calling Social Security a “Ponzi Scheme”, and other outrageous statements.

But on two issues, he is correct: that the children of illegal immigrants, who are not responsible for being in America, should be given the same opportunity to in state tuition for a college education as children of Texas citizens, as long as they have been in the state for at least three years; and the decision to promote HPV vaccine for young girls in Texas, to avoid the danger of cervical cancer.

Perry has been vilified on these matters, and now has slipped in the latest Fox News Poll from the lead to number two behind Mitt Romney, but Romney should not sell his soul to the right wing, or it will also destroy him, and were he to win, his Presidency, as a captive of these nuts on the right!

The fact that Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh are now bitterly attacking Rick Perry is actually a reason to promote sympathy for Perry, but not too much. It just demonstrates why the Republican Party is not the alternative to Barack Obama, if one is sane and believes in having a “heart”, something that Perry was attacked for, but something we need more of in America if we are going to have a future we wish to be proud of!

Sarah Palin’s Resentment Of Potential Presidential Rivals Gaining Attention: Mental Illness Demonstrating Itself!

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin continues to hint that she is considering entrance into the GOP Presidential race, although she has taken no organizational steps to do so, and remains on the Fox News Channel payroll.

The woman has shown resentment if anyone gains attention other than her, although she claims to be insulted by those who follow her movements and statements and investigate her checkered past. She is ready to sue at any affront against her, playing the victim role, but also likes to “rain on the parade” of Republican Presidential candidates who might be her rivals, were she to enter.

While avoiding any work or preparation for a candidacy, which would require real efforts for debate performance, something she would wish to avoid at all costs, as it would reveal just how dumb and ignorant she really is, she is certainly willing to intervene when Mitt Romney is declaring his candidacy in New Hampshire; show resentment at Michele Bachmann being a female rival, so therefore making some sarcastic comments about her candidacy; speaking out at the time of Rick Perry’s announcement of candidacy in Texas; and calling Herman Cain “the flavor of the week” to degrade his straw poll performance last weekend in Florida. Now, yesterday, as Chris Christie is wooed to run, Sarah felt a need to speak up and take away attention from him!

In other words, any accomplishment or newsworthy moment for the major rivals, who have seen some success or have some support, demands her taking attention away from such person, competing in the news media for attention!

This woman is a mental case who needs to be repudiated, and invited to shut her mouth once and for all, as a unnecessary pest and naysayer in her party, who is bound to do everything to destroy any Republican who runs for President, because of her maniacal belief that only she could govern, but unwilling to do the work required, and offer her candidacy to the people of her party!

But a recent poll shows 60 percent of the nation wants her to go away, and it would be good if somehow, we could have her taken off the front page, by the news media choosing to ignore her completely, unless she actually DOES something other than talk!

Sarah will never run, as she would lose her “cash cow”, the gullible Americans who love her and fail to see that she is the most incompetent person the Republicans could possibly consider for President!

George Will’s Criticism Of The Republican Party: Too Southernized!

George Will, the respectable conservative voice on ABC’s This Week with Christiane Amanpour, was sharply critical of the Republican Party this past weekend, in a way the author can totally agree with.

He pointed out that the Republican Party, the party that the South hated for a century because of the Civil War, has become overwhelmingly Southern in the past five election cycles.

Imagine this: 79 percent of the electoral votes the GOP has gained from 1992 to 2008 were in the South! Between that and the Northwest (Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah) , the Republican Party has managed to make itself a sectional party, which Will is concerned dooms it in the 2012 Presidential Election!

Will pointed out that Ohio has been the crux of whether the GOP wins or loses, and probably will be the same in 2012.

The author wishes to remind the reader that EVERY Republican Presidential winner since the inception of the party in the 1850s has won Ohio, so when Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton and Barack Obama won that state in 1976, 1992, and 2008, it guaranteed a Democratic victory.

This statement of Will should be recalled when one feels gloomy about the electoral prospects of Barack Obama, and remember that the Democrats are strong in the Northeast, the upper Midwest, and the Pacific Coast, and it is still their election to lose in 2012!

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie: Being Wooed As The Savior Of The Republican Party

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, in office less than two years, is being wooed by Wall Street Republicans and conservatives on talk radio and Fox News Channel as the savior of the Republican party, and being pressured to get into the Presidential race.

There has not been such a draft movement in the GOP since Dwight D. Eisenhower was successfully brought into the Presidential race in 1952.

But is Chris Christie another Dwight D. Eisenhower? Is he the “knight in shining armor”, or is he just the flavor of the month, a desperate attempt by Republicans to find a winning candidate who can unite the Tea Party Movement and Establishment Republicans, which no one else seems to be able to do?

After all the glamor is stripped from the excitement around Christie, is he the answer for the beleaguered GOP? The answer is NO, as despite what many might think, the odds on Christie winning the White House are extremely low!

What makes people in the party so excited about Christie?

1. He is very blunt and forceful in his language, but some would say overly confrontational and crude.

2. He attacks labor unions, which make Wall Street and big business thrilled.

3. He is the original “Bully” Governor, a model for Scott Walker in Wisconsin, John Kasich in Ohio, Rick Snyder in Michigan, Rick Scott in Florida, and Paul LePage in Maine.

4. He attacks public education in favor of charter schools, which pleases many conservatives.

5. He promotes budget cuts, which ultimately means the promoting of cuts in state support of social services, a popular move with the right wing nationally.

But why is he a horrible choice for President?

1. His “in your face” personality is precisely what we do NOT need in the White House!

2. His anti education, anti teacher, anti union agenda would solidify the right wing agenda in other states and harm the nation’s future.

3. His personality would undermine American foreign policy, as he would antagonize even friendly nations with his pompous, aggressive manner.

4. While a federal prosecutor in his past, he has only been Governor of New Jersey for less than two years, giving him very little elected experience, far less than Barack Obama, who had been in elected office for twelve years in Illinois state government and the US Senate.

5. He would be a terrible choice on the basis of physical fitness and health, has obvious health issues including a recent asthmatic attack, and while it could be said that we had William Howard Taft and Grover Cleveland in the past, it would not be a positive to have a person of his girth in the White House.

While many would see Christie as the ideal choice, he would be a bad model for the nation’s future in so many ways, and might even flop, as Rick Perry seemingly has, once we and the party and the nation had a better look at him!

Christie is more realistic than most when he says he is not ready for the Presidency, so let’s take him at his word and stop wooing him to enter the race!

The Anti Intellectualism Image Mitt Romney Is Trying To Present: Total Phoniness!

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has always had the problem of being perceived as a chameleon, a person who keeps on changing his views, has no real principles, and yet tries to present himself as the person who understands average Americans.

Romney has trouble gaining the American people’s emotional commitment, while no one doubts his intelligence and knowledge. But in the state of mind that the Republicans are today, that somehow being smart, intellectual, and knowledgeable is seen by Tea Party people as negatives, Romney is now trying to present himself as one of the common masses, which a man with two Harvard degrees, a quarter of a billion dollar fortune, and an owner of many large homes and multiple Cadillacs, cannot easily present!

So Romney is critical of the Harvard “faculty lounge”, claiming President Barack Obama takes his advice from such sources, as if that is a bad thing to do!

Meanwhile, with two Harvard degrees himself as compared to one for Obama, and with many Harvard intellectuals working on his candidacy, Romney makes himself look like a total phoney, not realizing that is his problem with average voters!

Should one be embarrassed or see Harvard connections as a minus? The author does not think so, and he is NOT a Harvard graduate! A President and a Presidential candidate should pick the best brains he can, and Harvard, like it or not, contains a large number of the best minds in America!

We have had Harvard Presidents before, as well as Yale, and other Ivy League Presidents, and that is all to the good, not to be looked down upon!

The President does not need ordinary, not well informed people, as his advisers, but the BEST and the BRIGHTEST, no matter how anti intellectual the average American might be!

Winning the Presidency requires that we expect that person to pick those best qualified to advise him, and to criticize something that you personally do yourself, have Harvard advisers, is the height of Mitt Romney’s hypocrisy!

The Herman Cain Phenomenon: What It Tells Us About The Republican Presidential Race

So now we have a new phenomenon: former Godfather Pizza CEO and talk show host Herman Cain, winning the Florida Republican straw poll, putting him in the forefront of the news, after earlier surges in Iowa’s straw poll for Michele Bachmann, and then in the public opinion polls for Rick Perry.

After Bachmann and Perry flopped in debates, now the excitement is with Cain, who has ZERO political experience, and yet tells us his business background qualifies him to be the leader of the free world and deal with foreign policy, when a major criticism of Barack Obama is his supposed lack of experience, even though he was a US Senator for four years and an Illinois state senator for eight years, more experience in office than Abraham Lincoln and Woodrow Wilson and Jimmy Carter, among others!

This concept that a businessman is good to run a government is a false argument, as government is NOT a business, and cannot be run like one!

But beyond that fact, Herman Cain is a candidate with major flaws that disqualify him to be our Commander in Chief.

His 9-9-9 tax idea is ridiculous and unworkable. Having a 9 percent corporate tax rate, a 9 percent flat income tax, and a 9 percent national sales tax will NOT work, will NOT raise adequate income, will allow corporations and wealthy people to continue to have unfair tax rates, and will victimize the middle and lower classes in a major way!

A national sales tax will burden the poor and lower middle class much more than the wealthy, as any sales tax is inherently unfair, since it does not take income levels into consideration!

Beyond that, and Cain’s lack of ANY government or foreign policy experience, there is the unfortunate issue of his health. Cain revealed to us in Thursday’s Orlando debate that he had stage 4 colon and liver cancer, and has been a survivor for five years. evoking sympathy and applause from the debate audience.

But his explanation, that he has survived because there was no government involvement in his medical care, is preposterous, as the reason he has survived has nothing to do with that at all, but rather because he was RICH enough to be able to afford the best health care, which most Americans cannot acquire!

But beyond that, should a person who has miraculously survived stage 4 colon and liver cancer be running for President, when the odds of his survival for at least five years more is unlikely? And then we would be stuck with his choice of a Vice Presidential running mate, with the fear that it might be a Sarah Palin type or one of his opponents in the race! Is that being fair to the American people, and is it not a question of Herman Cain’s own ego that makes him run? This is reckless behavior on his part!

The one good thing about Herman Cain is that, being an African American, it would be fascinating if both of our candidates for President were black, a very intriguing idea on its surface. But that is not enough to make this a good idea! The question arises whether Herman Cain is willing to deal with the problems of black America, being someone who has become wealthy and seems to want to ignore his past! And one has to wonder whether the Tea Party Republicans would EVER be willing to endorse a black candidate for President, based on their past rhetoric.

So instead of focusing on Herman Cain, if the Republicans had any common sense, they would be moving toward Jon Huntsman, who has suddenly surged in the polls in New Hampshire, now in third place and with double digits (10 percent) behind MItt Romney, who is way ahead, and Rick Perry. This could be the sign of Huntsman starting the long climb to prominence, which would give the Republicans a REAL chance to defeat Barack Obama!

Interesting Census Statistics On Asians In American Population

The Census Bureau keeps on coming out with new statistics from the 2010 Census, and one of the most interesting regards the Asian population growth in America over the past 50 years.

Back in the 1960s, people of all Asian ancestries represented one half of one percent of the American population.

Fifty years later, that percentage has increased one thousand percent, to a total of five percent of all Americans, more than 15 million people!

This five percent includes not just Chinese and Japanese, the usual groups one thinks of, but also Korean, Vietnamese, Indian, Pakistani, and all other groups coming from Asian nations.

This is a population which has seen great educational and economic successes, far outstripping other minority groups, and often surpassing even white American groups.

Having faced past discrimination, as particularly Chinese and Japanese did in American history, they have become part of the success story of America, and are a group which needs further study and appreciation of their contributions in history courses in colleges and universities, as well as in public education!

The Obscenity Of GOP Debate Audiences: What Is Wrong With These People?

In the past two weeks, we have seen three Republican Presidential debates, and we have witnessed the obscenity of debate audiences.

What is wrong with these people?

In the first debate, the audience cheered at the mention of Rick Perry’s all time record of 234 executions of prison inmates while Governor, as if this is a great accomplishment!

In the second debate, when the idea of a person in a coma needing medical care but having no medical insurance was brought up, a few in the crowd yelled that the unfortunate gentleman should just die!

Yesterday, in the third debate, when a question came up about the end of “don’t ask, don’t tell”, and a gay member of the military was shown on screen, a portion of the audience booed him, and then Rick Santorum added insult to injury by suggesting that he would re-institute the policy if he became President! Why was there no respect for this man serving in the military and recognition of his sacrifices fighting for this nation, so that wealthier, privileged people do not have to serve?

What is wrong with these people,who have such hate, and take such SICK stands on capital punishment, health care, and gays in the military? Is this what we face if the Tea Party radicals gain control of the Republican Party?

Does the party of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan really want to gain the support of these whackos?

It is time for the party to repudiate these hate mongers, and for any further outbursts at future debates to witness ALL the candidates make it clear that they consider it reprehensible!

If they do not, then all of them deserve to be repudiated overwhelmingly by the American people!