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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 Herman Cain Phenomenon And Public Opinion Polls: A Parallel Universe!

Ronald 1 Comment

Herman Cain has had one hell of a week, and yet, unlike Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry, he goes up in public opinion polls, while Mitt Romney stays stagnant in his numbers, still only about one out of four Republicans supporting him.

Herman Cain does not know China has had nuclear weapons since 1964.

Herman Cain does not seem to care that his 9-9-9 plan would raise taxes on 84 percent of the people, while lowering taxes on the wealthy.

Herman Cain suggests that we build a fence between Mexico and the United States which is electrified, and also wants a moat with alligators in it to stop illegal immigrants.

Herman Cain says he is against abortion completely, but wants the woman to have the choice on ending pregnancies.

Herman Cain does not know anything about foreign policy, and makes fun of the name of an important ally in the Near East in the war in Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, saying he does not know who its leader is and does not care.

Herman Cain believes that it is alright to sexually harass women in the workplace and that no one should be disturbed by this.

Herman Cain has made so many other inane statements and shown a tremendous lack of interest in details on public issues, and seems more interested in selling his book and improving his chances to make money on motivational speeches.

Through all this, apparently, many Republicans either do not believe the sexual harassment charges or think they are no big deal, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, so Cain’s ratings have improved.

It does not matter to these Republicans that Herman Cain has no knowledge or experience in government, and they seem to be willing to “wing” it and let an incompetent, stupid man become the leader of the free world, whose best credentials is that he headed a pizza corporation!

The ability of Republicans and many Americans to live in a “bubble”, in their own version of the “parallel universe” is mind boggling!

Will the American people at large be moronic enough to put into office a businessman who is no Wendell Willkie or Ross Perot, both men having had an intelligent, accomplished career before running for President?

And remember, neither Willkie nor Perot WON, and if Herman Cain somehow becomes our next President, God save the United States and the world!

Republican Party Seemingly On Suicide Mission, Based On Latest Poll On Presidential Frontrunners!

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The latest Washington Post-ABC News poll shows strong evidence that the Republican Party is on a suicide mission regarding the 2012 Presidential Election.

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has a wide lead over all others, and is praised for his experience, leadership, and good chance to compete with and defeat President Obama.

And yet, the Tea Party Movement within the party is very unhappy with Romney, and were he to be the nominee, they would be a major headache and impediment in his Presidential campaign!

Amazingly, a “non candidate”, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, runs second, and Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann runs third in the poll. If Palin is not counted in the poll, Bachmann moves up to second, and Texas Congressman Ron Paul ends up third, with no one else in double digits!

However, Texas Governor Rick Perry, a possible candidate who is flirting with the idea of running, and claims God is behind him, has the next most support with 8 percent.

At this point, Tim Pawlenty, former Governor of Minnesota, and Jon Huntsman, former Governor of Utah, have been total flops, with Pawlenty having only 2 percent support, and Huntsman only 3 percent. It was felt just a couple of months ago that only these two men had a real shot at the nomination, other than Romney, but it has not turned out that way at all!

Instead, it is Tea Party radicals such as Palin, Bachmann and Perry that are competing with Romney, and that is becoming a point of fear and some hysteria among establishment Republicans, who can sense that their party is being destroyed by what is best described as the “cancer” of the Tea Party Movement in their midst!

Obama, The Middle Class, And Small Business: Poll Indicate Widespread Support For The President!

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A new Washington Post-ABC News Poll indicates that the middle class and small businessmen see President Obama as supportive of their interests.

At the same time, the polls indicate that Congressional Republicans are perceived as in league with Wall Street financial institutions and large business corporations.

The middle class issue is won by Obama by 53 -35, while the small business question sees a 48-39 lead for the President.

Meanwhile, majorities across party lines see the Republicans as more concerned about big business and Wall Street.

One would think this would reverberate in Obama’s favor as the country tries to deal with the Debt Ceiling crisis, and will backfire on the Republicans, because the vast majority of the country is not in agreement with the Tea Party Movement that is controlling the House of Representatives majority, to the chagrin of Speaker John Boehner, although he has carefully avoided any comments on the subject!

Michele Bachmann: Mentally Unfit And Mentally Unstable To Be President!

Ronald 1 Comment

Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann may be surging in the polls, as compared to all other GOP Presidential candidates, but she has proved herself mentally unfit, as well as mentally unstable, to be President of the United States!

With her reckless use of myths and falsehoods and invocation of God telling her what to do in her life and career, she has demonstrated that she is loony and nutty enough to be a danger in the Oval Office, with the power and authority to unleash nuclear weapons!

With her insensitivity and narrow mindedness toward those she portrays as having the wrong views about social issues such as abortion, gay marriage, racial relations, and immigration reform, she has disqualified herself from being able to unite the country around a common unity!

A President Bachmann would cause even further division and turmoil than we have right now, and would lead us to a right wing fascist mentality toward those who don’t agree with the narrow view of evangelical Christianity that separates “them” from “us”!

Also, the pushing of ABC News correspondent Brian Ross by aides of Bachmann, when Ross tried to purse an answer to a question, is totally unacceptable behavior, and reminds one of Huey Long “goons” during the early to mid 1930s in Louisiana! The nation will not tolerate a President who permits such mishandling of media as Bachmann seems to have no problem accepting!

Finally, the issue that Brian Ross was trying to bring up is crucial as well: the confirmed report that Bachmann has suffered for 15 years from migraine headaches that are extremely intense and required medical treatment many times, with indications, denied by Bachmann, but confirmed, that these migraines incapacitated her for periods of time and required lots and all kinds of pills! To top it off, Bachmann claims the migraines are caused by high heels, even though there is no correlation ever noted by any medical doctor between high heels and migraines!

Sounds as if Bachmann is at it again, with loony and nutty explanations, that just add to the image that she is, more than ever, mentally unfit and mentally unstable to be Commander in Chief!

Will “It’s The Economy, Stupid!” Outweigh The Death Of Osama Bin Laden And Help Mitt Romney Against Barack Obama?

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A month ago, President Barack Obama’s public opinion polls skyrocketed, following the successful elimination of Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan.

Now, a month later, due to the unstable economy and lack of major job growth, and general economic pessimism, Obama has lost the majority support he had last month, and has slipped below 50 percent in the polls.

In the Washington Post-ABC News poll, Obama has slipped to 47 percent, and in a matchup with Mitt Romney, he is behind by three points, 46-43, emboldening the former Massachusetts Governor to believe he has an advantage for 2012, and that such an advantage will give him the edge for the Republican Presidential nomination.

The problem is that Romney might, for now, be ahead, and he might, realistically, along with Jon Huntsman, be the BEST candidate for the GOP, but that is no guarantee that he will win the nomination of his party or the election in November 2012!

The fact that he has stated his belief that global warming and climate change are a real factor, if not the sole one, in what is happening regarding weather and environmental conditions, will not win friends from the social conservatives.

Nor will his Mormon faith, the same problem of Jon Huntsman, help Romney, since evangelical Christians do not regard Mormons as Christians, but rather as a cult.

Nor will his Massachusetts health care plan, often compared to Obama Health Care, although he has carefully defended it, while saying he would not foist it on the nation as a whole.

Nor will his chameleon nature, constantly changing his views with the shifting political winds, with many seeing him as a moderate to liberal Republican in his past, but now claiming to be a conservative.

Nor will his slick manner, his seemingly perfect family and clean image, help him because it seems, somehow, contrived to many!

But will an economy with a high unemployment rate, poor housing prices, high gasoline prices, and a stagnating stock market, be enough to help Romney or some other Republican, and outweigh the national security issue, including the death of Bin Laden, and the fact that America is involved in fighting terrorism in FIVE nations by bombing and drones–Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, and Yemen–making Obama look tough on defense and security issues?

Just about 16 and a half months away from the election, and eight months from the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary, the Republican Party has some hope, but many daunting challenges ahead, but then again, so does Barack Obama, to convince the nation to re-elect a President with high unemployment numbers and percentages, greater than since Franklin D. Roosevelt!

Forget Jon Huntsman! His Disgraceful Surrender To The Far Right Of The Republican Party!

Ronald 2 Comments

When one thought about the upcoming Republican Presidential race, there was some hope that someone moderate might actually show principle and be an alternative to the extreme right wing of the party.

And this author had hope for Jon Huntsman, the former Governor Of Utah and President Obama’s Ambassador to China, as a possible alternative who, were he to win the nomination, could give the President a real race for the White House, and were he to win, would be acceptable as the occupant of the White House.

Well, such illusions have now been destroyed, by Jon Huntsman himself! And this is very upsetting!

Huntsman has now changed his view on climate change, on the economic stimulus, and the health care issue, and has told George Stephanopoulos of ABC News that were he in the House of Representatives, he would have voted for the Paul Ryan plan on Medicare, which would destroy Medicare as we know it in ten years.

The man may be charismatic, handsome, and appealing in an intellectual way, but he is a major disappointment by his abandonment of what he believed in.

His decision to move his unannounced campaign headquarters from Utah to Florida indicates he hopes to have an impact in the Sunshine State, but that indicates that he might even abandon his support of gay civil unions, as in Florida and many other states, the opposition to gay rights is still very strong in Republican primary voters, many of whom are evangelical Christians.

If Huntsman, who is Mormon, and must deal with that issue just as much as fellow Mormon Mitt Romney, hopes to gain evangelical backing, he will have to change his position on gay rights. Not that such a decision will guarantee evangelical support, but without such a switch, there is no hope at all of such backing!

So, disllusionment with Jon Huntsman just adds up to a sense of hopelessness that there is any chance of ANY Republican being mainstream in the traditions of the party in the age of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, George H. W. Bush, and EVEN Ronald Reagan!

WIth Mitt Romney backing away from “Romneycare”, and Jon Huntsman surrendering to conservative extremist views, the GOP is a shell of its old self, and gives progressives no hope that there could be any sense of acceptance of ANY Republican Presidential winner in 2012!

John Stossel, Fox News Channel, And Native Americans!

Ronald 3 Comments

John Stossel, who used to be on ABC News, and now works for the Fox Business Channel and Fox News Channel, has come to the conclusion that native Americans are a fortunate group, and has received more aid from the federal government than any other ethnic group!

What an amazing statement for Stossel to make, although he is noted for making whacky statements before now, which have no basis in fact!

How exactly have native Americans “benefited” from federal aid, when their land, their culture, their tribal government, were taken away from them, and citizenship only came in 1924, and only after Franklin D. Roosevelt became President were they allowed in 1934 to reclaim their tribal governments and culture, after 47 years of being “Americanized”?

Native Americans were killed in large numbers, and they lost their dignity and humanity to the US Military and to settlers, who thought the only good Indian was a dead Indian!

Native Americans remain the poorest ethnic group in the United States bar none, and their country was taken away from them without apologies, and with plenty of treaty breaking by the US government on a regular basis over the years!

So John Stossel shows no understanding of the disaster visited upon native Americans, and as usual, comes across as totally stupid and insensitive! But then again, he now works for Fox News Channel and Fox Business Channel, not ABC, where it is clear many of his colleagues had to be rolling their eyes and shaking their heads on a regular basis, by his total inability to see how off base he was!

Support For Gay Marriage Grows To Majority

Ronald 1 Comment

An ABC-Washington Post Poll indicates that 53 percent of those polled now support gay marriage, five years after only 36 percent supported the concept.

People in their 30s and 40s, Catholics, political moderates and men have increased greatly in their support of gay marriage rights.

At the same time, evangelical white Protestants oppose gay marriage by a 3-1 margin, and Republicans and conservatives are against it by a 2-1 margin, but even those groups have seen some improvement in the numbers that support gay marriage.

It is obvious that the country is acclimating itself to gays marrying, but ironically, it is the unpredictable Supreme Court which will ultimately decide whether the Defense of Marriage Act, stating a marriage is between a man and woman, is to be upheld, or if gay marriage must be accepted by all of the states.

This is an issue which over time will grow in support, however, as young people in broad terms have no problems with gay rights and gay marriage, but the Supreme Court could hold back progress on this major social change.

30th Anniversary Of The End Of The Iran Hostage Crisis: Its Long Range Effect!

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On this day thirty years ago, Inauguration Day of President Ronald Reagan, the Iran hostage crisis, which destroyed any hope of President Jimmy Carter to win re-election, came to an end.

The nation was kept literally captive for 444 days from November 4, 1979 onward, as we all worried about the safety and survival of the 52 Americans held hostage at US Embassy in Teheran.

We were gripped by this crisis, and it became the constant news story for all of 1980, an obsession we could not overcome.

It created fame for Ted Koppel of ABC News, who originally covered the crisis day by day at 1135PM weekday evenings, and then expanded the news coverage at that odd hour to create Nightline, which he anchored for 26 years!

Iran became the biggest foreign policy headache of the United States, and in many ways, remains that 32 years later!

We basically were unable to resolve the issue satisfactorily as a great power, and yet Iran has continued to tie us in knots, and we still cannot figure out how to deal with the threat of this Islamic terrorist nation which has complicated our lives more than any other nation in the past three decades!

With the Soviet Union, as evil as they were, reason and measured response could work, and the Soviets had their limits.

Unfortunately, with the combination of Islamic extremism and resentment at US support in the past for the Shah of Iran, there is a concern that the Iranians today have no limits and might be ready to sacrifice themselves rather than cave in or concede in any way to the United States or other Western nations.

And by this nation getting deeply involved in Iraq and Afghanistan, ironically, Iran has become emboldened and stronger than ever before, and they clearly have no intention of compromise or concession, while the old Soviet Union was willing over time to make agreements and concession.

So in this second decade of the 21st century, Iran remains the center of strategic planning, intelligence estimates, and sleepless nights for many in the American diplomatic and military community! 🙁