Independents

Maine, The Independent State Politically! Angus King Likely Replacing Olympia Snowe

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Maine, a state which has had independent minded Senators and Governors, is about to have an Independent as the likely successor to independent minded Republican Senator Olympia Snowe, who has announced her retirement after a long career, due to frustration over the total stalemate and deadlock in the US Senate.

Former Governor Angus King, who had served as a legislative aide to Senator William Hathaway in the 1970s, has only run for office as an Independent, and was one of two Independent Governors in the late 1990s and early 2000s, along with Governor Jesse Ventura of Minnesota.

In the 1970s, Maine had Independent Governor James Longley, making them an extremely unusual state, in having had two Independents serve in that office in modern times.

King was Governor from 1995-2003, and now will be his own man, while if he wins, probably caucusing with the Democrats, as Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman do now. Major Democrats have decided not to challenge him, as his public opinion ratings are high, and the Republicans are almost certain to lose that seat that Snowe is vacating.

Three way races are not uncommon in Maine, as even the Governor’s race in 2010 was three way, leading to Tea Party favorite Paul LePage being elected Governor over a second place Independent and a third place Democrat.

Maine has had distinguished US Senators who have been independent minded if not actually running as Independents, including Margaret Chase Smith, Edmund Muskie, George Mitchell, William Cohen, Olympia Snowe, and Susan Collins.

So the likelihood of at least two Independents in the next Senate, King and Sanders, is extremely certain, with Lieberman retiring from the Senate.

What Can Mitt Romney Win In November?

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Mitt Romney may have won Ohio by the small margin of one percent and about 12,000 votes over Rick Santorum, but the question remains: Where can he win a combination of states to equal a majority of 270 electoral votes?

Can he win New England, even his home state of Massachusetts? Unlikely, with maybe the exception of New Hampshire.

Can he win the Middle Atlantic states? Unlikely, with the best chance in Pennsylvania, but unlikely.

Can he win the South? Unlikely, despite being the GOP nominee, because of his Mormon faith. Sure, he will win some of the states but unlikely to win Florida, North Carolina or Virginia, the swing states, and a chance to lose Georgia to Barack Obama as well, with the growing Hispanic and Latino vote in the Peach State.

Can he win the Midwest? Well, maybe a few states, but he has lost all of the Midwest and Great Plains states that have had primaries and caucuses so far, except for his birth state of Michigan and a narrow win in Ohio. Rick Santorum has real support in this area of the country.

Can he win the Mountain States? Yes, for those which have large numbers of Mormons, including Arizona, Utah, and Idaho, and probably Montana and Wyoming as well, but not likely to win New Mexico, Colorado and Nevada.

Can he win the Pacific Coast states? Is that a serious question? NO, except for Alaska.

If the economy continues to get better, Mitt Romney has lost his biggest issue.

If the anti woman vendetta of Rush Limbaugh and social conservatives in Congress and the states continues, as with the failed Blunt Amendment and the Virginia vaginal probe law, Romney will lose.

If the anti immigrant (Hispanic and Latino) mentality of Arizona, Alabama, Georgia and other states continues, the only Hispanic vote Romney might win is the Cuban vote in Florida and elsewhere, but not the Mexican, Puerto Rican, Colombian, and other Latin nations’ immigrants, meaning only those who are legal and can vote.

If the extremism of the GOP continues down its destructive path, Independents will leave them in droves.

Of course, Barack Obama and the Democrats must work and plan as if they could lose the election, because they could, but the obstacles facing Mitt Romney are massive, and this could have a deleterious effect on the Republican Party in many state races and in both houses of Congress.

Super Tuesday: End Of The GOP Presidential Race? Don’t Bet On It!

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Super Tuesday should see the end of the Presidential nomination race, as it often has in recent Presidential cycles.

However, it was not so for the Democrats in 2008, and it is unlikely that it will be the end of the Republican race today.

There is a good chance that Rick Santorum will win Ohio, Tennessee and Oklahoma tonight, and that Newt Gingrich will win the biggest state in delegate totals, Georgia.

If that happens, or most of it, then Mitt Romney cannot “close the deal” and start to look to the Fall Presidential campaign, and if that is what happens, then the Republicans face further turmoil and division.

The Republican Party establishment can only hope that the race is over, and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia, and Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn both endorsed Romney last weekend, hoping that the blood letting among the candidates would be over.

It is still reality that Mitt Romney remains unpopular among many Republicans, and many still wish there was some alternative to those in the race.

It will be a gargantuan task for Mitt Romney to keep discontented people in the party, as well as convince Independents and women in large numbers, to vote for him. The likelihood of success is very low!

Republicans Committing “Suicide” Among Many Voting Groups

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The Republican Party, with its extreme right wing taking hold of the party, are only insuring their ultimate defeat in many Congressional races and in the race for the Presidency.

It can be assured that a vast majority of the following voting blocs will NOT vote Republican:

Women
African Americans
Hispanics and Latinos
Labor
Gays and Lesbians
Jews
White Collar College Educated Middle Class
Independents

Of course, SOME people in these different categories will vote Republican, but with a strong majority alienated by the extremism of the GOP, the Democrats will win the majority, often very strong majority, of these groups.

Barack Obama has not pleased everyone with all of his policies, but again, the election is a choice between alternatives, not perfection of anyone. There is no question that the Republican Party is committing political “suicide”, the only good thing about this for them being that it will force them to move back to the center of American politics in the future, or be repudiated and replaced by a new “centrist” party in the mainstream of America!

Stock Market Dow Jones Industrial Average Doubles Under Obama!

Ronald 1 Comment

Today, briefly, the stock market Dow Jones Industrial Average went over 13,000 points, doubling the level it was at in March 2009, shortly after Barack Obama became President.

With 87 percent of people earning over $75,000 a year investing in the stock market in either IRAs or 401K Retirement Plans, that cannot make these people other than happy.

This is an amazing recovery, and makes it much more difficult for Republicans to use the economy against President Obama.

It also is a fact that Obama can now claim the FIFTH best stock market record of any President, only behind in order, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Bill Clinton, and Dwight D. Eisenhower!

As a result, we are having Republican candidates debating social issues instead of the economy, and in so doing, alienating independents who do not want social intrusion by government into their lives. One can be assured that when Rick Santorum, for instance, says Satan has his designs on the United States, that eyes are rolling all over America, as Rick shows more than ever with every utterance that he is a dangerous man, who only religious extremists on the Christian Right can cheer, but it is causing havoc for Mitt Romney as he must try to match Santorum to have a chance to survive for the nomination, although in so doing, Romney marginalizes himself for the Presidential election this November!

Rick Santorum On The Rampage: Attacking Public Education, The Environment, And Prenatal Care

Ronald 3 Comments

Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum is on the rampage, ranting and raving like a maniac, and making many mainstream Republicans roll their eyes as they see the chances of their party disintegrating for November.

Santorum yesterday, while campaigning in Ohio, attacked public education, saying it is outmoded, and should not be controlled or operated by national or state governments, but instead privatized. The fact that we have had public schools since the 1820s is ignored, as he calls such an idea “antiquated” and “anachronistic”! He calls public schools “factories”, and says that local school boards and parents should control the educational system, even though the historical record does not show that to have been done very well in the past! The idea that parents, who in many cases have no knowledge or understanding of educational curriculum, should control what is taught, is as dangerous as to let patients tell doctors how to do their job, or clients to tall attorneys how to conduct cases in court! It is also a great way to distort history and science, teaching a distorted view of the past, and allowing religion to become part of science in relation to evolution and climate change, already being promoted in many states dominated by the Christian Right.

Santorum also attacked those he says are following a false theology, such as Barack Obama, who feel that the earth comes before human beings, and that radical environmentalists want to prevent mankind from utilizing the earth, and therefore endangering the future prosperity of America. Teddy Roosevelt would turn over in his grave at such an assertion!

Santorum also accused those who promote prenatal care, including amniocentesis, of setting out to abort disabled children, preventing their birth. There is no evidence of such a claim, but it is interesting that Rick Santorum, as with other Republicans, constantly calls for cuts in Medicaid, the major program to help the disabled with health care. So Santorum is totally hypocritical on this matter.

The man is displaying all of his instability, weirdness, craziness, and lunacy, which will destroy his ability to attract educated voters, women, independents, moderate Democrats, and those who believe that religion should not be part of government policy, who want separation of church and state.

The more he rants and raves, the more the Republican Party is on the road to total defeat in November, so keep it coming, Rick!

Can Mitt Romney Survive A Loss In Michigan Primary? His “Competition” With George Romney’s Image And History!

Ronald 2 Comments

The biggest crisis in Mitt Romney’s privileged life is coming in Michigan, the state of his birth, the state which elected his father George Romney Governor for three terms in the 1960s, the state which he fundamentally abandoned when he called for the ordered bankruptcy of the auto industry, the state in which there has been a major turn around and drop in unemployment due to the intervention of the federal government to help General Motors and Chrysler survive. General Motors has seen its best growth in 25 years, and Michigan and the Midwest, as bad as they are in economic terms, are far better off because of what Barack Obama did, as opposed to what Romney wished to do for the area–NOTHING!

Romney is about to be paid back in spades, as the odds are now heavy that he will lose his “home state” to Rick Santorum, who can relate to blue collar workers on a fundamental basis, as compared to the filthy rich Romney who has no clue as to the struggles of auto workers or anyone else, and lives off investments but can joke about being “unemployed”!

If Romney loses the Michigan Primary, he is doomed, and will not be able to survive and win the nomination. And even if, by some intervention by “establishment” forces on Wall Street, he gets the nomination, he will have a flaw that will be enough to cause his defeat in November. He is simply too plastic, to stiff, too elitist, for the average American, and by catering to the extreme right in his rhetoric, he is causing the loss of major groups of voters–women, Hispanics and Latinos, African Americans, labor, the struggling middle class, independents, conservative Democrats, gays, etc. Does anyone NOT get the point?

Mitt Romney is NOT electable; he may have the lifelong desire to be what his father failed to be–President of the United States! But in a way, he is competing with a ghost, as George Romney was a much more genuine candidate, a man who knew what it was like to be poor, a man who really built up the auto industry, rather than live off buying up companies and firing workers, and making money on the resale of those companies.

George Romney was genuine, compassionate, principled, and honest to a set of values! Mitt Romney is none of these attributes of his father!

In a way, this reminds us of the struggle between father and son of George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush, another case of son trying to overcome the achievements of the father, but never matching up in any way, shape or form.

The difference is THIS time, it is not going to work out that this country has to deal with the psychological effects of the father-son battle for supremacy, as Mitt Romney is NOT going to be President of the United States, and is highly unlikely, as things stand now, to be the GOP nominee chosen at the Tampa Republican National Convention in August.

It is actually humiliating and embarrassing to see Romney trying to pander to Michigan now, talking about his old high school, the height of the trees, loving the lakes of the state, loving cars and Detroit! Such phoniness and catering to voters who know better than to be suckered by a rich guy who does not care about the “very poor”, the middle class, but only the rich, despite his protestations to the contrary!

Class Division, Conflict, Stress Multiplying: Dangerous For American Social Stability!

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A new survey demonstrates that the biggest problem developing socially in America is economic class conflict and division, more than racial differences or the debate over immigration.

Economic inequality, leading to a sense of rich versus poor, and very little middle class, is a time bomb that could endanger the nation’s future.

The great increase in this feeling is, interestingly, most common among whites, middle income earners, and independent voters, but also increased among Republicans.

73 percent of Democrats and 68 percent of Independents believe there is strong economic class conflict.

Also, 71 percent of those who earned between $40,000 and $75,000 believed there are strong class conflicts, up from 47 percent in 2009.

The Census Bureau has come up with the figure that the top ten percent of the population have 56 percent of the national income in 2009, up from 49 percent in 2005.

If this trend continues, and if the masses become more and more resentful at the unfairness of national income distribution and taxation policies, it is not going to benefit the Republican Party, and could lead to demands for far greater taxation of the wealthy, already at the lowest level it has been since the 1920s!

300 Days To The Presidential Election: “Hell” Ahead For Mitt Romney!

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Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney may have won the New Hampshire Primary decisively, but that does not mean that he is going to sail to the GOP Presidential nomination anytime soon.

Witness the following facts:

1. Ron Paul ended up a strong second, and will be a problem for Romney all the way to the Republican convention in late August, and possibly beyond, as he may very well run on the Libertarian Party line, drawing together those who want a radical cutback in the federal government and withdrawal of military forces from overseas engagements.

2. Jon Huntsman ended up a strong third in the primary, and is now emboldened to go after Romney, with the possibility of gaining those who do not like Romney personally, and his flip flop reputation, and want an alternative who can appeal to Independents, moderates, and unhappy Democrats.

3. Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry will continue to challenge Romney as a phony conservative, and sustain their attack on his connections to Bain Capital.

4. Rick Santorum will continue to work to gain the social conservative vote, making him a real threat on those issues.

5. The Tea Party Movement, particularly in South Carolina at the moment, will not accept Romney, and want a true alternative to a man they consider a moderate, not a conservative.

6. Romney will have lots of ammunition employed against him by the Barack Obama campaign, utilizing Romney’s actions and statements, often contradictory in nature, and portraying him as not able to relate to the poor or middle class, due to his extreme level of personal wealth.

So Mitt Romney faces a series of major challenges that might impede his road to the White House!

The Virtues Of A Perry Or Bachmann Candidacy: Long Range Positive Impact On America!

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With the growing likelihood, at least before a series of debates in a six week period in September and October that will test legitimacy, that Rick Perry or Michele Bachmann might win the GOP nomination for President, it must be said that there are numerous virtues if such an eventuality actually occurs!

The virtues are as follows:

1. The odds of such a far RIght WIng candidate winning the national election is extremely low, as America is a centrist nation, and will reject such craziness!

2. The Republican Party would be cleansed by the defeat of a Perry or Bachmann, and come back to its senses, moving to the center of the political spectrum, and by so doing, would have a good chance to win the White House in 2016, as it is not uncommon to have parties switch power in the Presidency every eight to twelve years!

3. The impact of the Tea Party Movement would be dramatically lessened, if not destroyed, by a massive defeat!

4. The Influence of the Christian Right evangelicals would be eliminated as a major factor in future Republican Presidential battles if the candidate loses in a disastrous way!

5. The urban-rural split within the country could be resolved by the triumph of the urban areas, where most of the people live–80 percent in 28 states with only 40 percent of the land area, as compared to 20 percent in 22 states with 60 percent of the land area!

6. Centrists and Independents would return to the Democratic Party in large numbers with an extreme right wing Republican such as Perry or Bachmann!

7. The chances of a strongly Democratic Congress in both houses would increase, as the “coat tail” effect of an Obama landslide would help to bring in Democrats, even in some Republican or swing districts, allowing the accomplishment of more of the President’s agenda, and making the GOP control of the House of Representatives a bad memory!

This election could be similar to the massive defeat of Barry Goldwater in 1964, changing the political climate for nearly a generation, bringing to power a moderate Republican, Richard Nixon, as compared to Goldwater.

Of course, such a defeat does not mean the complete end of the Right Wing forces in the GOP, but it would set them back for a period of at least 12-16 years as occurred from 1964-1980. And even Ronald Reagan ended up smoothing the rough edges of the Goldwater ideology when he was President of the United States in the 1980s!

The purging, the purification of the Republican Party, from its extremist roots is necessary to make the party a true, legitimate alternative for America in the 21st century! The American people will not allow such reckless candidates, as Perry or Bachmann would be, to win the White House, as at least the vast majority of them, believe in American “exceptionalism”, a different kind that will not allow anyone in the White House who represents a threat to the whole 20th century democratizing and reforms, and wishes to promote theocracy in America! Even Barry Goldwater did not wish to do that, and in fact, opposed religious influence to dictate to the party of Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Eisenhower!