Mitt Romney

Republican Persecution Complex: A Serious Disease!

Ronald 6 Comments

The Republican Party has caused its own downfall with its mean spirited, nasty campaigns, and its unwillingness to separate themselves from the power and influence of Fox News Channel, the right wing talk show hosts, and the rhetoric of their own reckless candidates and office holders, and powerful lobbying groups.

Portraying their party as victims, Speaker of the House John Boehner says Barack Obama wants to “annihilate” the Republican Party, and Paul Ryan, the House Budget Chairman and 2012 GOP Vice Presidential running mate of Mitt Romney, said on Sunday that Obama wants to “conquer” the opposition party, rather than compromise.

Somehow, they forget that George W. Bush was out to promote his own program after reelection in 2004, not in the mood for compromise.

The Republicans have not been willing to compromise for four years, and now they are using the psychological term called “projection”, accusing the President of what they have been doing, out to defeat the President and compromise on nothing. It is a despicable trick which no sane person will agree with, as they have shown total intransigence, and threatened anyone who diverts from orthodoxy that they will have the opposition of powerful interest groups, and Tea Party opposition for renomination.

The only way the Republican Party has a future is to modify their ideas, come back to the moderate center, become the party of the 1960s and 1970s, before Ronald Reagan and conservatives “hijacked” the party of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, and Eisenhower!

The “Gang Of Six” And Immigration Reform Moving Ahead

Ronald 18 Comments

President Barack Obama has made immigration reform one of the major goals of his second term in the Presidency, and now, after much resistance for years by the majority of Republicans, suddenly we have a “Gang of Six” US Senators who are cooperatively working together toward that goal, making the likelihood of such reform much more likely.

The members of the “Gang of Six” are:

Democrats Charles Schumer of New York, Bob Menendez of New Jersey, and Dick Durbin of Illinois

Republicans Marco Rubio of Florida, John McCain of Arizona, and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

This group includes Senators from key states that have growing Latino population—New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Florida, Arizona and South Carolina.

it includes two leading Hispanic Senators, both Cuban—Menendez and Rubio.

It includes two Democratic leaders, the number 2 and number 3 in the leadership—Durbin and Schumer.

It includes former Republican Presidential candidate McCain, and his good friend, Graham.

If any combination of Democrats and Republicans can accomplish the goal of recognition of the need for a reasonable immigration reform, rather than the anti immigrant view of Mitt Romney during the Presidential campaign of 2012, it is this group of US Senators!

Rand Paul And Ron Johnson: The Disgrace Of The Senate!

Ronald 30 Comments

Unfortunately, the US Senate, while populated by some great figures, and some ordinary personalities, also has the misfortune of having the Tea Party Caucus, with two of its most prominent members, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul and Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson. making a total disgrace of themselves yesterday in the Benghazi, Libya Hearings in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Aggressively grilling Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a disrespectful manner, Ron Johnson implied that Clinton was putting on an emotional acting job in her sincere upset over the loss of four diplomats, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, and seemed to expect Clinton to read 1.4 million cables personally!

Paul went further, saying if he had been President, he would have removed Clinton as Secretary of State immediately, because of the attack by terrorists in Libya, and her handling of the issue.. This excuse for a Senator has the gall to attack Hillary Clinton’s credentials, when he has worked with Johnson and others in the Senate, as well as House Republicans, to cut the budget for embassy security around the world.

What hypocrisy, what grandstanding, for the benefit of their own egos, particularly for Rand Paul, who is openly considering running for President, an office he will never attain, and if he the nominee of the GOP, he will have that party wishing for the days of Mitt Romney and John McCain, who at least were sane and had stable personalities, while Paul is a loose cannon, an embarrassment to himself and even to his more stable father, former Texas Congressman Ron Paul.

All that came out of this hearing was that Hillary Clinton handled herself well, came across as professional and intellectual, and Johnson and Paul just demonstrated that they are pygmies by comparison, lightweights intellectually, and show what happens when states elect US Senators who scrape the bottom of the barrel in their character and ethics.

The Sixty Percent Plus States In The Presidential Election Of 2012

Ronald 8 Comments

An analysis of the results of the 2012 Presidential Election, now that all of the votes have been tabulated, shows that eight states voted for Mitt Romney by sixty percent or more, and that seven states and the District of Columbia voted for Barack Obama by sixty percent or more.

The “best” Romney states are in order:

Utah—72.62 percent
Wyoming—68.64 percent
Oklahoma—66.77 percent
Idaho—64.09 percent
West Virginia—62.27 percent
Arkansas—60.57 percent
Alabama—60.55 percent
Kentucky—60.49 percent

The “best” Obama states are in order:

District of Columbia—90.91 percent
Hawaii—70.55 percent
Vermont—66.57 percent
New York—63.32 percent
Rhode Island—62.70 percent
Maryland—61.97 percent
Massachusetts—60.65 percent
California—60.24 percent

Note that the District of Columbia and the seven highest voting states have the highest incomes and educational achievements, with three of them being New England States, three of them Middle Atlantic locations, and two being the Pacific Coast.

On the other hand, the Romney states are among the lowest in incomes and educational accomplishments, including three being Mountain states, two being Southern states, and three being Border states (Oklahoma, West Virginia, Kentucky).

This makes clear that poorer “Red” states are simply not using their intelligence, as voting Republican does not benefit them at all, while the “Blue” states are wealthier and understand the benefits of support of the Democratic Party!

The Chris Christie Boomlet: Interesting, But Leading Nowhere!

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New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has become a media “darling” lately, due to his courage and leadership in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, which did devastation along the shoreline of New Jersey and New York, and other damage to Pennsylvania and Connecticut.

Christie had the common sense to work with President Obama on surveying the damage, even though the alliance occurred a week before the Presidential Election of 2012, and caused great upset in the Mitt Romney Presidential campaign.

Also, Christie was quick to criticize the House Republicans and Speaker of the House John Boehner for their failure to pass an extensive Hurricane Sandy relief package in the waning moments of the 112th Congress, and blamed Boehner by name.

Now, Christie has become the cover of Time Magazine, named “The Boss”, and has continued to lobby publicly for quick action by the House Republicans in the 113th Congress on the disaster relief bill, pointing out that aid to Louisiana and Mississippi, after Hurricane Katrina, occurred ten days after the tragedy, and now it is more than 70 days since Hurricane Sandy.

Many see Christie as the ideal GOP nominee for President in 2016, without understanding that he does not represent the core constituencies of the present day party. He speaks his mind, and in many respects, he does not match the extreme right wing tilt of the House Republicans and even many Republican Governors. He is a Northeastern Republican, who has learned within limits to work with the opposition Democrats in the New Jersey legislature, while House Republicans are on the warpath, refusing to cooperate at all with President Obama.

To believe that Chris Christie will, somehow, magically, become the Republican nominee for President in 2016, and that he will defeat the Democratic nominee, whoever he or she is, is to be willing to gamble big time.

But as this blogger and author stated last month, there are still many reasons to believe that Chris Christie is highly unlikely to be the Republican nominee in 2016, and in any case, the odds of the GOP nominee becoming President are highly remote, not worth betting money!

The Republican Party Crisis: Does It Have A Future, Or Is It To Go Into The Dustbin Of History?

Ronald 4 Comments

As we enter the year 2013 in two days, the long term future of the Republican Party as a legitimate long term alternative to the Democratic Party is in dire threat of disappearing into the dustbin of history!

The Republican Party lost the Presidential and Congressional Elections of 2012 in a sound repudiation, with Barack Obama soundly defeating Mitt Romney. The US Senate, with 23 of 33 seats up for election being Democratic seats, and expected to lose some seats, ended up winning 25 of the seats, gaining three seats and only losing Nebraska to the Republicans. The US House of Representatives, while remaining in Republican hands, saw a gain of ten House seats by the Democrats. If it was not for gerrymandering by many Republican state legislatures, the Democrats would have gained control, as they won more total votes nationally in House races than the Republicans.

So the GOP really was walloped, and yet the party seems unable to accept what happened, and have allowed themselves to be hijacked by extremist groups, including the Tea Party Movement, Americans For Tax Reform, right wing talk show hosts on radio and Fox News Channel, the National Rifle Association,The Koch Brothers and other millionaires and billionaires, right wing preachers, and anti immigrant nativists and anti women’s rights elements, therefore resisting the need to move back from the extreme right to the moderate center, where the party had many victories over the years as a more mainstream conservative alternative to the Democratic Party.

It is now a moment of reckoning, as the Republican Party is about to implode, as public opinion polls make clear that the party will be blamed if America goes off the “fiscal cliff”, and taxes go up on everyone, and ruthless spending cuts, which hurt the most needy and disadvantaged in our society, occur!

There is a possibility that the Republican Party will go into the dustbin of history, if they do not reform in time for the midterm elections of 2014, which could, ironically, lead to the demise of the party on its 160th anniversary, having been founded as a reform oriented party in 1854, replacing the Whig Party!

John Boehner and Mitch McConnell have a major burden to deal with as the New Year begins, and their own personal futures, as well as that of their party, is meeting the challenge of becoming what they once were, a mainstream centrist party that can appeal to the changing demographics of America, or be replaced by a modern day Whig Party, with statesmen and leaders on the model of Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, and former Whigs who started the Republican Party, such as Abraham Lincoln!

The Unwarranted Attack On Chuck Hagel’s Possible Nomination To Be Secretary Of Defense

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Former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska has been rumored to be the possible choice of President Barack Obama to be the next Secretary of Defense, but he has been assaulted by critics on the left and on the right since the rumors began about ten days ago.

This is totally unwarranted, as Hagel is an exceptional choice for the Pentagon.

The attacks are based on the following factors:

In 1998, Hagel was critical of an ambassadorial nominee of President Bill Clinton, because the nominee was a gay man. But that is nearly fifteen years ago, and Hagel, as many others, has grown in his tolerance on matters involving homosexuality, and should not be held as anti gay anymore, and has apologized for his past views and statements. It would be actually be great to have a Secretary of Defense who would be enforcing fair policies on gays in the military, and recognizes the wrong of his ways. if we are to say that having a view disqualifies anyone for the rest of his natural life, then no one could fill a cabinet position or any other political job! And for the gay Republican group known as the Log Cabin Republicans to be critical, is true hypocrisy as they backed Mitt Romney and other Republicans who took a stand against gay rights in the recent Presidential campaign!

The Republican Party seems to be working against Hagel, because he was a rare man of principle in his years in the US Senate, and had the “gall” to be critical of the neoconservatives who dominated the Bush Administration foreign policy, which got us enmeshed in Iraq and Afghanistan for so many years. So despite Hagel’s sacrifices in Vietnam, a fellow Vietnam warrior named John McCain, who wants to send US troops everywhere, it seems, has been a major critic of Hagel, as unacceptable for Defense Secretary because he advised against moving toward war against Iran in 2007, and believes in the continuation of diplomacy! Imagine a Secretary of Defense who actually wishes, if possible, to avoid war, and sees the chance to cut Pentagon spending as a priority, with any sane person knowing there is much unnecessary spending that can be cut, and needs to be cut. It is only a continuation of what former Republican Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was trying to promote under Obama in his first two years in office.

Also, the fact that Hagel has disagreed with Israel’s government at times, and had the “temerity” to say that the “Jewish lobby” had too much input into US foreign policy, has made AIPAC (American Israel Political Action Committee) to say that he is “anti Semitic”, which is totally preposterous!

As a Jew myself, this author is irritated that if someone disagrees with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or any other Israeli politician or government statement or policy, that right away that person is considered anti Jewish! This author and many other Jews and non Jews do not wish that ANY foreign government has the ability to have so much impact that it interferes with our President, any President, deciding what is good to do for America, particularly when it is perfectly clear that IF Israel is endangered in any viable way, America will come to their defense! But this does not mean that there cannot be disagreements on strategy or policy with the Israeli government, without being called anti Jewish, or anti Semitic. And the fact is that another Jewish group, J Street, has no problem with Hagel, and many objections to the policies and statements of Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli government. America must have an independent policy from any other nation, but again, with the understanding, which certainly exists, that we will be there for the survival of Israel no matter what might develop!

So Chuck Hagel should not be passed over because some gays are unhappy with his past; because neoconservatives, Republicans and John McCain are unhappy with him; or because a group that is overly loyal to Israeli government policies is unhappy with him!

Chuck Hagel is the right man for the job, who would reform the bloated bureaucracy and budget of the Pentagon, while using his talents, courage, and abilities to be an outstanding Secretary of Defense for Barack Obama, and defend Israel in a pinch, as any leader or cabinet member under any President would do! And the President, having been reelected with a clear popular vote majority a second time, is entitled to have the cabinet members he wants to serve him in his second term!

Presidents Who Did Not Seek The Office

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With the recent comment by Tagg Romney that his father, Mitt Romney, did not have a great ambition to be President of the United States, it brings up the issue of actual Presidents who in the past century did not lust after the job, and it was promoted by others, or the job fell into their lap symbolically.

Six Presidents would fit this description as follows:

William Howard Taft (1909-1913) was prodded by his wife and President Theodore Roosevelt to run, with him preferring to be a judge, later becoming the only President to serve also as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (1921-1930), and being much happier in that position.

Warren G. Harding (1921-1923), who also was prodded by his wife and political professionals in a so called “smoke filled room” to run, and actually hated the responsibilities of being President.

Harry Truman (1945-1953), who was drafted for the ticket as the fourth term Vice President under Franklin D. Roosevelt, and never imagined himself as President, before he was, suddenly, thrust into the position in the last months of World War II.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was wooed first by the Democrats in 1948, and finally convinced by Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. of Masachusetts and other moderate Republicans, that he was needed to be a candidate in 1952 to stop the conservative candidacy of Senator Robert Taft of Ohio, son of President Taft.

Gerald Ford (1974-1977), who was planning on finishing his career in the House of Representatives, with his only desire being to be Speaker of the House some day, but suddenly was thrust into the Vice Presidency when Spiro Agnew resigned, and soon became aware that he was likely to become President due to the Watergate crisis of President Richard Nixon.

Ronald Reagan (1981-1989), whose wife prodded him, along with conservative supporters, to run at the advanced age of 69 in 1980, when he had given up any thoughts of being President after losing the nomination to President Ford in 1976.

So six Presidents of the past century, if the situations had been different, would not be part of the exclusive “Presidents Club”.

Chris Christie’s Weight: A Disqualifying Factor For The Presidency?

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New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was asked last night by Barbara Walters of ABC whether his weight was a disqualifying factor the Presidency in 2016.

His response was negative, with the comment that he has done eighteen hour days, particularly in the recent Hurricane Sandy crisis which devastated the shoreline of his state.

But his statement does not remove the concern about whether the 50 year old New Jersey Governor is healthy enough to take on the burdens of the Presidency in four years, and for a theoretical eight years beyond 2016.

William Howard Taft was our heaviest President at 325-350 pounds, and is famous for taking long naps in the middle of the day, and being much less active than his predecessor, Theodore Roosevelt, and his successor, Woodrow Wilson.

Grover Cleveland was the second heaviest President at about 250 pounds, and no other President has been anywhere near as heavy as Taft and Cleveland. However, Bill Clinton did have problems with weight from his fast food habits before and during his White House years.

It is believed that Christie is far heavier than Taft, and it is a serious matter, as to whether he would have a long life span, and could handle the pressures of the Presidency with such an obesity problem.

At the least, it would have to be required that Christie provide detailed health information, and if he refused, a la Mitt Romney failing to provide detailed financial information, then he should be eliminated as a potential Presidential nominee, as we need a vigorous, healthy person running for President!

Rachel Maddow Promotional Advertisement For MNSBC So Great To Watch Again And Again!

Ronald 1 Comment

Rachel Maddow, the great liberal intellectual of MSNBC, has done a promotional advertisement since the election, which is shown over and over again, and somehow, never wears thin, or becomes boring.

She points out in the commercial that:

There is no chance anymore of abortion rights, as outlined in Roe V. Wade, ever being repealed by the Supreme Court.

Health care reform, upheld by the Supreme Court with the decisive vote of Chief Justice John Roberts, has no possibility of being repealed.

There will not be a further tax cut of 20 percent to billionaires and millionaires, as Mitt Romney promoted.

The United States Constitution is not going to be amended to prevent gay marriage in the future.

The US Department of Energy is not going to be eliminated, as promoted by several Republican contenders for the Presidential nomination.

Detroit and the auto industry did not go bankrupt, and will not go bankrupt, causing the loss of possibly a million or more jobs.

The DREAM Act, allowing a future for the children of illegal immigrants, who cannot be blamed for being brought to America, is assured over the long term.

All of the above could have been different IF Mitt Romney and the Republicans had won the election, but they did not!

Other points could have been made, and were made by this author in the first days after the election, but it is still so thrilling to hear Rachel Maddow in this commercial, no matter how many times it is broadcast!

America is so much better off because of the reelection of Barack Obama!