Mitt Romney

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

Ronald 3 Comments

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!

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

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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

Ronald 1 Comment

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!

The Fox News Channel-Google Republican Debate: More Of The Same!

Ronald 1 Comment

The third Republican debate in two weeks in Orlando, Florida, witnessed no surprises, as Rick Perry and Mitt Romney remained the clear front runners, but it seemed to the author that Romney may have made some headway and gained on Perry, as a result of Romney’s strong responses to various Perry challenges, and Perry’s seeming inability to look directly at Romney while speaking!

The race still seems to be primarily between those two men, but again Jon Huntsman gave some strong answers, and his sudden surge in New Hampshire to third place in percentage of poll support behind Romney and Perry makes him someone worth watching. It was clear to the author of this blog that Huntsman is, in many ways, the most interesting candidate in the race, someone to watch!

The only other candidate who came across strongly was Newt Gingrich, who is obviously very smart and knowledgeable. If that were all that could be said about Gingrich, he would be in good stead, but his own shortcomings and ethical and moral lapses weaken him as a candidate, while making one realize that in pure intellect, he is at the top of the list!

Rick Santorum came across as worse just by his stated desire to reverse “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, adding to his “gay” problem which has dogged him all along, and led to his name becoming a synonym for a sex act, all due to his own fault and total obsession with homosexuality.

Michele Bachmann was more on the offensive against Perry, the person who has most weakened her since he entered the race over a month ago, but did not seem to gain at all in her quest to be taken seriously again. And her suggestion that Americans should not have to pay taxes, keep all their money, was totally ridiculous!

Ron Paul came across as what he is, a libertarian, but despite polls, cannot be seen as having a real shot at the nomination of a party which dislikes much of what he believes in.

Herman Cain gained sympathy over the revelation that he had survived for five years since having stage 4 colon and liver cancer, but quite frankly, made one wonder about the wisdom of a person running for President with such a medical past. The miracle of five years survival is wonderful, but makes one worry whether he would survive long enough to serve a full presidential term.

Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, first time in the presidential debate, offered humor with some answers, but his strict libertarianism, competing with Ron Paul, came across as more whacky than even Paul, and is a minor figure in the race, good for libertarians, but enough to convince anyone that libertarianism is not where America should be heading!

So again, in conclusion, Romney gained, Perry may have lost some traction, and Huntsman seemed stronger and someone not to be disregarded.

No one made an impression that would make one want to say goodbye to Barack Obama in the White House!

The Ongoing Civil War In The Republican Party: Similar To 1964 Goldwater-Rockefeller Race?

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A recent CNN poll demonstrates the chasm that exists in the Republican Party, as the 2012 Presidential campaign comes on the scene more every day.

The demographics, ideology, and temperament of the two warring groups creates a real problem for their future. By 51-49, the majority do NOT support the Tea Party Movement, and can be seen as “Establishment” Republicans.

The Tea Party Republicans are older, more educated, and more male, while the Establishment Republicans are more likely female, less educated, younger, and less likely to be evangelical Christians.

The Tea Party Republicans are more angry about how things are working out in the country. And they are more concerned about the deficit; more likely not to believe science in regards to global warming and evolution; more likely to believe in the abolition of the Department of Education; more skeptical about abortion and gay marriage; more critical of the Federal Reserve Board; and more likely to think social security needs to be changed.

The Establishment Republicans want a candidate who can defeat President Obama, and less concerned about purity in principles.

Realistically, the Tea Party Republicans favor Rick Perry or Michele Bachmann, although some like Rick Santorum, Ron Paul or Herman Cain.

The Establishment Republicans strongly support Mitt Romney, or possibly Jon Huntsman, as legitimate candidates

So the present Perry-Romney frontrunner battle in many ways represents a similar battle to that of Barry Goldwater and Nelson Rockefeller in 1964!

The Republican Culture: Death, Hate, Selfishness, Lack Of Compassion!

Ronald 2 Comments

The Republican Party, in its mad dash to the far Right with Texas Governor Rick Perry in the lead, is demonstrating its ugly side, arguably the most despicable agenda since the creation of the party in the Civil War era!

Always a major backer of corporations and the rich upper class, the party always maintained some sanity, and while not promoting the social safety net as a principle, we saw members of the party in different northern states and in Congress who worked in unison with Democrats to support the Progressive Era reforms, the New Deal, and the Great Society, and reforms under Richard Nixon.

The one time the party went this far to the Right, they suffered a massive defeat under Barry Goldwater a half century ago. When Ronald Reagan became President on much of the Goldwater agenda, he managed to work across the party lines and take away the rough edges of the right wing, mouthing support but not pursing much of their agenda.

But now with the advent of the Tea Party loonies, the party is adopting a new culture, that should sicken any civilized, decent American citizen!

Unfortunately, as witnessed at the recent Republican debates in California and Florida, there are many Americans who fail to act and believe in a dignified manner of behavior!

Now death, in the form of capital punishment endorsement and advocacy of letting people without health insurance die, has been endorsed enthusiastically by right wing Republican whackos!

Now, hate of illegal immigrants and their children, and wishes to deny them basic education, health care and ability to work and contribute to American society, is endorsed wholeheartedly!

Now, selfishness, including desire to destroy labor organizing, and lack of respect and appreciation of the contributions of public workers, including police officers, firefighters, prison guards, teachers, nurses, librarians, social workers and others is endorsed!

Lack of compassion for the poor, the sick, the disabled, the elderly, and for minority groups in America is hailed as a virtue!

One day, when this sickness in the psyche of the Republican Party is finally expunged, we will look back on this period with shock and regret, and wonder why a major political party would allow itself to engage in such insane behavior!

The great Republican heroes of the past–Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan–would be shocked and embarrassed by what the party has allowed itself to become!

But even the lesser Republican Presidents–William Howard Taft, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush–would, and in the case of the two Bushes, are very disturbed at what their party has become. This is the reason why Jon Huntsman and Mitt Romney are seen as mainstream by the Bush family, and why they are clearly against the horrible message of Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann!

Even the great heroes of the conservative Republican movement in the past–Robert Taft and Barry Goldwater–were not as ugly as these Tea Party Republicans are today!

Hopefully, this poison in the political debate going on, will be soundly defeated in 2012, by sane, intelligent people, who realize what the Tea Party control of the GOP has done is to make America far worse off than it was just nine months ago when they took power in the House of Representatives and declared war on basic values of decency!

Tom Ridge Endorsement Of Jon Huntsman An Interesting Development In Light Of Poor Poll Performance of Huntsman: Is There Still Hope For Mainstream Republicans?

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The endorsement today of Jon Huntsman, former Utah Governor and Ambassador to China, for the Republican Presidential nomination, by former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge, who also was our first head of the Homeland Security Department under President George W. Bush, is an interesting, and possibly revealing, development!

With Huntsman so low in the polls, only one or two percent, and in danger of being eliminated from future Republican debates as a result, it would seem odd that Ridge, a reputable moderate, would bother endorsing him, when it seems like a lost cause.

But, as has been said earlier in other posts, one must remember that John McCain in 2007 and John Kerry in 2003 looked hopeless at this point of those Presidential campaigns, and instead, Howard Dean and Wesley Clark in 2004 and Rudy Guiliani and Fred Thompson in 2008 looked like the favorites as rivals for the Presidential nominations of their parties.

So to assume that Rick Perry and Mitt Romney might be the frontrunners all the way is a major gamble in many ways!

With Huntsman easily the best candidate in the race, and with solid foreign policy credentials that no one else has, it might be said that former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty’s endorsement of Romney, and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval endorsements of Perry might be a major blunder!

Again, IF the GOP nominates Huntsman, and fights the Tea Party influence, they have a golden opportunity to defeat Barack Obama! If not, it is a lost cause in an almost certain way!

Rick Perry: Dangerous For The Republican Party And America’s Future! He Must Be Stopped!

Ronald 1 Comment

Texas Governor Rick Perry may have flubbed a bit in his debate performance in Tampa on Monday, but he remains the front runner for the Republican Presidential nomination as of today, and it is looking more likely that he really could end up as the nominee of the party of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Eisenhower, and Reagan!

This is dangerous for the party and the nation, as Perry has many shortcomings, as well as dangerous aspects in his background and viewpoints!

For the party, Perry represents a threat to the Establishment Republicans, the middle, the mainstream of the party in the past, and gives power to the extremists of the Tea Party Movement!

With Jon Huntsman apparently floundering, even though the author feels he came across very well in the past two debates, the only hope in the field of candidates is Mitt Romney, with all of his shortcomings and faults, but it will not be easy to overcome the Tea Party takeover of the party!

One could say that if the party nominates Perry, they will lose, and that will be, therefore, only their problem as to how to recover from a disastrous defeat in 2012.

But with the economy so bad right now, the idea is starting to develop that maybe, just maybe, Barack Obama COULD lose in 2012, giving us President Perry, and possibly a Tea Party Congress, enough to make one hysterical and give one nightmares, and the purpose here is NOT to joke, but be very serious!

Were Perry to win, we would face the following, with and without a Tea Party majority in Congress:

1. We would have a President who is not very smart, not very curious to learn, not open to new ideas, very rigid in his right wing beliefs, unwilling to compromise, arrogant, cocky, with a swagger about him, and not willing to be transparent in his activities in the White House!

2. We would have a complete takeover of right wing conservatism, leading to total deregulation, cutting of taxes even further on the rich, attempts to destroy several government agencies or make them ineffective in their work, and resulting in widespread corruption due to “cronyism”!

3. We would have a President who would be arrogant toward the outside world, create crises and possible interventions in other countries, and boast about “American exceptionalism”, undermining relations even with our allies and friends around the world.! The neoconservative view of foreign policy would dominate.

4. Civil Liberties would be violated worse than any President in modern times, and civil rights enforcement for Latinos, African Americans, women and gays would end!

5. We would see a theocracy develop, as Rick Perry would constantly invoke Jesus Christ, talk about God and religion more than any President, including Woodrow Wilson, Jimmy Carter, and George W. Bush, and promote as much combination of church and state as one can imagine might happen.

6. The economy would NOT get better, and instead we would have more poverty, deprivation, and human suffering, similar to the reality in Texas under Governor Perry.

7. War would be declared on environmentalists, and scientists, in the name of industry and religion, undermining our education system nationally, as well as our health care programs.

8. Justice and fairness in the law would be undermined, as capital punishment would become a virtue, and the courts, including the Supreme Court, would become the most right wing in American history since the Gilded Age of the late 19th century.

9. The goal of a Perry Administration would be the destruction of Social Security, Medicare, and all other social safety net programs, and basically the repeal of the Progressive Era of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Great Society of Lyndon B. Johnson, and the other reforms under Richard Nixon in the early 1970s.

10. Fundamentally, America would go back a full century to the Gilded Age, with the total or near total repeal of the 20th century, which made America the envy of the free world!

This is serious stuff here, no joking, and all efforts must be made in the Republican Party to defeat Rick Perry, and if that fails, and even if it succeeds, do everything necessary to reelect Barack Obama as the only hope for moving forward in the second decade of the 21st century!

First Impressions Of CNN-Tea Party Express Debate In Tampa, Florida

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It will take some time to analyze and interpret the CNN-Tea Party Express debate just completed in Tampa, Florida, this evening.

But first impressions include the following thoughts:

1. The debate was much more vigorous and challenging than any earlier debate, with excellent questions asked by all who had the opportunity, including the moderator, Wolf Blitzer of The Situation Room on CNN.
2. The reactions of the Tea Party audience were quite horrifying and scary, and to imagine a majority of the nation having these views and voting them into the White House is enough to encourage nightmares! These people as a group are very reactionary, mean spirited, self centered people, well dressed and making it clear that they do not want to feel any responsibility to society, but only to their own selfish interests. This is a guarantee of anarchy ahead as America faces a future quite different than the overwhelmingly white, older age, comfortable upper middle and wealthy class of citizens.that showed up at this debate!
3. Rick Perry came under sustained attack, held his own quite well, making very few concessions, but still can no longer be seen as a guaranteed front runner in the Presidential race.
4. Mitt Romney was also under attack, and held his own better than Perry, and remains a serious challenger for the duration, but not well liked by the Tea Party crowd.
5. Jon Huntsman again performed very well, but faced, as Romney did, a unsympathetic audience, but his answers were solid and mostly good in content, even if one did not agree with all of them.
6. Ron Paul gave some great responses if one was a libertarian, and received some applause, but also some strong boos when he condemned US foreign policy.
7. Michele Bachmann recovered from a lackadaisical performance in the last debate, strongly criticizing Rick Perry,and must be seen in a more serious light with her recovery in this debate.
8.Rick Santorum also improved, going on the offensive against Rick Perry, and must be seen in a more serious light than before.
9. Newt Gingrich gave some strong condemnations of Barack Obama, and showed his usual intelligence, but it is doubtful that he gained much overall in this debate.
10. Herman Cain was the least impressive of the eight candidates, and cannot be seen in any way as someone to watch, and his lack of government experience is a major negative.

So overall, Huntsman, Bachmann, and Santorum probably gained the most, while Perry and Romney held their lead. Paul got some sympathy support, but it is bound to go nowhere, and the same for Gingrich and no real gain for Cain.

It will be interesting to see how polls look at these eight candidates later this week, but to say it is strictly a Perry-Romney race is almost certainly incorrect.

Finally, if this debate does not convince Democrats, progressives, liberals, and Obama supporters, of the need to contribute to the campaign and work for Barack Obama with great devotion over the next 14 months, then nothing will!

This is a crisis for the nation, with a nightmarish alternative that must be seen as unacceptable! More will be said about this debate in future posts on this blog!

What The Tim Pawlenty Endorsement Of Mitt Romney Means For The GOP Presidential Race

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Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, the first dropout of the Presidential face in the Republican Party, has endorsed former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney for President, has agreed to be the national co-chair of his campaign, and will be at his side tonight as Romney participates in the fifth Republican Presidential debate in Tampa, Florida, which is sponsored by CNN and the Tea Party Express.

What does this mean?

1. It is the beginning of a concerted campaign to stop Texas Governor Rick Perry.
2. It is an attempt to draw the GOP toward the center of the political spectrum, away from right wing extremism.
3. It is an attempt to convince evangelical Christians and Tea Party activists, some of whom liked Pawlenty as a possible Presidential candidate, to come over to Romney.
4. It is an attempt to take away any possibility of Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann regaining support in Iowa,and elsewhere, as a fellow Minnesotan has firmly rejected her candidacy by endorsing Romney.
5. It is an attempt to weaken any hope of former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman somehow overtaking Romney and becoming the alternative to Perry.
6. It is also a veiled attempt of Pawlenty to remain in contention for the Vice Presidential nomination on a Romney ticket, a position he came close to gaining with John McCain in 2008, before the Arizona Senator made the fateful decision to select Sarah Palin.

So this endorsement and involvement in the Romney campaign by Pawlenty means a lot more than is obvious on the surface!

We shall see how the Pawlenty strategy works out, but clearly the GOP establishment is terrified at the thought of Rick Perry being the Republican nominee against President Barack Obama, seeing disaster ahead!