Newt Gingrich

Donald Trump: The Phony Presidential Candidate Opens Up On The Republican Party!

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Donald Trump was a phony presidential possibility for the Republican Party, someone that anyone who was really paying attention well realized.

But now that Trump has bowed out, he has come clean on his views on the GOP!

Now he criticizes the Paul Ryan budget plan, including Medicare privatization, something that caused grief for Newt Gingrich!

He also attacked House Majority Leader Eric Cantor for putting conditions on aid to tornado and flood victims in the South and Midwest, requiring spending cuts to offer such aid.

As horrible and outrageous as Trump is, he at least is ringing some basic truth about the GOP: It is a heartless, anti government party which wishes to govern only for the elite and the powerful, and does not give a damn about ordinary citizens, whether seniors, the young, the poor, single mothers, the disabled, or minorities!

Tim Pawlenty: Another George W. Bush On Tax Policy?

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Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty has been considered a serious, if dark horse, Presidential nominee. Many people have seen him as having fewer faults, and as avoiding ridiculous or outrageous statements or actions, and therefore as having a good shot at the nomination, even though he tends to be quite boring and uninspiring!

But even if he is seen as better than Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Sarah Palin, and Michele Bachmann, and put into the short list with Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman, Pawlenty this week destroyed any illusion that he could be President, by demonstrating total irresponsibility on the tax and spending issue!

Pawlenty sounds like a second George W. Bush, who cut taxes, put us into two wars not paid for in Iraq and Afghanistan, and started a Medicare Prescription plan unpaid for by tax increases. Bush doubled our national debt, and there had been a $3 trillion surplus when Bill Clinton left the Presidency!

On the tenth anniversary of the first Bush tax cuts, which made the rich richer and the poor poorer and the middle class disintegrate, Pawlenty came up with an economic plan strangely reminiscent of Bush.

He argues for further tax cuts and further spending cuts, and claimed there would be a five percent economic growth rate annually under his plan, because cuts in taxes on corporations and the wealthy would create new economic activity!

The problem is that this policy of Bush did exactly the opposite, and with lack of regulation, led to the Great Recession, which is still existing in many ways, if not officially.

So Pawlenty has learned nothing, and shown himself to be totally reckless and delusional, all to gain support of the right wing of the GOP, but not the way to win the nation, which is suffering still today from the failed Bush policies.

So, just like that, Pawlenty’s likelihood of success is lessened, and leaves rational thinkers to feel that only Mitt Romney or Jon Huntsman makes any sense, assuming the Republican Party regains its senses!

The Newt Gingrich Implosion: Unprecedented Event!

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Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich has just witnessed the total implosion of his Presidential campaign!

Having already caused an uproar when he criticized Congressman Paul Ryan’s budget plan, including privatization of Medicare, and then backing off and apologizing, he then proceeded to take a two week vacation with his wife, an odd thing for a Presidential candidate to do.

And his staff became totally disillusioned, and en masse, they resigned this week, an unheard of action so early in a Presidential campaign!

So Gingrich, who was rated, anyway, as having very little opportunity to be the nominee, can now be considered someone to forget, even though he seemed unperturbed by what has happened, and claimed he will fight on to victory.

This collapse and mutiny is unprecedented, and Gingrich is delusional, much like Sarah Palin, Rick Santorum, and Michele Bachmann, as none of them can seen as serious candidates for the Presidency.

We are witnessing lots of entertainment, but no substance, from many of the GOP candidates, or potential ones. So even in the midst of bad economic times, can anyone in their sane mind, believe that the Republicans can win the Presidency?

The War Between The Women Begins: Michele Bachmann Vs. Sarah Palin!

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One of the most interesting aspects of the upcoming Republican nomination race for President is the growing indications of a holy war developing between Congresswoman Michele Bachmann of Minnesota and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

Both women have absolutely NO chance of being the GOP nominee against Barack Obama, and were either to be the nominee, it would be a total wipeout of an election. But both women could add a lot of color and interest to the race, and both are ambitious and aggressive enough to go after each other in Iowa, the site of the first voters in the caucus in early February 2012.

While it still seems unlikely that Sarah Palin will announce for President, it is clear that Michele Bachmann intends to enter the race, and has hired Ed Rollins, who worked for Mike Huckabee in 2008, and also worked in the Reagan White House long ago, and is seen as a keen political strategist.

Both women have made fools of themselves by their statements and actions, but at least Michele Bachmann has had a real impact on her party in the House of Representatives, while Sarah Palin failed to finish her term, and has become regarded as even more of a joke than Bachmann.

It will be interesting to see how these two women go after each other, and the hints are already there, with Rollins being very critical of Palin, and Palin’s top advisers shooting back, so imagine what will happen if both are involved in the heat of debate and the whole election process!

Comedy relief will be there, even if only one runs for President, but if both compete in Iowa, it will have a deleterious effect on Tim Pawlenty, Newt Gingrich, and Rick Santorum, as well as Herman Cain, all competing with both women for the strong social conservative numbers in the Iowa caucuses.

What it comes down to is Iowa will have no effect on the nomination contest, and the two who have no chance in Iowa, Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman, will be the beneficiaries!

Rick Santorum: An Embarrassment And A Fool Of A Candidate For President!

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The Republican Party has a group of Presidential or probable Presidential candidates who are embarrassments and fools at the same time, and anyone who is rational, knows who they are: Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, and Rick Santorum!

All have made unbelievable statements based on nothing but ignorance and propaganda, and all are expecting the nation to consider them seriously for President, with any of the four being a total disaster were they to seize control of the party apparatus for the 2012 election!

The latest blunder is that of Santorum, who already has a horrible reputation as a “holier than thou” social conservative, who is seen as the biggest of all enemies of the gay community since the Lawrence V. Texas Supreme Court decision, and has had the misfortune of a gay activist, Dan Savage, spreading a new meaning of his last name, referring to anal sex.

As a family values candidate, however, Santorum has the responsibility to be accurate in his statements, and he is, instead, reckless in his assertions.

His newest error of many is his assertion that June 6, 1944, the day of the D Day invasion at Normandy, France, which led to the end of World War II in Europe within a year, was based on fighting for freedom, which includes the defeat of “ObamaCare”!

What an outrage, and a sign of yet ANOTHER GOP candidate for President who is ignorant or reckless with American history, joining Palin, Bachmann, and Gingrich!

It is sad that every time Santorum opens his mouth, stupidity and ignorance show through, and he has no shame in any of the rhetoric he utters!

The battle for the Republican Presidential nomination is going to be a long, difficult road with many outrages ahead until maybe sanity rules by early to mid 2012, instead of the four fools mentioned above!

Sarah Palin: Ignorance Of American History Reaffirmed!

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Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who has just finished a so called Heritage Tour of historic sites, and in the process stole the thunder of Mitt Romney on the day of his Presidential candidacy announcement in New Hampshire, has proved once again what a fool and idiot she is, and how poorly educated she really is!

Having already made many statements in the past that are totally false, including that the Russians won the space race for the moon in the 1960s, now Palin has claimed that Paul Revere conducted his famous ride in April 1775 to warn the British of the patriots being ready to fight for their freedom!

What a preposterous statement, totally untrue, and verified by historians, including Douglas Brinkley, and yet she continues to insist that she is correct, and knows her American history!

One has to wonder how such an individual, who comes across as a moron, has any possibility of winning the GOP nomination, when even if one disagrees with Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, and Jon Huntsman, the serious candidates in the race, at least one can respect their views and knowledge, even if one cannot see supporting them for President. At least one can imagine any of the above three as potential Presidents, which cannot be said for Palin, Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, and Rick Santorum, all of whom have made preposterous, loony, crazy statements that are, factually, totally incorrect!

If Sarah Palin claims to understand American history, then it might be a statement on how history is taught in Alaska!

Should America Care If Sarah Palin Runs For President? NO!

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We are in the silly season again, but not it is not Donald Trump playing games with us about running for President. Lawrence O’Donnell of MSNBC correctly predicted early on that Trump would NOT run for President, and that lots of media time was being wasted on him!

Instead, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who has never finished any political office she was appointed or elected to, is playing games with the American people, announcing a bus tour of historic sites in the Northeast, including Antietam, Gettysburg, Philadelphia and ending up in New Hampshire, the site of the first primary in the Presidential Election of 2012.

Lawrence O’Donnell has again told us to stop wasting our time speculating about Palin, as he says, just like Trump, she will NOT run for President in the end. This is excellent advice from a wise commentator, and makes total sense.

As the author has stated in earlier entries on this blog, Palin does not have the intellectual capacity to take on the burdens of becoming President, and it is likely that were she to occupy the Oval Office, the country would be put into great danger, and she might very well get up and leave suddenly, fulfilling her life story of quitting when things get tough or the criticism becomes heavy.

This woman is a mental case, who should never have been given a platform by John McCain in 2008. She is mediocrity at its worst, an example of an ignorant, stupid, petty, lazy woman, with a sense of entitlement, who exploits everyone around her, as shown by two recent books about her.

As O’Donnell stated, if Fox News Channel really believed Sarah Palin was planning to run, they would have removed her from the channel, as they did with Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, but failed to do with Mike Huckabee, who ended up not running, and Palin. She is not about to give up a regular network show and the money that she makes doing it, and getting lots of exposure to boot, which she craves.

Also, she can make speeches all over the place and have a reality television show and publish two books, and become wealthy in just a few years, enough to afford a mansion in Arizona, meaning the “good life”!

Why would she want to subject her family to the exposure that she herself has condemned as unfair to their happiness and privacy?

Why would she wish to run and face defeat and repudiation, and lose some of her magic hold on the one third of the nation which adores her?

If she runs and loses the nomination, she is damaged goods, and will never have the same allure as someone who MIGHT run!

Why would she run when she has shown she is extremely sensitive to criticism or analysis, and refuses to be interviewed by the mainstream media?

Would she wish to be blamed for the destruction of the Republican Party, and go down in history as having caused its demise?

By hinting she might run, she can exploit the situation and make loads of money and get attention, but eventually, just as with Trump, she will decide that she has milked it for all it is worth, and it is time to trim her sails and go back to the “good life” John McCain has given her by putting her on the map of politics!

It is clear that Sarah Palin will NOT run, but if she does, she will destroy the Republican Party, and be condemned in history for what she has done! Don’t hold your breath that she is running, because you will die first!

Bald Faced Lies Of Republican Presidential Candidates: Tim Pawlenty, Mitt Romney And All Others!

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Tim Pawlenty entered the race for the GOP Presidential nomination in Iowa, stating that we must face the truth about the future, and used the word “truth” 16 times in his declaration statement.

But then he was faced with the fact that he has not been telling the truth about his view of the role of government, as in 2006, while Governor of Minnesota, he said the era of small government was over and that the government needed to be aggressive in pursuit of the regulation of corporations and other special interests, while being interviewed by the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

This made him sound “progressive” in his views then, but NOW he is competing for the conservative and Tea Party vote, and trying to make it out as if he was always of the view of limited government and deregulation. So the fact is that Tim Pawlenty is LYING, and has been caught in it!

But then, Mitt Romney has also been shown to be a liar, not only regarding his own Health Care Reform in Massachusetts, which he is actively backing away from, but also in his statement through a spokesman today that the fact that Chrysler and General Motors have become profitable and been able to repay their government loans, is due to the fact that he advocated government aid in 2009, taking credit for what President Obama authorized.

But actually, in 2009, in a newspaper article in the New York Times, he specifically said to let “Detroit fail”! So how can he now take credit for something he never supported, but now claims he endorsed?

Add to this even Jon Huntsman’s reversal on the Health Care law and climate change, and his endorsement of the Paul Ryan Medicare law, which after the disaster in NY 26 yesterday, don’t be surprised if he also reverses on that issue!

It could be argued that ALL politicians switch views and lie, but to have so many examples among the three leading candidates this early, is a sign of the problems the Republican party faces in 2012!

And don’t forget, this is not including the flawed candidacies of “also rans”, such as Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Michele Bachmann, and Sarah Palin.

And the hints are now emerging that Sarah Palin may actually decide to run, having, apparently, bought a home in Arizona with her millions in lecture fees and book royalties; the coming out this summer of a laudatory documentary about her, making her out to be a victim who has great virtues; and counterattack beginning with two new books which set out to destroy her reputation and competence, and show her to be a LIAR her whole political life, a total PHONY!

So instead of the old film entitled “Lies, Sex and Videotape”, for the Republican Party, the title should be “Lies, Republicans, and Videotape”!

The Internal Struggle In The Republican Party: Minnesota Vs. Mormonism!

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With the announcement today that Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels will not run for the Republican Presidential nomination, the race seems more than ever to be one of FOUR who are likely to dominate vote getting in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada, the early primary and caucus states next winter!

As one looks at the field, it seems clear that Newt Gingrich has self destructed in his first week as an official candidate. Rick Santorum seems unlikely to take off as a candidate, based on his own past crazy statements and walloping defeat for re-election in Pennsylvania in 2006. Herman Cain, Gary Johnson, and even Ron Paul, will make noise, but are unlikely to poll many actual votes.

So unless someone such as Chris Christie or Jeb Bush suddenly enters the race belatedly, there seem to be four major contenders for actual popular vote support in the primaries and the caucuses early on–Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, Jon Huntsman, and surprisingly, Michele Bachmann!

Bachmann is the favorite of the Tea Party people, more even than Ron Paul, who is seen as too old and flaky to be much of a vote getter. Even though she is outrageous in her statements and actions, Bachmann is likely to have a serious following in Iowa at the least, and could affect who of the other candidates benefits by her candidacy.

Bachmann, being from Minnesota, and therefore from the Midwest, poses a real challenge to former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, who has been very careful to avoid outrageous statements and actions, and yet is competing for the Tea Party support and for the backing of Midwesterners. Iowa is a crucial state to both, so they are therefore at loggerheads as Bachmann could ruin Pawlenty’s chances. So expect the beginning soon of sustained attacks by each on the other, and increasingly so, as the campaign gets closer to the first vote test in Iowa, which has many evangelical Christians and Tea Party people, and will likely kill off either Bachmann or Pawlenty. So it is the battle of Minnesotan vs. Minnesotan!

But the 2012 race is also of Mormon vs. Mormon, as Jon Huntsman, former Governor of Utah, and seen as a moderate to some extent, is challenging Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, who is also often seen as a moderate. Both are working very hard to wipe such ideas out of voters’ minds, as both oppose health care and support Medicare reform along the lines of the Paul Ryan Budget plan. Both are much more electible on paper, but being Mormons and having the old image of moderation could harm both, and certainly, one will be hurt by the success of the other.

What is likely is that the nomination will come down to Pawlenty vs. one of the two Mormon politicians, with Huntsman being newer and fresher and more interesting a candidate.

So the final struggle is likely to be Pawlenty vs. Huntsman, and it would seem likely that Pawlenty would have the edge, but only if he can overcome the influence of Bachmann with Tea Party faithful.

For the election, Huntsman or even Romney would be a better bet to win than Pawlenty, but the Tea Party influence is such that the bet would be that Pawlenty will be the sacrificial lamb, with the likelihood that Barack Obama would win a major victory, possibly on the level of George H. W. Bush over Michael Dukakis in 1988!

The Silly Season Is Here: Republicans Look To Michele Bachmann And Rick Perry? Give Us A Break!

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With the withdrawal of Mike Huckabee and Haley Barbour, the implosion of Newt Gingrich, the fake campaign of Donald Trump, and the decision of Mike Pence and John Thune to stay out of the Republican Presidential campaign, the GOP is running scared, that they feel as if they have no roots or substantial possibility of challenging President Barack Obama in 2012.

So, grasping at straws, attention is being paid to Michele Bachmann, the loony Congresswoman from Minnesota, and Rick Perry, the secessionist oriented Governor of Texas, as people to flirt with and encourage to enter the race.

The fact is though, whether Bachmann or Perry enter the race, neither has the slightest chance to win the GOP Presidential nomination. Were either to actually win the nomination, the result would be such a landslide defeat for the Republicans, that it would match the 1964 Barry Goldwater candidacy.

As reiterated constantly by this author, the only reasonable candidates left are Mitt Romney, Jon Huntsman, and Tim Pawlenty, as Mitch Daniels, Jeb Bush and Chris Christie are not going to enter the race by any estimation. When one hears Republicans act as if Obama is an easy challenge to defeat, one has to wonder at the hallucinations going on in GOP circles!