Presidential Campaign Of 2012

The Transportation Security Administration, Elderly Ladies, And Senator Rand Paul Of Kentucky

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One of the most despised federal agencies is the Transportation Security Administration, created after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.

A part of the Department of Homeland Security under Janet Napolitano, the TSA has shown total rigidity and a lack of common sense in its mission to prevent any chance of another September 11.

In theory, one cannot complain about the federal government doing everything it can to protect all of us who travel by air. But there is also such a thing as using one’s brains and recognizing preposterous situations.

Even going through a full body scan is seen by many people as dangerous healthwise and an invasion of privacy. But to demand a full body patdown for elderly ladies with equipment to allow them to travel without embarrassment of problems with their bodily functions, or for a United States Senator known to be a public figure, who shows he has no metal on his right leg, to be detained and prevented from flying is totally preposterous and is a policy totally insane.

One does not need to be a libertarian as Rand Paul is, to agree with him that invasion of privacy is out of control when it comes to flying. The TSA should be reformed to be flexible enough as to avoid ridiculous situations such as these examples.

This situation which has occurred with Rand Paul will probably promote his future political career on the national level, and indirectly, assist his father, Presidential candidate and Texas Congressman Ron Paul, to gain notice with the issues he believes in, particularly getting the government out of one’s personal and private life as much as possible!

Sarah Palin’s Advice To Christine O’Donnell: NOT Acceptable For A Presidential Campaign! :(

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Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who backed Christine O’Donnell’s campaign for the GOP Senate nomination in Delaware, yesterday advised O’Donnell on how to campaign for the Senate against Chris Coons!

On Fox News Channel, Palin stated that O’Donnell should only be willing to be interviewed by Fox, and refuse to answer questions or be interviewed by the mainstream media! Palin made it clear that she had come to that conclusion based on how she perceives herself treated by the mainstream media during the Presidential campaign of 2008!

This is a very interesting development in many ways!

First, Palin blames the mainstream media for making her a victim, when it is her own fault, being poorly prepared to run for Vice President, being evidently poorly informed and lacking in knowledge on very basic information and issues! Is it the fault of the media that she could not name a Supreme Court case or some of the sources of media that she claims to read? Is her inability to articulate anything clearly the fault of others, or her own fault? The answer is obvious! 🙁

Secondly, telling O’Donnell to refuse to answer questions and only agree to be interviewed by “friendly” media is an example, becoming more common among Republicans, conservatives and Tea Party Movement people! It is a level of arrogance that should NOT be rewarded! If someone wishes to be competing to be elected by the people, they have a a responsibility to answer challenging questions, show their level of knowledge and expertise, and agree to public debates! Just because they are made to feel uncomfortable or insecure does not give them the right to refuse to communicate with news media and the American public! 🙁

And thirdly if Sarah Palin, as rumored, intends to run for President, is she going to be able to refuse to debate her rivals, and later President Obama? Is she going to be able to refuse to answer questions from CNN, MSNBC, NBC, ABC, CBS, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, and numerous other media sources that she may not particularly admire? 🙁

The answer is NO, as if she wants to be our President, she CANNOT boycott questions and challenges! She NEEDS TO PROVE her competence, talents, and abilities to be our Commander in Chief!

So if she does not wish to do so, then stay at Fox News Channel, and be praised and glorified by Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, and Glenn Beck! Do more television series, deliver more speeches before admiring audiences, and publish more books, and make loads of money! But don’t expect us to elect you President without a full vetting of you, by friends AND by enemies! 🙁

Presidential Campaigning: Being A Former Officeholder The Best Strategy

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Campaigning for the Presidency is a full time and stressful job! Being an officeholder when running for President, therefore, complicates one’s candidacy, as it leads to accusations that the candidate is not paying attention to his job! Also, if any controversial bills or problems arise, that candidate’s reaction to the situation can complicate or destroy any advantage he or she has gained!

So more than ever, most presidential candidates will be FORMER officeholders! This trend became evident when Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan all ran for and won the Presidency!

If one looks at the field of potential GOP candidates for President in 2012, note the following are all FORMER officeholders:

Mitt Romney of Massachusetts (Governor)
Newt Gingrich of Georgia (Congressman)
Sarah Palin of Alaska (Governor)
Mike Huckabee of Arkansas (Governor)
Jeb Bush of Florida (Governor)
Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania (Senator)

Others that are rumored to be planning to run include officeholders who will not be running for reelection, either by choice or state law:

Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota (Governor)
Haley Barbour of Mississippi (Governor)

A few others considering or rumored to be running while staying in office include:

Bobby Jindal of Louisiana (Governor)
Mike Pence of Indiana (Congressman)
Mitch Daniels of Indiana (Governor)
Scott Brown of Massachusetts (Senator)
John Thune of South Dakota (Senator)
Ron Paul of Texas (Congressman)
Chris Christie of New Jersey (Governor)

So it is almost a certainty that the Republican nominee for President will be a former officeholder, with the time and the freedom to run a campaign without any work barriers on his or her part!

Sarah Palin: Earning Tons Of Money, But Learning Nothing! :(

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As Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post points out today, former Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska has become quite a star in the country, between her best selling book, her political appearances and endorsements, and her public speeches!

But what has NOT happened is a learning curve, the gaining of knowledge and facts about public affairs!

This is a woman who resists gaining information about public issues; has her own distorted view of reality; and loves to blame the media for her plight of being seen as a KNOW NOTHING, when it is all due to her own unwillingness to LEARN and become INFORMED, as any potential Presidential candidate must be!

Palin is milking the system as any good “capitalist” would do, earning an estimated $12 million so far this year, but she has done absolutely nothing to contribute anything positive or enlightening to public discourse! She has her “fans”, and knows how to play to the “crowd” for her own financial enrichment, but she utilizes “applause lines” without realizing that she often has a detrimental effect on dealing with the many public problems we face!

Rather than having an open mind, she is only comfortable in interviews on her sponsoring news channel, Fox News! She avoids interviews with anyone considered mainstream, or those who might challenge her world view or her ego!

To imagine such a vacuous individual as a serious presidential candidate, or God forbid, as our President is enough to engender nightmares, and this is not said to promote laughter, but serious consideration by the Republican party! This is not an issue of being “fair”! It is an issue of considering the interests and security of the American people!

We are NOT a nation who can experiment with someone who has less curiosity and interest than the average community college student or high school graduate! We NEED the BEST among us to lead our nation, not the so called “average Joe or Sally”! 🙁

A Nightmare Scenario: Dick Cheney Being Encouraged To Seek The Presidency In 2012!

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An independent group has formed, attempting to draft former Vice President Dick Cheney to seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2012.

The argument is that Cheney has the experience, the knowledge, and commitment to conservative values needed to lead this country, and that he far outshadows any other GOP potential nominee for the White House.

In a purely realistic sense, the group is actually correct. There is no one with the background and expertise that Cheney gained in eight years in the White House, intimately involved in many of the Bush Presidency decisions, and believed by many to be either an informal “co President”, or even wielding presidential power at several points of the Bush term.

Also, Cheney had great experience and skills gained from being Secretary of Defense under the first President Bush, being a leader of the GOP in the House, and being a very young Chief of Staff to President Ford.

It is not an issue of qualification or ability to do the job that is the center of the matter.

Rather, very much like Richard Nixon, it is a question of who would want a person of Cheney’s personality and manner to be our President. Like with Nixon with many people, the thought of a Cheney Presidency is terrifying!

Cheney represents all the worst instincts a leader could have: no concern about domestic affairs except for the interests of the wealthy upper class; a confrontational attitude in foreign and military policy committed to war overseas; an arrogant, secretive personality who does not care about the media or public opinion; a willingness to violate civil liberties and promote torture and crack down on any social progressivism; and an alliance with the most right wing extremist movements that exist in the nation, and are right now attempting to make impossible any success for the Obama Administration.

Dick Cheney is a mean, grouchy, nasty leader who has no concern about how he is perceived, and a Cheney Presidency would be the ultimate abuse of power, and with a GOP Congressional majority possibility, would be a regression back to the Gilded Age and the 1920s!

God forbid such a scenario could emerge! 🙁

Competing Jobs Summits: Barack Obama And Newt Gingrich

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President Obama is holding a Jobs Summit, with representatives of business, labor, and academia next month, but will be upstaged to some extent by Jobs Summits being held in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Jackson, Mississippi, a day earlier and the same day as the White House Summit.

The promoter of these competing Jobs Summits is none other than former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who is also flirting with a Presidential candidacy in 2012. Gingrich is trying to offer an alternative to the administration’s plans, which he calls inadequate and wrong headed.

Gingrich also has plans to hold additional summits next year as the political heat rises for the midterm election. This is just another indication of the rapidly accelerating presidential race in the Republican party, as numerous candidates make their case, and even talk show hosts get into the fray! 🙂

Rick Santorum Flirts With A Presidential Run

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Former Republican Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, who lost his reelection race to Bob Casey by 18 points in 2006, is visiting Iowa, Michigan, and South Carolina as he flirts with a 2012 Presidential run.

A very conservative senator, who was vehemently pro life and anti gay rights in his years in the Senate, Santorum was thought to be a possible candidate in 2008 until he lost his Senate seat after 12 years, capped by a statement that if gay marriage came about, the next thing would be that a man would marry his dog–that bestiality would become legal.

Making such a statement made him look ridiculous and also quite nutty, and Pennsylvania gave him a walloping defeat, but apparently his ego is such that he thinks the country needs him, so he will join a long list of potential nominees, certainly making the 2012 race ever more interesting!

Oh No! Is This For Real? Lou Dobbs For President?

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On top of Glenn Beck exploring organizing for political action in 2010 and 2012, interpreted by many as considering running for President himself, now we have a much more bold move by Lou Dobbs, late of CNN!

Dobbs told two talk show hosts, including former Senator Fred Thompson of Tennessee, himself a presidential possibility in 2008, that he is considering a Presidential candidacy!

Imagine this: Now two talk show hosts, both extremely divisive and confrontational in tone, are flirting with a Presidential campaign! Have we gone totally bonkers when talk shows hosts who have no desire but to feed their own ego, and who have less government experience than Sarah Palin, are moving toward involvement in the next Presidential election?

Can one imagine Lou Dobbs making illegal immigration the center of his campaign, and Glenn Beck exploiting the insecurities of his listeners, competing for votes? They would have to attack each other, as well as promote demagoguery on a massive scale.

Is this what America has come to, that it leans on ideological talk show hosts who are out to enrich themselves, as serious presidential possibilities? This potential will make the election campaign of 2012 even more weird than having Sarah Palin considering a run. It is absolutely amazing what the “land of opportunity” that is the United States has become!