Rick Santorum

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!

Coming Back From Vacation, And Plenty To Comment On!

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Having just come back from an enjoyable week in Montreal and Quebec City, there is plenty to comment on, as politics never takes a vacation!

Sarah Palin, Rick Santorum, Anthony Weiner, and Evan Bayh lead the charge, and they just prove how entertaining and frustrating American politics has become! It is theater, and one just needs to shake his head, and laugh, while feeling an urge to put a muzzle on these political leaders, who demonstrate such poor judgment, and make one wonder why any of them should imagine that they should be President or Mayor of New York City, or even Governors, Senators, and Congressmen!

So now, one can count on regular, daily updates on the political battles, starting shortly after this entry is published! Enjoy reading and commenting at your pleasure!

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!

Why Newt Gingrich Is A Horrible Candidate For The Presidency

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Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has faced literal Hell this week from members of his own Republican Party for his MEET THE PRESS interview this past Sunday, where he criticized the Paul Ryan budget plan, including radical changes in Medicare, and called for the individual mandate, exactly what he believed in the 1990s, and which Barack Obama made part of his Health Care reform plans last year.

His chances to be the nominee of his party for the Presidency seem to have been destroyed by his statements, but actually there are better, more substantive reasons for him to be passed by for the Presidential nomination.

1. Gingrich is a “loose cannon”, who has no discipline and will say anything he thinks of immediately after thinking about it! As a result, he is often seen as a “firebomb thrower”, and that is no recommendation for the nation’s highest office.

2. Gingrich has a horrible moral record, in relation to the cheating he committed on TWO WIVES, and being married three times. He was condemning Bill Clinton while he was engaged in extramarital relations himself during the impeachment debacle of 1998-1999.

3. The fact that it has been discovered that he owes back taxes and is very loose with money and credit makes one state that is not a credential we want in a future President.

4. Gingrich has few friends in politics, even in his own party, with basically no one coming to his defense. He is seen as a supreme egotist, who has no loyalty to anything but his own aggrandizement and glory. He would be involved in constant conflict with his own party, as well as the Democrats, because he would be stubborn and inflexible.

5. In foreign policy, he would cause international crises and “bad blood”, as he does not have an ounce of diplomacy in his approach to those who disagree with him.

6. It is difficult to say that Gingrich has any basic principles or beliefs, as he has so often changed his views to fit the moment, and in any case, he is certainly not, by his historical record, a small national government man, which is the view of the present Republican Party and the Tea Party Movement.

7. Being a professor in his past, being an “ideas man” and an intellectual, may be seen by some as positives, but in the modern GOP, those are all disadvantages and turnoffs. He often seems to be lecturing, rather than speaking to his audiences.

So it is clear that the chances of Newt Gingrich being the Presidential nominee and even the winner of the Oval Office are as likely as the chances of Gary Johnson, Herman Cain, Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin, Ron Paul, and Rick Santorum.

It still comes down to the reality that the next Republican nominee is almost certainly going to be from Mitt Romney, Jon Huntsman, or Tim Pawlenty, with Pawlenty, despite his low public opinion ratings, seen as having the fewest negatives of the three.

And don’t expect Mitch Daniels of Indiana, Jeb Bush of Florida, Rick Perry of Texas, and Chris Christie of New Jersey to enter the race, one which looks more likely to be that of a losing cause for 2012!

John McCain Vs The Bush Administration And Rick Santorum

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Senator John McCain of Arizona, the 2008 GOP Presidential nominee, spent five and a half years in a North Vietnamese prison, and suffered horrible torture.

George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and other figures in the Bush Administration NEVER suffered torture, and neither did former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, who is one of the group of Republicans seeking the Presidency in 2012.

But the Bush loyalists and Senator Santorum continue to assert that waterboarding, a form of torture, helped to bring about the assassination of Osama Bin Laden two weeks ago, despite clearcut evidence from CIA head Leon Panetta that waterboarding had no role in bringing about the demise of Bin Laden.

Senator McCain had the courage last week to condemn those who think torture is an acceptable and useful method to gain information from detainees. McCain has always been against the breaking of international law which the Bush Administration was engaged in by using waterboarding as a method to try to force information from captives in the War on Terror.

If John McCain, who suffered for this country, and CIA head Leon Panetta, both claim that torture did not work, and undermines our values, that should be enough to stop the propaganda endorsing torture, and it is good that Barack Obama has repudiated such a policy in the future, as it diminished the image of the United States as a nation that exists under law and a sense of morality.

The Fox News Channel South Carolina Debate: What It Tells Us About The GOP Presidential Race!

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The Republican Presidential debate in South Carolina this past Thursday, the first in a long group of debates over the next year, tells us a lot about both the Republican race and South Carolina at the same time, and it is not good!

The focus audience at the debate sponsored by Fox News Channel seemed like aliens from another planet, certainly not the mainstream of the nation, and doubtfully, of the Republican party future.

Asked their favorite candidate among the five who showed up, the majority said Herman Cain, the African American former Chief Executive Officer of Godfather Pizza, also a talk show host on radio. His main point was to get government out of the way of business, a typical Republican viewpoint, but his chances for the nomination can be seen as zero!

Their second favorite was former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, who has made himself look foolish and extreme on social issues, and no serious observer takes him as a likely nominee, either!

It was interesting that Ron Paul, despite his support among libertarians, and actually making quite a good debate perfromance, failed to excite the South Carolina focus group.

It was also noticeable that Tim Pawlenty, often considered one of the more likely nominees as a “dark horse”, seems to have had no positive impression among the participants in the focus group.

The sum total is to demonstrate that Pawlenty probably lost some advantage by NOT impressing that group of voters, and that the focus group made one realize that there are a lot of people in the Palmetto state who seem not to have advanced beyond the times of John C. Calhoun and Strom Thurmond–meaning continued hatred of the national government as somehow the evil incarnate!

Without the “serious” candidates in the race–Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee–and the controversial candidates–Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin, Donald Trump, Newt Gingrich–the debate was basically a waste of time since nothing came out of it that could promise a good future for the Republican Party in the 2012 Presidential race!