Vice Presidency

The Attack On Joe Biden By Rudy Guiliani And John McCain: Laughable!

Ronald 3 Comments

Former NYC Mayor Rudy Guiliani and Arizona Senator John McCain were on the attack against Vice President Joe Biden over this past weekend, making clear that Barack Obama should drop Biden from the Presidential ticket, with ridiculous statements that make them look very bad!

Guiliani made it seem that Biden was out of his mind because of recent statements, what could be called gaffes, that the Vice President has made. He made it seem that maybe Biden was too old, that he needed to be locked up, for the remainder of the campaign, and that one needed to wonder if he was qualified to become President if that were to happen during the next term.

What a ridiculous assertion, as Joe Biden is the best qualified person EVER to be Vice President, with maybe the exceptions of Lyndon B. Johnson under John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey under Johnson in the 1960s, and Nelson Rockefeller under Gerald Ford in the 1970s, and the argument could be made that he has had more total experience on national issues and foreign policy issues than even those three distinguished Vice Presidents.

Could it be that Guiliani is trying to get revenge for Biden’s past statement about Guiliiani during the 2008 campaign wars, when Biden said that when one thinks of Guiliani, one thinks of September 11 and nothing else?

And, for John McCain to argue that Biden should be replaced and had looked foolish, who is he to say anything on this topic, when he burdened us with Sarah Palin for Vice President, a true embarrassment, and a woman we cannot get rid of, as she constantly issues outrageous, ridiculous utterances, as she continues to exploit gullible people who see her as a savior!

Neither Guiliani nor McCain are experts on what the Vice Presidency is all about!

Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan: Both Avoid Transparency On Finances, So Match Well!

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It is well known that Mitt Romney, the GOP Presidential nominee, has refused to release more information about his taxes beyond 2010’s returns, and the promised 2011 tax return when it is belatedly filed by October.

But now we discover, thanks to the website PoliticsUSA, that Paul Ryan, the Vice Presidential nominee, kept an inheritance of more than a million dollars secret until after he was vetted in the early stages for Vice President. That inheritance is from his mother in law after her death in 2010, and is now worth a few million dollars. It was not reported for two years on his disclosure forms, and was only added to the information provided Mitt Romney after Ryan had gone through early stages of the Vice Presidential search.

Romney must have liked that Ryan was secretive, and unwilling to reveal a major part of his assets, as he is cut of the same cloth!

The Republican Call For Joe Biden To Be Dropped For Vice President: Delusional And Hypocritical!

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Vice President Joe Biden has been a major asset to the nation with his 40 year career, 36 years in the US Senate, and nearly four as Vice President!

Biden had a distinguished career in the Senate, including stints as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and at other times, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Biden has been an important part of a lot of the history of American politics and policy making for four decades!

Biden entered the Vice Presidency with the most insight and experience of any Vice President in history, and has been an important player in the shaping of foreign policy and domestic policy under Barack Obama.

He is a likeable, sincere, dedicated public servant, who, like any human being, can make mistakes, utter gaffes that are embarrassing, and come across at times as foolish, but never in a way that harms American politics in a disastrous way!

When one hears that Republicans have suggested that Biden should be dropped for Vice President, it causes an intelligent person to laugh heartily, particularly when Sarah Pain has promoted such an idea, stating that Hillary Clinton should replace him on the Democratic ticket, as if Barack Obama is going to listen to a person totally unqualified to be Vice President, a woman who comes across as ignorant, moronic, and an embarrassment to the American political system! She proved it when she debated Biden in the 2008 Vice Presidential debate, and called him “O Biden”!

And if one wants to look at a Vice President who was truly an embarrassment, and came across as a moron, it was Vice President Dan Quayle under President George H. W. Bush!

For Obama to drop Biden would only benefit the Republicans and hurt the President, as Biden is a loyal supporter who will do whatever the President asks him, and he deserves to be re-elected with Obama!

And to claim that Biden is starting to “lose it”, as some Republicans declare, is also laughable, as one can think of Ronald Reagan REALLY losing it in his second term in an obvious way; Arizona Senator John McCain also acting weirdly at times in his public utterance in recent years; and even Mitt Romney, only 65, making one wonder at times has he lost it, with his massive number of gaffes and “flip flops”, much more than Biden has ever had in his career!

If Biden is to drop out, then years ago, Reagan should have resigned: McCain should resign from the Senate; and Mitt Romney should resign now because of massive blunders on issues that really matter, but of course, all these suggestions did not and will not occur, so Joe Biden is not going anywhere, other than to a continuation of a brilliant campaign as an “attack dog”, and an impressive winning debate against Paul Ryan in the Vice Presidential debate, coming up in October!

Paul Ryan: Big Spender When Corporations Or Republican Party Wants It, But Not Under Democrats Or Barack Obama!

Ronald 1 Comment

Conservatives and delusional people believe Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney’s Vice Presidential running mate, is the solution to BIG government and high spending levels.

The truth is that is ONLY true when Barack Obama is President, or the Democrats had control of Congress, beginning in 2007!.

Paul Ryan backed the Wall Street bailout when the economic collapse was occurring in the Fall of 2008.

Paul Ryan voted for all spending on the Iraq War, having no doubts.

Paul Ryan voted for all spending on the Afghanistan War, having no doubts.

Paul Ryan voted for the Bush Prescription Drug Plan in 2003, without making an issue of adding to the national debt, by refusal to pay for the plan with taxes.

Paul Ryan has become a deficit “hawk” only when Barack Obama became President, and when Ryan became head of the House Budget Committee in 2011.

Paul Ryan has a career of being a big spender, except when it was politically convenient to make an issue of every funding bill under President Obama.

Paul Ryan is, therefore, not what his supporters think he is, and already, there is “buyer’s remorse”, a fear among Congressional Republicans that they will have trouble being reelected with the burden of the Ryan Plan on their backs.

Some see a major disaster in the making, a nearly total wipe out of GOP gains in Congress in 2010, after only two years in the majority!

Ryan may turn out to be worse for the party’s fortunes than Dan Quayle or Sarah Palin! Who would have thought that?

Mitt Romney Gives Up On Senior Citizens, Hispanics, Women, And Young People With Ryan Selection!

Ronald 35 Comments

Mitt Romney may have pleased ideological conservatives with his selection of Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan as his Vice Presidential running mate, but he has effectively ceded whole groups of voters by so doing.

Since Ryan’s budget plan called for the end of Medicare and creation of a voucher system instead, it is hard to imagine a majority of senior citizens being naive enough to vote for Romney.

Since Ryan has voted for a fence along the Mexican border and voted against the DREAM Act, how can it be assumed that the majority of Hispanic voters, particularly the two thirds who are of Mexican heritage, are going to vote for Romney?

SInce Ryan is a devout Catholic, who believes in preventing abortion rights and is for restrictions on contraceptives and other matters that concern women, it is difficult to imagine a majority of women, except for very devout women who are Catholic, evangelical Christian, or Orthodox Jewish, voting for Romney.

Beyond that, young people will come to realize that the Ryan budget plan in the House of Representatives would cut Pell Grants for their education, and that Ryan was against any action to keep interest rates on student loans at the present rate. So why would young people, particularly those who are college educated, and who will also find Republican governed states making it harder for them to vote in their college communities, vote in majorities for Romney?

In many respects, Mitt Romney has committed political suicide by his choice of Paul Ryan!

Paul Ryan As Potential Commander In Chief? Very Scary!

Ronald 18 Comments

Wisconsin Republican Congressman Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney’s Vice Presidential running mate, would be a heartbeat away from the Presidency if Romney became President.

That would be totally terrifying in so many ways!

Yes, Ryan is intelligent, unlike Sarah Palin. He is also, personally, very charming, but that is not all that important in a President!

Those are the only two points in his favor, if he is a heartbeat away from being Commander in Chief!

Ryan is arrogant, reckless, cocky, overly ideological, uncompromising, and inflexible, and those are NOT characteristics we need or want in a future President!

He would be the most ideological President in modern American history, and he would be a total disaster for the nation in both economic policy and foreign policy!

The idea that a Congressman, with his record of accomplishment, is qualified to be President is disturbing, and is part of a weird tendency of the Republican Party to select a person who represents one out of 435 Congressional districts to be a national leader.

Ryan follows William E. Miller in 1964, Jack Kemp in 1996, and Dick Cheney in 2000 in being in the Vice Presidential slot, and the one successful case, Cheney, is enough reason to be totally terrified at Ryan becoming Vice President!

Finally, Paul Ryan has very little experience in foreign policy, and would be a total unknown in that regard, but he voted for the Iraq War, and is against getting out of Afghanistan, and by his domestic record, including his proposed budget plan, would likely be a foreign policy “hawk”, going along with the neoconservatives, as he already goes along with the social conservatives on every issue!

The “Might Have Been” Vice Presidents And Presidents!

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Every four years, Presidential candidates pick a running mate for Vice President, and every four years, there are potential running mates who are passed over.

Sometimes, these potential running mates for Vice President may feel as they are “a bridesmaid, instead of the bride”, when they come close to being the choice more than once.

And sometimes, a potential running mate passed over sees someone else become President by succession.

Examples in the last half century are numerous!

Florida Senator Bob Graham was on the “short list” for both Bill Clinton in 1992 and Al Gore in 2000.

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty made the “short list” for John McCain in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012.

Missouri Senator Stuart Symington was the favored choice for John F. Kennedy in 1960, but Lyndon B. Johnson was picked instead for political and sectional reasons, to gain the support of the South for Kennedy, despite his Catholicism. Of course, Johnson went on to be President.

Minnesota Senator Eugene McCarthy was on the “short list” to be Vice President with Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, but Hubert Humphrey was selected instead, and McCarthy went on to become a major critic of the Vietnam War, and challenge Johnson in the New Hampshire primary in 1968. Who knows whether or not Johnson might have avoided a primary challenge altogether if he had picked McCarthy in 1964, although it is still likely that Robert Kennedy would have challenged Johnson for the Democratic Presidential nomination in 1968 in any case. And of course, there were rumors that Kennedy was considered by Johnson to be his running mate in 1964, which would have made it impossible for Kennedy to challenge Johnson in 1968 altogether. But then, maybe Humphrey would have done so instead, without the trap of being Vice President under Johnson!

Mayor John Lindsey of New York City was on the “short list” for Richard Nixon in 1968, and had he been on the ticket and become Vice President, he would have succeeded Nixon after the President resigned due to the Watergate scandal!

When Nixon faced having to replace Spiro Agnew in 1973, due to scandal, he considered John Connally, former Democratic Governor of Texas, but who had become a Republican and was his Treasury Secretary, as his new Vice President, but knew that there would be a battle for him to be confirmed, so Nixon picked Gerald Ford instead, and Ford became President. Connally might have been President, if he had not alienated Democrats by switching parties!

So if things had worked out differently, we might have had President Symington in 1963, President Lindsey in 1974, or President Connally in 1974, and President Johnson might have had no challenge, run and defeated Nixon in 1968!

And poor Bob Graham and Tim Pawlenty were passed over twice each, by two different candidates for President in their parties! Graham never had another opportunity, and Pawlenty will not, either!

Odd And Interesting Points About Paul Ryan, And The Presidential Election Of 2012

Ronald 4 Comments

There are many odd and interesting points about Vice Presidential nominee Paul Ryan that have been gathered, and here are some of them!

Paul Ryan, like Mitt Romney, is handsome, and they look good together photogenically.

Paul Ryan looks as if he could be one of Mitt Romney’s sons, and actually is only 12 days older than Romney’s oldest son, Tagg!

Paul Ryan has spent his whole adult life in government, with no experience in the private sector.

Paul Ryan was affected by the narrow minded, selfish teachings of Ayn Rand, and he was involved in work with former Congressman Jack Kemp, one of the authors of what became known as Reaganomics, which started tripling the national debt in the 1980s, due to the theory of Supply Side Economics. Now, Ryan wishes to multiply what Reaganomics in the 1980s and Bushonomics in the 2000s brought about, most of the increased national debt, $7 trillion of the total $10.5 trillion debt that existed when George W. Bush left the Presidency in January, 2009!

Paul Ryan’s dad died when he was in high school, and he was supported by the social safety net of Social Security with survivors benefits while in college.

Paul Ryan has lived off the American taxpayer his entire life, and will receive better health care and pension benefits as part of the federal payroll, that he wishes to cut for everyone else in the middle and lower classes!

Paul Ryan alienated Catholic nuns when he came out for cuts in food stamps and other benefits to poor children, and called for privatizing of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, while wanting greater tax cuts for the top two percent!

Paul Ryan was booed in his own congressional district for the Ryan plan which passed the House of Representatives earlier this year, but with no Democratic support and ten Republicans voting against, as well.

Paul Ryan comes across as articulate, handsome, and charming personally, the latter much more than Mitt Romney, but he also comes across to many as arrogant, nasty, mean spirited, uncaring, hypocritical , uncompromising, and loved by the Tea Party and the right wing media which have declared war on women, senior citizens, the middle class, minorities, and the poor!

Paul Ryan has no foreign policy experience, and being only a Congressman, can be seen as not qualified to be Commander in Chief on Day One!

This is the 5th time in the past half century that a member of the House of Representatives has been selected as a Vice Presidential running mate—William E. Miller of New York with Barry Goldwater in 1964; Geraldine Ferraro of New York with Walter Mondale in 1984; Jack Kemp of New York with Bob Dole in 1996; Dick Cheney of Wyoming with George W. Bush in 2000; and now Paul Ryan of Wisconsin with Mitt Romney in 2012. Notice all four of the earlier choices LOST the election that followed, with the exception of Cheney with Bush, but remember that Al Gore actually won the popular vote in 2000 by 540,000 votes, and the Supreme Court decided the election, intervening for the first time in American history!

And as said in an earlier post, finally, this marks the fourth time in the past 60 years that the Vice Presidential nominee has been more than 20 years younger than the Presidential nominee—Richard Nixon with Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952; Dan Quayle with George H. W. Bush in 1988; Sarah Palin with John McCain in 2008; and now Paul Ryan with Mitt Romney in 2012.

Additionally, we have no one on either ticket for this upcoming election who is from the Sun Belt states, the growing part of the nation. Instead, we have a Midwesterner and an Easterner on each ticket–Barack Obama and Paul Ryan from the Midwest, and Joe Biden and Mitt Romney from the Northeast!

Also, there is no candidate with military experience on either Presidential ticket, the first time since the 1940s!

And we also have no mainline Protestant on the Republican ticket, a mainstay of the GOP, and instead have a Mormon and a Catholic.

If anything, the only true “Protestant” is Barack Obama, as Joe Biden is Catholic!

More oddities and trivia will probably arise as the campaign develops further!

Paul Ryan Vice Presidential Pick Creates Most Ideological Election Since 1964!

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The decision of Mitt Romney to select Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan, head of the House Budget Committee, as his Vice Presidential running mate, throws down the gauntlet clearly for all voters!

This election will be the most ideological election since the Lyndon B. Johnson-Barry Goldwater race of 1964!

It is a clear cut attempt of the right wing—-the Tea Party Movement, the social conservatives, and the economic conservatism of Fox News Channel, The Wall Street Journal, The National Review, and The Weekly Standard—to destroy the New Deal and Great Society!

It is a war on senior citizens, minorities, women, the poor, the middle class, in favor of the elite wealthy two percent, the corporations, the privileged, who want to destroy the social safety net of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid!

It is the triumph of Ayn Rand, who promoted selfishness, greed, and lack of concern for our fellow citizens, in the mad dash to only promote one’s own interests!

It is an attempt to bring back the Gospel of Wealth of industrialist Andrew Carnegie in the Gilded Age!

It is the promotion of arrogance, selfishness, greed, a mean spirited nature, and false claims of promoting the so called message of Jesus Christ as not caring about the sick, the poor, the disadvantaged! Catholic nuns and open minded Protestant groups have condemned Ryan’s call for ending food stamps and other assistance to poor children, and his push to privatize Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, while wishing to give more tax cuts to the elite wealthy!

So the battle is on, and the election, which seemed to have no focus, has become very focused, and it is a battle for the middle and lower classes, and it is a battle that cannot afford to be lost, because if President Barack Obama loses, the “American Dream” will be destroyed, as we allow an oligarchy, which already has too much power and concentration of wealth, to seize control of all wealth and property, and make us closer to Fascism than at any time since the defeat of Fascism in World War II!

The Right Wing Push For Congressman Paul Ryan As Vice Presidential Nominee

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Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan is being pushed by right wing forces, including the Wall Street Journal and the National Review, as Mitt Romney’s Vice Presidential running mate, as the time nears for the announcement of who will be the former Massachusetts Governor’s Number Two!

Ryan is very young (42), handsome, articulate, and willing to get into the fray, as he is an ideologist, out to privatize Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, therefore dramatically changing American economic and social policy. His budget plan, drawn up as House Budget Committee Chairman, is highly controversial.

But for a man like Romney who emphasizes the private sector, Ryan is just the opposite, as his entire career has been in government, a contradiction of what Romney thinks is his own advantage over other politicians.

If Ryan is picked, he would be the fourth Vice Presidential nominee of the GOP who would be extremely young, as compared to the Presidential candidate, an interesting scenario, as Richard Nixon was 40, more than 22 years younger than Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952, and Dan Quayle was 41, more than 22 years younger than George H. W. Bush in 1988. Ryan at 42 is also more than 22 years younger than Mitt Romney. Of course, Sarah Palin was 28 years younger than John McCain in 2008 at age 44, the all time difference in age.

Of course Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and Senator Marco Rubio of Florida are almost a year and a half younger than Ryan, at age 41, so would be actually 24 years younger than Romney, were they to be chosen.

The question that also arises is whether Romney really wants a strong willed, outspoken man to be his running mate, since he loves to be in charge of everything he runs, without question. Who would he be most comfortable with is certainly a factor in who he chooses.

The gut feeling is that either he goes with Ryan as a bold pick, an ideological pick, hoping to benefit from the clear cut alternative to what Barack Obama represents, or surprises everyone by selecting a woman, such as Senator Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, a swing state and a pitch to women, similar to what John McCain did with Sarah Palin in 2008. Ayotte, while certainly better than Palin, would still be a controversial pick, as her total experience in government is extremely limited.

Picking Senator Rob Portman of Ohio or former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty would make more sense long term, but would be boring, and would not please the ideological right!

We will learn a lot about Mitt Romney when he picks his running mate in the next few days, already a long time overdue!