Team Players

The requisite ego of men and women who seek the presidency is such that they sometimes think lower office is beneath them. I get that. These are alpha dogs. They don't want to be ordered around by a blogger with a megaphone. Got it.

And I will reiterate that I am not even a Republican, I just vote that way by default given the sorry excuses for human beings who now hold office for the other party. And I have a thing about career politicians having an impact on this country our forefathers never envisioned. With those disclaimers out of the way, something can be said for people who have paid their dues to their party.

If Michelle Bachmann (or Sarah Palin for that matter) are finished with politics, good for them. Two ladies who paid their dues. However, if Bachmann seeks higher office later I will hold it against her that she did not challenge the vulnerable Al Franken. Palin's situation is different. The GOP seems to have a good chance of defeating Mark Begich--a man who came to power only because of his family name and bogus charges leveled against Ted Stevens. But if Begich hangs on, that is a mark against future candidate Palin.

I am disturbed by the Ben Carson for president movement. If Donald Trump was in the mix, I would say the same things about him.  Yes, we should recruit from diverse backgrounds. In the old days, almost every public official had a real job (as opposed to a community organizer or an office hopper in gerrymandered districts.) LBJ was a teacher. Hubert Humphrey was a pharmacist. Mayor Daley worked in the stockyards. Ronald Reagan was an actor. Job experience was the norm.

That is not to say one should entirely skip public office. Dwight Eisenhower would not win a primary today. Times change.

There are three basic reasons why a candidate should hold public office before seeking the White House:

1. If a candidate has any bone chips in his closet (Herman Cain) they need to be exposed before they hit the Iowa State Fair.

2. No matter how good a campaigner one might be, the presidency is a different game (Rick Perry 2012.)

3. The challenges of the presidency are daunting and ideally one would hold public office before taking on the big job. I agree with Ann Coulter that a governor or even a big city mayor brings executive experience that legislators do not attain. I am slow to disqualify all Senators and Congressmen but I understand the executive bias.

If Ben Carson seeks the presidency in 2016, I cannot support him. In part because he is not ready for prime time and would get tripped up on the campaign trail and in part because he is not a team player. If he was serious about spreading his values into the public arena he would not sit out Congressional and Gubernatorial races in his home state of Maryland. He might also consider seeking the Senate in 2016.

Donald Trump is a publicity seeker at heart and I doubt if he would run for president if he had other means of staying in the spotlight. Should he seek the big job after backing off from multiple New York Senate and Governor's races, I for one will not support him. Not a team player.

So Mitt Romney is running again in 2016? Ho hum. If Mitt challenged Ed Markey for his Senate seat I would see him in another light. If he defeated Markey, even better. Unfortunately, Mitt is not a team player.

I am no Jeb Bush fan but had he defeated--or even just challenged-- Bill Nelson in 2012,  I would have some respect for the man. Jeb Bush, not a team player.

Gary Johnson, the former governor of New Mexico who was both popular and controversial, might have won a Senate seat in 2012. Instead, he became the Libertarian candidate. Why? I have no idea. He could have challenged again in 2014. Nope. Not just a non-team player, also a series of bad career moves.

I doubt if Pataki or Giuliani get back into the mix but if they do, I would say the same thing about them. Herman Cain is a resident of Georgia and the GOP has a lock on most state offices so maybe we can give him a pass. Gingrich is a resident of Virginia. Santorum is, oh who cares about Santorum?

If the GOP does not take the Senate in 2014, we might take a long look at the prima donnas who sat on the sidelines, sometimes for multiple elections. In 2016, the GOP needs to support a team player

A Brief Open Letter To Mitt Romney

Dear Governor:

During his election celebration, President Obama stated that he would like to sit with you and what was the empty verbiage? "Resolve our differences" ??? I forget. It's all empty verbiage with this guy anyway.

Please do not meet with Obama for any reason. You are not Speaker of the House or Senate Minority Leader and you are not a sitting governor. You are a private citizen and you have no obligation to meet with a sleazeball.

If the president wanted to discuss differences, he had the entire campaign to do so. But issues were off-limits to the Chicago Gang. Lies are all they will ever know.

Ultimately, your differences were crystal clear. You were an honest, forthright crusader who had a vision for his country. Your opponent was and is a bitter, petty, compulsive liar who has chosen to conceal his plans for our country. If you meet with this compulsive liar you will put your seal of approval on his every falsehood. He lied about you because he never respected you. He lies to the American people because he does not respect us.

You are a good man, Governor Romney. Don't go into the sewer with this guy. You did your best to run an honest campaign. Please do not place your imprimatur on this con artist's unending duplicity. Life is too short for that.

Thank you, Governor Romney for a sincere effort to rescue your country. Please don't cheapen that noble effort by meeting with the biggest fraud in history. That will only serve to legitimatize President Alinsky's campaign and President Alinsky's agenda. You are a better man than that.

Good luck, Governor.

Two Can Play The Alinsky Game

I keep hearing the Dems and media types say "The election is over. Let's put the rancor behind us." In other years, it might be the perfect response to "get over it."

Not this year. Not after the Dems spent $250 million to assassinate the character of an incredibly decent man. That number does not include the free assistance the Networks provided. Let us also remind everyone that Obama's attacks were divorced of fact.

Romney was never a murderer. He never caused cancer. He was never a tax cheat or a felon. He has never been a misogynist. Lies on tops of lies on tops of lies. Truth means absolutely nothing to Obama, the Democrats and the networks. Nothing. Now we are supposed to be civil? I think not.

Before Romney there was the character assassination of Sarah Palin. Truth was also optional in that case. So was the smear of George Bush. Yes, Bush was a nincompoop but he never started a war over oil nor was Hurricane Katrina a genocidal conspiracy nor did he drain middle class bank accounts to provide more wealth for the top 1 per cent.

There are several lessons to the recent election but I will limit our focus to just two. One, lies work. No one has ever lied like Obama. That's because no one has ever had the license to do so. The news media kept politicians in line. Dick Nixon might have had treachery in his heart but his falsehoods were limited by the fourth estate. The news media allowed the Obama campaign (and the Obama Administration for that matter) to lie with impunity. We ain't getting over it anytime soon.

The second lesson to learn from the last election is that negative politics work. Whereas, I do not advocate that we ever practice dishonesty under any circumstances, I do advocate reciprocal negativity. Romney took the high road and lost. What might have worked in the Reagan era won't work in the Springer era. Two can play the Alinsky game. Let's play it now. 365 days a year. No offseason.

So when the snakes ask us to kiss and make up, do remind them that their messiah is an admitted crackhead, a chronic and compulsive liar, an unrepentant Marxist, and according to multiple sources, he is a serial sodomizer. Remind them of this, every time Obama's name is mentioned. Every time.

No lies. No offseason. No mercy. You got two middle fingers. Use them.

If You Voted For Obama In 2008, You Were A Dupe But if You Voted For Him In 2012...

Note: I composed the following on election day but left Facebook before posting it.

I never thought I would see this day. America has been ravaged from within. I am Charlton Heston screaming at the Statue of Liberty. It would not be a nuclear war that would destroy America. Rather, it would be an economic Armageddon that would spell our demise. It is suicide on the installment plan but it is suicide nonetheless.

Barack Obama might be the only president who hated America. And hate America he does. He hates American traditions and customs. He hates the US Constitution and he hates all Americans who cannot be used as political pawns.

I am not footnoting Obama's overt acts of hostility at this stage of the game. Yes, I advocate for rational discourse but this rant is directed to people indifferent or even hostile to the very premise of fact. If one practices deliberate, intentional, willful blindness as a preferred lifestyle then I can't be bothered to line up the ducks for you.

Oh, but Obama is hostile to America, make no doubt about it. Dinesh D'Souza wrote a book and filmed a documentary wherein he attributes Obama's overt malice for America to his embracing of anti-colonialism. I know. I know. I know. You are dismissive of D'Souza and can't be bothered with anything he might utter. Yours is the politically correct cannon and D'Souza has been indexed several times over.

But consider this. What other president could create an entire industry based on speculation as to the intellectual basis of his anti-Americanism? The what had long been established. The why has always been mystifying. Millions of us turned out at the theaters in a desperate attempt to answer the questions, who is this unvetted president and why does he hate us so?

I don't understand self-hating Americans but I recognize that they have always been with us. America was good to Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. There was certainly less anti-Semitism here than in the Soviet Union.

America was good to Lee Harvey Oswald. America was good to Major Hasan. America was good to Anwar al-Awlaki. But why does a man who takes two jets on vacation at taxpayer expense still have a chip on his shoulder and invites his followers to vote out of revenge?

If you voted for Obama in 2008 you were a dupe. If you voted for Obama in 2012 you are a traitor. America is $16 trillion in debt and the meter is running. That is roughly $50,000 per person or $100,000 per taxpayer, not including off-budget expenses.

Romney was the vastly superior candidate if only because he acknowledged the existence of a problem. When Obama revealed to David Letterman that he didn't know how big the national debt happened to be, I don't know what was more depressing: The fact that the President of the United States displayed his abject ignorance of the country's fate or that he did so on "Late Night With David Letterman."

The Democrats seized control of both houses of Congress in 2006 and shortly thereafter our debt skyrocketed. If such things matter, the Republicans of that era can make the claim that they were the lesser of two evils. George Bush and Rick Santorum and Tom Delay had sent us putt-putting towards the fiscal cliff. The Democrats took control and threw a brick on the accelerator. What do we have to shown for this doubling of national debt? The world's best rail system? A doubling of med schools and hospitals? A revamped infrastructure? Colonies on the moon? No. We have nothing to show for our spending spree. Nothing! Nothing! Nothing!

You have underestimated the catastrophic nature of fiscal collapse. You have ignored the social ramifications of an economic tsunami. The so-called meltdown of 2008 will be a night in a pub by comparison.

We should be hesitant to inject Hitler into any conversation but that demagogue would never have been able to hijack a great country had it not been for a preceding currency crisis. Swastikas now fly in Greece and it is estimated that 25 % of Greek citizens have allied themselves with the Neo-Nazis (And Greece was fortunate to be bailed out by France and Germany. If we go down, there is no one big enough to bail us out.)

The Neo-Nazis of Greece seem to be as woefully ignorant of economic principles as our own Occupy Wall Street crowd. But both groups understand finger-pointing and scapegoating and blame. "There is nothing so frightful as ignorance in action." You have witnessed the ignorance. Brace yourself for the action.

Obama possibly, nay probably, wants to oversee economic collapse. Tyrants have never known how to make countries rich but they certainly know how to make countries poor. The gulf between rich and poor will be bridged. Social justice achieved.

We will all look silly having spent our years arguing over budgets when there is nothing left to budget. Dollars to Medicaid or Medicare? Neither. Who should receive food stamps? Doesn't matter. Guns or butter? Neither. Social Security or sewers or VA hospitals? None of the above. All gone.

Will you remember how charming Obama was on "The View" when gas is five dollars a gallon? Will you remember how cutesie pie he happened to be on Jimmy Fallon when you stand in line for gas? Will you think of Oprah or Ashton or Demi when there is no heat for your home? Thank goodness we will have fond memories to get us through our troubled times.

There were plenty of reasons to reject Obama. To review a few of them:

1. Gross incompetence.

2. Obama's ongoing expressions of Anti-Americanism.

3. Obama's lust for power.

4. Obama's abuse of power.

5. Widespread corruption.

6. The constant promotion of hate and rancor especially the false charges of racism directed at anyone who dares to criticize the One.

7. Obama's unending arrogance.

8. Superficiality over substance.

9. The practice of chronic duplicity and dishonesty such as this country has never before witnessed.

10. A disturbed and disturbing personality.

Once more, I am not foot-noting my assertions for those of you who have taken a vow of willful blindness. Some of the most disturbing information about Barack Hussein Obama has been available since 2007, if not earlier. No need to interrupt your ignorant bliss at this juncture.

A few quick comments:

Gross incompetence! Do I have to elaborate? Unemployment. Gas prices. Weak dollar. Probable energy shortages. Benghazi. Fast and Furious. A significantly less stable Middle East. Oh, and of course, trillions of dollars in new debt and nothing to show for it. But other than that...

Obama's abuse of power: The IRS was used to harass nascent Tea Party groups. Ministers were threatened with loss of tax-exempt status. The Catholic Church was told they could not live their faith. Romney contributors were threatened by Department of Justice. An idiot filmmaker is detained and scapegoated for the Administration's dereliction of duty. Gallup Polling is attacked by the DOJ after publishing less than favorable results about the incumbent. The tip of the iceberg!

Widespread corruption: The word nixonian might come to mean virtuous by comparison. I will reduce this encyclopedia of material to one case. In return for lucrative government contracts and no corporate taxation, General Electric serves up NBC, MSNBC, Telemundo, The Weather Channel and much, much more to promote the Obama agenda. Whatever else one might say about Fox News or EIB Network, they are not dependent on graft for their survival. Somewhere, Spiro is smiling.

The constant promotion of hate and rancor: Let me address the members of the audience who do not hate anyone or anything. The self-righteous citizens who do not even hate hate. You, Mr. and Mrs. Sanctimonious, have placed your imprimatur on a quarter billion dollar hate campaign directed at an undeserving target. Mitt Romney is an incredibly decent man. The Obama Administration has labeled Romney a murderer, a felon, a tax cheat and a misogynist. He was never any of those things and you know it. But we live in a post-fact era. Truth and falsehood are outdated concepts. Social standing and celebrity friendships. Those are what matter. Oh and by the way, Mr. and Mrs. We Don't Even Know How To Hate, what is more hateful than the wrongful accusation of racism? This sleazy president has played the race card constantly on matters as unrelated to race as say, Cash for Clunkers. What does it say about the character of a man who plays the race card every time he is faced with legitimate criticism? What does it say that he uses his proxies to spew his hate speech? You tell me.

Chronic duplicity and dishonesty: It is the Obama Administration's strategy to carpet bomb us with falsehood. It takes longer to refute a falsehood than to advance a falsehood. And with the major news networks in a subservient role to the administration, most of the lies go unchecked.

So let us examine just one bold-faced lie that the major media refused to examine. Warren Buffet does not want to pay more taxes! If he wanted to pay more taxes, he would have done so. In fact, Berkshire Hathaway owes Uncle Sam a little over $1 billion. Buffet participated in Obama's puppet show in hopes of gaining a favorable settlement. Should this be filed in the corruption file or the chronic duplicity file?

The president has revealed himself to be a pathological liar. But let us look past the volume of lies and the constancy of lies and examine the audacity of just one lie. To advance his own political agenda, Barack Hussein Obama created a fairy tale of his mother dying of cancer at the hands of greedy insurance barons. Yes, I am a bit old-fashioned but I can remember when pimping one's own mother was frowned upon in some social circles. Times change, I guess.

Now, let me break some bad news to you. Your president has a few problems. In clinical terms, he isn't playing with a full deck of cards. He does not have all of his oars in the water. He is a few French Fries shy of a Happy Meal. You don't know what I am talking about? Do your own damn research. You refused to look at the man behind the curtain. Let your wizard offer you some consolation!

"Oh but I voted for Obama because I am a liberal." No. I am a liberal. You are a fascist. The LaRouchians got this one right. The president has never met an industry he does not want to control. There is no sector off-limits with this guy. He even wants your medical records. His gross preferential treatment for the politically-connected tips the sphere of influence in every aspect of American life. And the president has surrounded himself with control freaks and micro managers unified by a contempt for the average American. Liberalism is dead. Rest in peace.

"But we have always tolerated our political differences." Yes, but these are not mere political differences. We are on the cusp of totalitarianism. Economic collapse is the brightest object on the horizon. The resulting social upheaval will be dark by any standards. Bad things are ahead for America and consequently, for the whole world. I blame you.

You chose a course of conscious, intentional, willful blindness. It does not matter what evidence is presented if you refuse to examine the evidence. You were derelict of duty not just as a citizen, but as a human being as well.

You put your party before your country. Your mind is so twisted with hate for conservatives or Christians, or Republicans, or Tea Partiers or anyone who does not validate your prejudices, that you are willing to destroy your country to spite your enemies.

I think I might have lived too long. All over the world, America's enemies celebrate Obama's victory. Obama won. USA lost. I am leaving Facebook because I can't stand to see my own family cheer the demise of our country. I can't stand to see my own friends spike the football in America's end zone. I wish I had not seen this day.

Bye bye friends.

Let us hope for change.

View From New Hampshire

Excuses. Excuses. Yeah I was going to be more active this election. But moving about killed me. We broke, misplaced and lost stuff during the move, including cash. We held off steam cleaning rugs and furniture damaged in storage or during the move because we thought we would eventually find the steam cleaner attachments. We did not find the attachments and we found out it was almost as cheap to buy a new steam cleaner as to order the replacement parts from Shark.

With most of our possessions in boxes and bins, we were hit by Hurricane Sandy. That was a storm, my friend. We don't have too many trees close to the house but this storm launched a branch like a spear that punctured to roof and ceiling. We also lost power for six hours.

Nothing compared to what the people in New York and New Jersey face but it did change my priorities. Today, I would finally find an hour to visit Romney headquarters and work the phones. I dialed a couple of dozen numbers and mostly I left messages on answering machines. I talked to exactly one person who informed me she was voting for Obama.

There were perhaps a dozen people in the office about half of whom were working the phones. I chatted briefly with a couple of people and they seemed nervous. Each conversation was like talking to myself. We are miffed at Obama's appeal, especially in the wake of his disatrous job performance. We are puzzled about our family members who practice deliberate, intentional, willful blindness and proudly announce that they NEVER watch Fox News or listen to talk radio. We are scared about the ramifications of the stupification of America. We are scared of what America will be after four years of the most corrupt administration in US history.

I hope to swing by the Stratham office again tomorrow. Win or lose, I will feel at peace that I tried to stem the tide of fascism. I will try.

The Great Debate: Audio vs. Video

I work most nights so I miss a lot of prime time programming. Thus, I experience a lot of events on radio on the long ride home. That was the case with convention speeches and now with the debate. The pundits all chirped about how great Romney performed.

When I got home and finally settled in, I put the debate on Youtube as I multi-tasked on my Lenovo. Experiencing the debate in audio, I did not get the impression that it was all that lopsided. It sounded like both candidates were advancing their talking points. Romney's talking points are not quite as hackneyed or tired or worn out as Obama's but still, they came across as talking points. Obama came across as well, Obama. Nothing to stir one's pulse but nothing to make the faithful jump ship either.

Watching the video did change my perspective. Romney's attack was labeled "aggressive diplomacy" by an anonymous radio caller. It was unendingly polite yet confrontational. Romney did what journalists used to do.

Obama on the other hand, appeared defeated. I believe Obama has a hard time selling his economic policies because he does not fully believe in them. He might believe in them in a dogmatic/doctrinaire kind of way but he knows that the country pays a price for his version of economic justice.

No president has ever been so pampered and in the end the fawning media might have done him a disservice. Of all the many images of Obama we have endured over the years, the prolonged staring downward as he was so courteously eviscerated might ultimately be the image by which he is best remembered. Without the sycophantic journalists, the Kool-Aid drinkers, the fainting women and the trusty teleprompter, the emperor looked a bit underdressed.

This was Romney's night.

Kevin Dujan Outs Tokyo Rose Republicans.

Tokyo Rose was a radio character created by Japanese during World War II. The purpose of Tokyo Rose broadcasts was to discourage and demoralize US servicemen in their wartime efforts. Spoiler alert: It did not work.

Now, Kevin Dujan identifies Republican Party Tokyo Roses. The Comments Section lists a few more.
http://hillbuzz.org/weeding-the-garden-who-are-the-tokyo-roses-in-the-republicans-ranks-this-election-32206

In an even more pointed article, Dujan takes on redstate.com/CNN pundit, Erik Erikson. http://hillbuzz.org/will-there-be-professional-consequences-for-the-tokyo-rose-act-erik-erikson-is-doing-at-redstate-com-14436

The propaganda has appaarently failed. Check out the crowd of Romney supporters standing in the rain in one of the bluest parts of Ohio.

GO HOME! OBAMA'S GOT IT ALL WRAPPED UP! SUBMIT TO YOUR SOCIAL SUPERIORS!

Caddell and Schoen: Romney is Being Outspent in Battleground States

Flipping through the dial on Sunday, I saw Pat Caddell and Doug Schoen discussing the ineptitude of the Romney campaign on Fox News. An interesting revelation: despite having deeper pockets, Romney is being outspent in the battleground states. Specifically, he is being outspent on television spots.

Does anyone in the Romney campaign have a calendar?

One sign of Ryan’s impact on Romney campaign: Big crowds

Yahoo is reporting overflow crowds at R&R events. This is Yahoo, whose CEO bundles for Obama and usually spins things his way.

  Several thousand people turned out to see the new GOP ticket at a NASCAR mechanics training facility here—including at least 3,000 people who crammed into an overflow outside the event. It was the second day in a row of record-breaking crowds for the Romney campaign, including more than 8,000 who attended a rally in Manassas, Va., on Saturday. http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/one-sign-ryan-impact-romney-campaign-big-crowds-154925553.html

An Angle I Had Not Considered

I am channeling Scott Rasmussen here, a brilliant, brilliant man. http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/political_commentary/commentary_by_scott_rasmussen/the_introduction_is_key_to_a_successful_romney_veep_pick

I am summarizing a couple of his articles, one of which was written prior to Ryan's selection as VP candidate. In essence, one of the most important qualities in selecting a running mate is their rame or if you prefer, recognizability. The problem with selecting a Portman is that 90% of the public does not know him. That means that CBS, NBC, ABC, AP, NPR would define (read smear) Portman for all but 10% of the public.

This is what happened to an unknown known as Sarah Palin. She is arguably the most successful governor in US history and Alaska is possibly the best managed state (if finances mean anything it is far and away the most successful state in US history) of all time. But facts afforded Palin no protection from character assassination. She was a blank canvas and the media turned her into a caricature of herself.

According to Rasmussen 39% have a favorable opinion of Paul Ryan and 25% have an unfavorable opinion. That means that the media only get to shape the opinions of 36% of the population. Ryan, therefore, is a safer bet than Portman.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections/election_2012/election_2012_presidential_election/august_2012/39_have_favorable_opinion_of_paul_ryan_25_unfavorable2

This was a smooth maneuver for Romney. Romney will be called a lot of names but "dumb ass" will not be one of them.

He is a Republican Insider After All

I don't want to dampen anyone's enthusiasm about Paul Ryan. He is smart and he is a man of integrity. But he is also a Republican insider.

A lot of people are reminding us of this inconvenient truth. Paul Ryan supported Bush's prescription drug plan. He was a cheerleader for TARP and he voted for it. He voted to bail out GM. And his austerity plan never quite balances the budget. Yes, in some ways Ron Paul or Gary Johnson or Michelle Bachmann would be better.

But let us not despair. Ryan comes from a blue district, if not a blue state. Most of his bad decisions were made before there was a viable Tea Party. Even three years ago there was no network of support that let political allies know someone had their back. The Tea Party movement started in 2009. It took a while to gel but by 2010 it was a force to be reckoned with.

The elections of 2010 were monumental. It is my hope that this landmark emboldens fiscal conservatives. Romney or Ryan vintage 2008 might be a bit sheepish advocating for fiscal sanity but the 2012 models might be willing to flex some muscle. We hope.

We have been burned before. I thought George Bush and two Houses of Republicans would balance the budget, maybe even pay down the debt. Not even close. Their reckless spending would give license to the free spending Dems and we are now a year or two from insolvency.

Obama/Geithner/Bernanke/Reid, et al, have not gotten the message, and they never will. They either want to see the US crash and burn or they believe that deficits don't matter if they are the ones creating the deficits. Romney/Ryan is our only hope. Both of these men have baggage. But they represent one last chance for America to avoid becoming Greece on a scale unfathomable. We have to support them.

Hey Mitt! Do You Still Kill My Wife?

Being that it is winding down to election day, I had considered creating a real website just to catalog Obama's falsehoods. Ain't enough hours in the day. Not if the day was 40 hours long. I believe part of the Obama strategy was to overload us with deception so that we would spend all of our time refuting their lies. False witness becomes the new normal and the refuters are left in the dust wondering what happened.

But all of Obama's many fabrications are eclipsed by one big, ugly whopper. I am referring to the tall tale wherein Obama used his own mother to advance his political agenda. Had it been true that Stanley Dunham was killed by greedy insurance barons, it would still seem a bit unseemly to use one's own deceased mother to advance one's career. But when the story turns out to be bogus, Barack Obama is revealed as one of the sleaziest carnival barkers this country has ever seen.

So I am surprised that Team Obama would accuse Mitt Romney of killing an innocent woman to satisfy his own boundless greed. The story parallels the bogus Stanley Dunham saga up to and including the factual inaccuracy of both of these contrivances. This one's going to backfire. No one's going to believe Romney's a murderer but people will believe that Obama is a compulsive liar. Possibly worse, Obama is an unimaginative liar.

Yes, we have heard this one before.

Every Time I Give Romney The Benefit of The Doubt...

I get burned.

Now Romney is stating that Bush and Paulson, not Obama, saved us from economic ruin. They did this through TARP. Giant moan of excruciating pain.

I reject the notion that the world and the country was on the brink of permanent economic collapse in 2008. Utter flim-flam! By extension, I reject the idea that Bush and Paulson and everyone who voted for TARP in 2008 saved the world. Pile it higher and deeper.

The Tea Party was launched out of frustration with both parties supporting TARP and other forms of extortion. Is Romney going to return us to the good old days of 2008?

Reflections On The Teleprompter, Part II

I am reposting something from last June. It is about Mitt Romney and his and his reliance on his teleprompter. Seven months later, Romney is still defined by his adaptive device. Every other GOP candidate (Perry possibly notwithstanding)can speak from the heart. I would include Huntsman in that group even if he had nothing to say.

Gingrich wins followers on a visceral level. He wins hearts as well as minds. Yes, the Speaker has a convoluted record (there should be a punctuation mark to distinguish understatement. Maybe an upside down exclamation point.) But the Speaker does project passion. Yes he does.

Unlike a lot of people, I like Mitt Romney. He will be remembered one of two ways: as a good man or a great man. More likely, the former. But I wish he would speak from the cuff and attack Obama and Pelosi and Reid's atrocious record. And I wish he would attack Obama's puppy dogs in the news media. We can dream, can't we?

While we are dreaming, Gingrich is going on the attack. If he lays off Romney and tears into the media industrial complex and their sissy boy puppet, he will win the nomination with Virginia tied behind his back. The party is his oyster.


Redux:

Monday, June 6, 2011
Is the Ability to Speak Extemporaneously a Gauge of One's Passion?
Rush Limbaugh prides himself on his ability to speak loudly, longly and lovingly without so much as a note card. He addressed the C-PAC crowd in 2009 naked except for his clothes. He attributes this skill to his unbridled passion.

Beck. Palin. Bachmann. Gingrich. They can wing it without a teleprompter even if Sarah might write notes on her hand. Rubio can also go a mile a minute without memory aids. The speakers we like and believe can speak off the cuff.

But maybe extemporaneous speech is just a freakish skill. Like whistling or rapping or rhyming. We don't usually think of these things when we measure a speaker's commitment. Is extemporaneous speaking just one more gimmick?

We have all been in a position where we knew what we thought but we just could not make our point. A universal experience. We were passionate about A, B, C and D but we could not make our point.We have all been there.

I have some sympathy for Walter Mondale, though I would never have voted for him. Fritz is Exhibit A of the politician who could not project his personality to an audience. Believe it or not, Mondale's private persona was warm and carefree. He liked to wear a silly hat and smoke a cigar and crack jokes as he manned his backyard grill. The consummate host. But put in the spotlight, Fritz became Walter and Reagan won by a landslide.

Obama is notably weak on anything impromptu. His reliance on the teleprompter is a national joke. But he is not the best speaker for us to gauge passion because he never really says anything. His speech is mostly void of content so how can we assess if he believes what he is saying? One has to actually say something before we can determine if a person believes what they say.

Which brings us to Mitt Romney. Three miles away from here, Romney announced that he was a 2012 candidate. He used a teleprompter to do so. Ding! Mitt the Flip. Romneycare. Mr. Ethanol. Mr. Farm Subsidy. Mr. Corporate Welfare. Our teleprompter is better than your teleprompter.

A lot has been made of Reagan's thespian background and his application to the political world. Point taken. Maybe he was the great communicator because of his polished skills. Then again, maybe he found public speaking easy because he really believed in what he said.

Whatever else can be said about Romney, I don't see his as the Anti-Obama. Nope. He might be the better of two choices but can he inspire? Can he get the apathetic or the independent or the undecided to vote for him? For that matter, can he inspire his own party to stand behind him?

Until we have that battle of the teleprompters, I will give a long look to any candidate who can speak from the heart. Cain. Bachmann. Even Newt deserves another chance. Hope and change is what we need. More importantly, we need a candidate who can speak those passions without reading them.

Report From Exeter: Romney and Christie and Occupants Oh My

As mentioned, My Handycam has a dead battery and I do not have a charger. I went to the storage unit and found my Handycam accessories. All the accessories except for the AC charger. Hopes dashed.

I spent about seven hours this weekend trying to hook up a printer. Long story but I'll try to summarize. When I moved two years ago I gave away one printer and put the other printer in storage. I don't have much space these days.

Anyway, my friend returned my printer to me at one point and I threw it in the closet. I tried to add the computer without the disk (I know I will find the disk soon now that I have the other printer running) but for whatever reason I was unable to install the printer, even with help from Hewlett Packard. So today, I dug the other printer out of storage.

The second printer was already installed on the computer. In two years time the installed cartridges froze and thawed and froze and thawed. After much futile tinkering I bit the bullet and bought a color cartridge and a black and white cartridge. Seven cumulative hours and $42 later I was able to run off a Bingo card template for my friend.

I decided to drive across town to see Mitt and Christie at the high school gym. I know. Mitt is not my first choice and he is not a great orator. But I have missed the circus this year and I figured there would be a lot of sideshows. I was not disappointed.

I have spent my life in the cheap seats away from the limelight, so this is the highest concentration of media fixtures I have seen in one space. Counting tech people there were literally hundreds of them. There were rows and rows of typists on laptops. There were so many news people that hundreds of civilians, including me, were routed away from the auditorium to a nearby gym.

In the gym, we listened to a speech that was piped in. Dumb ass me thought that the audio track was a previous Mitt and Chris rally and that they would be starting this evening's rally later. After talking to a fellow reject I learned that we had been excluded but that Mitt was going to be dropping by to say hi.

In this era of camera proliferation, it is hard to tell who is in the business and who is a mere civilian. But it seems that even some of the privileged members of the fourth estate were excluded from the grown up room. A mob armed with expensive looking cameras huddled around Mitt. I was able to see the governor's tan forehead and not much else. I guess he got that perfect tan on the campaign trail in Soth Carolina.

I saw David Gergen and Carl Cameron and a bunch of bug-eyed foreign correspondents. There were probably more civilians than media people but it's hard to tell. There were a few dozen Occupiers, a half dozen or so Ron Paul supporters and some guy with a loud voice who yelled something about Romney being a draft dodger. There were even some pro-Israeli Zionists holding signs at the parking lot exit.Some of the Occupiers infiltrated the crowd and started chanting. This happened a couple of times. I was standing by a Gang of Four who started some silly ass chant. I might make C-Span just yet.

I did my own political theater. Whenever an Occupant handed me a flier I would ask if it was printed on recycled paper. After a heartfelt "I don't know sir," I would either act despairing or hostile. I think I frightened one timid soul. But I did learn that "polite occupier" is not an oxymoron. A rarity perhaps, but not an oxymoron.

I wish I had my camera running. I wish I would have purchased a fancy phone with video capacity (mine costs $15.) Instead of video I have pleasant memories that will fade over time. Read: Tuesday. But I will treasure a vague composite memory of the evening that was uniquely New Hampshire. How sweet it is.

Newt For President

I will vote for Newt Gingrich in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday. I have already written about "Ron Paul and Me" as well as my mistrust of free spending Rick Santorum and all of his 2000-2006 cronies. I think Mitt Romney is a good man and he seems to be everyone's second choice. Something tells me I might get yet another chance to vote for Mitt.

The news media awards Bill Clinton all the credit for the financial boom and balanced budgets of the 1990's. Fact is, he could not have done it without Newt. Yes, Newt was run out of town by his own party but those bums ultimately betrayed America. Newt should wear this distinction as a badge of honor. "The Anti-Tom Delay" might not roll off the tongue but someone should be rewarded for filling this niche.

Yes, Newt is a lightning rod. Some of it is deserved and some of it is long in his past. Of all of the GOP candidates, Newt is the closest to the Anti-Obama. For that reason, I will vote for Newt.

A note about New Hampshire. Perhaps more than any place in the US, New Hampshire likes to prove the pollsters wrong. The polls had Romney in front in 2008 and he blew it to McCain. For whatever reason New Hampshire voters dislike being told what course they will chart. Graniteheads are stubborn, stubborn, stubborn.

I predict a Romney win but I doubt if it will be the 40% that the smart guys have forecasted. One of the NonMitts will surprise the pundits. Most likely, that NonMitt is Newt Gingrich.

I Guess I Picked The Wrong Year To Jump Off The Ron Paul Band Wagon

Yes, if there were no rogue nuclear nations and possibly millions of jihadists, I would still be a Ron Paul supporter. I agree with Mitt Romney that we will be Greece writ large with no one to bail us out. But I do not trust the GOP establishment to usher in an age of fiscal responsibility.

Ron Paul proposes a $1 trillion/year decrease in spending. Action of this scale is essential if America is to recover from the destruction of extreme debt. Will the GOP establishment acknowledge the obvious? Probably not.

Watching Fox News last night, I saw Fred Thompson throw his hands up in the air (figuratively) and ask his guests why in the world would someone support Ron Paul. None of the jerks replied "because he is the only candidate who recognizes the severity of our fiscal problems." For all their Bama-bashing the GOP does not seem to have learned any lessons of the past six years. They are not proposing bold distinctions from Obama. What did Reagan say about pastels?

On the same program Dick Morris slammed Ron Paul for his economic policies, specifically his advocacy of the gold standard. Morris went on to state that the gold standard prolonged the Great Depression. Uh oh!!! Morris embraces fiat currency? He buys into the Keynesian model much like Paul Krugman? GFM (Giant Moan.) With friends like Dick Morris, who needs Obama?

BTW, I do not necessarily advocate for the gold standard but it would be better than what we now have.

More disturbing GOP blather. Mitt Romney has joined the chorus of "China manipulates their currency." So Mitt, do you prefer a strong dollar or a weak dollar? I prefer "King Dollar" policies but we seem to be sailing on different ships. Is it too late for Kudlow to get in the race?

Ron Paul has not ruled out a third party run should he lose the GOP nomination. If this happens, we will have at least four more years of Obama. My opinion is that Paul is holding out support for other candidates until they show respect for his voting base and respect for their concerns. If Paul helps Obama get elected, do not blame Paul or the Paulists. Blame the mushy Obama Lite, lesser of two evils, reach across the aisle, compromise is strength Republican base.

Four more years?