Sanford Victory Does Not Equal A 2014 GOP Landslide

May 8, 2013 Leave a comment

Mark Sanford won a Congressional run off election last night, fairly handily 54-45. The Democrats sunk $1 million into this race, obviously hoping to kick start a return to power in the House next year. Mark Sanford is a despicable character, having committed adultery and lied about his whereabouts while gallivanting around South America with his whore. Odds are he’s a sociopath, so of course he’ll fit in well in the halls of Congress. While there’s no doubt that had the Democrats pulled off a win last night they would be crowing about Nancy Pelosi returning to the Speaker’s chair next year, this election was about Mark Sanford and nothing else.

We’re talking about a crimson red district, not a swing district in any sense of the term. The question was whether enough Republicans could stomach voting for Sanford for no other reason than they want a Republican representing their district rather than a Democrat. With a much larger base, the Republicans were easily able to get enough voters to the polls. Let’s not fool ourselves about Congressional elections. While we’re voting for individuals, the reality is that 90%+ of the time they’ll vote with the party they’re part of. As such, we’re really voting for a party rather than an individual. In a Republican district, even a sleazeball like Sanford will win because there are enough people who want the district represented by a Republican.

Had Sanford lost it would have only been because enough Republicans couldn’t stomach voting for him. Yours truly would have been part of the group sitting the election out. The focus here is on Sanford rather than national policy though, which is why neither party should view these results as tea leaves for 2014. If there is one thing that seemed to galvanize Sanford voters it was his attacks on Nancy Pelosi. That’s about as national as this race got. Fear of Pelosi returning to power seemed to convince a red district to vote for someone they don’t particularly care for. If there’s one lesson the Republicans can take from this race it’s that demonizing Pelosi pays dividends.

Would this lesson even apply to a swing district? It’s hard to say. Republican voters detest Nancy Pelosi, probably more than Obama. Crimson red districts can be convinced to vote for a sociopathic serial adulterer when he attacks Nancy Pelosi, so perhaps such attacks will solidify the base in a swing district. While there is perhaps a lesson to be learned from the Sanford victory, we should in no way view his win in a red district as a sign of what’s coming next year. It just wasn’t that kind of race, it couldn’t be with someone as sleazy and controversial as Mark Sanford on ballot.

Conservatives really need to do a better job of making sure people like Sanford don’t win primary elections. How many times have we lost in primary battles because two or three conservatives split 60% of the votes among themselves while the moderate cruises to victory? We do more to hurt ourselves by now bowing out of primary races for the greater good. Sanford’s primary win is a good example, there are a number of others including Michigan’s Governor’s race in 2010. If we want to change Washington, we have to not be quite so self absorbed and arrogant in primary races. We’ll end up with more Sanford’s as long as arrogant conservatives refuse to back out of races which split conservative votes. If there’s one overriding lesson to be learned from yesterday’s Sanford victory it’s that.

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Some Thoughts On The CPAC Conference

March 16, 2013 Leave a comment

We are supposed to care deeply about the CPAC conference taking place this weekend in Washington. This is the same CPAC that voted for Romney last year in a straw poll. This year we are supposed to gaze in awe at Marco Rubio and Rand Paul while we wonder aloud which of them will control the Republican Party in the future. The endless speeches, the endless calls for the GOP to be the party in “favor” of something instead of against everything, it’s all so tiresome. What are Republicans supposed to do, just agree with everything the media and/or Democrats support otherwise we’re a party “against” everything?

Perhaps we could be like Sen. Rob Portman who magically changed his position on homosexual marriage because his son is a out of the closet as a sexual pervert. This is a Senator with no principles who is willing to change his view to appease his children. He has no moral grounding, which is part of the problem with the Republican Party. We lose an election by 2 percentage points and that’s proof that we need to change our view on illegal immigration. Either we believe in the rule of law and that people should come here legally or we don’t. It seems the CPAC version of the GOP can’t decide if it has principles or not. Half seem to want to lick their finger and stick it in the wind before deciding on a position.

Would Sarah Palin please go away? Better still, could she start dressing her age? Could we stop pretending like Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is a viable candidate for President. This man may be a good Governor but he is a dreadful public speaker. Every time he’s in the spotlight, he delivers a dud of a speech. Rick Perry is right about a lot of stuff but he has no chance to win the nomination after his dreadful 2012 campaign. He got some big applause lines the other day but any Republican could have delivered them.

The media seems prepared to declare the battle for 2016 will be between Rubio and Paul. Perhaps it will end up being that way but isn’t it a little early to make that sort of declaration? We’re two years away from the first Presidential debate. While it seems pretty clear Rubio and Paul will run, we have no idea who will join them in the race. Giving a good CPAC speech is certainly good for both of these Senators, but the notion that we’re going to decide which camp we’re in based on two largely forgettable speeches at CPAC is ridiculous. But leave it to the Republican media, which wants this battle to take place so that conservatives split the vote and give the nomination to Chris Christie or some other dreadful liberal, to draw the line years before it needs to be drawn.

Rather than focusing on an election that’s over three years away, Republicans would be better off focusing on finding good conservative candidates to run for House, Senate and in local elections next year. The obsession CPAC has with the White House and redefining the party leftward is what gave us candidates like John McCain and Mitt Romney. It also helped the conservative overreaction via the Tea Party and candidates like Christine O’Donnell and Sharon Angle. There isn’t anything particularly conservative about CPAC other than all conservative Republicans have to pander by making an appearance. Remind me again why we’re supposed to care.

 

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Democrat Ideas For Women Who May Be Raped

February 20, 2013 2 Comments

According to Colorado State Rep. Joe Salazar women on college campuses in the state don’t need concealed weapons to protect themselves from potential rapists. You see, they have call boxes on campus and after all they might not be raped after all. College girls just can’t know if they’re going to be raped, so they don’t need a gun. Almost as ridiculous, Colorado College advises women who might be raped to vomit or urinate on their potential rapist. Problem solved, no need for guns! It’s surprising they didn’t advise women to defecate on their rapist like a scared animal. These people aren’t kidding around, they’re seriously making arguments against concealed weapons.

When Republicans make odd comments about rape it becomes a national issue. The mainstream press takes those odd comments and not only attacks the speaker but tries to attach the comments to the entire Republican Party. Top Republicans are expected by the media to go on talking head shows to denounce the odd comments and if they don’t the media uses that as evidence the GOP hates women. That the DNC is making the same arguments against the GOP is pure coincidence, they would never work together!

Here we have a Democrat making odd statements about rape. Where is the mainstream media? This story hasn’t been covered by any of the major networks, no  Democrats are being asked to distance themselves from Joe Salazar. No one in the mainstream press is trying to attach Salazar’s odd views to the entire Democrat Party. This story has made the rounds in conservative media but it hasn’t hit the mainstream in the least nor will it because it would require criticizing a Democrat over an issue the mainstream press happens to agree with him on.

The two most recent odd Republican comments on rape were in the abortion context. Both Senate candidates were pro-life, the media loves abortion. So it’s hardly a surprise when they latch onto those comments and go on the attack because they disagree with the GOP’s overall pro-life position. The mainstream press might scratch their heads in private over what Salazar said about rape but they ultimately agree with his position. He favors gun control and opposes expanding concealed carry laws.

The mainstream press will do anything to help Democrats win the gun control issue. It’s why the national mainstream press is ignoring a proposed Washington state bill that would allow for police inspections of homes with “assault” weapons. The Seattle Times calls the clause a “mistake” as though Washington Democrats didn’t intend to allow for illegal searches of gun owners homes. Democrats in Missouri have proposed a law which would allow the state to confiscate guns. Minnesota Democrats have proposed a similar gun confiscation law. The mainstream media ignores these stories because they know they prove the NRA’s longstanding arguments and they’ll work people up so that they oppose gun control, which the media supports. It’s why the mainstream press doesn’t report a Department of Justice report which says that an assault weapons ban will have no affect on crime.

We’ve known for decades that the media has a hard left-wing bias. It’s been made even clearer since Obama took office. Just in the last six months we’ve seen the media blame the entire Republican Party for odd rape comments made by two Senate candidates while they ignore similarly odd rape comments from an elected Democrat. We see them ignore stories about gun confiscation and ignore studies showing that assault weapons bans won’t curb crime in the least. Why does the media do this? Because they’re pro-abortion and pro-gun control. Therefore they promote candidates and favorable stories that promote their view while they attack anyone who disagrees and bury stories that the general public may not like even if the media happens to. Yet they’ll still insist they have no bias. Who buys that anymore?

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Long Term Economic Weakness A Near Certainty

February 1, 2013 10 Comments

The economy is a mess as the numbers we’ve seen lately tell us. Earlier this week it was reported that fourth quarter GDP dropped 0.1%. Back in 2007 the AP declared a quarter of economic decline was a sign of a recession. These days the AP whines that economic “jitters” are competing with Obama’s progressive agenda. Yesterday the government reported an increase in new unemployment claims of 38,000. Reuters tried to soften the number claiming it’s within a range for “job growth.” It’s a pretty substantial gain over the previous week to believe we’re looking at any kind of serious job growth. January unemployment increased to 7.9% with 157,000 new jobs. As usual during the last four years, not enough jobs to cover population growth.

This is all the Republicans fault of course. The media, Democrats and Obama administration all blame the GOP for poor economic news. They’ve done away with blaming Bush, now it’s just generic “Republicans” that are to blame. Harry Reid bloviated that the GOP needs to stop “bad mouthing” the economic recovery. Citing statistics is a sign of “bad mouthing” in the world of Democrats. We can’t have any of that because it might undermine the ability of the left to force through gun control and amnesty for illegals in the next 24-48 hours.

Everything Obama wants to do has to be done immediately, or so he’s been arguing. The less debate the better for him. Bad economic news ruins his ability to force though his progressive agenda, perhaps as much as Republican opposition in the House. None of this economic news is particularly surprising, which is why Obama is pushing so hard right now. His second administration is likely to be dominated by the economy. Obama’s tax increases on 80% of Americans is having a profoundly negative effect on the economy. Obamacare kicks in soon with the cheapest acceptable plan costing $20,000 per family according to the IRS. Can’t afford that? You’ll be taxed around $2,000.

We have massive economic problems and we don’t have a President or a Congress capable of tackling them. We have a mounting national debt that is projected to hit $20 trillion by the end of Obama’s term. We continue to have $1 trillion annual budget deficits. Taxes are crippling the economy, making it more difficult for middle class Americans to be upwardly mobile. The President and his party were re-elected by an underclass of people dependant on government for just about everything in their lives. Obama pays lip service to getting the long term unemployed back on the payrolls, all while increasing the number of people on social security disability more than any other President in history. It pays to have a dependant underclass when you’re a Democrat.

Our nation is facing a bleak economic future. Britain is entering a third dip recession, Europe generally is slowing down. China is slowing down. The US is facing its slowest economic recovery since the Depression. So slow, it’s not even a recovery anymore. Obama has no real economic plan, he lives in a fanciful world where he plays dictator to business, Congress and the masses of Americans. It’s a dream world that doesn’t exist but one that results in Obama offering nothing to fix the problems we have. We have a Congress that can’t deal with the lunatic in the White House and can barely deal with each other. As a group, Congress doesn’t have any solutions either. We’re in for a rough four years. One wonders if the American dream of upward mobility really is dead.

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Obama Doubles Down On Socialism

January 28, 2013 17 Comments

Obama is doubling down on his socialist rhetoric. Not content to leave his socialist rhetoric to his inaugural address, Obama took to the airwaves over the weekend to attack “irresponsible behavior.” The President said:

Here in America, we know the free market is the greatest force for economic progress the world has ever known.  But we also know the free market works best for everyone when we have smart, commonsense rules in place to prevent irresponsible behavior.

This is basically the rhetoric of a state capitalist, fascist or run of the will Euro-socialist. Free markets are great, except when government deems their behavior “irresponsible.” Obama makes clear in the second sentence that the first is nothing but irrelevant window dressing. He doesn’t really believe a free market is the “greatest force for economic progress.” He believes government must control and regulate the free market so as to protect it from whatever the government arbitrarily decides is irresponsible.

Obama is running around blaming the GOP for all the problems of the world. He so much as said so in a recent New Republic interview. The interview is instructive because not only does he feel the need to weigh in on his “enemies” in the GOP, he also feels the need to pontificate on the safety of football. He’s doubling down on socialism, there isn’t a single area of American life that Obama doesn’t believe his opinion is relevant and necessary. We can’t even have our circus without the opinion of the President. Of course, ESPN spent the entire weekend touting Obama’s declaration. There is no escaping this man or politics, not even on a sports network.

Obama is back to attacking Fox News and Rush Limbaugh, pretending that if only those two problems were out of the way the GOP would be willing to compromise on gun control. He goes so far as to whine about gerrymandering, as though Democrats have never gerrymander Congressional districts. It’s his comments about Fox News and Limbaugh that are the most interesting. It’s clear that Obama believes conservatives are the problem and if only the GOP could get rid of those nasty conservatives a gun control bill could pass the House. He sounds a lot like the Republican DC establishment that generally feels the same way though relies on our votes to maintain their power.

Obama is not simply declaring war on the GOP, he’s declaring war on conservatives. He’ll get his war what he won’t be is victorious. By singling out John Boehner, claiming he would get a gun control deal done if it wasn’t for Limbaugh and Fox News (as though the NRA somehow doesn’t control the GOP and half the Democrats on this issue), Obama is guaranteeing that no deal will take place. Fox News is a liberal strawman but Limbaugh and other radio conservatives together have quite a bit of power in the Republican Party. Obama has now ensured that the people who listen to talk radio will double down in their efforts to pressure the GOP on this issue. Boehner now has ability to compromise, talk radio will rally the Tea Party faithful to challenge gun controlling Republicans in primaries now.

Obama is going to spend the next year waging outright war against conservatives and the Republican Party. He’s a lame duck, which both works against us and works in our favor. He no longer has to pretend he isn’t a socialist who is hellbent on eliminating conservative opinion from society. He so much as said so in his inaugural address when he declared the debate over and settled, which of course it is not. So we’ll be subjected to more of these attacks. The bright side is that after this year Obama’s power and relevance will diminish. After the midterms, which are only 21 months away, Obama will be completely irrelevant as his party begins to look for a new nominee. Until then, we must hit back against Obama’s socialism and we need to pressure the House not to succumb to his pressure.

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Boehner Caves, Is Anyone Surprised?

December 18, 2012 8 Comments

It appears that Speaker John Boehner is going to go with with Nancy Pelosi plan and raise taxes on people earning over $1 million. While the media is calling this a tax cut plan, in reality this is nothing more than an extension of current tax rates for everyone but those earning over $1 million. The plan wouldn’t include any debt ceiling extension nor would it include any spending cuts. Taxes go up January 1st, when spending cuts will happen is anyone’s guess. This is a weak, pathetic move by Boehner. Let’s be honest though, we expected nothing less from a man unashamed of weeping in public.

Not agreeing to spending cuts in exchange for a tax increase is nothing short of a disaster for the GOP. Yes, the debt ceiling remains an issue. But there are those out there who believe Obama can get around the debt ceiling by coining money. The Constitution allows the Treasury to mint and coin money. There are those on the left who believe the government could mint a platinum coin, give it a value of, say, $2 trillion and then rack up debt on the coin. It would be like the Fed printing more money except in this case the coin would never go into circulation. It would sit in a Treasury vault while the Obama administration creates new debt based on the declared value of the coin.

We don’t know that the Obama administration is preparing to put on this sort of a ruse for the American people. But it’s an idea that’s out there and we know there are many on the left, including Paul Krugman, who want Obama to go there and thus take the debt ceiling out of the hands of Congress for good. Let’s say Obama goes down this route, Boehner will have given the President tax increases for nothing and then he’ll be left with a meaningless debt ceiling and no way to for the President to make any cuts at all. Worse, he’s setting up a future showdown over gun control which will be tied to spending cuts by Obama.

We Republicans need to recognize that we have an incompetent running the House Caucus. It’s time for the rank and file to revolt against Boehner. He’s weak and he doesn’t play his cards very well. He’s fallen into one Obama trap after another. Boehner is about to give the President tax increases for nothing while setting up a future showdown where we all know Obama will tie spending cuts to gun control or some other horrible piece of legislation. Even if Obama doesn’t go down the platinum coin route (it’s unlikely that he will) does anyone really believe Boehner is going to get any significant spending cuts in exchange for an increase in the debt ceiling?

It’s time to send Boehner back to his tavern in Ohio. We need a Speaker who isn’t going to bow before the President, we need one who can negotiate with this man without weeping. One of the biggest problems the GOP has had since Bush 41 is that we’ve always had very weak appearing leaders. There have been few exceptions and they have usually had such glaring flaws that they’ve been made weak by them. Who the next Speaker should be is anyone’s guess. But does anyone really think the GOP could do worse than Boehner at this point?

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As Predicted Obama Wins Re-Election

November 6, 2012 11 Comments

This is what happens when the Republicans allow the establishment to pick a moderate candidate for President. We lose. Romney lost for several reasons. First and foremost he couldn’t convince anyone other than desperate conservatives that he was actually a conservative. Having flip flopped from his positions as Governor just a few years ago, Romney had a major credibility problem. Why it is the GOP thought that the Governor responsible for Romneycare could beat the author of Obamacare is beyond comprehension. Anyone surprised by Romney’s defeat need only look at that problem because it put doubt in the minds of just about everyone.

Romney ran a dreadful campaign. Yes, he had a good first debate. But then he took the peddle off the gas. He tried to coast to victory on one good debate and that just isn’t good enough. He let Obama off the hook on Benghazi, he gave up discussing the budget, his hands were tied arguing against Obamacare. And yet we Republicans expected him to win? How exactly? The economy was the number one issue but even on that Romney allowed Obama to define his tax plan by not effectively defending it.

Romney picked the wrong Vice Presidential candidate. Paul Ryan is a good Congressman but where has he been the last two months? He hasn’t talked about his budget proposal, he hasn’t talked about much of anything. He’s was nowhere to be found, unless he was peeking out from behind Romney. From the way the electoral map has shaped up it’s pretty clear Romney should have picked Marco Rubio. Sen. Rubio could have secured Florida and he would have appealed to Hispanics in Colorado, Ohio and Iowa. Rubio isn’t perfect but we have to start appealing to more than just northern white guys.

The Republicans have a major problem going forward. They have no pathway to victory in 2016. We’ve lost 4 of the last 6 Presidential races and let’s be perfectly frank, we should have lost 2000 as well. No Republican has won 300 or more electoral votes since 1988. We have failed to expand the map in 24 years. We cannot go into future races pinning all our hopes on Ohio and one or two other states. We have to expand the map because if we don’t expand the map then we’re very seriously looking at losing again in 2016, this time to Hillary Clinton.

So how do we expand the map. First, we don’t listen to the establishment which will tell us that we need to move to the left. We need to start appealing to the fastest growing segment of the country: Hispanics. We don’t need to move to the left to do that, we can remain pro-life and pro-family because most Hispanics are pro-life and pro-family. We could have done so much for our party by nominating Marco Rubio, we could have made lifelong Republicans out of many Hispanics. Rubio or some other Hispanic (Ted Cruz of Texas for example) has to be on our 2016 ticket. We cannot hope to win in the future with two white guys and if we’re going to pick a woman in the future it must be someone more intelligent than Sarah Palin.

So what will the next four years look like? My guess is that after Obama gets his tax increase later this month or next, the next four years will look like the last two. Obama has no mandate, he has no stated agenda. He has to contend with a Republican House which will clash with a Democrat Senate. (Note to the Tea Party, you’ve cost us four Senate seats by nominating morons the last two elections. Please stop.) Obama will do a lot of regulatory damage but he’s going to be a lame duck and after a year or two will become like Bush and Clinton in their second terms. He’ll be in the White House, largely ignored and largely powerless. Benghazi will be a re-occurring theme the next six months.

The GOP has a lot of problems and it’s time for us to start re-thinking how we look at elections. The status quo isn’t working. It’s given us one loss after another. We must start appealing to others, we must stop allowing the Democrats to define us as the party of white people, the party of racism. It is clear, the difference in this race is Romney’s poor campaign and our failure to appeal to Hispanics. Rubio could have delivered this election, instead Romney went with a nerdy white guy from Wisconsin who was hidden most of the campaign. Something has to change.

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Joe Biden Calls GOP Squealing Pigs, Plans To Crash Convention

August 22, 2012 4 Comments

Vice President Joe Biden is the gift that keeps on giving. This man has created more problems for the Obama campaign then Romney can create. He screwed up the homosexual marriage announcement, he got Obama off message last week with his ridiculous accusation that the GOP would “put y’all back in chains” complete with phony southern accent. Now he’s claiming the Republicans are like squealing pigs. His speeches are getting less and less dignified, which only makes Paul Ryan look more qualified. Biden is coming to Michigan this week, I almost can’t wait. He’s sure to put his foot in his mouth again and that can only be good for the GOP.

But it gets even better. Joe Biden is planning on holding campaign events in Tampa next Monday and Tuesday. That’s right, Biden is going to crash the GOP Convention. There are several ways to look at this. Obviously this is completely undignified, not to mention incredibly narcissistic and arrogant on the part of the Obama campaign. It is unprecedented for a President or Vice President to crash the other party’s Convention, holding rallies and such in the same town. Generally candidates back off a little bit during the other party’s convention, not so with Obama’s. Obama wants his campaign in the forefront. But rather than do it himself, he’s sending Biden.

So while this is incredibly arrogant and inappropriate, the Republicans must be jumping for joy. Biden will almost certainly say something completely outlandish, he won’t be able to help himself with so many Republicans in town. The opportunity to lampoon Biden throughout the Convention will likely be taken by nearly every speaker. It’s almost to easy though it serves an important purpose. Joe Biden is a heartbeat away from becoming President. Do we really want four more years of that sort of risk?

But the best part about Obama sending Biden to Tampa is that the GOP can respond in Charlotte the next week. As Reince Priebus points out, the Republicans can see what sort of shenanigans Biden pulls in Tampa and respond ten fold in Charlotte. My thought is that the Romney team should send Paul Ryan on a tour of North Carolina during the Democrat Convention. He can give speeches in front of closed factories, have lunch with the chronically unemployed and speak at some of the retirement complexes which are becoming more popular in North Carolina. He doesn’t even have to go to Charlotte, though I’m sure with its 10% unemployment there are plenty of closed factories and businesses and plenty of chronically unemployed people to have lunch with.

Obama said his Presidency would be post-partisan, he was going to be the guy to put the partisan bickering aside and do what’s right for the country. His Presidency of course has been the most bitterly partisan in history. Obama is at the center of that but Joe Biden is awfully close. Just in the month of August Biden has proven that the administration is bitterly partisan. The only thing he hasn’t done, in public anyway, is snort like a pig at the Republicans. Otherwise he’s engaged in personal attacks, baseless innuendo and now he’s crashing the Convention. All of this while not engaging in a serious discussion of Barack Obama’s vision for a second term.

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Why Mitt Romney Will Lose To Obama

July 2, 2012 9 Comments

We need to come to grips with the fact that Obama is likely to be re-elected this November. There are any number of reasons for this, not the least of which is that Obama has been able to hold steady despite two months of increasingly bad news. Chief Justice Roberts gave Obama a massive political victory by bowing to outside political pressure in the Obamacare ruling. This victory for Obama suddenly makes him look like a winner. Initially I believed the ruling would help Romney but after thinking about it some I no longer believe this to be the case. Obama has at least a 75% chance of being re-elected, perhaps even more.

Romney now has to argue on  a national stage against Obamacare. He’s going to have a difficult time doing this in light of the fact that he is responsible for Romneycare. Obama will spend the entire fall claiming that he got the idea for Obamacare from Romney. It’s an absolute lie of course but by the time Romney and the GOP expose the lie the public will have moved on an the lie will become the truth. So far Romney’s call for repeal has gone over great with the people who already support him. But his lack of details concerning what he would replace Obamacare with aren’t going to inspire independents to vote for him. Romney needs a plan and he needs it now. Romney should announce a major healthcare speech for the week after Independence Day wherein he lays out what he would replace Obamacare with. So far that doesn’t appear to be forthcoming. He’s relying on the Obamacare ruling to be so unpopular that no one will care what his plan is so long as he repeals Obama’s. This is a fatal error.

Europe doesn’t appear headed for a blowup anytime soon. Merkel caved and the Euro Zone will continue bailouts and assorted nonsense. While the Zone may ultimately collapse, it won’t do so this year. As such stocks climbed substantially on Friday. That can only help Obama, who in the very least won’t face a massive international economic crisis in the next four months. He’ll face poor economic performance here at home and general economic uncertainty. Whether that will hurt him remains to be seen. The problem Romney faces is that he has yet to put forward a detailed economic vision. Independent voters may be willing to give Romney a look but not if he doesn’t provide a detailed plan. Again, simply being against Obama’s vision doesn’t win.

Looking at the electoral college, it’s difficult to see Romney’s path to victory. It’s hard to believe he’ll take Virginia at this point. He isn’t going to take Michigan or Wisconsin despite the GOP’s hopeful attitude about the state’s. Ohio is making an economic recovery, largely because of Gov. John Kasich’s economic reforms. Unfortunately Obama is likely to be given credit and as such it’s becoming increasingly clear that Ohio isn’t going to be won. That leaves Romney with no path to victory. Obviously economic news can change but at this point the polls seem to indicate a big Obama win.

Let’s be honest my fellow Republicans, none of us really expected Romney to win. As with all the other moderates nominated before him, he’s destined to lose. The American people would rather have an authentic liberal than a faux conservative. When will our party ever learn its lesson? Ford, Bush 41 (after we figured out who he really was), Dole, McCain and Romney are all cut from the same cloth. They’re all moderate to liberal and they’ve all lost. We keep getting told that the conservative can’t win when the reality is that the moderate can’t win. The result of nominating Romney will be defeat and four more years of the most destructive President this nation has ever known. I hope the moderate’s in the Party will be happy.

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Fast and Furious Exposes Obama’s Lack Of Transparency

June 22, 2012 5 Comments

President Obama claimed he would have the most transparent administration in history. He’s gone so far as to order Federal agencies to release all sorts of documents, even those which could be held back under the FOIA law. That is until Fast and Furious came along. Now the most transparent White House in history is hiding behind executive privilege in order to prevent House Republicans from exercising their Constitutional right to oversee the executive branch. We’re told the House Republicans are being “partisan” as though the White House somehow is not.

At the end of the day several thousand illegal weapons were sent by our government to Mexican drug cartels. Over 200 Mexicans are dead as is one American border patrol agent. To the Obama administration the House Republican’s interest in this is partisan. Never mind that hundreds lay dead thanks to their program. We have serial morons such as Al Sharpton claiming this is all about race, that Holder is being “stopped and frisked” by the House GOP. To believe race plays a factor here would require ignoring the fact that 200+ Mexicans are dead.

Jay Carney insists the evoking of executive privilege is a matter of “principle.” In short, it’s a matter of principle that the American people don’t get to discover why their government was arming Mexican drug cartels. As a matter of principle Obama isn’t going to let us know who knew what and when. Ignore those dead Mexicans and the dead border patrol agent. Ignore those thousands of weapons, largely lost and untracked by our government. It’s a matter of principle that you and I don’t get to know anything about it. After all, the Republicans are just playing partisan games. The Obama administration, Eric Holder and the Fast and Furious gang included, is sugar and spice and everything nice.

Chris Cillizza at the Washington Post believes the Obama administration is trying to bait House Republicans via the recent immigration decision and the executive privilege claim. His theory is that the Obama administration is using these two issues to get the focus off the economy, create a vocal division between himself and the House GOP all so he can run against those dastardly jerks in the House. It’s an interesting theory and perhaps it’s something the Obama administration is actually trying to do.

The problem though is that there has been a near media blackout of Fast and Furious. Other than Fox News and the blogs, the major networks have completely ignored the scandal. NBC Nightly News for example until this week spent less than 30 seconds on Fast and Furious over the last two years. The major papers have all buried this story. With the Obama administration now taking the GOP head on, forcing a contempt vote and claiming executive privilege, now all of a sudden the general public is being made aware of Fast and Furious.

It ought not surprise anyone when more than a few people say “hey wait a minute” when they find out the Justice Department was handing off illegal guns to Mexican drug cartels and there are now 200+ rotting Mexican corpses and one dead border patrol agent. It should surprise people even less when the “hey wait a minute” gang doesn’t like the Obama administration hiding documents. They might think the House Republicans are up to no good but they’ll detest the lack of transparency from Obama. They’ll wonder, why isn’t the President handing these documents over? The notion that the public will view this as a total witch hunt and even view Obama sympathetically is preposterous. People died because of this program, this is beyond a political game.

Obama is taking a huge risk by evoking executive privilege. He’s no longer a transparent President but rather he’s a President who appears to be covering things up. At the end of the day over two hundred people are dead because of Fast and Furious. Congress deserves to know the truth, so do the American people. The family of Brian Terry, the dead border patrol agent, deserves to know the truth. That the Obama administration is trying to hide documents, that they want to prevent the public from knowing who in the administration knew what and when is an outrage. If Obama thinks going to war with the House over these documents is a good idea politically he’s sadly mistaken. Now everyone is paying attention to Fast and Furious and no one is going to be happy that the administration is stonewalling the investigation.

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