Month: January 2012

Categories
Newt Gingrich Politics

Sunshine State Recap: Mitt In A Walk

At least it was quick and fairly painless. Not for Newt, but for the rest of us who need to move on to something important like Friday’s jobs numbers or the Super Bowl.

How’d I do? Again, not bad. My prediction is first, then the actual.

Romney    43%              46%

Gingrich    31%              32%

Santorum  14%              13%

Paul           11%                7%

I thought Paul would do better, but at this point we’re beyond the possible phase of the race and have entered the Nomination Zone. Boutique candidates need not apply

The other issue is this continued talk of the motivated Republican voter. Florida GOP officials had said that they were looking for north of 2 million primary voters, and it looks as though they fell a bit short. So much for the enthusiasm gap. Democrats are becoming more energized and could match Republican participation in the fall.

Newt says he’s staying in the race. We’ll see.

Will conservatives flock to Santorum as the conservative du jour? I’m thinking not. Mitt is in a commanding position and will be the nominee. The rest of the campaign will measure how much he’s been damaged by the infighting and how much that will affect his chances against Obama.

Follow all the action at www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives

Categories
Politics

Romney’s Swiss Bank Account was Betting Against the U.S Dollar

So, lemme get this straight — Mitt Romney set up a Swiss Bank account in hopes that the United States dollar fails, that way he could bet against the dollar to make a profit? And now, he wants to be President of the United States?

According to the manager of his trust, Mitt Romney’s Swiss bank account wasn’t an exercise in tax avoidance—rather, it was a hedge against a decline in the dollar. I’m not qualified to say whether or not his explanation is the full truth, but it certainly doesn’t provide evidence that Mitt Romney hates America. Obviously, an investment that bets on the decline of the dollar might not sound good, but when you have as much money as he does, you’re going to end up placing bets that might not be great soundbites for a campaign. In substantive terms, Romney is going to have a much bigger problem explaining why Bain profited from destroying companies than he will have explaining this.

Wow!

Categories
Politics sex

Why Are Republicans So Easily Prone To Ethic Violations?

We all know that politics breeds corruption, there’s no two ways about that. And there’s really no exception to the rule, as both Democrats and Republicans have been exposed in the past for their fraudulent deeds.

But why are Republican politicians more overwhelmingly attracted to corruption? Its almost as if Capital Hill is a magnetic field that, once they’re there, Republicans get sucked into the world of insider trading, unscrupulous behavior and greed, with special interests padding their campaign and personal bank accounts. And its all done in the name of The American People!

An increasing number of House Republicans are getting wrapped up in allegations of ethics violations ahead of the November elections, handing Democrats easy campaign fodder and putting the GOP in an unexpected bind.

Republican leaders in the lower chamber pledged to run an ethically sound ship when they took control last year. But as the second session gets under way, nearly a dozen GOP lawmakers are being questions on a wide array of their financial dealings, and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has not publicly admonished them.

By next Monday the House Ethics Committee is slated to decide whether to formally investigate Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.). Moreover, allegations arose over this past weekend that Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.) might have accepted illegal campaign donations, according to The New York Times.

Additionally, there are the three Republicans — Reps. Pete Sessions (Texas), Buck McKeon (Calif.) and Elton Gallegly (Calif.) — who earlier this month were referred to the House Ethics Committee for taking part in Countrywide’s VIP mortgage program, aimed at gaining special favor from lawmakers.

Categories
Elections Politics

Polling Report: Special Florida Edition

I thought this one might be more fun, but Mitt’s got Florida all sewn up. It will be the first non-New England state he’ll have won so far, and if he gets over 40% (he will) he can claim a sizable mandate for the nomination. Newt is sounding too screechy these days, and his call for a moon shot was one of those over-the-top moments we came to expect from Herman Cain or Rick Perry.

Here are the latest RealClearPolitics numbers. Clearly, they show Romney running away with the Sunshine State. He’s feeling good, cracking jokes and generally loosening up on the hustings. If he can keep that up, he might actually be able to change the perception many people have of him as a tightly wound button-down candidate. The only other drama I can summon from this race is that perhaps the conservatives will abandon Newt as their standard-bearer in favor of Rick Santorum. That might take time to play out. Ron Paul is, well, Ron Paul.

The prediction:

Romney    43%

Gingrich    31%

Santorum  14%

Paul          11%

Romney gets big headlines, more endorsements and money for his PAC. Gingrich says he’s going to stay in the race, but I can see him not making it to Super Tuesday in March. Santorum leapfrogs over Newt into second place as more conservatives see him as the last best forlorn hope. Paul is, well, Paul.

That wailing sound you hear in the distance is Tim Pawlenty.

Look for more at www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives

Categories
Newt Gingrich Politics Sarah Palin South Carolina vote

Newt Down For The Count, But Here Comes Sarah Palin…

Todd Palin already came out in support of the Newtsta. Sarah Palin on the other hand, is doing what Sarah Palin does best – prolonging the inevitable and milking the spotlight.

After asking voters in South Carolina to vote for Newt to continue the vetting process, palin occupied the television tubes again over the weekend with a similar message, telling Floridians to “rage against the machine” and vote for Newt.

“When both party machines and many in the media are trying to crucify Newt Gingrich for bucking the tide and bucking the establishment that tells you something.”

But Palin’s bickerings may already be too late. Recent polls out today has Romney with a16 point lead over Gingrich, 44% to 28%, with Rick Santorum at 12% and Ron Paul at 10%. Voting in Florida is set for Tuesday.

Categories
Politics

Mitt To GOP: You Can’t Always Want What You Get

But if you try sometimes, you might find…

Make no mistake about the Florida primary and the race for the Republican nomination. It’s Mitt Romney’s to have and to hold, ’til November 6 tears it asunder. The press, both virtual and paper-based, will continue to spin out stories showing that Newt still has some time to close the gap, or about how the conservative base will rally around Newt, and if he falters they’ll move on to Rick Santorum, or how Mitch Daniels will be recruited to run a write-in or otherwise rogue campaign for those right-wingers with buyer’s remorse.

As the famous saying about history goes, it’s all bunk.

Romney is pulling a reverse Newt in Florida, coming from 9 points down after South Carolina to now lead by 9 in the latest polls (I’ll be writing a Polling Report for Florida on Tuesday morning, but if you want a summary, you just got it).

The key to Romney’s rise is the real story both for Florida and for what it bodes in the general election. It was not based on some new policy, or a burst of endorsements (in fact, Florida Governor Rick Scott hasn’t endorsed anyone), or new-found respect in the blogosphere. It is based on virulently negative advertising and a debate performance that stressed attacks over substance.

That’s it. Romney still has the same problems with his wealth, Bain Capital, his shifting stances on most issues and an inability to convince conservatives that he’s one of them. But when he came out swinging last week attacking Gingrich’s record, all of a sudden he became a rock star. His poll numbers rose. Newt became angry and lost his debating edge. GOP insiders began to turn on Newt. Which prompted this response saying that the GOP elites don’t get it. Which also prompted Sarah Palin to use “Stalin-esque rewriting of history” correctly for grammar’s sake, but totally wrong historically. In short, most of his party doesn’t want Mitt to be the nominee, and that’s a huge problem. They might warm up to him as the year progresses, but that’s hardly a recipe for the vaunted Republican enthusiasm machine, which is coughing fumes at the moment.

The Republican Party is at war with itself. It will nominate a moderately conservative former governor who shares some of the right’s disdain for common sense with a practicality born of his wealth and place in society. This will drive the hard-rightists crazy for the next 9 months and could fatally damage Mitt in the general election. But if his debate performances will be the bellwether for his campaign, he’s rolling some mighty large dice. President Obama will have time to prepare and counter all of Mitt’s arguments, and can appear as the steady leader behind an improving economy. Romney will have to be careful not to sound angry.

In the meantime, Newt says he’s not going to drop out of the race. That will mean more negative ads and contentious debates. And more damage to the eventual nominee.

Join the fun at www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives

Categories
Politics

The President Will Vacate The Oval Office Next Year

The Washington Post Reports: Barack Obama, Newt Gingrich, and Mitt Romney are already knee-deep in what many observers are saying could be the nastiest presidential bid in decades—but a year from now, the ultimate victor, no matter who he is, may not get to claim the ultimate prize: the Oval Office.

According to sources familiar with the discussions, beginning sometime next year the President may be relocated from the White House West Wing and the iconic Oval Office to temporary office space next door in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, formerly known as the Old Executive Office Building.

How big will the displacement be? According to sources, who demanded anonymity in order to talk about non-public plans, the White House Mess and other parts of the West Wing will also undergo needed repairs—in other words, “the whole West Wing except the Situation Room,” as one source put it.

The displacement could last up to a year, according to two people who have been part of the discussions.

Categories
Donald Trump Donald Trump Politics presidential

Hey Everyone, Look Over Here… It’s Donald Trump… Again!

The pressure to try to stay relevent is suffocating Donald Trump. Out of nowhere and with absolutely no relevance to anything anyone cares about, Donald Trump decided to give yet another interview, talking about… what else, that he is the only one that can save America, and if the GOP can’t get their act right, he will just have to save us all by running as an independent.

The interview, for what it’s worth, was shown on Sunday on CBS News program Face The Nation with Bob Schieffer. Be quite folks, Trump has something very important to say;

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said The Donald. “It’s Republican against Republican, and yet the level of hatred, I guess you could say, I mean, there’s no other word for it, is unbelievable. The question is, are they hurting themselves? Are they hurting the party? Are they hurting the Republicans, and are they hurting their chances of winning an election against Barack Obama? And probably the answer is yes.

“I don’t see a person that, number one, is going to win,” he said, he may be forced to mount his own campaign.”I think people dislike the Republicans and the Democrats more than they ever have. So I actually think the right Independent could win, and there was a poll about a month ago, you saw it, where I was the number one Independent choice.

“It’s a very sad situation what’s happening to the country and I do say that and I say many other things and somehow it resonates with a lot of people and that’s why they, you know, would like me to run… I hope I don’t have to, but I may absolutely.”

Viewership for The Apprentice must be low.

Categories
Mitt Romney Newt Gingrich Politics Republican

Did Newt Gingrich Just Disqualify Himself And Romney From Being President?

Sunday on Fox News, Newt Gingrich became an honesty agent, criticizing flip-flopper Mitt Romney, calling him a liar and asking for honesty. Gingrich actually said this about Romney;

“You cannot be president of the United States if you cannot be honest and candid with the American people. That is a very serious problem.”

“He came into the debate prepared to say things that are false. I think someone who is running for the president has a unique requirement to be honest because the only way you lead the American people is by having them believe in you.”

But if honesty is a qualifier for being President of the United States, and it should, does this mean that by his own standards, Gingrich just disqualified himself?

I asked this question on Facebook, here are some of the replies:

Categories
Politics

A Rare Moment – Charlie Chaplin Speaks – Must See Video

Born in 1889 in London England, Charlie Chaplin is known today for his silent shows and movies. But in the clip below, the voice of Charlie Chaplin is heard speaking to us all. Speaking truths that are just as needed today as they were back then.

Listen to his words and apply what he said to our present economic and political environment.

Categories
George Bush Mitt Romney Politics

The Policies That Crashed The Economy Are The Policies Romney Will Continue

Mitt Romney made his millions from legal maneuverings done at his Bain Financial company that cost some smaller businesses their profits and cost thousands of employees their jobs. He is the poster boy of the top 1% of the richest people in America and he gladly carries that banner. In a world where greed takes the place of common sense and decency, a world where the rich are making more money now than anytime in our recent history – while the bottom 99% are asked to pay more of what they don’t have – this is not the time to put a poster boy for the top 1% in the White House.

With that said, what if Americans continue in their slumber and buy into the Romney sales pitch, you know… that he’s one of us, that he’s looking out for our best interests, that he wants the middle class to prosper, that he’s from the streets? What if on election day, the bottom 99% elects the poster boy of the top 1% to the highest office in the land. What can we expect?

Well based on Romney’s own words – and as we’ve seen, his words really don’t mean that much because of his amazing flip-flopping abilities – Romney’s economic plan will lower taxes even more for his rich buddies. His plan would raise taxes on the 99% even more, and we, the 99%, will be asked to carry more of this economy on our backs while President Romney and his rich buddies continue raking in the dough.

Romney has also said on many occasions that he will “repeal ObamaCare,” the health care plan President Obama put in place. A plan that is already providing insurance coverage to millions more young people and ends the ability of insurance companies to drop your coverage if you were sick in the past. While he was governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney implemented the very same health care plan for the citizens of his state. But now that he is running for president, Mitt Romney is promising repeal of a health care plan that mimics his own, simply to get the votes of his far right Teaparty base.

And there is also Romney’s promise to end regulations on businesses so that they will be free to do whatever is in their best interest to survive. Even if it means taking away common sense requirements put in place to support the employees and the general public as a whole. And apparently agencies like the EPA and the Education Department will no longer exist. So companies would be free to dump all kinds of pollutants into the atmosphere or into our waters, if it meant their profit margins would increase.

Like Romney said at a campaign stop recently, “corporations are people my friends,” thus, if elected, a Romney presidency would make sure that Corporations/people continue to live and prosper, even if we the people – the people the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights were meant to protect – suffer in the process.

Are you a member of the 1%? Then you would be happy… no ecstatic with a Romney presidency. But for the rest of us, we must wake up and realise that what Bush started with his unpaid wars – a move that put billions into the pockets of Dick Cheney, Halliburton and other war mongering companies – and his trillion dollar tax cuts for millionaires among many other dumb policies, will only magnify and multiply if Mitt Willard Romney gets the #1 spot in the white house.

Categories
dead Mitt Romney Politics

Mitt Romney Baptised and Converted a Dead Man To Mormonism

Apparently, baptizing and converting someone to Mormonism after they’re dead is a sure way to get that person into Heaven. And according to reports, that was exactly what Mitt Romney and his family did to his wife’s father, fourteen months after he died.

Mitt Romney’s militantly atheist father-in-law, was indeed posthumously converted to Mormonism by his family, despite the fact that when he was alive he regarded all religions as “hogwash.”

As we mentioned yesterday, Ann Romney’s Welsh-born father (who Mitt mentioned in last night’s debate to shore up his pro-immigrant bona fides) was an engineer, inventor, and resolute atheist who disdained all organized religion and raised his children accordingly. Davies, his son Roderick told the Boston Globe in 2007, regarded the faithful as “weak in the knees.” But when Mitt began seeing Davies’ daughter Ann, the Romney family launched a concerted effort to convert not only Ann but her entire family to Mormonism. And they were wildly successful: Within a year of meeting Ann, Mitt and his father had converted all three of Edward Davies’ children. Days before she died in 1993, Ann Romney’s mother asked to be converted as well. Edward Davies was the only member of his clan whose soul the Romneys never claimed for their church.

Until he died. According to this entry in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints’ genealogical database, Davies was baptized as a Mormon at a “special family meeting” 14 months after his death: “All ordinances except sealing to spouse performed in Salt Lake Temple on 19 Nov 1993 in special family meeting,” the entry says. (When we previously asked the church whether Davies had been baptized, a spokesperson told us that the information was available only to his family and church members. But it’s apparently right there on the internet for those who know what to look for.)

And now ladies and gentlemen, thanks to Mitt Romney and the Mormon beliefs, Mr. Edward Davies, a man who lived his life as an atheist, is now luxuriating as a Mormen in Heaven.

Exit mobile version