Mitt Romney’s weekend interview in the Wall Street Journal seems to add weight to conservative doubts about his candidacy.

Romney doesn’t seem to get it: the 2012 election is about the size and cost of government.

We already have a “smart” president with ambitious plans who thinks he knows better. That hasn’t worked for our economy, and has damaged trust in our democracy.

Romney says “America doesn’t need a manager,” but his plans reflect what the Journal euphemistically calls “positive technocratic thinking.”

Though Romney may be more “sober” than his rival Newt Gingrich (or, less charitably, more timid than the former Speaker), he evidently shares with Gingrich an enthusiasm for what the federal government could do, if only he were put in control.

Given that Ron Paul’s radical foreign policy is a non-starter, and that several other candidates–however well-meaning–could not manage the mundane task of qualifying for the Virginia ballot, or withstand the media scrutiny of a long campaign, Republicans are feeling new doubts about the current field.

They are all better than Obama; the question is–are they the best Republicans can offer?

As Republicans have wrestled with that question, a few have floated the idea of a “brokered convention,” at which the party’s nominee would be chosen through back-room negotiations and contested ballots instead of the pro forma roll calls of recent decades.

Given Romney’s struggle to provide the clear alternative to Obama that Americans so desperately need, the party should consider whether a brokered convention is feasible as a fallback option.

Here, then, are the top ten Republicans who could be nominated at a brokered convention. Some declined to run earlier, and should reconsider; all would provide a stronger contrast to President Obama than Romney or Gingrich is providing at the moment.

***

10. Rep. Eric Cantor

The Whip united the caucus against the disastrous stimulus in 2009. In the debt ceiling debate, he reportedly held out against new taxes in any final agreement. Moreover, he has made clear that his vision for the country’s future is plainly different from Obama’s.

***

9. Sen. Jim DeMint

The conservative stalwart has provided key support to Tea Party candidates, and has challenged the compromise politics of the Republican establishment.

***

8. Gov. Bobby Jindal

Recently elected in a landslide to a second term, he has fought political corruption and brought competence and leadership to a state long lacking both. Despite a rocky national TV debut in 2009, Jindal is a ruthless and effective campaigner.

(more…)

Pennsylvania and Texas are finally investigating abortion clinics that allegedly have violations and that’s a healthy sign, but what is Louisiana waiting for? I’ve been told that Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is a good man and there’s even been some talk that he should be persuaded to run for president, which is why he just released his birth certificate. On the other hand there has been some criticism that he delegates a lot of issues that deserve his personal attention. I don’t know if that’s true or not but when I learned about what’s happening in Louisiana’s abortion clinics and a possible cover up by the Delta Health department, I wondered why Gov. Jindal hasn’t ordered them shut down.

In February, Sen. David Vitter sent a letter to Gov. Bobby Jindal and the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals Secretary Bruce Greenstein urging an investigation and immediate action against the abortion facility with connections with Kermit Gosnell.

Gosnell was arrested in Philadelphia and charged with one count of murder in the death of a woman in a botched abortion and seven counts of infanticide-seven infants born alive had their spinal cords snipped with scissors. His facility had a history of numerous health and safety violations which were ignored by authorities.

The Delta Clinic in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has a close connection with Gosnell. Its owner Leroy T. Brinkley hired Gosnell to work one day a week at his clinic. Brinkley also sent patients to Gosnell after starting the abortion procedure in Delaware then driving them to Philadelphia to complete the procedure. Brinkley also had one of his clinic workers, Eileen White O’Neil, work for Gosnell in Philadelphia. She has also been charged with Gosnell for criminal violations that include deception for pretending to be a licensed physician, and for racketeering.

(more…)

Yesterday marked the first anniversary of the disastrous BP oil spill. Remembrance of the fateful months after the spill was followed by strict criticism from several politicians across the country. Gov. Bobby Jindal appeared on television this morning offering praise towards the residents of Louisiana and neighboring states for a resilient and speedy recovery. While the speed of the recovery is reason enough to celebrate, Jindal’s message took a more somber tone, focusing on the “one-size-fits-all moratorium” that was placed on the Gulf States following the spill.

With the stigma of the spill remaining clear in the minds of many Americans, tourism in the Gulf has taken a significant hit. Several Governors are attempting to reel visitors back into their states, but the policies introduced following the spill are only further crippling economic recovery in the Gulf. It is no secret that the price of oil continues to rise at an out-of-control pace. The average price of gas has risen by nearly a dollar since the spill and production has been stunted by nearly a third. Gov. Jindal, and others, argues that increasing offshore drilling would only alleviate some of the economic burden that all Americans face.

As this infographic demonstrates, the administration’s disastrous energy policies have had a hand in nearly all of the deleterious long-term effects of the Gulf spill crisis (click to enlarge).

Safe drilling remains at the forefront of the administrations mind, but the continuation of this moratorium has only hurt small business and added to the already high unemployment rate. The rising price at the pump has spurred increase support for off-shore drilling. A recent CNN poll shows that Americans are beginning to learn towards increased drilling. The survey showed that 69 percent of Americans favor increased offshore drilling, with just over three in ten opposed. That 69 percent is up 20 points from last June, while the oil spill was still in progress, and is back to the level of support seen in the summer of 2008.

(more…)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download Podcast | iTunes | Podcast Feed

On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson is joined by Matt Lewis to discuss Obama’s Libya speech, Tim Pawlenty, Newt Gingrich and more.

We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment and Stephen Clouse and Associates. If you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

Related Links:

Obama’s Libya Speech: What Worked; What Didn’t
Tim Pawlenty Winning The ‘Matt Lewis Primary’
Newt Gingrich’s ‘Lake’ Analogy Doesn’t Hold Water
Matt Lewis’ Blog at the Daily Caller

Follow Brad on Twitter
Follow Matt on Twitter

When, in The Federalist, Alexander Hamilton writes that “energy in the executive is a leading character in the definition of good government,” he refrains from asserting that energy in the executive is the leading character in the definition of good government. He is right to deploy the indefinite, rather than the definite, article. Had he chosen the latter, Thomas Jefferson’s accusations would have been on the mark: our first Secretary of the Treasury really would have been a monarchist of sorts.

What Hamilton had in mind, however, when he insisted on the necessity that the new nation be endowed with an energetic executive is the fact that a government in which the laws are not vigorously executed and in which emergencies are not confronted and handled with decision and dispatch is hardly a government at all. He knew that wisdom, prudence, and moderation are also required for a government to be good, and he recognized as well that the ends and sphere proper to government are limited. He was no less committed to the principles of the Declaration of Independence than was the man who had drafted it.

Hamilton was also aware that that Julius Caesar and Oliver Cromwell had been energetic executives, and to their number we can now add such luminaries as Napoleon Bonaparte, Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Mao Tse-Tung, Fidel Castro, and Pol Pot. The executive temperament necessary for good government is not, alas, sufficient to guarantee its achievement.

If, as I argued in mid-June, it is now abundantly clear that Barack Obama lacks the temperament requisite in an executive, if, as I contended, he is inclined to shirk responsibility, shift the blame, dither, and punt, his administration is beyond question a government insufficient for our needs. This does not mean, however, that – merely by demonstrating energy, vigor, and dispatch in shouldering the responsibilities of executive office – Bobby Jindal of Lousiana, Chris Christie of New Jersey, Mitch Daniels of Indiana, Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, Jeb Bush of Florida, Haley Barbour of Mississippi, or any of the other potential presidential aspirants in the Republican Party who have been effective governors has demonstrated that he possesses all of the qualities called for in the grave crisis we now face.

All of the individuals I have named are impressive – as are, for example, Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee. The moment has not yet arrived, however, for a thorough assessment of the qualities and outlook of each. There will be plenty of time for sorting through the candidates after the midterm elections.

(more…)

Earlier this month, I posted a piece documenting Barack Obama’s incapacity as an executive. I followed up with a brief examination of Bobby Jindal’s record as Governor of Louisiana and, then, with a short discussion of a display of vigor and dispatch on the part of Chris Christie, Governor of New Jersey – both of whom nicely illustrate what Alexander Hamilton had in mind when he wrote in The Federalist that “energy in the executive is a leading character in the definition of good government.” Today, I will take a brief look at Mitch Daniels, Governor of Indiana.

Daniels is an accomplished man with considerable and varied experience in both the public and the private sectors.

On his father’s side, Daniel’s grandparents were Syrian Christians, and he has been honored by the Arab-American Institute for the work that he has done on behalf of Arab community in this country. He was himself born in Monangahela, Pennsylvania, where his paternal grandfather ran a pool hall and, on the sly, reportedly made book. As a child, he lived not only in Pennsylvania, but in Georgia, Tennessee, and Indiana, where his parents settled when he was ten. After graduating from a public high school in Indianapolis, he attended Princeton University. There, for a time, this straight arrow appears to have succumbed to the Zeitgeist In 1970, he spent two nights in a New Jersey jail after being arrested for marijuana possession. Nine years later, however, he was awarded a law degree by the Georgetown University Law Center in DC.

Daniels got his start in politics working for Richard Lugar – initially when Lugar was mayor in Indianapolis and later when that worthy was elected to the U.S. Senate. For a long time, Daniels was Lugar’s right-hand man. He ran the latter’s first three senatorial campaigns; and, from 1977 to 1982, he served as his chief of staff. In 1983, when Lugar was elected chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Daniels became its executive director.

In 1985, Daniels left Lugar to join the presidential administration of Ronald Reagan, where in time he succeeded Haley Barbour as chief political advisor and liaison. When he returned to Indiana in 1987, Daniels did so as chief operating officer of the Hudson Institute, a conservative think-tank then in financial trouble; and three years later, after having put Hudson on a sound footing, he went to work for Eli Lilly, where he soon became President of North American Operations and eventually Senior Vice-President for Corporate Strategy and Policy.

(more…)

On Wednesday last, I posted a piece documenting Barack Obama’s incapacity as an executive. I followed up on the following day with a brief examination of Bobby Jindal’s record as Governor of Louisiana – which illustrates admirably what Alexander Hamilton had in mind when he wrote that “energy in the executive is a leading character in the definition of good government.” Today, I will take a brief look at Chris Christie, Governor of New Jersey.

Chris Christie is an original. He is the first Republican to have won statewide office in New Jersey in a dozen years, and he did so on 3 November 2009 by ousting from office an immensely wealthy sitting Governor who had previously served five years as United States Senator from that state.

In certain respects, Christie, who is 47, is quite unlike Bobby Jindal. He did not become a freshman at Brown when he was 20, win a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford when he was 23, and serve as a cabinet secretary in state government when he was 25. He was not a boy wonder, and his rise has not been meteoric. Had you learned about him when he was 39 (as Jindal is now), you might well have concluded that he was a pretty ordinary guy.

Born in Newark, New Jersey, Christie grew in Livingston. In later years, he attended the University of Delaware, took a law degree at Seton Hall, and gained admission to the bar. After serving as an associate for six years, he became a partner in a law firm in Cranford, New Jersey, where he specialized in securities law, appellate practice, election law, and government affairs.

(more…)

In this week’s edition of Coffee and Markets, featuring The New Ledger’s Francis Cianfrocca, we’re talking about how financial regulations will rob you of your free checking accounts, how the government is discouraging investment, and why Obama’s response to the BP spill is such a monumental failure. We’re brought to you as always by Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com and LibertyPundits.com.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download Podcast | iTunes | Podcast Feed

You can subscribe to the podcast by following the links above, and if you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

Related Links:

Domenech: Our Impotent President
Andrew Malcolm: Why Senators Don’t Make Good Presidents
WSJ: The End of Free Checking
Cella: Tocqueville on the BP Spill
Breitbart: Jindal Fumes as Fed Red Tape Halts Cleanup
Domenech and Cianfrocca: A Presidency on the Brink

On Wednesday, I posted a piece, drawing attention to what is now obvious even to Maureen Dowd: that, as an executive, Barack Obama is woefully incompetent. In that piece, I noted the propensity of the American people for electing to the Presidency men with ample executive experience – as generals, governors, cabinet secretaries, and the like. I remarked as well on the poor performance of the four Presidents they elected who did not have prior executive experience; and I suggested that it is time for the Republicans to ask who, in their number, has demonstrated a willingness and an ability to take charge and assume what the authors of The Federalist called responsibility.

In the course of the next few days, I propose to say a word or two about three of these Republicans. I will not discuss Sarah Palin, who displayed the requisite vigor and dispatch in her brief stint as Governor of Alaska, and I will not discuss Tim Pawlenty, who, over the last seven years, has shown genuine capacity as Governor of Minnesota. That worthy task I will leave to others – who know more than I do. Today, I will look at Bobby Jindal, Governor of  Louisiana.

Jindal is a remarkable young man. Born in 1971 to parents who migrated to Baton Rouge from India, he entered the freshman class at Brown University when he was twenty, was admitted to Harvard Medical School and Yale Law School when he was twenty-three, and that same year was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to study at New College, Oxford – where he took an M. Litt. in political science and wrote a dissertation entitled “A Needs-Based Approach to Health Policy.”

Instead of studying medicine or law, Jindal returned from Oxford to Louisiana, became Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals when he was 25 and President of the University of Louisiana system when he was 28, then shifted to Washington, DC where he became Assistant Secretary of  Health and Human Services for Planning and Evaluation at the age of thirty.

Two years later, he was back in Louisiana – where, in 2003, he ran for Governor in the state’s open primary, led in the first round, and lost in the runoff; where, in 2004, he was elected to Congress with 78% of the vote; where in 2006, was re-elected with 88% of the vote; and where, in 2007, he was chosen Governor, the first non-white man to have been elected to the governorship in that state and the first non-incumbent ever to have made it to the top without a runoff.

(more…)

The media in the backdrop of Barack Obama’s now infamous “whose ass to kick” comment has argued that this President’s critics are angry at him for not showing more emotion.  That conservative bastion CNN features an article entitled ‘Why Obama doesn’t dare become the ‘angry black man’ that reads:

Who would have ever expected some white Americans to demand that an African-American man show more rage?

If you’ve followed the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, you’ve heard the complaints that Obama isn’t showing enough emotion.

But scholars say Obama’s critics ignore a lesson from American history: Many white Americans don’t like angry black men.

[…]

“Folks are waiting for a Samuel Jackson ‘Snakes on the Plane’ moment from this president as in: ‘We gotta’ get this $#@!!* oil back in the $#!!* rig!’ But that’s just not who Obama is,” says Saladin Ambar, a political science professor at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

A few observations here.  First, notice how it is only leftists like Bill Maher, Spike Lee and the elites in academia and the media coming out and making this a race issue.  Second, how unintelligible is this argument?  People are upset because the President is not getting upset, but they are wrong to be upset because they don’t like President’s that play into stereotypes?  What exactly does this have to do with an oil spill that is crippling the nation?  And who is perpetuating such a stereotype?  Third, which Americans are demanding that Barack Obama show rage?  People of all stripes and colors are looking for a President to stand up and show calm but confident and steadfast leadership, irrespective of the President’s race.  If Barack Obama happened to be purple it wouldn’t make a damn difference.

The race issue is simply devised as a smokescreen by which the left seeks to distract us.  Since the President has done a poor job leading the nation in the wake of the ongoing BP spill, the media pulls the race card to shift the focus away from Obama and towards his critics who after all are all clansmen.  Yet notice again that throughout this Presidency, the only people talking about race are the leftists themselves.

(more…)

If you’ve been watching the fiasco surrounding the oil spill in the gulf, you already know the mainstream media meme that has cropped up around it. “Yes, President Obama has failed to stop the spill thus far,” the press tell us. “Yes, he’s demonstrated that his promises of supreme competence were overblown. Yes, his leadership has become so questionable that even James Carville has attacked him for it. Yes, some of the alternatives being offered in spite of all of this are being ignored, and yes, President Obama has failed to inspire confidence among everyday Americans about his ability to handle this crisis. But one thing we will not deny is that President Obama cares. He is a man of deep humanity, and deep empathy (and where have we heard that word before) for the suffering of those affected by the spill, and he cares.”

What I am about to ask will require readers to engage in a supreme act of charity: Despite all the evidence to the contrary, all the evisceration which Rush Limbaugh and every other conservative commentator have piled on this administration, all the evidence that the media will never believe anything but the very best about this President even as he takes this country down the road to serfdom at a speed that would make Dale Earnhardt Jr feel queasy, and despite all the emotionless, meaningless, platitude-laden babble that the President has been spewing since the spill began, I want the readers to assume, just for the sake of argument, that the media is telling the truth. Despite what appear to be severe rhetorical and emotional shortcomings in his speeches and his own bearing, imagine that underneath the hyper-rational mask, President Obama really does care.

So what?

Has that “caring” done anything to stop the spill? Has it given President Obama one single, solitary constructive idea about how to solve the problem (other than “Plug the Hole,” that is)? Does President Obama have the ability to fly out to the Gulf Coast and, like Ma-Ti in Captain Planet, dissolve the oil with nothing but the magically empathic effusions of his beating heart? And if not, then even if we concede that President Obama cares about those affected by this crisis,  how is that remotely relevant to his ability to solve it? As per the usual liberal tag line, we are expected to believe that President Obama’s good intentions alone should assuage us of his competence, but have they done anything at all? The answer is as devastating as it is obvious: No.

(more…)

On Friday April 9, 2010, GOP official Allee Bautsch and her boyfriend Joe Brown attended a Republican dinner at Brennan’s restaurant in New Orleans. When they left this event the young Republicans were followed from the restaurant by a group of five white men who hurled insults at them calling Allee a “little blond bitch” and calling Joe a “f**king f*ggot.” They savagely beat and stomped on the young Republican couple just blocks from the restaurant.

This photo shows the look of horror on Allee’s face after she was stomped on by the thugs.
Via The Hayride:

Allee Bautsch suffered a broken leg from the beatdown outside to the SRLC dinner at Brennan’s Restaurant in New Orleans. She had her leg operated on over the weekend and it will take her months to recover. Her boyfriend Joe Brown suffered a broken nose, a broken jaw, and a concussion. They were attacked after leaving the Southern Republican Leadership Conference dinner at Brennan’s Restaurant.
(Photo from Jindal’s Facebook Page via The Hayride)

(more…)

On Friday April 9, 2010, GOP official Allee Bautsch ahd her boyfriend Joe Brown attended a Republican dinner at Brennan’s restaurant in New Orleans. When they left this event they were followed from the restaurant by a group of five white men who hurled insults at them calling Allee a “little blond bitch” and calling Joe a “f**king f*ggot.” They brutally beat and stomped on the young Republican couple just blocks from the restaurant.

Allee Bautsch suffered a broken leg from the beatdown outside to the SRLC dinner at Brennan’s Restaurant in New Orleans. She had her leg operated on over the weekend and it will take her months to recover. Her boyfriend Joe Brown suffered a broken nose, a broken jaw, and a concussion. They were attacked after leaving the Southern Republican Leadership Conference dinner at Brennan’s Restaurant.

(Photo from Jindal’s Facebook Page via The Hayride)

On Saturday, Allee Bautsch’s mother spoke out about the vicious attack. She joined Allee’s friend and said the attackers were leftist protesters.

Yahoo reported:

Allee Bautsch’s mother, Della Berning, has now joined a friend of Bautsch’s in telling Yahoo! News that, contrary to what Brown initially told police, Bautsch and Brown do believe that the attackers were a group of political protesters who followed them after they left the event. Their recollection is not conclusive, of course, and they admit to having no knowledge of the attackers’ underlying motivations.

New Orleans, Louisiana police initially dismissed the savage attack on GOP official Allee Bautsch and her boyfriend Joe Brown in the French Quarter. They reported it as a medical call and did not even interview the couple about the brutal beating until Monday.

(more…)

Jack A. Neal posted this photo and comment on Bobby Jindal’s Facebook page tonight: Hi folks. I was in New Orleans this past Friday night. I was dining within a half block of where the incident involving Allee Butsch happened. I joined this group so that I might share the info, as well as a photo I took. More to come…
Via The Hayride.

Allee Butsch suffered a broken leg from the beatdown outside to the SRLC dinner at Brennan’s Restaurant in New Orleans. She had her leg operated on over the weekend and it will take her months to recover. Her boyfriend Joe Brown suffered a broken nose, a broken jaw, and a concussion. They were attacked after leaving the Southern Republican Leadership Conference dinner at Brennan’s Restaurant.

(more…)

On Friday night Allee Bautsch, chief campaign fundraiser for Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, and her boyfriend Joe Brown, were savagely beaten in New Orleans after leaving a Republican party fundraising dinner. This report was put together on what we know so far on this horrible attack on two young Republicans.

Allee Bautsch and her boyfriend Joe Brown

The governor’s office said Monday that Allee Bautsch suffered a broken leg and her boyfriend suffered a concussion and fractured nose and jaw in the alleged incident. (KSLA)

A Republican activist and her boyfriend were savagely beaten in New Orleans on Friday after leaving the SRLC dinner. It was originally reported that they were attacked because they were wearing Sarah Palin pins..

(more…)

Louisiana State Senator A.G. Crowe (R, Slidell) is introducing a bill for the 2010 legislative session in Baton Rouge that would make Obamacare illegal if it violates state laws, effectively making Obamacare null and void in the Pelican State.

Senator Crowe states that his bill “provides that no law or rule shall compel, directly or indirectly, any person, employer or health care provider to participate in any health care system or health insurance.”

Crowe’s proposed Senate Bill (download .pdf file) begins as follows:

HEALTH CARE. Prohibits state or local governmental coercion of any Louisiana employer, health care provider, or individual to compel participation in any health care system or health insurance plan.

Crowe insists that Obamacare violates Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution and “is therefore unconstitutional.” He also feels that the president’s plans violates the 10th Amendment among others.

(more…)

From Steve Beatty, Pelican Institute’s investigative reporter:

More than two years before an ersatz pimp and prostitute raised troubling questions about Acorn Housing Corp.’s financial advice, Louisiana officials criticized the organization’s bookkeeping as it denied the group tens of thousands of dollars from a potential $1.5 million state contract.

The office overseeing the contract recommended against rehiring Acorn Housing in part because it couldn’t document its work.  The contract was designed to inform low-income residents about the Road Home program and help them apply for post-hurricane benefits.

A much smaller $53,000 contract that Acorn Community Land Association had with the state attorney general’s office also was criticized for thin financial justification, though the group got its full payment and was recommended for future work. The contract was to tell hurricane victims of non-discriminatory housing policies as they sought temporary rentals.

In both contracts, the state files contain promotional materials extolling the virtues of paying for an ACORN membership – a solicitation expressly forbidden under the contracts.

“If you are not rich, you need to join your ACORN community group and work on the problems affecting you,” reads one flier in the attorney general’s file.

(more…)

As the federal government continuously churns out ideas and policies that drive our nation deeper and deeper in debt, citizens and taxpayers are right to be worried. From federal “stimulus” bills that force state governments to change laws, raise taxes and increase spending, to cap and trade proposals that will run our energy industry into the ground, to emerging plans for an unprecedented and unsustainable expansion of government health care, it is clear that the swollen river of our federal government has overflowed its banks.

 Washington is increasingly out of step with folks out here in flyover country who do not share the inside-the-Beltway belief that a benevolent, all-knowing government can expand and encroach without limit, because individual Americans simply cannot be trusted to make right choices.

This mindset has driven the explosive growth of the size, spending and intrusiveness of the federal government. Our founding fathers would be appalled at the way their successors are ignoring individual liberties, contemplating more tax increases and interfering further into private enterprise.

Washington bureaucrats must be reminded that America is not some windowless laboratory where they can tinker with theories with no regard to consequences. Real harm is resulting from policies that are disastrous for America’s future, bankrupting our country, and mortgaging our children’s future. Fear of this emerging future and frustration with an administration run amok are fueling the resurgent interest in the 10^th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. “We the people” are standing up and demanding an audience.

(more…)