With New Hampshire secure, Romney became the first Republican non-incumbent presidential candidate to win both Iowa’s and New Hampshire’s primaries.

“Tonight we made history,” Romney told cheering supporters before pivoting to a stinging denunciation of President Barack Obama. “The middle class has been crushed,” in the past three years, he said, “our debt is too high and our opportunities too few” – remarks that made clear he intends to be viewed as the party’s nominee in waiting after only two contests (Associated Press).

New Hampshire was a no-contest, really, as Romney’s ground game and support was too much for any candidate to overcome. Ron Paul and John Huntsman each made hardy efforts in the state but were unable to effectively challenge Romney. Since Huntsman chose New Hampshire to make his stand and finished third, it’s hard to see the wisdom of staying in. If he was unable to convince New Hampshire, there’s no way he can convince the folks in South Carolina. (more…)

President Obama has not been defeated. He still occupies the White House, and that will continue until next November. But the nation is readying itself for what will prove to be a high octane race for the presidency. President Obama will have a mountain of cash to spend and will attempt to campaign energetically. I say “attempt” because he’ll find defending his administration will be much harder than his last campaign when he was a fresh-faced Senator billed as an outsider who used rhetoric and platitudes in place of actual accomplishments.

Team Obama will likely select only a few issues. The economy, of course, will be a big part, because he can’t very well ignore it. So he’ll spin it in a way to suggest he actually saved it from collapse. In the process, he will not even so much as mention our nation’s debt and deficits.

Instead, he’ll the talk up the bold raid into Abbottabad that killed Osama bin Laden and the recent withdrawal from Iraq. He’ll leave out things like Russia, China, Iran, and forfeiting our missile defenses and snubbing our allies in Eastern Europe, our strained relationship with Israel and the quickly deteriorating situation in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Domestically he’ll speak of progress, sacrifice, and the pains his administration helped to soften. He’ll not mention his divisive comments that he and Eric Holder have made and the social resentment he stirred through class warfare. Lastly, we can expect amnesia over our nation’s credit downgrade and the ever-climbing debt ceiling. (more…)

The Florida GOP took bold action in moving their state’s primary up in line with the other carve out states. By seeking a bigger role in choosing who the GOP candidate against Obama is Republicans in Florida have caused other states to move their dates up. The reason for that is simple: less profusion of blood.

There is more significance beyond that. With the first ballots expecting to be cast just months away, the front runners, Romney and Perry, have a divisive advantage over the field – Romney more so because of his broad appeal in all early states.

Florida Poll
Mitt Romney: 28
Herman Cain: 24
Newt Gingrich: 10
Rick Perry: 9

This may have been a calculated move by the GOP as a whole. End the fighting early, rally around the candidate, and begin raising serious cash with a settled candidate. However, the flip side to this is that the front runners are susceptible to momentum and excitement from another candidate. Herman Cain is presently that candidate. Cain enjoyed a huge bounce in September. If he can win Florida and do reasonably well in another early state, which will obviously be to the great loss of someone like Perry and certainly Bachmann, he can knock Perry from this race early. Though currently, South Carolina is being very kind to Perry  but not nearly enough to seal Romney’s fate in the state.

(more…)

A very curious, but not surprising, piece from Reuters this morning chronicled a speech by Michele Bachmann given to senior citizens this weekend in Poinciana, Florida.

This seemingly straightforward piece illustrates how bias toward evangelical Christians can work to marginalize their conservative views and potential candidacies.

Here are Congresswoman Bachmann’s words:

“Washington, D.C., you’d think by now they’d get the message. An earthquake, a hurricane. Are you listening? The American people have done everything they can, and now it’s time for an act of God and we’re getting it.”

We presume that Representative Bachmann’s comments were mostly, if not completely, tongue-in-cheek. Video of the speech shows that she was clearly joking. Reportedly, several audience members chuckled as if they understood it as humor; her spokeswoman has recently acknowledged that it was indeed a joke.

Reuters’ headline, however, painted a different picture:

For Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann, Hurricane Irene and last week’s earthquake in the eastern United States were a message from God that Washington needs to change its policies.

The article added that Bachmann asserted that that “the hurricane was an ‘act of God’ that Washington should heed.”

(more…)

I know that is a dumb statement. I mean, what candidate doesn’t have a plan when seeking office? So when I mean a plan, I mean a plan. Yesterday’s post about Southern bigotry, I said would be a major factor for Perry to overcome.

I also said this.

voters will get a tour de force from the liberal establishment on Perry’s views of states’ rights, gay marriage, civil rights, welfare, religion and abortion.

They won’t take his policy positions, his record as governor, and compare that against Obama’s. No, that would take away from the real purpose and turn a real threat to Obama and his liberal establishment, into credible threat.

They can’t have that now can they? So the story line is that Obama is having bad luck. That’s all. A run of tough breaks has done what was initially unthinkable: challenged his genius. Whereas, Perry has had good luck in Texas. That’s all. A run of good bounces that allowed him to plod his way along for 11 years. Like an ignorant child who walked his way under busy scaffolding and emerged unscathed and unharmed.

And so it starts; dutifully assumed by the New York Times.

But some economists as well as Perry skeptics suggest that Mr. Perry stumbled into the Texas miracle. They say that the governor has essentially put Texas on autopilot for 11 years, and it was the state’s oil and gas boom — not his political leadership — that kept the state afloat. They also doubt that the Texas model, regardless of Mr. Perry’s role in shaping it, could be effectively applied to the nation’s far more complex economic problems.

“Because the Texas economy has been prosperous during his tenure as governor, he has not had to make the draconian choices that one would have to make in the White House,” said Bryan W. Brown, chairman of the Rice University economics department and a critic of Mr. Perry’s economic record. “We have no idea how he would perform when he has to make calls for the entire country.”

Of course you can’t have real criticism without credible input from “respected” experts.

(more…)

I know that not all of our readers here are Southerners. However, I am not writing to pick a fight, nor will I go into some boring rehash on the Civil War. I simply want to address a phenomenon that permeates throughout our society. That is, the totally acceptable bigotry towards those who are from the South and sound like they are from the South.

I recall watching a debate between Karl Rove and James Carville. Rove made the statement that one Bush’s biggest obstacles was that he was a Texan, who spoke like a Texan. He said there was a real disdain in certain parts of our country for the kind of accent Bush had. Carville jumped quickly to point out that Clinton was from Arkansas and had his own accent. I don’t remember Rove’s rebuttal to that point but it was a weak one. What he should have said was that Clinton was forgiven of his curse because 1). He believed in late-term abortion, 2). He had an extra-marital affair(s), and 3). He was a liberal Democrat.

But, those in the South who are conservative and Republican have no chance at recompense, especially those who actually seek the presidency of a nation their ancestors fought against. A Southern accent is all the smoke needed for the liberal establishment to light the fire. Because, from the windows of their limousines, where there is a Southern accent, there is racism, sexism, backwardness and Right-wing extremism. It means fire hoses and police dogs. Of course, the pinky-in-the-air northern liberals cannot directly attribute these negative images to any modern Southern Republican; though you can’t say the same thing about Democrats, Southern or otherwise. It only needs to be associated and the liberal press will do the rest. You’ll remember Joe Wilson’s outburst to Obama. The now infamous, “You Lie!” It didn’t matter that Obama was in fact lying. Joe Wilson is from South Carolina and a Republican to boot. He has no right to challenge President Obama: a self-proclaimed black American and a very liberal Democrat.

Surrounded by middle-aged white guys — a sepia snapshot of the days when such pols ran Washington like their own men’s club — Joe Wilson yelled “You lie!” at a president who didn’t.

But, fair or not, what I heard was an unspoken word in the air: You lie, boy!

The outburst was unexpected from a milquetoast Republican backbencher from South Carolina who had attracted little media attention. Now it has made him an overnight right-wing hero, inspiring “You lie!” bumper stickers and T-shirts.

The congressman, we learned, belonged to the Sons of Confederate Veterans, led a 2000 campaign to keep the Confederate flag waving above South Carolina’s state Capitol and denounced as a “smear” the true claim of a black woman that she was the daughter of Strom Thurmond, the ’48 segregationist candidate for president. Wilson clearly did not like being lectured and even rebuked by the brainy black president presiding over the majestic chamber.

(more…)

I tuned in for the first GOP debate held in South Carolina. Everyone did fine. I laughed, I cried, and had some chicken nuggets. A few at the podiums were more polished than others. Pawlenty seemed to distance himself from the pack in key places. Overall, the opinions and styles were as numerous as the questions being asked. Having said that, none present tonight showcased the ability or the talent to go all the way. Even a wounded Obama is still a formidable Obama, and a sitting president has a four year record to run on — good, bad, or indifferent. And when you don’t point out the bad, that leaves the good and the indifferent.

Certainly, President Obama will have the biggest and shiniest trophy in which to hold and parade around the country: Osama bin Laden. And what a trophy it is. President Obama was in charge when the most wanted person on earth was finally brought to justice. Obama will go down in presidential history as the owner and author of one of the greatest foreign policy achievements in our nation’s history. Undoubtedly he should win an easy ….. Wait a minute: Didn’t George H.W. Bush also receive similar praise for assembling and leading a multi-national military force against Saddam Hussein in the first Persian Gulf War?

The Republican candidates must not fall for the trap of having the foreign policy angle used against them. As if questioning the president on his foreign policy agenda is now all the sudden not an option. There are plenty of past and current decisions in which to choose from that shows President Obama’s lack of strategic insight. More importantly, they must not allow it to prevent them from discussing the real issue in America and for Americans.

The Republicans may not have a trophy such as OBL but they do hold kryptonite and it’s called the economy.

(more…)

Am I surprised over Trumps’ early success in testing the waters as the Republican nominee for 2012? To be perfectly honest, yes I am. The man is in second place in New Hampshire, within single digits of Romney, and according to a Wall Street Journal/NBC poll, he’s second nationally and tied with Gov. Huckabee with 17%. My friends, he hasn’t even spent $500 million yet.

Speaking of which, do you think he is going to take public financing? Paaalease. I understand the need to make a campaign feel like the people own it but in Trump’s case, he is a multi-billionaire. I don’t see him getting a lot of financial support from the average taxpayer who is fighting through high unemployment and a recession. Most importantly, a point to avoid for Trump is when he does receive lackluster fund raising because of that from average citizens, the media will try to spin it as an indicator that Trump enjoys little support. When in actuality people just don’t ordinarily give to billionaires who have billionaire friends. So Trump should definitely consider financing a large part of his campaign and rely on ultra wealthy donors for support. It is all about the early contests. There’s reasons they are held in the order they are. So the candidate can win early and often. If you need a illustrative point, consider Rudy Giuliani’s disastrous attempt to wait until Florida.

If Donald Trump runs for President, he should forgo public finance and federal matching funds not just because, as a mega-wealthy billionaire, he can, but because doing so would allow him to spend in the early primary and caucus state’s without federal limitation. A candidate who accepts matching funds also agrees to observe strict spending limits in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina, Florida, and all the primary and caucus states. A candidate who self-funds and doesn’t accept Federal matching funds is under no such limitations.

Bypassing public finance, Trump can leverage his wealth to outspend his opponents in the early states, gaining a significant strategic advantage. Sadly, Trump advisor Michael Cohen, a vice president of the Trump organization, doesn’t seem to understand this. City Hall newspaper recently reported “Cohen said that Trump would raise money from average citizens, rather than just funnel his own money into a campaign.”He wants citizens in the country to have skin in the game,” he said. ( Roger Stone)

Does he have the Trump name brand on his side? Absolutely, and, of course, that helps. But there is something more going on here. He’s saying things that are resonating with people. First and foremost, he certainly doesn’t talk like a politician.

(more…)