Category: Presidential Campaign

1000 Words on the Republican Presidential POrimaries

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The Fix’s graphic says it all:

A quick run of the numbers says that Romney has won about 55% of all the delegates this far, and he’s a bit over 1/3 of the way to winning the nomination.

He needs about half of the remaining votes to win, as versus 2/3 for the Santorum.

The only reason that we are still seeing a race is because the press hates Romney worse than it hated Al Gore in 2012.

Really, absent a live boy or dead girl in his bed, Romney is the nominee, particularly when you consider the number of unelected delegates, congressmen and whatnot, who won’t vote for Santorum or Gingrich if you put a gun to head.

Yeah, It’s Super Tuesday

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At this late date, Ohio is still in play, but it looks like Mitt Romney will win.

In terms of delegate count, of course, Romney has won Ohio, since Santorum did not submit a full slate.

So the clusterf%$# continues for at least another week, because there was no blowout, which kind of surprises me, because, as I noted earlier today, Santorum is batsh%$ insane, and I would have figured that his past few weeks of going postal on birth control, along with Limbaugh’s recent self-immolation, would have played against him.

[Early Morning Edit]
Romney wins by 1% in Ohio, and Kucinuch loses the Primary to Kaptur.

Yes, Mr. Frothy Mixture is Nuts

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Charles Blow looks at Rick Santorum’s public statements and discovers that what drives him is his revulsion directed towards the sexual revolution of the 1960s:

Rick Santorum wants to bring sexy back … to the 1950s, when he was born.

That is because Santorum seems to have an unhealthy fixation with, and passionate disdain for, the 1960s and the sexual freedoms that followed.

To fully understand Santorum’s strident rejection of the 1960s, it’s instructive to recall a speech and question-and-answer session he gave in 2008 to a course on religion and politics at the Oxford Center for Religion and Public Life in Washington.

The speech was interesting, but the answers he gave to the questions that followed were truly illuminating.

In response to a question about the kinds of words he had heard “attached to religion and politics” during his years in the Senate, Santorum ventured off onto sex:

“It comes down to sex. That’s what it’s all about. It comes down to freedom, and it comes down to sex. If you have anything to do with any of the sexual issues, and if you are on the wrong side of being able to do all of the sexual freedoms you want, you are a bad guy. And you’re dangerous because you are going to limit my freedom in an area that’s the most central to me. And that’s the way it’s looked at.”

………

But let’s not let facts slow us down. Santorum, predictably, deflected back to sex:

“Woodstock is the great American orgy. This is who the Democratic Party has become. They have become the party of Woodstock. They prey upon our most basic primal lusts, and that’s sex. And the whole abortion culture, it’s not about life. It’s about sexual freedom. That’s what it’s about. Homosexuality. It’s about sexual freedom. All of the things are about sexual freedom, and they hate to be called on them. They try to somehow or other tie this to the founding fathers’ vision of liberty, which is bizarre. It’s ridiculous. That’s at the core of why you are attacked.”

The next question was: “Do you see any possibility for a party of Christian reform, or an influx of Christian ideas into this [Democratic] party?”

Santorum’s answer included what? That’s right: Sex!

Blow (heh) is implying that Santorum has an unhealthy fixation about sex.

I’ll be more specific. I think that Santorum is indicative of a strain of Republican thought that I saw a lot of when I was in the SGA Senate working alongside future Abramhoff : basically, they are really pissed, because they weren’t getting any during the sexual revolution.

I understand how it feels.  Not only was I a war-gaming/Dungeons & Dragons geek in high school, I founded the Woodrow Wilson High School war gaming club.

I was as likely to get laid in high school as I was to fly to the moon.

The thing is, I got over it, and not end up with a sociopathic need to tell women what to do with their bodies.

Mr Santorum, not so much.

Romney Wins in Michigan and Arizona

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The freak show will continue, but it’s over.

About the only people who will keep propping up the freak of the week against Romney will be the press corps(e) because they hate Mitt Romney, and because it sells newspapers.

Seriously though, why does the mainstream political media sound like a bunch of junior high school girls slamming other girls over their shoe choices.

‘Phants Phess Up to Ph%$#ing Up Caucus Count in Maine

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So, Mitt Romney won by a couple of hundred votes, and the Maine Republican Party said that this was the end of the matter.

The problem was that there were a number of (Ron Paul trending) town caucuses in Maine that were not counted, as well as all of Washington County, which delayed the vote because of a snow storm.

So, after a rising crescendo of coverage of the irregularities, they are now apparently conducting a recount, as well as allowing Washington County to conduct its vote tomorrow:

The Maine Republican Party has reversed course and will recommend that delayed caucus results from Washington County be included in its final presidential poll tally. The party also is reconfirming results from local caucuses in the wake of the recent controversy over how its presidential caucuses were handled.

“The results of the Washington County caucus will be reviewed at the March 10 Republican State Committee meeting,” Maine GOP Chairman Charlie Webster said in a prepared statement approved by the state party’s executive committee.

Note that March 10 is after Super Tuesday, so the effect of a Romney “win” turning into a loss won’t hit the media narrative until after he’s probably made his nomination a near mathematical lock.

This has happened twice now, so I think that the tinfoil hat explanation is gaining credence.

It’s Romney in Florida

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And it’s looking to be a blowout, with a 15%+ margin, and nearly half of all the votes.

It comes down to a few things:

  • Money & organization.
  • He rest on inevitability and let Gingrich beat him up.
  • Money & organization.
  • People realized that Newt was that obnoxious asshole from the 1990s.
  • Money & organization.
  • Seriously, Moonbase Gingrich?
  • Money & organization.

And, of course, he had a money and organization advantage.

The only question now is just how crazy this makes Newt.

I fully expect Newt’s head explode in the next few debates.

And He Will Name it Gingrich Base

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Seriously, promising a permanent moon base in the next 8 years?

Who but Newt could be so full of themselves that they would dare to make it a campaign pitch.

You know, I’m beginning to think that being a science fiction fan might be a disqualifier for holding executive office.

Newt claims influence from Asimov’s Foundation series, while Romney says that his favorite bit of sci-fi is Battlefield Earth.

Well, at least Newt has better taste in literature.

Heh

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The Republicans have discovered the downside to the Citizens United ruling in the person of one Newton Leroy Gingrich.

It appears that Newt’s bit of scorched earth insanity is almost completely funded by an equally unhinged, and very rich patron, one Sheldon Adelson, who had contributed millions to the “totally not coordinating” Gingrich super-PAC.

It still does not make Citizens United a good ruling. It’s and awful, corrupt, and politically motivated decision by the conservative bloc of the Court, but I am amused by how it’s biting the ‘Phants in their flabby white asses.

So, He’s Either a Bigot or a Political Opportunist

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It turns out that signed off regarding the publication of the racist screeds in his newsletter:

Ron Paul, well known as a physician, congressman and libertarian , has also been a businessman who pursued a marketing strategy that included publishing provocative, racially charged newsletters to make money and spread his ideas, according to three people with direct knowledge of Paul’s businesses.

The Republican presidential candidate has denied writing inflammatory passages in the pamphlets from the 1990s and said recently that he did not read them at the time or for years afterward. Numerous colleagues said he does not hold racist views.

But people close to Paul’s operations said he was deeply involved in the company that produced the newsletters, Ron Paul & Associates, and closely monitored its operations, signing off on articles and speaking to staff members virtually every day.

“It was his newsletter, and it was under his name, so he always got to see the final product. . . . He would proof it,’’ said Renae Hathway, a former secretary in Paul’s company and a supporter of the Texas congressman.

The newsletters point to a rarely seen and somewhat opaque side of Paul, who has surprised the political community by becoming an important factor in the Republican race. The candidate, who has presented himself as a kindly doctor and political truth-teller, declined in a recent debate to release his tax returns, joking that he would be “embarrassed” about his income compared with that of his richer GOP rivals.

Well, if he was just cashing in on bigoted rubes, this actually is consistent with the basic principle(s) of  Libertarians, “F%$# you, I’ve got mine.”

Duke, Meet Newt

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In the middle of the Republican establishment’s heads exploding over the possibility of a Newt candidacy, Gingrich has been endorsed by former Congressman, and convicted felon, Randall “Duke” Cunningham:

Jailed ex-Congressman Duke Cunningham wants Newt Gingrich to know he’s got the Republican presidential candidate’s back.

Cunningham apparently has been watching the Republican presidential primary debates while spending 100 months in a Tucson, Ariz. federal prison. Cunningham, a Republican who represented northern San Diego, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and tax evasion in 2005 in one of the biggest federal bribery scandals in recent memory.

Cunningham tells Gingrich in an electronic message he says he sent to the candidate last month that his fellow prisoners, and their families, support Gingrich

Heh.

Since When Were Swiss Bank Acounts Acceptable?

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On NPR this morning, one of their bankster apologists was noting that Romney closed his Swiss bank account because recent US crack-downs on tax evaders using these accounts made them politically suspect.

What fairy tale land have these folks been living in?

I’m 49 years old, and for as long as I can remember, “Swiss Bank Account” has been synonymous with  tax evasion and concealing the proceeds of illegal activities.

My conclusion is that these guys must have the political and financial acumen of Little Orphan Annie.

My Take on Obama’s State of the Union Speech

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I didn’t expect to be impressed, and I wasn’t.  I’m really not one of his fans.

Quick bullet points:

  • His nods to populism seemed to be insincere.  I really don’t believe that we’ll see any effort to crack down on, for example, Chinese trade/currency manipulation.
  • He couldn’t resist inserting yet another “there are people on both sides” who are nasty bit, as was his digression about milk spill regulations, and icky regulations.
  • Raising taxes on millionaires, and banning congressional insider trading and lobbying by campaign bundlers are winners, but won’t pass this Congress.
  • His statements on spending war savings on infrastructure is nothing new.
  • His call for establishing a financial crimes unit is probably a good idea, assuming that it is not just rearranging deck chairs.
  • I liked his shout out to Richard Cordray heading the CFPB.  It was pretty much his only “in your face” to the ‘Phants.

Jon Stewart Must Love Newt

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He does look a bit stunned though

Because the obvious hypocrisy and venality that is Newt must make his job easier.

Stewart’s observation to Newt’s fake outrage:

You imagined your wife, while she was dealing with having MS, would be open to you having sex with another lady you’d already been having sex with for six f%$#king years!” Stewart said. “I think you’ve got a pretty good imagination dispicability-wise.

And then there is Gingrich’s claim to be running as an outsider:

You are the Washington outsider? When Washington gets its prostate checked, it tickles you.

Watch the video. It’s a good way to spend 8 minutes and change.

Oh, This is Prize.

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Freddie Dalton Thompson, whose 2008 presidential campaign debacle I called the “Fred Thompson Clown Show,” has endorsed narcissistic sociopath Newt Gingrich for president:

Former Sen. Fred Thompson, the real life lawyer perhaps best known for playing one on television, announced his endorsement of Newt Gingrich Monday evening.

“I have come to the growing realization that Newt Gingrich is the guy who can articulate what America is all about,” Thompson said of the former House speaker on Fox News.

This is kind of a clown show two-fer.

New Gingrich, Whiny Bitch

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It appears that Newt just can’t get his debate on without a dawg pound in the audience, so hew is threatening to skip debates if they don’t allow the audience to cheer and boo, because it’s important to allow the audience to boo the golden rule, and cheer allowing grannies to die:

Newt Gingrich insists his fans will not be silenced.

Mr. Gingrich, a former House speaker, on Tuesday morning threatened not participate in any future debates with audiences that have been instructed to be silent. That was the case on Monday, when Brian Williams of NBC News asked the audience of about 500 people who assembled for a debate in Tampa to hold their applause until the commercial breaks.

In an interview with the morning show “Fox and Friends,” Mr. Gingrich said NBC’s rules amounted to stifling free speech. In what has become a standard line of attack for his anti-establishment campaign, Mr. Gingrich blamed the media for trying to silence a dissenting point of view.

“I wish in retrospect I’d protested when Brian Williams took them out of it because I think it’s wrong,” Mr. Gingrich said. “And I think he took them out of it because the media is terrified that the audience is going to side with the candidates against the media, which is what they’ve done in every debate.”

Seriously, it appears that Gingrich can’t be at his best without an audience of inbred sociopath teabagger bigots, I guess.

He’s the perfect Republican.

Crap! I Was Hoping for a Cain/Colbert Victory

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Pass the Popcorn!

Newt Gingrich won the South Carolina primary by a large margin:

Former House speaker Newt Gingrich scored an easy victory Saturday in the South Carolina primary, blowing a hole in Mitt Romney’s aura of inevitability.

The 14-point win represented a swift and extraordinary turnaround in Gingrich’s fortunes — thanks largely to strong performances in two debates. In those forums, he issued a stirring appeal to the state’s strident conservatism, convinced its voters he would be a formidable opponent against President Obama and threw Romney off his stride.

I don’t think that Newt can win.

First, he really doesn’t have a campaign organization.

Second, he won South Carolina for blatant and explicit appeals to racism, because many, if not most, of the Republicans in South Carolina are unrepentant racists who give Gingrich props for, “putting Mr. Juan Williams in his place.”

He has a knack for the basest parts of the Republican id, but there are a lot of racists, outside of South Carolina anyway, who find such blatant appeals to racism to be excessive.

Meh

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I just watched the Nightline interview with Marianne Gingrich, Newt’s 2nd wife, where she alleges that Newt, when caught in the affair, asked her to have an open marriage, and bedded future 3rd wife Callista in her (Marianne’s) bed:

Newt Gingrich lacks the moral character to serve as President, his second ex-wife Marianne told ABC News, saying his campaign positions on the sanctity of marriage and the importance of family values do not square with what she saw during their 18 years of marriage.

In her first television interview since the 1999 divorce, to be broadcast tonight on Nightline, Marianne Gingrich, a self-described conservative Republican, said she is coming forward now so voters can know what she knows about Gingrich.

In her most provocative comments, the ex-Mrs. Gingrich said Newt sought an “open marriage” arrangement so he could have a mistress and a wife.

I was hoping for a bit more. 

This is basically old news, and it wasn’t particularly squicky.

About the only thing that surprised me was that Gingrich wasn’t even man enough to deny it himself.  He peddled his daughters (by his first wife) to ABC to issue the denials.

In the short term, I expect it to help him in South Carolina, because the ‘wingers there will assume that it is an artifact of some sort of liberal conspiracy, as opposed to Newt just being a contemptible hypocrite.