Monday, January 30, 2012

Make A Difference: Super Bowl XLVI Fantasy Game To Benefit The Troops

Want to do something that will make a real difference to the troops? 

Participate in Move America Forward’s Super Bowl XLVI Fantasy Super Bowl game.  All donations go to benefit our troops, especially those who are also anxiously waiting to see the big game.

Care packages include coffee, cookies, jelly beans, Chapstick™, deodorant, beef jerky, trail mix, hot chocolate, hot apple cider, bug repellant, battery operated fans, foot powder and sunblock.

The MAFBOWL is our way of sending some special support to our troops serving overseas with a football twist for Sunday’s Super Bowl game.  We want to know if our Patriots fans will donate more care packages for the troops or if Giants fans will be more generous. Which team's fans will rally to send more care packages to the troops to even the score?

To send a Giants Care Package click here.
To send a Patriots Care Package click here.

THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT!


Quote Of The Day For January 30, 2012


“The CBO numbers foresee net interest payments rising from 9 percent of revenue to 36 percent in 2030, then to 58 percent in 2040, and up to 85 percent in 2050. If that trajectory holds, we’ll be spending more than the planet’s entire military budget on debt interest. But forget mid-century because, unless something changes, whatever goes by the name of ‘America’ under those conditions isn’t worth talking about.”—page 5 of After America:  Get Ready for Armageddon by Mark Steyn

Sunday, January 29, 2012

So Strong Is The Siren's Call Of Defeatism

A picture is worth a thousand words.  In the editorial cartoon seen here, Joe Heller depicts the remaining GOP presidential candidates taking swipes at each other while the errand boy sent by grocery clerks is laughing his ass off.

And it’s not just POTUS who’s laughing.  All the progressives, Alinskyites, socialists and Marxists are having a field day as well.  We have become a laughingstock.

We wait on the good people of Florida to cast their votes on Tuesday.  Most polls show Romney leading Gingrich and Rick Santorum has temporarily suspended his campaign due to the hospitalization of his 3-year-old daughter Bella.  By Wednesday morning, we’ll have the answers to some of the burning questions about this primary season.

The Internet is filled with pundits who have taken out their long knives to assail this candidate or that candidate in what they must regard as a friendly game of political assassination. Instead of trying to bind us together in victory they are answering the siren’s call of defeatism.

The visual for the Left is that the GOP is in a shambles.  Is it?  Have we fought so hard to only sound retreat now?  Everybody needs to stop the G-D sniveling.  Stop it you all—that means you Bob Dole and you Ann Coulter and Rush and everyone else.

The voters are not a bunch of dimwits.  They took to the streets in 2009 at Tea Party rallies and their efforts brought about a “shellacking” of the Dems in 2010.  Remember that?  I do.  What the hell has happened to us?

At the 10th Annual CPAC Conference in 1983, Ronald Reagan said we would not be turned back.

“The task that has fallen to us as Americans is to move the conscience of the world, to keep alive the hope and dream of freedom. For if we fail or falter, there'll be no place for the world's oppressed to flee to.”
“This is not a role we sought. We preach no manifest destiny. But like the Americans who brought a new nation into the world 200 years ago, history has asked much of us in our time. Much we've already given; much more we must be prepared to give.”
“This is not a task we shrink from; it's a task we welcome. For with the privilege of living in this kindly, pleasant, greening land called America, this land of generous spirit and great ideals, there is also a destiny and a duty, a call to preserve and hold in sacred trust mankind's age-old aspirations of peace and freedom and a better life for generations to come.”

We have a stuttering clusterfuck of a miserable failure in the White House whose record is one of abject failure.  Jimmy Carter is delighted to know that his legacy as this nation’s worst president has been surpassed by that of the current occupant of the Oval Office.

Mitt, Newt and Rick need to campaign against the community organizer and not against each other.  We, the electorate, will decide which one emulates the values we hold dear and the vision we have for America.
 
Diane Sawyer, George Stephanopoulos, John King, Wolf Blitzer and Brian Williams may suffer from delusions of grandeur, but they do not and cannot tell me how to vote and they shouldn’t be able to tell you either.

Any of the candidates running for the presidency would be an improvement on the errand boy sent by grocery clerks.  Everybody needs to settle down and remember we are fighting for America—America and our future.  Doesn’t that mean anything to you?

The State Of Our Disunion


Linked at The Frugal Café and The Other McCain.  Thanks so very much.
Also linked at The Lonely Conservative.  Thanks Mrs. B
UPDATE 1:  Linked at The Pirate's Cove and Maggie's Notebook.  Thanks.
UPDATE 2:  Linked at Proof Positive and Say Anything.   I appreciate the linky-love.
UPDATE 3:  Linked at Mind Numbed Robot.  Thanks, 'Bot.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Right Jabs For January 28, 2012

Harriet Beecher Stowe is credited with saying, “A woman's health is her capital.”  To that end, I am dead-ass broke.  It all started last April when I fell victim to pneumonia and again in September.  I was given a pneumonia shot in September after a follow-up visit to my doctor and when I was on the road to recovery was given my annual flu shot.

One would think that I had armored myself against any more nasty stuff for the duration of the winter months.  One would think, but alas, I got sick again on December 30th with bronchitis and a horrible case of sinus infection.  I went to the doctor and was given the antibiotic generally prescribed for pneumonia to clear it up.  I haven’t been well since.

I’m starting to think that I’m doomed to walk around feeling like death warmed over.

It is because of this that I have not posted on a consistent basis and have let down my many three readers.

I generally consider myself to be not too stupid despite Newsweek calling critics of the errand boy sent by grocery clerks dumb.  So I decided to self-medicate.  Mucinex® and Sudafed-PE® fortified with mega-doses of Vitamin C seem to be making a difference.  Instead of bringing up a lung when I cough, there’s just a rattle now.  I have little more energy and my outlook on life is cheerier than it’s been for more than a month.

So that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. 

Herewith, are links to what others are saying in the dextrosphere.  Enjoy what you read at the links, and for goodness sake, have a great weekend.

Fighting fire with fire.

Deep down we’re shallow. But do you want to win?  Really, really win?

Hopeful happiness or damn you Newt.  Damn you to hell.

Gone viral.  The “Debt Generation”.

If 2012 is a decisive election—then we need a candidate with the courage and rectitude to make the choice clear to the voters, so that once in office he has the mandate to fix this mess.”


Facebook quote of the week.

Start preparing those questions for Barack, America.

[As] good a reason as any to jettison this clown come November.

In pulling apart fault lines which are not easily put back together because they embody an emotional fissure in the Republican Party, Romney may win his battles, but he is losing our war.


That’s it, he’s toast. He lied under oath, and Congressional Republicans can prove it, now.


Polite applause versus wild cheering.

That NRO's Rich Lowry would follow up his ignorance and sloppy incompetence as an editor over the Abrams, Lord dust up with petulance suggests his temperament hasn't changed much since he was 12 years old when former President Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980.

The economy is great right now. There are millions of jobs everywhere, even if you can't see them because they're invisible jobs. They only come out at night and during State of the Union addresses.

A president whose nomination was supposed to save the Earth has come up small on an XL pipeline.


Toe my line or the dog gets it.

Oh, fantastic.  Tell me more.

I’m not talking the low-grade level of discomfort I feel when the President flat-out lies about how none of the bad things that have happened to us in the past three years are his fault or how the inaction from the Democratically-controlled Senate is really the fault of Republicans. I’m talking about real unease at the prospect of the systematic destruction of a fundamental pillar of American character.

What people have observed is a willingness on Gingrich’s part to use pugnacious language against Obama. Romney does not use pugnacious language; he exercises the suicidal false politeness that has lamed the GOP…


And finally…

Mitt Romney's Blood Money




Transcript at YouTube™ associated with this video:  Debating in Tampa, Florida in late-January, while falsely characterizing Newt Gingrich's income from his government consulting work, Mitt Romney denied that Bain did "any work with the government like Medicaid and Medicare". Now we learn that Bain, under Romney's "supervision", purchased and ran the Damon Corporation, who pled guilty to Federal conspiracy charges as a result of tens of millions of dollars in systemic Medicare fraud committed under Romney's and Bain's control. Damon was fined over $119M which was, at the time, the largest criminal healthcare fine in Massachusetts history and Mr. Romney's participation was characterized in 1996 by Corporate Crime Reporter thusly: "As manager and board member of Damon Corp, Mitt Romney sits at the center of one of the top 15 corporate crimes of the 1990's." 

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Politically Brilliant. Unorthodox. Audacious.


Given up for dead after disappointing finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire, Gingrich like Lazarus, arose from the dead after strong debate performances in Myrtle Beach and Charleston, SC.

Voters in the Palmetto State were fed up with the Republican Establishment’s desperate attempts to force Mitt Romney down their throats. 

Like a child reciting his multiplication tables, Romney tosses off catchphrases by rote like, "I love this land, I love its Constitution, I revere its founders, I will restore those principles, I will get America back to work, and I'll make sure that we remain the shining city on the hill."
 
In his victory speech last night, Gingrich said, “It’s not that I am a great debater, it’s that I articulate the deepest-held values of the American people.”

Voters in South Carolina and elsewhere hunger for actionable substance, not empty sound bites.

Winston Churchill once admitted, "The Conservatives have never liked nor trusted me." The same thing can be said of Gingrich, who has had a tortured relationship with the GOP's conservative wing, to say the least.

Investors Business Daily offers this analogy from Gingrich Looking Churchillian In Political Comeback:   “Once the brash, even obnoxious Young Turk in Congress, Gingrich is today wiser and more experienced. He has seen what works in public policy and what doesn't.”

“With the nonstop media coverage of his failed marriages, people might just forget Gingrich's solid record of accomplishment. He co-authored the; 'Contract With America,’ and is probably the man most singly responsible for the GOP's taking control of Congress in 1994 for the first time in four decades.”

“As House speaker, he oversaw the passage of welfare reform, a capital-gains tax cut that helped propel the Internet boom, and, in 1998, the first balanced budget since the 1960s.”

[SNIP]

“Gingrich knows the world's future lies with freedom, not with party masters controlling the destinies of billions of people. He's more likely to aggressively pursue the illogic and the inconsistencies in Obama's statements in a head-to-head debate—and to take on Obama's failure as a central element of his campaign.”

[SNIP]

“With a president in office who, if not an actual socialist seems awfully like one in the statist policies he promotes, America is headed toward inevitable decline and an end to its ancient freedoms—unless, that is, our course changes dramatically.”

In what became known as Mario Savio’s Sproul Hall Steps speech, he urged:

“There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious—makes you so sick at heart—that you can't take part. You can't even passively take part. And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all."

Gingrich is pleading with us to take action.

Photoshop™ Of The Day: Freedom


Saturday, January 21, 2012

“Where’s Mitt?”—The Fizzle In The Drizzle

Thunderstorms have been rolling around the Palmetto State for much of the day and the National Weather Service issued a tornado watch in 14 of 46 of South Carolina’s counties until 8PM—one hour after polls close.  Great weather if you’re a duck.
The kindly folks at MSDNC smugly referred to an event scheduled for 10:45AM today at Tommy’s Country Ham House in Greenville as the “Ham House Showdown”—so dubbed because Gingrich and Romney both scheduled appearances at the popular eatery.
Here’s what Alex Moe and Garrett Haake wrote:  
“The folks at Tommy's Country Ham House in Greenville are expecting a record crowd Saturday morning, and the mob's not coming for the grits.”
“In a state famous for its bizarre brand of Republican politics, mere hours after polls open in South Carolina, the primary's two frontrunners are hosting dueling campaign events at the restaurant over breakfast. Same time. Same place. Call it the Ham House Showdown.”
The anticipated food fight never materialized as Romney ducked the “showdown” showing up 45 minutes early; worked the crowd for about fifteen minutes and was gone by 10:31AM.  Ten minutes later Newt arrived asking, “Where’s Mitt?  I thought he was gonna stay and maybe we’d have a little debate this morning.”  He glad-handed the crowd for an hour.
Romney strained to be heard at Tommy’s because there was no microphone.  Newt got his “I paid for this microphone” moment because he had paid for it when the campaign set up the event.
At 7:00PM, when the polls officially closed, Fox News called the primary for Newt Gingrich, which again begs the question, “Where’s Mitt?”
Via a thread at Memeorandum.
Linked at Sentry Journal.  Thanks, John.



Friday, January 20, 2012

Little Wooden Boy Whose Nose Grew Longer Every Time He Told A Lie Visits Amusement Park While Nation Gets Taken For A Ride

On the day of the CNN-Southern Republican Presidential Debate, Newt Gingrich poked fun at the fella with those huge ears.

“But I have to confess, as I thought this morning about the President flanked on one side by Mickey Mouse, and on the other side by Goofy, resembling actually sort of a Cabinet picture of the Obama administration, I just felt better about the idea.”

Linked by Randy's Roundtable.  Thank you Randy-g.
UPDATE:  Linked by Right Wing News and The TrogloPundit.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Newt: The Palmetto Pugilist Scores A Knockout

I have kept my powder dry on the subject of former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, until now.

Coming under fire recently for his attacks on Mitt Romney, Gingrich seemed, at least to me, that he was committing political suicide by first pledging to run a positive campaign and then pivoting when he became livid over the $3.5 million in attack ads run against him in Iowa by Romney’s SuperPAC.

Pundits have expressed their disdain for Gingrich’s retaliatory attacks on Romney’s history at Bain Capital.  The Left has been drooling over the fodder Newt handed them.  The Right contends it was tantamount to opposition research that benefits the current occupant of the White House.

It’s not hard to see either side’s point.  How it all affects the primaries and ultimately the general election is a discussion left for another day.

Monday’s GOP Republican Debate, held at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center, was fiery and perhaps the best debate to date.

With the colossal failure Jon Huntsman out of the race, the remaining candidates had 90 seconds to respond to questions posed by the debate moderators.  This benefited the knowledgeable Newt Gingrich mightily.

At one point in the debate, moderator Juan Williams asked if he intended to “belittle the poor and racial minorities” with his words.

“Well first of all, Juan,” said Gingrich, “the fact is that more people have been put on food stamps by Barack Obama than any president in American history.” The Convention Center erupted in cheers.

“Now I know among the politically correct you’re not supposed to use facts that are uncomfortable. Second, you’re the one who earlier raised a key point: The area that ought to be I-73 was called by Barack Obama a corridor of shame because of unemployment. Has it improved in three years?  No. They haven’t built a road, they haven’t helped the people, they haven’t done anything.”

“So here’s my point. I believe every American of every background has been endowed by their Creator with the right to pursue happiness. And if that makes liberals unhappy, I am going to continue to find ways to help poor people learn how to get a job, learn how to get a better job, and learn some day to own the job.”

That response prompted the crowd to erupt again and even earned Gingrich a standing ovation, something Frank Luntz noted had never happened in the 16 years he’s covered presidential debates.  Luntz suggested that Gingrich’s performance will generate movement for the candidate in the South Carolina primary on Saturday.
 
I know what you’re thinking right now.  Am I supporting Newt?  I’m not sure yet.  One thing is absolutely certain however—the man will eviscerate the errand boy sent by grocery clerks in a debate.

In November of last year while envisioning a Lincoln-Douglas style debate with the aforementioned errand boy, Gingrich asked, “How does a Columbia/Harvard graduate, who was the editor of the law review, supposedly the best orator in the Democratic Party, how does he look himself in the mirror and say he's afraid to debate a West Georgia College professor?"

Gingrich added, "The White House will be my scheduler. I will appear four hours after Obama everywhere he goes for the duration of the campaign, and I will answer each of his speeches."


Monday, January 16, 2012

Say Goodbye To The Snotty Little Man

Jon Huntsman is throwing in the towel.  What the hell took him so long?

According to The New York Times, GOP presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman will call it quits hours before the seven-hundredth Republican debate is scheduled to air from Myrtle Beach, SC.

I never liked Huntsman.  He talked like a middle-of-the-roader who made it quite clear that he despised conservatives.  Huntsman’s expensive campaign (made possible by his daddy’s money) was an embarrassing flop.

After the New Hampshire primary, Huntsman described his third-place finish as a “ticket to ride.”  Pretty short ride there, Jon.

It is presumed he will endorse Romney.  That should represent, oh, three or four votes.  On the upside, we won’t have to listen to his condescending Mandarin Chinese anymore.

Zai jian, Jon.  Bai bai.

Exit question:  Who wants to bet that he will soon be found on the steps of the White House begging for his old job back as U.S. Ambassador to China?


Saturday, January 14, 2012

The Real Legacy Of Britain's Iron Lady


Like President Ronald Reagan, her political soul mate, Margaret Thatcher came to power at a desperate time in her country's history, when real leadership and bold ideas were most needed. And by applying conservative principles to the challenges she faced, she was able to achieve real and lasting success. Then, as today, she faced an extraordinary set of challenges and a chorus of voices saying her country's best days were behind it. Thatcher's successes are a comforting reminder of the power of a bold, conservative vision at work.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Mitt And The Granite State

Ira Stoll, writing for The Future of Capitalism, offers these thoughts on Romney’s New Hampshire victory:

Mitt Romney's victory in the New Hampshire primary could be a wonderful thing for the country. What a resounding rejection by the Republican Party of the Michael Moore-style attacks on Mr. Romney by Newt Gingrich's SuperPac, by Rick Perry (who called Bain Capital "vultures that are sitting out there on the tree limb waiting for the company to get sick, and then they swoop in, they eat the carcass, they leave with that, and they leave the skeleton"), and even by Forbes' Robert Lenzner, a smart ex-Goldman Sachs guy who in a Forbes piece accuses Bain of engaging in "indefensible corporate rape." And who better to defend capitalism under attack than Mr. Romney, an actual successful capitalist who, in his victory remarks, promised "a clear and unapologetic defense" of "economic freedom"? Mr. Romney said he'd make the federal government "simpler, smaller, and smarter," that he'd "cut, cap, and balance the federal budget," and that his blueprint would be the Constitution.
Hat Tip Instapundit

The Best Headline Ever!


The front page of Tuesday’s Tuscaloosa News read “Zero Doubt.”  It was much more than eye candy to hard-nosed fans of SEC football.  Those two words unequivocally settled the question surrounding whether Alabama was better than LSU.

While Monday’s BCS National Championship Game served as a rematch between the Bayou Bengals of LSU and the Crimson Tide of Alabama, it certainly was not a rerun.

I know that LSU fans are still smarting from their loss, but I must tip my hat to Pat of And So It Goes In Shreveport.  She is such a good sport. 

She asked in early December of last year if I would be willing to wager a bet on who would emerge victorious in the BCS National Championship.  Of course, I was confident that my beloved Alabama would beat her Tigers.

We agreed to donate $100 to Wounded Warrior Project if our respective teams lost.  Pat is proud to support WWP and that makes me proud to call her a friend.

Trying to make lemonade out of lemons, Pat offered this pithy joke after LSU’s decisive loss to Bama:  “I heard that a bunch of LSU fans are stuck in New Orleans. An Alabama fan painted a 50-yard line across the interstate and they can't figure out how to cross it,” alluding to the fact that the Tigers were only able to cross mid-field once during the big game.

I am proud of LSU’s record and I’m proud to know Pat.  Next year there will be another “chick fight” and no matter who wins, Wounded Warrior Project will be the winner.  That’s because we’re going to continue our agreement to help out this worthy cause while enjoying the strong rivalry between our beloved SEC powerhouses.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

The Brawl For It All

Jim Kleinpeter, writing for the New Orleans Times Picayune Monday afternoon opined, “If the Tigers contain running back Trent Richardson, get the ball in the hands of receiver Rueben Randle and showcase their talent on special teams, they'll have their best chance at winning their third national title in New Orleans.”

That turned out to be tall order that would not be filled.  So awful was QB Jordan Jefferson that LSU fans were chanting for Coach Les Miles to put Jarrett Lee in the game.  Jefferson fumbled three times and threw an ugly interception in the third quarter. He was sacked four times and finished with a pitiful 53 yards passing and 18 rushing on 14 carries.

Right tackle Alex Hurst was twice whistled for false-start penalties on first-and-10 and Senior Guard Will Blackwell did his share of whining after the game by claiming that Bama was calling out cadences.  He said, “…this is absolutely one of the worst officiated games I’ve seen in my career. I don’t know where the refs were from, what conference, but in my opinion, they did a poor job. Like I said, they called out a few cadences, which is, by the rules, illegal, and that got us a couple of false starts, put us in holes and really killed a couple of drives.”

If that were truly the case, wouldn’t Coach Miles have challenged the penalties?  Wouldn’t the broadcast commentators have called attention to it?  Maybe somebody needs to change little Will’s pampers.

The Crimson Tide rolled to victory with 384 total yards compared to the Tigers’ 53 total yards.  Bama had 21 first downs and LSU could only muster 5.  The Tigers crossed mid-field only once.

The cock-sure Tyrann Mathieu, known as the “Honey Badger”, was stopped cold throughout the game, but was particularly humiliated in the fourth quarter when Alabama stopped him when he caught the ball and was pushed back, back, back and summarily slammed hard into the turf.  It reminded me of the guy in the DirectTV commercial who is left in a roadside ditch.

Alabama now has won two national titles in three years and proved, at least to me, that they were far superior to LSU.  Critics agree that this has been the greatest season in SEC history.

And Pat, of And So It Goes In Shreveport, must donate $100 to Wounded Warrior Project to settle the bet we made in December.

I get to gloat.


Friday, January 6, 2012

Right Jabs For January 6, 2012

Last weekend I cancelled a trip to visit my friend who recently had back surgery because I got sick, yet again, with a case of the crud.  After a round of antibiotics, I am feeling better and will  pack up the car and the dog and hit the road.
 
I leave you with these links to some of my blogger friends that should hold you over until I return to watch my beloved Alabama Crimson Tide go head-to-head with LSU in what I dubbed “Slobberknocker Redux.”

I bet Pat of And So It Goes In Shreveport, $100 that the Tide would whoop some Tiger tushy.  She accepted the wager, but following her ill-advised “trash talk” I upped the ante to $200.  Strangely, Pat never responded.  If you’re scared girl, just say so.

Have a great weekend, folks.  Roll Tide Roll!

Herewith, the right jabs.

The phrase "the tide of war is receding" is guaranteed to go down in history as one of the top ten stupidest things ever uttered by a Western leader, along with "Peace in Our Time!" and "We can do business with Mr. Hitler."
Obama is off the rails here. Off the track.  Jumped the shark.  FUBAR.
Bugs Bunny can’t sign petitions can he?
For shits and giggles:  The USS Barack Obama
Evidence of my disdain for the little buzz saws with furry tails, I found this to be funny.
The punch should be poisoned.
The best text message you can send all year.
Open letter to Senators Warner and Webb.
The North Carolina Association of Teachers is having a hissy fit.
 …blindly flailing, with nary a thought nor a plan nor even a wisp of such things as he twitches from one random decision to the next like a zombie surrounded by cattle prods?


Thursday, January 5, 2012

A Not So Kodak Moment


Antonio M. Perez is the CEO of Kodak and a member of the current regime’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. This seems like an obscene oxymoron given the fact that the 131-year-old company is preparing to seek bankruptcy protection—something that The Wall Street Journal describes in its piece today as “a move that would cap a stunning comedown for a company that once ranked among America’s corporate titans.”

Kodak has lost money each year but one since Mr. Perez, who previously headed the printer business at Hewlett-Packard Co., took over in 2005. The company's problems came to a head in 2011, as Mr. Perez's strategy of using patent lawsuits and licensing deals to raise cash ran dry.

Kodak shares closed Wednesday at 47 cents, down 28% after The Wall Street Journal reported the company was preparing a Chapter 11 filing.

Via a thread at Memeorandum.

UPDATE:  1001 Noisy Cameras posits this interesting speculation:  “GE has shown an interest in digital cameras as they recently launched their own brand of entry-level to mid-level fixed lens digital cameras. Since GE is interested in this segment, and since they already have a number of well-known brands under the GE umbrella, it would make sense for them to buy Kodak—in terms of branding.”
[SNIP]
“Plus, it would give GE a lot of good PR among consumers—especially after last year's revelation that even unpaid bloggers paid more in taxes than GE :)”
Just a reminder, folks, Jeffrey Immelt is the chair for the Council on Jobs and Competitiveness and CEO of GE.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Game On!

At 2:34AM Matt Strawn, state chairman of the Iowa Republican Party announced the final results of the seesaw battle between Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum.  Eight votes separated the two:  Romney garnered 30,015 votes and Santorum placed second in the caucuses with 30,007.

On New Year’s Day, I asked if the Iowa Caucuses would turn out to be a good underdog story for Santorum. The answer is decidedly yes.

The amazing story behind Santorum’s successful showing in Iowa is the demonstrated hard work he put into the race.  His efforts to visit all 99 counties in the Hawkeye state and hold more than 370 town hall meetings helped to propel his second-place showing.

While Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich were traveling across the state in large campaign buses with their names on the sides, Santorum had been riding in a Dodge Ram 1500 pickup truck called the “Chuck Truck”.  The truck is nicknamed after his campaign aide Chuck Laudner.  Tuesday night he said he was taking the “Chuck Truck” to New Hampshire.

The other point to note is that Santorum’s campaign success was achieved without any kind of funding that compared to the Romney campaign.  So, Santorum emerges from Iowa with the wind at his back and a slew of new-found attention.
There’s one other thing he’s got today that he didn’t have yesterday and that’s a giant target on his back.


Rick Perry Returns To Texas


At 11:58PM, when the results of the Iowa Republican Caucuses were clear, Texas Gov. Rick Perry began addressing his supporters at his West Des Moines campaign headquarters.

Following the reading of a letter from a man who had staunchly backed him, he dropped a bombshell:

"This wasn't my purpose in life, but our country is in trouble. It was my duty to serve my country one more time. With the voters’ decision, I’ve decided to return to Texas and determine if there is a path forward.  With a little reflection, I am going to decide the best path forward. There is a model to take this country forward and it is in the great state of Texas." 

UPDATE I:  January 4, 2012 @6:45AM—Perry, according to CNN, has scrapped his South Carolina plans.

“We have been told to hold until we hear from Austin," said a Perry source in South Carolina, where the candidate was preparing to launch an aggressive statewide bus tour on Wednesday. "It looks like he is not coming this week. He has definitely canceled his plans."

UPDATE II:  At 11:14AM on January 4th, Governor Perry tweeted, “And the next leg of the marathon is the Palmetto State…Here we come South Carolina!!!”  The tweet came just as presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann announced that she was ending her campaign.

The AP says Perry's national political director told campaign workers early Wednesday that the governor will review his finances and assess the political landscape in South Carolina and beyond.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

QOTD


“At the tail end of 1979, things looked worse. But shortly thereafter America was rebounding, and the rest of the world was doing better, too."

"People credit Ronald Reagan for this change, but I think that Reagan was as much a symptom as a cause. People were sick of stagnation and bad government, and they demanded more—from their governments, and from themselves."

"I think we'll see that again in 2012, and that's why, all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding, I think it will turn out to be a better year than seems likely today.”

From Sunday Reflection: When muddling through is the best you can hope forGlenn Harlan Reynolds