"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler
by Smitty
He is categorically against pretty much everything BHO has done, except for greenlighting the snuffing of Osama. Pure, red, foreign policy meat.
Oh, and Rep. West isn’t a fan of #OccupyWallStreet, either. Can’t we all just get along, Rep. West?
Oh no Rep. West is not a 9-9-9 supporter. He wants reform, but more evolution than revolution. I disagree with Rep. West here: we need less taxing power in DC.
If you need a picker-upper, click to watch at PJTV:
Update: Surber-lanche!
Thus does Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post describe Nelson Warfield and Curt Anderson, who have been brought aboard Team Perry in a campaign overhaul. Another money quote:
Perry’s original staff seemed not to appreciate that running for president was a fundamentally different task than running for reelection in a deep red state.
No duh. I noticed Rubin’s item because she cited my mockery of Anderson’s faux-populist rhetoric in August. Monday’s headlines about the attempt to restart the Perry bandwagon:
Perry shuffles campaign team
— Texas Monthly
Rick Perry ads start Tuesday in Iowa
— Politico
You could read those articles, or you could look at the latest polls:
Iowa …………………. Perry 6% (6th Place)
New Hampshire … Perry 2% (7th Place)
South Carolina ….. Perry 12% (3rd Place)
Florida ……………… Perry 3% (4th Place)
Nevada ……………… Perry 5% (5th Place)
Keep in mind that on Sept. 13, Perry led the Real Clear Politics national poll average with 31.8% — a 12-point lead over Mitt Romney. Can the Perry bubble be re-inflated? I dunno. You can buy a lot with $15 million, and even the MSM are finally noticing that Herman Cain’s campaign lacks anything remotely resembling an effective “ground game” in the early states. (But don’t get me started on that.)
So let’s suppose a mini-revival for Perry. Can he recover from single-digit poll numbers in so many early states? I don’t say that’s impossible, but I remind you of my Aug. 9 warning:
What I fear will happen is that Perry will spend several months sucking up media oxygen and burning through GOP donor cash, only to collapse early next year. This will have the effect of suffocating other conservative candidates, and thereby lead to … Romney 2012.
by Smitty
Great ad, but the smoking at the end makes little sense, except to floutaunt the rules. And if you’re going to do that, why not play the Ladd Ehlinger card?
via HotAir.
Update: Sissy ‘Lanche!
Update II: Linked at The Camp of the Saints and Herman Cain PAC.
Update III: My genius recognized by Troglopundit!
by Smitty
Why I can’t help but admire large swaths of Ron Paul’s ideas:
Ron Paul told host David Gregory that he would abolish federal student loans. . .
All of those students must claim a state for residency. Why. The. [Ahem]. are states not taking care of their own citizens? Well, clearly the federal government can cause money to appear much more readily. Given the moral hazards an unintended consequences of decades of this, it is high time that We The People call ‘nonsense’ on this.
Many miles away something crawls to the surface of a dark Scottish lake. . .
Mitt Romney defended his conservative bona fides today, insinuating that some mistook his lack of “outlandish … rhetoric” for a lack of conservative beliefs.
“I don’t know on which issue I’m not conservative,” he told Sean Hannity in a radio interview. Romney cited what he had done as governor of Massachusetts — balancing the state budget annually, increasing school accountability and education choice, and increasing the state’s rainy day fund — as proof he was conservative. “I think my record is as conservative as you’ll find,” he said. Alluding to the health-care program he signed into law, Romney noted that Newt Gingrich had conceded during the last debate that he had supported an individual mandate at one point.
And he pointed out that he had been elected in a very Democratic state: “I think people recognize that when you’re elected in a dark-blue state like Massachusetts … a conservative like me is playing an away game,” Romney remarked, noting also his efforts on abortion and traditional marriage.
Romney did identify one way in which he differs from some of his GOP rivals: “I may not be as incendiary or outlandish in rhetoric.”
Shag your rhetoric, mister: it’s your results that have people wondering if you’re packing the gear, or Yet. Another. Ruling. Class. Knob.
Instead of a 59 point plan to vulcanize a dead cat so that it bounces more, just tell us what federal agencies you plan to snuff. Because really, if you’re not whacking some bureaucracy with a Big Fancy Hammer, then you’re just shining us on.
by Smitty
“We should learn a lesson from what happened in my race last year. I was consistently beating my democratic opponent in the pre-primary head to head match up and then the Republican Establishment launched their shameless attack and changed all that,” said O’Donnell. “As the saying goes, a lie runs around the world while the truth is still lacing up its shoes.”
“Right now, I’m 70 percent behind Romney,” she said. “I will absolutely max out if he’s the nominee.”
The blog applauds O’Donnell’s decision to learn from the past, without being imprisoned therein. Would that I had had such wisdom in my younger years. We can bicker and argue over ‘oo is shinier than ‘oo during through the primaries, but, after that, it’s time to retire BHO.
More at Sussex County Angel.
Just about the time Herman Cain pulls ahead in the Real Clear Politics average — and is leading by double digits in Iowa — the Architect goes on Fox News to denounce Cain as “not up to the task“:
Remember that Karl is the guy who engineered George Bush’s landslide victory, by a margin of hundreds of votes, over the formidable Al Gore.
Let’s face it: Rove is a spokesman for the Romney campaign. And right now, I’m watching Chris Stirewalt on Megyn Kelly’s show declare that Cain’s alleged downfall “creates an opening for Rick Perry.”
Fox News: “Fair. Balanced. Don’t Think the Black Guy Can Win.” IYKWIMAITYD.
We’ll be laughing at this when I become Ambassador to Vanuatu.
by Smitty
“It has a lot to do with Romney. He is rising as more and more Republicans come to the conclusion that the Republican Party has found its Michael Dukakis, a technocratic Massachusetts governor running on competence, not ideology.”
I’m looking at the National Debt Clock and wondering just What. The. Flippy-flop. George Will means by ‘competence’. I guess the Will/Brooks/Krauthammer Axis of Pant-crease thinks that ‘competence’ means destroying the country at a medium pace.
This is why an outsider of the Perot/Palin/Cain tradition finds traction in the American electorate. We sort of know that ‘competence’ means ‘compromised’, and figure that ObamaCare will be to Romney what Gitmo is to BHO: the big campaign promise that proved a bridge too far after about the second briefing from the shadowy dudes who make the calls.
Santorum called it cleanly at the CNN debate in Las Vegas: no one has confidence in Romney. Who can reasonably expect him to do anything other than be a blue state governor, given the White House promotion. Should the Tea Party frog really offer a lift to the GOP scorpion?
via The Blaze
Update: linked by Da Tech Guy.
We should consider the abortion kerfuffle kicked off by the Piers Morgan interview Wednesday as being decisively ended now:
The National Right to Life Committee is today [Friday] vouching for Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain’s bona fides, saying the businessman who is considered by many to be the current GOP frontrunner is pro-life. …
“Herman Cain’s pro-life,” David O’Steen, executive director of the National Right to Life Committee, told National Review. “He addressed our convention last June. We are quite confident in his pro-life position. When he ran in the primary for senate some years back … he ran as a pro-life candidate then in Georgia. We’ve known of him for a number of years, and he’s always taken a pro-life position.”
Katrina Trinko at National Review notes that Marjorie Dannenfelser of the Susan B. Anthony List remained skeptical as of Friday, but I think most pro-lifers would say if you’re OK with David O’Steen, you’re OK.
Jazz Shaw was kind of obnoxious about this yesterday, suggesting that Cain has a “truth problem.” The actual problem, as I see it, is that Cain wants to seem thoughtful and engaged during interviews like this, and so he responds to questions with something more than talking points, without stopping to think: “Hey, this guy’s trying to push me into a corner and get me in trouble.” Continue reading ‘Controversy’ Over: National Right to Life Vouches for Cain’s Pro-Life Bona Fides →