It is one of the safest seats in the nation for the Democratic Party, and has not been seriously contested by a Republican in its current configuration. Most[who?] political observers consider the 9th the most Democratic district in the state. Generally, the 9th is one of two seats in Tennessee that are not seriously contested by Republicans (the other being the 5th district).
How safe? It’s sufficiently safe that a black woman can put up a billboard like this:
and receive a vicious browbeating like this:Go ahead: disagree with people running for office. But what’s this
“I’m scared that some of your whiteness may rub off on me.”
Wasn’t BHO elected to get us past that sort of talk? Maybe Steve Cohen can intervene and, you know, restore a little civility to the tone.
Will somebody buy Bill Quick a quaff o’ coffee? This notion that
Mittens loves himself some socialized medicine, whether it’s Romneycare, which he imposed, or Obamacare, which he won’t repeal.
is pure balderdash.
Willard Mitt is going to do precisely what he said he will do: repeal ObamaCare. Now, there may be some bickering and arguing over ‘oo plooked ‘oo when RomBamaCare rolls out in steamroller fashion to flatten some liberty near and dear to you. I get that.
The Mittnistry of Truth insists that you look elsewhere, and refuse to notice the near total correlation of the totally new hotness of the impending RomBamaCare with the old and busted ObamaCare. All of the acronyms have been changed, so RomBamaCare is a totally different thing.
Let’s have an end to these wildly inaccurate mis-statements about RomBamaCare. While we’re at it, let’s have an end to concerns about liberty, private property, and freedom of expression. Those noises all sound like Hate Speech to Mitt’s MoT.
Mitt Romney at Naples rally, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012
NAPLES, Fla.
Attention young conservatives: Your grandma loves Mitt Romney.
The phenomenal shift in the polls here in the Sunshine State — which has provoked much commentary and analysis about “strategy” and “messaging” — may in fact be little more complicated than that. And the massive crowd that turned out in downtown Naples today to hear and see Mitt was certainly evidence of how real Romney’s Florida surge is.
This photo was shot from the camera platform, looking back toward Fifth Avenue, and the crowd overflowed in all directions. The camera platform was about 150 feet from the stage, and the area between the platform and the stage was likewise packed to overflowing. While I’m not an expert at estimating crowd sizes, I can say with confidence that this crowd was what the experts call ginormous.
OK, so what’s Mitt’s secret? Let me put it in the simplest possible terms: Sex appeal. This will elicit a groan from ideologues who have spent the past year proclaiming that Mitt is a gutless flip-flopper, the worst RINO in the history of RINO-dom. Yet if you set aside mere politics long enough to see the two Florida frontrunners as the average Republican voter sees them, it is hard to miss the contrast between Mitt — the tall, lean multimillionaire entrepreneur with dark hair and chiseled features — and Newt, the pudgy intellectual.
Maybe you don’t judge presidential candidates by such standards, but it makes a lot of difference to Republican grandmas, and there are lots of Republican grandmas in Florida. And here’s some video that helps explain a little more of Newt’s problem with the affluent residents of retirement communities in the state that has been dubbed “God’s Waiting Room”:
“There was a time back in high school that a girl I knew in elementary school became much more interesting. You see, Ann and I went to the same elementary school. She was in second grade, I was in fourth. I didn’t notice her then. But when she was just about 16, I noticed in a big way. We were at a party together at a friend’s house. She had come with someone else. I went to her date and I said, ‘Look, I live closer to Ann than you do. Can I give her a ride home for you?’ He said, ‘Sure.’ We’ve been going steady ever since. My sweetheart, Ann Romney.”
After Mitt said that, I walked over to talk to another reporter, whose comment was: “Zing! He’s killing him!”
You see? Mitt didn’t even have to name Newt in order to emphasize the contrast: Mitt’s still with his high-school sweetheart, with whom he’s been “going steady” since 1965, while Newt is on Wife No. 3, with whom he had an affair while still married to Wife No. 2.
Maybe if you’re under 40, that kind of thing doesn’t matter much — Who are we to judge? — but to your mother or grandmother, raised on old-fashioned “family values” conservatism, it matters a lot. Put yourself in Grandma’s orthopedic shoes when she reads a headline like this:
Whoa! Newt wants to talk about “character”? Ever heard an old proverb about glass houses, Mister Speaker? Those grannies in Florida aren’t buying your act. And if my ideological under-40 readers don’t mind, this is perhaps an appropriate time to quote the esteemed founder of The American Spectator, R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr.:
Newt, like Bill, has a proclivity for girl hopping. It is not as egregious as Bill’s, but then Newt is not as drop-dead beautiful. His public record is already besmeared with tawdry divorces, and there are private encounters with the fair sex that doubtless will come out. If I have heard of some, you can be sure the Democrats have heard of more.
Forgive my editor for his unseemly insinuation, but rest assured that Bob Tyrrell is certainly not the only conservative who has “heard of some.” There are other conservatives — people whose names you would recognize — who have made similar intimations to me.
Michelle Malkin has never said any such thing, but have you ever wondered why she hates Newt so much? I have.
The problem, as I see it, is that so many True Conservatives have allowed themselves to be persuaded that the frontrunner fight between Mitt and Newt represents the only choice in this election. But while I was at the Romney rally, I encounted two women — including Naples city council woman Teresa Heitman — who say that Florida voters should consider another candidate:
Bella Santorum was admitted to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Saturday night because she has pneumonia in both of her lungs, according to campaign aides. . . .
Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, on Sunday afternoon, tweeted a message of support for the Santorum family.
“Thank you, Rick and Karen Santorum, for living the Christ-like example of sacrifice and right priorities. Nothing is more precious or important than the life of an innocent child. Our prayers are with Bella, a perfect child in an imperfect world,” she said. “God bless the beautiful Santorum family.”
It is not too late, I would argue, for those True Conservatives who have convinced themselves that Newt is The Only Alternative to Mitt to change their minds and reconsider the possibility of supporting a Republican candidate who lives his conservative principles.
A helpful summary for your dyed-in-the-wool Lefty friends:
If only white males can be racist, the question becomes: how did white males hijack Arabic numerals, and does this count both as raaaaacism and Islamophobia? This blog calls on the entire internet to end the h8.
NAPLES, Fla.
This morning I drove to Waffle House for breakfast — 5-ounce New York strip steak, two eggs over medium, hashbrowns, wheat toast, large orange juice and coffee, $11.71 — and the waitress had a tattoo on her neck.
Enduring the midday sun, Lynn Ellwood smiled and said “good morning” to dozens of early voters Thursday at the library on Orange Blossom Drive in North Naples. The poster in her lap said “Romney.”
“This is the first time I’ve ever done anything like this,” said Ellwood, 72, a retired speech pathologist and businesswoman from Baltimore. Before last week, she had never so much as passed out a handbill.
“I was so horrified when (Newt Gingrich) won South Carolina that I decided I’ve got to do something,” Ellwood said. “This seems like the most important election of my lifetime.” . . .
The story never tells us why Lynn Ellwood hates Newt so much, but at the end, Wolford includes this:
Even Ellwood — who dislikes Gingrich enough to spend a few hours on a folding chair outside the library holding a poster that she concedes may not actually be effective — could vote for Gingrich if he was the nominee.
“If I didn’t vote for him, I’d be effectively voting for Obama,” she said. “I would have to think about it. And I would have to hold my nose.”
And in between, Wolford finds a Santorum voters:
For Barbara A. Crowe, 80, of Naples, abortion is a deal-breaker, and she questions the sincerity of Gingrich and Romney when they say they are anti-abortion.
“Once you see and hear Rick Santorum, he’s absolutely true blue,” said Crowe, who voted early for the former Pennsylvania senator. “He’s a family man. He’s the core of the American values. He represents that for me.”
Figures made available to The Associated Press showed Romney was spending $2.8 million to air television commercials in the final week of the Florida campaign. In addition, a group supporting him, Restore Our Future, was spending $4 million more, for a combined total of $6.8 million.
By contrast, Gingrich was spending about $700,000, and Winning Our Future, a group backing him, an additional $1.5 million. That was about one-third the amount for the pro-Romney tandem.
From a pro-Santorum perspective, this is good news: The two frontrunners unloading about $9 million combined on Florida, a winner-take-all state that only one will win, which leaves them with that much less money for the fight ahead while Santorum’s low-budget campaign — which has spent next to nothing in the Sunshine State — concentrates its resources elsewhere.
Two new polls show Romney pulling away toward a double-digit victory in Florida. Byron York reports on the latest Rasmussen poll that shows Romney beating Gingrich by 16 points, 44-28, while an NBC/Marist poll has Romney up by 15 points, 42-27.
Remember that Florida is the first closed primary — Republicans only — of the 2012 campaign, and the apparently high level of resistance to Newt may indicate that some conservatives have underestimated the number of Lynn Ellwoods in the GOP electorate.
It’s time for me to get to downtown Naples for the big Mitt Romney rally, but first I wanted to share this video tour of the posh condo which my friend Dan Collins has made available to me as Florida headquarters for the National Affairs Desk this weekend:
Dan’s father wants to sell this condo and, as much as I’d like to make it the permanent headquarters of my Worldwide New Media Empire, (a) it’s probably a wee bit out of my price range, and (b) this is an “adults only” community and I’ve got six kids, and my wife probably doesn’t want to get rid of them just yet.
So if you know someone who’s in the market for a lovely South Florida condo, tell them to contact Dan Collins.
(tied) Daily Pundit, Katy Pundit, and The Camp Of The Saints (11)
Don Surber (8)
(tied) Lonely Conservative, The Conservatory, and Maggie’s Notebook (5)
Thanks to everyone for their linkagery! Deadline for next week’s FMJRA is Friday, February 3.
UPDATE: Revised to include links from Zilla of the Resistance, who deserves special mention for helping rattle Stacy’s tip jar last week despite her own straitened circumstances. So go throw some money at another deserving blogger, why don’t you?
Gateway Pundit has a short clip of the Florida AG on Greta:The claim is made that Pam Bondi stated Romney is desirous of RomneyCare isn’t in the clip. A direct quotation would be helpful, with context. I can envision Mitt saying that, if states choose to implement a RomneyCare-style plan, that’s their prerogative.
The idea that federally mandating an state-level individual mandate is somehow a swift idea, after proudly repealing ObamaCare, is really stupid. And Romney is anything but stupid.
In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all regardless of station, race, or creed.
Among these are:
The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the Nation;
The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
The right of every family to a decent home;
The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
The right to a good education.
All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.
Why was FDR’s crack so good? Because the 16th & 17th Amendments kneecapped the states, and the Federal Reserve gave FDR the deep pockets to kick-start the party, and for his Progressive offspring to keep it rockin’:
Follow me now and you will not regret Leaving the life you led before we met
You are the first to have this love of mine
Forever with me till the end of time
(N.i.B.: I’m not saying that FDR was Satan, merely that, politically, FDR carried out the diabolical Progressive bidding.)
And so what have we bought for FDR’s idiocyswell intentions?
The right to a job has evolved into 99 weeks of unemployment, idiocy like Lilly Ledbetter, and unions running amok. Note that even FDR wasn’t so stupid as to overlook the conflict of interest inherent in public sector unions. Such idiocy would come later.
Idiocy like the Community Reinvestment Act, and its brace of abortions, Fannie and Freddie.
Moronic takeovers of medicine like RomneyCare and ObamaCare.
Protection from fear? The only thing we have to fear is Progressivism itself, it having bailed out the balance of the fears.
The Department of Education, ensuring that American children are too confused to discern rational thinking, but are intimately familiar with all manner of sexual variations by second grade.
So where do we go from here?
Admit that the Progressive project is just a flop. Woodrow Wilson and FDR are dead. We can forgive them the unintended consequences of their failed ideas. I guess the reader retains the right to hate dead people, though that seems as useful as Progressivism itself.
Agree in advance that those locked into the entitlements won’t be thrown under the bus.
Agree that every decision has to advance liberty and decrease federal involvement with individuals. DC has to return to its Constitutional, multi-state and international role.
I’d argue those three ideas are necessary but not sufficient to improve the situation. Conversely, if we aren’t continuall moving in a direction of increased liberty, we’re dead. Done. Living on borrowed time. Touching ourselves.
Full circle, then: someone needs to find out if Romney really does intend to produce a state mandate that will suck as bad as the individual mandate, only be implemented by state capitals. This would be an even higher-level urination upon Amendments IX and X than BHO’s efforts. It could achieve the same result of destroying liberty, but be even harder to argue against.
I really, really hope that speculation is false. The gnawing sensation in the gut undermines the confidence.
