Hillary Clinton Ejecting From State?

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by Smitty

The Puffington Host reports:

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says she wants to step off the “high wire of American politics” after two decades and is again tamping down speculation that she might stay in government if President Barack Obama wins a second term.
Clinton told State Department employees on Thursday that she is ready for a rest and is paying no attention to the Republican presidential candidate debates.

The Pagan Temple opines:

But it does leave open the possibility that Obama could go ahead and make the [Sec. State] appointment sooner rather than later, which would free Hillary to replace Biden as Obama’s running mate in the 2012 election. This is something I predicted from the very beginning of Obama’s presidency, but Clinton has of course denied any such intentions lately.

Yeah, when Hillary says she’s paying no attention to the debates, that may indeed be true. Paying attention to the GOP primaries, now: that is another matter. Timing her move later, to minimize the conservative chance to react (for example, Michele Bachmann may have had more traction if there was a thought of Hillary being on the ticket) makes good sense.

via The Pagan Temple

Clearly They Move Into Higher-Order Pornography, i.e. Politics

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by Smitty

Forbes collects quotations from people in the pornography ‘industry’, and what a sad chuckle it is. Now, as a social conservative, I favor expressions of the human condition that drive individuals toward mature, happy, fruitful end states. Sexuality is a beautiful and powerful aspect of the human condition.

Step away from the hormones and the money for a moment. It’s an artificial point: lust and loot drive a lot of behavior. Furthermore, the abstract question of whether pornographic ‘thespians’ are more or less happy than any other population segment is a tough one. Sure, you can do some surveys. I can tell you that I would find the notion of being in pornography rather hellish. But then, I’m a romantic, in addition to a social conservative. And treating sexuality like, say, dry cleaning, as I expect these ‘professionals’ do, fails to inspire.

No, these garden variety whores are likely to venture into politics, I reckon. Progress means destroying first the notion of private property, then privacy itself. If vibrant life in the womb doesn’t have rights, why do people retain any upon exit from the womb? Is it really ‘fair’ that people get to decide what they eat, and with whom they swap fluids? Think of the vast capacity for employment when pornographers regulate sexuality and reproduction. Ginsburg will be so happy.

OK, I creeped myself out. Remaining dispassionate while figuring out dependent care flexible spending accounts is already too much sodomy for my day.

via Insty

Palin Giving Lessons In How To Give Appropriate Criticism

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by Smitty

Love her or no (and I do), the little FaceBook page that rocked Obama continues to harry his Ruling Class ilk:

But this whole thing isn’t really about Newt Gingrich vs. Mitt Romney. It is about the GOP establishment vs. the Tea Party grassroots and independent Americans who are sick of the politics of personal destruction used now by both parties’ operatives with a complicit media egging it on. In fact, the establishment has been just as dismissive of Ron Paul and Rick Santorum. Newt is an imperfect vessel for Tea Party support, but in South Carolina the Tea Party chose to get behind him instead of the old guard’s choice. In response, the GOP establishment voices denounced South Carolinian voters with the same vitriol we usually see from the left when they spew hatred at everyday Americans “bitterly clinging” to their faith and their Second Amendment rights. The Tea Party was once again told to sit down and shut up and listen to the “wisdom” of their betters. We were reminded of the litany of Tea Party endorsed candidates in 2010 who didn’t win. Well, here’s a little newsflash to the establishment: without the Tea Party there would have been no historic 2010 victory at all.
I spoke up before the South Carolina primary to urge voters there to keep this primary going because I have great concern about the GOP establishment trying to anoint a candidate without the blessing of the grassroots and all the needed energy and resources we as commonsense constitutional conservatives could bring to the general election in order to defeat President Obama. Now, I respect Governor Romney and his success. But there are serious concerns about his record and whether as a politician he consistently applied conservative principles and how this impacts the agenda moving forward.

Romney went on about the Olympics in the Jacksonville debate. Does he view the Presidency as the ultimate sporting competition, his own personal gold medal? Is this something he feels he needs to do to prove something to somebody?

With Barack, one doesn’t feel there are any motives at work other than love of power and disdain for American exceptionalism.

With Bush, Newt, Santorum, or even, yes, Paul, one feels some genuine American spirit at work. With Romney, it’s not quite clear. He doesn’t seem diabolical like Barack, but, then, what?  Sarah brings that unease forward deftly, but not insultingly. Read the whole thing.

In any case, all of the back-and-forth is truly a feature, not a bug. If conservatives put forth a candidate that inspires, everyone gets behind him. If Romney prevails, everyone still gets behind him, except a tiny fringe of total goofballs, and Romney understands where the will of the people is. If Mitt is indeed a well-oiled weather vane, then what matters is ensuring the wind blows all conservative, all the time.

via Gateway Pundit

Also, via American Glob, Sarah Palin applauds the election-year rectal sunshine that #OccupyResoluteDesk offered during the SOTU on Stossel. A great exchange. Sarah Palin offers some qualified support to Ron Paul.

Stacy McCain hates him some what-ifs. But what if Ron Paul were to bring in Sarah as a VP candidate? She also takes a swipe at Peggy Noonan for calling Newt an ‘attack muffin’. Sadly missing from the exchange: Rick Santorum. I’m not sure how the NotMittRomney statue of Legos is constructed, but I hope Santorum has a place in there.

Between Newt’s national greatness vision, Santorum’s social conservative character, and Paul’s fiscal sanity, you have the ingredients that Reagan was able to bring together.  One hopes those three can get together, have coffee, and forge some sort of positive alliance, for the good of the country.

Or not. I’m just a voice in the chorus, and have  a strong record of predicting the future through advocating what won’t occur.

On a related note, via Lucianne, the Politico seems to think Sarah is a ‘secret’ weapon. That’s about as secret as #OccupyResoluteDesk’s socialism, isn’t it?

Update: Daily Pundit is on record as being totally anti-Mitt:

Although I likely won’t end up doing that, because that tiny fringe of total goofballs is probably going to be large enough to see Mittens Romneycare lose to the worst President in modern times, in the midst of the worst economy since the Great Depression. Impossible though that may seem to you, although the Gentry GOP who are busily cramming this particular crap sandwich down your throat would rather see four more years of Obama than a win by Newt.
And before anybody starts blubbering that I’m betraying the Republican Party, keep in mind that I’m not a Republican. I’m a registered Libertarian. I’m one of those independents the GOP Ruling Class keeps on raving that they have to nominate Mitt in order to attract. Except I’m the sort of independent who isn’t attracted by the likes of Mitt Romney, I’m repulsed.

In response, I care that people vote, but not for whom they vote. Political parties are a necessary evil, but not terribly interesting in and of themselves. Increasing GOP control over Congress is more important, anyway.

Update II: linked at The Conservatory:

There are lots of reasons not to like Newt. Whether those reasons add up to preferring Romney as ‘the only candidate with a chance to defeat Obama’ is a matter for your judgments. But the bases on which some Romney supporters have attacked Gingrich are so patently false that they’re as insulting as the country-club Republicans’ refusal to acknowledge that the TEA Party folks deserve a place at the table. Newt’s an “attack muffin”? Well, that’s a funny line, but Romney’s Hamburger Helper by proxy, and we’re tired of being hamburger handjobbed.

‘Swarmin’ With Mormons’

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John McCain, Luis Fortuno and Mitt Romney during
rally at Lanco & Harris, Orlando, Jan. 27, 2012

ORLANDO, Fla.
If you don’t vote for Mitt, why do you hate America? That was the fundamental theme of Friday’s super-patriotic rally for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney at an industrial warehouse here.

After a three-hour drive from Jacksonville, I arrived slightly late and was stunned by the size of the crowd, as evidenced by the cars parked streetside and in every parking lot near the Lanco & Harris warehouse. Four TV satellite trucks were parked near the loading dock, and as I walked up the ramp into the warehouse, some cranky geezer was onstage ranting about how he was fed up with all these darned debates.

“Nineteen of ’em! I’m tired of the mud wrestling!” the geezer said, provoking applause from the crowd of about 500 packed into the warehouse. As I got closer to the stage, I recognized the cranky geezer as Sen. John McCain, who then said: “Hey, you kids, get off my lawn!”

OK, maybe I just imagined that last quote, which didn’t show up in Maggie Haberman’s report for the Politico, but I’m sure I got the trademark cranky-geezer tone just right.

Exactly why the Romney campaign wants this elderly loser campaigning for them, I don’t know. McCain lost Florida by 200,000 votes four years ago. But there are lots of grumpy old folks in Florida who are registered Republicans, and maybe having McCain stumping for Mitt generates some sympathy or something.

Anyway, the crowd was big and enthusiastic, and I worked my way around to the other side of the stage where I saw Eric Ferhnstrom, one of Romney’s top advisers, and asked him, “Y’all got this pretty much locked up, don’t you?”

The polls show Romney pulling away here in Florida, but Ferhnstrom wouldn’t admit the obvious: Mitt’s going to win this one in a landslide. Instead, he merely agreed that “the trend is encouraging,” and said, “Mitt hasn’t won a day since he won South Carolina.”

Which is true. For the past week, Newt’s been swinging wildly, and desperation is not attractive. He’s headed for a failure of Perry-eque proportions here, and the none-too-subtle assertion that Newt’s the victim of an Establishment conspiracy — a myth that even Sarah Palin has apparently bought into — only makes it more embarrassing.

The main point of tonight’s rally was for Mitt to collect the endorsement of the Governor of Puerto Rico, Luis Fortuno who, in keeping with the super-patriotic theme, praised Romney for being “committed to protecting the homeland, and that includes Puerto Rico.”

It was hard to miss the implication that, if any of the other Republicans gets the nomination, Puerto Rico will be overrun by Iranian terrorists. But the subtexts of campaign rhetoric are generally lost on crowds of jazzed-up enthusiastic partisans, so Fortuno’s comment was cheered by the audience with the same fervor as they had cheered McCain’s earlier darn-these-stupid-debates comment.

Anyway, the crowd was large and as rabidly as pro-Romney as any crowd I’ve seen and they didn’t seem any more “Establishment” than any other GOP crowd you might find during this campaign.

Eventually, I found Sarah Rumpf, who had an assistant shooting video of Mitt’s speech. And then afterwards, I bumped into Dave Weigel, who was wondering what percentage of the audience might be Mormon.

“All of them,” I said. “They’re everywhere. We’re surrounded by ’em. The place is swarmin’ with Mormons.”

Which might be about half-true. Sarah had told me that there are a lot more Mormons in Central Florida than most people suspect. Nobody has any solid statistics on how many LDS there are in the Sunshine State, but they are sufficiently numerous as to give Romney a solid “base” of core supporters, in the same way that dopehead college kids give Ron Paul a solid base, or angry middle-aged guys form the core of the Gingrich grassroots.

And that’s probably enough raw slander for one night. I’m supposed to be driving down to Naples, where Dan Collins‘s parents have a condo they’re not using. There aren’t any campaign events near Naples tomorrow, but I’ve got unlimited mileage on this rented Chevy, so what do I care? Besides, I need some rest, before I get all cranky and start grumbling about these darned debates — “You kids get off my lawn!”

— 30 —


The Mitt-maniacs were out in force.

The rock-star candidate shakes hands after his speech.

Sarah Rumpf (right) and her assistant, whose name I forgot.

A Few Points On #OccupyResoluteDesk And The Military

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by Smitty

Protein Wisdom links Jonah Golberg quoting BHO, emphasis mine:

He said of the military: “At a time when too many of our institutions have let us down, they exceed all expectations. They’re not consumed with personal ambition. They don’t obsess over their differences. They focus on the mission at hand. They work together. Imagine what we could accomplish if we followed their example. Think about the America within our reach.”

  • Let me just say that the military is no more consumed with personal ambition than any other segment, and leave it at that.
  • Given that the DoD is facing some rather steep layoffs, this may have been a tacit plea to the military not to do something unspeakable. The fact that military members are rather brainwashed Constitution-mongers makes it unlikely that a Bonus Army incident could recur; then again, #OccupyDC is a sad precedent.
  • ‘Following [the military] example’ would entail civilians accepting curtailment of Constitutional rights. The Commander-in-Chief would be well-advised to recall that people (e.g. me) have curtailed those rights for a specific time in order to protect them in general; not so that some hypothetical cranial rectalitis-afflicted President can steal rights from me in the name of some vauge, shiny notion of unity.

I would that BHO had had the sack to serve in the military, so that he could grasp the depth of contempt with which men view him.

Update: more at Daily Pundit.

VA Primary Hope Mostly Gone

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by Smitty

Via Dell’s Bottom Line, it sounds like there is a bit of hope for a write-in opportunity here in the Old Dominion:

The last hope for Virginia conservatives to vote for one of their own in the March 6, 2012 presidential primary lies in the timely passage of state senator Frank W. Wagner’s SB 510 allowing write-in voting in that election.
By conservative, we mean those who believe the next president should be committed to the long march toward downsizing government and curtailing the administrative state, strengthening our Judeo-Christian culture, and maintaining a strong defense.
The bill is an emergency measure (see article IV, section 13 in foregoing link) requiring four-fifths approval in both chambers and the governor’s assent if it to take effect before the March 6 presidential primary.

Anecdotally, of the people I know who are paying attention to the GOP debates and such, the mood is to blow the GOP primary off entirely if it’s down to Romney or Paul. Of the two, I’m about 49% Romney and 51% Paul in my thinking, at least at the primary stage. Past experience has shown that there just isn’t a line at these primary affairs, so saving time isn’t a strong argument.

Given the opportunity for write-in, Santorum comes to mind. The wild follicle pines for Palin, though.

I’ve no idea whether the ’emergency’ measure can pass, but I’m not holding any breath for it.

Update: it may not merit a post in its own right, but I will now wish good vibes upon Rick Santorum via the PJ Media Shameless Contact Gathering ExerciseNostradamus contest, where you predict the Florida primary numbers.