The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

A Fitting Finale to the Huntsman Flop

Posted on | January 16, 2012 | 19 Comments

Network TV cameras at the Huntsman press conference

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.
Jon Huntsman quit the 2012 presidential campaign just as he ran it all along: Sowing confusion with contradictory messages.

“This race has degenerated into an onslaught of negative and personal attacks,” the former Utah governor said in announcing that he was suspending his campaign. Huntsman denounced “the current toxic form of our political discourse,” which he said had created a “corrosive” environment.

However, Huntsman then endorsed former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the GOP frontrunner whose so-called “super PAC,” Restore Our Future, has spent millions of dollars on negative attack ads against his Republican rivals Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum. None of Romney’s attack ads ever targeted Huntsman, whose anemic poll numbers never made him a serious challenger to Romney for the nomination.

Huntsman’s farewell speech was crammed full of mixed messages. Having served as the Obama administration’s ambassador to China, Huntsman included a shot at the president in his speech Monday, accusing Obama of waging “class warfare for political gain.” And having spent six months attempting to distract and divide the Republican opposition to Romney, Huntsman said it was “time to unite around a candidate best equipped to defeat Barack Obama.”

Another consistent theme of Huntsman’s candidacy also continued until its end: His final campaign press conference was lavishly covered by the media. Multiple network cameras, dozens of press photographers and scores of reporters were on hand for the 11 a.m. event in Room 202 of the Sheraton Convention Center on Oak Street. Among the faces I recognized in the media swarm: Byron York of the Washington Examiner, Danny Yadron of the Wall Street Journal, Dan Balz of the Washington Post, Michelle Goldberg of Newsweek and Carl Cameron and John Roberts of Fox News.

Huntsman’s media coverage was always grossly disproportionate to his support among Republican voters. He was the subject of glowing profiles in the mainstream press and treated with deference in network TV interviews. Yet despite his enviable media coverage, Huntsman never got out of the single digits in national polls of likely GOP primary voters. Strangely enough, however, his poll numbers were always deemed minimally sufficient to include him in televised debates. He eventually decided to stake his entire campaign on the New Hampshire primary, where he placed third by getting support from voters who approved of Obama’s policies and were hostile to the Tea Party movement, according to exit polls.

And so now, the quixotic candidacy of the man whom I long ago dubbed “Governor Asterisk” is now officially over. Students of American political history who examine the peculiar course of Huntsman’s campaign will undoubtedly scratch their heads and ask themselves, “What the f–k was that all about?”

Video of Huntsman’s speech, recorded by my 13-year-old son Jefferson:


UPDATE: Headlines via Memeorandum:

Axelrod: Huntsman Dropped
Because He Wouldn’t Sell His Soul
— BuzzFeed

Huntsman Leaves Race With
Plea for Party Unity
— New York Times

Huntsman: A boutique candidacy
that didn’t sell
— Washington Examiner

PREVIOUSLY:

Category: Election 2012, Jon Huntsman, South Carolina

A Net-Based Sarah Palin Write-In?

Posted on | January 16, 2012 | 64 Comments

by Smitty

Muir at Day by Day is provocative, but I find the idea fraught with peril. Just as Congress doesn’t call a vote without a fairly deterministic outcome, the likelihood of a Sarah Palin write-in going pear shaped and resulting in Obama II: What Haven’t I Fracked Yet? is far too high for comfort.

In my perfect world, a viable conservative candidate, e.g. Santorum, would bring her on as a VP, both to harness the energy she brings, and to line her up for POTUS in 2020. Because 16 years of continuous fiscal sanity would be a fantastic start toward restoring liberty to its rightful place in this country.

Update: linked at Katypundit.

Category: Day By Day, Sarah Palin

My Son, the C-SPAN Star

Posted on | January 16, 2012 | 13 Comments

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.
When we attended Rick Santorum’s town-hall event in Florence yesterday, the C-SPAN “Road to the White House” crew was there. After we got back to the hotel, they were replaying it on C-SPAN. My 13-year-old son Jefferson saw himself on TV and said, “Millions of women are going to see this!” So in case any of lovestruck C-SPAN groupies were wondering, “Who’s the extremely pale redheaded kid in the black shirt who needs a haircut?” — yeah, that’s my kid. The video’s an hour-and-half long, and you’ll find him in there somewhere:

While I don’t have time to note every appearance of my son (or myself) in the video, perhaps our readers can watch it and note the times in the comments. Oh, and I also published an American Spectator column today:

Political ads are now running almost constantly during the commercial breaks on TV here, and most of them are attack ads. Mitt Romney’s “super PAC” Restore Our Future is attacking Newt Gingrich and Gingrich’s “super PAC” Winning Our Future is attacking Romney. And, as if to validate his newfound status as a contender for the Republican presidential nomination, Rick Santorum is now being attacked in TV ads, one by Ron Paul’s campaign and another by Romney’s “super PAC.”
Asked about one of those ads during a town-hall event in Florence on Sunday, Santorum struggled to find words for the pro-Romney PAC’s ad, which accuses him of wanting to extend voting rights to felons. “That is a lie,” the former Pennsylvania senator said at Percy & Willie’s restaurant. “To go and mislead the people of South Carolina as to what our record is on this is just… yuck. I expect that from Barack Obama. I don’t expect it from a Republican running for president.” . . .

Read the whole thing. Gotta run now — Huntsman’s going to be announcing his endorsement of Mitt Romney at an 11 a.m. press conference. Because those sneaky RINOs stick together like that, y’know.

Category: Election 2012, Rick Santorum, South Carolina

Scott Walker Is A Threat To The Status Quo

Posted on | January 16, 2012 | 16 Comments

by Smitty


How dare this man keep campaign promises, govern soberly, balance the budget, and refrain from raping the taxpayer? Didn’t he get the memo that, as of Barack Obama, our elected executives are giving it the Full Nero?

Walker is about as dangerous as my own governor, Bob McDonnell. Perhaps moreso: Walker did it all in spite of that noxious Troglopundit cluttering up his  state, and dragging the Packers down in defeat.

Update: welcome, Instapundit readers!

Update II: the Troglodelic One rogers up with more Walker coverage.

Update III: linked by WyBlog.

Update IV: linked at the Conservatory with interesting voter fraud commentary.

Category: Wisconsin

Dr. Strange-glove, Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Mitt
UPDATE: Graphic Via PCP

Posted on | January 16, 2012 | 32 Comments

by Smitty

Update: thank you, Political Clown Parade:

The title is inspired by a post at Legal Insurrection, quoting Andrew McCarthy:

I keep hoping to hear those three words [about RomneyCare]: “I was wrong.” But they’re not coming. Romney supporters on the right keep rationalizing that he is just doing what he must do to stay viable: resisting a colossal flip-flop that would be more damaging than all the others. The candidate, however, says no, and attests that he is defending Romneycare because he believes in it. I usually worry that politicians lie. I’m worried that this one is telling the truth

The recent circling of the wagons around Bain leads me to believe that the Republican Party and conservatives, or at least almost all of their most vocal pundits, are unable to see the reality of what is approaching.

This is at the heart of the Mitt contradictions: if he’s such a hard-nosed capitalist, why RomneyCare? Is he somehow a victim of Bain Dramage? Or is Mitt more of a crony capitalist than a laissez faire capitalist?

Via Just a Conservative Girl, we have Colberts “Americans for a Better Tomorrow Tomorrow” delivering “Attack in B Minor for Strings”:

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

Nicely done, blatant hyperbole. But can Mitt deliver? Our Federal government, metaphorically speaking, needs a few trillion $ worth of “Heeeere’s JOHNNY!”, right in the over-reach department.

Yet, as Darleen notes over at Protein Wisdom, emphasis original:

Romney has promised that he’ll grant a waiver to all states in regards to Obamacare once he becomes President, effectively killing the legislation. But such a waiver doesn’t mark Romney as committing to limited-government principles. Indeed, such a waiver granted while continuing to defend Romneycare on risible reasoning is highly suspect of future proposals from President Romney done for our own good.

It gets down to the point that the Progressive improvements for our own good in the last century are:

  • contrary to the spirit of individual liberty in the Constitution,
  • have proven suicidally unaffordable,
  • have had the unintended consequence of breeding a quasi-aristocracy in the form of Federal bureaucrats (warm folks, individually, parasitic as a whole), and,
  • have bred a generation of dependent fools of the sort who would think #Occupy is a boffo idea.

Finally, note Joel Pollak at Big Government:

I had dinner with several Democrats recently–some “leftist,” some moderate–and their views on the Republican primary left me feeling rather uneasy. The fact is that many Democrats are eager to face Mitt Romney in the fall, no matter what they might say in public.
. . .
4. Democrats don’t trust Romney because they believe conservatives don’t either. Though Democrats tell themselves Romney is extreme, they sense he lacks the full trust of the conservative base. Their explanation is not that Romney has taken positions to the left of his party, but that he is a “flip-flopper.” Right or wrong, the fact that conservatives seems to have doubts about Romney is seen as a point against him, not in his favor.

In summary, Mitt is about as opaque as Barack. If it proves to be the case that Mitt has the best campaign machine (money, grip on the state-level GOP, phalanx of offpsring to campaign for him) after the August convention, then fine. But the blogs are going to continue to support Not Mitt Romney in the overall Not Barack Obama effort, so long as he remains such a distant, unknown figure:

Update: linked at Daily Pundit.

Once we do understand them, we conservatives will probably have no alternative but to destroy the party and then rebuild it. I don’t think we’ll naively believe it can be reformed.

Yet, I’m still contending that this approach will be easier than starting from scratch.

Category: Mitt Romney

LIVE AT FIVE – 01.16.12

Posted on | January 16, 2012 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Rescuers Brave Cold, Darkness To Search Wrecked Cruise Ship

Divers search the "Costa Concordia" on Sunday

Racing against time to find the sixteen still missing

Who Gets Today Off?
Only 3 in 10 non-federal employees get Martin Luther King Jr. Day off work


Goodbye, Governor Asterisk
Will endorse Romney. Yeah, that’ll help.



POLITICS
Wisconsin’s Scott Walker May Face Closely Watched Recall Election

Wisconsin governor Scott Walker

Left looking to make an example of controversial governor; other GOP office holders also targets of recall petition drives

Ohio Seeks OK From Supremes For Execution Protocol

White House Officials Express Concern Over SOPA/PIPA

No Power Sharing In Virginia Senate

Newt’s Armageddon Strategy For SC

Ron Paul’s Backup Plan

Rick Perry Appeals Virginia Ballot Decision



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Euro Near 17-Month Low Against Dollar After S&P Downgrades
Papademos: Abandoning The Euro Not An Option
Brent Rises Above $111 As Iran Warns Gulf Exporters
Retail Group Projects Sales Growth Slow To 3.4%
Groupon Founder Admits To “Bush-League” Mistake Before IPO
U.S. Gasoline Prices Rising On Iran Tension
India’s Inflation Falls To 7.5%
Zappos: Hacker May Have Accessed Data On 24 Million Customers
Live From Vegas, It’s Geekfest 2012
Rupert Murdoch Blasts Google As Piracy Leader
Sprint Remains Tepid On Windows Phones, Confirms No New WiMax Phones In Offing
Apple Suspends iPhone Sales In PRC After Crowd Gets Violent



SPORTS
“It’s Our Time”: Giants Stun Packers 37-20

Packers QB Aaron Rodgers lies crumpled on the grass in the second half

Green Bay’s erratic defense picks a bad time to fail as Manning outplays Rodgers

Ravens Head For New England After 20-13 Defeat Of Texans

Heat’s Dwayne Wade Out Indefinitely

Duncan, Spurs Down The Suns

Ohio State Avenges NYE Loss To Indiana

Finally, Patriots Become 60-Minute Men

Yankees Trade Power For Pitching

Sorav Ganguly Slams Team India For Poor Play After Wipeout Against Australia (Video)

Nationals, Gio Gonzalez Agree On 5-Year Extension



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Skinny Demi Smiles On First Red Carpet Since Ashton Split

Demi and daughter Rumer Willis

Ready for her closeup at Cinema For Peace benefit

Brad & Angie Reign As Hollywood’s Golden Couple At 69th Golden Globes

Baby #5 On The Way For Kelsey Grammer

Sofia Vergara Voluptuous In Vera Wang

Miss America: Miss Wisconsin Crowned

Olivia Wilde, Jason Sudeikis Go Public With Romance

Jessica Biel Stuns On First Post-Engagement Red Carpet


Christina Aguilera Celebrates Son Max’s 4th Birthday At Legoland

ABC Cancels “Work It”

Heather Locklear “Out Of Control” On Booze, Drugs, Says Source



FOREIGNERS
Italian Cruise Ship Toll Rises To 6, Captain Detained
Syria: Arab League Split Over Sending Troops
Pakistan’s Supreme Court Orders Contempt Proceedings Against Prime Minister
Car Bomb Kills Eight Near Mosul
Netanyahu: Iran Sanctions Ineffective
Nigerian President Announces Fuel Price Cut Amid Strike
Romanian Protesters Clash With Riot Police, 50 Injured
International Monitors Slam Kazakhstan Election
Taiwan Opposition Party Accepts Leader’s Resignation In Wake Of Election Loss



BLOGS & STUFF
Power Line: We Must be Really, Really Stupid
Jammie Wearing Fools: Ka-Ching! RFK Daughter Could Make $40 Million Off Secret Anti-Oil Deal
Gateway Pundit: NY Gallery Displays Smelly #OWS T-Shirts, Calls It Art
Lonely Conservative: Interior Department Puts 20-Year Mining Ban On A Million Acres
WyBlog: My Weekly Obama Jobs Report – The Downgrade Fever Is Catchy
Hit & Run: Hunstman To Drop Out, Endorse “Panderer In Chief” Mitt Romney


SOTD: The Golden Age Of Leather

Category: Live at Five

Good-Bye, Governor Asterisk

Posted on | January 15, 2012 | 63 Comments

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.
I was sitting here working on my American Spectator column, with the Huckabee forum on Fox News playing on the TV behind me, when my son Jefferson yelled from the other room to tell me this news, which was a bulletin on the “crawl” on the TV that I wasn’t watching.

Huntsman Says He’s Quitting G.O.P. Race
CHARLESTON, S.C. — Jon M. Huntsman Jr. informed his advisers on Sunday that he intends to drop out of the Republican presidential race, ending his candidacy a week before he had hoped to revive his campaign in the South Carolina primary.
Mr. Huntsman, who had struggled to live up to the soaring expectations of his candidacy, made plans to make an announcement as early as Monday. He had been set to participate in an evening debate in Myrtle Beach.
Matt David, campaign manager to Mr. Huntsman, confirmed the decision in an interview Sunday evening. “The governor and his family, at this point in the race, decided it was time for Republicans to rally around a candidate who could beat Barack Obama and turn around the economy,” Mr. David said. “That candidate is Gov. Mitt Romney.”

Or at least, so says the campaign manager for the least plausible candidate in the history of Republican presidential campaigns.

UPDATE: It was during the Aug. 11 debate in Ames, Iowa, that I first started referring to Huntsman as “Governor Asterisk,” who somehow managed to get himself included in debates despite poll numbers lower than the margin of error. I subsequently developed that sobriquet into a column at the American Spectator, written on the eve of the Sept. 12 CNN/Tea Party Express debate in Tampa:

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer should begin the Republican presidential debate tonight by asking Jon Huntsman a simple question: “Why are you here?”
The former Utah governor’s campaign has no obvious political rationale and is barely a statistical blip in national polls. . . .
Of course, Blitzer would never question the legitimacy of Huntsman’s candidacy for the simple reason that CNN anchor is a leading member of Huntsman’s most important constituency, the media. . . .

Huntsman was always every liberal’s favorite GOP candidate — the folks on MSNBC loved him — and that was demonstrated conclusively last week:

According to exit polls, Huntsman only won a handful of demographics in New Hampshire: Democrats, those who oppose the Tea Party, and voters who are generally satisfied with the Obama administration.

His daughters were nice-looking, though. So we’ll miss them. But their dad’s candidacy served only one purpose: Wasting TV debate time, and it will be nice to have a Huntsman-free stage at the South Carolina debates this week.

UPDATE II: Ed Morrissey:

Jon Huntsman wasn’t a “pragmatic centrist who could reach out to Democrats.” He governed in Utah as a conservative in a state controlled by the GOP, but talked like a centrist who despised conservatives. Huntsman’s expensive and embarrassing flop really isn’t much more complicated than that.

It will be interesting to look at the FEC reports on his campaign.

UPDATE III: Linked by The Western Experience and Maggie’s Notebook — thanks! — while Bob Belvedere at the Camp of the Saints worries that Mandarin-speaking snobs now have no one to vote for, and Mike Rogers at Granite Grok analyzes the cause of Huntsman’s failure: He was running out of asterisks.

UPDATE IV: Thanks to Adjoran in the comments for noting that the Columbia State, supposedly South Carolina’s most influential newspaper, had endorsed Huntsman in a Sunday editorial, published mere hours before Huntsman quit. These guys are even more clueless than the Manchester (N.H.) Union Leader, which endorsed Newt Gingrich, who finished fifth in the New Hampshire primary.

Category: Election 2012, Jon Huntsman, South Carolina

Rule 5 Sunday: Short Skirt/Long Jacket

Posted on | January 15, 2012 | 13 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


We begin with that rara avis of Rule 5 Sunday, a completely SFW Kate Beckinsale post thanks to The POH Diaries. Three Beers Later chips in with what he claims is Harry Potter in Spanish, but I’m pretty sure neither Hermione nor Ginny Weasley wore skirts THAT short. Also, sweater vest Rule 5! Fishersville Mike prepares for the postseason with a shot of the Ravens cheerleaders while Randy’s Roundtable relaxes with the heat of Ninel Conde and Barbara Herrera. Reaganite Resistance presents Miss Poland, Rozalia Mancewicz, while the Eye of Polyphemus fell on Gillian Jacobs last week. The Rio Norte demonstrates that, at least in the case of Amanda Harrington, the “F” in TGIF stands for “Funbags”. Hear, hear! Elsewhere, Troglopundit informs us that Danica (not Patrick) has won the Miss America swimsuit competition; also, actual Danica Patrick news and most importantly, the triumph of Miss Wisconsin. The Dividist Papers makes its Rule 5 debut with a brief essay on San Francisco Values – Wife Battering Edition, featuring Venezuelan telenovela actress Eliana Lopez. A lurid tale indeed! Jake Finnegan’s Burkalesque Babe last week was Olivia Munn.


El Opinador Compulsivo last week had Rashida Jones, not one but two hi-res megaposts, snow in Quebec (with an encore), the famous Fotoshop video, random imagery from the kitchen, when two hands aren’t enough, pure awesomeness, and some beefcake for the ladies from the new Sherlock Holmes flick.


A View From The Beach offers Kelly Brook, the Katy Perry case for GIMP, science and sex, and finally the Bangles.


Soylent Green chose Peaches for his Monday Motivationer, and followed up with Katerina Nova, Diora Baird, the best things in life, Corset Friday guest stars, quality spam, some crack investigative reporting (so to speak), and Saturday sassiness.


Dustbury checks in with another British politician, Caroline Flint, as well as Jennifer Lawrence. Maggie’s Notebook goes all swimsuits for a warm winter. Proof Positive began with Ana de la Reguera, vintage babe Theda Bara, sex in advertising, and the obligatory Niners cheerleaders.


The Camp of the Saints had to break up Rule 5 News into two parts, studied the all-important winter vacation bikini, checked in with the Swedish Diet Girls, an example of how you can’t trust Google when it comes to sweater vests, and wraps up with Katya Zharkova.


American Power led off with Candice Swanepoel, followed by Mila Kunis, Rosie Jones, the secret to Kelly Brooks’ success, and finally Natalin Avci.


The DaleyGator’s DaleyBabes this past week were Donna Dixon, a Rule 5 roundup, a link to Bob Belvedere for the Swedish Diet Babes, Leola Bell, Olivia Munn getting nekkid for PETA, assorted babes, Asian Babe Wednesday, Paula Patton, and Maria Menounos.


Thanks to everyone for their linkagery! Rule 5 links will be due at Rule 5 Wombat no later than Saturday, January 21.

Category: Rule 5
« go back — keep looking »

    About

    This is an area on your website where you can add text. This will serve as an informative location on your website, where you can talk about your site.

    Subscribe to our feed

    Search

    Admin