The Other McCain

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

Ron Paul Rally in Nashua, N.H.

Posted on | January 6, 2012 | 30 Comments

Somewhere amid this frenzied crowd scene is
The Only Man Who Can Save Liberty in America

NASHUA, N.H.
Ron Paul just concluded a rally here in the hangar at Nashua Jet Aviation and the crowd was enormous. Afterwards, I talked to three young guys who drove up from New Jersey for the chance to see their hero. They’ve been Paulistas since 2007 and I told them, honestly, it’s good to see kids excited about liberty.

There will be a Ron Paul press conference in about 10 minutes. Here’s a photo of Paul’s fans doing their thing outside last night’s Rick Santorum event in Windham.

UPDATE: Some post-rally photos:

The afternoon sun — or, quite possibly, his own beatific radiance — highlights Ron Paul as he gives a press conference after his rally at the Nashua Jet Aviation hangar.

Pete Da Tech Guy interviews a Ron Paul supporter. Note the trademark Sicilian hand gesture.

UPDATE II: It’s always nice to run into a familiar fact on the campaign trail. In this case, it’s my libertarian buddy John LaBeaume:

John’s nickname for me is “Hate Crime.” My nickname for him is “Melungeon.” While I was sitting here working, he kept up a non-stop patter of jokes about me being the secret ghostwriter of certain newsletters. The dude is hilarious, but also a brilliant political analyst.

UPDATE III: Here’s another familiar face, Garrett Quinn of the Boston Globe and WRKO, interviewing a young Ron Paul supporter:

Say what you will about Ron Paul, no other Republican candidate inspires such fanatical enthusiasm. Here is video of the crowd inside the hangar chanting, “President Paul!”

The latest Rasmussen poll of New Hampshire primary voters: Mitt Romney 42%, Ron Paul 18%, Rick Santorum 13% and Jon Huntsman 12%. If Huntsman gets 12% in New Hampshire, I’ll be shocked beyond words.

And now, I’ve got to hit the road with Pete Da Tech Guy to the Hillsborough County GOP dinner at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, where Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum will speak tonight. Hit the freaking tip jar!

Category: Election 2012, Fear and Loathing in New Hampshire, New Hampshire, Ron Paul

President Obama Had Better Do Well In The Other 56 States

Posted on | January 6, 2012 | 19 Comments

by Smitty

New Hampsire is Darcy Richardson territory. And strange territory it is:

Throughout his presidency, President Obama has allowed the GOP to frame the debate on almost every issue, none of which was more painfully devastating to his progressive base than his failure to include a public option in health care. Simply put, the President gave in without a fight.

I must leap to the defense of #OccupyResoluteDesk:

  1. He’s a lover, not a fighter.
  2. He was late for a tea time.
  3. Princess Pelosi, Plugs Biden, and the Bent Reid told him that it was in there.
  4. Cruella Sebelius thinks Eric Cantor deleted it out of spite, because it had been put on page 2212 of the legislation by some obscure lobbyists known as the Priests of the Temples of Syrinx.
  5. We have to crater American health care, and really put the ‘boom’ in Baby Boomers, so that the people beg for the public option. It’s really all about the begging, not health care, you see.

Tell you what, Darcy: become New Hampshire governor and just knock your little booties off with that public option.

Aside: Wikipedia likes to list Rush as ‘Progressive Rock’. Sad, impotent little Progressives, always looking for ways to mooch off of producers. Unless the Temples of Syrinx, themselves, are the ultimate destiny of Progress. . .

Category: Barack Obama, Democrats, New Hampshire

LIVE AT FIVE – 01.06.12

Posted on | January 6, 2012 | 4 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Obama Unveils Strategy For Leaner Military

Army and Marines facing cuts as emphasis shifts to Asia, air and naval forces

Doomed Russian Mars Probe May Crash Back To Earth January 15
Phobos-Grunt failed to leave Earth orbit, in death spiral since then

GM Says Fix In Works For Flaming Volts
Structural reinforcement will protect battery pack during accidents



POLITICS
Gingrich, Santorum Assail Romney While Latter Campaigns In South Carolina

Rick Santorum talks to college students in Concord, N.H.

The conservatives strike back

Obama’s Consumer Watchdog Targets Mortgage Firms & Payday Lenders

If Taxes Don’t Pass, The Schools Get It


Joe Kennedy III To Run For Barney Frank’s Seat

DC Councilman Thomas Resigns, Will Plead Guilty

Court: Legal Immigrants Qualify For MassCare



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
U.S. Stocks Bounce Back In Choppy Trading Session
Barnes & Noble Seeks Next Chapter
Europe Woes Hit Shares, Euro
Alcoa Cuts Global Capacity 12%
Chrysler Adding 1250 Jobs At Two Detroit Factories
Oil Declines For Second Day On Increased Inventory
Airline Carbon Tax Row Escalating
Malware Steals More Than 45,000 Facebook Logins
Apple Threatens Legal Action Over Steve Jobs Action Figure
Upcoming Google Tablet Takes Aim At Kindle Fire



SPORTS
Pats Assistant Bill O’Brien To Take Penn State Job

Patriots offensive coordinator Bill O'Brien

Will be replacing legendary PSU coach Paterno

Heat Beat Hawks In Triple OT Without James, Wade

Lakers Lose Again In Portland

Indiana Fights Past Michigan As Pitt Drops To 0-3

Joe Thornton Scores In 500th Game With Sharks As San Jose Beats Columbus 2-1

Kings Edge Bucks In Smart’s Debut

Late Goal Lifts Flyers Past Blackhawks, 5-4

Warriors Lose Curry, Another Game In San Antonio



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Drew Barrymore Engaged To Will Kopelman

Drew Barrymore, Will Kopelman


Dating since February 2011; Drew wants babies

Keri Russell Welcomes Daughter Willa Lou

Jessicas Alba And Simpson Bond Over Bodies And Babies



Christian Dior Signs Mila Kunis

Hollywood Power In Bizarre Transgender Row

Shriver, Schwartzenegger Not Reconciling

“Akira” Production Offices Shut Down As Warner Bros. Scrutinizes Budget



FOREIGNERS
Iraq Bombings Kill 71 Shiites
Former Egyptian President Mubarak Unlikely To Be Hanged
Gunmen Kill Five In Attack On Nigerian Church
Israeli Religion Minister Fears Jewish Divisions
Former PM Olmert Charged With Graft In Holyland Affair
Karzai Demands Handover Of Bagram Prison
American Teen Held In Colombia After Wrongful Deportation
South Africa’s Jacob Zuma Under Pressure As ANC Turns 100



BLOGS & STUFF
Ed Morrissey: New Gingrich Attack Ad – “Timid v. Bold”
Peter Wehner: Partisan Politics And Vicious Assaults
Jim Geraghty: Eugene Robinson, Child-Mourning Procedure Evaluator-In-Chief
National Review: After Iowa
John Yoo: Richard Cordray & The Use And Abuse Of Executive Power
Wall Street Journal: Contempt For Congress
Hit & Run: ObamaCare’s Biggest Legal Weakness
Legal Insurrection: Judge Rules Bugs Bunny Can’t Sign Recall Petitions To Recall Scott Walker
Jihad Watch: Egypt’s Islamic Parties Ready To Do Battle Against Bikinis
Big Government: Sarah Palin To Deliver Keynote Speech At CPAC 2012
Via Meadia: Navy Wins More Than A Football Game
Washington Monthly: What If Obama Loses?
NRO Corner: From CAP to CAF And Beyond


SOTD: Better Than This

Category: Live at Five

Crowder’s 11 Scandals In 2011

Posted on | January 5, 2012 | 2 Comments

by Smitty

Crowder is quite good here. I appreciate his capacity to be funny when he wants to, and then shift gears to thoughtful punditry.

Category: Uncategorized

Couldn’t Agree Less With Podhoretz

Posted on | January 5, 2012 | 25 Comments

by Smitty (via Insty)

A point has been completely missed here:

Debate Hell provided terrific copy for pundits, led to record ratings for cable-news channels, and helped enshrine Twitter as the news flavor of the moment. But it made the Republican Party look foolish and silly, not serious and sober in facing the problems of the present with solutions for the future.
In that sense, the debates were worse than a waste of time. They were a self-destructive exercise. Both parties better wise up and figure out how to limit the takeover of the process by cable television and these interest groups between now and 2016 — or whichever one of them has an open run for the presidential nomination in 2016 will be humiliated in the same way.

Both the Republican and Democrat parties are silly, in the sense that they put their own advancement ahead of the citizenry.

The Republican party looks like the WWII U.S. Army mired in an asymmetric war somewhere. Welcome to the internet. We don’t give a rip about your bumper-sticker collection of focus-group tested phrasings:

  • We want serious details on policies. “I’m gonna whip me out some jobs” is not an economic plan.
  • We want rationale for where a candidate altered a position on major policies. “That audience in 2005 really wanted me to offer free medial care for unarmed illegal Gaylians with green skin, and I just didn’t understand the question.”
  • We want to know the candidate recognizes the decay of our Constitutional system, and intends to do something about it. #OccupyResoluteDesk has poisoned the well significantly. Why should anyone believe Candiate X is different?

We need more, not less debates. The alternative is life on the Democrat plantation, where you take your handout and praise BHO for it.

Also needing to lighten up: Walter Russel Mead.

In any case, the turmoil and trouble of Iowa told us almost nothing that we didn’t know six months to a year ago. I hope the media outlets who covered this in such cash burning, mind numbing detail are pleased with themselves. Otherwise it would all look like a terrible waste of money and bandwidth.

Americans are getting riled up and paying attention. Moreso than any time that I can remember in 42 years of life, with a dim recollection of Carter’s ’76 win being about my earliest political memory. Welcome to people participating in democracy. Kind loud, often mindless, but the alternative is Oceania.

Update: linked at That Mr. G Guy.

Category: Election 2012

Rick Santorum in Windham, N.H.

Posted on | January 5, 2012 | 11 Comments

WINDHAM, N.H.
The Southern New Hampshire 9-12 Project is hosting “An Evening With Rick Santorum.” I just interviewed State Sen. James Luther, who endorsed Santorum today. Luther said Santorum first asked for his endorsement six months ago — and kept asking and asking until he finally got it.

Among the press here for the event are Kerry Picket of the Washington Times, Robert Costa of National Review, Dan Balz of the Washington Post, and Michael Barone of The Washington Examiner.

UPDATE: Like all of Santorum’s town halls today, this event is packed.

UPDATE II: Barone said he thinks the crowd for Newt Gingrich here last month was larger, but this is still a full house.

UPDATE III: The 9-12 group leader, who is also a state representative, just boosted their “Candidate Positions Matrix,” which is very popular with Tea Party activists nationally.

Big news: Santorum has raised $2 million in the past 48 hours and the campaign is planning a major South Carolina ad buy.

UPDATE IV: Santorum gets a standing ovation when he’s introduced. Jokes that polls show him “a mere 39 points behind Governor Romney.”

UPDATE V: Santorum urges the audience to “lead, don’t follow. . . . Pick who you think is the best person.”

In Q-and-A, the first question was about detention of U.S. citizes, second question was about “Agenda 21” and U.S. sovereignty.

Category: Election 2012, Fear and Loathing in New Hampshire, New Hampshire, Rick Santorum

Rick Santorum in Concord, N.H.

Posted on | January 5, 2012 | 31 Comments

CONCORD, N.H.
When we walked into the Grappone Conference Center here where Rick Santorum is speaking at the College Convention 2012, I bumped into Phil Klein of the Washington Examniner who was talking to Jake Tapper of ABC News. Shortly thereafter, Joe Klein of Time magazine walked up and joined the conversation. Just now, Dave Weigel of Slate sat down beside me.

There are four network satellite trucks parked outside.

In August, when Santorum spoke at a church in Manchester, the entire press corps in attendance consisted of . . .

Pete Da Tech Guy.

Just sayin’ …

UPDATE: A couple of quick photos:


Santorum took a question and said the difference between him and Obama is based on their “foundational understanding of America.”

UPDATE II: Santorum is conducting a seminar about gay marriage. Whenever you can get online video of this, it’s gonna be an instant YouTube classic.

UPDATE III: Santorum’s remarks about Obama’s proposed cuts to the Department of Veterans Affairs and Pentagon are also very strong. He seems extremely confident today, and is arguing like a man who knows he’s winning.

Speaking of “winning,” Dave Weigel Tweeted this picture.

UPDATE IV: There was a discussion among reporters at my table as to whether arguing about gay marriage with college students was a smart thing for Santorum to be doing at a time when, according to conventional wisdom, he should be acting more “mainstream.” In that conversation, I was the devil’s advocate in defense of Santorum, arguing that what he did was to signal to conservatives his willing to fight for their cause, even in hostile environments. But then again, I don’t think Santorum was thinking of strategy at all: What you see is what you get, and he’s not going to change his style.

Bandwidth on the WiFi connection here is sub-normal, and I’m going to suggest to Pete that we re-locate to a McDonald’s to upload our videos, etc. There will be another event tonight in Windham.

Category: Fear and Loathing in New Hampshire, New Hampshire, Rick Santorum

Greetings From the Granite State!

Posted on | January 5, 2012 | 26 Comments

MANCHESTER, N.H.
My flight arrived late at Boston’s Logan Airport, and I ought to demand a refund from AirTran because their advertised in-flight WiFi service was out of order, which no one seemed to notice until the passenger in Seat 30D — that would be me — asked the flight attendant about it. Of course, none of the crew knew how to fix the problem and my expressions of anguished desperation were met with helpless shrugs of indifference.

“Customer service” is so 20th century.

Da Tech Guy was waiting curbside at Logan, his 1999 Buick Le Sabre fueled and read for the race up I-93 to New Hampshire. The question was where in New Hampshire? Pete had the Rick Santorum schedule. There was a 1 p.m. event in Tilton, but my delayed flight made that an iffy proposition. So we resolved to wait for the 3:30 p.m. event in Concord. This gave us time to stop off here at the McDonald’s near the Manchester airport where I can attempt to do some of what I would have done if the WiFi on that AirTran flight had been functional.

UPDATE: Just when you thought my idiot cousin Meghan couldn’t possibly make herself more obnoxious:

“If he had endorsed Santorum, I mean, I would be like slitting my wrists on the table right now,” Meghan McCain said about her father’s endorsement of Mitt Romney.”

This is another reason why conservatives should support Rick Santorum: Because I’m sure if he gets the nomination, Senator Santorum will ban Meghan from the convention in Tampa.

UPDATE II: Da Tech Guy has dubbed this McDonald’s “The Ray Kroc Memorial News Center.”

UPDATE III: I read the Des Moines Register on the plane, and they had several excellent follow-ups to the Iowa caucuses:

In Jefferson County, in Iowa’s southeast corner, Paul won a stunning 49 percent of the vote, more than doubling next-place Santorum.
He also won there in 2008, his only first-place finish in that contest.
What gives?
County seat Fairfield is home to thousands of devotees of the Transcendental Meditation spiritual movement and site of the Maharishi University of Management, which is aligned with the movement.
Followers tend to share Paul’s views opposing military intervention and the Federal Reserve, said Bob Glade, the county’s GOP co-chairman.
“They had a campaign headquarters here for the last two months, and they were pushing real, real heavy,” Glade said of the Paul campaign.

Devotees of the Maharishi’s meditation cult in . . . Iowa? Damn. I mean, damn.

Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz, who endorsed Santorum in December, said he thought the former Pennsylvania senator has a chance as a national candidate, adding that his Iowa momentum should be a boon for fundraising.
Anyone who heard Santorum’s post-caucuses speech on Tuesday night would be impressed, Schultz said. Santorum told the story of how his grandfather had immigrated from Italy to work in Pennsylvania’s coal mines and how he had sacrificed to bring his family to America.
“That speech really resonates with Americans,” Schultz said. “I have heard him give it many times, but the way he sequenced the elements was brilliant.”

  • A story on Rick Perry’s decision to stay in the race (an updated and expanded version of this post by Josh Hafner), which mentions Joe Allbaugh and Dave Carney among the crew of idiotic “strategists” responsible for running the doomstruck farce that is the Perry campaign. Evidently, Allbaugh and Carney didn’t get enough humiliation in Iowa to suit them, and are determined to utterly destroy any future political prospects for their client, the once widely-respected governor of Texas whom they’ve turned into a national laughingstock.

UPDATE IV: Linked by That Mr. G Guy — thanks! At the airport, I picked up a copy of the Boston Globe, the front-page headline of which is, “New dynamic for GOP as scene shifts to N.H.” And on the plane, I also read the New York Times, whose front-page story includes this interesting detail:

While Mr. Romney dominated the day-after-Iowa news coverage with his victory lap here, Mr. Santorum and his staff were slowly making the 1,400-mile journey from Des Moines in a King Air propeller plane that did not deliver them here until suppertime, too late to make a star turn on the evening news. He made a nighttime turn on Fox News and CNN and landed in time for a rally that drew hundreds

Santorum raised $1 million Wednesday, the same day I published my American Spectator column, “An All-American Miracle.” And Santorum has now jumped to 21% in the Rasmussen national poll.

Coincidence? I don’t think so.

Well, it’s now 2:30. We’ll have to hurry to make it to Concord in time for Santorum’s event, and Pete’s Buick LeSabre isn’t as fast as that sweet black Mustang. Sigh. I miss it already.


Category: Da Tech Guy, Election 2012, Fear and Loathing in New Hampshire, Meghan McCain, New Hampshire, Rick Santorum
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