Times when I'm embarrassed for/by my state...

I have important family matters that take priority for me, but I just wanted to throw in my disgust about a story that will be getting more attention I'm sure. The Blue Arkansas blog had the first post I've seen on it, so check out their post which I'm linking to at the end. All I can say is I'm disgusted by knuckle draggers who do crap like this.

Gingrich is right, Mitt Romney really is full of baloney...

 ...but this is different baloney than Newt was talking about

Some choice moments from Romney's New Hampshire victory speech:

"Internationally, President Obama has adopted an appeasement strategy. He believes America’s role as leader in the world is a thing of the past. I believe a strong America must – and will – lead the future."

“He doesn’t see the need for overwhelming American military superiority. I will insist on a military so powerful no one would think of challenging it."

“He apologizes for America; I will never apologize for the greatest nation in the history of the Earth."


Okay, Obama the appeaser and the apology maker, yet not one actual example of this tired garbage that the biggest wastes of space in the GOP primary continue to throw around.

Also, terrorists who don't fear death and fight with IED's and bombs strapped to their bodies don't care how powerful America's army is. I'm wiling to wager they will continue to challenge it even if Romney was somehow able to arm and militarize every U.S. citizen.

Cut the crap Mitt. Get some class. If you want to hammer Obama, talk about the economy. That's a place you're more at home. Leave the militaristic foreign policy mumbo jumbo to your neocon advisers who spew that for a living (or better yet, fire your neocon advisers...yeah..right.).

Huntsman's Obama Problem

  As I caught a bit of this morning's Meet the Press debate before heading to church this morning, I had observation about Huntsman. His service as ambassador to China has been a criticism in some Republican circles and was one on the debate stage last night. Huntsman tried to address it in this morning's debate the same way he always has, with a comment about serving his country first.

   That's a great reason and will resonate with a lot of New Hampshire independents, but Huntsman has missed using a great example to further support his argument. Robert Gates was Obama's Defense Secretary after he served as Dubya's. Both his and Huntsman's positions were and are important to U.S. foreign policy (although the Secretary postion far more powerful). Gates, a Republican, served with almost zero criticism from the GOP. How Huntsman hasn't thought to use this example is beyond me. I doubt it would have made a huge difference in NH, and we'll see how he does there very shortly, but it would have been a stellar comparison showing the non-partisan nature of some positions.

Paul SuperPAC's Stellar Ad

  Revolutionpac.com came out with a great ad on behalf of its candidate Ron Paul. This doesn't totally counter the content of his newsletters, or answer all the questions I have about them, but it's still a great ad. It's the first ad I've seen that attempts to delve into who Paul really is, as opposed to transmitting his views on limited government, foreign policy, etc.

Ron Paul can't keep dodging.

  

   Anyone who has kept up with recent presidential campaign politics is aware of the controversy about the Ron Paul news letters from previous decades. They were sent to subscribers and contained numerous offensive, racist, and nutty ideas. The New Republic has links and summaries of them here. I was aware of them during the 2008 election but I bought Paul's excuse that they were written by a ghostwriter and that he had little involvement in them. I still buy that, but a recent revelation (for me at least) has made me reexamine whether that explanation is enough.

  Some of the newsletters make it very clear from the way they were written that the author is supposed to sound like Paul. They are written in the first person  in a kind of "from the desk of..." style. My impression had been that all of them were written as random unsigned articles under the heading of the Ron Paul Newsletter. The fact that some were written in his voice and that some even bore a signature, makes me question his judgement. Even if he didn't write them, I question why a person would think such words are the sort of thing Paul would endorse. Paul needs to answer to these emails with a fuller explanation.

   If he didn't write them, then, to put it bluntly, the media will need a scalp. Whoever did write them needs to be offered up. If he did write them, then he needs to admit it and then get out of the race. Those are the only options. As much as I can't stand her, I think about how much more extreme the response would be against a Michele Bachmann if she had published similar articles under her name. Fairness dictates that Paul must answer for this, no matter how much I appreciate his dissenting views on foreign policy and the war on drugs.

GOP presidential candidate preference in descending order.

The candidates that this blog likes (or could live with) at this moment:

1. Jon Huntsman-a great background with experience as a governor, businessman, and ambassador. And a foreign policy that isn't neoconservatism but hasn't embraced isolationism either.

2. Gary Johnson-a very popular (in his state at least) former governor of New Mexico. Ron Paul with executive experience and less crankiness.

3. Ron Paul- just for the grand experiment his presidency would be. I predict a lot of gridlock, but maybe some meaningful reevaluation of our country's place in the world.

4. Mitt Romney- has definitely let a little bit of the meanness of the rest of the GOP field into his campaign, but at least he doesn't seem to preoccupied with Muslims, gays, or our "anti-colonialist" president.

Rick Perry enters pander mode.

In recent weeks we have witnessed two examples of a candidate drowning and grabbing onto anything that can pull his numbers up. That candidate is Rick Perry. Okay okay. I know this blog is sympathetic to Huntsman, and I'll admit that his numbers are low but at least they're so low that any movement has only been up (in New Hampshire at least). Perry's fall has been something to behold. He's even tied at 3 percent in some state polls with Huntsman. Perry's candidacy has been just as embarrassing and silly as Herman Cain's. But on to the panders...

Pander #1: this one hasn't gotten as much attention because of pander #2, but Perry recently went anti-Wall Street in a recent speech, which is fine and dandy for this blogger. But it's pretty hard not to see this as an attempt to grab some of the anti-Wall Street sentiment that is even on the right. After all, you'll see a few Ron Paul supporters and libertarians mixed in Occupy Wall Street crowds.

Pander #2: This is the biggie. In case you haven't seen the horrendous video, please enjoy:

 

I won't bore anyone trying to explain the BS and logical fallacies of this ad (The Daily Dish does a much better job of it here). But in putting the ad together it's as if the campaign put a list of hot button items that bother the most extreme cultural conservatives, threw darts at the list, and then picked the ones that the darts hit.  Thud (War on Christmas). Thud (prayer in schools).  Thud (gays in the military). Thud (Obama isn't really a Christian). 

Anyone who reads even just a little bit about Rick Perry would have a hard time believing that either pander #1 or #2 are very close to his heart.