Campaign 2012

Sarah Palin Will NOT Run in 2012

Matt Margolis30 Comments

Thank you, Sarah, for making the right decision.

After much prayer and serious consideration, I have decided that I will not be seeking the 2012 GOP nomination for President of the United States. As always, my family comes first and obviously Todd and I put great consideration into family life before making this decision. When we serve, we devote ourselves to God, family and country. My decision maintains this order.

In general, I have no problem with Sarah Palin. Hell, I’d take her experience over Obama’s any day. I remember watching her give her speech and the 2008 Republican National Convention and being 100% convinced we would win.

Hey, things change. And there is a reality to face, and that she is as divisive a political figure as Barack Obama. Even within the Republican Party she’s a poison pill. Canonized and demonized by various factions that are equal in their convictions that is the right person to lead the party, and the wrong person.

I consider myself part of the latter camp. In the past few years since the election, I have not been convinced by her efforts that she has elevated herself past the level of a pundit, because that’s what she sounds like to me… a pundit, not presidential caliber. Like Obama, who sounds like a pundit when scripted and a fifth grader when off the cuff, Sarah just doesn’t fit bill for me anymore. I accept the fact that as a Republican who wants to see this country back on track that I have to be happy with the filed we got, and you know what, I trust any of the Republican candidates to do a better job than we’ve seen done the past three years, and I will do everything I can to help that candidate win.

But for now, I thank Sarah Palin again, for stepping aside, and realizing that this was not her time.

There Is No GOP Savior

Matt Margolis64 Comments

Back in 2008, I saw many fellow conservative bloggers jump on the Fred Thompson bandwagon. It was a phenomenon I could never understand. It seemed like out of nowhere Fred Thompson was elevated to the position of GOP Savior. Many thought he was the only true Reagan-esque candidate that could enter the field. Hogwash, I thought. The day he formally entered the race I said his best days of the campaign were behind him.

I was right.

Here we are, four years later, and once again the GOP finds itself looking for a messiah. The current candidate-du-jour is Chris Christie, who was being talked up as a potential candidate practically seconds after his gubernatorial victory in New Jersey was confirmed.

Again, I say hogwash.

If Christie jumped in the race today, within a week 75% of Republican voters would write him off as a RINO. I’ve seen every candidate so far in the race attacked for not being conservative enough. That is just sad.

Republicans, I hate to say, are stuck on Reagan, constantly looking for someone who they believe emulates him perfectly. Reagan may be a conservative icon, but if we looked at his record as a whole, there are plenty of things there that wouldn’t fit in the conservative label.

Reagan’s legacy has strangely survived in perfect condition in a way that other Republican presidents’ haven’t. Perhaps it’s understandable. Before Reagan there was Carter. Need I say more? George H.W. Bush was fairly popular president until he broke his promise about not raising taxes. That more than anything defines his legacy.

Today, many Republicans have disowned President George W. Bush. “He wasn’t a real conservative,” they say, and so on. They say this despite the fact that he won reelection in 2004, which an incredible amount of positive support. Yet, many naysayers point to things done in his first term as examples of his lack of conservative bonafides: No Child Left Behind, The Patriot Act, even the Iraq War.

Another great example of conservative canonization that fizzled out is Senator Scott Brown. Anyone who actually knew his record as a state senator knew he was not a pure conservative, but the Tea Party organized for him, and helped mobilize a tremendous victory for him. Now, the Tea Party acts betrayed because of a few votes that didn’t meet their standards.

Seriously, let’s stop pretending the GOP has a savior.

Let’s look at Obama now. You don’t get more extreme than him when it comes to a left-winger. But, you cannot ignore the fact that the left is not entirely pleased with him because he hasn’t managed to completely redistribute the country’s wealth, or allow for the creation of drive-thru abortion clinics or whatever nonsense the left champions any given day.

In the end, politicians have records and realities to answer to. Voters often see the former without considering the latter. Even the most conservative of politicians has to work with the opposition to get things done. If we treat every compromise as a black mark on a candidate’s record than we might as well let Obama run the country for another four years.

It’s time for Republican voters to remember that we are all on the same team here. If we can’t put aside petty policy differences in favor of an overall ideological shift back to the right in 2012 then we deserve to lose.

Obamacare and 2012

Matt Margolis7 Comments

An interesting perspective from the Washington Examiner‘s Stephen Smith about Obamacare’s pending SCOTUS ruling on Obamacare.

It may sound counterintuitive, but here’s betting that President Obama wouldn’t be at all upset if the high court rules that his health plan is unconstitutional.

By urging an expedited review by the U.S. Supreme Court, the president knows that the politics cuts his way. If the court strikes down the plan, then Obama won’t have to defend it in the fall campaign, robbing the Republicans of one of their two lines of attack, the other being the moribund economy. He could rally his base by arguing that he had pushed through a great “progressive” reform only to be foiled by the conservative-leaning Supreme Court. People, like markets, hate uncertainty, and the presumed swing vote by Justice Kennedy could settle the issue.

If Obama wins the judicial appeal, it will still be a win for him along the lines of today’s conventional thinking. He will be able to argue that the Administration always knew Obamacare was constitutional, and the expedited review will muffle the issue in the general-election campaign.

Here’s my thoughts.

First of all, should Obamacare be ruled unconstitutional, as it most likely will be, that’s a pretty big defeat for Obama. When your signature achievement is declared unconstitutional by the highest court in the country, that’s hardly a rallying point for voters to support, especially the coveted moderate vote. It’s hard to find victory out of a defeat like that. And even if a defeat energized his base, it won’t energize moderates.

Second, the biggest issue of the election will be the economy. Obamacare may be an issue in 2012, but regardless of a SCOTUS ruling or lack of one, Obama will be judged primarily on his failure to fix economy… or more accurately his success in making it worse.

Your thoughts?

Liberal Fascists on Parade

Mark Noonan13 Comments

Example 1 comes from The New Republic:

…To solve the serious problems facing our country, we need to minimize the harm from legislative inertia by relying more on automatic policies and depoliticized commissions for certain policy decisions. In other words, radical as it sounds, we need to counter the gridlock of our political institutions by making them a bit less democratic… – Peter Orszag, former Obama Administration OMB Director

Example 2 come from the News Observer:

You have to have more ability from Congress, I think, to work together and to get over the partisan bickering and focus on fixing things. I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won’t hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover. I really hope that someone can agree with me on that. The one good thing about Raleigh is that for so many years we worked across party lines. It’s a little bit more contentious now but it’s not impossible to try to do what’s right in this state. You want people who don’t worry about the next election. – Governor Bev Perdue (D-NC)

There are two fundamental reasons, I think, for this:

1.  Democrats are very worried they are going to get clobbered next year, so not having elections or transferring power to non-elective bodies (which Obama can appoint prior to be booted) is a means for them to retain power no matter what the voters want.

2.  Liberals, by their actions, show an inborn contempt for the people of the United States.  In President Obama’s exquisite phrasing we, the people,  are a collection of knuckle-dragging morons who bitterly cling to guns and the Bible (I guess I’m only a half-moron – I still don’t own a gun, but I am ever more fiercely clinging to my Bible.  In fact, I just read the Gospel of Mark today…).  We are not whom our liberals want to have to consult in matters of policy.  We are tiresome.  We just get in the way.  If we would just do as we’re told, all would be well..liberals would be rich and in charge and enjoying a lavish, taxpayer-funded lifestyle while the rest of us would be poor…but equally poor, so its all good.

To me, this is ultimately just one more sign of a Ruling Class growing more worried and desperate.  We’ll see how things come out – but I think that we, the people, can look forward with confidence to 2012…they’re on the run.

Poll: People View Government Very Negatively

Mark Noonan68 Comments

Gallup finds us just disgusted with the whole thing:

  • 82% of Americans disapprove of the way Congress is handling its job.
  • 69% say they have little or no confidence in the legislative branch of government, an all-time high and up from 63% in 2010.
  • 57% have little or no confidence in the federal government to solve domestic problems, exceeding the previous high of 53% recorded in 2010 and well exceeding the 43% who have little or no confidence in the government to solve international problems.
  • 53% have little or no confidence in the men and women who seek or hold elected office.
  • Americans believe, on average, that the federal government wastes 51 cents of every tax dollar,  similar to a year ago, but up significantly from 46 cents a decade ago and from an average 43 cents three decades ago.
  • 49% of Americans believe the federal government has become so large and powerful that it poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens. In 2003, less than a third (30%) believed this.

But what about Obama?  How’s he doing?  Gallup has him at 41% overall for the past month.  Not exactly what you would expect for The One who was going to make the oceans recede…wonder if anyone still thinks he’s what we were all waiting for?  I mean, other than himself?

Going to be a long, hard year for the Ruling Class in 2012…

 

230,000 Shovel Ready Jobs!

Mark Noonan12 Comments

If, that is, what you want is manure to be shoveled – from Hot Air:

The president has found a way to add jobs, after all — 230,000 of ‘em, all within the Environmental Protection Agency. That’s the number of new bureaucrats the federal government will need to hire to implement new proposed greenhouse gas regulations…

The cost would be $21 billion a year for these extra bureaucrats.  And here’s the real kicker – they would be setting about the enforcement of greenhouse gas rules the EPA does not have statutory authority to enforce.  Cool, huh?  230,000 more government drones costing us more money and enforcing laws which are created not just at the whim of the President, but at the whim of any one of the 230,000 bureaucrats.  Liberal fascism is a wonderful thing, ain’t it?

Once again – 2012 will be a pivotal election.  We’ll decide, probably for good, whether America survives and thrives, or starts to die.

ObamaCare to the Supreme Court

Mark Noonan20 Comments

From Politico:

The Obama administration chose not to ask the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to re-hear a pivotal health reform case Monday, signaling that it’s going to ask the Supreme Court to decide whether President Barack Obama’s health reform law is constitutional.

The move puts the Supreme Court in the difficult position of having to decide whether to take the highly politically charged case in the middle of the presidential election…

I can’t see how the individual mandate can be ruled constitutional…but, I guess we’ll see.  It’ll either wipe out Obama’s signature issue right in front of the 2012 election, or provide ammunition for Obama against those of us who argue it is unconstitutional.

Stay tuned.

Susan B Anthony List Plans Pro-Life 2012 Ads

Mark Noonan6 Comments

From Hot Air:

Susan B. Anthony list, a pro-life advocacy group that last week released an ad dramatizing the obscene partnership between President Barack Obama and Planned Parenthood, aims to raise enough money to run the ad in key battleground states. To that end, they’re in the midst of a 72-hour campaign to come up with just $21,000 — so small a sum in comparison to the price of an Obama fundraiser.

As the ad depicts, the president’s support for Planned Parenthood runs deep. Even when states have legitimately — and through the proper legislative avenues — sought to defund the abortion provider, the administration has stepped in to override states’ decisions. Earlier this month, for example, after the Executive Council of New Jersey decided not to renew a $1.8 million contract with PP, the administration stepped in and awarded Planned Parenthood of New England more than $1 million in federal funding. Just days ago, the First Lady hosted a fundraiser with Planned Parenthood Federation of America president Cecile Richards and EMILY’s List President Stephanie Schriock…

Click on the link if you can donate – one thing we do know for certain is that the Obama Administration has been lock-step in favor of the Culture of Death.  If there has been a way to advance abortion, Obama has been right there.  And Obama is counting on a lot of pro-abortion money to help fund his 2012 campaign.  This is the best way to fight that – especially in pro-life States like Pennsylvania which Obama must win to be re-elected.