Call Me Cassandra?

Cassandra of Troy, as the legend goes, was given a true gift of prophecy by the gods...who, being fickle, also gave her the curse that no one would believe her. I can identify with that.

In 2008, I thought that John McCain was probably the worst candidate in the primaries. Sure, Huckabee gave him a run for the title, but McCain, who was not a fiscal conservative, and one of the original Keating Five, became the Republican candidate. I supported him in the general election, because he was a better man than the candidate the Democrats fielded (who wasn't?), and he lost to Barack Obama.

In 2012, I thought that Mitt Romney was the worst possible choice in the primaries. Obamacare was disliked by a majority of the electorate at the time, and the worst possible person to make the case against Obamacare was the author of Romneycare. Mitt was a moderate, trying to sound like a conservative, but failing at it rather badly.I supported him, too, in the general election, because he was a better man than the candidate the Democrats fielded (who wasn't?), who had proven himself inadequate to the job of being president (as he has continued to this day), and he lost to Barack Obama.

In 2016, I thought that Donald J. Trump was the worst possible choice in the primaries. (Are you starting to see a pattern here?) Barring some unforeseen miracle or the SMOD, Trump will become the Republican nominee. Barring the gift of a spine to Obama and his Justice Department, Hillary will be his opponent. (I almost said "running mate". I keep forgetting which side he's supposed to be on!)

She is a venal liar who apparently is the author of most of Obama's failed Middle East policies. She underestimated Putin, the Muslim Brotherhood and her horndog husband and overestimated her cleverness as a politician, money launderer, and her ability to hide her correspondence without compromising national security.

I would never vote for Hillary, and the thought of her in the Ovum Office is enough to make one's skin crawl. However, I believe that there are already a large number of people who feel exactly the same way about Donald J. Trump, even before he expressed his lunatic ideas about Ted Cruz's father and Lee Harvey Oswald. Dude. You were winning! Why in the world are you incapable of just keeping your big mouth shut when the occasion calls for it?

In addition to those who already feel this way, Democrat and Republican alike, I believe there are vast numbers yet to be persuaded to this opinion, but who will be.


So, there you have it! I feel as though I'm about to hit the presidential trifecta, and I'm not happy about it one bit. Should the White House, possibly the Senate and SCOTUS all tilt Left in the next four to eight years, there will be no comfort in saying "I told you so". Not that it would do any good. I'm convinced that should this election "go South", Trump supporters will blame everyone except their candidate (and themselves). Like Obama blaming Bush for the last eight years, it will never be the Donald's fault. No, of course not. That would be too obvious!

Quote du jour

"I can fight anybody, as long as Candy Crowley isn't the referee!"

-Mitt Romney, on his upcoming charity bout with Evander Holyfield

It's Official!

Mitt Romney will not run in 2016. Whew! One down, how many to go?

Let me say what I have said time and time before. I believe that Mitt Romney is a good man. I congratulate and thank him for his prescient withdrawal from the 2016 race. I would love to see Mitt participate in a Republican victory in 2016, and think he could serve the nation well in a number of different cabinet level positions.

We shouldn't let this good man's experience go to waste. Having said that, he was not my choice in 2008. Truth be told, neither was John McCain. McCain was lacking in conservative bona fides, particularly when it came to economics. I don't know if Romney was done in by his supporters, but there was one Romneybot in particular who frequented Internet discussions and tried to hijack every thread, whenever he came across any meager crumb that favored Romney, and then regaled us with the inevitability of Romney taking the nomination. So, he had the distinction of not only being annoying but wrong. On top of that, instead of challenging McCain's policies, which I would have probably echoed and applauded, he chose to attack McCain personally, his military service, and going so far as calling him a traitor.

God save us from our friends.

In the end, I supported McCain, not because he was my favorite or ideal candidate, but in my estimate, he would have made a better president than Obama. Fast forward to 2012. Same story. Conservatives fail to find one solid conservative candidate to coalesce around, Romney, slow and steady takes the race. I campaigned against Romney in the primaries. I tried really hard not to violate Reagan's Eleventh Commandment in tempering my criticisms of Gov. Romney, and emphasizing the qualities of those he ran against. Once he was the nominee, I actively supported him, once again believing he'd make a better president than Obama had proven himself to be.

When I heard that he was perhaps considering a third run, I was somewhat alarmed. After eight years of Obama, our nation cannot afford for Republicans to run an "also ran" candidate. If Mitt Romney couldn't seal the deal in 2012, when the nation should have been able to see what an abysmal president Obama had been, how would he seal the deal over the Dems' next "Flavor of the Month"? Maybe touting the "first woman president"?

The train wreck that was 'Hope and Change' will take years, maybe decades to clean up. The sooner we start, the better. We need to clear the deck of vanity candidates and candidates that do not have a prayer, so that we can properly vet our next president. Having twelve guys on a stage posing for soundbites or hoping for an opponent's misstep upon which to capitalize will not accomplish this.

I'm not trying to deny anyone the right to run. The guarantee of free speech does not contain within it a guarantee of an audience, or the size of that audience. Let's weed out the "also ran" candidates as soon as possible. Gov. Bush, Gov. Christie, Gov. Huckabee: follow Mitt's example. For the good of the country, the quicker you get out or not all the way in, the better.

And Mr. Trump? Open your check book and not a campaign headquarters. Just sayin'!

...Keeps Going and Going...

The Energizer Romney (A MAD Mini-Poster) http://t.co/JvyDqpXGDN pic.twitter.com/F1c4qJbU3j
— MAD Magazine (@MADmagazine) January 15, 2015

Quote du jour

"In virtually every foreign-affairs crisis we have faced these past five years, there was a point when America had good choices and good options. There was a juncture when America had the potential to influence events. But we failed to act at the propitious point; that moment having passed, we were left without acceptable options. In foreign affairs as in life, there is, as Shakespeare had it, 'a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries.'"

— Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney: The Nicest Guy You Don't Want to be President*

Mitt Romney is an honorable man. And not just in the Marc Antony/Julius Caesar/Shakespearean kind of way. Mitt is a really good guy! He's a very moral man, by all accounts a very generous man, when it comes to acts of personal charity. True, he was slimed during the election as being a cruel and cold hearted individual, who caused a woman to die of cancer, by firing her husband (from a company he no longer controlled), thus depriving her of her insurance. But, consider the source. The folks telling you that Mitt was killing cancer patients were the same guys telling you, if you like your doctor, you can keep him!

Mitt was the standard bearer (Or was that standard bear?) for the Republican party in 2012 against Barack Hussein Obama. Although Mitt was not my first choice, once he had secured the nomination, I supported him over that skinny kid who lied and told you you could keep your health insurance if you like it. And to this day, I believe Mitt would have been a much better president than BHO. However, you've got to admit that that is a pretty low bar!

I know it's a long way until the next presidential election, but that doesn't mean that the plotting, the planning, the scheming has taken a holiday. Some presidential aspirants are trying to get close to Mitt to see if they can tap into the donors from his last campaign. A few misguided souls think he should run again, hence, Facebook page Mitt Romney for President 2016. Granted, the numbers are small. The page has 418 "likes", which is more than I have, but then, I'm not running for president of a country of 300 million people.

Also granted that Romney got more votes than McCain did. McCain ran against Blank Slate, Hopey Changey Obama, whereas Romney ran against the four year track record of an abysmal failure of a president and still placed second. This was after his first run in 2008, putting together an organization, developing and discovering fund raisers and learning what worked in a campaign and what didn't.

Among those 418 Facebookians, there may even be some who opine that, given how much closer he came in 2012, had Romney been our nominee in 2008, he would have won! And if frogs had wings they wouldn't bump their bottoms so hard when they jump! In 2008, Obama was still the human Rorschach test, as George Will called him, and would have beaten Romney like a rented mule. After two shots at the brass ring, Romney may be an invaluable help on the organizational side, but, between his baggage and his tepid, hesitant embrace of conservatism, Romney is far from the role model we want for 2016.

As I said, there is time. The midterms may shed some light on an emerging leader. Conservatives also need to take control of the primary process, so that our opponents are not quite so instrumental in choosing our candidates for us. We also need to encourage the vanity candidates to bow out early, so that debates can be focused and substantive, and, incidentally, not moderated by liberals pretending not to be partisan.

If Romney, nice guy that he is, tries to revive his candidacy, he should be politely thanked, but...no. Romney III will never get off the ground and will only serve as a distraction from our eventual nominee, no matter how well intended Mr. Romney might be in running again.

This ain't bean bag. The Republic may not survive another disastrous regime like the one we have now.

*You didn't want him to be president in 2008. You didn't want him (in sufficient numbers) to be president in 2012. Third time is not the charm. Mitt? Buy your wife another horse!


Original art work by John Cox. More at John Cox Art
Cross posted at LCR

Clint Eastwood Ad For Mitt Romney

Quietly impressive. Spread the word! H/T John Lott

The Time Has Come, Obama Said, To talk of Many Things. Of Shoes and Ships and Sealing Wax, Of Bayonets and Things...

In last night's debate, Obama's most memorable moment was not his most presidential. Governor Romney brought up the fact that our navy has the "fewest ships since 1917*". Now reasonable men can argue about the size navy we need to carry out America's mission around the globe. Unfortunately, Mr. Romney couldn't find a reasonable man to have the discussion with! Obama could have addressed the efficiency of modern warships, or their capabilities. Instead, Barry turned to what he knows best: children's games and things he learned on the Turner Movie Channel.

"Well, Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets, because the nature of our military's changed. We have these things called aircraft carriers, where planes land on them. We have these ships that go underwater, nuclear submarines. And so the question is not a game of Battleship, where we're counting ships. "

Wow! Barry's going after the condescending snark vote! But back in the real world, in the face of China's growing blue water navy and worldwide terrorist attacks, the size and use of a worldwide navy to serve as a projection of US power around the globe is a discussion we should be having.

Overlooking the ignorance of our Commander in Chief on the use of both bayonets and horses in modern warfare, why not discuss how appropriate the size of our navy is to the task? Seems to me, if Romney's observation was unfounded or misguided, to be an excellent way to demonstrate your command of military doctrine and tactics as well as the fiscal responsibility to manage resources in times of debt and deficit.

Instead, we have the childish condescension of what may be the extent of Obama's knowledge on the subject: planes land on aircraft carriers and submarines are "ships (sic) that go underwater". (BTW, Mr. Obama, the navy refers to submarines as "boats", not "ships". Don't believe me? Ask the nearest "corpseman"!)

And then, instead of a serious discussion or even an honest answer, the Bamboozler-in-Chief sarcastically tells Gov. Romney that military preparedness is "not a game of Battleship".

Neither is a presidential election, Mr. President. You had a platform and an opportunity to address the American people on a matter of national security. Instead, you took a cheap shot at a political opponent, which had the effect of making you look petty and ill informed.

You know, Mr. Obama, there may be some who might say, given your juvenile performance, that all you know about military strategy you learned from playing Battleship. Not me! I'd say you saw the movie, too!

*Actually, it was 1916

Cross posted at LCR, Say Anything.

Mitt Romney's Stand Up at the Al Smith Dinner

Mitt was great! Check it out!

Friday Night Babe -Stacey Dash

Tonight's FNB* is in the news for her recent Twitter dust up over her support of Mitt Romney...Stacey Dash!

(*a.k.a. Rule Five Friday)

" 41 Medal of Honor Recipients Endorse Mitt Romney"

Hokey smokes! There are around 81 living recipients of "The Medal". Looks like a little over half have endorsed Mitt Romney for President.

“Of all the heroes that have served in our armed forces, only a few have had the great privilege of receiving the Medal of Honor,” said Mitt Romney. “They are the best of us all, and their dedication to our freedoms and their fellow servicemen and women serves as a shining example to every American. I am deeply honored and grateful to have the support of so many of these brave men, but my deeper thanks is for their service to this nation.”

A list of those men endorsing Romney:

Don Ballard
Harvey Barnum
Gary Beikirch
Pat Brady
Jon Cavaiani
Bruce Crandall
Sammy Davis
George “Bud” Day
Roger Donlon
Walter Ehlers
Frederick Ferguson
Michael Fitzmaurice
James Fleming
Wesley Fox
Harold Fritz
Salvatore Giunta
Charles Hagemeister
Tom Hunder
Robert Ingram
Joe Jackson
Allan Kellogg
Gary Littrell
James Livingston
Allen Lynch
Walter Marm
Robert Maxwell
John McGinty
Hiroshi Miyamura
Lee Mize
Robert Modrzejewski
Thomas Norris
Robert Patterson
Richard Pittman
Alfred Rascon
Ronald Rosser
Kenneth Stumpf
James Taylor
Michael Thornton
Leo Thorsness
Jay Vargas
Hershel Williams

BTW, you can copy their names onto the search widget, below the spinning globe, and it will take you to their Medal of Honor citation on this site.

More at Mitt Romney Central

All Expense Paid Touré of a Racebaiter's Mind

Most of us have never heard of this guy Touré before. With any luck, most of us never will again.

Clueless Joe Biden is trying to brand Mitt Romney and the Republicans as racist, as wanting to put blacks "back into chains", and when Mitt responds to having been called a felon, a tax cheat and a racist, he notes the desperation of the Obama/Biden campaign. At this point, Obama's surrogates point a finger and accuse Romney of racism, of using "code words" for racism. I hardly know whether to laugh or cry, when Biden accuses Romney of wanting to enslave blacks and Romney is the one attacked for his imaginary "racism".

The evidence? Romney used the word "angry" twice. Twice I tell you!!! Obama must be one of those "angry black men" they were talking about in the sixties! Could the race card be any less subtle or any more obvious? And note, it is not the Republicans who are playing it. When I hear the word "angry" used for Barack Obama, as with most people, I believe it goes to his state of mind, not the color of his skin. The "content of his character", if you will. And it's not always a bad thing to be angry, either, if you are angry at the right things. My Bible tells me, if I remember correctly, that God is angry with sin every day. If Jonathan Edwards had written "Sinners in the hands of an angry, angry God", would he have been have been using code that God is black?

The Twitterverse was quite active in mocking the race baiting stupidity of Touré yesterday. I contributed (among other things) that #ThingsToureThinksAreRacist "Angry, Angry Birds".

Romney's audience, according to the biased, race baiting world of Touré, are "trained to hate him (Obama), who want to hate him". Really? When was this? Did I miss training camp somehow? Was I sick that day?? Does this mean conversely that Democrats are "trained to hate and want to hate conservatives and Republicans" (and fiscal responsibility)? Given the liberal bent of most institutions of higher learning, it it far easier to imagine the latter than the former.

Joe Biden, according to his own words, thinks we are still in the 20th Century, and while it is not uncommon for liberals to be a century behind in their thinking, it is no longer 2008. Barack Obama is not a blank slate for voters to project their hopes on. He is not the vague Hopey Changey candidate of 2008. He has a track record and it's all bad. People have had four years to come to grips with Obama's multiracial and ethnic composition. The problem for Democrats is not that people don't know what to think of Barack Obama. Their problem is that they do.

Touré further asserts that the GOP has been working with "racial codes" going back to Nixon with the War on Drugs, because obviously white people don't do drugs? He blames the "first Bush" with Willie Horton. Willie Horton was supposedly part of the "typical Republican playbook". But, facts are such stubborn things, Mr. Touré! Willie Horton was introduced into the campaign against Michael Dukakis by...Democrat Al Gore in the primaries. And as far as general election went, I did not see any ads about Willie Horton. When I heard the facts about the case, on the radio, my first impression was of some fat, white guy sitting around in a "wifebeater" shirt, like the Willie in "Willie and Ethel". It wasn't until some months later that I saw Mr. Horton's picture (in Newsweek), that I discovered he was black.

The "scary" thing about the Willie Horton affair was not his race, but the fact that the governor of Massachusetts willing gave hardened criminals a "weekend pass" to leave prison and commit acts of mayhem on the unsuspecting community at large.

Touré includes Reagan's remarks about "welfare queens" in his litany of imaginary racism. Is he once again ignorant of the fact, that by virtue of blacks being a minority in this country, the majority of people on welfare, in Reagan's day at least, were white? Is it such a foreign concept to liberals such as Touré (I keep wanting to say Tourettes!), that some people might be outraged not by the color of their skin, but by the fact that able bodied people were living off the toil and hard work of others? Or worse yet, outright defrauding the system?

And to prove he might be permanently stuck on stupid, Touré calls the Republican party an "all white" party. This will come as quite a shock to many of my black, Hispanic and Asian Republican friends, who in actually are less white than is Barack Obama himself!

As a matter of fact, MSNBC is more lily white than the Republican party! A photo from 2009:


So, in summing things up: Touré's evidence is scant, contradictory and unconvincing, his methodology is sloppy, and his appeal to the authority of unnamed "scholars" is more reminiscent of quoting from a talking points memo than any real scholarship.

I can see where he might be the darling of liberal dinner parties, but he is in no way in any danger as being characterized as an "angry, angry man". When people call him a "lightweight", as I do, they're not thinking "boxing division".


Video via The Last Tradition

Cross posted at LCR.

Romney and Ryan on Sixty Minutes (video)

For those of you otherwise engaged...

Most of What You've Heard about Bain is Bull...

Michael Ramirez of IBD in the ten ring once again!

H/T John Lott

New Romney Ryan Ad

Ryan certainly brings a new dynamic to the race! This is a great ad!

H/T Tammy Bruce

Romney Counters Obama's* Sleazy Ads

*Yes. It's an Obama Super PAC ad, but Obama and Co. are not exactly covering themselves in glory in not condemning the ad or acknowledging what they knew about the falsehoods in it.

Batman? Or Joker?

There's a rumor going around that desperate Democrats will somehow try to tie Mitt Romney to the villain, Bane, in the newest Batman movie opening this week. As lame as that sounds, it got me to thinking what to look for if we were casting one of our presidential candidates in the title role of "Batman":

If Dr. Thomas Wayne had a son, he'd look like...Mitt.
-Advantage Romney

If the cowl fits? With that lantern jaw, advantage Romney! (see above)

Ditto the utility belt and tights. Does anyone really want to see the skinny kid from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in a Batsuit?
-Advantage Romney

Which candidate can you imagine having the cash to create all those marvelous toys Batman has at his disposal? (Or his wife letting him spend it?)
-Advantage Romney

The Batmobile: Does it get better mileage than a Prius? Can't see Obama driving an armored gas hog.
-Advantage Romney.

Which candidate can you imagine having a life long relationship with the family butler, Alfred?
-Advantage Romney

Tony Rezko sold Obama a house with an adjacent lot he didn't pay for, but sadly, no BatCave. Romney caught a lot of flack for installing an elevator for his automobiles in one of his stately mansions. Can you say, "To the BatCave, Robin?"
-Advantage Romney


Finally, does Batman seem to be the type to pal around with domestic terrorists and those who would bomb government buildings or does that seem more like his nemesis, the Joker? Doesn't Batman sound more like the type who would hang around with Donnie and Marie?
-Advantage Romney

Looks like our man Romney would be our Caped Crusader, hands down. But, as far as jokesters go, we still have the guy who assured us the private sector was doing well, that paralegals would assist you if you faint, and that he was going to visit all 57 states in his campaign as well as a close association with members of the Weather Underground.

Ladies and gentlemen, I think we have a Joker!

New Romney Ad: "No Evidence"

What do you think? I don't dislike the ad, but it isn't, IMHO, a home run either. If you were writing or running ads for candidate Romney, what would yours say? What is the message Mitt needs to put out or conversely the Achilles Heel that Obama cannot gainsay?

Bamboozler-in-Chief At it Again!

Here's the latest ad that Obama "approved":


"The Obama campaign fails to make its case. On just about every level, this ad is misleading, unfair and untrue, from the use of “corporate raider” to its examples of alleged outsourcing." -Wa Po

I'm shocked, SHOCKED that anyone would outsource jobs to China, says Barack. But, didn't Obama choose the CEO of GE, Jeffrey Immelt, to be the head of his Jobs Council, to be a close Business adviser? And hasn't GE been outsourcing jobs , shipping manufacturing and engineering and development jobs to China, too?

Other than rank hypocrisy, how is what Romney is accused of doing any different that what Obama's closest business adviser does regularly?

And the Washington Post's Fact Checker gives Obama's crew four "Pinocchios" for their dishonesty.

The claim that Romney outsourced jobs as governor is equally overblown.

This concerns Romney’s veto of a bill that would have prohibited Massachusetts from contracting with companies that outsourced the state’s work to other countries. Lawmakers were especially concerned about a $160,000-a-month contract with Citigroup to operate a system of electronic food-stamp cards that included a customer phone service center in India.

Both the liberal editorial page of the Boston Globe and conservative editorial page of the Boston Herald urged Romney to veto the amendment, saying it would cost the state money. Romney agreed, saying the measure did not protect state jobs — the call center might have moved from India to another state — but “had the potential of costing our citizens a lot more money.” The Democratic-dominated Massachusetts legislature did not override his veto, even though it overturned 117 others, suggesting that there was little real support for the measure.

When the food-stamp contract expired, the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance insisted that those jobs be returned to the United States. But they ended up in a call center based in Utah — just as Romney had predicted.

Outsourcing jobs to Utah. Perhaps if Obama is re-elected (God forbid), he could see about making Utah the 58th state?


Cross posted at LCR, Say Anything.

Quote du jour

I said that I agreed with the dissent. And the dissent made it very clear that they felt it was unconstitutional. But the dissent lost. It’s in the minority. And so, now the Supreme Court has spoken. And, while I agreed with the dissent, that’s taken over by the fact that the majority of the court said it’s a tax, and therefore, it is a tax. They have spoken; there’s no way around that.

-Mitt Romney