GOP Still Short a Viable Presidential Contender for 2012

GOP Still Short a Viable Presidential Contender for 2012
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

The Conservative Political Action Conference is in the midst of their three-day meeting in Washington and would-be Republican presidential contenders have been parading in and out the meeting(s).

From the reports I have read those attending have been sort of dipping their toe into the conservative waters checking the temperature and the current of the water, and then -- nervously counting their toes.

To date there has not been a single republican to officially announce he/she is entering the race for the Oval Office. Not one.

According to various polls there is not even a front-runner among those who are thought to be serious contenders -- even though they are holding back any announcement to that effect.

Out here in the swamps of the southern hinterlands we are overly fond of any of the lot who are “not yet running.”

Donald Trump? Give me a break, already!

Romney has about as good a chance as did McCain.

Allow me to dust off my crystal ball and reach deep inside, with my razor sharp mental powers, of course, and prognosticate the republican presidential ticket for 2012.

Newt Gingrich and Michele Bachmann. There. Feel better? Can’t say that I do, either.

I have to admit to a certain degree of concern, worry even, that conservatives may have bought into the theory that Obama is so badly liked by voters that he has already secured his place in US history as a one-term president. I don’t buy that. And I think anyone who does … is making a huge mistake.

Look. This is the Democratic Party we are talking about here. Never, ever, sell them short when it comes to elections. They will pull out all the stops and they will do whatever it takes to win. Republicans, especially conservative republicans cannot hold a candle to them when it comes to electioneering. Heck, they have been working on Obama’s second term since the Wednesday morning after the election in November of 2008. They have been working at the state levels, especially the office of the various Secretaries of State through out the nation. They have been laying a foundation for as much control of elections at the state level as they possibly can. That is where elections are won and lost. Think not? Remember Florida???

Conservative enthusiasm was heightened when Obama supporters stayed away from the polls in November of 2010. There was a good reason why they stayed away. Obama was not on the ticket. In 2012, he will be – and they will be back with the smashing energy of a tidal wave.

Understanding the Democratic Party is akin to understanding Egyptian hieroglyphics – with a Brooklyn accent. It is darned near impossible. It is an amalgamation of every sort of leftists special interest group in the United States. Heck, there is even a democratic wing of the Democratic Party, small though it is, shoved into a darkened corner by the socialists, the progressives, and a host of “single issue” misfits, as well and those “undocumented democrats” we sometimes refer to as illegal aliens. And we must include the vast majority of the mainstream media in the US who controls so many of the gateways to information the voters need to make informed decisions.

With such an, er, eclectic crowd as that, how is it possible to underestimate their ability to snatch an election even while under the intense gaze of an entire nation?

The plain truth is – conservatives are just not very good at lying, cheating, stealing, being creative in matriculating ballots.

In my years of covering elections at the local levels, I have seen things you would not believe. I have sat in rooms with personnel from the US Justice Department, guns strapped to their hips and recorders in hand overseeing recounts and checking election records. I have witness ballot swapping. I had seen entire ballot boxes disappear only to be “found” days later in someone’s barn -- way out in the boon docks. And that just scratches the surface.

The point is, the Democratic parry is deadly in earnest when it comes to winning an election and whatever it takes is not just a motto, it is a plan of action.

Obama will, in all likelihood, be re-elected as President in 2012.

Why do I say that?

Because it has been my observation that the GOP is not willing to get down in the gutter and wallow in the political mud and mire and sewage where the Democratic Party reigns.

Politics is distasteful to most conservatives. It makes them feel dirty. It makes them want to take a shower to get the stink off. And they don’t like compromising their decency to win an election. The Democratic Party has demonstrated time and again that they have no such problem.

The GOP has a serious problem finding a Presidential candidate, who can stand up to the vicious, take no prisoners attack, sure to come from the leftists.

With that in mind, I predict the dirtiest, most vicious, presidential campaign in history between now and November of 2012.
Strap in. The ride is going to be extremely rough.

J. D. Longstreet

McCain Still Doesn’t Get it and Huckabee Never Did

Ok, so I’m a political junkie and I admit that I’ve watched every Democratic and Republican debate. As much as I enjoyed Hillary’s “hurt feelings” on the CBS debate Saturday night, and as much as I wonder why I only fall asleep during Obama’s vapidly “unifying” change for the sake of change chants, I have to admit that all the substance was on the Republican side.

Oh and yes I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that all of the Democratic candidates said, in one way or another, that they would use Bush’s unilateral preemptive strike policy under the right set of circumstances thus validating the Bush doctrine.

Charlie Gibson to Obama (ABC news transcript)

GIBSON: I'm going to go the others in a moment, but what you just outlined is essentially the Bush doctrine. We can attack if we want to, no matter the sovereignty of the Pakistanis.

The Fox GOP forum Sunday night (sans Ron Paul) was enlightening for one reason: Immigration. McCain demonstrated that he still doesn’t get it with regard to his continued defending of the de-facto Amnesty Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill, and Huckabee is still defending his lenient Arkansas immigration policies. Huckabee and Giuliani don’t want to turn the children of illegals out on the street.

Huckabee and Giuliani said that once children of illegals are in the U.S., they can’t be turned out on the street. Both men defended their respective decisions to keep kids of illegals in school to prevent bigger problems. Both men also offered their prescriptions for reducing the growth of illegals in this country.

Only two Republican candidates are firmly against Amnesty or de-facto Amnesty for illegal immigrants in their stated policies: Thompson and Romney.

I believe it is imperative to remind all conservatives of the primary issue that brought Congress to its knees this past year – Immigration. Illegal immigration ignited the passion of all conservatives against the Comprehensive Immigration Bill (which McCain sponsored). Even now, as much as the Democrats have fought it, immigration must be on the front burner in the national elections. Every other issue can be co-opted by the Democrats but not the fight against illegal immigration.

If we keep illegal immigration on the front burner a Republican will win in November.

Any of the Republican candidates now running are far more in line with our conservative values than these Socialists who still call themselves Democrats. But Giuliani and Huckabee are still much too liberal in their views.

The focus group following Sunday night’s Fox GOP Forum showed Thompson the big loser. Why? The New Hampshire folks have bought into the lie that he’s lazy. They don’t like his cadence of speech. He didn’t inject himself enough into the conversation. If they had listened to what he actually said, he was the only candidate to bring some hard honesty into the debate concerning Social Security and immigration. Downer!!!

So, if Romney eventually wins the Republican nomination Evangelicals have a big choice to make. If they vote against him because they don’t like his religion, or if they just boycott and refuse to vote, they will have to face the fact that they have sold their children’s future down the river into the moral relativism and leftist socialism that now dominates the Democratic Party and all of their candidates.

By the way, Charlie Gibson asked no questions of the Democratic candidates concerning immigration. That policy must change!!!

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Presidential Candidates Respond to Assassination of Benazir Bhutto

Searching the internet for unbiased reporting is a daunting task. Several of the major news outlets only focused on one or two candidates – usually their favorites. At any rate, I believe that the article “Candidates react to Bhutto slaying” by Thomas Beaumont, of the DesMoines Register is an excellent summary of the candidate’s reactions so far today. Rather than excerpt it all here I urge you to read the entire article.

Here are my reactions to what the candidates said:

Unlike the usual tentative display of statesmanlike condolences offered by several candidates, John McCain has a sensible plan and he wasn’t afraid to say what it is.

McCain and Thompson were the first two candidates to actually respond on the news.

Thompson wasn’t afraid to remind us all that the assassination of Bhutto is part of the overall war on terrorism. "It is going to require resolve. It is going to require unity. It isgoing to require toughness," he said.

John Edwards seemed to echo President George Bush’s reaction by also stating that we need to bring the perpetrators to justice. Interesting, don’t you think?

Obama has an interesting parsing of his words in his statement “ . . .but we have to make sure that we are clear as Americans we stand for Democracy and that we will be steadfast in our desire to end the kinds terrorist attacks that have blighted not just Pakistan and other parts of the world."

Now if only wishes were fishes and desires were actions . . . Ah, but I digress.

Biden also has a plan and he didn’t mind reminding everyone that he told “President Musharraf to provide better security for Ms. Bhutto.” He also would offer the U.S. to help investigate this assassination.

Clinton had wonderful things to say about Bhutto and offered no plan.

Richardson definitely has a plan and it is way too scary! Richardson needs no investigations. He’s already figured it all out. First he’ll ask “Musharraf to step aside, and a broad-based coalition government, consisting of all the democratic parties, should be formed immediately. Until this happens, we should suspend military aid to the Pakistani government. Free and fair elections must also be held as soon as possible.”

Romney is still learning about today’s tragic events. No plan offered.

Paul, ever the isolationist, said “Involvement in the internal affairs of the Pakistani government is one of the last things the United States should engage in, Paul said.” Involvement in the internal affairs of the Pakistani government is one of the last things the United States should engage in.”

Other’s writing about this:
Wake up America with candidate’s reactions, Right Truth with Benazir Bhutto Dead, Planck’s constant with One Attack too many, Benazir Bhutto killed by gun and bomb

The Spirit of Christmas and Religious Bigotry

The thing that makes the left so insidious is that hidden among a multitude of untruths and bits of twisted logic are a few kernels of truth. Sometimes those truths are very hard to take – especially if we happen to be Christians and political conservatives.

*For example, here’s a quote from Alternate Brain (a lefty site) at http://alterx(dot)blogspot(dot)com/2007/12/gop-religious-bigotry(dot)html (Note: to access this blog replace each (dot) with a period.)

*“Troutfishing at Daily Kos http://www(dot)dailykos(dot)com/storyonly/2007/12/11/65317/058/485/420555 (Note: to access this blog replace each (dot) with a period.)

They just can't help themselves, can they ? The Christmas spirit and religious bigotry, both eternal, are forever at odds but today's religious right dominated Republican Party seems to have gotten one confused for the other. That's not surprising, however, because the religious right of their day, the Puritans, started the Christian war on Christmas to advance the Puritan values of stinginess and religious bigotry, and the contemporary American GOP is sliding right back into that traditional groove. Somebody better call Bill O'Reilly - the war on Christmas has spread to the GOP. Or, maybe it started there. . . .”

Do you agree that Troutfishing might have a misguided point or two? I do.

Frankly, I’ve just about had it with the feeding frenzy over the religious differences among our presidential candidates! I will tell you right here and now that if I don’t vote for Romney it won’t be because he is a Mormon. And if I don’t vote for Huckabee it won’t be because he’s a Baptist.

The religious arguments I’ve heard leveled against Romney’s religion are the same type of arguments that were leveled against the Roman Catholic candidate, John Kennedy. It’s a very slippery and very dangerous slope.

I watched all the “Christmas” season videos by all the candidates. It’s a sad state of affairs that so much negativity was made of Huckabee’s Christmas greeting. Just a few years ago nothing would have been thought of it. Honestly, from my point of view, Obama’s greeting was the smartest. He didn’t say “Christmas,” but he made sure that his child did. Good grief, Obama was the only candidate with the common sense to put his family in his greeting – a greeting meant to please and unite all Americans.

Now, I’m no Obama fan, but he is smart! And Republicans had better smarten up fast!

When I do vote for the candidate of my choice it will be because I believe that individual has: (1) personal integrity, (2) the ability and experience to lead this great nation, (3) an obvious desire to uphold America’s unique cultural heritage and sovereignty, and (4) the personal will to protect and defend our American constitution against all enemies both foreign and domestic.

The freedom to practice the religion of one’s own choice is protected by the Constitution. That’s what makes America great. It’s also what makes America ultimately vulnerable to subversion from within.

America has a multitude of religions and sects. Most are harmless enough and fit well within America’s multi-religious landscape. Others are questionable. What happens if any religion is inimical to America’s root cultural values and to our very constitution? Apparently our founding fathers didn’t have the foresight to envision such a time in our history.( See Why America Must Define Religion

There should be no room for religious bigotry in a national election. But of course there is. This entire rancor over religion is because we are living in a time of tyranny by the few against the will of the majority. Somehow America must find a way to protect the rights of the few without allowing the few to dictate wide cultural changes to the majority of Americans.

Obviously all Americans have the right to question their candidates about personal values born of their various religious backgrounds. But Americans don’t have the right to destroy an individual, or whole groups of people, because of differing personal faiths.

Now it is true that the great majority of Americans are Christians and our Judeo-Christian values gave birth to this great nation. The left can deny it all they want but it is a fact. Traditional Christians do tend to believe that they are the standard bearers of America’s traditional cultural values – values that we are in great jeopardy of losing. So it’s easy to see how some very zealous Christians fall into the trap of evil demagoguery – the same bigotry that led to the rise of Hitler in Germany. This is what the left fears from the right and rightly so!!!

We Americans are asking our presidential candidates to share their religious backgrounds with us so that we can determine the extent to which that religion supports or hinders their ability to lead all Americans regardless of our differing faith perspectives. What we are asking of our candidates we must ask of ourselves. Does our faith support our ability to safeguard the freedoms of those Americans who don’t share our particular faith perspective?

Christians, let’s stop for a few days this Christmas season to pray and to ponder the meaning of Luke 2:14.

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”
&
*Note: The leftist atheist at Alternate Brain objected to the free hyperlink I gave to his blog (see comments). Obviously, not all atheists are extremely bright. At any rate, as my Christmas gift to him and to Troutfishing, I have removed the free stat-building links to their leftist blogs quoted in this article.


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