Wednesday, December 14, 2011

The Frontrunners, One's a Mudder...

Dana Milbank
Thomas Friedman


"Gingrich and his rivals are most definitely for sale. The Republican nominating contest resembles nothing so much as a Christie’s wine auction, as candidates accept, and toss about, dollar figures beyond the comprehension of the people they would serve." - Dana Milbank
“Zany is not what we need in a president. Zany is great in a campaign. It’s great on talk radio. It’s great in print, it makes for fun reading,” - Mit Romney


Go, Mit, go! Mit is hitting hard back at Newt Gingrich, who passed him in the polls as the front-runner in Iowa. Of course, nobody else in America really cares what they think in Iowa unless you are a reporter or an Iowan. Then, its only some Iowans who care, those of the conservative persuasion, a few old white people and a handful of college kids who think they are rebelling by being boring. No, I meant kids who grew up in a conservative, religious environment and haven't the tools to think for themselves, yet. It's said that over 50% of people who attend the caucus are evangelical Christians, who aren't all that happy with either Mit or Newt, neither who have been consistent in their beliefs.

I've never been to Iowa, so I can only generalize about them, but we have caucasus here in Colorado, and it does feel very old fashioned and down-home going to one. I can't say how the Democrats conduct theirs, but my local little dictators really don't like to hear much variety of opinion. One of our rising young stars is the woman who thought up the personhood amendments when she was a mere home-schooled girl of sixteen... I get to feel vastly superior to everyone, as I sip my Starbuck's latte... but it really is an interesting way to conduct politics, even if we don't identify ourselves as a farming community.

If I were to vote for anyone right now, it would probably be Ron Paul, if only to see if he could slash the military budget and legalize marijuana. Ron is a true Libertarian in that he is a strange brew of solid ideas that you'd like to see enacted, mixed with some crazy shit that would drive the rulers of the GOP crazy, with some truly batshit ideas that should never see the light of day. But they do, in every speech he gives... The source for his ideas aren't just from obscure Austrian economists, but also from folks like the John Birch Society. I didn't even know that the John Birch Society still existed until I watched Ron Paul address them on CSPAN a couple of years ago. Needless to say, I had a creepy Friday evening...

When Newt first came to Congress, he vowed to enact a Contract with America, to move the policies of the government towards the right, and began the obstructionist behavior to try and get his way. He was known for being a nasty person, making more enemies than friends. We may never know the veracity of the ethics violations that were brought against him, but the end result was that his own Republican Party forced him to resign. One day you're Speaker of the House, the next you're selling books on a website and lobbying for Freddie Mac... What remained is a self-absorbed, pompous man who would lie to us and think nothing of it.

What it comes down to, can any of the GOP candidates beat Barack Obama in both a debate and the next election? Remember when Obama took on the entire Republican Congress in give and take, and creamed them all? As long as the Republicans keep on blindly trying to stop Obama at any cost, they will never come up with any practical solutions that the public can get behind. This is what happens when a political party has been taken over by a bunch of bitter, negative, rich men...

Who knows, maybe Rick Santorum will win, then he can demand that Google stops directing people who look up his last name to those web sites that define the word "santorum" as something that leaks out of the anus after sex...

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