Just My Opinion

For the record, I don’t particularly care for Newt Gingrich.  He is abrasive, obstinate, and at times inflammatory, but he is also coherent, intelligent, and consistent in his politics.  I am not sure these are bad qualities for someone who may be in a position to make hard choices and then have to stand behind them.

A few days ago I wrote about not caring for either of the leading Republican candidates, but since then there has been an onslaught of attacks against Gingrich, based on rumor, innuendo and outright lies.  When I see this scale of attack I have to ask what is behind it and why?  I think both are fairly easy to answer.

Why are we seeing this now?  Simple - Romney and the money people who run the mainstream Republican Party are losing, on the issues and on the candidate; so they are using all those funds he has amassed to win Florida no matter the cost.  What they don’t seem capable of understanding is the cost they will pay is the defeat of their candidate in the fall, if he successfully becomes the Party nominee.

They have unleashed all the tools they command, like blogosphere media celebrities Ann Coulter, Matt Drudge and his “Drudge Report” and employed willing mainstream outlets like ABC and CNN.  Heck, even that couch sitting Nancy Pelosi has implied she has dirt on Mr. Gingrich.  Yet when you dig below the surface none of these attacks actually bring new information to the surface. For examples see Ms. Pelosi only citing public record, and The American Spectator, why is that?

I think it is because the money of the Republican Party and the mainstream media know the fiscal conservative Mr. Gingrich brings to the table an agenda that will disrupt the business as usual approach, with unlimited pork barrel spending, the Congress thrives on.  What you are seeing today is reminiscent of the Bush-Reagan primaries of 1980, where Mr. Reagan was accused of "Voodoo Economics."  Can Mr. Gingrich win in the fall?  I don’t know.  But I am now convinced Mr. Romney cannot.   That is just my opinion.

Just a Reflection

I remember a time, not so long ago, when character counted to lead this country.  We looked to men who had shown commitment and character, or at least had masked their indiscretion and maintained their marriage.  I am not sure if what we see today is a better reality or not?

When Ronald Reagan was elected, he was the first President who had ever been divorced and remarried.  What the SC primary shows is fidelity is no longer an issue with even the religious right when it comes to selecting a candidate.

I think Mr. Gingrich is more articulate and perhaps more representative of the conservative agenda of the Republican Party, and Mr. Romney is at best a milk toast politician, but Mr. Gingrich’s morality bother’s me.  While I won’t be voting for Mr. Obama after four years of failed presidency, I am left with a real conundrum with the choice the Republican Party will field.

Laughable Political Excuses and Unthinking Comparisons

Just before Christmas, a leading Republican Presidential candidate was handed a lump of coal for his stocking when the Virginia Republican party announced he, and several others, had failed to submit the prerequisite number of valid signatures to secure a place on the ballot.  The required number was 10,000 registered Republican voters.  Mr. Gingrich submitted something like 11,050 names but not all were registered as Republican voters and those were thrown out.

Since then there has been a broad frontal attack that a) Virginia’s primary is “a failed system” when it excludes a front runner from being the ballot, b) he would pursue a write-in campaign.  Today he, and his campaign manager, is comparing this setback to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.  To that I have but one thing to say – Phooey. 

The attack on Pearl Harbor was on one side a brilliant military operation executed with precision, and from a US standpoint a failure in our intelligence community and government to anticipate correctly where or when Japan would initiate hostilities.  Those failures cost over 2,000+ American lives.  The Gingrich campaign’s failure to get on the ballot was plain and simple a failure in the campaign and for that the fault must lie solely with the Candidate.  There was no opposing unforeseeable brilliance that stopped him.  Yet I don’t see a lot of acceptance of failure on the campaigns part.

The campaign must have access to a statistician, don’t they?  Surely someone would know what the probable rejection rate on petition signatures would be?  Wouldn’t a prudent campaign look to eliminate that risk by submitting enough signatures to account for that?  Ron Paul and Mitt Romney seemed to have broken the code on what was required.

If you and your campaign are not smart enough to figure out the rules of the game and then meet or exceed the minimum requirements are you really smart enough to be President?
Update:  Today (12/29/11) The candidate's story is one of his workers, paid to get signatures, committed fraud.  Now he's just another victim.   

What to Say, When You Have Nothing to Say

    CBS and a bunch of other news and blog sites are making a big deal about Newt Gingrich's slide back to the pack today.  Apparently small sample opinion polling is what passes for news in today's world.

    Personally I don't give a fig about what the opinion polls say right now, but apparently a lot of people do.  Which begs the question, is this just media manipulation or are we moving towards mob rule where every choice must be validated by favorable poll numbers?