"Who is embarassing America?""

Barack Obama:  “The number one question I am getting as I travel around the world or talk to world leaders right now is, what is happening in America about our politics.

John Kerry:  "Everywhere I go, every leader I meet, they ask about what is happening in America. They cannot believe it. It upsets people's sense of equilibrium about our steadiness, about our reliability. And to some degree, I must say to you, some of the questions, the way they are posed to me, it's clear to me that what's happening is an embarrassment to our country".

Look closely at almost the same talking points from these two feckless leaders during the last few days. This administration has taken hypocrisy to new levels and continues to do so.

Politics can be a tough game, and maybe more so this primary season, but let me tell you what an "embarrassment" to our country really is:

- It started with the ISIS beheading of American James Foley on a video that went viral around the world. ISIS wanted our attention and that video signaled the start of a new major Islamic terror organization.  Obama was on vacation at that time. He didn't cancel his vacation and you can decide  whether or not that was appropriate, but it was how he handled it all; giving a speech about the horror of the beheading and immediately running off to play golf and yuk it up with his friends.


- Then Obama refuses to go to France along with other major leaders to march in solidarity after France's first major terror attack. Instead John Kerry shows up a few days later with James Taylor singing; "You've got a friend"...embarrassing and childish like Hillary's 'reset' button to the Russians.

- I won't elaborate on the Iranian nuclear deal; it has been covered so much in the press. But how embarrassing for this country that while Kerry and Obama were negotiating the deal (against the wishes of many of our allies, especially Israel), the Iranians were dancing in the streets shouting "death to America"...still hard to believe.

But while John Kerry and Barack Obama make the rounds of the talk shows spouting rhetoric about how embarrassing our political contests are; Obama as President of this great country demonstrates to the world what embarrassing behavior really is:  While Brussels is in flames and Islamic terror makes another major strike (which we now find has killed four Americans), our leader is shown doing the "wave" at a baseball game with communist leader Raul Castro and he follows that with a tango in Argentina, both embarrassing videos that were shown around the world.

So while Obama and Kerry play politics about America's "embarrassing" political season, they have proved to be the 'champions' of embarrassing America in a much more harmful way. It's still hard for me to believe how my fellow Americans could elect this narcissistic clown twice...no wonder voters are in the mood to really shakeup Washington politics.  

"Feel the Bern II"

I have called Bernie the "crazy uncle" and the "old man" but after badly beating Hillary in the caucuses in Alaska, Washington, and Hawaii this past weekend this geezer is starting to give Hillary some 'goose bumps'. Even Bill is probably getting nervous that his hopes of going back to the White House with all those young beautiful interns, may not happen.

Bernie probably doesn't have a chance to actually win the nomination since the DNC has quietly made it clear that he will never be their candidate, but the guy is a money raising machine. He has out-raised Hillary the past two months and since his wins Saturday he has pulled in another $4 million. It's hard to believe all this money is coming from his hard core young millennium followers for the simple reason; they don't have any money because they can't get jobs! Could all this money be coming from their parents? If you were a parent trying to figure out how to come up with $100K to send your child through college would not the siren song from Bernie of "free college" be very enticing?

It is so easy to be a Democrat running for office, you don't have to win the battle of ideas, you just offer "free stuff"; it's quite simple actually. But I have news for those that think Hillary (or Bernie if he pulls off a miracle) wins the election: "The free stuff ain't gonna happen". This country will have a debt of $20 trillion by the time the next President is inaugurated which means every penny we spend will be borrowed.

It's time the voters in this country understand that simple point...we are out of money and at some point we have to face up to it. And we cannot solve the problem by "cutting expenses", this economy has to start booming again with more people working and paying taxes otherwise we will become Europe with zero growth and chronic unemployment.

Socialism's failures are so well documented it's still hard for me to believe it is a system that can be sold to voters,            

"Trump Traumatizes"

I had planned to take a break from blogging until the next primary, but the situation at Emory University has me laughing, unbelieving, and feeling sad for some of those students. Just when I cannot believe how bad the P.C. culture has become in this country, it seems to get worse.

Someone wrote with chalk marks around Emory University "vile" slogans such as "Trump 2016", "Vote for Trump in 2016", "Trump for President", and several other benign political slogans. Apparently writing with chalk is common at the university; Bernie supporters and "Black Lives Matter" supporters have also promoted their causes in the same way. The chalk is not permanent graffiti since it washes off whenever it rains.

But a group of students has protested to the President of the university and feel they have been "traumatized" and do not feel safe anymore as long as these Trump slogans are allowed to remain. And what is also hard to believe is the university seems to be going along with the complainers; as one complaining student put it "I don’t deserve to feel afraid at my school”.

I am not a Trump supporter, but this political correctness has become so common at universities these days I am wondering what quality of leaders we are training for the next generation. These must be children that were sheltered and protected by their parents and received a "participation trophy" for every competitive game they ever played. Sadly they have no idea what it means to win or lose, or what awaits them after (or if) they graduate.

The unfortunate aspect of this "sheltering" attitude is that those kids will go into the real world someday and will be in shock, and some may not be able to cope. I'm not an authority but I have raised six kids, and have seven grandchildren (six who have, or are going to graduate from college), and all of them take responsibility for themselves and deal with all the obstacles that life seems to throw at our feet. The real world is not always "politically correct" and we should be training our future leaders with that in mind.

I said earlier I was laughing about the reaction of these students at Emory, but really I feel sorry for them and it's disturbing to see how this left wing liberal influence is degrading what was once the greatest university system in the world. 

"Stop the Madness"

The Belgium terror attacks today remind us again of the scourge of radical Islam. It has become madness throughout the world and sometimes I believe if the average American has not been directly involved in a terrorist attack, we are becoming desensitized. Terrorist attacks are becoming daily events and if they are in the third world, we read about them and move on. But when they attack the West (Paris, San Bernardino, and Brussels) it's major news, but still little happens to solve the problem.

I have no magic solution, the terrorists today in Belgium attacked in the unsecured check-in area of the airport where anyone can get out of a car, walk in, and blow themselves up. The other attacker just blew himself up in an unsecured subway. I am not sure how that can be stopped; every airport, train terminal, subway in the world is an easy target along with music festivals, fairs, etc....the 'soft targets ' are endless. Do you want to go through security when you step out of your car at the airport or at a train station or visit a fair?

If I listed all the terrorist attacks that have happened just during 2015 it would fill up the rest of this Blog; the situation is pure madness and 99% is connected to Islam. Terrorism has to be irradiated at its source; attacks on soft targets can never be stopped.

To start, the first source is ISIS and their home base or 'Caliphate' in Syria; the source of the cancer must be eliminated; their leaders and soldiers are dispersed within the population so 'carpet bombing' and killing innocents is out of the question. I am not a military expert but it seems to me the only solution to the ISIS problem is a ground war going door-to-door in ISIS strongholds in Syria; not a popular move with a war weary American population, but this is a 'western' problem and a NATO coalition determined to eradicate ISIS should be able to do it very quickly.

I believe the final solution to the problem lies within Islam itself; if the majority of that religion cannot eradicate their radical element of Jihadists, and the Shia and Sunnis cannot figure out how to get along, we will be living with terrorism for generations. Christians went through a reformation in the 16th century, it was not easy and Catholics and Protestants continued to war with each other until they finally realized killing was not the answer. There have been 'flare-ups' as in Ireland and Northern Ireland, but mostly Christians have decided to live with each other peacefully....maybe it's time Muslims took a long hard look at themselves and learned something from history.

"What is the Trump base?"

I have followed politics for a long time and am completely confused when it comes to trying to define the 'base' of Trump voters. I have Conservative friends that dislike him and Conservative friends that love him. I obviously also have liberal friends that dislike him, some are Bernie supporters, but they also dislike Hillary so much that they are also confused. In my own large family I have kids that are Trump supporters and even one who is threatening to leave the country if he is elected....ouch!

I have never seen the country so divided; it is not only Donald Trump, but on the Democratic side we have an old-time Socialist and Hillary; a lifetime political liar (maybe even criminal) and their voter turnout this primary season has been dismal.  It doesn't give one confidence that this country knows how to produce a leader. No matter what happens in this election season we may all be losers, I heard a prominent pollster today describe it best; "We may be choosing the better of two evils".

Those of us on this side cannot comprehend how anyone could vote for Hillary Clinton; not just because of the pending email scandals and possibility of indictment but we still remember Benghazi, the Rose law firm scandal, FBI files, Vince Foster suicide, Bill Clinton's liaisons and rape accusations, etc., etc...the Clinton scandals could be Blog pages in itself. Her involvement in Benghazi and the cover-up afterwards confirms she is one of the most notorious liars in political history, and if you are a potential Democratic voter ask yourself this one question: Would you be comfortable with Hillary Clinton being your Commander-in-Chief ?

On the Republican side it is ironic that the top two candidates are hated by the establishment; it's hard to believe the Republican Party power brokers are spending millions against their own candidates.

Donald Trump's 'base' of voters tells us a lot about the politics and leadership in this country; the average American is fed up with the political leaders in Washington and on an emotional level just want to stick their thumb in the eye of the DC establishment. They don't care what the so-called experts say, they don't care if someone like Trump is bombastic, arrogant, and maybe not always telling the truth, they are just fed up and feel anything is better than what we have in Washington. They are attracted to him because he is tough and not afraid to be politically incorrect.

Obama says he is not responsible for this divided America, but on the contrary I believe he is directly responsible; the folks want the out of control immigration problem solved, they want government out of their lives, they want their Commander-in-Chief to identify "radical Islam',  and most of all they want good paying jobs again, not part-time and service work. Trump voters are willing to shake things up no matter what the consequences are, they are coming out in large numbers, and feel that things could not get any worse than the present political cabal in DC that doesn't seem to represent their interests.

"Establishment Panic"

The results of the Tuesday primary have probably put the Republican 'establishment' in full panic mode. After Trump's sweep of every state but Ohio and Rubio dropping out after being 'trumped' in Florida, the establishment are hanging by their finger nails with John Kasich as their remaining 'Hail Mary Pass'. Watching Kasich's victory speech (of his only win), with the confetti raining down at the end it was as if he has just been elected President. I wonder if his campaign has ordered the Roman pillars for his acceptance speech. Let's be real - this is a two man race Trump v Cruz and Kasich is either delusional or the establishment is trying to pull off a "weekend at Bernie's" move keeping a dead man alive in the eyes of the voters.


With Hillary making a clean sweep the Democratic establishment must be pleased, and going to bed with visions of sugar plums in their heads. And ironically they have their own "weekend at Bernie's" play going on with a real Bernie and without a miracle he is a political dead man walking. Hillary was preordained by the establishment and with all the super delegates pledged to her, the  primary was rigged in her favor from the beginning. What is interesting, exit polls show that 90% of the under 30 vote went to Bernie - not a good sign for Hillary.

Trump v Cruz is a classic battle of a Populist against a true Conservative....and the establishment dislikes (or maybe hates) both. Even talk today about a third party candidate run by the Republican establishment, sadly that would probably put Hillary in the White House.

We are Cruz supporters and are also 'anyone but Hillary' committed voters. We have had the opportunity of meeting and hearing Cruz's father speak about his life experiences, and my wife Peggy as President of the Paso Robles Republican Women's organization for a year had the opportunity to communicate on a regulator basis with Cruz's mother-in-law who lives in this area, and regardless of your political affiliation, from what we have seen they are a great family.

Having said that, Trump is a master at cheer leading, and that is important for a President. We have heard for eight years what a "bad ' country the USA is, and many people are responding to the "Make America Great again' and "We are going to win again" cliche's. Folks are sick of hearing the democratic mantras of : "Rich are bad people", "Police are Killers", "White people are privileged", "the USA is a bad force in the world"..... people are starved and they just want to hear something positive about their country.

So it will continue to be a very interesting political season right on up to, and maybe including a wild Republican convention. The Democrats will continue the same old socialist talking points. At least Bernie could make a case for that philosophy and did a good job doing it, but I believe the Clinton  family with all their alleged criminal activities and politically derived wealth will have trouble selling the socialist program. And who knows, if Hillary is indicted, all bets are off and we could have turmoil on both sides. Should be fun for us political junkies.

"Hillary...Hillary"

I'm watching Hillary's victory speech...luckily I have not eaten yet. First of all she is reading it from a Teleprompter which in itself tells you about her character and the character of the Democratic party....every thing orchestrated. Her shrill voice even hurts my ears...how can so many people even vote for this woman.

Even after her gaff yesterday stating that "No one lost their life in Libya", in her victory speech she said that she is the most qualified to be in commander in chief...WTF!

Sorry I have had a martini and still cannot believe that the American voters have put Hillary and The Donald as the front runners in this Primary.

More to follow...

" Is Turnout Real?"

The turnout numbers in this primary are astounding, but what do they mean? Republicans have seen record breaking turnout in every primary, sometimes an increase of 100%, while on average Democrat voting has been down an average of about 25%. There is no question the enthusiasm is on the Republican side in these primaries but will it translate to the final election in November?

Is the enthusiastic Republican turnout because their candidates are having lively (and sometimes absurd) debates with young, charismatic, high energy candidates? And is the low Democratic turnout because they are running two tired old career politicians who do nothing but spout socialistic talking points?

This is leading to a good deal of concern among liberals. But the primary turnout may not be an indication of what will happen in November. Turnout is normally higher in the primaries by the party not in power and some have even speculated that many Democrats have 'crossed over' to try and insure that Donald Trump will be the nominee which they believe will 'insure' that a Democrat will go back to the White House in the next election. If this crossover strategy vote is true; "Democrats, be careful what you wish for".

Republican turnout may be due to the high energy and sometimes embarrassing debates by the candidates. Lively discussion among what started as 17 candidates along with insults and childish arguments gets ratings, and certainly 17 candidates could be the reason for the high turnout? One thing is for sure, watching Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders debate each other is like watching paint dry while they try to out-due each other offering their voters an endless array of giveaways within a 'socialist utopia'.
      
Tuesday will tell us a lot and it will be interesting to see if the recent turmoil at Trump events will help or hurt him. What controversial Republican would schedule a rally at the left wing bastion University of Chicago? That is a recipe for trouble since there is not a Republican within miles of that campus and he still had 25,000 people that wanted to attend. The guy has the 'stones' to go into a venue like that and it was probably best to cancel it.

It certainly has been an interesting primary season. There is no question the Republicans are divided and some experts believe the establishment strategy at this point is to spread the vote and go to a 'contested' convention hoping they can nominate one of their own. That would be very interesting for most Americans who have never seen the political process at its extremes, but I doubt if it would work and it would probably insure a Democrat win in November.

On the Democratic side the system is rigged for Hillary - few debates, she gets most of the super delegates, and the Democratic 'establishment' will never let 'Crazy Bernie' carry their mantle, even if Hillary is indicted. 

"Progressives in action"

As I have stated before, I am not a Trump supporter but this situation in Chicago tonight was very disturbing. "Progressives" claim to be the political wave of the future but they are digging their own grave. To shut down a Trump rally just because you don't want him to speak goes against the basic freedom our Founders protected in the First Amendment of the Constitution.

And this is not the first case of this; Conservative speakers are now routinely rejected from speaking on campuses across this country because students do not want to hear their point of view. What a shame that we are turning out monolithic minds from our campuses that simply don't think anymore. Can you imagine a group of Conservatives rioting to keep a Progressive from speaking; no, they either listen or don't bother to listen.

I don't know if this shut down of the Trump rally in Chicago was organized, but preliminary reports are that many of the protesters were Bernie Sanders and MoveOn.org supporters. It will be interesting to see what Bernie has to say about this potential riot and if some were 'paid' protesters.

But no matter, Progressives and so-called Socialists need to take a hard look at why they cannot hear another point of view by refusing to let Conservative speakers on campuses or threatening a riot in a rally by someone that they may not agree with.

I suspect that this will further energize the Trump campaign.

P.S. I have never seen this country so divided, the fault falls on both parties but in the end it falls on the person we elected to lead us.

"Debate Turmoil"

Stop the debates!...or whatever you want to call them. It's getting ridiculous and voters are not learning anything with these childish playground insults. I have lost a lot of respect for the top three especially Trump and Rubio during these last two debates. At least Cruz acted like a mature adult part of the time last night but Kasich was the only one who looked like he belonged in a Presidential primary election contest.

I'm sure many Conservatives join me in their disappointment with the way these potential candidates are acting. Romney didn't help things with his stupid speech earlier in the day. Things must be pretty bad when someone as classy as Mitt Romney decides to jump down into the gutter with the rest of the group. And his speech instead of hurting Trump has probably helped him. When you stick your thumb in the eye of someone who is angry like Trumps voters, they get angrier.

It's obvious to me that the 'establishment' is in a panic and their plan is to try to split the voting and go to the convention without a clear winner, get through the first round of voting, and then the delegates will be free to vote for anyone. That will not work.

A convention full of turmoil will be a losing proposition either way for the Republican party. If Trump goes in with a majority and loses based on convention rules, he will probably bolt, run as an independent, and take his voters with him. So no matter what, with a third party bid, Hillary will go to the White House. Wouldn't it be ironic if another Clinton got elected President with less than 45% of the vote like Bill did in 92' thanks to Ross Perot?

So get your act together candidates! I still find it hard to believe Trump will be our selection, but in the end people get to vote and the country will have to live with the results. Someone asked conservative comedian Dennis Miller who he will vote for this presidential election, his response: "If it's 'Hillary' or 'Not Hillary', I'm definitely in the 'Not Hillary' camp". Sounds like a plan - sometimes in life you have to choose between the better of two bad options and Hillary is as bad an option as you can get.    

"Make America whole again?"

Hillary in her victory speech last night attacked Trump's campaign slogan head on: "Make America Great Again". She said "We don't need to make America great again we are already great, we need to make America whole again".

I don't know about you but America is not as great as she used to be. Obama is a feckless world leader and many of our allies are amazed at how weak this country has become both militarily, economically, and with a debt that is almost insurmountable.

Elect Hillary and the new slogan should be "Make America go further into the hole again"  Sarcasm intended.