Don't forget the "End Game"

Since this is my last Blog of 2011 - "Happy New Year" everyone.

Next week will start the Republican primary season and the gloves are already off with the candidates taking shots at each other. I guess this is expected, but as they attack each other I hope none of them will forget the "end game" - defeat Barack Obama.

The beauty of "Blogging" is you can give your opinion, whether anyone agrees with it or not. Like many of my generation we have been waiting for another Ronald Reagan to come along, but sadly that will not happen in this election cycle. So here are my thoughts about this field of Republican candidates in order of their recent polling:

Mitt Romney ("the Suit") -   Romney at this point looks like the front runner. He has impressive business experience; I do remember when he turned around the Utah Olympics; he has the executive experience of being a Governor; and he seems "Presidential". But Mitt, show us some "fire in the belly"! And what about your "Obama-Lite" insurance program in Massachusetts? He seems to be a competent manager, but I hate the term "moderate", and will someone mess up this guy's hair just once!

Ron Paul ("the crazy uncle") - OK I'm going to catch hell from my youngest son for this comment. But does anyone believe Ron Paul could win this primary, and if he did, beat the Obama machine?
I agree with many of Paul's policies - audit the fed, cut the budget $1 trillion next year no matter how painful it may be, quit giving foreign aid to people that don't like us, quit spending money protecting countries like Germany, Japan, South Korea, and dozens of others that can afford to do it on their own. But his comments about leaving Israel to fend for themselves; or let Iran develop a nuclear bomb; or 911 could have been an "inside job" by the Israeli Mossad makes me wonder if this guy has thought out his foreign policy issues.   Here's my suggestion: Keep Ron Paul on the back burner until after the election and then if the Republicans win, make him Secretary of the Treasury and let him do his thing to get our finances back from the edge of the cliff.

Newt Gingrich ("the bomb thrower") -   I'm not sure about Newt. I do remember when he pulled off one of the great feats in political history leading the takeover of the House in the mid 90's after 40+ years of Democratic rule. But then the power went to his head. He was thrown out due to ethics violations and alienated many of his fellow Representatives along the way.  His personal life has been a bit of a train wreck but he now claims to be "older and wiser", so I guess he deserves the benefit of the doubt. But on this subject I have one nagging question: Cheating on one wife; OK everyone deserves to be forgiven for one serious indiscretion, but twice?
Newt is attractive because he is a "fighter" and would not take it from the liberal press, and could destroy Obama in debates, especially when Obama doesn't have a teleprompter to tell him what to say. But the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac $1.6 million consulting fees, his flip flops on Global Warming, mandated health insurance, and the fact that he is just such a "slick" life-long politician makes me nervous.

Rick Santorum ("the Evangelist") - Don't get me wrong, I am a Christian myself, and I like former Senator Santorum. I agree with him that "restoring the family" in this country is paramount to getting our social climate back on the right track.  A classic example is the black community with 70% of children being born out of wedlock (and in many cases without a father in the household). Without some basic cultural changes, they haven't got a chance to improve their situation in our society.
Santorum is a solid "pro life/pro family" candidate and should have much of the evangelical constituency locked up. But this is not an election about social policies.  This country is in such serious financial and economic trouble that social principals just can't be a determining factor.

Rick Perry ("the Texan") - I was a Rick Perry fan at the beginning, but he blew it in many of the debates.  Not because he wasn't a good debater, he just doesn't seem to be ready to run this country and whether anyone agrees with me or not - giving "illegal" immigrants preferential treatment over out-of-state US citizens for college tuition is something I can never agree with. Governor Perry comes across as a likable politician but just doesn't make it to my short list.

Michelle Bachman ("Sarah wannabe?") - OK that's not fair.  She is a bright, impressive woman and will be a future star in the Republican Party, she is just not there yet. She is a former attorney and strict constitutionalist - how about Attorney General in the next Republican administration?

John Huntsman ( "Slick") - He claims to be holding back for the New Hampshire primary and recently said: " Iowa picks corn, New Hampshire picks Presidents"...we'll see John.

Gary Johnson (the "Libertarian") - Former Governor of New Mexico who has just announced that he will run as a Libertarian candidate. If you listen to this guy he makes a lot of sense and it has been surprising that he never rose above being an "obscure Republican", even to the point of not participating (or being invited) to the debates. But if you are a "Libertarian" (and I have those leanings) this guy is rock solid, even more so than Ron Paul in my opinion. Hopefully the Libertarian candidate will not draw enough Republican votes to give Obama a victory.


So there it is; I am as undecided as anyone at this point, but whoever becomes the Republican candidate we all need to remember the "end game" - we cannot endure four more years of Barack Obama, or this country will never be the same. If something is not done about our massive debt and ridiculous social entitlement policies, the USA as we know it may reach the "point of no return".

"So long Barney"

If there is a poster boy for what is wrong with American politics, this is the man. After 30 years in politics, Barney Frank announced this week that he will not run for reelection.

He is not "retiring" because he is in his early 70's, he is retiring because due to redistricting he actually has to "run for reelection" with a new group of voters and he knew he would lose.

His problems with new constituents has nothing to do with being gay, or the fact that years ago a male prostitution ring was run out of his DC condo; his personal and political record simply reeks of all the things that are wrong with Washington. He was a major sponsor of the legislation which enacted the Fanny Mae/Freddy Mac loan programs that resulted in creating the sub-prime housing bubble that led to this deep recession; and maybe was even the cause of it. He denies it, but that program put millions of low income people into homes that they simply could not afford; homes that were destined to go into foreclosure.

One of his reasons for leaving congress: "I don't like being in the minority". Like many of our politicians power was all that mattered to Congressman Frank. The fact that this arrogant, corrupt, career politician will be gone is a small step in the right direction.

He may not be purple, but this "Barney" certainly is a dinosaur.

"Super Failure"

Deep down we knew the so-called "Super Committee" would fail. And think about it, what was so "super" about this committee of ideologues who were just shills for their leadership, and for the President. Congress continues to display their complete incompetence and Obama continues to display his complete inability to lead.

So here we are back at the starting line.  The failure of this super committee means that by law the $1.2 trillion in cuts will be automatically split between the Defense Department and spread among other governmental agencies except social security, Medicare, veterans programs, and programs for the poor. But these automatic cuts will not start until 2013...isn't that interesting, after the next election. And they will probably never happen.

The super committee was a sham from day one . The Constitution states, among other things, that the Congress shall have the responsibility to lay and collect taxes, spend money, borrow money, and pay debts. It says nothing about a "super committee" and the fact that Congress took this cowardice method to try and work on the debt problem illustrates one thing - a majority of Congressional members did not want to go on record voting for any spending cuts or tax increases before an election year. What a shame that the self-interest of our politicians overrides what is good for the country.  I believe this "super committee" was designed from the beginning to fail, since Obama was giving a press conference within hours after their announcement, blaming the failure on the Republicans. And that will be his campaigns mantra: "I could not perform my job because of an ineffective Congress". He sure as hell cannot run for reelection on his record.

Those that read this blog know I am a partisan, but whether you are Republican, Democrat, or Independent you must feel like I do; this is the most ineffective, incompetent Congress and President in our lifetime. We need to replace the whole lot.

"Obama is a Godsend"

Some of you may have heard the interview of the Russian man with one of the Wall Street protesters last week. He had lived under communism/socialism for more than 20 years and is now a US citizen. He decided to go down to the protest and talk to some of the protesters.

He was very polite and asked this young girl what they were protesting against. She said: "Capitalism!"  Trying to keep things simple he asked if she would rather live in North Korea (communism/socialism) or South Korea (capitalism). Amazingly she said: "North Korea, socialism rocks".  Now obviously this young lady was either "high" or she simply is so uneducated that you could not say she is representative of her other protest compatriots.

Today Laura Ingraham interviewed this Russian guy and he had a chance to further discuss this experience at the Wall Street protest. He said that his first comparison to this young lady could have been East and West Berlin during the cold war. But since the fall of the Berlin wall those people in East Berlin are now starting to see the benefits of, (bad word) "Capitalism", and East Berliners are living prosperous like the rest of Germany. So he used North/South Korea as his example to her. And in the Ingraham interview he made a simple point - North Korea and South Korea are the same country, the same people, and the same resources. The difference is the SYSTEM.

Now here is a guy that has seen both sides and loves America.  Laura Ingraham ended the interview by asking how he felt about this country now, with all our economic problems, protests, and in many people's opinion: "America is in decline".  His response: "I am very positive about America, recent studies show that 40% of Americans call themselves 'Conservative', and their numbers are increasing, 20% of Americans call themselves 'Liberals' and their numbers are decreasing. For that I thank Obama, he is a godsend".



Editor's note: In 1967 I had the opportunity to visit East Berlin during the cold war. My brother was imprisoned there for; "Aiding in the escape of an East German citizen to the West", a crime he did not commit. It was an experience I will never forget and I wish these protesters could just experience 10 minutes of what I saw traveling from West to East Berlin during that time.

Teleprompter terror

Terror struck the Obama road tour today when a truck that contained his teleprompter was stolen. With the President unable to speak, in a panic the Secret Service put Vice President Biden on alert. At first the SS tried to activate Biden's teleprompter as a substitute, but were unable to debug the "gaffs" in time.

Luckily the stolen truck was recovered with Obama's teleprompter in tact and the President was able to function again. I trust that the Secret Service checked the software in the recovered teleprompter because he will say whatever is posted on the screen.  Let's wait until the President's next speech - if he proposes tax cuts, reducing the size of government, reducing food stamp and welfare budgets, and deregulation of the American business community, it was obviously a Tea Party conspiracy.   

"Occupy this"

Drugs, sex in the streets, disorganized people that can't come up with a coherent message, and unsanitary conditions, Occupy Wall Street has aptly been called the "Flea Party". But thanks to George Soros and his money, trade unions, complicit media, and even encouragement from President Obama and many Democrats, this movement has had more coverage in a month than the Tea Party has had since they became a force in American politics.

This is a classic example of the uphill battle anyone but a liberal movement has in getting their message out.  All we read about is the "Occupy" protests, not just here but around the world this weekend. But what are they protesting?  I have watched interviews of various protesters without seeing any focused thought.

But one "focused" thought has come from Herman Cain; "This movement is designed to take attention away from the failed policies of the Obama administration". And he is exactly right. When you cannot run on your record, and all your excuses have failed, create an enemy to attack, and hope people will buy it.  The enemy - rich people, Wall Street, George Bush, and as one black lady in the 'LA Occupy' protest proudly stated on television today; "We need to collect the rich Jews that control everything and send them out of the country". I wonder how Steven Spielberg and all his Jewish friends in Hollywood feel about that liberal protester's statement?

It is amazing that all this vicious energy is directed against corporate millionaires but not the Hollywood millionaires. Sean Penn recently stated that the Tea Party wants to 'lynch' Obama and Morgan Freeman said "The Tea Party is a racist thing".  Yet not one in the main stream media has reported the anti-Semitic, lynch Bush, arrest rich people comments of these so-called protesters.

This strategy by the Democrats is going to fail, Americans are not that stupid. We don't need income redistribution, we need jobs. Most Americans don't want a handout, they want the satisfaction of working with the opportunity to make something of themselves; they do not want a "Cuban" or "Venezuelan" society.

Obama and his handlers are making a huge mistake in trying to divide this country and create a class war.  Even with the main stream media on his side his effort to divert attention from the miserable economy will not work. The "pay your fair share" argument won't fly when almost 50% of wage earners pay NO income tax.  Even if the taxes on all so-called rich people were doubled it would not make a dent in the deficit.

Ironically, in the last election Obama received more contributions from Wall Street than any President in history. That will not happen this time around. But he had to create a villain and they are it. He is not stupid, he knows exactly what he is doing, but I believe in Americans and his "class strategy" is not going to work.

The Antisocial Network

Antisocial behavior is defined as:  "Deviating sharply from the social norm".
 
I have always thought of myself as a social person but am beginning to think I belong to the "antisocial network".  Oh, I am somewhat shy but not really antisocial.  I do feel most comfortable with close friends, but having been president of three different companies during my career I had to learn to play the social game. I have traveled around the world, socializing with customers all day along and then entertaining and attending social events in the evening. I was at the top of my game during my career...then I retired.

I have tried to keep up with this fast moving world but now I seem to be sliding toward the bottom of the social ladder; I might even be considered 'antisocial'. Here's the problem - I don't have a smart phone so I cannot keep up to date with what is going on in the world while waiting for the light to change, and can't even check my email except on the computer in my office. In fact I rarely talk on my cell phone except to see if my wife wants me to pick up groceries on the way home or if my car breaks down. I feel guilty that I have never even had a 'social' telephone conversation while driving my car. And texting...well that's another story.

To make things worse, I don't have an Ipad.  So here in the country I sit at my old computer trying to keep up with what is happening in the world while deer and turkeys stare through the window wondering where I got that clunker.  With WiFi everywhere I could be on-line 24 hours a day with my Ipad and not miss a thing.

But mostly I feel 'antisocial' because I only have 52 Facebook friends. I like to follow what my family is doing and am so envious of my grandchildren; some of them have 500-1000 Facebook friends. Now that's what I call 'socializing'. Where have I gone wrong?

But I'm getting old so maybe I'll just sit in the background and enjoy watching my children and grandchildren socialize on Facebook with all their friends. Although I only have 10- 20 close friends and another 30 or so good friends, I feel blessed with them.  

But I'm not giving up.  Watch for me on Twitter...whenever I figure out what the hell that is.