The first of our Political Miscellanias for 2012.
1. Newt Gingrich v. The Food Stamp-President-Gingrich demonstrated at the debate last night why he was once in first place in the race. He is unwilling to let the media set the terms of the agenda; in the cut and thrust of debate he is unmatchable; and he is invincibly politically incorrect, at least on the stump. As to the importance of early jobs, he is correct. My high school job, scrubbing dishes and floors, taught me some valuable early lessons about work, money and savings that have stood me in good stead throughout my life.
2. Santorum won Iowa–It looks like Rick Santorum probably won the Iowa caucus. I have heard that his margin of victory is probably about eighty ballots.
3. Jon Huntsman drops out-Every Democrat’s favorite Republican has dropped out of the race. Mandarin Chinese teachers in this country are devastated. Huntsman’s campaign never took off, and his Waterloo arrived swiftly when he came in third behind Ron Paul in New Hampshire. Although it obviously did not help him, Huntsman will always have a warm spot in my heart for this campaign commercial:
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4. Rick Santorum and the bigots-One service that the Rick Santorum campaign has thus far provided to the nation is to bring anti-Catholic bigots among the nation’s elites out of the woodwork.
5. Newsweek and the Birther–Newsweek, the floundering news magazine which was overpriced when it sold for a buck a while ago (that is the entire magazine, not an issue) decided that it would be fun to give Andrew Sullivan, a blogger last noted for his last stand insistence that Sarah Palin did not give birth to Trig, a cover story in which he called Obama’s critics stupid. Go here to read a masterful evisceration of the article by Joel B. Pollack at Big Government. ( Note to Newsweek: you are not really helping Obama when you use a head shot that makes him look like a sullen Mussolini.)
Newt proved once again last night why he’s lower than scum. He captured the white supremacist vote last night. National Review was dead on. The only acceptable candidates were Romney, Huntsman, and Santorum. Huntsman competed with Perry for worst campaigner so it’s down to Romney and Santorum.
I know some will say “That’s low to call Newt a racist. He just spoke the politically incorrect truth.” What Newt said was he doesn’t even understand why interchangeably using “those on welfare,” “those who don’t know the value of work,” and “blacks” could sound offensive. Forget, the policies. He says he doesn’t even understand why it can sound offensive! At the very least he’s ignorant.
Had Santorum kept his mouth shut about homosexuality and birth control or if the public were wise enough to know that he was talking about constitutionality, not bans, he could’ve been the frontrunner. Across the board, he is the most moderate candidate. Yesterday, he advocated the highest taxes of all the candidates. 28%, the same as Huntsman. He went after Romney for not supporting the right of ex-cons to vote. He went after Newt, surprisingly, for not wanting to cut entitlement benefits for millionaires. He opposed the recent law, which the other candidates supported, that striped US citizens of hapeus corpus. He wants to keep foreign aid flowing. On no issue is he further to the right than the others (except for Paul on foreign policy). The debate was held on MLK Day and only Santorum and Paul even mentioned MLK. Santorum is intelligent, articulate, and understands how Washington works. I don’t agree with him on everything but I don’t agree with anyone on everything.
Newt proved once again last night why he’s lower than scum. He captured the white supremacist vote last night.
And you just proved once again why your opinion is of little or no consequence.
I’m just speaking the politically incorrect truth. It’s time for you to join the Republican mainstream, Paul. Perry has a better chance of being elect president of Mexico.
I’m just speaking the politically incorrect truth.
You’re being politically incorrect by repeating a politically correct trope? That makes sense to you how?
Perry has a better chance of being elect president of Mexico.
This is perhaps true, but also a non sequiter as I didn’t even bring up Perry in this comment.
Seriously, do you have anything meaningful to contribute at all?
It’s evidence of how outside the mainstream of Republican thought you are. Republicans who find the following candidates unacceptable:
Romney: 31%
Santorum: 39%
Gingrich: 46%
Perry: 55%
“Newt proved once again last night why he’s lower than scum.”
Are you saying, “If you disrespect welfare you are a racist.”? Or, is it “Free speech for me, but not for thee.”?
Maybe the point is the entitlement society tends to reward evil.
Newt’s point is the causes of inter-generational welfare dependency include absence of virtue, alcoholism, broken families, drug addiction, envy, fornication, gluttony, promiscuity, sloth, wrath, etc.
If you call that “lower than scum”, it might be you are saying more about you than about Newt.
Let’s be realistic and listen to signs of hope and caring ideas for getting US citizens out of decline into ignorance and immorality. No one will be thrown out by consolidating programs and duplicated or overlapping entitlements that are becoming the engine of the economy.
We can’t let tossing of accusatory, contentious, tiring, and hateful words blur or smear clarity for another four years. I hope these primary candidates stay strong and intelligently get their message through the smokescreens. (as Newt Gingrich did in the above video.)
“Newt proved once again last night why he’s lower than scum. He captured the white supremacist vote last night.”
Thank you for giving us a preview of the Obama campaign strategy in the Fall RR. “My Republican opponent is a vile racist and only my re-election can stop the hate and restore civility to this great nation!” It certainly beats attempting to run on his economic record. Under Obama black unemployment is 15.8% and back in September it hit 16.7%, a 27 year high.
What Gingrich understands, and what you fail to, is that the idea that anyone of any race can rely upon the government for their sustenance is a myth that is dissolving before our eyes. Obama is a reactionary paladin of the New Deal and the Great Society, and as his abysmal administration has amply demonstrated, those schemes simply no longer work.
“Thank you for giving us a preview of the Obama campaign strategy in the Fall RR.”
Newt ain’t making it to the fall!
What Newt understands and I don’t is how best to burn crosses.
The same tactic will be applied RR no matter who the Republican nominee is. If Cain were to have been the nominee, it would have made no difference, although hearing Democrat shills proclaiming that Cain really wasn’t black, as has been stated for the past 20 years about Clarence Thomas (whose nickname as a kid was ABC: America’s Blackest Child), would have been hilarious if not edifying.
In regard to your bizarre attempt to paint Newt Gingrich as a Klansman, I suggest that you might wish to make that comment at Vox Nova where it will be taken as a sign of enlightenment, rather than derangement.
Mac,
I keep thinking RR is short for “restrained radical” one of them credentialed morons over at VN.
I apologize if that’s not you, restrained, er, RR. Actually, I need to apologize to both.
I keep thinking RR is short for “restrained radical” one of them credentialed morons over at VN.
That is what RR is short for, though I do not believe he blogs for that particular site. After his, err, interesting display on this thread, he’s going to have to do all of his commenting there.
[…] started to unravel last Monday in the first of the South Carolina debates, where Gingrich performed superbly, and Romney acted like a deer that had wandered into the debate, frozen by the television lights […]