So Newt Gingrich has won the South Carolina Republican primary, despite allegations by his second wife that he requested an open marriage and despite him unloading on CNN's John King for asking about said alleged request. Independent expenditure PACs have been firing at Romney and Gingrich in ways that do violence to President Ronald Reagan's 11th Commandment -- Thou shalt not speak ill of another Republican.
I'm not a Republican, but is it me or is the Republican party looking more like the Donner Party? It seems each candidate or their surrogates are willing to do or say anything to stay in the game, even at the expense of the party's ability to put someone in office come November.
What's more telling is that none of the candidates is speaking of their vision for the country going forward. Their campaign slogan? "Beat Obama," as if this were the Army/Navy game, or Big Game between Stanford and Cal for that matter.
Republicans, let me give you a hint: Running on beating Obama might get you through the Republican primaries to the nomination, but it won't necessarily get you to the White House. And feasting on each other on the way there certainly won't help.
From my point of view, given how the GOP has disrespected this President and the First Lady in ways I've never seen in all my born days as an American, any candidate running on "Beat Obama" without more strikes me as racist because the GOP has done little, if anything, to disavow the racist attacks from its own party operatives on President and Mrs. Obama. Given that the economy is starting to pick up, Republicans are going to need more than just "Beat Obama" to win the independent voters they're going to need to get to the White House. More like "Beat Obama because (fill in the blank)." But "Beat Obama"? That's not enough.
Plus, the candidate who had the best chance of "beating Obama" is already out of the race -- John Huntsman. Huntsman was articulate, independent-minded, and without the 1% baggage of Mitt "I Like To Fire People" Romney and the failed ethics of Newt "Contract ON America" Gingrich, yet he had the misfortune of not being conservative enough to make it out of the primaries. Are Republicans not old enough to remember that Newt's speakership was a failed one? That he had ethics charges handed down against him? That as he was chastising Bill Clinton for lying about having an affair, he was engaged in one himself? Quite frankly, the personal stuff in Newt's life might not matter had he had a stellar political record as speaker, but he didn't. In my opinion, the only Republican candidate who could have possibly beaten President Obama hands down is sitting in the governor's mansion in New Jersey. Heck, even I would have given Governor Christie a look-see, and I'm a yellow dog Democrat. And yes, the Southern evangelicals need to get over the elephant in the GOP room (no pun intended) -- Mitt Romney's faith. No one will say they won't vote for him because he's Mormon no more than they would say they won't vote for President Obama because he's black. But that doesn't mean they're not thinking it, and both thoughts are bigoted ones. I might disagree with Romney on the issues, but I respect his faith, period.
So, as a Democrat who will be supporting the President this fall, I can't help but say I'm enjoying the Donner, er, Grand Old Party doing the work for the Democrats this fall. Munch on, Donner Party. Munch on.
1 comment:
BWB,
I like your blog of course. Usually, I only write reviews on Netflix about movies, since I like watching good film. But this blog caught my eye when I found that you were both a Sade fan and a Billie Holliday fan. (Hey, I love Sade but I still found the scene out of "Sean of the Dead" hilarious where they tossed the Sade record. I still don't understand why people dis on Sade though. Go figure; she's probably one of the better talents of our generation.)
Back on topic. . . . I am a fiscal conservative. OK; fiscal very conservative. Like my other comment about shoes, I buy them from Costco. But I am a social moderate. I'm probably an independent in the sense that I believe that the government should just get out of the way when it comes to people's daily lives. That said, I agree with the post that the Republicans are dropping the ball here on this election. I think that Newt is a really smart guy, but I have to admit, I just don't like him, and I usually don't use that as a criterion for making decisions. As for Mitt, I'm a big "not sure" here. I like Ron Paul, but only in the sense that he is funny (don't know if he intends to be but I laugh when I listen to Ron talk). But he's got zero chance of winning the election, let alone the Republican convention. I do really like Christy; he takes no prisoners, and I laughed when he took on a teacher in Jersey in a mini-debate. I was very disappointed that he decided not to run, but my guess is, his advisors told him that there was no chance of beating Obama.
Anyway, Obama is going to win this fall. Why is my opinion important? Well, maybe it's not. But I have actually called the last four elections. Not only that, I called Bush Jr. BEFORE he got in the race. I told a reporter from the Seattle PI that GW would win, back in 1998 (with a whole bunch of witnesses, including my wife) and the reporter laughed at me. I think my wife did too.
Anyway, four more years, whether you like it or not. The only question I have: who wins in 2016? Personally, I like Hilary (I would have voted for her in the last election), but I think that she might consider herself too old by then. But even Nostradamus would have a hard time predicting the next election. Most likely, he or she will be an unknown.
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