John McCain is right

Yep, a DannyIsRIGHT first.  Props to John McCain for actually telling the truth...

 

 

So he's not RIGHT.  But he is right.  :)

Monday political thoughts, part 2

On the heels of my last entry, I want to make a prediction on how things are going to shake out in this election.  Just for the fun of it...

As I stated in part 1, McCain will wrap up the Republican nomination by the end of the month.  He'll take the remaining liberal states he needs even with Huckabee getting the more conservative states.  Huckabee may even give him a good scare, but it will be over soon.  McCain's VP will either be some old, crusty, white dude that he's been saying support him (like Jack Kemp) so that he can use the "experience" mantra to get support.  Or it will be some young, charismatic, white dude so that he can show that he's "willing to listen to new ideas".  And by "new" I mean "conservative".  He'll probably try to get someone that is a far right conservative, but I'm not sure if they will accept.  Don't be surprised if Mike Huckabee ends up being his VP in an attempt to woo Christians to vote.  It won't work.

Barak Obama has all the momentum right now.  That is not going to end.  He needs to push really hard to get the nomination before convention.  Because the Clintons will pull out all the stops at convention.  And they will lie, cheat, and steal to get the nomination.  Heck, they're probably doing that now!  The party will be damaged if it goes to convention.  Regardless, Obama will get the nomination.  It's hard to say who he will choose as his VP.  I don't see it being Hillary or John Edwards.  Hillary would never accept and Obama would never offer after the way she and Bill have and will continue to treat him.  John Edwards was a disaster of a VP nominee in 2004.  Obama is too smart to try that again.  I figure he'll go for an older white dude to try to help with the race issue that he will continue to deal with, and with the 'inexperience" issue.  I don't expect his ticket to be a very liberal ticket.  His ticket will be fairly middle-of-the-road and will be full of energy and charisma.

Many conservatives will not vote.  Obama will take the "undecided" vote and will be the first president in a long time to mobilize the young vote.  There will be those that vote against him because he's black, but it won't be enough to give McCain a win.  Obama will get at least 55% of the vote.

So there you have it.  Barak Obama will be the next president of the United States.  Any of you who are fearful of this need to get used to it now.

Monday political thoughts

So quite a bit has happened in politics since my last blog post.

Mitt Romney spoke at CPAC and announced that he's dropping out of the race.  Huckabee now takes on the role of spoiler against McCain.  I doubt that he can catch up, but he's getting some key endorsements (ie: James Dobson) and he won primaries over the weekend.  Still, I suspect the Republican nomination will be over by the end of the month and that conservatives will have nowhere to go this election.

A word about Romney.  I find it hard to believe his reasoning for dropping out of the race.  To recap, he said he was dropping out because he didn't want it to go to convention, which would hurt the Republican's ability to build a national campaign.  And because the War on Terror is so important and Republicans are the only ones who know how to effectively deal with it, he didn't want to jeopardize their chances.

Well, Mitt.  Maybe you should have talked to Mike Hucakbee before you did that, huh?  He had almost as many delegates as you and he's still running.  Now it could still go to a brokered convention.  What are you going to do then?

Another weird thing about his reasoning - the democrats are likely going to a brokered convention!  His reasoning might make sense if the democrat candidate was already chosen, but right now republicans have no one to beat up on anyway.  There's really nothing a national campaign can do until they have a nominee.

I have to wonder what Mitt will do if Huckabee (and Paul - I'm not going to ignore that he's still running like all of the other "media" out there) ends up being able to take the Republican race to convention.  I figure he'll be as much a part of it as he can and will still try to get the nomination.  So again, his reasoning just doesn't make any sense to me.

Ron Paul sent a message out over the weekend saying that he was going to scale things back a bit on his national campaign since, "With Romney gone, the chances of a brokered convention are nearly zero".  And that he's going to put more focus on retaining his seat in Congress.  And that he's not going to run on a third party ticket.  I hate that he's made that choice, but I understand the difficulties that he would face if he did switch.  His run for the presidency has changed some of my political viewpoints and, as one of his campaign slogans states, has "cured my apathy" in many ways.  For that, I am truly grateful for what his "Revolution" has done.  Hopefully it will not end here and more candidates with his political leanings will surface in the future.  I would like to do a series of posts on some things I've learned and some political positions I've adopted during this process.  Hopefully I can do that soon.

The mouse that roared

Well, after Tuesday many are expecting that John McCain will secure the Republican nomination.  I think it's very likely also.  It's pretty clear that the party has lost its way.

All of the candidates will speak to the Conservative Political Action Committee today.  This may be Ron Paul's best and last chance to appeal to conservatives.  His speech starts at 3:30.  Looks like they are covering the event online on C-SPAN.

I read a great article today that I want to share with you.  If the Ron Paul Revolution is indeed ending soon and he doesn't pursue a third party run for the presidency, this is what I hope for...

The Mouse that roared: Why Ron Paul won the election

Well now, Republicans say, we have a nominee. That may very well be but there was only one clear winner in the confusing GOP nominating contest and it was not John McCain. The winner was Ron Paul. And the effects of his win will be felt for years to come.

Ron Paul made a classic political mistake. He told the truth. In debate after debate he pointed at his party, his president, his fellow contenders for the GOP nomination, shouting aloud like the little boy in the proverbial story, “they have no clothes” and lo and behold, we looked and they didn’t. They were all naked.

He showed that the conservative movement has lost its way, its moral authority and its logic. He showed us that we have become a red team versus blue team. That since we have decided that this is a political war and all normal rules are suspended, conservatives can do liberal things to win it. Conservatives can run up big deficits if it helps their side win. They can dole out needless pork if it elects another “conservative” to congress. They can go to war if it makes their president look like a leader and wins him another term.

But in the process, Ron Paul showed us, that we have lost our way. We are no longer conservatives. We are fighting for power not for principles. We have become corrupted by the process and the only way back is to retrace our steps and find all the things we discarded along he way.

Barry Goldwater lighted a similar fire with his Conscience of a Conservative. Its truth and arguments were so obvious and so honest that one laughed aloud while reading it. But Goldwater, himself, was doomed to political defeat. And Ron Paul had no chance to win this election either. One could see that when he first opened his mouth.

And yet, the words and arguments of Ron Paul are still resonating. They still hang over this election. They are haunting and troubling. They are producing blogs and papers and books and like Goldwater’s revolution they will one day very likely produce their own Ronald Reagan. And when those heady days happen a small but hearty band of pioneers, who first had the nerve to join him and start shouting from the street, “They aren’t wearing any clothes,” will be able to say that they could see what the country missed. They were there when history was made.

John McCain and his poorly chosen words, of staying in Iraq a hundred years, have almost guaranteed that he will be the answer to the trivia question, who was the Republican candidate who lost to the ticket that claimed the first woman and black for the presidency? Another question may very well be, “What other candidate ran that year and launched the movement that has dominated national politics for the last generation?”

And the answer will be Ron Paul.

Rush is RIGHT

Some good quotes by Rush Limbaugh in this Washington Post article today...

If I believe the country will suffer with either Hillary, Obama or McCain, I would just as soon the Democrats take the hit . . . rather than a Republican causing the debacle.

And I would prefer not to have conservative Republicans in the Congress paralyzed by having to support, out of party loyalty, a Republican president who is not conservative.

...

If a candidate who is asking me and the American people for his vote isn't particularly conservative on a wide array of issues, I'm going to talk about it. It's not my job to get him elected. . . . I'm in the free speech business. I am not a campaign spokesman. I believe it would be a setback for the Republican Party to attract liberals and independents by being like them in order to attract them.

Amen bro.

Rush hasn't talked about Ron Paul during this primary process, but I firmly believe that he and other conservatives will rally behind Paul if the scenarios I've written about on this blog play out.

Oh, I must point you to the title of the article:

IT''S BETTER TO BE RIGHT ALL OF THE TIME

That's what this blog is all about.  Being RIGHT.

Rethinking my last post

Ok, so I've changed my thinking on my last post.  Don't be disheartened - I was still RIGHT.  :)

Clearly I had what is RIGHT in mind.  But I will say that I took it a bit too far, even if it was mostly joking.

I couldn't vote for McCain tomorrow if I was voting, even if it meant Ron Paul's chances of being president were better in my mind.  As a friend pointed out to me, Dr. Paul probably would not bother to switch third party if enough of his supporters switched their votes to McCain in order to basically sabotage the Republican Party.  Because he would be discouraged at his lack of votes.  Very good point.

So yes, vote on principle over party.  But don't be alarmed if McCain runs off with the nomination after tomorrow.  Personally I hope he does take the nomination tomorrow for the reasons I mentioned in my last post.  But I still wouldn't vote for him.  So I will not tell you to vote for him either.

Just something that needed to be said.

BELIEVE!, part 2

So my last blog post was related to the Giants winning the Super Bowl.  And you may recall that I talked about the potential for a Giants win in my "Thinking about Underdogs" blog post a couple of weeks ago.  Now, I want to mention the other part of the "underdogs" post, and yes, that means yet another entry about Ron Paul.  I'm not gonna give up on him until he drops out.  Get used to it.  :)

First, I want to mention this article.  Pat Buchanan attacks John McCain again, and again, he is exactly RIGHT.  Here is an excerpt from the end of the article.  I highly recommend you read the entire thing though.

On the two issues where Bush has been at his best, taxes and judges, McCain has sided against him. On the three issues that have ravaged the Bush presidency—the misbegotten war in Iraq, the failure to secure America’s borders, and the trade policy that has destroyed the dollar, de-industrialized the country, and left foreigners with $5 trillion to buy up America—McCain has sided with Bush.

Now McCain is running on a platform that says your jobs are not coming back, the illegals are not going home, but we are going to have more wars. If you don’t like it, vote for Hillary.

And this was to be the Year of Change.

But I want to spend more time talking about something I've heard a LOT lately.  I've heard it on the radio and I've heard it from friends.  Some folks out there have a candidate that they like, but they think it best to "pinch their nose" and vote for a "frontrunner" for the sake of "party unity".  So in other words, vote party over principle.  I've heard this excuse for voting for McCain (since he is the current frontrunner) and Romney (instead of voting for Ron Paul or Mike Huckabee since Romney has the best shot at beating McCain).

I want to make clear right now that I could not disagree with this more.  If you don't vote on principle, you are THROWING YOUR VOTE AWAY.  Vote for the person you BELIEVE in.  There is no "lesser of two evils" people!  If you don't trust them or their views, DON"T VOTE FOR THEM.  What makes you believe that one person is better than another if you disagree with them on key positions??  What if those positions end up defining their presidency??  If we don't vote on principle, NOTHING WILL EVER CHANGE!!!  Anyway, I won't spend too much time on this.  There is much more I could say, but I'll leave it there for now.

What I want to focus on is tomorrow's Super Tuesday primary.  And now I'm going to tell you to VOTE PARTY OVER PRINCIPLE!!

I just blew your mind didn't I?  :)

Hang in there and let me 'splain it.

If you vote party over principle, your only option is to vote for McCain.  Because McCain has been taking the independent\non-conservative wing of the Republican Party.  So Romney\Huckabee\Paul have been splitting the conservative vote.  Which means you should give McCain the nomination for the good of party unity.  After all, in the general election, he would need the independent votes that Romney and the others wouldn't get, right??

So yes, Republican friends.  Vote for McCain tomorrow.  Forget your conservatism.  He is the "inevitable winner" anyway, so vote for him.

So why am I saying this?

Because if McCain takes enough delegates tomorrow, Huckabee and Romney will drop out of the race.  And then conservatism will be lost in the Republican Party.

Which means....

Ron Paul can run third party and fulfill exactly the "underdog" role I mentioned a couple of weeks ago!  Woo Hoo!  If Ron Paul wants to take this to a brokered convention, I want to keep him from doing it.  I respect Dr. Paul a ton, but I just think he's being way to optimistic about his chances in the Republican Party.  I think he has better chances with another party and I want him to go for it, starting this week.  So if it has to happen by "force", so be it.

So yes, vote party over principle this week.  Then vote principle over all in November.  That will give us a Ron Paul presidency and a brighter future.

BELIEVE!

Well, Eli and the Giants made history last night.  What an awesome game!  One for the ages.  In a time of 24 hour sports television and 10 hour pre-game shows, this one will not soon be forgotten.

The Giants have not made it easy on their fans this year, even when they have won.  Most of their games, especially the ones that really mattered, have come down to the last couple of minutes.  This was a real nail-biter of a season.  It was awesome!

Hopefully this will put the critics at bay for a little while.  Hopefully the people who say, "Eli will never be as good as his big brother" will change their tone a little bit.  Peyton and Eli have their own strengths and weaknesses, but they are both great quarterbacks and they both have a Super Bowl ring.  That's all that matters right now.

Pat Buchanan is RIGHT

Wow.  The quote of the year may be this one - "We are an unserious people in a serious time."

From this article.  Here is the full text...

Tapped Out Nation

by Patrick J. Buchanan

 

It was to be the year of change, of new ideas, a new politics.

Yet, as of today, it appears the Republican Party will be led into the future by a Beltway favorite of the media and Washington insider who has spent the last quarter of a century on Capitol Hill.

And the Democratic Party appears about to build a bridge to the past by nominating the spouse of the last Democratic president who has herself been a Washington insider for almost 20 years.

With two-thirds of the nation saying the country is on the wrong course, the two parties are offering candidates both of whom played major roles in setting that course. And neither probable nominee has advanced ideas to deal with the crises America faces, nor even shown any great awareness that the country is in crisis.

The first crisis is fiscal, with the Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid costs about to break the bank as the baby boomers reach early retirement. Add the other entitlement programs, defense and interest on the debt, and this consumes perhaps 90 percent of the budget.

No one is proposing cuts in any major component of the budget. Indeed, Mrs. Clinton is promising universal health care and McCain is promising an expansion of the military. Both favor a stimulus package of roughly $150 billion. As our savings rate is about zero, where are we going to borrow the money for all this?

(Column continues below)

A second crisis is financial. With the economy in danger of seizing up, the Fed has cut interest rates from 4.25 percent to 3 percent in two weeks. This has sent the dollar plunging again. A sinking dollar means surging prices for oil and all those foreign manufactures to which we are now addicted.

As the dollars pour out, nations have started to spend their dollar hoards to buy up this country at the fire-sale prices being offered in the global marketplace.

A third crisis is strategic. With an army of half a million and a Marine Corps a third that size, we are ending our fifth year of war in Iraq and entering the seventh year in Afghanistan. With the Taliban and al-Qaida now re-established and threatening Pakistan, what will it require in blood and treasure to prevent a strategic disaster there?

Mrs. Clinton is committed to a withdrawal from Iraq, but McCain says we will stay 100 years if necessary and warns, “There’s going to be other wars.” But wars against whom? Iran? Pakistan? Russia? North Korea? With the U.S. military stretched to the breaking point and the quality of army recruits falling, who will fight these wars?

Then there is the immigration crisis. It is estimated that there are 12 million to 20 million illegal aliens in the United States today, with many hundreds of thousands being added each year.

McCain and Hillary both voted for the amnesty bill, neither is committed to sending back the illegals, and both give only grudging support to the idea of a border fence. How do they propose stopping the scores or hundreds of millions from Latin America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East from breaking into the United States in coming decades? Does anyone see in either Clinton or McCain the resolve to deal with what Americans are coming to believe is a crisis of national identity and national survival?

Then there is the crisis of the American middle class.

As economist Robert Reich writes, the real wages of working men have not risen in 30 years. Families maintained their standard of living three ways. Wives went to work. The men began to work longer hours than in almost any other developed nation. The family’s equity in its home was then borrowed to sustain consumption.

Now, with the middle class tapped out, the home equity used up or declining, and mortgage, auto and credit card debt turning rotten, the U.S. government is going abroad to borrow 1 percent of GDP to hand out in checks in May to get consumers buying again to prevent a recession.

What kind of long-term solution is this?

How can a government as deep in debt as this one, going deeper every day, with the Social Security-Medicare crisis looming, continue to borrow to fight wars, finance foreign aid and defend nations that refuse to make the sacrifices to defend themselves?

America today faces both a fiscal crisis and a currency crisis.

Our dependence on foreign loans, foreign oil and foreign manufacturers is unprecedented.

We are being invaded from the south and seemingly lack the moral fiber to defend our home and throw out the intruders.

We have neither the men nor the weapons to honor all the treaty commitments and war guarantees we have given out to nations all over the world – and McCain plans to add several more.

Yet, we are consumed with the issue of whether Bill Clinton, by comparing Barack Obama to Jesse Jackson, was playing “the race card.”

We are an unserious people in a serious time.