Archive for May, 2011

Dan Calabrese

Hey, I like Led Zeppelin too. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to pull any punches about the idea of Thaddeus McCotter running for president.

I’m not talking about how good a candidate he would be. I’m not a political consultant, so I don’t know and I don’t care. But I know what kind of president he would be – a complete disaster, because he is neither a serious nor a sincere individual.

First of all, for those of you who think he is some sort of “true conservative hero” – mainly because of his impassioned speeches against TARP in 2008 – McCotter was called on the carpet this week for having supported “card check,” the UAW’s pet legislative priority that would allow unionization of plants without secret ballots.

Now, it is familiar territory for would-be presidential candidates to offer their contrition for past positions that run counter to the party base. But when McCotter explained away his past support for card check, well, he spun quite the yarn, telling The View’s Manny Lopez:

“As a Federalist, what happened in Wisconsin made me realize that EFCA (the Employee Free Choice Act) was something that should be decided on the state level.”

OK, wait, I’m trying to stop laughing. I’m sorry. (Sips some water.) All right.

So because he is a federalist or something, the conflict between unions and Gov. Scott Walker in Wisconsin “made him realize” that the question of whether union organizers can show up at your door, politely requesting that you sign a certain card, “should be decided on the state level”?

Most everyone else had no trouble figuring out that the proposal is simply a violation of worker rights, as it would have taken away secret-ballot organizing votes, regardless of which level of government would have sought to impose it. But not Thad. He couldn’t figure it out until he saw “what happened in Wisconsin”, which by the way had nothing whatsoever to do with union organizing.

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Herman Cain

Wow! I must be causing some people quite a concern as a candidate for the Republican nomination for president. The establishment skeptics are still stuck in the traditional campaign paradigm of immediate name ID, lots of money, and having held a worthy elective office before. The critics are pounding on what they perceive as my weaknesses. And the Democratic National Committee now has me on its radar and is sharpening its blades for a Cain attack.

No one is more emblematic of the Republican establishment than Karl Rove. He has an unmatched political record from his tenure with former president George W. Bush. I greatly respect and admire what he has accomplished in his career.

But I would suggest that he take a few minutes to review my record as a leader in business and as a problem-solver before he dismisses me as the radio talk show guy form Atlanta with not much to offer as a presidential candidate. Mr. Rove’s perspective also suggests that successful business skills are not applicable to changing the “Titanic” course our federal government is on.

People outside the political establishment are starting to recognize that those business skills are applicable. Maybe that’s why Cain is rising in the polls.

One of my favorite political commentators, Charles Krauthammer of Fox News, described my candidacy as entertainment. I enjoy his perspectives because he is usually very thoughtful and often correct in his analysis. Unfortunately, this time he got it wrong. Some people would describe being able to give an informative and inspiring speech as an asset, especially if one is running for president.

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Brett Noel

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Lucia de Vernai

Here you are, packing your lunch of soggy tuna sandwich for the fourth time this week when the local news—you gave up cable six months ago—reports that the woman who bore the former governor of California’s love child has been getting $10,000 a month on top of housing expenses. Makes you feel silly about how hard you worked to get yourself through college, doesn’t it.

Setting aside the moral reprehensibility of the situation, let’s consider its political irony. The guy made enough money to be able to put six figures a year into a hush money fund. It’s the American dream, at least according to some rap lyrics. At least he’s not a deadbeat, right?

Schwarzenegger has long held firm convictions about money, single parents and responsibility— they just don’t apply to him. They apply to the millions of people who have been losing sleep over how they will pay for day care since the welfare cuts his time in office brought about. I am not claiming that years of going to bed every night with a Kennedy, who hasn’t noticed hundreds of thousands missing from the bank, is not stressful. It’s just not the kind of stress that makes you relate to the common man.

Likewise, Newt Gingrich, a man who describes himself as “very frugal” and just “a guy running for president who pays all of his bills” has a $500,000 revolving credit line with Tiffany’s. His impeccably dressed wife, Callista, is a lucky woman (and we’re all relieved that he is buying the baubles for his spouse, not a staffer). But let’s not pretend that a man who can spend the worth of your house on a necklace understands how barely making mortgage payments is putting strain on your marriage.

The appeal to the common man is the currency of elections, and politicians have great ideas about how to reduce the deficit, poverty, unemployment and foreclosure. Unfortunately we tend to ignore the fact that very few of those ideas apply the candidates’ tax bracket.

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Dan Calabrese

Great.

Just when you elect a few politicians who have some sense of reality with respect to the unsustainability of federal entitlement programs, the public rises up in blissful ignorance to make clear it’s still clinging to delusion.

And the Associated Press is right there to serve as their champion.

Reporting a new poll out from the AP and GfK, reporters Richard Alonso-Zaldivar and Stephen Ohlenmacher can hardly contain their glee at the public’s continued ostrichization:

“They’re not buying it. Most Americans say they don’t believe Medicare has to be cut to balance the federal budget, and ditto for Social Security, a new poll shows. The Associated Press-GfK poll suggests that arguments for overhauling the massive benefit programs to pare government debt have failed to sway the public. The debate is unlikely to be resolved before next year’s elections for president and Congress.”

The AP then presents us with a quote from a genius who apparently believes money is generated by voter desire:

“I’m pretty confident Medicare will be there, because there would be a rebellion among voters,” said Nicholas Read, 67, a retired teacher who lives near Buffalo, N.Y. “Republicans only got a hint of that this year. They got burned. They touched the hot stove.”

You see how it works? Medicare “will be there,” because without it, “there would be a rebellion among voters.” It makes no difference that spending on entitlements is already so out of control, you could eliminate every other expenditure from the federal budget – but because of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, you still would not have a balanced budget.

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Brett Noel

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Herman Cain

“Just to be clear, I’m running for president of the United States of America, and I’m not running for second place.”

That was my announcement on Saturday May 21, 2011 in Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park. It was a high noon event with over 15,000 of my closest friends in attendance!

I wanted to be very clear of my intentions because of the usual three reservations expressed by skeptics about a “dark horse” candidate winning the Republican nomination for the presidency. Name recognition, money and not being a previous office holder are the usual negatives pointed out by political pundits.

My name may not be a household name, but it is a grassroots-recognized                name. Just consider the number of straw polls in which I have placed first in the last few months. The Tea Party Patriots Summit in Phoenix, the Conservatives Values Conference hosted by Congressman Steve King in Des Moines, Iowa, multiple state Republican Party conventions, and most recently an online Fox News survey following my official announcement of candidacy last Saturday.

Now, my performance in the recent South Carolina presidential debate was not a straw poll, but by most accounts I was viewed most favorably by a majority of those who saw that exchange among potential candidates, as well as the immediate reaction of a Frank Luntz on-air focus group.

Even a recent Zogby poll shows me in first place of the declared or soon-to-be declared candidates for the Republican nomination for president. And ever since the Gallup Organization started including me in its “positive intensity” poll, I have placed in the top three and most recently tied for first among all of the potential candidates.

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David Karki

Today, we observed something that I don’t think most of us ever thought we would see:  a President of the United States telling Israel that it should be exterminated from the face of the Earth.

That is what “withdrawing to the 1967 borders” means, since those borders are absolutely indefensible. They would leave an Israel a mere 8 miles wide, a ribbon of land from the eastern shore of the Mediterranean to the foothills of the mountain slopes from which Hamas and Hezbollah would rain down rockets. Her enemies would waste no time in attempting to divide the northern and southern sections, and in so dividing Israel conquer her.

More than that, Obama displays a stunning moral blindness.

•  He expects Israel to make all the concessions when it’s the Palestinians who’ve perpetrated unconscionable mass murder through all their terrorist bombings of innocent civilians. It’s that blood-drenched track record that has put them where they are, in a situation that they brought entirely upon themselves via their own savagery. Read the rest of this entry »

Lucia de Vernai

Although Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels has not announced whether he will run for president, he has discussed some particular strategies his campaign would utilize if he does decide to seek the Republican nomination. He recently gave an interview about what a national campaign would look like. A man of the people, he crossed his state focusing on local diner stops and county fairs. He maintains that one of his goals is to avoid campaign trail photo ops where “everyone there is just a prop”.

Daniels knows that the RV in which he toured Indiana during his two successful state campaigns, covered with the “My Man Mitch” logo, will have to stay parked if he heads for the big leagues. But has revealed that he would like to continue to sleep in voters’ homes on the national campaign trail. “It not only saves you money, but you learn so darn much,” he explained.

There is something refreshing about a politician willing to spend the night with you—and not like that. But the romantic notion of a candidate sleepover can go from populist to disastrous fast. Rather than bonding with citizens and gaining a deeper understanding of what their needs are, here is the realistic breakdown of what “Mitch Spent the Night” would probably really entail:

7:14 p.m.: Homeowners’ Pomeranian attacks left ankle during gun rights conversation. Continues attack through foreign policy talking points and back-porch Obama-bashing session.

8:53 p.m.: Discrete after-dinner trip to upstairs bathroom turns ugly – no plunger, clogged toilet. Danny the intern not answering phone. Probably making googly eyes at homeowners’ daughter. Wonders if John will text back with Joe the Plummer’s number.

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Brett Noel

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