Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Self Destruction Of The Republicans - February 1, 2012

Watching "The Five" on Fox news. One of my favorite shows as of late. Five very distinct personalities discussing the news (mostly politics) of the day. Some of the pundits (Andrea, Kimberly) are there more for decoration than anything else. They're smart and opinionated, but they're not really what you would call polarizing. And then you have Deana and Eric, who are the faces of the right, the lone Libertarian, Greg Gutfield, who is arguably one of the funniest men alive and the lone voice of the left, the man who ran Walter Mondale's Presidential Campaign, the one and only Bob Beckle.

In my opinion, Beckle makes the show. He's crude, offensive at times, and often gets in trouble for cursing on air, but he's a great guy with a big heart and just strikes me as one of the most "real" TV pundits I've ever seen. He used to drink and do drugs, but he found religion and cleaned up his act. He's got a history and he doesn't hide a thing, good or bad. All of the pundits are great, but Bob makes the show. Check him out.

What's up with all the singing lately? First President Obama sang a snippet of Al Green at a press conference. And then Mitt Ronmey sang (very badly, I might add) the national anthem. Ok, I'll do it! Right now, I am singing "Dude Looks Like A Lady" by Aerosmith. I can't let Mitt and Barack hog all the glory. Stick around and I'll sing "Material Girl" too.

One more political thing and I'll move on to something else (most likely). If the Republican Presidential nominee is Mitt Romney, we're going to lose, pure and simple. He's another John McCain in the making who is only the front runner because he's been running for the job for the past six years and the Republican's have a very bad habit of nominating "the heir apparent". If a person comes in second place during the previous Presidential campaign, the Republicans annoint them as their candidiate in the next election. Want some examples?

Reagan lost to President Ford in 1976. He was the nominee in 1980. George H.W. Bush came in second to Reagan in 1980 and ended up as the V.P. When Reagan left office, Bush was the man the Republican's turned to as their nominee and he won one term before losing to Bill Clinton in 1992. Then they did Bob Dole in 1996 who was a lousy candidiate, but he was the Vice President nominee in 1976 with Gerald Ford and was "next in line".

Finally, in 2000, the Republicans pulled a Democratic Party move and found a fresh, new face with George W. Bush, while the Democrats worked like the Republicans and nominated the then-sitting Vice President, Al Gore. We all know how that turned out and with Bush squeaking out a very narrow victory. (And on a side note, Gore and his people can't complain. They didn't carry Gore's home state of Tennessee OR Bill Clinton's home state of Arkansas. If they had won either of their home states, Gore would have made it to the White House. They couldn't and it all ended up coming down to Florida. Even Mondale carried his home state when he faced Reagan in 1984 - it was the only state he won. If Gore couldn't win his home state, he can't complain and neither can his supporters. Bush won - get over it!)

Now what was I talking about? The Republicans nominated a new face in 2000 and George W. Bush became the man for two terms. And then, it was back to business as usual and the Republicans nominated John McCain as their nominee in 2008 to take on the brash, hot newcomer in Senator Barack Obama. McCain? Really? Really? Really? McCain was the number two guy against George W. Bush in 2000 and it was "his turn". And we see how that turned out. He picked a brain-dead former beauty queen to be his running mate. Nothing wrong with that, but she was a one term Governor who never even finished her first term as Governor. And Barack Hussein Obama thoroughly kicked his ass in the election.

And now we come to this year where we have Mitt Romey and Newt Gingrich as the prospective nominees. I'm not even going to talk about Ron Paul or "Little Ricky" Santorum because let's be honest about it. Paul has good ideas on most things, but he's freakin' crazy in the foreign policy department and there is no way in hell he'll ever be the President. And "Little Ricky" is a homophobic, hypocritical, two-faced lying bigot who doesn't stand a snowball's chance in hell of being elected by anyone with half a brain who actually listens to the sickening rhetoric that Little Ricky likes to spout.

So that leaves Newt or Mitt. If the Republicans nominate Mitt, they're falling back to the same old routine that has cost them again and again by picking "the next guy in line" to face the sitting President. And as bad as Obama's record is, as bad a job as he's done as President, it's hard to beat an incumbent sitting President unless they're really, really stupid. Jimmy Carter was stupid and uncharismatic and Regean kicked his ass. Obama is NOT Jimmy Carter. Despite his flaws as President, and there are many, he's a great speaker and motivater. He's a lousy President, but a great campaigner. Romney is about as animated as a dime-store manekin with the energy and personality of a cheerio. Romney can not beat Obama. It's that simple. I hope I'm wrong, but if he's the nominee, we get four more years. Lord help us all!

And then we have former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. Newt has a ton of baggage and a lot of issues. He looks like the Stay-Puff Marshmellow Man with a big scowl painted on his face. But he has energy and he has ideas. Newt has an ego just about as big as Obama's and also knows all the tricks of dirty campaigning just as well as Obama. He has the better chance of competing with Obama and if there was a face to face debate, Newt would walk all over the President. And we all know that. But Newt scares people and he's not going to get the nomination because he's part of the Republican Party's dark side. The party establishment looks at Newt and they don't remember the welfare reform, the balanced budgets, the Contract With America. They just see the ethic violation charges (of which Newt was totally cleared once the investigations ended) and they see Newt being fired from the Speaker's Job when he ruffled too many feathers. Newt has the experience and charisma to be the best GOP candidiate. He can beat Obama, but I don't think he's going to get that chance.

Unless we get some big surprises and Mitt has a major scandal or flub, he's going to be the Republican nominee. And we'll end up with a tight election that splits the country, popular vote wise probably 51% to 49%. And Obama is going to win. And that scares the hell out of me.

And I'm tired of politics. I'm tired of writing. I'm going to go cook dinner and do some stuff. Later...

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