Word association game - GOP primary edition



Photo: Aikenstandard.com

Instead of wasting time writing a detailed analysis of where today's GOP contenders stand, I've opted to go the simple route. A variation on word association. Why not? Since this is the most intellectually-challenged group of presidential nominees I've ever seen in my life, it's best to keep it simple. So here we go!

Mitt Romney: Can't buy me love
Newt Gingrich: Icarus
Rick Perry: Second coming of Dubya
Michele Bachmann: Delusional
Herman Cain: Not ready for prime time
Jon Huntsman: Better luck next time
Ron Paul: Still no chance
Rick Santorum: Yah right!
Buddy Roemer: Error message
Gary Johnson: File not found



The Mayor who cried "Lone-Wolf"?

AP Photo: Jefferson Siegel

I was watching CNN with a friend Sunday evening when they started reporting that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was going to give a live press conference at 7:30 p.m. It was some sort of announcement having to do with terrorism.
I rolled my eyes. If they weren't going live for another hour and a half that meant it wasn't actually that important. But CNN sure did keep reminding everyone to watch.
I thought of the bad press Bloomberg's been getting hammered with since he ordered his cops to remove Occupy Wall Street protesters from Zucotti Park. It hasn't been pretty. While there's plenty of competition out there for the top spot, he's become the poster boy for oppression against the movement.
Of course that made me suspicious. How convenient, I thought, that all of a sudden some terrorist event would happen and steal away all those bad headlines. No more bad press about terrible decision-making, suppression of first amendment rights and needless brutality. The hot glare would be removed.
So, finally we got the news. On Saturday, Bloomberg's crack cop squad busted up a one-man terrorist operation getting ready to blow up a bunch of good New Yorkers and recently returned veterans. The one-man act arrested was Jose Pimental, a 27 year-old Manhattanite born in the Dominican Republic. Bloomberg described him as an "al Qaeda sympathizer." Shazam - a Latino convert to Islam with al Qaeda-ish sympathy! Spooky stuff!
According to the story, Pimental was planning to blow up police cars, post offices and target returning vets. That's where the story got a bit weird for me. What do you get when you blow up police cars? Sympathy for cops. What do you get when you target a post office? Outrage. And targeting returning vets? Is Pimental psychic or something? Did he have some master list of soldiers? My bullshitometer was going off and wouldn't stop.
And for just a moment, people weren't talking about Bloomberg's stupidity and heavy handedness with regard to the OWS movement.
As of this morning, it appears my skepticism was well-founded. Multiple sources are reporting that the FBI declined to take the case when New York City officials offered it to them. According to Tom Hays of the Associated Press, an FBI official said that after reviewing the evidence, the bureau found Pimentel did not have the “predisposition or the ability” to carry out the terror plot.
It sounds like a case of entrapment more than anything. But it sure did change the subject, for a moment, anyway.

Who really chooses our presidential candidates?



Image: Adam

Former Bush political strategist Matthew Dowd brings up a question many of us have been asking for a long time - why are certain qualified presidential candidates excluded from the debates [former Republican governors Buddy Roemer (LA) and Gary Johnson (NM)] and given far less time in them when they (Ron Paul) clearly have just as much of a shot or better than some of those who are there? Establishment parrots always say Ron Paul doesn't have a shot at the nomination. How would they know? They've never given voters a chance to make that decision. Paul's poll numbers have been high and he has a larger following than Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Herman Cain and Jon Huntsman combined. His fundraising ability also leaves theirs (collectively) in the dust.
The only sensible answer is that some candidates are acceptable to the establishment and some are not. And big media does its best to serve those interests. So, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. If the system wasn't rigged in this way, Paul would get as much air time in debates as Mitt Romney, Roemer and Johnson would be included in the debates and it would be left up to the voters to decide who's viable and who isn't.
The way it is, it's no wonder so many people don't trust big media. Why should they? It can't even come up with a plausible excuse as to why it ignores candidates who might actually just steal the show. When it comes to experience in governing, independence and common sense, Paul, Roemer and Johnson are all head and shoulders above the current crop of candidates (Huntsman excluded). But then, that's probably what makes them so unacceptable to the powers-that-be.

Image source

What's with the secrecy, Mittens?



Photo: Corbis

This just in, "Just before Mitt Romney left the Massachusetts governor’s office and first ran for president, 11 of his top aides purchased their state-issued computer hard drives, and the Romney administration’s e-mails were all wiped from a server, according to interviews and records obtained by the Globe." Sounds kinda hinky. It'll be interesting to see if this story grows legs.



Thursday morning chatter

Rummaging through the GOP clown car... In "The Rise and Fall and Rise of Newt Gingrich," Bob Cesca reminds us in painful detail why the disgraced former Speaker of the House would be nothing short of a disaster as the GOP's nominee.

The Herman Cain Art Project goes dark... After totally pooching an easy question about U.S. foreign policy toward Libya on Monday in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Herman Cain's campaign has decided it's better to be seen than heard. Who can blame them? Add his clueless response to the Libya question to the list of his other blunders (the Right of Return, Uz beki beki beki...) and what it adds up to is a whole lot of stupid. Cain was scheduled to sit down with New Hampshire's influential Union Leader newspaper today for an interview but cancelled. According to AP reporter Steve Poeples, it was due to a disagreement over timing. Sure, sure. This morning, Michael Calderone at Huffington Post reported the Cain campaign requested the hour-long interview be cut to 20 minutes and that no cameras/video be allowed. It sounds like the newspaper balked at his request. After all, it takes Cain 20 minutes, alone, to figure out what country it is his questioners are talking about.

Occupy Wall Street marks its two-month anniversary... Mayor Boss Hogg Bloomberg may have had Zucotti Park cleared, but the movement is alive and well, celebrating its two-month anniversary with a day of protest around New York's financial district. Similar events are also scheduled for today around the country. Ah, beautiful chaos...

From the You Gotta Be Kidding Me department... In some weird, desperate gambit, debate Gaffe Master Rick Perry challenged House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to a public debate on Monday. Ba ha ha ha. At her news conference this morning she responded to the request mockingly, “He did ask if I could debate here in Washington on Monday — it is my understanding that such a letter has come in. Monday, I’m going to be in Portland in the morning, visiting some of our labs in California in the afternoon, that’s two … I can’t remember what the third thing is." Classic!

Mitt Romney: the Bob Dole of 2012?



Canadian Press Images

Reading Steve Kornacki's piece "The GOP and electoral suicide" at Salon.com I got to thinking, the race for the 2012 Republican nomination is the strangest, most fluid nominating contest I've ever followed (going back to the early '90's). Analytical skill and instinct be damned, there is just no predicting who will win it. Or is there?
Rachel Maddow (one of the most brilliant minds in politics & media today), predicts with certainty Mitt Romney will take it. She's the one with the doctorate and a staff of researchers, so maybe she's right; but I'm not convinced. She may be failing to grasp the depth and intensity of GOPers distrust and dislike of Romney.
Once the good 'ol boy party poo bahs decide to get behind one candidate (which I believe will be Rick Perry), the pretenders (Newt Gingrich, Herman Cain, Rick Santorum, Michele Bachmann) will fade and the race will end somewhere between South Carolina and Florida. It's worth noting that in 2008 Romney couldn't buy the race. He tried mightily but got shellacked in Iowa by cash-strapped insurgent Gov. Mike Huckabee. Talk about embarrassing. Then he got beat by a weak John McCain in New Hampshire and SC (where he didn't have a prayer).
In Romney I see Groundhog Day. Why would voters be any more inclined to support him now than they did in 2008? His elitism and Olympic-level flip-floppery is even more evident now than it was then. If there's one thing voters from across the political spectrum agree on, it's having a general disgust for politicians with no moral core. Romney's campaign slogan might as well be I'll Tell You Whatever You Want to Hear!
If the GOP establishment does get behind Romney, he will most likely go down in history as the Bob Dole of 2012 (a mere sacrificial lamb). The meaning? They'll be done with him once and for all; and are already focusing on real presidential aspirants for 2016.
But like I said before, who knows. This race and political climate is unlike any other in modern times. If Maddow winds up being right and Romney becomes the GOP nominee, I will bow down before her brilliance and courage in making this early call. If my instinct is right and Perry wins his party's backing, she should hire me.