High Ground Underground

On this Halloween, I can’t think of anything scarier than the thought of another Obama term. But the GOP race is lately a bit scary, as well, with mud flying. Following up on my last blog, regarding Romneycare, I now feel vindicated for my intuition. Perry is scaring people by running an ad with clips of Romney that show him apparently endorsing Romneycare for the nation like Obamacare. But when interviewed on the Russert program, Romney said that Perry’s ad misleadingly left out the explicit qualification he gave at the same time of “not at the federal level.” Sometimes you have to suspend judgment or use common sense until you have the facts. As the saying goes, a lie (or half-truth) goes halfway around the world before the truth gets out the door. To raise an accusation is always easier and less time-consuming than to answer it. But to prove I can be objective and reasonably fair, I was disappointed at an ad I saw run by the Romney campaign showing Perry bumbling in the debate...

My personal Nevada Poll On Oct. 15 I volunteered for Mitt Romney’s campaign, making survey phone calls for 3 hours to GOP voters in the Las Vegas area (N. Las Vegas, Boulder City, Henderson, Pahrump, Alamo, Searchlight (Harry Reid country), Beatty, Tonopah, Overton, Panaca, Pioche & Round Mountain) just days before the CNN debate there. Questions included: what’s the next most important issue besides the economy & jobs, which candidate do you support, whether they planned on participating in the Nevada caucuses, and if they support Romney, whether they’d be willing to help and/or receive emails. I made 93 calls, and got 18 to go thru the survey. Of those 18, 5 ½ for Romney (halves were split w. another candidate), 3 + two halves for Cain, 1 for Newt & ½ for Ron Paul. 7 undecided. A small sample, but seems consistent w. national polls, except Perry. I also left 39 voice messages (expected on a Sat. afternoon), 12 were unavailable (someone else answered), 10 not intere...

With Palin & Christy now finally definitely out, the GOP field is settling down. Even after the debate at Dartmouth today, the top tier appears to be Romney, Cain & Perry, although Perry seems still stuck in his fallen 3rd place. Cain started for the first time to take criticism of his 9-9-9 plan, and Huntsman said when he first heard of it, he thought it was the price of a pizza, with reference to Cain’s time as Godfather’s Pizza CEO. Bachman took a different humorous tack and noted that 9-9-9 upside down is 666, and that the devil's in the details. I noted yesterday on Romney’s news page several new lower level endorsements, and today the important endorsement of Chris Christy, New Jersey governor. In his endorsement statement, Christy said that Romney was clearly the most qualified candidate who can beat Obama, with both his business and public leadership experience, saying America cannot survive another 4 years of Obama. He also said that religious matters don’t ma...

Pastor Jeffress and the C-word At the Values Voters Summit in Washington where the GOP candidates & some supporters spoke, First Baptist Church of Dallas pastor Robert Jeffress introduced Gov. Perry, calling him a “genuine follower of Jesus Christ & born again, and that’s what we want.” This is unmistakable code among especially Evangelicals who apparently call every self-proclaimed Christian creed except Mormons Christians. Just think back to Huckabee’s “Christian candidate” signs & TV ads in 2008. We’re savvy to that subterfuge. But Perry-supporting callers to shows continue to use it. “He later told reporters that Christians have a “duty” to vote for a “competent Christian” over an equally-competent person of another faith. Specifically, he said Evangelicals should pull the lever for Perry over Mitt Romney because of Romney’s Mormonism, which Jeffress said is “a cult”. And now, we have a media-hyped brouhaha over religious bigotry in the Republican Party.” [from “Th...

From Occupy Venice, Calif.: "We want to take our government back." No, you're the idiots that put Obama in government. Or maybe I misunderstand, and you want to get on board the Tea Party train that already left the station? Another is against the special & financial interests that have bought and paid for government. Now there I can agree, although no doubt in a very different way. Like the unions, welfare class, media, Hollywood, liberal special interests, etc. Another demands that debts be forgiven -- personal debts like credit cards, loans, mortgages, etc. Yes, probably an economics major. And when that happens, everyone with money in banks that has been loaned loses, businesses go under, and economic chaos reigns. Noone would ever get loans again. If our national debt were forgiven, or other countries' (like Greece), the entire global economic system would collapse. But of course that's exactly what the Marxists (& Jihadists, etc.) want -- the...

“Strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel” The “Occupy Wallstreet” movement seems to be working hand in hand with Obama’s class warfare rhetoric – just when he & Harry are pushing for the millionaire tax. Which, by the way, they know will never pass (even Dems are abandoning the party line), and it wouldn’t help jobs, the economy or deficit even if it did pass. Senator McConnell notes that 4 of 5 millionaires are small business owners (employers). But they need another scapegoat (Congress, GOP, Tea Party, big business, Wall Street) to blame the economy on, especially as Obama goes on the campaign trail. And they blame the GOP for playing politics? How closely aligned they & the protesters are may be somewhat unclear, but interesting that Obama’s been calling for people to get fired up, get involved, etc. And his biggest donors, incl. SEIU, have been found heavily involved. Obama says he understands/sympathizes with the protesters who he believes reflect a broader frustratio...