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Tuesday, August 16, 2011

It's that political season again

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We're still 15 months from a presidential election, but the hateful political rhetoric has already started. I don't mean a playful snipe here and there; I mean full-blown hate. It's contagious, and it's like 2007 all over again.

You know it's getting out of hand when Karl Rowe is telling the republican candidates to tone it down. He said Rick Perry was not being presidential when he said of Chairman Bernanke ""If this guy prints more money between now and the election, I dunno what y'all would do to him in Iowa, but we would treat him pretty ugly down in Texas. Printing more money to play politics at this particular time in American history is almost treasonous – or treasonous, I thought." Rick Perry came out like a man who needed to put out all of his talking points in one day. He's going to have to walk a lot of it back, like his vaccine mandate, after some concern from some key GOP constituencies. He now says "I readily stand up and say I made a mistake on that," Perry said Monday on an Iowa radio call-in show.

I don't think we'll hear much from Michelle Bachmann until next GOP debate, unless she says something really outrageous. I think the media wants it to be between Perry and Romney, and they will continue to throw out the red meat; hoping to get the next big story. That's the reason James Carville and Paul Begala started the Clinton war room. It was set up to answer their opponent's latest criticism, before the press could run with it. In the 2008 campaign, Obama set up a web site to counter the falsehoods. Mitt Romney and Rick Perry are ready exchanging blows, so we will get a nightly recap. They have thrown out that old Ronald Reagan commandment “thou shall not talk ill of a fellow republican." I can't lie. I'm going to enjoy every minute of it.

I thought it was just a habit of national republicans, not to answer a stated question, but instead just continue with their talking points. I noticed where a local poll asked what people thought of Governor Rick Perry running for president. A simple question but the Ron Paulities used it to promote Ron Paul's run. I think Sarah Palin came up with that strategy after her interviews with Katie Couric. Michelle Bachmann will not shy away from the press, but she stays on her talking points and won't answer questions about her controversial views or statements. Rick Perry and Mitt Romney have yet to go on "Meet the Press" but I don't think they can avoid it and still have a successful run.

I think it would be great if the national press would manufacture a jobs crisis. The debt ceiling crisis was manufactured by those who wanted stipulations. Wouldn't be great if we had a super committee with a mandate to come up with a jobs program, in a month or so? Once they came up with a jobs program that was successful, we could pick another super committee to come up with a plan to start withdrawing our troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. What's the real message? We have a polarized Congress that can't function as a normal lawmaking body because of ideological differences that some cannot let go of.

18 comments:

Edith Ann said...

Perhaps Michelle Bachmann is going to stand back and let the others devour Rick Perry. When they are done with him, she daintily tippy-toe over his mangled carcass and step up to the podium where she will answer any question asked with unrelated talking points.

Mike said...

EA
You are always thinking and I just heard that when the dust is settled;Bachmann may be the reasonable one.It won't be because of her brilliant economic policies and it will drive Karl Rove crazy but that is just icing on the cake...:-)

Michelle's shouted out a Happy Birthday to Elvis today and she put some effort into it,but today was the anniversary of his death..She said she forgot her teleprompter(a swipe @ Obama) Instead of just saying she goofed.

Edith Ann said...

If Michelle Bachmann is the reasonable one of the bunch, the we are in serious doo-doo!

My favorite quote about Michelle is--

"To say Michelle Bachmann had a lucid moment is like saying serial killers are not all bad since they don't kill everyone they meet."

She has left a trail of sound bytes that will keep even the laziest political junkie busy from now until the election.

It will not be boring.

Mike said...

EA
The pundit was laughing while he was saying that but the GOP is playing with fire, because it's obvious that the tea party is driving the GOP primary. It Rick Perry and Michelle Bachmann stay on that right wing message it's going be hard for them in the general.

This is how the pundits see it for now.... They think Mitt Romney is stupid for not playing in Iowa because if Mitt wins in Iowa it's all over. Mitt Romney will win in New Hampshire take the momentum and most of the money. He will lose in South Carolina but will win Nevada.... If Rick Perry wins Iowa, he will lose New Hampshire, but will split South Carolina and probably lose in Nevada. On the other hand if Michelle wins Iowa she will lose New Hampshire and be competitive with Perry in South Carolina but would lose Neveda.
I think the back rooms of the big money boys are still trying to persuade someone that can win a general election.

I was shocked to hear a GOP strategists say that some in his party think if they could put a grandfather figure as vice president on the Michelle Bachman ticket to calm the nerves of the GOP voters like they did for President George W. Bush.... I suspect he just wanted to throw that stuff out there.

Mike said...

I can't believe we are still 15 months from the presidential election but the Ron Paulities are acting like a bunch of cry babies because they want media coverage.

Ron Paul has run two unsuccessful presidential campaigns with the same message. Big deal, he came in second in the unimportant Ames poll. The bigger deal was that he came in second to Michelle Bachmann. As Stephen Colbert said " she got 80% of which she paid for."...... He would be the least likely person to pass a piece of legislation through the house and senate because he's on another system altogether.... What is Ron Paul gonna say that we haven't heard already? He preaches but he doesn't have a plan to create jobs... Most of the followers are into hero worship because one man cannot fix the European markets, all of our trade imbalances, or get Congress to agree on anything.

Mike said...

Beakus confirms my belief that conservatives think they hold the keys to the truth and anything to the contrary is liberal and not to be believed or trusted. Allowing an opposing view will hurt their psyche.

Beakus is probably surrounded by other conservatives all day long, and watches filtered media to satisfy or confirm what he believes.

Edith Ann said...

I still think part of their thinking is based on the notion that they are the annoited ones, and they are just helping to fulfil prophecy. Just wait till the campaigns heat up. We are going to hear all kinds of stuff!

Kyle said...

It's going to get worse before it gets better!

Edith Ann said...

I agree Kyle! I'm looking forward to the gloves coming off. We'll get to see who the nastiest is.

Just now listening to the young female guest host, Melissa Harris-Perry on The Last Word ponder why Michelle Bachmann can say that her faith in America has been restored (by all those lovely voters on the campaign trail) and the press doesn't touch it, but when Michelle Obama said that for the forst time in her life she had faith in her country (after talking with all those lovely voters on the campaign trail), she was vilified by the press.

This is the kind of stuff I want to see. We can't tolerate a double standard. They need to be called on every 'misspoken' phrase.

Mike said...

EA & Kyle
You're right we might be in the eye of the storm right now.
I didn't know we had that many posters that are Ron Paul supporters. I counted 12 but I suspect there are several more and if his poll numbers come up, they'll come out in the open. That's good, because that's what democracy is all about. On the other hand, th it's only fair because I should know what I'm dealing with.

I've been calling out some posters for using the word "WE" as if they were representative of Victoria or our forum. I wonder if they realize that posters and letter writers make up a very tiny percent of Victoria?

Well,Kyle and EA, welcome to the club, now we all have targets on our back every time we comment...:-) I have blogs and Quotes of the Day dedicated to little old me at the VA..Fair enough,I have this blog.

The other day I caught rollinstone in a lie again, and posted a link highlighting the lie. Just like Michelle Bachmann and Rick Perry he answered with a revisionist history post that had nothing to do with what he previously posted. It's gonna be lie, get caught, double down, and obfuscate.

Next year, around this time, we will probably have a new group of posters because the right wingers are going all out to avoid having a two term president Barack Obama and they go over the line and get banned.

Mike said...

Lol.... " I threw a rock over the fence and the hit dog will holler" I really didn't have rollingstone in mind when I stated that but there are posters that hate the president.

Mike said...

It didn't take long for Rick Perry to make the full circle.....In the 2010 he said he is a "firm believer in intelligent design as a matter of faith and intellect" and when questioned about climate change he said "a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data so that they will have dollars rolling in to their projects.".....I like Jon Huntsman's tweet ""To be clear. I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy."...Why didn't someone tell how right wing this guy was?

Edith Ann said...

There is just a whole bunch of stuff that Perry is going to have to back pedal on. You go around shooting off your mouth, and it will come back to bite you in the butt.

The media will ferret out all of his goofs and 'misspeaks' soon enough.

Anonymous said...

Businessmen are all about manipulating the business situation to their financial advantage. That is what business is and that is what businessmen do.
Politicians are all about getting elected by convincing people to vote for them. That is what politics is and that is what politicians do.
When politicians seek election by passing business laws and regulations intended to transfer some of the money that businessmen would otherwise get into government coffers they almost always lose. They lose because businessmen are better at business than are politicians. Businessmen will do what businessmen do and manipulate that new situation to their financial advantage
They do this by accurately predicting future events. If you can accurately predict economic circumstances you can use that knowledge to make money. As an easily understood example, stocks do not have to go up for smart stock investors to make money. They can make money when stocks go down as well by ‘selling short’. That is, selling stock they do not yet own at a higher price than they expect it will be in the near future, and then buying that stock at the lower price when it does go down to transfer to those to whom they previously sold it at the higher price. So, they just need to be right in advance about which direction a given stock is likely to take
That is the real problem with government involvement in the economy. It too often reduces businessmen’s confidence in accurately predicting future circumstances and so reduces their aggressiveness in investing in that future. That is precisely why we are in the situation we are now in about which the Left is so outraged. Businesses have money. They just will not spend it. They will not spend it because neither they nor the politicians can predict what the effects of the last government action will be or what action the government will take next.

Mike said...

If the government would let capitalism fail, people wouldn't be going around saying high great it is.They certainly wouldn't be asking for an unfettered market.

I am not that naive to think that all CEOs are waiting for the government to act before pursuing a business decision. Mark Cuban told Bill Maher that corporations and their lobbyists will take every dollar from the taxpayer by manipulating the media and the people and laugh all the way to the bank.

Legion said...

Off topic, since the furthest back the VicAd go back is 1952, I found this about WPA projects in Victoria County, interesting stuff...

The article from 1940:
Beach Giant Skull Unearthed By WPA Workers Near Victoria
Believed to Be Largest Ever Found in World; Normal Head Also Found
That Texas "had a giant in the beach" in the long ago appears probable from the large skull recently unearthed on a mound in Victoria County, believed to be the largest human skull ever found in the United Estates and probably in the world.
Twice the size of the skull of a normal man, the fragments were dug up by W. Duffen.

http://www.sydhav.no/giants/victoria_texas.htm

Legion said...

Don't know why they said "United Estates", who knows.

Mike said...

Thanks Legion357

I was going to research some depression era jobs projects in our area for a future blog. 

Was that in Mission Valley? I hope I'm not stealing your thunder,that's not my intention but I think we are both interested in this areas history...Am I wrong?

I remember my uncles talking about some kind of CC??? job program and another guarded the German soldiers somewhere around here,so I have a lot of research to do instead of  embarrassing myself by not knowing.