Continue reading »]]> Congratulations to former Pennsylvania Senator and Presidential Hopeful Rick Santorum!

His campaign has managed to produce the worst 30 second spot I’ve seen in my life. In it, a supposed Mitt Romney lookalike uses a paintball gun to fire shots of mud at Santorum–all of which miss their target.  It’s title?  Absolutely terrible: “Rombo.”

(If you’re unable to see the dreck embedded above, please click here to watch it.)

This is the kind of imagery I expect to see in a local race for Congress–not for a Presidential hopeful.  A candidate with a message as strong as Santorum’s doesn’t need his campaign to stoop to poorly produced spots.   Rick Santorum is a solid conservative.  This kind of ad is poor advice from his campaign and they’re not serving him well with this commercial.

I’ve no problem with the substance of the ad–he can go after Romney all he wants to and draw what ever distinction he thinks is appropriate.  The imagery is just bush league, though…and the production value isn’t all that impressive, either.

This is one of the worst ads I’ve seen in a long, long time.   Downright embarrassing.

#fitn

Continue reading »]]> This morning I was a guest on WNYC’s “The Takeaway” as part of a panel of  four Republican Voters to discuss the current state of the GOP primaries.

I appeared as someone who supported Mitt Romney, and each of the other participants had supported a different candidate.

Audio of the segment is below.  If you’re unable to see the audio player embedded below, you can play the segment directly from The Takeaway’s website.

The Takeaway is a co-production of WNYC Radio and Public Radio International, in collaboration with The BBC World Service, New York Times Radio and WGBH Boston.

#fitn

Continue reading »]]> Three caucuses occurred this week–each was won by Rick Santorum.  In the wake of that hat trick, here’s what I think I know.

• National polls are worthless.  What matters at this phase is the delegate count toward nomination.  Polls are for headlines.
• Perhaps I’m a bit of Primary Purist, but I take no value in caucuses–especially when, in the case of Missouri–there were no delegates attached to winning.
• Rick Santorum does, but that may be because he’s nipping at Mitt Romney’e heels in the delegate count right now.
• Santorum has vaulted into second place, but the upcoming calendar does not look promising. I can’t see him taking the lead.
• Santorum will also have a tough time because he IS so solidly conservative.  The Republican Party has been trying to distance itself from the Conservative wing since 1988. The GOP wants an establishment candidate because they believe that attracts the Independent voters.
• The GOP is thoroughly out of touch.
• THERE. IS. NO. RON. PAUL. FEVER.  He started focusing on caucus states several weeks and how did that pan out for him this week?  He didn’t win a single contest and managed to win one delegate.  Maybe.
• Of the 227 delegates that have been awarded so far, Ron Paul has won 9.  NINE. That’s it.
• The next actual primaries that happen are Arizona and Michigan on February 28.  I think those results will be far more telling.
• I’m still not so sure how Romney will play in some of the Southern states–some of which vote one month from now on Super Tuesday.

#fitn 

Continue reading »]]> Last month, I appeared on WNYC’s “The Takeaway” as part of a round table on voting in the New Hampshire Primary.

Tomorrow morning (Thursday) at 7:45am EST, I’ll be part of a second round table discussion on the GOP Primaries.  Each of the participants will have, in theory, supported a different candidate of the four remaining in the field.

You can listen live on a station near you or streaming over the internet at http://www.thetakeaway.org/.

#fitn

Continue reading »]]> Much to my chagrin and dismay, I’ll be watching tonight’s State of the Union Address by President Barack Obama coming up at 9pm EST. I’ll also be Tweeting during the speech, so you can follow along in the Twitter widget on the right hand side of this page, or you can always follow me on your own Twitter feed by clicking here: http://twitter.com/conblog

#fitn

Continue reading »]]> Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich won the South Carolina Primary yesterday by a 13 point margin over Mitt Romney.  In the wake of that, here are some random thoughts I think I know after this.

1. South Carolina’s Evangelical Christian Conservatives are not ready for a President from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
2. I think the winner of Florida goes on to be the nominee.   Yes, it’s a long nomination process, but I think Florida is a key victory for whomever the eventual nominee is.  Newt’s win in SC makes it a different game for Romney who hasn’t really had any really significant “good days” since he won in New Hampshire.
3. There definitely is NO Ron Paul Fever.  I said it in 2008 and it’s true again in 2012.   Dr. Paul will focus more heavily on caucus states, most likely because his supporters can bus people in and swarm them (which is presumably what they did in Iowa.)  At the end of the day, it comes down to “delegate math,” and there isn’t an equation that sees Ron Paul winning out.
4. There are still incredibly deep divisions between the three wings of the party, which I define as Estabslishment, Conservative, and Libertarian.  The Estabslishment GOP wants nothing to do with the other two.  The Libertarian GOP thinks the other two are part of the great conspiracy.  The Conservative GOP believes the Establishment types are RINOs and the Libertarians are anything but realists.
5. Mitt Romney is the Establishment candidate.
6. Newt Gingrich is considered to be the Conservative candidate by many–but shouldn’t be. (More on this later.)
7. Rick Santorum is the only truly Conservative candidate in this race, but he doesn’t have a path to nomination.
8. Ron Paul is the Libertarian candidate–and the other two groups in the GOP will never take him seriously (nor should they).

The Roundtable portion of this morning’s “Meet the Press” on NBC was interesting to watch.  I learned that former Congressman and current MSNBC host Joe Scarborough is no fan of Gingrich’s.  He, like the other panelists, seem to think that Conservatives are trying to send the GOP a message.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Scarborough and Gingrich probably don’t exchange Christmas cards, I’m thinking.  He’s also right about Gingrich.  I won’t go as far as Glenn Beck did to call Newt a “Progresssive,” but he certainly has very little leeway to cast stones at Mitt Romney.

#fitn

Continue reading »]]> In a fund raising stop at Harlem’s Apollo Theater, President Barack Obama found out that legendary R&B singer, the Rev. Al Green, was in the audience and…uh…well…he paid…tribute.

(If you are unable to see the video clip embedded above, please click here.)

Perhaps he’s warming up for 1/20/2013. I hear he could have a lot of free time on his hands starting then.

Although, I have to say, there  will never be a better version of this song than the original.  No one sings this song like Al Green.

(What’s that you say? You can’t see the video above that features Al Green’s  ”Let’s Stay Together?” Click here, then!)

#fitn

Continue reading »]]> Texas Governor Rick Perry dropped out of the running for the GOP nomination today, hours before a televised debate between all the GOP hopefuls.  Perry becomes the second hopeful this week to drop from the race right before a debate in South Carolina.

In announcing his decision to suspend his campaign, Perry stated something that voters have known since he threw his hat into the ring:  ”There is no viable path forward for me in this 2012 campaign.”

The support for Perry was just never there.  He got into the race late, and seemed to like campaigning about as much as Fred Thompson.   Coming in last in New Hampshire certainly didn’t help him and he surprised more than a few people by continuing to campaign in South Carolina.  It also didn’t help him that he’s a Texas Governor.  We’ve had one of those as President in recent memory and a lot of voters just aren’t ready to do that again at this point.

Rick Perry also threw his support to former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich–which strikes me as odd.  I could see him possibly supporting Rick Santorum, but his support of Speaker Gingrich seems just a little out of place.  It almost makes me wonder if his support came with a price tag–notably, that of “Running Mate” should Newt be the nominee.

#fitn

(If you are unable to see the embedded video above, please click here.)

Continue reading »]]>

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