Day: September 19, 2009

Mike Huckabee The Winner In Straw Poll at Values Voters Summit

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Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is the winner of the straw poll taken at the Values Voter Summit in Washington DC taking place this weekend.

With 29 percent of the vote, he beat out four other candidates who each had about 12 percent of the vote–Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, Sarah Palin, and Mike Pence. The other four candidates–Newt Gingrich, Bobby Jindal, Ron Paul, and Rick Santorum–received single digits in the poll.

While this is a nice moment for Huckabee, it is clear that it is no bellweather as to what will happen at the GOP National Convention in 2012. The race for the White House has barely begun!

A Major Week In Diplomacy Coming Up!

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Diplomacy will take the front seat next week when President Obama not only goes to the United Nations, but also to the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh as the host of the conference, and also separate and then joint meetings with the leaders of Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

The fact of so many meetings with foreign leaders so close together will mark this coming week as a crucial week in foreign policy, although it may take time to analyze the effect of these conferences and summits.

Barack Obama And The United Nations

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President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have set an ambitious agenda for next week’s annual Fall meeting of the United Nations in New York City.

The subjects of climate change, women’s rights, nuclear non-proliferation, and dealing with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are on the agenda, and Obama himself will address the first and third issues in presentations before the international body.

The strategy of the Obama Administration is to promote a close relationship with the UN, a body often ignored by the Bush Administration, so it is a very directly opposite approach, which it will be interesting to see if any progress is made on these crucial issues.

Again, who knows how it will all play out long term, but one must certainly realize that Obama and Clinton are taking major steps to transform our foreign policy view of the world, and our relationships with other nations around the world.

The Lies of Fox News Channel: Nothing New!

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Fox News Channel had the gall to advertise on Friday that it was the only station to cover last weekend’s FreedomWorks/Tea Party March on Washington, DC.

That assertion, of course, is a complete lie, as CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC, and CBS all spent a lot of time and energy on the reporting of this event, even though many of the demonstrators seemed unhappy that the “evil” media was there, showing us the level of hate and craziness that represented a large portion of the gathering.

This lie comes on top of Glenn Beck’s looniness, asserting that close to two million people were at the gathering, when only about 70,000 were present. I personally witnessed on C Span the large amount of the National Mall that had green grass showing, certain proof of the low turnout.

Apparently, Fox News Channel and its anchors have no trouble telling the “Big Lie”, reminding us of Adolf Hitler, who exploited the idea that the more you repeat something, the more people will believe it. So accuracy and honesty are not needed, when a media source has an agenda, and is ultimately out to make money, and to hell with the truth! 🙁

Fox News Channel owes apologies for its lies, but if one is waiting for such a response, we will stop breathing first. 🙁

The Values Voters Summit In Washington, DC

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This weekend, we are seeing the Values Voters Summit in Washington, DC, a followup on the FreedomWorks/Tea Party protests of last weekend.

This group of social conservatives has welcomed various presidential possibilities to speak before their organization, but only four have done so–Tim Pawlenty, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, and Mike Pence. Each, of course, is trying to outdo the other in appealing to this group, which is having discussions on such issues as: The Global Warming Hysteria; The Pro Death Agenda; Rationing Your Life Away with Obamacare; and Fighting the Vast Left Wing Conspiracy.

It is hard to read this list of areas of discussion without guffawing like a hyena LOL 🙂 Does this group really believe that it is to be regarded as anything more than a group of right wing whackos with such titles and topics being employed, and no hint of any solutions to the many problems this nation faces?

The most interesting thing to come out of this series of meetings will be the straw poll of who is favored by this group, with the choices being the four mentioned above, plus Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin, Ron Paul, Rick Santorum, and Bobby Jindal.

As one looks at this group of contenders, all nine of them, it is hard to avoid big smiles and knowing looks, that ALL of them, with again the exception of Romney, would seem to the observer to have not a chance of seriously challenging President Obama in 2012. That does not mean that Romney does not have major weaknesses, but none of the others would seem to have any strength or backing that could possibly make them competitive.

Then again, however, it could be, as many are starting to observe, that the GOP nominee for 2012 might very well not come from this group, and may be someone that nobody has been taking seriously yet or even thought of up to this point. After all, at this stage in September 2005, who was thinking about Barack Obama?

So, as always, American politics is a stimulating and exciting sport, with the impossibility this far ahead of imagining what the final game in 2012 will be like!