Day: January 3, 2011

History, Losing The Vice Presidency, and Sarah Palin: A Reality Check!

Ronald 1 Comment

Many people seem to think that Sarah Palin, the losing Vice Presidential nominee in 2008, has a real shot at being elected President of the United States in 2012.

The fact that Sarah Palin is ill qualified to be President, and the thought of what a nightmare it would be if such an ill informed, ignorant person such as the former Alaska Governor were to be elected, is also mollified by historical reality.

What is that historical reality? Only ONCE in American history has a LOSING Vice Presidential nominee gone on later to be elected President!

And what is that one exception to the rule that losing candidates do not go on to become President? FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, who ran with Governor James Cox of Ohio, in the worst ever defeat of a Presidential candidate until that time, in the Election of 1920, which brought us Warren G. Harding to the Presidency and Calvin Coolidge to the Vice Presidency! Franklin D. Roosevelt went on to be elected President TWELVE years later, in the worst depths of the Great Depression.

But that is indeed the only time a losing VP candidate has been elected President, and when one looks at all of the losing Vice Presidential candidates since 1960, Sarah Palin pales by comparison!

The list includes, chronologically by election, the following:

Henry Cabot Lodge
William E. Miller
Edmund Muskie
Sargeant Shriver
Bob Dole
Walter Mondale
Geraldine Ferraro
Lloyd Bentsen
Dan Quayle
Jack Kemp
Joe Lieberman
John Edwards

And only Dole and Mondale were nominated by their parties to run for President.

So the Palin lovers out there–it is time to face reality, as Sarah Palin has no chance to become President, and she certainly is no Franklin D. Roosevelt! 🙂

Should Congressman Paul Ryan Have Ultimate Control Of The National Budget? NO! :(

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One of the earliest planned actions of the House Republicans, once they take control on Wednesday, is to propose that House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin be given total control over the House budget as it will go through the House Ways and Means Committee.

If this happens, it will be an unprecedented move, giving one member of the House total control, without a vote on each part of the budget by the entire House of Representatives.

Ryan, while regarded by some as very bright and talented a legislator, has a very extreme view of budgetary matters, with the emphasis on cutting taxes endlessly on the wealthy, and ruthlessly cutting programs on education, health care, social security, the environment, and all other domestic programs.

It is an extreme right wing radical attack on the budgetary process, with the likely outcome being further polarization of the social classes and a direct attack on the whole concept of the New Deal and the Great Society!

It would represent an attempt to take us back to the years before Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson. It would negate much of the 20th century reforms that have advanced this nation into the 21st century!

Fortunately, the Senate and the President would stand in the way, but it will mean total gridlock and stalemate, instead of cooperative progress to deal with the many social and economic issues the country faces in 2011!

It would be a tremendous tragedy of massive proportions, with the outcome for 2012 hard to predict! 🙁

House Republicans’ War Against Health Care Legislation! :(

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House Republicans have announced that they will hold a vote on January 12 on repeal of the Obama Health Care legislation, which is just beginning to go into effect as the new year begins.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has made it clear that the US Senate will NOT support repeal, and of course, it is obvious that President Obama will veto any such legislation, were it to reach his desk.

So what is the point of such a vote, which Michele Bachmann and others says will be brought up weekly if it does not pass? 🙁

It is to please the Tea Party Nation activists who want to destroy everything positive that has been done by the Obama Administration in the first two years of the Obama Presidency. It is a right wing attempt to help powerful special interest groups that want to further the aim of making the top few percent of the nation richer than ever, as if there is not enough stratification of the society already, much more than any nation that is said to be democratic in nature in this world! 🙁

The Republican Party is warring on the American people and their best interests, and they are demonstrating very clearly that they have no agenda other than to put America back to the year 2008, as if Barack Obama had never been elected President. 🙁

Their efforts will be unproductive, until if they win control of the Senate and the White House, and by 2013, it will be clear that public opinion does not wish a repeal of the health care legislation.

The House Republicans are fighting a rear guard action which will just be for propaganda reasons, and health care will survive, including a Supreme Court decision probably by the end of 2012, and the GOP will look in history as against a necessary reform, advocated for a century and long overdue!

Congressman Darrell Issa: Publicity Seeker And Witch Hunter! :(

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Congressman Darrell Issa of California is about to become Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and that means he will be in the news on a daily basis, as he seeks to promote an agenda.

And what is that agenda? It is to prove what he believes: that the Obama Administration is the most corrupt administration we have had in a long time!

On the Rush Limbaugh radio show in October, Issa went so far as to say that Barack Obama was the most corrupt President of modern times, but has now changed it to say it is not him, but his administration, without clarifying what the difference is, or to explain what he means!

But then, is it necessary to have facts, or is it not just enough to throw around charges and accusations, and make the front pages of the news, and prevent the administration from trying to deal with real problems, by having to deal with constant subpoenas for material, and appearances by officials at constant hearings? 🙁

Is Darrell Issa anything more than a publicity seeker and witch hunter, in many ways similar to Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, who claimed Communists in every bed and under every bed and everywhere else? 🙁

It might be interesting to investigate Darrell Issa himself, who never saw any problems during the Bush Administration, and happens to be the wealthiest member of Congress, and is only surpassed in personal wealth by one politician in America–Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City!

This is also the man who led the movement to “recall” Governor Gray Davis of California only months after he won a solid re-election victory in 2002, leading to the special “recall” election which made Arnold Schwarzenegger Governor, after Issa came to the conclusion that he was unable to compete in that race itself! 🙁

Is Darrell Issa the savior of America, when he fails to realize that the Nixon, Reagan, and second Bush Administrations had plenty of scandal, which he conveniently forgets, while he throws around wild accusations against Barack Obama and his administration? 🙁

What it comes down to is that Darrell Issa is a nightmare for the country, and will contribute nothing positive to deal with the many problems the nation faces in the next two years! 🙁

Senator Lindsey Graham And Afghanistan: Horrible Advice! :(

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South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham yesterday suggested that the United States build and retain a permanent military presence on Afghan soil, and that we recognize the need for our involvement in that forsaken nation for the long run.

This suggestion comes upon evidence that the Afghanistan War is not going well, and that the struggle on the ground against the Taliban is deteriorating rapidly, and that the nation is being given “a bill of goods”, that is a bunch of lies, similar to what we were told in 1966 and 1967 about the Vietnam War!

Joe Scarborough on MSNBC this morning made it clear that he had strong doubts about the wisdom of such a commitment, and being a former conservative Republican Congressman from north Florida, his words ring with brilliance.

As has been stated before on this blog, it is time for the nation and President Obama to stop manipulating the truth, and face the reality that Afghanistan is a lost cause, that NATO allies are rapidly leaving, and that we cannot afford a permanent presence, when we are rapidly losing our economic supremacy in the world.

Instead of talk about cutting Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, education, health care, the environment, and other essential domestic needs, the way to cut spending dramatically is to leave Afghanistan and Iraq as soon as possible, and stop unsustainable military adventures!

Otherwise, we are on the road to destruction, and the decline of what many are now calling the American Empire! 🙁

Zillow.com Reports White House Value Is Down About 25 Percent! How Ridiculous That Is! :)

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The real estate website Zillow.com reports that the White House’s value is down about 25 percent, part of the general real estate decline in this nation over the past few years.

Supposedly, that is supposed to make the 65 percent of the country that owns real estate to feel better, with the rapid decline in housing values.

But it is no solace at all, and it really blows one’s mind to think that the White House used to be valued at $332 million, but is now worth $253 million.

The whole concept that the White House, the home of all Presidents except George Washington, and the greatest museum and historic site imaginable in the United States, is worth anything less than PRICELESS, is totally ridiculous!

The White House is not only valuable for the above reasons, but also because it is the symbol of the magnificence and greatness of the American republic, a beacon in world history that will never be surpassed, and cannot be valued in monetary terms!