Month: July 2012

The Vice Presidential Selection: More Important Than Many People Realize!

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The office of the Vice Presidency has often been ridiculed, and some have argued for its abolition by a constitutional amendment, but that is a wrong headed idea.

The Vice Presidency has become an important office since the 1950s, when Richard Nixon transformed the office, both by his own ambitions, and the willingness of President Dwight D. Eisenhower to allow the office to expand.

While Lyndon B. Johnson under John F. Kennedy and Hubert H. Humphrey under Johnson were not used effectively by their Presidents, and while Spiro Agnew under Richard Nixon and Dan Quayle under George H. W. Bush could be seen as disasters in office, still the office has grown in stature and accomplishments otherwise.

So Gerald Ford, in his brief Vice Presidency under Richard Nixon, Nelson Rockefeller under Gerald Ford, Walter Mondale under Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush under Ronald Reagan, Al Gore under Bill Clinton, Dick Cheney under George W. Bush, and Joe Biden under Barack Obama have had a great impact on the office, and made it an office of real power and influence!

When one realizes that Ford and the first Bush ended up in the White House, as did Nixon and Lyndon Johnson; and that Humphrey, Mondale, and Gore were Presidential nominees; and that Rockefeller and Biden both sought the Presidential nomination, one realizes that choosing a Vice Presidential nominee is not to be regarded as insignificant to the nation!

But can we afford another Agnew, Quayle, Geraldine Ferraro, or Sarah Palin to be a possible heartbeat away from the Presidency?

The answer clearly is NO, so Mitt Romney, by taking his time to choose a running mate, hopefully is carefully considering who could really contribute to the office, and help Romney if the two of them end up in the White House!

If one decides to forget everything but experience and competence, and ability to add to Romney’s candidacy, then the choice must be one of the following: Condoleezza Rice, Rob Portman, or Tim Pawlenty.

Bobby Jindal, Marco Rubio, Chris Christie, Paul Ryan, Bob McDonnell, John Thune, and Kelly Ayotte all have issues and problems if they are chosen, and one could argue that some of them could not match the list of Vice Presidents who have served, as not being on their competency level.

But if one had to predict what now seems likely, don’t be surprised that Mitt Romney selects Paul Ryan, which would be an unmitigated disaster, as the controversy surrounding him and his economic plans would reverberate against Mitt Romney.

The gut feeling is that Ryan is on the top of the list, followed by Kelly Ayotte, who is simply not qualified to be President, and would not be much better than Sarah Palin was in the 2008 election cycle.

So bet on Ryan or Ayotte, but if Romney does the best for the nation, it would be Rice, Portman, or Pawlenty!

Liz Cheney Glorifies Sarah Palin As More Qualified Than Barack Obama AND Joe Biden Combined! Is Liz Cheney For Real?

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Liz Cheney, the conservative activist daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, has been trying to make a name for herself on Fox News Channel, and in assisting her father in the writing of his memoirs.

She wants us to take her seriously, but it is very hard to do so after her defense of Sarah Palin, the Vice Presidential nominee selected by John McCain in 2008.

Her dad had the intelligence to admit that Sarah Palin was not qualified to be President in 2008, but she contradicted him, and made the amazing statement that Palin was better qualified for the Oval Office than Barack Obama AND Joe Biden combined!

That is a totally moronic, asinine, ridiculous statement! Biden had 36 years in the US Senate, and was one of its best members in its entire history, and made Palin look terrible in the Vice Presidential debate in 2008. And Barack Obama had a lot more experience in office, and an obviously superior intelligence and brilliance that Sarah Palin does not possess!

Of course, John McCain came to Sarah Palin’s defense, but he has to, in order to legitimize his terrible choice in 2008!

But for Liz Cheney to make such a statement makes one wonder about her own intelligence and qualifications, as she plans to run for the US Senate in Wyoming or Virginia in the future.

But her major qualification is being an “adviser” to her dad! Is that enough to make her qualified to be a Senator? The author will leave that issue to the reader to decide!

47th Anniversary Of Medicare: Something To Salute!

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Forty seven years ago, President Lyndon B. Johnson celebrated the signing of the Medicare law by presenting former President Harry Truman with the nation’s first Medicare card, at a time when Truman was 81 years old.

This was a great moment, and represented the second major reform that would affect all Americans in the future, with the first being Social Security, signed into law thirty years earlier by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935.

In both cases, the vast majority of supporters of the legislation were northern Democrats, with the help of some moderate to liberal Republicans, but both major reforms were brought about by Democratic Presidents!

And now we have a Republican Party, which in broad terms were against both reforms, pledging to privatize both programs, and yet we have millions of uninformed or ignorant voters who seem not to realize what might very well happen IF the GOP wins the majority in both houses of Congress and wins the Presidency.

The Paul Ryan budget plan makes this all evident, but apparently, you can hit someone over the head, and they will refuse to accept reality of what a GOP victory means!

The goal is to keep Social Security and Medicare as they are, with some reforms, but to do that, we must insure that the Democrats keep control of the Presidency at the least, and at least one Congressional branch as well!

Bill Clinton To Nominate Barack Obama For Second Term As President, While George W. Bush Will Avoid Republican Convention!

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President Barack Obama will be formally nominated for reelection at the Charlotte, North Carolina Democratic National Convention on Wednesday, September 5th, by former President Bill Clinton, once his most bitter rival during the battle for the Democratic Presidential nomination conducted by Senator Hillary Clinton.

But Barack Obama and Hillary and Bill Clinton have become fast friends, and Hillary Clinton has been one of the greatest Secretaries of State in American history, a master stroke by Obama to nominate the New York Senator, as Abraham Lincoln chose his most bitter rival, Senator William Seward of New York, to be his Secretary of State, who went on to conduct brilliant foreign policy, keeping Great Britain and France neutral in the Civil War, rather than recognizing the Confederacy!

At the same time, former President George W. Bush is not even attending the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, the last week of August. And as of now, neither former Vice President Dick Cheney nor former GOP Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin are planning to attend either! But even if either one does, they will certainly NOT play a major role in the convention as Bill Clinton will at the Democratic National Convention!

Is It “Good” Politics And “Good” Diplomacy” For Mitt Romney To Be So Outspoken Publicly Overseas? NO!

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Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is making controversy and creating turmoil as he continues on his foreign policy trip to convince Americans and the world that he is ready for the Presidency.

After his flubs in Great Britain, antagonizing our closest ally, he has now gone “off the bridge” in his speeches and comments in Israel.

While trying to demonstrate his strong support of Israel, and hope to wean away many Jewish voters in America from Barack Obama, Romney has managed to make things worse by his actions.

Stating that Jerusalem should be recognized as the capital of Israel by the United States, when both Republican and Democratic Presidents without fail from Lyndon B. Johnson to Barack Obama have felt it unwise to do so, creates a new problem for Middle East negotiations, which should not have been brought up at all.

It is not an issue of whether the US should recognize Jerusalem as the capital, but since both parties and all Presidents have steered clear of it up to now, for a total of 45 years, a campaign trip is the wrong place to bring it up.

Also, Romney compared Israeli and Jewish achievements to the failures of the Palestinians, which are indeed true, but should have been left unsaid, as all it does is antagonize the Arabs, which still have to be dealt with if there is to be any chance of Middle East peace at any point in the future.

And comparing israel and the Palestinians to the US and Mexico or Chile and Ecuador as examples also, unnecessarily, can make those nations angry, and serves no purpose!

Mitt Romney is demonstrating his recklessness in speech, so one wonders about his potential recklessness in action, were he to become President of the United States in 2013!

The Most Dysfunctional Congress Since The 1870s!

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The 112th Congress is so dysfunctional that it is the worst one in performance since the Reconstruction years of the 1870s after the Civil War!

The 112th Congress has produced the fewest laws since at least 1947, with only about 150 laws

Congress is usually judged by how many laws it has passed, but with a Democratic Senate and a Republican House of Representatives, nothing has been done, except for accusations back and forth.

The most conservative Democrat votes to the left of every Republican, and the most moderate Republican to the right of every Democrat, a situation that has never occurred before, with some across the aisle voting always occurring in the past, with a lot of it in the 1930s through to the early 1970s.

Congress’s popularity ratings are in the low teens, below of that of Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, an unbelievable situation!

Unless either party wins control of both houses of Congress in 2012, another four years of paralysis is likely.

But if the Republicans gain control of both houses of Congress and the White House, their purpose would be to destroy the “welfare” state of the New Deal and Great Society, wiping out a century of social and economic reform.

That would portend a possible civil war, as a large portion of the population would not tolerate such right wing extremism, and it could lead to a breakdown of our society’s stability and to foreign policy adventures which would bring deterioration of our unity!

Barack Obama: The First Democratic Presidential Noninee Since 1964 To Have The Edge On Foreign Policy In A Presidential Campaign!

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The Republican Party has often been seen as stronger on foreign policy, particularly in a Presidential year.

The last time that a Democrat had the edge on foreign policy in a Presidential campaign was in 1964, before the major escalation of the war in Vietnam, with Lyndon B. Johnson making Barry Goldwater look like a danger to world peace.

Richard Nixon had an edge on strength in foreign policy over Hubert Humphrey and George McGovern, in 1968 and 1972, just as Gerald Ford had an edge over inexperienced Jimmy Carter in 1976.

Ronald Reagan was seen as stronger than Carter and Walter Mondale in 1980 and 1984; and George H. W. Bush had significant foreign policy experience, as compared to Michael Dukakis and Bill Clinton in 1988 and 1992.

Bob Dole was seen as tougher on foreign policy than Clinton in 1996, and George W. Bush somehow came across as stronger in 2000 because of his running mate, Dick Cheney, and kept that edge over John Kerry in 2004.

And finally, John McCain was seen as far more knowledgeable than Barack Obama in 2008.

But now, with the respect Obama has around the world, his active drone attack on terrorists. and the removal of Osama Bin Lade and Moammar Gaddafi, it is tough for Mitt Romney, who has no background in foreign affairs, to look stronger in foreign policy.

Mitt Romney And The Salt Lake City Winter Olympics 2002: Another Scandal And Boondoggle!

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Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican Presidential nominee, has boasted about how he saved the Salt Lake City Winter Olympic Games of 2002.

What he has not told us is that those Olympics received $2.7 billion in federal funds, equivalent of a bailout, with most of it going to improve the public services of Salt Lake City, as Romney was unable to gain much private investment. So the taxpayers of the nation added to the national debt to present the Olympics, and Romney took credit for its “success”, without revealing that it was on taxpayer money.

But now Romney has the gall to say that taxpayer money was used to bail out General Motors and Chrysler, even though it saved the auto industry in the Midwest, and has been paid back handsomely by those auto companies!

Additionally, Romney had said that the records of the Salt Lake City Olympics would be fully available for journalists and others, and that he believed in “transparency”, but then he proceeded to make it impossible for the records to be accessed, and as it turns out, the records of Romney’s activities have strangely disappeared!

What is clear is that Mitt Romney is not only a liar and a deceiver, but he is also corrupt, and has spent his life covering his tracks, including his refusal to reveal his tax records, because it is clear that they would show manipulation and chicanery in his financial dealings!

This is a man who is secretive, distant, insincere, arrogant, and thinking he is “entitled” to the Presidency being handed to him on a silver platter!

We need to make sure that does not happen this November 6, exactly one hundred days from today! Barack Obama supporters must do whatever they can to guarantee that our 44th President has another term in the White House, which he richly deserves!

The Split Personality John McCain: Reasonable On Michele Bachmann, Irrational On Cybersecurity!

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Arizona Senator John McCain, the 2008 GOP nominee for President, is a very complex man, who can be seen as having displayed courage, principle, and decency at times, but also a very nasty, temperamental, unreasonable, and irrational man at times.

So recently, McCain demonstrated the “good” side, by condemning Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann for labeling Huma Abedin, an aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as linked to Islamic terrorism, with no evidence or proof of such activity, and therefore acting like a new Joseph McCarthy. McCain has opened up a bitter debate about the controversial Bachmann, with Speaker of the House John Boehner supporting what he said, while House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has supported Bachmann.

This battle could cause splits at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, a month from now, but McCain is not backing off.

Now, McCain, however, is showing his irrational, unreasonable side by leading the fight against strong legislation to protect computer systems that are responsible for operating the nation’s critical infrastructure!

There are dangers of a crippling cyberattack by terrorists, but McCain is supporting the business community that does not wish to have stronger government regulation to enforce minimum standards on systems that run power plants, air traffic control systems, dams and similar facilities.

Opposition to the Homeland Security Department setting minimum standards of cybersecurity creates a scenario of the possibility of mass casualties or great economic calamity if such a cyberattack were to occur. The US Chambers of Commerce, one of the leading critics of the Obama Administration, is the leader in fighting greater government oversight, and McCain and other Republicans are their willing servants, sad to say!

McCain is acting totally irrational on this matter, and has opened a rift with two Senators usually his best friends, Republican Susan Collins of Maine, and Independent Democrat Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, with Lieberman and McCain becoming engaged in an openly angry exchange at a private meeting of senators and staff members. McCain actually shouted at Lieberman, showing again his infamous temper!

It makes one happy that McCain did not win the Presidency in 2008, but even without winning, he unleashed on America the nightmare of Sarah Palin, who will simply not go away!

So we can applaud McCain when he is right, as on Michele Bachmann’s McCarthyism, but we must condemn him for kowtowing to business interests on the cybersecurity matter!

Irionically, if a cyberattack were to occur, who would get blamed, at least originally? Barack Obama and the national government, even though they are trying to bring about a security system that makes sense, but that conservatives and big business interests are determined to prevent!

One Month To The Republican Convention: Time To Reconsider Mitt Romney Being The GOP Presidential Nominee, Before It Is Too Late!

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The Republican National Convention begins one month from today, and the party is in deep trouble.

It has a presumed nominee who is a total disaster, an embarrassment to the party in so many ways, it cannot be calculated.

With all of his faults and shortcomings, it was thought that Mitt Romney would conduct himself properly at the Olympic Games in Great Britain, but instead he managed to alienate, totally, our closest ally with his stupid, inane comments, and his blunders and forgetfulness–mentioning the secret intelligence service, and forgetting the name of the opposition leader, after claiming there were problems with holding the Olympics in London, as compared to Salt Lake City. The Mayor of London was incensed, along with Prime Minister David Cameron, and rightfully!

This man is now being compared by the British press to George W. Bush and Sarah Palin!

It is clearly time for the GOP to consider nominating someone else,and the answer might be to have Romney pick a running mate, who would then be nominated for President, and the best choice clearly would be former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, who dropped out of the race after the straw vote of the Iowa Caucuses, but to many seemed an acceptable candidate, somewhat boring, but still pleasant and competent!

Picking Marco Rubio, Paul Ryan, Bobby Jindal or Chris Christie would be far worse, with only Rob Portman, Senator from Ohio, being acceptable as an alternative to Pawlenty.

Would Pawlenty or Portman win over Barack Obama? Highly unlikely, but at least neither would be an embarrassment to the party or the nation!

It is time for Mitt Romney to have the courage to back down from the nomination, but he will not do so, so he must be forced by the GOP delegates to do so!

Anyone who now still thinks Mitt Romney will be the next President needs to have his head examained!