Month: August 2013

The Case For A New Generation Of Democrats For The Presidential Election Of 2016!

Ronald 7 Comments

As the Presidential race begins, and it has started already, like it or not, it is clear that Hillary Clinton, who will be 69 in 2016, and Joe Biden, who will be 74 in 2016, are the frontrunners, and that Hillary is using up most of the oxygen in the room, way ahead of Biden in polls, with other potential Democratic candidates in single digits.

But despite the confidence and optimism about Hillary and even Joe as a backup, there is a growing case for the argument that the Democratic Party should bypass both Hillary and Joe, no matter how much one may love or admire either of them, and go for a new generation of Democrats, as was done in 1960 with John F. Kennedy, in 1976 with Jimmy Carter, in 1992 with Bill Clinton, and 2008 with Barack Obama!

All of these successful Democratic Presidential winners were young–43, 52, 46, and 47 respectively at the time of the inauguration. All were younger than their GOP opponents, although Richard Nixon was only four years older, but represented a continuation of Dwight D. Eisenhower, our oldest President at the time when he retired in 1961!

But Jimmy Carter was eleven years younger than Gerald Ford; Bill Clinton 22 years younger than George H. W. Bush; and Barack Obama 25 years younger than John McCain!

The fact is ONLY three Presidents were inaugurated at age 65 or older—William Henry Harrison at age 68 and dying a month later; James Buchanan at age 65 but only 50 days short of age 66, and rated by many historians the worst President in American history; and Ronald Reagan, inaugurated at just weeks before his 70th and 74th birthday, and judged by many to have deteriorated mentally, with early Alzheimers in his second term of office!

And we have seen Bob Dole defeated at age 73 in 1996; John McCain defeated at age 72 in 2008; and Mitt Romney, defeated at age 65 inn 2012, but also about 50 days short of age 66 if he had been inaugurated, the same exact age as Buchanan was when he won in 1856!

Meanwhile, the Republican Party future is clearly in the hands of young politicians, including Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Paul Ryan, Chris Christie, and others, with these candidates being mostly in their 40s and 50s, and all younger than Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden!

Historically, in most elections, the younger candidate wins, and the party of the President usually does not do well if it utilizes someone connected with the administration leaving office, no matter what level of popularity reigns when that President leaves office, as witness:

Richard Nixon lost after Eisenhower
Hubert Humphrey lost after Lyndon B. Johnson
Gerald Ford lost after Richard Nixon
Walter Mondale lost after Jimmy Carter
Al Gore lost after Bill Clinton

If Hilary Clinton runs, she represents Obama’s foreign policy record, for good or for bad, and also brings back the good and the bad of the Presidency of her husband, Bill Clinton.

If Joe Biden runs, he represents what happens to a Vice President under a President, that the negatives of that President harm the Vice President, as with Nixon, Humphrey, Ford, Mondale, and Gore.

Only George H. W, Bush was able to overcome this hex, and succeed Ronald Reagan in 1988, although then losing reelection in 1992, the greatest percentage loss of any President in American history, except William Howard Taft in 1912!

It is reality that Democrats will be heavily favored in the Electoral College in 2016, no matter who runs, but it would be easier for a “New”, younger Democrat to be the Presidential nominee, such as Martin O’Malley, Andrew Cuomo, KIrsten Gilllibrand, Amy Klobuchar, Cory Booker, Deval Patrick, Mark Warner, John Hickenlooper, or Elizabeth Warren, all of whom are much younger than Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, with the exception of Warren, who would be 67 in 2016, which makes her a less ideal candidate based upon age!

It is important for Democrats to think carefully before they decide for a continuation of the Obama Presidency through Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden, as nominating someone younger and separated from the Obama Administration would be preferable, and easier for the grueling campaign ahead!

Lunatic Ted Cruz Declares War On The Federal Government And His Own Republican Colleagues On ObamaCare!

Ronald 36 Comments

Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, the Joseph McCarthy rabble rouser of his time, with a weird resemblance in appearance to the Wisconsin Senator who terrorized the nation and his party 60 years ago, has declared war on the federal government and his own Republican colleagues over ObamaCare!

He and the head of the Heritage Foundation, former Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina, have made it clear that the extreme right wing will not “blink” at shutting down the federal government at the budget deadline on September 30, preventing any government payments unless ObamaCare, which is federal law, is defunded. The rhetoric is as if this is the Cuban Missile Crisis, and there is no concern at the effect such a shutdown would have on the US economically, and the image of America in the world, if it is shown as paralyzed and unable to pay debts already incurred.

Cruz, a very dangerous man, is showing himself to be a lunatic, a crazy man, in many ways a domestic “terrorist”, ready to cause total chaos and anarchy if he and Jim DeMint and the Tea Party Movement crowd do not get their way on ObamaCare, which will NOT be defunded, as the Senate and President Barack Obama will never agree to end what is federal law by a majority of both houses of Congress, and endorsed as constitutional by the US Supreme Court!

But meanwhile, Cruz and DeMint are threatening all Republican Senators and Congressmen who dare to have a rational mind, and who will be unwilling to join the right wing extremist chorus for defunding ObamaCare, as they know it will do permanent harm to the Republican brand, and kill any chance of winning the Senate in 2014 and 2016, and the Presidency in 2016.

DeMint has made it clear that every GOP member of Congress, who is not on board, will face a primary challenge, and funding to kick him or her out of their seats in Congress. This is holy war on anyone unwilling to join the whacko Tea Party crowd, setting out to destroy the federal government’s ability to operate!

The time has come for GOP leadership in both houses of Congress to declare they will not be threatened, not be made hostage, not allow DeMint, Cruz, and their ilk to destroy the heritage of the Republican Party!

We will soon see, whether the GOP has guts and courage to work against these demagogues, DeMint and Cruz, but even if they do, the Republican Party is doomed long run, until it purges the cancer of the extremists, and puts Ted Cruz in his place, total repudiation by his colleagues, and censure in the same fashion by the Senate as occurred to his “look alike”, the villainous Joseph Raymond McCarthy in 1954!

Ted Cruz Repudiates His Canadian Citizenship In Ambition To Be President!

Ronald 7 Comments

Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, the bull in the China shop in the Republican Party, who has grand ambitions to be President of the United States, has taken quick action to trash his Canadian heritage, having been born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in December 1970.

While technically a citizen of both Canada and the US, due to his mother’s American citizenship, Cruz has now declared that he has no interest in remaining a dual citizen, because he knows that could cause him grief as he seeks to take over the Republican Party. He has already made enemies in the GOP establishment with his vicious attacks on other Republican Senators, as well as the opposition Democrats, the news media, and higher education, including his Harvard Law School background, calling the faculty there a bunch of Marxists, reminding us of Senator Joseph McCarthy, who he, ironically, greatly resembles in appearance, demeanor, and behavior!

Cruz represents the calling card of Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain and other malcontents,who wants to take the Republican Party to the extreme far Right, and will take no prisoners!

It is clear by his action on his Canadian citizenship that Cruz is running for President without announcing it this early, and that he will do anything and everything to destroy any GOP opponent, and at this point, his key rival seems to be Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, the son of former Congressman Ron Paul, who inherits the allegiance of many young people who see the father as a god like figure with his libertarian beliefs.

Both Paul and Cruz have the allegiance of the Tea Party Movement, but Cruz cannot be called a libertarian, and the holy war that will ensue between the two will, at this point, likely favor Cruz over Paul.

So at this point, it seems a good bet to believe that Cruz will overcome Paul and also, his fellow Cuban, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, and that he will be the Republican Presidential nominee in 2016, at age 45.

His candidacy will draw a lot of attention and controversy, and Cruz will not care how many enemies he makes on his road to being the opponent of Hillary Clinton, his most likely opponent, or any other Democrat who might emerge, including Joe Biden.

And when one looks at the Electoral College math, it is clear that Ted Cruz is likely to be the GOP Presidential nominee, but his chances of becoming our 45th President are next to zero, and that Clinton, Biden, or whoever the Democratic nominee in 2016 is, will win a landslide victory, greater in electoral votes than Barack Obama in 2012!

And part of that great Democratic victory in 2016 will likely include Texas, as the state is moving toward “Blue” status, and it is ironic that Cruz, easily elected in Texas in 2012, will help create the Democratic majority by his personality, confrontational attitude, and refusal to understand that if one insults Mexican Americans, woman, African Americans, labor supporters, environmentalists, and gays, there is no way that his party can ever win back the White House!

So after a smashing defeat, Cruz will be history as a loser, and the GOP will finally, if it has any common sense, return to the moderate mainstream center, or else it will finally be in the dustbins of history after 2016!

Georgia Republican Nightmare, And Likely Loss Of Senate Seat Of Saxby Chambliss

Ronald 7 Comments

Georgia has become a strong Republican state, and Senator Saxby Chambliss has fit the mold of a mainstream conservative Republican, but has avoided the image of being a nutty, looney Tea Party type/

But Chambliss, who has been in the Senate for 12 years, chose not to run for reelection, and the Georgia Republican primary race to replace him has begun very early, and is causing nightmares and headaches for the GOP, fearful that they will end up with a Tea Party nut, and lose the seat to Michelle Nunn, the daughter of former Democratic Senator Sam Nunn, a very highly respected man from his years of service in the Senate from 1972-1997.

Paul Broun and Phil Gingrey are two House Republicans from Georgia, who are so right wing extremist that they are seen as an embarrassment to Georgia and likely, if either one ends up as the GOP nominee, to lose to Michelle Nunn, in a state tilting toward a future Democratic majority with the growing Hispanic vote that is emerging in the Peach State.

Broun is more nutty and looney than Gingrey, but they both call Barack Obama a Socialist, and Broun denies evolution and the Big Bang Theory of the origins of the universe. He is a medical doctor who allows his Christian faith to dictate his life over science facts, and denies global warming as a reality. He compared Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler in intent, and is known to spout off at the mouth, making himself look foolish and dumb.

Phil Gingrey is also a doctor, and tried to defend the rape comments of US Senate candidate Todd Akin of Missouri, when Akin ran for the seat of Senator Claire McCaskill in 2012. To imagine a doctor saying such rape comments were legitimate is mind boggling.

The fact that two medical doctors come across as lunatics makes one wonder about how the medical profession is being hurt by such loonies, who reject science and have loose mouths with stupid comments and beliefs!

There are five other GOP candidates for the Senate seat, but with the backing of the Tea Party and other right wing groups, it seems likely that either Broun or Gingrey will win the GOP primary a year from now, and likely lose to Michelle Nunn in November!

The only good thing about these two men running for the Senate in Georgia is that one will be eliminated from Congress, and hopefully, the other will be eliminated by defeat in November 2014 for the Senate seat, and this would be a Democratic gain of a Republican seat.

The North Carolina Nightmare: Republican Dominance For First Time In A Century!

Ronald 17 Comments

North Carolina has long had the image of being a modern, forward looking state, one of the most advanced in the old Confederacy, despite the fact that Jesse Helms was one of its Senators for three decades.

It actually had signs of having escaped the Confederate mentality, and had pride for its Research Triangle—Chapel Hill, Raleigh and Durham, and its top rated universities, including, but not only the University of North Carolina, North Carolina State University, and Duke University.

But now North Carolina has been hijacked by a right wing Republican Party, and is being systematically destroyed as a state of change and positive images, looking more like Mississippi, Alabama, and South Carolina, all of which it had far surpassed in every way possible, but now all lost by the lack of understanding of its voters as to what they were doing in electing a Republican legislature and Governor.

So just in the year 2014, eight months so far, the North Carolina Republican government has done the following:

Massive tax cuts and cuts in business regulations, which will make the state poorer and more subject to corruption
Stricter regulation of abortion clinics
The end of teacher tenure
Refusal to expand Medicaid
Dramatic cut in unemployment benefits
Making the death penalty easier to apply
Allowing concealed guns in bar and restaurants
Strict Voter ID requirements, including prohibition of same day registration and cutting early voting

These are the results of the Republican Party gaining control of both houses of the state legislature for the first time in a century, along with electing a Republican governor, Pat McCrory.

So North Carolina goes to the Right, and those who are not upper class will suffer in the process, and North Carolina moves backward to the 19th century mentality of the Confederacy!

Potential Republican Presidential Candidates And Foreign Policy, As Compared To Hillary Clinton And Joe Biden

Ronald 2 Comments

The Republican Party is offering potential Presidential candidates who have no clue on world affairs, or have dangerous views on foreign policy, and/or have no experience to speak of in diplomatic situations.

The following potential candidates have NO credentials at all in this important area in a world that is changing rapidly:

Rand Paul
Ted Cruz
Marco Rubio
Paul Ryan
Rick Santorum
Rick Perry
Chris Christie
Jeb Bush
Bobby Jindal
Scott Walker
John Thune

it is true that Rand Paul and Marco Rubio sit on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and that Jeb Bush’s brother and father were President of the United States, and foreign policy has been discussed within that family.

But compare that to Hillary Clinton, who was Secretary of State for four years, and learned about foreign policy under her husband, President Bill Clinton, in the 1990s.

And Vice President Joe Biden had 36 years in the Senate, including time as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and now is in his second term as Vice President, intimately involved in foreign policy issues.

So NONE of the GOP potential Presidential candidates have any real, valuable experience, except in speaking out on issues they know nothing about!

Foreign policy will be a most important issue in 2016, so who could the GOP run who could compete with either Hillary or Joe, and give them a real challenge?

The only person who fits this profile is former Utah Governor and Ambassador to China, and earlier Ambassador to Singapore, Jon Huntsman, who is a moderate mainstream conservative. He is very talented, brilliant, multilingual including Chinese, and knows and understands world affairs!

But would the Republican Party have the brains and intelligence to choose Huntsman as their Presidential nominee?

The answer is ZERO, and because of that, the GOP does not offer experienced, qualified candidates for the Presidency on foreign affairs, such as Richard Nixon, George H. W. Bush, Bob Dole, and John McCain in the past!

Right Wing Talk Of Impeachment Of Barack Obama: Anarchistic, Nihilistic, Racist!

Ronald 1 Comment

The right wing of the Republican Party and the conservative movement, augmented by right wing Christians, the Tea Party Movement, Confederate remnants, and white supremacists is on the move to impeach President Barack Obama on grounds of “high crimes and misdemeanors” in office.

They are out to besmirch his historical image and record, as they did with Bill Clinton, knowing full well that they could not successfully remove him from office in an impeachment trial, which requires a two thirds vote of the US Senate to convict and remove from office.

With the Senate being majority Democratic, there is no way that 67 Senators could be gained to remove the President, and recall that when Clinton went into the impeachment trial in 1999, there was a majority of Republican Senators, and still only 55 and 50 Senators would vote to remove him from office on two different counts.

And even if the GOP were to win a majority of the Senate in 2014, still, there would be no way to gain a two thirds vote of the U S Senate to remove Obama from office.

So it is an exercise in futility, besides being a case based on even fewer reasons to bring a President to trial than in the case of Bill Clinton, who had, indeed, lied before a grand jury about his love life.

Obama has done NOTHING unconstitutional or illegal, and this case is based solely on personal hate, and face the facts, pure unadulterated racism, because the whole concept of a man who looks black, but is half white, being in the White House, drives Tea Party, Confederate, right wing Christian preachers who preach hate, and “Birthers” absolutely nuts, which is precisely what they are –lunatics!

Now the House of Representatives can push ahead and impeach Obama on flimsy grounds, as they did in 1868 to Andrew Johnson, and in 1998 to Bill Clinton.

But also if only 17 Republicans joined with all 201 Democrats in the 113th Congress, an impeachment motion would fail, and the likelihood that 17 or more Republicans would reject such a radical move is extremely high!

So, right wing lunatics, go ahead, try to impeach the President without a just legal basis, and dig your own grave, literally and figuratively, as the American people will reject you in a sweeping fashion in 2014 and 2016 and beyond!

Oh, and if Obama were to be forced from office, Joe Biden would become President, and have an edge for the 2016 election, not exactly a man the Right Wing would want in the Presidency!

The Tea Party Movement War Against Conservative Republicans Not Conservative Enough!

Ronald 19 Comments

The Tea Party Movement, the right wing extremists who have helped to cause the loss of multiple Senate seats in 2010 and 2012, are at it again, determined to purge the Republican Party of conservatives who are not conservative enough.

So we have a Tea Party challenge to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in Kentucky; to Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina; to Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee; and to Senator Mike Enzi of Wyoming (in that case by Liz Cheney).

One would think that McConnell, Graham, Alexander and Enzi are flaming liberals, which they most certainly are not!

This is the craziness of the Tea Party Movement, which is out to make the GOP a party that will be unable to gain control of the Senate or the White House for the long term, as they do not represent the views of the vast majority of the American people, even in the red states!

White House Solar Panels As A Symbol–Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, And Barack Obama

Ronald 2 Comments

During the administration of President Jimmy Carter, a much maligned President, unappreciated then and now, we had the oil embargo brought on by the Arabs in the Middle East, and Carter decided to promote the concept of solar panels as a better form of long term energy supply than oil, natural gas and coal, seeing the need for a change in US energy policy. This included the establishment of the Energy Department as a new cabinet position.

So Carter arranged in 1979 for installation of solar panels on the White House, a great symbol of our need to change our energy policies.

But seven years later, after much ridicule by the administration of his successor, Ronald Reagan, the solar panels were taken off the White House, as Reagan made clear that he was going to be captive to the oil and coal industries, and concern himself only with their profits, and ignore conservation and the environment, thus helping to accelerate the global warming and climate change crisis, which even now, the Republican Party refuses to accept as reality!

But now, 27 years later, President Barack Obama has reinstalled solar panels, repudiating Reagan and backing Carter in his vision of the energy and environmental future of solar power.

This is to be commended, although the powerful oil, natural gas, and coal industries will continue their lobbying, as their only goal is profit, not concern over the future of the planet.

So the battle over future energy supplies and climate change continues unabated, as the GOP proves yet again, their lack of concern for the long term future, only concerned about capitalistic profit in the present! It is as if they have their heads in the sand, and live in a world of illusion!

Bill De Blasio Would Be First NYC Progressive Mayor Since John Lindsay And Fiorello La Guardia!

Ronald 2 Comments

NYC Public Advocate Bill De Blasio has surged to the lead in polls for the Democratic primary for NYC Mayor, over Anthony Weiner, Bill Thompson, and Christine Quinn, and it is clear that he would be the best hope for a progressive mayor, who would work to end economic inequality, and promote education and health care, and seek to limit Wall Street power, so evident under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a Mayor with a mixed record.

And the fact that he has been against “Stop and Frisk”, the policy just declared unconstitutional by a federal judge, the only candidate to be against it all along, helps De Blasio, who is married to an African American woman, and has a 15 year old son, who, with his African American appearance and age, would be a prime candidate for being stopped by the police, based on racial profiling.

New York City has not had a true progressive Mayor since John Lindsay (1966-1973), who had many shortcomings, and really, the last truly progressive mayor and success as Mayor goes back to Fiorello La Guardia (1934-1945).