Mitt Romney

Republican National Convention Speakers List Pitiful When Compared To Democratic National Convention List

Ronald 24 Comments

The Democratic National Convention had an amazing list of speakers, besides Joe Biden and his wife The list includes Kamala Harris, Hillary and Bill Clinton, Barack and Michelle Obama, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, many of Biden’s Democratic rivals for the nomination, several Republicans (John Kasich, Colin Powell, Christie Todd Whitman among others), and a number of public figures from the world of sports and entertainment.

The best that Donald Trump can do is have his four older children, his wife, those connected to his children (son in law Jared Kushner and wife and girlfriend of sons), and Vice President Mike Pence.

Trump has to be in the center of each night’s presentation, which insures he will say stupid comments will hurt him.

And who outside of family connections will speak for Donald Trump? Iowa Senator Joni Ernst, former UN Ambassador and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

This is not exactly an inspiring list, and means such individuals as the following are not speaking or participating in the Republican National Convention:

George W. Bush, Laura Bush, Jeb Bush, Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, John Boehner, Dick Cheney, Liz Cheney, Cindy McCain, Jeff Flake, Bob Corker, and apparently most Republicans in the House and Senate presently, although a few might make an appearance.

One can assume most members of the present Trump Cabinet might appear, but they have already lost all credibility as the most corrupt group of cabinet officers in American history.

And one can probably expect the criminal Stephen Miller, responsible for the despicable separation of children, including babies and toddlers, from their parents at the Mexico border, for the simple act of applying for asylum, which is perfectly legal.

This is a human rights crime, and should lead to Miller and the Trump cabinet which voted for it in 2018, facing indictment and prison for this violation of human rights of innocent victims!

It will be an infuriating four days of lies upon lies upon lies, and hard to focus on, as the sight of Trump and his despicable followers in government are enough to make one ill!

Republicans For Biden Or Not Supporting Trump

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There are many Republicans, mostly not presently in public office, who have made it clear they are not supporting Donald Trump for reelection, and some going further and endorsing Joe Biden.

Among those making clear they will not back Trump are the following:

Former President George W. Bush

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush

Senator Mitt Romney of Utah

Former National Security Adviser John Bolton

Former Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona

Retired Four Star Navy Admiral William McRaven (who directed the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011)

Among those expressing doubt but not yet committing are the following:

Former Speaker of the House John Boehner of Ohio

Former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan of Wisconsin

Former White House Chief of Staff and General John Kelly

Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska

Former Congressman and Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina

Former Director of National Intelligence and Senator Dan Coats of Indiana

Among those formally endorsing and supporting Joe Biden are the following:

Former Governor and Congressman John Kasich of Ohio

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg

Former New Jersey Governor Christie Todd Whitman

Former California gubernatorial nominee Meg Whitman of California

Former Secretary of Defense and Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel

Former Secretary of Defense and Marine Corps General James Mattis

Cindy McCain, wife of former Senator John McCain

Former Presidential contender in 2016 Carly Fiorina

Former Congresswoman Susan Molinari of New York

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell

Former Department of Homeland Security Chief of Staff Miles Taylor

Retiring Florida Congressman Francis Rooney

Conservative commentator George Will

Conservative commentator Bill Kristol

Republican strategist Steve Schmidt

Republican strategists Rick Wilson

Republican strategist John Weaver

Republican strategist George Conway, husband of Trump advisor KellyAnne Conway

Also, a number of Republican groups opposed to Trump are spending tens of millions on advertising to oppose Trump, including

The Lincoln Project

Republican Voters Against Trump

43 Alumni For Joe Biden PAC (referring to George W. Bush)

Republicans For The Rule Of Law

The Loss Of Moderate Conservative Republican Principle: Ben Sasse, Rob Portman, James Lankford

Ronald 8 Comments

Looking at the Republican members of the US Senate, trying to find those who “might” be considered “moderate” conservatives who have some ethics and principles, is a tormenting task.

Republican Senators, with the exception of Mitt Romney, have been unwilling to speak up against the transgressions of Donald Trump, remaining silent in the midst of so much lawlessness and evil.

So when one tries to make a list of possibly “retrievable” Republican Senators, other than Lisa Murkowski of Alaska at times, and even Susan Collins at fewer times, who makes the list?

Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska

Senator Rob Portman of Ohio

Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma

These three seem reasonable occasionally in statements and actions, but one cannot be very optimistic about them despite the occasional exceptions. The first two have been seen as potential future Republican Presidential contenders, while Lankford is young enough, and at times, rational enough, that he might also be added to a potential Presidential candidate list.

This is the sad state of the Republican Party in 2020, while in the past, there were always “reasonable” Republicans to work with “across the aisle” with Democrats.

Donald Trump Commutation Of Roger Stone Prison Term The Final Nail In The Coffin!

Ronald 10 Comments

Donald Trump’s commutation of the Roger Stone prison term will be the final nail in the coffin of the Presidency of the 45th President, and will cause massive loss of seats in the House and Senate on November 3.

To give a commutation to a man totally obscene and crooked as Roger Stone is, only adds to the image of Donald Trump as the most corrupt President in American history, bar none!

Only Mitt Romney, among Republicans in Congress, has had the decency to condemn what Trump has done, giving a pass to a man who was convicted by a jury of seven felonies.

But polls show a complete collapse of Trump’s ratings, and this action only adds to the destruction of his chances to win a second term.

The Republican Party in the House and Senate has no principles other than their own political advancement, and their personal acquisition of wealth, and they will suffer an historic disaster, equivalent of 1964!

Many Republicans Not Attending National Convention In Jacksonville, Florida

Ronald 6 Comments

President Donald Trump may wish for a grand audience of thousands of delegates cheering him on at the Republican National Convention in Jacksonville, Florida in late August, but it looks as if many US Senators and others will not attend, due to the CoronaVirus Pandemic raging in the nation, and particularly in Florida.

Among those announcing they will not attend include two retiring Republican Senators, Pat Roberts of Kansas and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, with Roberts being 84 and Alexander 80 years of age.

But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who is 78, also has indicated he is unlikely to attend.

Additionally, the following Senators have made statements that they will not attend:

Lisa Murkowski of Alaska

Susan Collins of Maine

Mitt Romney of Utah

Chuck Grassley of Iowa, who will be 87 in September

Expect more Senators and many Congressmen and other party figures to decide not to attend, and it is possible that the entire convention will have to be remote, which is the present plan of the Democrats, as the only practical solution in the middle of a pandemic which has killed 135,000 people in just over four months.

Joe Biden plans to go to Milwaukee in person to give his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, but without a large audience, and Donald Trump, if he was smart, which he is not, should do the same thing, as this pandemic has transformed life in America for the foreseeable future.

Trump Calls For Immediate Obama Care Repeal In Midst Of Pandemic: Most Obscene Action Imaginable!

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In the midst of the worst public health crisis in a century, the Corona Virus Pandemic, Donald Trump has called for immediate action by the Supreme Court to repeal Obama Care, the Affordable Care Act of 2010.

The Republican Party has been unwilling to leave Obama Care alone, but has failed to destroy it, and offers no alternative to the tens of millions who depend on Obama Care for their health care.

If the GOP had an alternative plan, then one might consider it, but they have refused to come up with an alternative, even though Obama Care is very similar to Romney Care in Massachusetts under Mitt Romney, and to the plan developed by future House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Senator Bob Dole and the American Enterprise Institute in 1993-1994, as an alternative to the bolder Hillary Care health care plan of the Bill Clinton Administration.

Obama Care is not perfect, but one should not “throw out the baby with the bath water”, but instead come up with a different plan.

But for Donald Trump to promote the destruction of health care for millions without an alternative is truly the most obscene action imaginable!

Six Months To The Presidential Election Of 2020: A First Assessment

Ronald 33 Comments

With six months and three days until the Presidential Election of 2020, it is time to make a first assessment of the upcoming election.

This author has just published an article on History News Network under my blog “Ronald L Feinman” stating that this upcoming election is the most important since 1940, and one of the five most significant elections in American history, along with 1860, 1864, 1932, and 1940.

Donald Trump is reported going totally off the rails on this, the 75th anniversary of the suicide of Adolf Hitler, and it gets one to think about what may yet happen, as Trump is falling behind Joe Biden in every imaginable poll nationally, and in the “swing” states, including the crucial state of Florida with its 29 electoral votes.

If Trump loses Florida, where many senior citizens retire and are dying in the midst of this CoronaVirus Pandemic, there is no practical way for him to win reelection.

With the pandemic which he is refusing to deal with rationally, only thinking about his election, and willing to endanger any crowd that might gather in Arizona or Ohio in coming weeks, and also wanting children back in school even if it undermines and threatens the lives of their parents and grandparents, Trump is clearly on the road to a massive defeat in November!

So, subject to change, here is my assessment of the upcoming election:

Joe Biden will win the 20 states that Hillary Clinton won:

All 6 New England states and add the second district of Maine, which went to Trump in 2016–33 electoral votes

Middle Atlantic States of New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware and the District of Columbia, plus Virginia–72 electoral votes

Midwest States of Illinois and Minnesota–30 electoral votes

Mountain States of New Mexico, Colorado and Nevada–20 electoral votes

Pacific Coast States of California, Oregon, Washington State, and Hawaii–78 electoral votes

So the “base”, adding the second district of Maine to the total, is 233 electoral votes of 270 needed.

Adding to that are the crucial states that Hillary Clinton lost in the Midwest—Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania (really considered more Northeast but also considered in western section as Midwest)—46

That brings the electoral vote total to 279, enough to win the Presidency for Joe Biden.

However, the trend is strongly in favor of other states turning “Blue”, with the Second Great Depression upon us, along with the CoronaVirus Pandemic, and the reality that Trump policies have alienated many groups:

Senior Citizens

Suburban Women

College Educated

Lower and Middle Income Voters

Racial Minorities (African Americans, Latino Americans, Asian Americans)

Jews, Social Justice Catholics, Mainline Protestants

Young People Under 35

Independents

Moderate Republicans

Conservative Intellectuals

Of course, one is not saying that all of these groups will vote “Blue”, but it seems highly likely enough will vote that way and cause a smashing defeat for Donald Trump!

So what other states seem likely to go Democratic, in some cases, by small margins?

In order as follows:

Arizona–11 electoral votes

North Carolina–15 electoral votes

Florida–29 electoral votes

Nebraska–2nd Congressional District–1 electoral vote

Ohio–18 electoral votes

Georgia–16 electoral votes

Iowa–6 electoral votes

Montana–3 electoral votes

Kansas–6 electoral votes

Texas–38 electoral votes

So my estimate at this time, six months before the election, is a maximum of 32 states and DC for Biden and 18 for Trump, and 422 electoral votes to 116 for Trump.

The 116 electoral votes for Trump in 18 states would be:

West Virginia 5

Kentucky 8

South Carolina 9

Alabama 9

Mississippi 6

Louisiana 8

Arkansas 6

Tennessee 11

Missouri 10

Indiana 11

North Dakota 3

South Dakota 3

Nebraska 4 (not including 2nd District)

Oklahoma 7

Utah 6

Wyoming 3

Idaho 4

Alaska 3

But actually, Missouri (10) and Indiana (11) could, by earlier history, surprise, and also vote against Trump and support Biden by small margins, meaning there could be 34 states and a grand total of 443 to 95 in the Electoral College for the Democrats!

Remember that Indiana voted for Barack Obama in 2008, and Missouri was always with the winner since 1900, except in 1956, 2008 (both by small margins of about 4,000 votes) and 2012 when the margin was larger for the defeated candidate, Mitt Romney!

So the exact parameters of the Donald Trump defeat are not final, but this would seem to be the maximum, as another nearly 4 million Americans today filed for unemployment, a total of about 30 million, one out of five workers in the nation, approximately, which would mean a 20 percent unemployment rate, and growing.

If it goes over 25 percent in coming weeks, it will be worse than even the Great Depression of the 1930s, and the American people soundly defeated Herbert Hoover in 1932, and elected Franklin D. Roosevelt!

And realize that the average family size can be considered probably a family of four although there are many households of fewer than four, but if one considers that as a statistic, that means one out of three people directly are affected by unemployment, an astounding 33-35 percent rate, unimaginable and horrific!

The next President will have a challenge on the level of FDR and Abraham Lincoln!


79 Days From End Of Impeachment Trial To 50,000 Dead Americans In CoronaVirus Pandemic!

Ronald 5 Comments

On Wednesday, February 5, 2020, the US Senate voted to find President Donald Trump “not guilty” on two impeachment charges.

The next day, Thursday, February 6, 2020, the first American died from the CoronaVirus, a 57 year old woman in California.

78 Days have passed from that first death on February 6, and today, 50,000 Americans have died from the pandemic, and in about two days, the death toll will pass the 54,000 killed in Korea over three years in the early 1950s, and in four days, the death toll will be 58,000, passing the number of Americans killed in Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s!

All of the wars in American history, minus the three big ones (Civil War, World War II, World War I) add up to 130,832, a total likely to be passed, and World War I itself is 116,000. And certainly within possibility is the combination of these two listed numbers, for a total of 246,832 dead!

Hopefully, the World War II total of 405,000 will not be reached, or the Civil War total for both sides of 750,000!

But as stated earlier in my blog entry of April 5, 19 days ago, we could eventually surpass all wars combined, a grand total of 1,404,092. god forbid!

While we might not have avoided this crisis simply by Donald Trump being convicted and removed from office the day before the first death, it is possible to believe that the new President, Mike Pence, would have taken the advice of scientists, after taking office, and would have reacted in a very different and saner fashion than Donald Trump has done in the past 78 days!

Whatever Mike Pence has as shortcomings, it seems reasonable to think the present disaster would have been treated differently, as Pence has acted in a responsible manner since February 26, when he was appointed to head the task force to deal with the pandemic.

Pence can be criticized for being too sycophantic, biting his lip, and keeping a stiff face in public, but seriously working on the burden he was given in a manner that, under the circumstances, was likely the most that could be expected.

This blogger and author wishes to believe that history would have been different had Pence been President, and that he would have been much more proactive.

That reality, if it had occurred, would likely have been an asset in the election campaign, having come in with just nine months to the election and eleven and a half months to the inauguration, and the Republican Party might have been able to count on a possible Pence victory.

But, instead, except for Mitt Romney, the Republicans in the US Senate totally blew their credibility, and now will suffer defeats in Congress of historical proportions, and a massive defeat of Donald Trump on November 3.

To recover from this double disaster, the second Great Depression we are now in, and the greatest health crisis ever in American history, and reelect Trump, is simply impossible, if one goes by historical trends over nearly 250 years.

For the American people to commit, effectively, suicide and reward the person and party that brought about this tragedy, is simply unrealistic to imagine occurring.

If it does, then the nation will, rapidly, decline as a world leader and major power, a trend already provoked by the absolutely insane policies of Donald Trump!

Mitt Romney, A Profile In Courage, First Senator In American History To Vote To Convict President Of His Own Party!

Ronald 1 Comment

Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, the 2012 Republican Presidential nominee, was a true “Profile in Courage” yesterday, by voting to convict Donald Trump on the impeachment charge of “Abuse Of Power”.

This blogger and author was not a great fan of Mitt Romney in his failed 2012 Presidential bid, considering him a hypocrite for criticizing ObamaCare, which was based to a great extent on RomneyCare in Massachusetts. I did not want him as President, and think he lacked enough concern for the average American.

But that is the past, and Romney knows he will suffer attacks and condemnations from within the Republican Party for his action to be the first US Senator in American history to vote to convict a President of his own party in an impeachment trial. That took guts and also showed the true religiosity of Romney with his Mormon faith, whether one agrees or likes the Mormon Church and its teachings.

The accusation that he plans to run for President again is preposterous, and Romney may, very well, not run for reelection in 2024, but the future is not important as the present, to take a stand against the lawlessness and arrogance of Donald Trump.

The fact that Romney’s own niece, Ronna Romney McDaniel, is chair of the Republican National Committee, put her in an awkward position, and she did, indeed, make clear her objection to her uncle’s decision. But that does not matter, and whatever one thinks of Romney in the past, it is clear that his vote is based upon principle and courage, so it is proper to applaud and salute Mitt Romney for a decision that will live in history, and could be another chapter, updated, of John F. Kennedy’s famous “Profiles in Courage” book in 1956!

Romney will withstand the storm of criticism, and if moronic son Donald Trump, Jr is able to have Romney expelled from the Republican Party, as he called for in anger yesterday, the party will be the loser, not Romney.

If Romney is a true independent, he will be a greater Senator long term than being captive to a corrupt political party, so bring it on, is my thought!

Will Four Or More Republicans Call For Witnesses In Donald Trump Impeachment Trial?

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With the Donald Trump Impeachment Trial to begin in earnest on Tuesday, January 21, the first full day of the last year of this Presidential term of office, the question arises whether at least four Republican Senators will buck their leader, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and call for witnesses to testify.

John Bolton, former National Security Adviser, is the key witness in mind, although there are others, including Mick Mulvaney (the Acting White House Chief of Staff), Attorney General William Barr, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Vice President Mike Pence, as well as lesser figures.

If even John Bolton gets to testify, it will be a victory for Democrats, but the question is whether there are Republican Senators who want to know the truth, or are just interested in backing the President, no matter what abuses of power he has engaged in.

The best estimate is that we will find the following Senators supporting testimony:

Susan Collins of Maine

Lisa Murkowski of Alaska

Mitt Romney of Utah

Lamar Alexander of Tennessee

Rob Portman of Ohio

Cory Gardner of Colorado

If only three of the above support witnesses, it would be a 50-50 tie, and the belief is that Chief Justice John Roberts could rule in such a tie situation, and would support witnesses.

But this is such an unprecedented situation, so we are guessing at what will be the ultimate decision on this matter.