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Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Jon Huntsman, Decidedly Not Crazy

Am I going nuts?  Is John Huntsman coming out as the real GOP contender here?

In the last two days I've seen three articles that affirm this possibility.

1)  Huntsman said the GOP was nuts to risk the full faith and credit of the U.S. Bond.

2)  Huntsman is unopposed to civil unions.

3)  Huntsman believes in evolution, and trusts scientists on globalwarming!

It's sad, that one of the Republican contenders for the seat actually has more liberal views than the sitting Democratic President, or at least has more courage of convictions.  He's also shown that he isn't afraid to lead the discourse, not simply kowtow to the crazy that Perry and Bachman have been touting.  In fact, he has been so effective in the past two days that I am going to go out on a limb and say, Huntsman's candacy effectively removes Romney from the race.  I know he isn't as well monied, or as well known, but he doesn't have a record of failure, and he's a relatively fresh face.  And, in case I haven't made this clear yet, Huntsman is NOT crazy. Now, all this may change if I found out he's a rabid libertarian, those dogs need to be put down.  But so far, he's merely a conservative.  I can live with that.

re 2)  I know that we all want Gay Marriage.  But as a policy, civil unions aren't bad, and they're a hell of a lot better than nothing at all.

So from a field of terrible contenders emerges one with some actual cred.  Go Huntsman or Go home!  Hopefully my endorsement of the Republican candidate won't destroy him.  With my thousands of readers and such.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

New Poll: Americans want their Cake

A fabulous new CNN poll says absolutely nothing of value.  Apparently, a majority of Americans want taxes raised on the wealthy.  And, they want deep spending cuts.  They just don't want medicare or social security cut.  Oh.  It's that other spending we do that costs so much.  You know, that spending.  Doesn't this seem fundamentally ignorant to you too?

Americans are terrified of debt, and there's some reason for this.  Many of them have been foreclosed on, refinanced their home two or even three times.  Since their income's have been stagnant and rising at a rate well below inflation, they've been using their credit card to substitute as income.  So they've had consumer debt.  And though they knew things were bad in 2007, at least they had jobs and homes back then.

That aside, this ludicrous idea that people want the government to cut spending, but can't reconcile any spending in particular which they'd like to see cut--is just embarrasing.

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Thoughts on Political Necessity

I was, and remain, absolutely opposed to negotiations on the debt ceiling.  No one likes a high deficit, no one.  But the unemployment rate still hovers at 9%, and in six months, it will be even higher.  The problem as I see it, started from Day 1 where Obama started capitulating and ruling from the "center".

Last weekend, Obama had one other choice.  He could have invoked the 14th Amendment and circumvented Congress entirely.  But look at these arseholes.  Really.  Obama has been concilitory to the point of putting his cape in the mud so that those dainty conservatives wouldn't get their feet wet--and they still called him a fascist.  Imagine him invoking executive authority!  He'd have been nailed to the wall.  So this was not the right time to make a stand.

However, the spinmeisters really failed Obama again.  The Republicans came off looking poorly, but not that poorly.  And it's still many months till the election.  I'm not talking presidential, I'm talking about Congress.  I'm not really worried about Obama winning.  I'm worried about him winning back Congress.  Looking at the facts, the people who hate the social safety net won the largest conservative victory since the Reagon era.  Which frankly was more liberal.

This bill will be a disaster for America--but half of our recovery is confidence.  If the Dems can make major victories next term, we can reverse this.  And if we can show the world a confident America, our credit will improve instantly.  To get that confidence we need a jobs program, and a strong welfare state.  Two things which only a strong Democratic majority can provide.