Ft. Sumter: The Rise of the "GingFish"

BLOVIATOR IN CHIEF?


Soooooo....Newt. I wanted this because I thought it would be more interesting. It is indeed more interesting. Seeing Newt declare victory with the frightening...and there is no other word but frightening for her... blowing up a new populism from the right was really frightening. I was excited for Newt to win and to shake things up but this guy is an extremely articulate, quick thinking demagogue of the Huey P. Long genre. I love to read about Huey Long, because he is dead and he never got further than Louisiana. The question a guy like Gingrich poses is whether our whole country has essentially devolved into Louisiana 1932. The “GingFish”.

Everybody gather 'round
Loosen up your suspenders
Hunker down on the ground
I'm a cracker
And you are too
But don't I take good care of you
-Randy Newman “The Kingfish”

What is so mind numbing about this is that he is NOT a man of the people. He is a man who stands for himself and his vision of the hour. He changes his vision quicker than he changes wives and I do have to bash his wife once again. I have never heard her speak. To the best of my knowledge she cannot speak. I have read a little about her. She went to Luther College in Decorah Iowa and was a music major and is evidently a very talented musician and a committed Catholic. I admire all those things... but she appears to be a plastic, broken person with creepy, crazy eyes. She scares me like clowns scare me and that is the meanest thing I can say. Now I will leave her.

But I digress. Romney might be too much of a cold fish to be electable. He does not seem to be a street fighter and the Republicans howled again loudly that he is not their guy. After a proper counting in Iowa, he lost. He got killed in South Carolina. Perhaps he will rally back but he clearly is a wide open target for average Joe, Joe the plumber type attacks and whether it is Gingrich or OBama those attacks will come.

Why do we let three little states, all diverse but tiny to have such a loud, almost deafening voice in this process. These states carry population ranks of 30, 42 and 34 respectively. No one is even in the top ½. I had no idea that Iowa was full of evangelicals. That is because it is not. The Republican base in Iowa is full of evangelical conservatives. New Hampshire... do they have Republicans? South Carolina...seriously? South Carolina? Why should they have any voice in anything other than their key historical move of firing the first shot in the civil war. That worked out well, didn’t it? That what last nights primary was, Fort Sumter. It is a battle for the Republican party and it is the evil, final consequence of Nixon’s “southern strategy” to bring the social conservatives into the party...and now they are saying, “IT IS OUR PARTY!” It will be interesting to see if they are right.

Who took on the Standard Oil men
And whipped their ass
Just like he promised he'd do?
Ain't no Standard Oil men gonna run this state
Gonna be run by little folks like me and you

Watching FOX on a Sunday morning the said that Newt won a huge percentage of South Carolina voters who make less than 50k a year. What is a person who makes less than 50k a year doing voting Republican? How does that happen?

Kingfish, Kingfish
Friend of the working man
Kingfish, Kingfish
The Kingfish gonna save this land

The big question that my former party needs to ask itself is how were they left with these choices. I even think that Gingrich, Paul and Romney might be the best of the original pack but what a sad sack collection of people to send forward in the most eminently winnable election for them in years. I think they are going to have to find another person (and it is not Sara Palin) to carry their flag. There would be tremendous momentum for a Chris Christie or Jeb Busch or even that idiot from Indiana Mitch Daniels. They need fresh blood and it might be nice if they did not chum so much blood in the water. The electorate is taking notes, and they are not impressed. Gingrich is not a populist. He is not our friend. The Republican base is the party of the angry white man. Angry people make bad decisions and we just saw the Republicans in South Carolina make a very stupid mistake.

I Am So Happy

As you can tell from my prior post I was... apprehensive about South Carolina. I was concerned that he and Hillary had been so unpleasant and unlikable to one another that they would shred each other. Instead Billary and their blasting of Obama looks to have galvanized the African American vote while not losing the young base he built in Iowa. I am VERY excited. 55% to 27% percent. That is a.... stomping....a bitch slapping... whatever you want to call it, it was big. Bigger then anything we have seen in any of the primaries. Edwards 18% is the death nell of his Presidential bid but he will soldier on because there is still a chance that he can be a power broker at the convention but... that looks less likely if Obama can keep moving.


Hillary is hard to love and Billary... the pair of them, with Bill beating up on people as Hillary tries to stay aloof... alienated a lot of people. I was worried that it worked the other way but God Bless the Democrats of South Carolina for staying the course. This seems momentus, perhaps bigger then Iowa and it renews my hope in the process and the country.


Edwards=Attorney General? That would scare the shit out of the top 1%. We might have an administration that would enforce anti trust laws again. I worry about what Obama will walk into if he wins. We really are up a creek but perhaps he can be transformational. I pray that is the case. it is a good night.

The Erata Election

NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS:

Sooo... the year and new Years resolutions.... not good. Under the new modified Becker Redemption Scoring System (BRSS) I scored 16/25 possible points the first week. that seemed pretty weak. 64%... you know... thats a D... at best. I felt pretty bad about it until week two when I scored.... an 11. That is an F in any school. it is a problematic system. Doing 5 prescribed good things (virtues) every day and avoiding 5 bad ones (vices). It was interesting because Tiemann (a good German Lutheran) and I got into a “discussion” because he has co-opted the system and stretched it out to EVERY good thing he does allows the possibility of doing another bad thing.

We are both rigorous rules people. We do not like to follow them but we desperately like to know what the rules are so we can measure our own failures by them. We would like to think that we are setting up the rules so that we can encourage ourselves to do better, something to measure successes by... but...we really need to know what the rules are so we know we can... fail.
That might be hard on Tim. But it isn’t on me. But still... I like having rules... because... well I like having rules because... because I am a mess. It is like Old Testament stuff and I WANT to live under the law. Very stupid. But... I guess I will keep thrashing around with it. I would like to get back up to a D again this week. That would be sweet but it is Monday night and I am.... not optimistic.

*****

PUSH POLLING:
The Republican party seems to be a lot cause. I was raised a Republican and stayed a Republican well into being an adult and a father but somewhere in the middle of Clinton’s first terms with the Newt Gingrich “Contract with America” they started to lose me. Platitudes of a divisive nature beginning to cobble out the 51% majority that shifts and swerves so long as to keep the right people in power and in the process terrorizing all of us. We cannot be victims to that stupidity again. This party sends out polls to my wife that read as follows:

HOMELAND SECURITY ISSUES:
1. Should Republicans do everything they can to prevent Liberal Democrats from repealing the USA Patriot Act and other important laws that help our intelligence agencies protect Americans? Yes, No, or Undecided.
(followed by 3 more in similar vein) 
ECONOMIC ISSUES:
1. Should we make our fight against the Democrat's massive tax hikes a central part of the 2008 campaign? YEs, No, or Undecided.
ok...I said only one, but this one is too much to leave out:
1. Should Republicans renew the fight for a Balanced Budget Amendment?  Yes, No, or Undecided.
DOMESTIC ISSUES:
1. Should Republicans oppose Senator Clinton's one size fits all, government-run healthcare plan? Yes, No, or Undecided.
SOCIAL ISSUES:
1. Do you think Congress should pass the Federal Marriage Amendment, protecting marriage as a union between one man and one woman? Yes, No, or Undecided.
DEFENSE ISSUES: 
2)Should Republicans fight Democrat efforts to impose Clinton-era cuts in the Pentagon's budget? 
REPUBLICAN PARTY:
1. Do you support the election of Republican candidates across the country and the rebuilding of our majorities over the next 10 years? Yes, No, or Undecided.

Seriously, can you believe this shit? What kind of people are they trying to appeal to. Even conservative people like my wife get offended. I know that this type of divisive rhetoric worked in the Bush administration but we have to be something better now. there is too much on the line. But we will see. Thinking about this years election I am reminded of the new movie title... “There Will Be Blood.”

*****

South Carolina. Well it was kind of interesting. I thought the Democratic Primary was on the same day as the Republican. I was wrong... again. The Republicans went and it went to form. Mc cain, Huckabee... and whoever else.... Romney was out in Nevada and he ran and won unopposed. I was disappointed that Hillary beat Obama out there although he won the delegates. It is looking more and more like everything will come down to Super Tuesday. Who would have ever thunk we could have the possibility of a meaningful convention where they actually fight about stuff and maybe even compromise about stuff. Who knows... could be fun. The Democrats his South carolina this Saturday and we will see if Obama can carry the black vote solidly and get the votes he was getting in Iowa and New Hampshire. If he does the race is over but if Hillary keeps getting all the old people... everything gets shady from there on.

*****

South Carolina REDUX: It is Saturday morning and I am... a little scared. I really think Hillary might come out on top and I view that as an absolute disaster/abomination for the Democratic Party and the hope that we can win the White House cleanly. Leave it to the Democrats to have two minorities duke it out with each other, polarize both sides, divide the party and go down in flames.... but they could do it. If Obama actually loses South Carolina I would advise him to think about taking a high road and biding his time and withdraw from this race, accept a cabinet position of some sort and start agitating for change in that administration. In four years whomever is saddles with this Bushy/war economy is going to stand a good chance of being a doomed one termer anyway. I am just filled with dread that South Carolina is going to turn this dream election into a nightmare.

And Romney... if he wins in Florida becomes a prohibitive front runner. And he might with Guliani fading and their economy in a shambles over the housing nightmare. A Romney/Clinto election is a low road election with two powerful machines gearing up to swift boat each other to hell and back again for that sacred 1% margin it takes to win leaving the rest of feeling sick, disrespected, margianalized and well.... used. That could make a very ugly and unhappy four years. More then ever we need someone to unite us with a passion for what it means to be an American and Obama is still the only one I can see inspiring a lot of us to be better then what we are. The others pander to the special interests of their “core” but people in the middle need a President too. It should be out turn.