I do not see a way for the American people to change the direction of our politics or our economy by electing Republicans; the national party establishment is about to impose its will on the outcome of the nominating process before a single delegate is selected, and the two front-runners for the nomination at this time are both Beltway insiders with too much allegiance to The Way Things Are and not enough to how things are supposed to be.
It took 150 years but the GOP is finally following the trajectory of its predecessor, the Whig Party.
Here in Georgia the only way to be a Republican “in name” is to pay annual dues to the local party organization, which I haven’t done in years—so it’s not as if I have a membership card to burn in protest. Instead, I will say this:
The lesser of two intolerables is still intolerable. Losing more slowly is still losing. Bribing the tiger to eat you last still gets you eaten. And a vote for a big government Republican is still a vote for big government.
Not only have I decided what I’m going to call next year’s blog—there’s a deliciously ironic twist that won’t get old until at least 10:00 a.m. New Year’s morning—I think I’ve also decided on a name for the blog for the year after that.
Four years ago I opposed John McCain getting the GOP presidential nomination on the grounds that if he were the nominee, the result would be exactly the same as if the Democrat nominee won the election—because the Democrat nominee would win the election.
Now, people keep telling me that Mitt Romney would be better than four more years of Obama. Again, no. If Romney is the GOP nominee, the result will be exactly the same as four more years of Obama. Because the result will BE four more years of Obama.
Update, Saturday: Telling me Romney would make a better president than Obama is a waste of your time. The guy who drives your kid’s school bus would make a better president than Obama, but he won’t be elected.
The 2012 calendars are in the stores and the Christmas wish lists are being drafted, so I guess I should start thinking about what to call the 2012 edition of this blog. Obviously “Twenty Eleven” won’t work…
I’ve toyed with the idea of making it a countdown to December 21, 2012—the day the Mayan calender supposedly ends and therefore also the day the world is going to end. I don’t think it will, but I’ll celebrate my birthday a couple of days early next year, just in case.
Of course, for some people it’s increasingly looking as if the world will end a good seven weeks earlier, on Election Day. An epidemic of explosive cranium failure will fling zombie food everywhere—though it’ll be the gray-matter equivalent of that new Hershey bar, the “Air Delight”—which I haven’t tried yet but expect to eventually. Saw them at Walgreens just today for the first time, but I’d already gone through the checkout so…
Maybe I should call next year’s blog “The Fan Is Waiting.” As in, for the you-know-what to hit it.
If I think too hard about zombie food hitting the fan, I won’t want that candy bar. Might not be a bad thing.
Former Gov. Sarah Palin (R-Alaska) announced she won’t run for President in 2012. Given the date and the mess being made of the primary election schedule by Florida and South Carolina, I can’t say this caught me by surprise. And it’s not as if the recent surge in support for Herman Cain hadn’t left me feeling rather more optimistic about keeping the nomination away from Mitzi Romneycare than I might have been otherwise.
I have yet to hear anything about an endorsement from Camp Sarah, which I think would make a rather large impact on the race—but I think even without an endorsement her announcement helps Herman. He’s one of the top three now, and the only conservative running strong enough in the polls at the moment to threaten Romney.
Recently President Obama returned to the White House, and after the band finished playing he asked an aide what tune that was. “They usually play ‘Hail to the Chief,’ but I’ve never heard this one before,” he said.
The aide flushed and stammered a moment, then took a deep breath and said, “Mr. President, that was ‘Nearer My God to Thee.’”
Obama grinned broadly, “I knew they admired me but that’s a bit much, don’t you think?”
President Barack Obama’s chief political adviser on Tuesday conceded that a dark cloud looms over the American economy and Obama’s political future, describing the president’s road to a second term in the White House as “a titanic struggle.”
When you try to post a link on Google+, the site automatically tries to access the linked page so it can put up an excerpt and image—but if the site is a side feature on a relatively small newspaper’s website, and it’s getting slammed with traffic because of a link from The Drudge Report, well, that poses a problem.
Fortunately this isn’t Google+. Anyway…
Drudge, the gosh-darned son of a biscuit, had me going for a second with this link:
I’m not sure how I ended up on all these Washington Times email lists, but the one put out by Jim Robbins might be a keeper if the Times’ subscription management feature worked worth a damn—which it doesn’t.
Supporters of Mildred Romneycare need not bother trying to push me into voting for their guy if he wins the GOP nomination for 2012, for the following reasons:
1. It won’t work.
2. If he needs my one vote to win Georgia, winning Georgia won’t help him.
3. He couldn’t even beat John McCain for the nomination last time around. John McCain! Even Barack Obama managed to beat McCain.
I relented on McCain after he chose Sarah Palin to be his running mate in 2008, and look how much good that did—for him, for Palin, or for America. It won’t matter who’s in the #2 spot on a Romneycare ticket. I’ll vote down-ballot but not for Mildred.
The GOP nominated Bob Dole in 1996 because it was “his turn.” It nominated John McCain in 2008 because it was “his turn.” It doesn’t work.
