Showing posts with label Newt Gingrich. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Newt Gingrich. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 08, 2012

Republican Porridge (2)

Santorum Drops By Iowa State FairSantorum Drops By Iowa State Fair (Photo credit: Talk Radio News Service)Republican Porridge
Wall Street Journal: Santorum Delivers a GOP Stunner
Rick Santorum jolted the Republican presidential race Tuesday with a three-state sweep of nominating contests in Colorado, Missouri and Minnesota, puncturing Mitt Romney's claim to be the unstoppable front-runner...... Of the eight nominating contests so far, Mr. Santorum has now won four, while Mr. Romney has won three and Newt Gingrich one—a tally that seemed unlikely only a few days ago. ..... Mr. Santorum's Missouri victory margin was substantial: He won 75,000 more votes than Mr. Romney and 29,000 more than Mr. Romney's combined Iowa and Nevada totals..... what could be a long, state-by-state fight for convention delegates. ...... Super Tuesday..... In a sign of how the race was leaping toward that showdown, Mr. Gingrich spent most of Tuesday campaigning in Ohio, a Super Tuesday state, while Mr. Romney planned to fly Wednesday to Georgia, which also votes that day.
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Friday, September 17, 2010

Newt Gingrich: Monkeyface


If the creationists in the Deep South needed proof that we did indeed descend from the apes, well, Newt Gingrich just opened his mouth.
New York Times: G.O.P. Uses Obama ‘Otherness’ As Campaign Tactic: Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, who this week accused Mr. Obama, whose father was a Kenyan economist and spoke out against the occupying force in his country, of exhibiting “Kenyan, anticolonial behavior.”

Wednesday, September 01, 2010

This Is Not 1994



I am sick and tired of people suggesting the Republicans are going to storm the House like they did in 1994. 2010 is not 1994. Barack Obama is not Bill Clinton. Here are some reasons why.
  1. There is no Newt Gingrich in the picture. 
  2. There is no Contract On America. There is not likely to be one. The only things the Republicans have is obstructionism and the Bush policies. The voters already decided in 2008 how they felt about the Bush policies. And obstructionism does not get you votes. You have to have a positive agenda. The Republicans don't have one. 
  3. Barack Obama is not Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton's economic record was outstanding, but Obama has beat Bill Clinton in the greatness department. To me that was a foregone conclusion on the campaign trail itself. And the greatness went official after he passed health care reform, something presidents struggled over for half a century. 
  4. Bill Clinton's health care reform had failed as he headed into November 1994. Barack Obama's health effort passed. That is his backdrop as he heads into November 2010.
  5. Barack Obama has been compared with JFK, with FDR, but never with Bill Clinton. Now is not the time to start on that. Clinton and Obama are just different. Their styles are very different. 
  6. Bill Clinton did not campaign much for 1994. He was considered too unpopular to be effective. Barack Obama's popularity is not the same it was in December 2008, but it is still good. 
  7. Barack is going to be able to explain that the Wall Street meltdown was an unexpected inheritance. The bailout happened before he got there. He is going to be able to explain the stark necessity of the stimulus bill. Without it the country would have been in Great Depression II right now. The unemployment rate would have been closer to 30% than 10%. The American people are going to understand that.  
  8. He is going to be able to say he wants to focus on Congress reform and immigration reform in 2011. That he is a foe of debt and deficits and they will be at the center of his 2012 agenda going into the second term. But these past two years have not been the time for balanced budgets. These past two years have been the biggest economic crisis in 70 years. And the government had to step in to avoid Great Depression II. 
  9. The Tea Party "movement" has made the GOP even more of a minority party. The harsh voices that are known to alienate people in the mainstream have taken over.
  10. Barack is going to be able to energize the Obama surge crowd of 2008, not to the same extent perhaps as 2008. But he is going to make the case and they are going to come out in large enough numbers. One important point he has to make is that grassroots electioneering is not the same as grassroots governance. The netroots/grassroots need to acquire governance literacy. You can't attain power and then lose interest in it once you have it. But governance does require that you become more knowledgeable of the contours of power, of the compulsions of the opposition party, the compulsions of the various interest groups within your own party. Energizing people to show up to vote one day is comparatively simple. But governance is about conducting complex transactions on a daily basis. And the grassroots has to take an interest in that exercise of power like it took great interest in attaining that power. So far the grassroots has not lived up to the idea of grassroots governance. It does not have to be that way. You got to act like a party that feels being in power is but natural to you. You can't be feeling awkward and out of place once in power as if you miss being in opposition. Some of the netroots/grassroots act like they miss being in opposition. That has to go. 

Keeping The House And The Senate
Iran, Obama 2010, Reshma 2010
Perfect Time For Congress Reform
Save Immigration For 2011
Sep 15 - Oct 31: Obama-Reshma Should Crisscross The Country
September 14 Will Birth The New Woman
Reshma Saujani Is The Second Stimulus Bill This Country Needs
Reshma: Obama's Number One Weapon For November 2010
Obama Needs To Ride The Reshma Insurgency Wave To November Victory

Tuesday, September 08, 2009

Gun Toting Protestors: Racist


They did not show up for either Bush, Clinton, or the elder Bush. So this is not partisan. They did not show up for FDR, so this is not to do with the Great Depression's grand cousin, the Great Recession that we are ploughing through right now.

This is about race and racism. This is guttural. This is about some guys showing up with knives at a Hillary health care rally in Oregon in 1994. That was about gender, like Newt Gingrich told Bob Reich back then, "Tell the president, we like him, but his wife should not be making policy."

You can be thrown in jail for putting in writing that you intend to harm the President Of The United States, but you are okay if you show up for his rally with a gun? This makes absolutely no sense. The news is not that they are showing up, but that we are putting up with their showing up with their guns.

Granted the secret service keeps cordons around the POTUS, but how long before some nut mows down about 10 people in the audience before we cry Columbine? The political damage would be huge.

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Friday, June 12, 2009

Sotamayor's Nomination As Historic As Barack's Election, Maybe More So

House Speaker Newt Gingrich of GeorgiaImage via Wikipedia

And why Newt Gingrich is a racist and a sexist.

Sotamayor is a Minority Female. That is like being Dalit in India.

Old white men like Newt Gingrich have always occupied the White House until now. They have always been the only people on the Supreme Court until recently. The Supreme Court has never had a Minority Female. The old white men still overwhelmingly dominate the Congress. What's wrong in the picture? Until recently there was no bathroom for women on Capitol Hill.

There have been times when I have admired Newt Gingrich. He comes up with ideas. I am a big fan of market solutions to long standing problems. Where I differ is when he thinks market solutions are the only solutions.

But on social issues Newt is a dinosaur.

As late as 2005, late into 2006, the Dems looked so irrelevant. So I am one of those to think the Republicans are going to have a comeback down the line. That is how democracy works. But such pendulum swings are not automatic. The Republicans are going to have to stop being the party of old white men if they are to have any shot at reoccupying the vital center of American politics.

In The News

The Typecast Party Newsweek The Republicans are a party in search of an identity, and the incendiary language surrounding the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court has shown just how far off track they've gone. Sotomayor is better qualified in terms of her legal credentials than anybody currently on the court. .......... the over-the-top remarks from Newt Gingrich and Tom Tancredo created a backlash that Senate Republicans are still trying to dig their way out of with Hispanic voters and women without offending the party's Southern-white-male base. ......... A USA Today/Gallup poll this week found a third of Republicans have an unfavorable opinion of their own party. ........ "She's boring," says a liberal activist. ......... She hasn't had to address guns, gay rights, abortion. ..... Sotomayor can't be stopped, and that could embolden Obama to be even more aggressive with his next appointment. ..... The expectation is that if Ginsburg steps down, her replacement would almost certainly be a woman ....... "Free this nation from this Obama oppression," Voight intoned at the GOP dinner. ...... If only Obama could hand down affordable access for all to health care on a stone tablet.
GOP risks loss of respect if it goes after Sotomayor, poll finds MiamiHerald.com

UNSPECIFIED - UNDATED:   In this handout image...Image by Getty Images via Daylife


Bush Sr: Stop the name-calling on Sotomayor Seattle Post Intelligencer
Bush defends Sotomayor nomination United Press International
George HW Bush condemns right-wing attacks on Sotomayor: Those ... Think Progress
Bush defends Sotomayor nomination Legal News Line
Candace Gingrich speaks out on brother Newt
Sovo.com, GA
The Case for Getting off Base Wall Street Journal
Newt Takes Palin in Smackdown on Party Night: Margaret Carlson Bloomberg
Political Expert Newt Gingrich: Obama officially a Failure. Daily Kos
Am I a Moderate Republican, Rush? RushLimbaugh.com
Obama on healthcare bill: Flexibility on details, not results
Boston Globe, United States
Of White Men And “Wise” Latinas 411mania.com, TX

WASHINGTON - MAY 26:  U.S. Vice President Joe ...Image by Getty Images via Daylife


Newt Gingrich on Twitter: Sonia Sotomayor 'Racist', Should Withdraw ABC News
Newt Gingrich is Wrong--Sotomayor's No Racist, She's Sam Alito of ... U.S. News & World Report
Newt Gingrich: Sonia Sotomayor a 'racist' Politico
Sotomayor a racist? Newt Gingrich takes it back
Los Angeles Times, CA
Gingrich Walks Back Calling Sotomayor A Racist -- Not TPMDC
Newt Gingrich Backs Away From Calling Sotomayor a Racist ChattahBox
Could Sotomayor Be Right About White Men?
TPMCafé, NY"I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion [as a judge] than a white male who hasn't lived that life." ....... everybody from Newt Gingrich to Joe Lieberman to Lindsey Graham seems to be hell bent on proving her right. These guys, believe it or not, are just like the folks who run BET - both groups seem to be committed to pimping a distorted view of dysfunctional male misogyny......... Has Gingrich just totally lost it? ....... That metaphorical "wise Latina" is looking smarter already.......... Lindsay Graham and Joe Lieberman are as angry as two spoiled little three year old toddlers who have been forced to share the toys their daycare provides with all the other kids. These two clowns have decided that they are just going to take their ball and go home...no, wait, they are going to SHUT DOWN THE SENATE. Brilliant. Just brilliant. ...... At the rate these guys are going, the "wise Latina" doesn't even have to be wise - just experienced. ..... What gets me hot under the collar about these buffoons is the same thing that gets my blood pressure up when I see some of the ridiculous images of black people BET keeps showing over and over - their total disregard for reality. ....... What I'm really trying to say here is that when you take the preening and the posturing and the politicking away, white men are just like any other men. Its the charlatans and fakers who insist on acting out, the way kids do when they aren't getting enough attention, who are currently giving the rest of America's white men a bad name.

US expresses concerns over Nepal's peace process Xinhua
Nitish opens 140 bridges in Bihar on a single day Times of India
Obama battles campaign against Canadian-style health care
Canada.com
Nepal's first woman deputy PM Shailaja dies
Hindu
Washington. Hillary Clinton to make official visit to Canada
Canada.com
McAuliffe defeat is another blow to Clinton legacy
The Associated Press
Obama on healthcare reform: Mr. Flexible
Christian Science Monitor
Congress looks to step up revival plan in Bihar
Times of India
BJP core group wants to cash in on Bihar 'model'
Times of India
India to pull back Kashmir troops
Financial Times
India issues guidelines for Indian students in Australia
Economic Times
Schwarzenegger: A bad time to sell state assets
San Jose Mercury News
Google Gets Going on Enterprise Apps
Reuters
Globe, Smart in race for Wimax roll-out
Manila Bulletin
Google reaches toward the enterprise FierceCIO
Google says it loves competition
ZDNet
As US gov't circles the wagons, Google's brass stays cool Christian Science Monitor
Is it going to be an 'All Bachchan' show at IIFA!
Times of India
Dell tweets $3m in revenues Register
Baxter: Swine flu vaccine due in July Chicago Tribune
Dell reported to be thinking acquisition Bizjournals.com
GOP should favor health overhaul Atlanta Journal Constitution
Why Dell Can't Buy Palm New York Times
Palin Continues Her Feud With Letterman FOXNews




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Thursday, May 21, 2009

Bobby 2016, Until Then Adios

House Speaker Newt Gingrich of GeorgiaImage via Wikipedia

Old White Men Need To Chew Gum

If Bobby runs in 2012, he could not win in 2016, because that will show he does not have good political sense. But I think his wife Supriya has made it absolutely clear he is not running in 2012. If he does not run in 2012, all bets are off for 2016.

Who will run in 2012? Sarah Palin? Newt Gingrich? Jeb Bush? Mitt Romney? Mike Huckabee? There's no telling who. There are plenty of eager names.

Bobby Jindal has to sit it out.

If Newt Gingrich runs, he will make it official. The Republican Party is the party of old white men.

Old White Men Need To Chew Gum

House Speaker Newt Gingrich of GeorgiaImage via Wikipedia

The party elected Michael Steele in a knee jerk way, but I don't get the impression they are accepting his leadership. The guy is too black for many old fashioned Republicans.

Bobby has to do now what Bill Clinton did when Reagan was president. His effort was called the Democratic Leadership Council. He did not try too hard to become a big shot inside the party. He focused on being a good Governor, and he worked hard to come up with a new set of ideas to reinvent his own party, take on his own special interests that had taken the party into the ditch. And when it was his time, he ran and won.

What could some of those ideas be to claim the center?

This economy will turn around. Once it does, Obama will work hard to cut deficits, but he might not manage to get it all done. So Bobby's message today of balancing budgets will suddenly become sexy in 2016. About the current financial mess, Bobby had this to say: "Let's face it, we are addicted to debt!" That is one sharp-eyed conservative. He is not putting all blame on the bankers. He is saying we the people have to take responsibility.

Emphasize family, emphasize faith. But emphasize family without sounding sexist, and emphasize faith without sounding racist, or you lose independents like me.

Independent For Bloomberg
  • Balanced Budgets
  • Family
  • Faith
  • Sound Governance
  • Economic Growth
  • Imagining The Jobs, Companies And Industries Of Tomorrow
  • Global Stewardship
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