By Howard Kleinhendler. The great sages of Iowa have spoken. The endless Republican debates and fluctuating Iowa polls kept the audience riveted to the circus like atmosphere. There was Texas Governor Rick Perry, whose public mishaps and memory lapses proved that the teacher who gave him a “C” in gym class was probably being generous. Mr. “999,” Herman Cain, brought a record of public service and a command of national issues about as long as his tenure as front runner. Then Newt leaped forward, convincing the Fox News Nation that history professors are smart people who deserve to hold the most powerful position in the world, despite deep character flaws, repeated ethical violations while in government and incoherent musings on foreign policy and child labor laws. Michelle Bachmann emerged as the new TEA Party champion as Sarah Plain dropped off the cover of People Magazine. But like the former Alaska governor, she lost her stride as soon as the country started paying attention to what she had to say.
Mitt Romney, whose perfectly gelled hair covers a deeply divided psyche of moderate positions on women’s rights and healthcare which pop up like the devil when he is forced to spout the Religious Right mantra on Faith and Country, pulled off a squeaker against come from behind, lost and forgotten Rick Santorum who was soundly rejected by his Pennsylvania constituents the last time he ran for something. And, of course, we can’t forget Ron Paul. The man who was born for the role of Grinch, but probably could never cut a deal with a Hollywood left-wing agent, is right behind. Iowans had favored the angry old man for his sound-good rhetoric of no federal government, no foreign policy and allowing the poor to die and starve by eliminating welfare and Medicaid. After all, there’s plenty to eat in the Wheat Belt state.
Now we head East to New Hampshire for the next leg of the flying trapeze. Santorum has purchased a flak jacket as the political polls take aim at his lust for government spending, the Republican equivalent of burning the American flag. Bachmann has decided that she doesn’t want to compete anymore and Perry is headed down to the Carolinas where candidates are evaluated not on the sensibility of their political positions but on their culinary preference for grits and fried pickles. Newt now realizes that acting like an angry old man appeals to Republican voters and has vowed to chew Romney up and spit him out for all to see his repulsive moderate views. Dr. Paul knows that the gig is up and has vowed to focus on being enough of a pest to garner a few outrageous ideological planks at the Republican Convention.
All this would make for great comedy television, whose script writers have never had it so good, but sadly this is really happening. The lack of leadership in the Republican party has produced a cast of empty suits who do not represent America or the values which built this country into the only superpower standing. Introverted foreign policy will bring terror to our shores and war to the Middle East and the Korean peninsula. Shrinking government while lowering taxes on the rich will decimate the middle-class, who are still losing their homes to foreclosure and are either out of work or have taken cuts to wages and benefits to keep their jobs. Gutting social security and Medicare will push more people onto food stamps and into over-crowded and under-staffed hospital emergency rooms. The policy of saying “no” to every initiative or idea that emanates from the Democratic party has paralyzed government, the only friend the poor and misfortunate can turn to in times of despair.
As the Republican primary season gets into full swing, the die-hards are likely to continue to struggle with their schizophrenic impulse to support the candidate whose policies take us back to the 1700’s where women couldn’t vote, people were sold as slaves and government was controlled by thirteen colonial powers. The brains behind the party are deeply worried and have even pushed has-been John McCain to step up behind Mitt, the only guy in the pack who can possibly win in 2012. While the notion of electing a Mormon, who as Massachusetts governor believed that healthcare should be affordable to everyone and not just the wealthy, makes many of the “no government is good government” believers gag, even they understand that without Mitt, the Second Coming will not happen in 2012.
For Americans who care about this County and all its citizens, let’s hope that as Republican Reality TV continues to entertain us, rational voters here in New Jersey and in swing states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, understand that we cannot continue to prosper as a country with divisive and fringe politics. With the economy still struggling and foreign foes still planning to hurt us, we need to remain committed to the sound, centrist policies that have served us well for the past decades. Otherwise, our downfall will come from within.
Finally, some truth about the Republicans. While Obama may have dropped the ball on the economy, the alternatives presented by the Republican field is a recipe for disaster.
Mr. Kleinhandler returns with an essay ripped straight from the DNC talking points memo. No matter what can be said of the Republican candidates, every one of them (with the possible exception of Ron Paul), is a tremendous improvement over the WORST PRESIDENT IN THE HISTORY OF THE REPUBLIC BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA. Here’s what you can’t say about the Republican candidates:
1. They don’t hate the country;
2. They haven’t quadrupled the deficit or increased the country’s debt by over 50% in just 3 years;
3. They haven’t presided over the worst so-called “recovery” since the 1930’s;
4. They haven’t turned their backs on allies such as Poland, Ukraine, Egypt and Israel;
5. They haven’t played golf while the middle east was quickly degenerating into a radical jihadist nightmare, country by country;
6. They haven’t bowed down to the King of Saudi Arabia;
7. They haven’t done everything in their power to prevent America from moving toward energy independence;
8. They haven’t dumped billions of taxpayer dollars into “green” boondoggles for the benefit of campaign cash bundlers;
9. They haven’t thumbed their nose at the 10’s of millions of Americans who are suffering chronic unemployment, homelessness and record levels of foodstamp dependency while they take lavish vacations at taxpayer expense;
10. They haven’t engaged in a vicious game of class warfare while failing miserably to offer one practical solution to our mind-boggling debt crisis;
11. They haven’t broken their promise to close Gitmo;
12. They haven’t authorized the extra-judicial assassination of American citizens by drone strike;
13. They didn’t appoint the worst most corrupt attorney general in the history of the country;
14. They did no preside over Fast and Furious which supplied thousands of high-powered weapons to Mexican drug cartels resulting in the deaths of hundreds of Mexicans and at least 2 American law enforcement personnel;
15. They haven’t failed to offer a budget in 2 and half years except for one that was overwhelmingly rejected by their own party;
16. They don’t have a long history of close associations with communists and terrorists;
17. They haven’t essentially scrapped America’s space program and turned into another social experiment while leaving our astronauts to hitch rides on Russian spacecraft;
18. They haven’t withdrawn American missile defense from eastern Europe;
19. They haven’t nationalized large sectors of the automotive, banking and health care industries;
This is just a partial list. For democrats to ridicule the Republican candidates, no matter how weak they are, is indeed, throwing stones from a very brittle glass house. Obama is awful and MUST GO!
is this stand up comedy?
Written so objectively, no? Comeon, to you GOP=BAD DEM=GREAT.
Period!
“Mitt Romney, whose perfectly gelled hair covers a deeply divided psyche of moderate positions on women’s rights and healthcare which pop up like the devil when he is forced to spout the Religious Right mantra on Faith and Country, pulled off a squeaker against come from behind, lost and forgotten Rick Santorum who was soundly rejected by his Pennsylvania constituents the last time he ran for something” —————————————————————————————————— -This coming from the candidate who won a whopping 28% of votes the last time he ran for something.
The article is too long.
Basically, no human can fix this mess or stop the plutocrats from hoarding money.
While this is a very well written article, it isn’t entirely true. Many of you out there will instantly recognize the author of the article as none other than the man who ran for congress and state senate (and lost) under the democratic party, so it should come as no surprise that he is on a republican bashing mission. Granted, Ron Paul is a (moderated) nutjob and Perry is blubbering (moderated), but Mr. Mormon Romney would actually make a great president. Let’s consider our alternative Barack Hussein for a moment. His incopetence as a president is only surpassed by his ego. If a man in the Oval Office for four years has nothing to show for himself except fot a continuously crippling economy, perhaps it’s time for him to go back to his Nazi loving pastor and give the reins over to someone who actually could bring us change.
i’m not convinced howard
Come on Howie? What happened to the straight shooter I used to know? While every candidate has their flaws, not one of them is nearly as flawed as Obama. We would do better to have no one in the White House – he’s been an absolute disaster.
#2
TruthLaser says:
you comments are right on target
this article is an insult to any Intelligent American
Obama has without any doubt been the worst President this country has ever seen
According to the republican lovers, the good years under bush, when all mortgage guys got rich, thereby crippling the economy, are what we need again. They simply don’t understand the damage that occured then.
all these comments are enlightening–however—the main question is—-is mitt romney able to snare the election so we won’t have a president who will finally achieve his goals without fear of losing the next election!—we will be in worse trouble than we are now–inflation and the unemployment woes of today will be “the good old days” of tomorrow.
Why can’t Rudy Giulliani run again? He’s way better than the rest..
Hey genius: You need to get your facts CORRECT it was the Clinton administration that made the banks give subprime loans to people that could not afford to pay them back. The get rich quick guys, Corzine a Democrat for one, made lots of money when the housing went bust.
I read this article and just had to shake my head at the utter bias and lack of objectivity/honesty portrayed. when the democrats go after the opposition they really do it on a personal level. I have not found that to be the case when republicans disagree with democrats.
Then I read the “TLS comment rules” and it seems that articles like this violate many of those concepts. does TLS have a set of rules for those that provide opinions/articles as well?
I can’t wait to see Romney explain why his successful health plan is not a good idea for the whole country. I can’t wait to see him debate Obama.
I’d like to see Romney ask Obama which side he’d back when Iran finally bombs Israel. Think that those atomic plants they are constructing are for electricity?