She has made a fortune being in the spotlight, and she loves it. I'll give her credit for doing as well financially as she has, and this success is exactly why there is no chance she will run for president. She is much better off sitting on the sidline throwing spitballs. I predict Gingrich will be joining her there shortly, although he's not quite as good looking.
"Io sono stanco, sono imbigliato, and I wan't everyone here to know, there ain't gonna be no trouble from me..Don Corleone..Cicc' a port!"
Club For Growth: ‘We Struggle To Identify The Real Tim Pawlenty’
Quote:
The Club notes Pawlenty's history of favoring tax cuts, and his vetoes of various tax increases proposed by his state's Democratic legislature. But on the other hand, they criticize him for having endorsed a local referendum to raise property taxes in his home school district, supporting a cigarette tax increase, his support for state biofuel mandates, and for not taking a public position on the Minnesota "Legacy Amendment" approved by the voters in 2008, which raised sales taxes by 3/8 of a percent for environmental and cultural preservation. And they also criticize his past support for cap-and-trade, which Pawlenty himself has recanted.
The article is all about Pawlenty’s efforts as governor to take on drug and oil companies and other practitioners of “excessive corporate power.” It includes his boast that many ideological Republicans “don’t even talk to me anymore” because of his support for things such as the minimum wage.
“The era of small government is over,” Pawlenty told the newspaper. “I’m a market person, but there are certain circumstances where you’ve got to have government put up the guardrails or bust up entrenched interests before they become too powerful. . . . Government has to be more proactive, more aggressive.”
The newspaper did issue a “clarification,” but only to say that Pawlenty’s quote about small government was “in reference to a point” made by the conservative writer David Brooks — one that Pawlenty, from his other comments, obviously agreed with.
How...sane. And he's running away from that, disowning it on Limbaugh's show?
This summarizes the problem the Reps are having with the 2012 election. To win Iowa and South Carolina people like Pawlenty and Romney have to disavow their moderation and try to please the tea baggers, and then hope they survive long enough to get back to the moderately right of center position that could make the 2012 election a close one. Their problem IMHO is that they aren't going to make a dent in the tea baggers' vote anyway, so to try to appease them will be a sign of "flip flopping" in the general election. So far I don't see anyone who can bridge the gap between sane republicans like Romney Pawlenty and Huntsman, and the rest of them, who are unelectable wackos.
"Io sono stanco, sono imbigliato, and I wan't everyone here to know, there ain't gonna be no trouble from me..Don Corleone..Cicc' a port!"
I don't know a lot about Pawlenty, but Romney seems to be someone that the country as a whole would find appealing. Actually, the person on the GOP side that would bridge gaps on the left and right might be Brown from Massachusetts. Guiliani self destructed last time, but he is another that would appeal to independents and the more conservative democrats, but neither of them is conservative enough to make it through the primaries. Too often the primaries become a series of crowning a candidate that perfectly matches the ideology of the party, bypassing the question of whether or not the person is electable in the general election.
"After all, we are not communists"
Christopher Moltisanti: You ever think what a coincidence it is that Lou Gehrig died of Lou Gehrig's disease?
Tony Soprano: Yeah well, when you're married, you'll understand the importance of fresh produce.
I don't know a lot about Pawlenty, but Romney seems to be someone that the country as a whole would find appealing.
The White House certainly believes he's their biggest threat. Hell he's been featured rather prominently in the last few DNC ads. There was that one where they used Fox News clips bludgeoning Mittens' stance on Health Care reform. And now this one on his '09 stance against saving the Automobile Industry.
Now that's good propaganda, using the guy's own definitive opinions and words against him. Can't exactly argue that he was misinterpreted. (Of course the "Detroit Saved" narrative the WH is planning to use as a key plank for re-election is full of holes, but that's neither here or there.)
Just imagine a similar ad ("Let Detroit Go Bankrupt!") being played ad nauseum in Michigan next fall, a state he supposedly had some advantage with because his dad was Governor there.
Thus the pratfalls of kissing too much primary ass.
Originally Posted By: Don Marco
Too often the primaries become a series of crowning a candidate that perfectly matches the ideology of the party, bypassing the question of whether or not the person is electable in the general election.
To be fair, I think both parties have cycles where they're so ideological entrenched (i.e. the past) with certain planks that to outsiders it come as fucking insanity while partisans consider it "purity" and have a real identity crisis when their defense of the Past fail in the mainstream present.
Let me give you a perfect contemporary example: Gay Rights. A new Gallup poll just reported that 58% of Americans have no morality "qualm" with homosexual relationships. An earlier poll reported the first national plurality support for Gay Marriage (not merely civil unions, marriage.) DADT got repealed by Congress with 75% plus national polled support. NBA just fined Kobe Bryant and Noah 5-6 figures for yelling a "F" word that aint Fuck, same word that was used freely without hesitation in old 1980s movies. (remember BREAKFAST CLUB?)
Point is, it isn't like the old days so much anymore (i.e. just 5-10 years ago) when the queer boogeyman was a popular and effective scare issue for the GOP in elections. Yet the Evangelical, social conservative political base of the GOP will refuse at all costs to let the party modernize or ease off on the homophobic issues that matter greatly for the base. To them, GLEE and Ellen DeGeneres are still evil this side of Pol Pot.
That is why Pawlenty came out in support of re-instating DADT, which may win him a few primary votes but it won't help him any in the general election.
Democrats were still running against Herbert Hoover into the 1980s and Mondale/Dukakis got demolished. Now the GOP are still running against the 1960s, now held hostage by the ghost of Reagan like the Dems were by FDR.
Personally for the sake of the party (and America), I suggest they give the '12 nomination to Bachmann or Palin. Let the wingnuts have their scorched earth campaign they've always wanted and get them fucking demolished in the fall. Then win back the White House in '16. Don't let them have the bitch clutch (no matter how illogically) that if only a "real" conservative had gotten the gig they would have won, which they used on McCain and surely for God they will too on Romney.
"Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind. War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today." JFK
Giuliani, with 16 percent support, narrowly edged former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, currently seen as the party's front-runner because of name recognition and a large campaign warchest, with 15 percent.
Also polling high were former Alaska governor Sarah Palin with 13 percent, Texas Congressman Ron Paul, with 12 percent, and pizza magnate Herman Cain at 10 percent. Palin also is not a declared candidate for 2012 so far.
All other announced and potential candidates scored less than 10 percent support in a poll of 473 likely Republican voters conducted May 24-26. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 3 percentage points.
"I've never seen anyone as mercilessly and relentlessly attacked as I have seen Sarah Palin in the last couple of years. But she also inspires great passion, particularly among the Republican faithful." - Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)
I don't think the Republican nominee is in the race yet.
"When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives." Winter is Coming Now this is the Law of the Jungle—as old and as true as the sky; And the wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall break it must die. As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk, the Law runneth forward and back; For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.
Who knows? Giuliani might actually make a decent showing this time around. Let's fact it, McCain had the nomination from the get-go last time, but it's a free-for-all right now, with no strong candidate. But then, who knew President Obama would end up the nominee at this same point, much less win the whole thing?
Absolutely right SB. I've been saying all along too, it IS way to early so never say never. I think Christie will still get in (although I hear he's taken a dive in the polls) and if Bachman gets in that'll create a buzz (for a portion of admiring followers) and who knows, maybe she'll take the lead.
Palin won't get in. I simply can't see her debate with anyone; or have a townhall type meeting (at least not one that allows people with opposing opinions to enter); not to mention the fact that she'd likely have to appear somewhere other than FOX and I can't see that happening. I'll borrow DT's description calling it a "Clown Show."
The thing is they need one person to "stand out" and that hasn't happened yet, but it will.
TIS
Last edited by The Italian Stallionette; 05/30/1103:27 PM.
"Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind. War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today." JFK
According to a source with knowledge of Palin’s thinking, the tour is a test of whether she can do it “her way,” which the source described as “nontraditional, low-cost, high-tech…. The key is to be totally unpredictable and always keep her rivals off-balance.”
After two days on the road, Palin now realizes a campaign “could be fun and exciting,” the source said, and she’s getting “more into the swing of things” as she tours and realizes “the press is not hostile to her.”
I don't think the Republican nominee is in the race yet.
Lilo, do you have a prediction as to WHOM the nominee will be?
RR,
I read/heard earlier today that Palin isn't even letting her "fans" know when/where her next stop will be. She's NOT gonna run. She is in it for the publicity.
TIS
"Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind. War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today." JFK
Ok, I got it. Bachman is suppose to announce tomorrow (or soon anyway); Palin is still on the Clown tour but has the "fire in her belly. Bachman says she and Sarah are good friends So, what do you think of a Bachman/Palin ticket hu????
Then, on the other hand, oh, please God...let it happen.
TIS
"Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind. War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today." JFK
Why don't he block an airport airstrip to get a haircut while he's at it?
Chris Christie takes state helicopter to son’s baseball game
Quote:
New Jersey governor Chris Christie--who has made government reform a major talking point of his administration--is coming under fire for his decision to travel in a state-owned helicopter to his son's high school baseball game Monday.
According to the Newark Star-Ledger, Christie landed in the state's $12.5 million helicopter just before the game began, buzzing over the trees in left field and distracting spectators. The GOP governor then got into a black sedan with tinted windows, which drove him about 100 yards to the baseball diamond.
Flanked by bodyguards, Christie and his wife, Mary Pat, watched the game from the stands until they left during the 5th inning. The two got back into the car and rode back to the helicopter. According to the Star-Ledger, the game was stopped for a "couple of minutes" while the helicopter took off.
He said it was advised that governors use helicopters more often after Corizine was gravely injured in a car accident while he was governor. Um, how about the fact that Corizine was dumb enough to allow his driver to speed excessively while he went without a seatbelt???
Christie is an arrogant prick, especially when it comes to his personal life. This past January, during one of the worst snowstorms to hit Jersey in a long time, he refused to cut his Caribbean vacation short to come home and lead the state's emergency offices. In press conferences after, he barked that he EARNED his vacation (I'm not arguing that he didn't earn his vacation... I just question his smarts about making a statement like that).
Anyway, Christie probably needs a heavy duty Marine helicopter to lift his fat ass... that's gotta be some expense to the people of New Jersey.
He said it was advised that governors use helicopters more often after Corizine was gravely injured in a car accident while he was governor. Um, how about the fact that Corizine was dumb enough to allow his driver to speed excessively while he went without a seatbelt???
Typical bullshit artist. That is the way they do things. Twist them to fit what they need or want. They should make them pay for it out of their pay!
ONLY gun owners have the POWER to PROTECT and PRESERVE our FREEDOM. "...it is their (the people's) right and duty to be at all times armed" - Thomas Jefferson, June 5, 1824
Everyone should read. "HOW TO KILL A MOCKING BIRD"
CAUTION: This Post has not been approved by Don Cardi.
You really don't expect people to believe your shit do you?
Read: "The Daily Apple"- Telling America and the Gangster BB like it really is!
Christie is an arrogant prick, especially when it comes to his personal life. This past January, during one of the worst snowstorms to hit Jersey in a long time, he refused to cut his Caribbean vacation short to come home and lead the state's emergency offices. In press conferences after, he barked that he EARNED his vacation (I'm not arguing that he didn't earn his vacation... I just question his smarts about making a statement like that).
Anyway, Christie probably needs a heavy duty Marine helicopter to lift his fat ass... that's gotta be some expense to the people of New Jersey.
He was better off staying where he was. He would only have screwed things up more then they already were. He would have sent crews out to take care of his and his friends places first.
ONLY gun owners have the POWER to PROTECT and PRESERVE our FREEDOM. "...it is their (the people's) right and duty to be at all times armed" - Thomas Jefferson, June 5, 1824
Everyone should read. "HOW TO KILL A MOCKING BIRD"
CAUTION: This Post has not been approved by Don Cardi.
You really don't expect people to believe your shit do you?
Read: "The Daily Apple"- Telling America and the Gangster BB like it really is!
I am sure most who don't follow politics or live in NJ don't know who Christie is. I've seen him a few times and he does come across as an arrogant ass. So, why is it that the Republicans want him to run so badly for President? What's the big (no pun intended) appeal?
Noting that his attitude seems much like some of the other governors (Scott-Florida, Walker-WI, Kasic-OH, Snyder-MI) who have tanked in ratings with that kind of attitude. Why oh why do they think he'd be so good????
TIS
"Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind. War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today." JFK
TIS, he has a certain Je ne sais quoi that can be molded into a formidable candidate. As you and I have noted, it's 18 months until the election. If the economy has not significantly improved by then, whoever the candidate is willbe perfectly positioned to blame the President and his adherents. Christie is viewed as being able to accomplish that better than anyone.
"Generosity. That was my first mistake." "Experience must be our only guide; reason may mislead us." "Instagram is Twitter for people who can't read."
I love to watch Good Day New York, because the anchors usually are NOT politically correct. Sure enough, when reporting yesterday that Rebulicans from Iowa were meeting with Christie to try and persuade him to run for President. Greg Kelly, the male anchor, said, "If they're going to try and persuade him, I hope they brought some snacks."
