If you are a democrat right now you should be laughing like hell. If you are a republican, you’d have to be crying yourself to sleep every night. The republican primaries, the circus that just keeps on giving Obama the election.
Let me reiterate a couple things. Romney is going to represent the republicans in the presidential elections and Obama, unless things take the utmost turn for the worse, will beat him soundly. It has all been planned out and agreed upon by both parties. The election is fixed… no surprise there. Obama wants to win, the GOP wants to kill the teaparty.
I’ve said it before. The primary aim of the GOP is to take back the party from the teaparty which is proving more dangerous to the republican establishment than Obama The teaparty is the ultimate lunatic fringe and threatens the entire order, especially the ‘fat cats’ in the GOP. Politics is about compromise, making deals, getting rewarded, making wealth for the insiders. The teaparty threatens that, without offering anything better in return.
So back to the present. Romney vs Gingrich vs Santorum vs Paul. The contest is only for the press, and also to keep Romney tired and burnt out by the time the presidential primary comes around. But no one could ever have imagined the comedy those 4 would provide. Actually, the entire group, even those gone… Cain, Perry, Bachman… a bunch of jokers, especially Donald Trump.
Each of the top 4 has made statements that continue to dim their electability. Paul has been consistent, but nothing new actually comes from his mouth and his ideas make him unelectable.
Santorum has very backward ideas, not to mention having a disposition only a mother can bear to love. While he spouts a lot of neanderthal beliefs popular with teapartyists, those beliefs are way outside the American mainstream. He would be much more popular in Saudi Arabia. He is that retrogressive.
His recent surge winning a couple small states, flatters to deceive. The fix is in. The GOP leaders don’t want him and he has no money.
Gingrich links blacks to welfare. Is that a gaffe? Not at all. Gingrich is fully aware that whites disproportionally make up the bulk of welfare recipients. But he is playing into the racist stereotypes of many who feel more comfortable with the idea that blacks en masse, leach off welfare. They don’t want to know the truth and Gingrich is ok with that. He doesn’t want the black vote. He can’t get the black vote. But he can get white racists to rally around him by playing that race card. But while it was enough to keep him close to Romney, alas, he is so far back in the pack that he soon won’t be winning many caucuses. One more surge in popularity is not going to overcome Romney.
Romney is the clear leader. The GOP wants him because the fix is in. They know that Romney is weak and prone to fatal errors. Let us look at his “I’m not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there. If it needs repair, I’ll fix it. I’m not concerned about the very rich. They’re doing just fine. I’m concerned about the very heart of America, the 90-95 percent of Americans who right now are struggling…You can focus on the very poor, that’s not my focus”.
Now, that’s a gaffe. It is also actually what Romney and his disconnected friends really believe… that there is very little poverty in America, and the poor are ‘ok’ with the ‘safety net’.
Romney doesn’t live in this world, hence his $10,000 bet, his attempt to dress down, and his ‘liking to fire people’ in a time when millions of people are still feeling the effects of ‘being fired’.
Romney does believe contrary to facts that America’s poor makes up only 4-9% of the population, when it is quite probably nearer 20%. The recession has caused a whole lot of new poor… middle and even upper middle class families that have slipped quickly from their lofty position to virtual homelessness.
Establishment figures put homelessness at a high of 3,500,000 people. Really? But that’s establishment figures that always underplay the bad news in America. I believe that the numbers are much higher considering the great rise I see in South Florida over the last few years,
Think about the unemployment numbers and those losing their homes. The Establishment says there are 13,000,000 currently unemployed. But you have to understand how these statistics are compiled. That figure doesn’t include the homeless and many others who fall off the lists… people who have been unemployed for so long, they no longer statistically matter. Truthfully, the unemployed are more likely 20% of the workable population… people who would work if given a chance.
But Romney and his ilk remain unaware because our reality isn’t part of their world. Like George Bush before, I doubt Romney has ever entered a supermarket or retail establishment to buy something. He only postures for the cameras while on the campaign trail. Like Bush, I doubt he has ever seen a cash register or even met a sales person. He has never taken anything off the shelves and never compared prices. He has never gotten out of his car to pump gas, never paid an electricity bill. He lives in the stratified air of the rich elite.
Hence his condescending comment about ‘safety net’. The rich elite feels that the poor doesn’t want to be part of the American Dream, doesn’t want o be better off, own things without having to take it from the dump, hand me downs, or putting it on a card and hoping that eventually they will pay off on that flat screen tv.
They feel that the poor is comfortable with government handouts, wants to live from welfare check to welfare check, wants to live in fear and despair because they don’t have adequate health insurance, and have to stand in long lines at the local clinics.
Santorum and Paul represent the teaparty hopes… that’s a split vote right there. Gingrich is a wannabe teapartist, another split vote. Romney can’t get the real party vote, though he will get the realistic teaparty vote… those who believe that he is the only one who can combat Obama.
The hopes for Gingrich was that he could beat Obama in debates but the truth is that he is if nothing else, a moral liability. True conservatives find him morally despicable. And while he is a thinking man, he is a loose cannon, destined to have his own ego destroy the GOP.
That leaves the moneyed-up Romney who can get the moderate conservative votes, can get some independent votes but cannot get the real teaparty votes. He will get some of those teaparty ‘anybody but Obama’ votes. But alas there aren’t enough of those going around.
Romney fell in the trap of believing that the teaparty is stronger than it is, and his becoming a ready-mix teapartist isn’t flying well with the teaparty itself, or independents. If he had created an alternative, stuck with being a moderate republican, he would have had a slight chance. Now he is going to beat the rest but fall well short of the presidency because his support is too fractured. The teaparty in the long run, will not vote for him.
And less we forget, Romney accepting Trumps endorsement was a kiss of death for him. Not sure either he or Trump realizes that as yet… but they will. All he needs now is to accept the Palin endorsement. He wishes she won’t.
Unless Obama really messes up, the election is a foregone conclusion.
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This blog notes the passing of Ambassador Dudley Thompson and broadcaster Wilmot Perkins. Thompson’s greatness reaches beyond his tenure in Jamaica’s party politics. While Jamaica didn’t do that much to recognize his contribution, Thompson was international. He was for many years a leading friend of Africa and knew at one point or another, many of the African revolution greatest leaders. And as a lawyer and international negotiator, he was one of Jamaica’s all time best.
Wilmot Perkins was a well-known and well-loathed/well-liked radio commentator (depending on who you ask) who led the radio talk shows in Jamaica. Perkins was a brilliant but polarizing man who used his sense of logic and wit to slice and dice weak arguments and their proponents on talk radio.
Yet when challenged by someone of equal wit, intelligence or strength, his tendency was to hit the cut switch.
Some will credit him with the provision of high debate, while others will blame him for the devolution and incivility of talk radio.
While not generally supportive of many of his views, not many can deny his incisiveness, or his depth of knowledge.
The loss of both is another great loss to Jamaica.
