Instant Classic Ron Paul V. Paul Krugman on Economic Policy

Very long, but worthwhile

Quote of the Day - Ron Paul Edition

“The selection of a reality television personality to host a presidential debate that voters nationwide will be watching is beneath the office of the Presidency and flies in the face of that office’s history and dignity. Mr. Trump’s participation as moderator will distract from questions and answers concerning important issues such as the national economy, crushing federal government debt, the role of the federal government, foreign policy, and the like. To be sure, Mr. Trump’s participation will contribute to an unwanted circus-like atmosphere."

I agree with this 100%.  I can't believe that NewsMax is sponsoring this joke of a debate.  Since when do the republican candidates have to go to New York to meet with The Donald?  Simply an embarrassment.  

The Tea Party/CNN Debate

Winners:







Newt hands down won the debate to me. He was articulate and had some great zingers too.






‘President Obama Scares Them Every Single Day’






Michele Bachmann's performance was much improved over last week. She also didn't look like she had bed head, so that was a help too. I personally think she went too far with the Gardasil attack. I think many in the country don't necessarily object to the drug, but do object to the mandatory nature of shot. Personally, my biggest objection is that he did by executive order. That doesn't sit well with me.






Rick Santorum is very good debater. He still has no shot at the nomination, but he would make a solid VP pick, especially if the worst possible scenario of Huntsman getting the nomination comes to pass.






Huntsman should be hanging his head in absolute shame when asked about how women are treated under the Taliban basically he said, it sucks to be you, now go away. Disgraceful.






As usual Romney avoided all the tough questions and did no damage. He didn't win, but he didn't lose.






Herman Cain had some very good moments. But, a Tea Party audience is tailored made for him. I dont' think it will bring him up to the next tier of candidates, but it will help with his fundraising I am sure.






Ron Paul, was well, Ron Paul. If you agree with him, you think he did great. If you are not inclined to agree with him he looked like a fool.






The biggest loser was Rick Perry. He had a hard time defending himself against the attacks that came from all angles tonight. He did especially bad on the Gardasil issue. He said he was offended that Bachmann thought he could be bought off for $5,000. It almost sounded like he could be bought off for a higher amount. (not saying that is true, but it sounded a tad like that, to me anyway). I personally agree with him on the fence issue. It would be outrageously expensive and wouldn't be all that effective. They would just dig under it, the drug tunnels are testament to that. But he will have some problems on immigration. He is perceived as weak on that issue. I met someone recently who grew up in Texas in a small town. Due to where she lived and the land her parents have she told me that like it or not, the right needs to accept a worker's visa. They are necessary. She said that people who don't live it, have a different view of the immigration problem than the governor of a border state will. She is a conservative who doesn't want to see amnesty, but has a perspective that I certainly don't understand living in the mid atlantic and in an urban setting.






Did Perry lose badly enough to lose the nomination? No. But he needs to improve if he wants to keep his frontrunner status.

Ron Paul on Fox News Sunday

Fox News Sunday is continuing its spotlight on the candidates for the GOP nomination.  Yesterday was Ron Paul's turn. 

Paul has caused some waves earlier this week when his comments on the 9/11 attacks. 

The CNN Debate

Just some quick thoughts as I don't have a great deal of time. 

I think that Michele Bachman did a great job.  She sometimes has a habit of getting her facts a little mixed up, but not tonight.  She showed that she is able to stay on topic and answer questions with quick soundbites that get to the point. 

I think that Tim Pawlenty was the big winner tonight.  He came across as likable, knowledgeable, and a good conservative.  Job well done. 

Newt showed why he has been described as the brain or the idea guy.  He is in his element in a debate format and tonight was no exception.  The big down side was that he outright lied in my opinion.  He is sticking to his ridiculous story that what he said about Paul Ryan was taken out of context.  It was a live interview Newt, we ain't buying what you are trying to sell with this one.  You just made yourself look dishonest. 

Herman Cain I think was one of the biggest losers.  Not because of his answers, just that he wasn't given much of a chance to speak.  The questions went mainly to Romney, Newt, and Pawlenty.  I guess these are the three that CNN has deigned the viable candidates for the nomination.  Overall his performance was strong, just not nearly enough face time. 

Ron Paul was Ron Paul.  I agree with much of what he would do on fiscal policy, but he loses me on social issues and foreign policy. 

Romney was doing his somersaults about Romneycare or as Pawlenty's newest phrase Obamney Care.  Not happening Mitt.  I am not buying it, you seem unwilling to sign a all out repeal and nothing less is acceptable.  Screw this waiver idea of yours. 

Rick Santorum also did pretty well, he showed he can debate with the rest of the field.  Santorum is out for me, I will not vote for him even if he is the nominee so I don't really care what he has to say. 

What I did find refreshing is that they talked about some of the third rail topics.  Ethanol and entitlement reform.  We need to open and honest to the American people, we are broke and it is time we take on the tough and scary subjects.  We are almost out of road and can no longer just the kick the can.  The right needs to talk openly and honestly about these topics and not allow the media and the left to turn this into throwing granny over the cliff scenario.  Oh, wait they already did that. 

What are your thoughts? 

Levin on Paulites

This cracked me up.  While you shouldn't generalize, there is a great deal of truth in what he says.  I constantly have to purge my facebook and twitter pages because of this nonsense.  Many are anti-Israel and birthers.  That is the main reason that Paul could never be a serious contender for the presidency.  His cult like following is so over the top. 

Some Interesting Poll Numbers

PPP will be releasing some in depth polling tomorrow on the Republican cast of potential presidential nominees. 

While it is no secret that they are left leaning this particular poll only used republicans.  The numbers are interesting:

Most Republicans don't like Ron Paul.  He has his very fervent followers, but in general the run of the mill republican is not interested. His approval rating is at 30%. 

Republicans are not overly impressed with Donald Trump's decision to run for president.  His approval rate is at 29%.  Since everyone knows him, his numbers don't have much chance for improvement. 

Most republicans feel that Sarah Palin wouldn't be a bad vice president, but don't feel she is qualified for the #1 seat.  While she has high approval ratings among republicans, they just don't see her as presidential material.  Only 29% feel she is qualified for president, while 46% say she would make a good VP. 

Full poll will be released tomorrow. 

CPAC - My Experience

CPAC 11 has come to end.  We spent the weekend listening to many so called presidential hopefuls and others within the conservative movement.  We also listened to Donald Trump of all people, who no one there thinks is a conservative.  He said the right things in some cases, but I doubt it fooled many people.  Don't get me wrong, I liked the speech but it wasn't convincing in any way. 

We all know there was controversy surrounding this year's conference.  Mainly due to the inclusion of GOProud as a sponsor.  Many social conservative groups and politicians decided to forgo attending.  As you may know I questioned if it was a good idea for these groups to forgo, the answer to bad speech is more speech.  I firmly believe that. 

Even though I don't like to, I will admit when I am wrong.  This is one of the times.  GOProud shouldn't have been allowed to be a sponsor.  The question of homosexuality aside, the real problem with them being there is identity politics.  Conservatives don't particularly care for putting people into groups.  This is exactly what they were trying to do, and they did it aggressively, too aggressively.  They also went way too far and started a dust up on Friday of the conference.  Did they really expect that there wouldn't be people in attendance that were against them being there?  Did they really expect that those people wouldn't protest it?  Protest is part of our political process and part of the American lexicon.  How they handled this was disgraceful and can't be tolerated.  I have this feeling that controversy won't be an issue next year.  No one is saying that they can't attend the conference, or can't vote republican.  But, stop trying to get the republican party to accept identity politics.  We want no part of that, if we did we may as well be liberals. 

I had the honor of meeting fellow blogger Right Klik and his beautiful family.  His little daughter is just too cute and she was very well behaved during our lunch.  I know of another little girl just about the same age who wouldn't have been too happy to be sitting in a restaurant for that period of time. 

Jill over at Pundit and Pundette came across something that said that the issue of abortion of was being made passe at CPAC.  I and others who attended have assured her that is not the case with the people who were there.  That is still a very important issue among conservatives and regardless if you personally agree with or not, it won't be going away anytime soon.  Virtually every major speaker brought up the issue of life and got huge applause when they did.  Many of the exhibitors and sponsors were solidly pro life. 

I had a funny incident happen after the final speech.  I was having dinner with some fellow Smart Girls and needed to use the ladies room.  I go and the stalls are towards the back of the room and around a corner.  I just went to the closest stall, the door was open and because of the angle I couldn't see anything.  I open the door and to my surprise Bill Schutlz of Red Eye fame was in there doing his business.  I think I am scarred for life.  He was so drunk he didn't even know I was there.  I just turned around and went to the next stall. 

The Straw Poll results came as no shock to me.  I knew before the conference started that Ron Paul would win.  Truly, I have found Ron Paul to be the SEIU of the right.  He buses in his fans and sells tickets at Campaign for Liberty's website at much lower prices than anyone else.  Which I don't think is right, but it is out my control.  Although with the new leadership at CPAC this may very well change.  My understand is that the new president is far less libertarian leaning than the outgoing one.  CPAC is meant to be a conservative gathering and Paulites in many ways are not conservative.  They are almost cult like in some respects.  That is why Ron Paul can't win.  People may agree with many parts of message, but he has many followers who are anti-Semitic and 9/11 truthers.  They didn't do themselves any favors when they couldn't help themselves and called the former Vice President a war criminal.  That smacks of the same vitriol that we hear from the likes of the Code Pink ladies.  You are not going to ingratiate yourselves to the right when you are saying and doing things like that.  If you are one of those people who think that Paulites are somewhat cult like, just wait until you see them travelling in packs like they do at CPAC.  Out of nowhere they just yell "Ron Paul", it is freaky.  Personally, I find them even scarier than the Obamanonts. 

A few people told me that they felt that Allen West giving the Keynote Speaker on Saturday night was anti-climantic since in the past they have had such names as Glenn Beck, Rush, and others.  While Allen West isn't the name that most of the keynote speakers of the past have been, he may very well be in the future.  Allen West is the future of the conservative movement.  So maybe CPAC can one day say, I knew him when. 

CPAC Day One Recap

It was quite the day in Woodley Park Today.


Rumors started early on in the day that The Donald would be coming to speak. He was not on the original schedule that we received. I actually liked his speech. Don't get me wrong, I won't support him, but it was a good speech. That is until he bashed Ron Paul. The Paulites (which dominate the CPAC crowd) booed him. It was quite amusing.

Donald Rumsfeld was given the Defender of the Constitution award and he was introduced by his very close friend VP Dick Cheney. The Paulites didn't take too kindly to this either. They were called war criminals. Kinda rude I thought. But, I was not surprised.

I met Herman Cain this morning. I am even more smitten now. He is so charming and kind. He stood in the bar lobby and was willing to shake the hands and talk to anyone that wanted to talk to him. He was not surrounded by a bunch of handlers like most politicians are. He will be giving his speech Friday at I think it is 4:30 EST. He also hosted the blogger bash after today's session ended.

I was willing to give GOProud a chance. And while I still feel that allowing speech is important in our country, the people who were against it were right. There is an agenda. I don't know what the agenda is, but an agenda it is. They were trying to plaster everyone with stickers and had placards everywhere.

The Muslim group that was there kept a very low profile and while I didn't pay too much attention as I had other things to attend to, I think they were ok. They were way in the back and you really had to look for their booth. They stayed in their booth and engaged the people who went to speak with them. None of the woman were veiled.

I also got to meet Bridgette Gabriel today. Oddly we ran into each other in the ladies room. She was more than willing to answer my questions while were washing up. She is very lovely, articulate, and smart. I have travelled through the Middle East and I love Jordan. It is a beautiful country. We talked about my experiences as an American and she told me my experiences were what she expected, as they are kind and giving by culture. She also told me that the vast majority of Muslims just want to live their lives like I do, but since we can't tell who is who, we must pay attention to the dangers. She told me something very, very disturbing. Something like 90% of Egyptian woman have genital mutilations performed as children. That is amazing. She is not optimistic that the Brotherhood will be held off for long after Mubarak leaves. She also explained that Mubarak needs to save face and he will leave the country for medical treatments and that is how she believes it will end. At this point we were still under the impression that he would step down today.

I spent some time volunteering at the Smart Girl Politics booth. It was great to see that a group that is barely more than two years old to have such name recognition. We signed up some new people and did make a few bucks for a worthy organization.

I ran into Joe Klein. I guess he wants to go on MSNBC or Meet the Press and mock us.

I ran into Richard Dreyfuss of all people. I have no idea what he was doing there as we don't seem to be his type of crowd. I walked by a poster for him but again, I was in hurry to get to my next place and didn't read it. My biggest surprise was that he didn't try to perform a citizen arrest on Cheney. He agrees with the Paulities on that front, at least.

I really heart Paul Ryan. His speech was a little policy wonk, but I personally like that. If he does want to run for president one day, he needs to work on that. He will only fire up a small segment of the voters with his current style.

The morning started off with none other than Michele Bachmann. She of course got the crowd going. She made a funny joke about making sure she was looking at the right camera. You may not realize it, but she is tiny. And for me to say that, she is really tiny. Because I am very petite.

I missed most of Rand Paul. I was doing my volunteer work at the time.

Tomorrow features Mitt Romney. I am not going to that. I do want to hear what John Thune has to say. He is at 1 pm EST. I also would suggest catching Mike Lee who follow Thune. I saw him speak the other night at the Tea Party Townhall and he is very engaging. The ever so exciting Tim Pawlenty will also be speaking tomorrow afternoon. For me, besides Cain of course, the highlight of the day will be the seminar on school choice. They are rightly pushing the notion that it will help grow the conservative movement. I firmly believe that to be true. Education is topic that we can all agree we have to do better on. The home schooling, vouchers, and charters are becoming more popular within the inner cities. This is a chance for us to do outreach to those communities to spread the conservative message. Many minorities are more conservative than they think they are. They just don't know what republicans/conservatives are. They have an image in their heads that is simply wrong. It is up to us to try to show them we are not what Pelosi and Co. have told them we are. Ron Paul will be speaking mid afternoon. Not going to make that; not a fan. Gov. Perry's name is being brought out as a GOP presidential hopeful yet again. He has said he won't run, but who knows. And yes, Herman Cain is the final speaker of the day. LOVE HIM.

I took no pictures today. I wanted to enjoy the day and just absorb everything.

CSPAN 3 is televising it. If you don't have that channel it is being live streamed over the web.

Oh, there is no chance that anyone other Ron Paul will win the Straw Poll. The only question will be who comes in second.