The Opposite of Buyer's Remorse

That's the feeling you get when you realize that your party's Presidential candidate isn't nearly as bad as you thought she might be initially.

The Republicans are having the more traditional buyer's regret with the unsurprising realization that they are poised to nominate the vilest bully and self-centered ignoramus the body politic has ever seen - and we've had some doozies!

Most recently, Newt Gingrich, Newt! of all people! has been chiding the inevitable nominee Trump on his blatant racist whine about the judge who is hearing the case on the Trump University fraud. You can read about it in the Washington Post, here. The only thing the newt and the donald seem to have in common these days is the number of wives they cheated on before they married the next one.

Dear Hillary-Haters

First up, I don't like her that much myself, but I don't hate her.

And I'm not going to try to convince you of her competence and political abilities. I have my own issues with her. Still, I know she can do the job and work with the Congress and execute the laws.

I ask you this:

Live Blogging Republicans (Thurs.)

Something has happened. Bloggers (including me) and the Press (mainstream, liberal and evil as many believe it to be) are calling out the Republicans on lies. No longer are false equivalences ruling the day as in, "Republican leader says this, and Democratic leader says that." Maybe it's a move from the whole "Crossfire" mentality of lining up proponents or experts equal on each side to duke it out and not change a single mind. I give some credit to James Fallows at The Atlantic who has been calling out "false equivalencies." So, I will give him a link here. If  anyone wants to jump in and explain why the lies we called aren't, feel free. I'm not afraid to make corrections.

Of course, one spokesman for the Romney campaign said that they don't care much about fact checking. I hope they will. And I certainly hope the Dems will pay attention to facts and the truth. If they do (and I'm not entirely hopeful) they could revive the enthusiasm about Obama and help fulfill the hope so many had (and so many Republicans claim they had) that President Obama was going to make things different. We'll see. I'll hold them accountable too.

The Newt Has Left the Building!

In honor of the former Speaker's departure from the presidential race, tending to disprove the Preacher that the not-so-swift can actually win races, I refer you to this wonderful tumblr collection I found entitled "Newt Gingrich Judges You."

It is a collection of the newt's rather condescending or patronizing visages in various circumstances with captions explaining the context (well, actually the humorous interpretation of context). My absolute favorite is below, after the jump, also revealing why sitting here in Republican-land Utah, it is perfectly safe for me to go after the newt:

Another Crusader for Nader (sorta)

Yes, I cast a protest vote once for Ralph Nader for President. But it was in 1996, not 2000 when it might have made a difference. So don't blame me for eight years of W and Uncle Dick. (I'll leave aside any conjecture as to what disasters we may or may not have faced under Gore/Lieberman).

Newt's Check Bounced

Yes, Santorum is out. Ron Paul is as irrelevant as ever. And Romney is the default Republican nominee for President. What of the newt? You may well ask. According to KSL, the newt campaign bounced its check to pay the filing fee for the Utah Primary, proving once and for all that his candidacy is as big a joke as most of the other also-rans in the Republican race.

I will try to stay positive as this race goes forward with the Governor versus the President. That's going to be really hard because they won't. And now, most of the really entertaining candidates are out.

Orrin's Escape Hatch

My wife went to the Republican caucus last night. There were 178 in attendance at our precinct as opposed to 10 at the Democratic caucus. Now is not the time to talk balancing out the neighborhood a little, but the vast infusion of numbers had its influence to moderate the participants into a rejection of the tea party extremists in favor of our sitting Senator Orrin Hatch.

Tempting as it may be to fall into Monty Python "Silly Party" parlance, Senator Hatch is certainly no moderate. He is clearly conservative. But he is not of the tea party. The slight turn towards the center did not bring the local caucus into the moderate middle, but it did save them from going over the cliff on the far right of the mountain pass.

Romney Can't Lose for Winning

Still the inevitable Republican nominee. Still the best of the Republican field. Still the most electable against President Obama. And it will be a tough and dirty general election. We can expect Romney's money machine to go all out against the President just as it has been carpet-bombing the newt and Rick. He's been outspending them by the bucketful. And a win is a win. I'm talking total delegates - not the states chalked up. With proportional delegates in many states, Romney has more delegates than all the others put together.

The media wants a horse race. Romney and the Republican powers-that-be would love to be going after President Obama right now. The disturbing personalities of the other candidates won't let them. The Republican base won't let them. The Republican base will not desert the party, they just want to vent against Romney. He's not their kind of guy - but he's not Obama! The vote may be depressed and the President could still lose this if the economic recovery falters or other world events or unforeseen disasters go badly.

A Wall of Separation Is Needed between Santorum/Gingrich/Romney and US

Santorum, Gingrich, and yes, even Romney are reminding us why our First Amendment is so important. We are all free to worship, or not, according to the dictates of our own conscience and the government should not in any way establish our religion. The Wall of Separation is a sacred principle to me.

A Newt Is Cheerful

Maybe it was just me, but it didn't seem like there was much to that Republican Debate last night. The newt got in the best line in response to a silly question from John King to describe themselves in one word, the newt looked rather annoyed as each tried to outdo the other on steadfastness and conservative cred. As the last the answer, the newt with his evil grin said, "Cheerful." I'm just glad Romney didn't say, "Severe."

And then there was the first question of the night from the audience by Gilbert from Gilbert. And I was just hoping for someone to say, "Well, Gilbert from Gilbert . . . ." But they didn't.

Romney Is Still Inevitable (Well, for the Nomination)

Don't worry, my friends. Colorado, Minnesota, and Missouri in the Santorum sweep are non-binding primaries. Romney still has every advantage in money, delegates, money, endorsements, money, etc. What he is facing is the inevitable self-destruction of his party trying to figure out who they are. Is it a socially conservative last stand in the culture wars? A lot of that is coming up with all the challenging issues before us out of the 9th Circuit and Health Care reform requirements on women's reproductive choices.

Edmund Ruffin Wins the South Carolina Republican Primary!!

Oh.my.heck.

And I don't even like Mitt that much.

Mitt: Please, Please, Be Your Real Self--More Like Your Dad!

I really wish Mitt Romney could be his true self and more like his dad, George Romney. It bothers me so much that he seems to want to be something he isn't. He is or at least was a perfectly good, moderate and sincere guy. His dad wasn't perfect. There was the famous "brainwashing" comment and the apparently genetic "woodenness," but George Romney was a heroic moderate/liberal in his own way, particularly on Civil Rights. He walked out of the '64 Republican convention over the Goldwater plank opposing the Civil Rights Act.

Even in Mitt's past church service, he was a good guy. He did pretty well under some challenging circumstances. [Full disclosure: I also served as a missionary in a foreign country and as a Mormon Bishop. I have not been Stake President--for which I and many are relieved.] The positive nature of his church service is even acknowledged by serious-minded non-Mormons as evidenced by a fair-minded report from NPR via, the Atlantic Blogger, Ta-Nehisi Coates.

South Carolina Republican Debate (not-live)

The South is rising again, at least to stand and applaud the newt as he turns moral indignation on the MSM when John King asks him about his former wife appearing on ABC tonight. (The one he asked for an "open marriage" while he was attempting to destroy President Clinton for his infidelities--that's what she said).

So, I don't know what to say about this. Politics is an ugly business. But I think it's ugly principally because of people like Newt Gingrich.

Because I Ride the Bus

Last night at the end of Hardball on MSNBC, Chris Matthews gave his little editorial indignation on Newt Gingrich's "dog-whistling" in South Carolina. the newt was referring to the President as the "food-stamp President." (I can get away with being critical of Gingrich now because he's going after Romney and everybody in Utah hates him--the newt that is, not Romney). Chris said that Gingrich should be ashamed of himself.

It does seem like it's a bit more than a dog whistle as everybody seems to hear it And a lot of people, particularly Republicans in South Carolina, tend to stand up and applaud (stomping feet and whistling themselves).

No Surprise New Hampshire

Basingstoke is in old Hampshire. It's kind of a famous boring place as a running gag from Shakespeare through Gilbert & Sullivan to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Monty Python. I've actually been to Basingstoke in Hampshire (not the one in Westphalia) and driven through a couple of roundabouts. It wasn't that exciting. I've never been to our own New Hampshire. But I've seen it on TV.

Tonight, the New Hampshire Primary came out kind of boring. Romney has a solid win with a third two fifths of the voters furthering his inevitability. Paul had a solid second place furthering his irrelevancy. Huntsman had a disappointing third furthering his demise, at least until 2016. Huntsman is trying to put a good face on it. He did get a very mild spurt, but Cajun James Carville had the best line that 20 points behind Romney is as bad as LSU's loss to Alabama last night. Huntsman was hoping to do much better. But he's not giving up yet! Maybe he thinks his spurt has not yet peaked. But I can't imagine it going well for him in South Carolina.

Todd Palin Is a Newtist

Yes. As if the newt wasn't entertaining enough as he beaks Reagan's Eleventh Commandment by self-destructing all over the inevitable Republican nominee, he announced today that he has the endorsement of none other than the former First Dude of Alaska, Mr. Sarah Palin. No word yet on who Mama Grizzly may be supporting. While tempted by the newt's credit line at Tiffany's, I think she's holding out for the candidate with the PAC best connected to Nordstrom's.

Newt Is No Salamander

My son the statistician queried me on the Republican primaries as to which were winner-take-all and which were proportional. It is a very important aspect in counting up delegates as the Hillary advisers blew in 2008 (and they got skunked good by Obama). I looked for an all-encompassing website and haven't been fully successful yet, but Wikipedia, to the extent you trust it, may come closest.

Iowa was proportional so Romney gets one more delegate than Santorum, even if he topped him out (maybe) by his whopping eight votes. [Each state party has its own rules that get very complex. I prefer to comment on vague generalities as the rest of the media certainly does. But I'll try to check these out as it becomes necessary.]

Iowa Scorecard

Well, Romney was only eight votes from getting Rick-rolled. (Sorry. Couldn't resist. Don't say I didn't warn you!). And I heard some punditry that Romney actually lost against his 2008 Iowa vote total by an even less whopping six votes! That does not bode well for the Republican Party to take back the White House.

The best part about being an unpaid pundit is that I can't get fired. Actually, I didn't do that badly with my predictions. I aced Bachmann quitting. And Perry is next, he just hasn't figured it out yet. And I said the winner would win it by a squeaker, I just had the top three all jumbled.

Santorum, Romney & Paul Win Iowa for Obama

This vote count is going slowly tonight because the top three guys are so close. I won't be able to check my predictions of last week for a while, but I'll be pretty close. I even fell asleep for a minute, and my son changed the channel to the Michigan--Virginia Tech game, which was pretty exciting when I woke up at the end of the second quarter.

Earlier, I had this exchange with my fourteen-year-old trying to convince him to watch CNN with me (and before I dozed off for him to switch the channel). We were watching the projections based on those entering the caucuses:

Son: "So, who do you want to win?"

Me: "Huntsman."

Son (thoughtfully watching the screen): "Dad, he's not going to win."