Why I Mess With Texas

Many of my friends (well, only a few) are Texans. I have some great relatives who live in Texas. Still, in the midst of a crisis of undocumented immigrant children, the Governor of Texas offers this photo-op in response:

Now, I don't think Gov. Perry is actually shooting immigrant children fleeing unbearable economic, political, and criminal disasters in their home countries in Central America and Mexico. But why would he choose this type of a macho photo-op? It reminds me of this one:

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.

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.

You Really Ought to Give Iowa a Try

My predictions are:

Ron Paul will squeak out a win in the Iowa Caucus creating all kinds of headlines. Romney will come in second which is still a win. Iowa is not his crowd and Paul can't win the nomination. But Paul's supporters are more motivated than Romney's. Gingrich (again, finally and deservedly) will be soggy toast even if he stays in until South Carolina. Santorum will "surge" just enough to think he can keep going and crash in the next contest. Bachmann and Perry will end their campaigns. Huntsman will come in dead last but not quit because he's got the cash to go to New Hampshire.

Suppose They Gave a War and only Rick Perry Came?

If only it were just him. I'm afraid he would be joined by Gingrich, Bachmann, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, and probably pretty much everybody else at Fox News and those who watch.

Yes, I find this really offensive. There is no war on Christmas. President Obama is not warring on religion. He has a Christmas Tree in the White House, for Heaven's sake! Christmas is a legal, federal holiday since President U.S. Grant! (I looked it up once. I knew there was something I liked about that guy.) President Obama is one of the best, solid family guys we've had in the White House.

LIVE Blogging Republicans on Foreign Things (CNN National Security Debate)

Banned to the bedroom. I was all ready once the visiting teachers left to go down and blog from the family room but my wife said I should stay here because she really didn't want to watch those guys. And she's a registered Republican!

There are some like Senator Marco (Sort-of-a-son-of-refugees) Rubio who say that this debate season has not been a good idea for the Republican nomination and maybe the party as a whole. What about the idea that the Republicans have not been good for debates? I mean, good grief!

LIVE Republican Values Blogging ("Christian" Edition)

Don't know if there's enough Diet Coke in the world to keep be going through these two hours. Even Romney is passing on this Iowa Values Debate. But we'll give it a try. It's not on TV either, but there is a live webcast here. This is in a church. It is purposely a "Christian" test of the Republican candidates (in spite of Art. VI)

Ron Paul challenged on "so help me God." His oath is to the Constitution and Rule of Law - before God. Cain needs God. Bachmann on Washington kissing the Bible. "Without His Hand" we won't get back on track. She got baptized in Iowa (that's both political and religious pandering). She was a sinner and needed Jesus.

Remember the Slave Masters! er, the ALAMO!

The headlines screamed, "ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS INVADE TEXAS TO IMPOSE SLAVERY!"

Actually, it would have been Mexico City in Spanish in 1836. It reminds me of the time, quite a few years ago when it was safer to stroll the streets of Ciudad Juarez, I was in the museum reading the interpretive signs on the exhibits about the settlement of "Tejas" by someone named Esteban Austin. As I was reading and thinking in Spanish (no English translation) my head was pronouncing it "ow-STEEN." And I stopped. And still in my head I said, "Wait a minute! That's Stephen Austin!" It was interesting to see a little of the history of Mexico from a different perspective.

Ponzi Perry's Pity Party

Rick Perry almost won me over today when he expressed surprise at the reaction from some in the crowd at the tea party Republican debate last night who cheered about people in comas without insurance being left to die. But then I remembered that ya gotta dance with the one that brung ya. And Perry as much as anybody is responsible for stirring up tea party conservative extremism.

One thing you can say is that he is stubborn enough not to flip-flop on most things. He's sticking to his guns (I don't know if they're the blanks or laser-targeted ones) on the Ponzi nature of Social Security. The reason why he is wrong on this even if it makes libertarian sense (watch me do my Jedi lawyer tricks) is that it is not a Ponzi scheme because it is legal. Congress made it so. Of course it is not sustaining itself financially through payroll deductions. It didn't do so in the beginning either. It was only created that way as a "legal fiction" to help sell it politically at passage and continuing over the years so we would take responsibility for it - as President Reagan and Tip O'Neill did in the 1980s. It was fixed then and can be fixed now. All it takes is political will and responsibility. And if you want to challenge the constitutionality, I think the statute of limitations has run on that. Actually, there is no technical limitation on Constitutional Law except that the arc of history generally bends forward - unless, of course, you're entertaining the crowds at tea party events.

Republicans & Airplanes: LIVE Blogging (attempted)

From the odd venue of the airplane hanger at the Reagan Library. (If they don't believe in Science, well, except for Huntsman and maybe Mitt, how do they explain mechanical flight?)

What a coup that MSNBC snatched Michael Steele. He reminds me of that guy from our freshman dorm we parodied (very kindly) in the end-of-year skits. He had so much fun with it, he joined right in!

Peggy Noonan is good to have - solid Reagan Republican who has it out for the tea party.

Perry Wakes Up One of His Gorillas

Or maybe it's "guerilla" as Perry now wants to start up again the arguments about the Viet Nam War. He might as well start up arguments about secession. Oh, wait.

According to this report, Perry spoke to a Veterans' group to lay out his foreign policy which is apparently non-interventionist except when we do and then we have to stay in charge to we can win and not have to fight civilian enemies at home like all the Viet Nam Vets did. Oh, my heck!

Rick Perry, Gunnin' fer Libruhls!

Well, to be fair, he may have been shooting blanks at the "rain gods" with a
little Texan, anti-drought humor  ("Har-de-har!" and "Yippee, Kiy-oh!")

Due to Governor Perry's rise to the top in the polls, I thought I'd better check him out a bit. My first reaction is that he seems an awful lot like a recent president except that Perry appears to be a "real" Texan and no poser. And I'm not sure that's necessarily a good thing.

All my initial reactions were negative, so I was really trying to find something to like about him. Then I ran into that 800-pound gorilla, again.

Odd Brushes with History at the OK Corral and a Tragic Day in Memphis

Two good reads came from History Book Club recently, Hellhound on his Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assasin by Hampton Sides and The Last Gunfight: The Real Story of the Shootout at the O.K. Corral-And How it Changed the American West, by Jeff Guinn.

My dad took us to Tombstone when we were kids and it was a fascinating place to drink sarsaparilla and stand in the shadows of the Earps and Clantons at the OK Corral (even if it did really happen just down the street.) Even then, my dad, Western fan that he is, wisely cautioned that it isn't always easy to tell who were the good guys and who were the bad guys.

A Mormon in the White House: It'll Be Close, But No Cigar

I've been trying to draft up an update on the current state of the Republican field for President 2012. But it's been by fits and starts. It's been especially difficult, with the crazy Bachmann win in the Ames, Iowa Straw Poll, Pawlenty dropping out for being less than boring, and Governor Rick "Anti-Mitt" Perry fresh off his latest Evangelical Prayer Crusade now announced for the race.

I am ready to go out on a limb, even if a limb with an option. It's will be either Perry/Huntsman or Romney/Bachmann.  That's my limb, there will be a Mormon on the ticket. And I'm not promoting this either as both of those tickets would have serious problems not likely to get my support. My preference for Huntsman is well stated. But Perry is beyond the pale.