Romney Says he Won by enough, but Did he really

Mitt Romney survives a tough fight in his home state of Michigan on Tuesday, and in doing so beating back a tough challenge by Rick Santorum.  A defeat in Michigan was seen as a probable disaster for Romney, but he still had trouble connecting with the most conservative voters.  Exit polls are telling the same stories they have all cycle.

I am using the NEP Exit Poll, conducted by EdisonResearch.

On most political matters, do you consider yourself:

Very liberal (3%) , no data on who they went to.

Somewhat liberal (9%) -  Gingrich 7%, Paul 28%,  Romney 27%, and Santorum, 32%

Moderate (26%) - Gingrich 6%, Paul 14%,  Romney 45%, and Santorum 31%

Somewhat conservative (31%) - Gingrich 7%, Paul 9%, Romney 50%, and Santorum 32%

Very conservative (30%) - Gingrich 7%, Paul 5%, Romney 36%, and Santorum 50%



On most political matters, do you consider yourself:

Very conservative (30%) - Gingrich 7%, Paul 5%, Romney 36%, and Santorum, 50%

Somewhat conservative (31%) - Gingrich 7%, Paul 9%, Romney 50%, and Santorum, 32%
Moderate/Liberal (39%) - Gingrich 6%, Paul 17%, Romney 39%, and Santorum, 33%

Mitt Romney absolutely dominated the groups that consider themselves moderate or somewhat conservative, but he lost big time the group that consider themselves very conservative.  I suspect where the somewhat liberal voter went for Santorum, it had a lot to do with Democrats voting for Santorum to try to hand Romney a loss.  They did the same thing to help McCain hand Bush a loss in the state.

Have Republicans already lost to Obama?

By now, it is clear that Michigan has become another testing ground for Mitt Romney. 

Tuesday, Republican will know if Romney’s campaign survives yet another scare, or if he walks away from his home state a truly damaged candidate.  Many observers already feel the nomination process has cost the Republicans a chance at taking the White House.  This same thing is said every time a party has to face an incumbent, because the president is able to stay out of the mud for much of the primary process. 

President Obama has not had to run ads, or face his opponents face to face on a debate stage since 2008, and a lot has happened since then.   President Obama is not the same translucent figure many thought he would be.  In 2008, President Obama was more of an idea, than a candidate that had a long record for people to judge him on.  For liberals who voted for him, he was going to be the destroyer that proves for the last time conservatism is dead.  Many Left wing pundits had declared the Republican Party dead for the next two decades; except that is not what happen.  Only two years later, the Republicans controlled the House again, and came up just short of controlling the Senate.

For middle of the road voters, Obama sounded like a post partisan candidate, who spoke not in red state or blue state, but as we the people.  For minorities all over the country the Obama presidency meant a huge push forward in race relations.  This did happen, not too long ago the pundits questioned whether an African American could win the nomination, and the White House seemed years down the road.  Republicans and Democrats alike celebrated the election of the president on the grounds he could move this country forward, helping to heal years of racial tension. 

In many ways, the president has accomplished this by just being elected.  Politically, the he was unable to mend the ties with the other party, Democrats had just spent the last six years beating up on George W. Bush; particularly over a war that most of  them had voted for. 

The Stakes are high in Texas: Ted Cruz v. Liberal backed Dewhurst

  The race for the Senate seat in Texas between Ted Cruz, a Tea Party/ small government conservative, against Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst is becoming much closer. Dewhurst has recently spent time with left wing friends of Obama.  Tony Podesta, who is a major fundraiser for the Democratic Party, held a fundraiser at his townhouse for Dewhurst.

Big Government reports, "The hosts of the party were alltypically fundraisers for Democrats.  Podestahimself heads up the Podesta Group, which earned a whopping $27.4 million inlobbying fees last year.  Salon.com, noright-wing outlet, labeled the Podesta Group a firm with “close ties to the Democratic Party and the Obama administration.”  Tony and his brother John are frequent visitors to the White House.  Podesta has worked for political campaigns for Bill Clinton, Ted Kennedy, George McGovern, and Michael Dukakis.  He was a founding member of the radical liberal group People for the American Way."

Can you explain why an avid supporter of left wing causes would want to support a Republican from Texas?  I think that is a simple question to answer.  Dewhurst is a moderate who would try to pull the party left, and from a liberal perspective, that would be better than having a Tea Party supported, small government Reaganite take the open seat.  Whoever wins this race will likely be the next Senator elect from Texas, and I think it is important that we put Ted Cruz into that seat.

Democrat Pragmatism: Will it Work

Conventional political wisdom contends that elections are won in the middle.  This election cycle, conventional wisdom has not done so well.  It is extremely hard to predict what will happen in the general election this far out.

However, will swing voters do just that, swing this year’s presidential election?

Who are the swing voters?  Well the benchmarks that are often used are the independents or soft party affiliates.   Those who are moderate, and could go either way.

  This group has been called the Reagan Democrat, the Clinton Republican, but for the most part, they are called independents.   I think this is a real deceiving measure to gauge the electorate.  

I will use myself as an example, but I will have you know that I do not consider myself the average voter.

I am a Registered Republican in the state of Iowa; I have to be if I want to vote in the Republican Caucus that takes place in Iowa every two years.  However, I would not be a registered Republican if I could vote in my state caucus without doing so.  I would consider myself independent.  I am conservative in nature, sometimes a libertarian, but not a Republican. 

So if I was polled and they asked me if I considered myself an independent, I would say yes.  I would not be lying, because the truth of the matter is I hold no nostalgia or sentimentality towards the Republican Party.  I am conservative, and I hold that has my value set, but if I knew a conservative Democrat running against a more liberal Republican, then I would not vote for the latter.

I suspect many voters feel the same way, whether it is center left or center right, they would vote on issues or against an incumbent.

According to Congressional Exit Polls in 2010, when ideology was gauged, 86% were conservative Republicans, and 14% conservative Democrats, which is an 18% change from 2008.

Newt Gingrich Speaks Directly to the American People

This is just one more in the long list of things that would have made Gingrich an ideal candidate if he had spent so much time messing up in the past.  I for one, thinks that Gingrich would still be a wonderful president, at least when it comes to fixing the problems the nation faces.  We may have to deal with a scandal or two, three.  I just think out of the candidates we have left, Gingrich would get it done.  This does assume he could win, which I do not think he can win, not the nomination or the general election.

Bill Maher’s Obnoxious Blog Post Identifies Huffington Post as an Unserious “Internet Newspaper/Blog”

 Huffington Post should have Found Bill Maher's blog post unconscionable, not post it on a site that is supposed to pride itself on being [Sic] the “model for journalism moving forward.” It is already well know that the site is an immoderate force for lefty politics, they have a clear bias. That was never a problem. If they want to post utterly false content, while aggregating the talent of others, that is fine too. We do not have to agree with it, but what Arianna Huffington built is impressive, if only for the sure nature and huge financial rewards reaped.

What is not impressive is allowing a Hangdog comedian to use her site to forward his contemptible agenda. Sure, the agenda included advancing a left wing ideology. As flawed as that is, alone it is it the realm of the “to each his own.” It is easy enough to dispel the falsehoods in this thinking, but Bill Maher did not stop at this goal.

As irritable as ever, Mr. Maher insulted, Bush, Romney, Santorum, Newt, the entire electorate, Religious people, Satan, the Bible, Jesus, and I guess for good measure he had to offend the mentally challenged. He got a dig in at Ron Paul over foreign aid, but largely praised him as more sensible than the others.

Maher insinuated that the Republican candidates wanted to spend the debate “yammering away about earmarks and illegal immigrants and contraception and every other peripheral, wish-I-had-the-time-to-worry-about-it issue they can think of.”

As if he was completely unaware, that John King was moderating this debate.

Maher wrote a fake conversation between Mitt Romney and what I suspect is the crowed at the last GOP debate, in which Romney says “How dare you accuse me of helping people or being compassionate! Why, I'll have you know I'm every bit as much of a cold hearted [bleeped] as any of these other pricks up here with me!" The Bleeped word translates as a child without married parents."

Down the Range: The Wider Point I took for “Act of Valor.”

I will just start by saying I was very impressed with the movie "Act of Valor.”  Now that the movie is out, and even before it came out, the independent film had already been critiqued.

I am not going to review the film as attempt to identify a larger point that can be taken form the film.

If you would like a review, Jeff Emanuel’s Red State piece shows depth and an impressive grasp of the details surrounding the film.

For those who hated ieven the idea of the film like Huffington Post reporter JordanZakarin, cynicism was the order of the day because of what the movie did not show.

“There are a few things it doesn’t have: There are no corrupt officers, no damaged heroes, no queasy doubts about the value of the mission or the virtue of the cause.”

Of course, from a liberal’s perspective, any film that does not show the soldiers coming home wrecked physically and mentally, and thrown in with a twist of the great American bad people – Republicans- starting wars of choice, just cannot be worth its weight in salt.

I rather leave such stuff for others to judge.  I will say the film captures the resplendent nature of our Special Forces as well as that not so shiny side.  As those who receive the freedom the military men and their families sacrifice so much to give us, one can only walk away grateful that the “damn few” put everything on the line when  they go “Down the Range.”   They do this so we can live in a free and just society, one that allows those like Zakarin to marginalize and belittle a film betraying the very act that gives them this right.

The liberals over at Huffington do not want you to see is a film that gives American a glimpse of the dangers the country faces, and the extraordinary lengths they go to keep that from happening.

Christian Pastor Nadarkhani is facing an Iranian Death Sentence and needs help

Iran is doing all kinds of things that should anger every freedom loving American.  We already know they are planning to build a nuclear weapon, which at the very least could give them the power to intimidate, and worst case scenario they will attack Israel attempting to drive them into the sea. 

Weapons of mass destruction are not the only thing to be upset about when it comes to Iran.

Iranian authorities have unlawfully incarcerated and sentenced Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani to be murdered for the unbelievable crime of {sic} becoming a Christian. 

I understand that according to liberals, conservatives are just wrong about Iran.  Rachel Maddows once said that since “Ron Paul is the only Republican presidential candidate who dissents from that view, who doesn’t say, ‘Let’s start another war.'”

Yep, the same person who once said this “We never talk that way about the Russians, the only reason they want nuclear weapons is because we’re making them do it.  It’s our fault!  If you were in Iran and you had to face these evil Americans, you’d want to bomb too!” is considered the sensible one by the left.

What a joke.

Ann Coulter's New Piece is Emblematic of the Ann Coulter's New Piece is Emblematic of what is wrong with Romney and his Media Cohorts.

Not often do I agree with Alexander Burns over at Politico. Without any “defining South Carolina-Style” moments, nothing happen that will alter the trajectory of the race.

Last night could have been the end of the long nightmare better known as the 2011/2012 Republican debate cycle.  The last debate before the Arizona and Michigan primaries next week could very well be the last debate of the nomination contest.

Therefore, it seems after all these debates and the early voting states, the establishment media still does not get it.

It is probably correct to say that Mitt Romney got the better of Rick Santorum, with the help of Ron Paul and John King.  King set Santorum up to be hammered by the other candidates, and Romney and Paul did the work.  The audience was clearly stacked with pro-Romney (whether that was the intent or not, who knows) , and everything was set up for him to have a big night.

That is not what happened.  Yes, he likely came off looking better in the debate than the other candidates expect maybe for Gingrich.  He should have, after having just about everything he could have to help him.  A better candidate would have excelled, Romney did not, and there is a reason for that.  However, despite this, the media elites still do not get it.

"Severe, strict," Romney said.  "I was without question a conservative governor in my state."

This right here is the reason Romney should not be trusted with the nomination.  He cannot even admit the mistakes he has made.  He would rather try to convince voters that they were not mistakes.  It is not just him; it is his advocates in the conservative media.

Just as one example, let us analyze Ann Coulter’s recent piece titled “What’s Wrong with Romney.”

After naming all the reasons to favor the Romney candidacy, she went on to name the many things Romney has done for conservatism, and failed to name a single thing he did against it.  She even used one of his conservative desecrations and labeled it "the conservative alternative to national health care."

Coulter claims the establishment has been in opposition to Romney all along:

“The entire NFM (non-Fox media) hate Romney because he is the only candidate who stands a chance of beating Obama.”

That is not all; the Conservative establishment is also opposed to Romney: Sean Hannity, Sarah Palin (because she is a former VP candidate), Rush Limbaugh, and Mark Levin all make this list.

Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg Denigrates U.S. Constitution as an Old Document

Since this is not really a new story, I am not going to spend a whole lot of time on it.  What can be written about this incident has already been published.  While reading a chapter for number of constitutions there are around the world.  This is a typical exercise.  What I was shocked at what that at the end of the section; I was not treated to an anecdote about how much better the U.S. Constitution was than any other was.  Nope, the South African Constitution was praised.  I just cannot understand this, here we have an American Textbook pushing liberal ideas, and a U.S. Supreme Court Justice telling an interviewer that she would not look to the constitution she was swore to protect and uphold if she was going to build one in 2012. 

According to a new Texas Tribune/UT poll, the Ted Cruz Surge continues

These poll numbers are from tedcruz.com, and it is good news for conservatives around the country.  It may seem like this does not matter to some of you, but we must keep our eye on the Senate and Congressional races.  If we are to take the country back, we are going to need a three branches to be lock step. Anything you can do to help would be great.

The new Texas Tribune/UT poll released indicates that Cruz is headed for a runoff with Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst.

Here is a summary of the new independent, statewide poll:

"Dewhurst is at 38%, Cruz 27% and the next two candidates are 20 points behind at 7%.Thismeans the race is headed for a runoff between Cruz and Dewhurst."

"Despite being in statewide office for 14 years and having universal name ID among GOP primary voters, the Lt. Governor is far from closing in on the 50% needed to avoid a runoff.  And Cruz is in a solid second place, and surging strongly."

This runoff would likely favor Cruz, because conservatives are more engaged could dominate a runoff.

UT pollster Jim Henson contends “Cruz is in the advantageous position right now of, for the most part, defending his ideas against Dewhurst's record. In the last few cycles,that's been a good place to be, and not to be the person who's having to defend your actions in government.”

I cannot stress enough why this is good news.  I am so glad that we are going to have such a wonderful addition to the U.S. Senate.  I know it is hard to focus on the down ballot races when there is a presidential race going on, but believe me, these races are every bit as important as the race for the White House.  If for some reason Republicans lose the general election, it will mean we absolutely have to have the Senate.  Let us remember, President Obama is going to have the benefit of being an incumbent, and the full backing of the MSM.  So if you can, help the conservatives down ballot.  I will be posting a list soon of candidates that are constitutionalist and ready to help lead.

Romney, the Main Stream Medias Perfect Plan to Reelect Obama

Something dawned on me the other day when I decided to write yet another assessment of the race for the GOP nomination.  The media elites have been wrong just about every time they have attempted to predict what is going to happen.  Mitt Romney was deemed the front-runner and the nominee before he even officially announced his current bid for the White House.  Even though Romney is likely to be the nominee, it is hard to think of him as the front-runner.The dynamism of the governor’s team and the size of the money advantage were supposed to surpass everyone else, and eventually he was supposed to become the inevitable nominee. 

We are less than a month away from Super Tuesday and not only is Romney not leading in the polls like any solid front-runner should be at this point, but he is fighting not to lose the one state that only months ago no one would have guessed he could lose .  If Romney loses the state of Michigan, where he grew up and met his wife in, the media may have to disestablish his front-runner status, and this time for good.

There is already talk about a “brokered” or “contested” convention; and as we witnessed at the start of the election cycle, names like Chris Christie, Jeb Bush, Mitch Daniels and Paul Ryan percolate through the various political sites as possible saviors.  The likelihood of a brokered or contested convention is still low, but it does appear like the establishment media is now realizing what people like Erik Erickson have known all along, Romney will lose the general election to President Obama.

Romney went into this campaign with the premise that Republican activists should get behind him because he would be the strongest candidate against Obama.  The media acknowledged this argument, but outside the moderate wing of the Republican Party, no one else seemed to think it was true, or they did not care.

North Texas Tea Party: Ted Cruz Dominating the Field

Just wanted to post this and let everyone know how Ted Cruz is dominating his opponents when it comes to attracting small government conservatives.  This is how it should be, and there is a reason that this is the case.  Not one of the other candidates can fit the bill of the typical Tea Party conservative.

The North Texas Tea Party recently conducted a February poll of its membership on their choice for the U.S. Senate Race.  The results were overwhelmingly in favor of Ted.

Ted Cruz	57.5%
David Dewhurst	6.0%
Tom Leppert	7.5%
Undecided	18.9%

Ted is leading the next closest candidate by 50 percent!  The North Texas Tea Party even noted Ted is “dominating the field.”

This poll combined with results from polls across Texas shows an important ongoing trend — when people hear Ted’s message, they respond and we win.

This poll was taken form tedcruz.com.  Please take the time to go there, sign up, and help send a true American Conservative to the U.S. Senate.

Virgin Galactic: Private Spaceship Test Flight

Not long ago, I post a video from Virgin Galactic that gave viewers a glimpse of the future of what it is going to be like when the private sector starts sending to people to space, for a price.  The price will go down as things move forward, but this is exciting news for everyone that does not work for NASA.

You can read the original post here.

Can Santorum Vanquish Romney?

To run for president you have to be as thick as a pachyderm.  As we see every cycle, the candidates get beat up by the media, by the other campaigns, and most often by members of their own party.  Not to sound cliché, but only the strong survive and the weak will fall.  This is not to say everyone who fails to become president is a weak candidate, but there is a certain something needed to run for president.  As we have seen with those who should have run but are sitting on the sideline, this is no easy thing to do; not everyone has what it takes to go national.

As much as I do not like to admit it, Mitt Romney has what it takes to run for president, I am not sure he has what it takes to win, but the running part he has.

He is able to redirect any evaluation of his record if the question does not serve his purpose.  Ask him about Romney care and he will tell you that what they accomplished as governor of Massachusetts was positive for the state, and then he will tell you it is bad for the nation and repeal is something that is on top of the agenda if he is elected president.  Running for president is not so much about the truth of a candidate’s record, and more about what you can do to make the record of your opponents more of an issue.  Romney has been able to do this so far, and it has worked; albeit with the help of a huge war chest and establishment attack dogs.  

The problem is it is going to take much more than just a candidate that can run for president to take the White House. 

Many in the MSM are just now finding out what conservatives have known all along, that Mitt Romney’s weaknesses are even more striking than they seemed at first glance.  The Party Establishment is in a quandary but they do not have a wealth of options left.  Everyone seems to have an exposition on what is going wrong but the bottom line is if there were stronger candidates in this race Romney would lose. 

The next obvious question is does Rick Santorum have what it takes to do more than run for President?

The Not-Romney's should not Skip the Super Tuesday Debate on CNN

I am a little behind on this news, but since it is, still an interesting topic I am going to cover it regardless.  I am talking about the news that the March 1stCNN debate has been canceled because Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, and Rick Santorum all pulled out.

It is easy to start to feel exhausted from the contentiousness of these debates, with the same argument between the same candidates.  Nothing major has happened in the debates that have altered the race since Romney won Florida.  It helps that there has not been any debates since then, and that is why this debate out of all of them, should not have been canceled.

The race has completely changed since the Florida debate.  Romney was swept when he started losing states he won in 2008 handedly.  Santorum is now threatening to win Michigan, by most accounts now a must win state for Romney.  Ron Paul has not won any states yet, and he is suspected of making strategic deals with Romney (which by the way has to leave his supporters perturbed because of those Zionist taking over the world thing).  Newt Gingrich is flailing right now, and since the debates have been his lifeblood, this harms him the most.

I have little doubt why this debate was not something team Romney wanted to do.  They started planting the seeds long before the news broke after Gingrich won South Carolina.  This would have been the last debate before Super Tuesday, and team Romney could not afford a resurgent Gingrich or a strengthened Santorum to come out of this debate.  Romney has tended to shoot himself in the foot when on the debate stage ($ 10,000 bets and not hiring illegals because he “I’m running for office, for Pete’s sake”) and at this point in the game, he cannot afford a huge gaffe.

Balanced Budget Amendment: Just one more reason Obama is no Reagan

If you are someone who comes to my site regularly, you may notice it looking pretty empty. The reason is that I am in a transition phase aimed at a more user-friendly feel.  I would like people to have a feeling of calmness when they come to the site.  So if you have noticed that, I am sorry, but I am leaving the content up to make sure, if you need anything, it will still be accessible.

Now to the heart of this post; which is this video I found when doing research for an assignment at school.  Reagan has it right; not anything short of a law forcing our representatives to balance the budget is going to work.  We may end up slowing spending here and there, politicians will come along and spend more than we take in, and it will be all for naught.

I think it is funny when people compare President Obama to Ronald Reagan. Reagan wanted to control spending and lower the tax burden on the American people.  President Obama wants to spend more now, tax more now, and let future generations worry about it. So maybe President Obama should stick to channeling Theodore Roosevelt, and leave the conservatism to those who believe.

Senate Conservatives Need Reinforcements: Ted Cruz

The first video from Ted Cruz lays out the argument for his campaign.  This is what it is about, placing solid conservative candidates in the House, Senate, and eventually the presidency.  I understand that with the nomination battle still raging, many of us forget to pay attention to the down ballot candidates.  Let me tell folks, these candidates are every bit as important.

"If you want to repeal Obamacare,the Senate will be the battleground.  Ifyou want to dramatically shrink the size and power of the federal government,the Senate's the battleground.  If youwant to audit the Federal Reserve, if you want to secure the border, if youwant to enact fundamental tax reform, the Senate's the battleground" Ted Cruz

Cruz is spot on here, and I would argue that this battleground is more important this election cycle in the sense that the presidential race is going to be a tough one.  We have to have conservative fighters in the Senate in case President Obama is reelected.  We got a glimpse of what the president would do once he no longer needed to worry about reelection during the fight to pass Obamacare.  It is not enough to hope one of the three remaining candidates can beat Obama, we have to start actively campaigning for the down ballot candidates, and I cannot think of a better place to start www.tedcruz.org

The Democrats are trying to force their Elite Theory principles on us, and only true conservatives and our own astuteness will be able to stop them.  This starts by placing candidate like Cruz into the Senate.  I hope you will join me in doing all you can to get the word out there.  This is the heart of our nation, and it is vital we trust people who understand constitutional principles.  

Is Fox News Moving Left: Depends on how you look at it

This whole election cycle I have been complaining that Fox News has really been a disappointment when it comes to covering conservative causes and the Republican race in a fair and balanced way (Pun Intended).  Politico has a panel yesterday asking this question.

Is Fox News swinging left?

I would like to add to this conversation and express how bad this news is for the conservative movement and the Republican Party, which is not always the same thing, and do not always, have the same goals.

Here is what the Moderator said, followed by my own commentary on this subject.

Erika Lovley Moderator :

POLITICO’s Keach Hagey reports that conservative Republicans are growing dissatisfied with the political coverage of Fox News. Conservatives are increasingly complaining that the network has moved to the left in its coverage. Last fall, Fox chief Roger Ailes called the move a “course correction” - and the network has increasingly promoted its straight-news talent in the press and conducted some of the toughest interviews and debates of the Republican primary season.
As conservative viewers protest - should Fox News reconsider its decision? Or is the move necessary for the network to stay afloat in a high pressure media world?

Timothy Bladel

As a person who used to watch Fox News every day, it is not hard to see that they have changed the system that made them so appealing to me in the first place. Now I would not say that the reason I've soured on the news channel is not so much that they have taken a left turn, but it could be viewed in that light.  I have always felt Fox did a good job having the viewpoints of both sides on display.  The thing that has angered me so much is the way the whole news channel seemed to be pulling for Mitt Romney.  I want them to be hard on every candidate running for president.  They do not need to tell me that it is Romney or bust, because I really do not care what most of them think. 

This is what the MSM did to Clinton for then Senator Obama, and I think conservatives are better than that.  We all have our favored candidates, but the news media should not pull for one over the other in a way that does not at the very least give all candidates a fair shake.  Just like the establishment came out in force to take Gingrich down, they have been out in force pushing Romney.

Romney's Electability Argument is Fading-Fast

This whole election cycle we have been hearing the establishment media tell us that the Republican Party should get behind Mitt Romney because he the most or the only electable candidate in the race. This was always a flawed argument because of the amount of actual wins Romney has on his record. Yes, he did win the governorship as a Republican in a predominately-blue state, but so did the three governors before him. Before Romney, Michael Dukakis was the last Democratic governor of Massachusetts and that was in 1990. The state had a history of electing moderate Republicans. Romney knew the whole time he was planning on running for president, what better way to do that than to say he is an electable Republican governor of a blue state, and he can attract independents that are not ideological.

In 2008, Romney tried to run as the ultra-conservative alternative to John McCain, let us just call him the anti-McCain. He moved to the right on issue after issue, and it worked for the many conservatives who wanted to have a conservative candidate to face either Senator Clinton or Obama. The problem then as it is now is his record as governor of that blue state; he now has to defend changing positions on abortion and other issues that matter with the base, and he has struggled to find an authentic voice that will rally the base.

This is no longer 2008, and we no longer have the conservative Romney running for President, at least not in reality. If you listen to him, you may hear the occasional resemblance of conservatism, but when you look at his agenda, you start to see a man who is already moving to the center as if he already has the nomination. It has been this way since the first day he announced he was going to run this cycle, like if there was anyone who did not already know he was running. If Romney is anything, he is predictable when it comes to reaching for power.

At first, it did not seem like Romney really felt he needed the base to win the nomination, and when it came down to him against Obama, the base would come out on the strength of the anger at the president. Which to be honest, that is not really a flawed argument, president Obama will help to rally conservatives to whom ever wins the nomination; but having a candidate the base can at least trust would go a long way to helping defeat the presidents billion dollar war machine.

Then all of the sudden Santorum won three states, two of which will be important swing states this November.

Candidate Ted Cruz (TX-SEN) takes on the Establishment

The first video is from over at Red State, Moe Lane has posted an interview he landed at CPAC with Republican Candidate, TX-SEN PRI, Ted Cruz.  In the interview, Cruz lays out what is going on in his race to become a Senator from Texas. The second video is from Cruz's own campaign site, where you can find more of them.

I've been following this guy’s career for only a short while, but from what I know of him, which is limited to what anybody can find out with a little research, there is plenty to like about this conservative, and the Senate sure could use him right now.  If we can add 20 more like him this coming election, we would no doubt have a budget early 2013.

"From 2003-08, Ted served as the Solicitor General of Texas, the chief lawyer for the State before the U.S. Supreme Court and all the state and federal appellate courts. Cruz was the youngest Solicitor General in the nation, the longest serving Solicitor General in Texas, and the first Hispanic Solicitor General in Texas."  From http://www.tedcruz.org/bio/

This country needs a new generation of leaders, and it is never too late to start adding people to the roster.

"For conservatives seeking reinforcements for Washington’s too-limited number of limited-government constitutionalists, it can hardly get better than this: Before he earned a Harvard law degree magna cum laude (and helped found the Harvard Latino Law Review) and clerked for Chief Justice William Rehnquist, Cruz’s senior thesis at Princeton — his thesis adviser was professor Robert George, one of contemporary conservatism’s intellectual pinups — was on the Constitution’s Ninth and 10th amendments. Then as now, Cruz argued that these amendments, properly construed, would buttress the principle that powers not enumerated are not possessed by the federal government." George Will

Cruz's father fought with rebels (including Fidel Castro) against Cuba's dictator Fulgencio Batista, was captured and then tortured, and then at age 18 he escaped to the United States with $100 sewn into his underwear.  After this he graduated from Texas University, he met his wife, and started a small business that processed seismic data for the oil industry.  Will is right; this story is something the Republican Party should foster. We have here a man who risks everything to start a new life in the land of the free.  He has a child who reaches for excellence.  The American story has always been about those who work for what they want.  Cruz's bio is the exact thing the Republican Party needs.

Perry thumps Obama and Eastwood over the Chrysler Commercial

I agree with Rick Perry on this one, if it is halftime, then we better hope Obama is not starting the second half.  I just love CPAC, because all this wonderful Democrat bashing goes on.  Conservatives should have gotten around Perry to begin with, but no use fighting over spilled milk, right Mr. President. 

Christine O'Donnell thinks people are uninformed about Mitt Romney

As I stated this morning, Mitt Romney needs to come clean about his record.  The electability argument is really all he has, and when he tries to come off as being an authentic conservative, it just does not fool anyone.  Now this above video is exactly what I am talking about; Christine O'Donnell was out at cpac advocating the candidate she endorsed.  I have no issue with that, but when she starts to go on and on about how Romney governed as a conservative, it just does not go over well.  At least it does not with me.  Romney does have a record, and that is why with all the other factors such as the money and backing of the establishment, he still has not run away with this nomination process.

Romney’s Electability Argument is more Valid than his I'm the Conservative Outsider One

Mitt Romney's speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Friday had two purposes: first, he wanted to demonstrate his conservative credentials, which it would seem that he did not practice as much as most thought over the last four years, and second he needed to prove he could relate to the conservatives in the country.

The two things Romney stated that I found to be so interesting, and a complete farce was:

“I know conservatism because I havelived conservatism” and “I was a severely conservative Republican governor.”

Now what in the world does he think he is doing, the vast majority of the people who have reservations about Romney have them because of his authenticity.  How does this help his case, when in fact all he is doing is insulting the intelligence of those who he needs to win over?

The conservative activist around the country know that Romney has not always been conservative, but what really seem to be a mistake is that he is trying to tell people he was indeed one of them during moments in his life that he was not one.  To be fair, a conservative Republican would find it hard to win in Massachusetts if that person ran as a conservative, but that begs the question: why would he run in a blue state if he were indeed a conservative.

Instead of having to try to convince conservatives that he is one of them, he could have gone a different path and been himself; Right. 

That is the problem, most people already feel Romney was being himself then, and now he is being what he needs to become president.  Alternatively, maybe it is the other way around, he was pretending then, and now he is trying to show people whom he really is.  It really does not matter, because what he did, as governor is the very thing that so many conservatives are angry with President Obama over.

What to Read, Today's Picks: The Tenth Amendment Center! (2/9/2012)

2/9/2012

 Researchers Develop Smart Phone Technology To Sense Depression - CBS Chicago

Northwestern University is developing a version of the smart phone that can identify whether a person is falling victim to depression.  I really do not know if I want a phone that has this ability, at least not if it is going to be used on me.  Does this mean my phone is going to start telling me to cheer up, and that it is going to be ok?

Welcome to the Party! - Mike Maharrey - The Tenth Amendment Center

The acceptance of the National Defense Authorization Act, which holds provisions for detention of American citizens and resident aliens, should certainly open many Americans to some very serious problems we are facing right now. 

Maharrey Writes “Over the last week,we’ve seen people never before interested in the work of the Tenth AmendmentCenter logging on to our website, quoting us in news stories, and emailing toask how they can help.  These folks spanthe political spectrum from left to right; Republican, Democrat andindependent, and even the generally apathetic.”

“The idea that your government can kidnap you seems to have lit off a firestorm.”

This is why I think you should also get involved, and you can start by going to the link above.

The coming retail boom: Europe’s dozy retailers... - shumpeter - The Economist

I would have to rewrite this article to give you an idea of what it is about, but I will just say it is about the problems Europe is having in their grand single market, which is so culturally diverse that it is often hard to get a full days shopping done in a single day:

"Parisian butchers close on Tuesday afternoons and Thursdays—and whenever else the proprietor decides to put a “fermeture exceptionelle” sign in the window"

"Food and soft drinks cost 28% more in Belgium than in the Netherlands. Over-the-counter drugs can cost five times as much in one European country as in another (if you can buy them at all: Germany and Italy bar the sale of pharmaceuticals by non-pharmacies). Shoes cost 30% more in Montenegro, a relatively poor country, than in Britain, a relatively rich one."

Either way you look at it, this is a revealing article that could very well end up only leaving you with a history lesson and a good understanding of why most Americans do not like the sound of their country becoming like Europe, and that is minus the whole socialism thing.

NRCC Grants 21 ‘On the Radar’ Status - Kyle Trygstad - Roll Call


Yesterday the National Republican Congressional Committee released a full account of 21 vital candidates in its Young Guns program.

“The newly recognized challengers andcandidates for open seats are in the bronze tier of the NRCC’s four-levelfundraising and infrastructure program.” Trygstad

These candidates are: Marcus Richmond in Arkansas; Tony Strickland and JohnTavaglione in California; Chris Meek, Steve Obsitnik and Andrew Roraback inConnecticut; Adam Hasner in Florida; Rick Allen, Lee Anderson and Wright McLeodin Georgia; John Archer and Dan Dolan in Iowa; Jason Plummer in Illinois; KevinRaye in Maine; Daniel Barry, Richard Hudson, Scott Keadle and John Whitley inNorth Carolina; Mark Rosen and Matt Doheny in New York; and Stephen Sandstromin Utah.

Acting as the Typhoid Mary of the Global Economy, the OECD Urges Higher Taxes - Dan Mitchell - TownHall

It really must be April fools day, but the joke is not at all funny.

The Business Cycle Throws The GOP A Curveball - Ralph Benko - Townhall

There were 243,000 new jobs created last month, and if this is a sign of things to come over the next 10 months, the GOP will have a hard time convincing the electorate that they should give them power. After this nomination process, it may already be lost. The frunt runner is Mitt Romney, how much worse can it get.