Posts Tagged ‘Presidential Race’

So What Was It Romney Said About Libya, Again?

Wednesday, October 10th, 2012

So remember right after assault on our Libyan embassy in Benghazi, Mitt Romney issued a statement, then clarified those statements the next day?

Let’s roll the video, shall we?

Remember how the press jumped all over him, said it was a potentially campaign-ending gaffe?

Since then we’ve learned that:

  • The Obama Administration lied about embassy assaults being the result of riots over an anti-Islamic YouTube video.
  • In fact, they now admit that there were no protests at all.
  • The Libyan embassy had repeatedly asked for additional security and were refused In fact, their security was reduced. “We couldn’t even keep what we had.”
  • That the American embassy was being guarded by an unpaid militia made up of shopkeepers.
  • That UN Ambassador Susan Rice was still peddling the “protest” line long after the Administration knew it was a terrorist attack.
  • This video timeline might help:

    Watching and listening to Romney now, who do you agree with more: Mitt Romney, or reporters sounding outraged at his criticisms of the Obama Administration?

    Both the Obama Administration and their lapdog media surrogates seem far more interested in defeating Obama’s political opponent than America’s Jihadest enemies, or telling the American people the truth.

    LinkSwarm for October 8, 2012

    Monday, October 8th, 2012

    Today was dedicated to exercise and fiction, so here’s a quick LinkSwarm:

  • Texas Public Policy Foundation offers a status breakdown of various lawsuits Texas has filed against the EPA to curb regulatory overreach. The state has won more than it’s lost.
  • Ted Cruz on Obama’s anti-growth agenda.
  • The hysterical reaction of Obama’s liberal allies to his debate loss has made things worse for him.
  • Iowahawk reports on a recent outbreak of scrutonium, “a deadly poll-eating supervirus that attacks the immuno-hope system, leaving victims vulnerable to material facts.”
  • A supporter of the Party of Tolerance sent Mia Love a package containing pictures of Klansmen and abortions.
  • True the Vote finds more of that voter fraud that doesn’t exist.
  • China launches it’s first aircraft carrier.
  • Perry vs. World thinks that Dewhurst is the favorite for reelection.
  • Texas Democrats can’t raise money.
  • Paul Salder, trial lawyer.
  • Williamson County Republican leaders endorse Pauline Law and Tere McCann for Round Rock ISD Board of Trustees. (Via Holly Hansen, who has lots more RRISD info. If you live in the district, go over there and keep scrolling.)
  • Romney-Obama Debate Roundup Part 2

    Thursday, October 4th, 2012

    More Romney-Obama debate reactions:

  • Larry Kudlow: “Mitt Romney politely cleaned Barack Obama’s clock tonight. A lethargic and at times tired looking President Obama was out-hustled, out-facted, out-energized, and out-informed by Former Governor Mitt Romney.”
  • The Daily Caller has more liberal Schadenfreude.
  • And Jim Treacher has still more. “I’m glad the Greatest President Ever spent so much time stressing the importance of education, because he just got schooled.”
  • The Washington Post called Romney “well prepared and aggressive.”
  • Romney didn’t just embarrass Obama last night, he embarrassed the media as well.
  • NRO writer Michael Knox Beran compares Romney’s debate performance to Napoleon at Austerlitz.
  • The ObamaCare death panels are now back in the discussion.
  • Final proof Romney absolutely stomped Obama? The New York Times called the Denver debate “unhelpful.”
  • Obama: the human smirk.

  • Romney Sweeps the Floor With Obama in First Debate: Roundup and Reactions

    Wednesday, October 3rd, 2012

    We now have a whole new Presidential race.

    I didn’t see the entirety of the debate, but in the parts I did see, Romney firmly trounced Obama. Romney looked sharp, engaged, lively and presidential. Obama looked like he was looking at his Blackberry when he wasn’t speaking.

    Nor am I alone in my judgment, as even the Obama-friendly press and liberal pundits said Romney won (some in NSFW language):

  • John Hindraker: “It’s over. I’ve been watching presidential debates for quite a few years, but I have never seen one like this. It wasn’t a TKO, it was a knockout. Mitt Romney was in control from the beginning. He was the alpha male, while Barack Obama was weak, hesitant, stuttering, often apologetic. The visuals were great for Romney and awful for Obama. Obama looked small, tired, defeated after four years of failure, out of ammo.”
  • Jonah Goldberg: “I had a pretty good feeling about tonight’s debate. But I had no expectation that Romney would simply control the night the way he did. I don’t think Obama did terribly on the merits, even though he clearly lost by a wide margin on points. But you don’t really score a debate like this on points. Romney simply dominated and deflated Obama.”
  • Rich Lowry: “It was overwhelmingly Romney’s night. He was more confident, more energetic, and better informed than President Obama. He exposed the president’s shallowness and got under his skin.” On Twitter, gay righty turned lefty Andrew Sullivan bluntly declared “this was a disaster for Obama.” Also: “How is Obama’s closing so fucking sad, confused, lame? He choked. He lost. He may even have lost election tonight.”

  • Hell, even CNN’s non-rightwing audience thought that Romney won the debate by a landslide of 67% to 25%.
  • All Washington Post columnists who weighed in scored it for Romney.
  • Even Chris Matthews though Obama got his clock cleaned.
  • Here’s the debate in full:

  • If Romney had debated and campaigned this well in 2008, he’d probably be President right now.

    More tomorrow.

    Things to Like About the Paul Ryan Vice Presidential Nomination

    Sunday, August 12th, 2012

    Just in case you were trapped in a mine, Mitt Romney selected Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan as his Vice Presidential running mate. There are many things to like about the pick, but I’d like to focus on just a few:

  • The election, more than ever, is about the size of government. Obama wants an ever-larger, ever more powerful federal government, while Romney-Ryan want to reign it in. Despite Romney having a reputation as a bit of a squish, the pick shows he’s serious about reigning in runaway government. And it doesn’t detract from the debate over Obama’s horrible handling of the economy: Runaway government spending (and the uncertainty it engenders) is the largest single factor holding back the economy.
  • As an observant Catholic, Ryan sharpens the debate on the Obama Administration’s War on Catholics. The fervor with which Democrats pursued codifying taxpayer-funded abortion (no matter how many House seats it cost them) and the unwavering refusal to allow Catholic and other pro-life entities to opt out from providing insurance coverage of abortion suggests that it was one of the central driving goals of passing ObamaCare. Increasingly it appears that yes, that is the hill liberals want to die on. We should let them, and make sure that devout Catholics know the contempt the liberal establishment holds for both them and their beliefs.
  • Ryan Puts Wisconsin Further in Play. Scott Walker’s budget successes, and the abysmal serial failure of the Wisconsin recall elections prove that this once solidly Democratic state has been trending increasingly purple. By naming favorite son Ryan as his VP pick, Romney has singled he’s going to put up a real fight there. Romney can win elsewhere (Nevada and Iowa, for example) and still win 270 electoral votes; I don’t see any realistic path to victory for Obama if he loses there.
  • Best Presidential Campaign Ads of the Last 30 Years

    Thursday, July 19th, 2012

    So Mitt Romney’s campaign has taken Obama’s yawning gaffe and run with it, producing a dozy of an ad called “These Hands”:

    I like it!

    But people calling it “the best political ad in 30 years” are overselling it. Even if you’re just looking at Presidential ads, there are several I think are a lot more effective.

    Here’s the Dukakis Tank ad from George H. W. Bush’s 1988 presidential campaign:

    Here’s Swift Boat Veterans for Truth’s devastating ad against John Kerry, using his own words against him in 2004:

    (By the way, whenever you hear someone on the left saying that one of their candidates has been “swiftboated,” it means is “Republicans have attacked them effectively with the truth.”)

    Here’s Ronald Reagan’s Bear in the Woods campaign from 1984.

    And here’s Reagan’s Morning in America ad:

    Any I missed?

    More Support for the “Rick Perry Hopped Up on Goofballs” Theory

    Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012

    After Rick Perry’s disastrous fall campaign, I floated the idea that he was still hopped up on goofballs (i.e, taking serious pain medication) following his back operation.

    Well now comes word that there’s at least some supporting evidence in the form of Inside the Circus, a book on the 2012 Republican Presidential race. Caveat the first: The Perry camp is hotly denying it. Caveat the second: One of the co-authors is Evan “Obama is a sort of God” Thomas. Caveat the third: The last third of the Chron piece is given over to to professional Perry-hater James Moore to do his usual bashing. Caveat the fourth: The excerpted bit the Chron uses is actually pretty weak sauce unless there are more like it in the book.

    Still, the theory nicely explains why Perry, who has been a sharp and relentless campaigner in his state races, floundered so badly at the national level. Indeed, it explains it so neatly that I wonder why the Perry campaign is so insistent in denying it, since it’s much more flattering to him than the liberal “Perry blew it at the national level because he’s a moron that just happened to have kicked our asses repeatedly for the last decade” theory.

    On the other hand, maybe they deny it so insistently because it’s not true, no matter how convenient an explanation. And bloggers (myself included) should always be somewhat suspicious of a story that fits our preconceptions a little too neatly…

    Answering Instapundit’s Rhetorical Question on Mitt Romney

    Sunday, February 19th, 2012

    Today Instapundit Glenn Reynolds asks: “Back in 2008, the social-cons were all-in for Romney, to the point where Hugh Hewitt’s take became a running tagline (“You know who this is good for? Mitt Romney!”) that’s still used by by bloggers from time to time. Now, not so much. So what changed about Romney since 2008 to make him un-conservative?”

    A good question, even though I wasn’t a Romney guy back in 2008. But three obvious answers occur to me:

    1. The Tea Party Happened: The election of Obama and Obama’s extreme big-spending, big-government ways have “radicalized” Republican voters to the point that it’s no longer acceptable to campaign like a conservative and vote like a liberal. As the 2010 primary defeats of Charlie Crist and Mike Castle proved, Republican primary voters are no longer willing to give establishment Republicans a pass on their own free-spending, big government ways, and Mitt Romney is as Establishment as they come.
    2. ObamaCare Happened: Before ObamaCare, Republicans might have been willing to downplay the socialistic, anti-freedom aspects of RomneyCare and its own individual mandate under the guise of state rights and the 10th Amendment. But after the passage of ObamaCare, RomneyCare has become a far greater political and ideological liability to Romney, and one that largely negates one of Republicans’ greatest attack issues against Obama, thus making it a much greater problem than it was in 2008.
    3. Romney Isn’t Running Against john McCain: Despite John McCain’s many personal virtues, his voting record is far more that of an establishment Republican than a rock-ribbed conservative. Be it McCain-Feingold or the Gang of 14, McCain has constantly flirted with RINO-hood in his Senate career, making himself a media darling and infuriating the base. In 2008, there was a solid case to make that Mitt Romney was more conservative than McCain. It’s much harder to make the case that Romney is more conservative than Rick Santorum.

    Bottom Line: Romney had flaws that were easier to overlook in 2008. You know whose conservative reputation the last four years have been bad for? Mitt Romney!

    Texas Senate Race Update for Februry 16, 2012

    Thursday, February 16th, 2012

    When I first started covering the senate race, I would grab just about any scrap of information I could about and throw a link to it. Now? The firehose is starting to open up, and I’m getting a bit more selective. For example, I’m not feeling the need to link to Democrat Paul Sadler calling out David Dewhurst over education funding (or Dewhurst’s response), especially since Sadler repeats the lie that the state cut education funding, when it actually increased slightly. (Actually, Sadler attacking Dewhurst, and Dewhurst counter-attacking, is good for both of them; by attacking each other, not only do they garner publicity, but it’s easier for them to ignore the primary challengers that threaten them from their left and right flanks (respectively.) Likewise, I’m not going to link to the Politifact piece on Cruz, since doing so would suggest Politifact has something resembling credibility, which it doesn’t.

    Maybe I’m just feeling cranky today.

  • Politico looks at the Cruz-Dewhurst contest. The idea that Tom Leppert is in second place is mainly supported by that internal Dewhurst poll, which is (as I’ve argued before) dubious due to the completely opaque nature of the methodology,
  • David Dewhurst: The GOP’s Bad Side Personified: Dewhurst’s “complete disregard for the voters has become so pervasive an issue that it threatens to throw him into a downward spiral; and rightfully so…familiarity with Dewhurst makes it easy to discern that the more he interacts with the right-wing base, the higher his negatives grow.” Ouch!
  • Ted Cruz was interviewed several times at CPAC. Here he is on Fox Business News:

  • One by Red State:

  • And Hot Air:

  • And Human Events:

  • Cruz listed among up-and-coming Tea Party candidates by the New York Post.
  • He also gets some love from The American Spectator.
  • Dewhurst campaign endorsed by HOSPICE, errr, HOSPAC, the Texas Hospital Association’s political action committee. I can see Dewhurst seeking these business group endorsements, I just can’t see why he would think announcing them to the world at large would cause anyone to vote for him. Every single one of them is like a big rubber stamp that reads APPROVED REPUBLICAN ESTABLISHMENT CANDIDATE.
  • Dewhurst picks up the endorsement of the Texas Agricultural Aviation Association, which means…wait, really? That’s a real organization? There are enough cropdusters in Texas that they have their own PAC? How can I be sure they’re not just making it up to see if I’ll link to it?
  • Another candidate forum, another Dewhurst skip.
  • This tiff by the Glenn Addison campaign over Cruz campaign “dirty tricks” is much ado about nothing. You mean opposition research staffers actually sign up for opponent’s emails? Do tell. The piece also mentions that Team Dewhurst is the one pushing for inclusion of Addison in the debates, since he potentially siphons conservative votes from Cruz. That’s smart thinking from the Dewhurst campaign, and even principled, as Addison has run a hard-working, serious Senate campaign in every aspect except fundraising.
  • Craig James gets some fundraising help from fellow “Pony Express” backfield star (and NFL Hall of Famer) Eric Dickerson.
  • He also endorsed Rick Santorum for President. That’s probably a pretty canny move for him, as Santorum (for good or ill) seems to be consolidating support as the anti-Romney conservative candidate, and thus, very possibly, the actual GOP candidate. (Now that I’ve said that, given my previous prognostication skills when it comes to predicting Presidential races, expect Ron Paul to sweep Super Tuesday.) It’s quite possible that some Santorum supporters take a closer look at him on that basis alone.
  • James discusses his endorsement on (you guessed it) Mark Davis of WBAP, who seems to be the go-to radio guy for this race:

  • James gets profiled by his alma mater’s newspaper.
  • This National Journal piece? Meh. Leppert simply can’t self-fund to nearly the extent Dewhurst can.
  • Democrat Sean Hubbard raised $6,533, and spent $6,833, during Q4.
  • I see no sign that Democrat Addie D. Allen has filed an FEC report. Maybe they’re just late putting it up.
  • Perry Out?

    Thursday, January 19th, 2012

    So say the tea leaves. An announcement is scheduled for later today. Word is he’ll endorse Gingrich.

    A sad turn of events, but also increasingly an inevitable one. After his autumn gaffes, Perry could just never regain traction. He joins Jack Kemp and Phil Gramm among the list of Republican Presidential contenders I’ve supported who have flamed out early. Sic transit gloria.

    (Hat tip: Ace)