What It Is

“Game Change” is an HBO film about Sarah Palin that was based on a book that was written by the dude that called President Obama a dick on national television:

YouTube Link => youtu.be/449FGJwDQRY

According to the interviews I’ve seen, the book is actually about both the Democrat and Republican races in 2008, but since they had to condense it to a 2-hour movie, they elected to focus on the Palin angle.

Also according to video footage I’ve seen, both Palin and John McCain have denounced the film, even though neither had seen it at the time of their interviews, but that makes sense if they weren’t personally consulted about the script and the potential authenticity (or not) of the book it was based on.

Why I Watched It

I don’t give a flying **** about politics. The only reason I’ve been paying attention to the 2012 Presidential race, and blogging about it, is because I was entirely amazed that the Republicans (in my non-politics-following estimation) threw up a “Hail Mary” and forfeited the 2008 Presidential campaign by selecting Sarah Palin to run as Vice President with John McCain.

As soon as Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States of America, my quest in life became to figure out WHY the Republicans made that choice. That’s why I’ve been closely monitoring the 2012 nomination process, and I’ve been learning, but “Game Change”, fictional or not, gives me the insight I’ve been craving, as to how this could possibly have happened.

Initially, I felt like the 2008 election was going to be fascinating, yet typical. I thought the best thing that could possibly happen is that the Democrats were going to run Hillary Clinton and lose decisively in the general election, merely on the male vs. female President issue.

I had never in my life heard of Barack Obama as of February 09, 2007, when I posted the video “WHEN Hillary Is President” => http://billcammack.com/2007/02/09/reelsolidtv-episode-39-when-hillary-is-president/

YouTube Link => youtu.be/EZBf472OsnM

Eventually, I heard (probably because I walked by a television that was running somewhere, because I don’t watch the news) that a black guy was running, and he was actually a viable candidate this time, not just a symbolic “Non-whites can be President, too! :O” social token.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_American_candidates_for_President_of_the_United_States

In 1888 Frederick Douglass was invited to speak at the Republican National Convention. Afterward during the roll call vote, he received one vote, so was nominally a candidate for the presidency. In those years, the candidates for the presidency and vice-presidency were chosen by state representatives voting at the nominating convention. Many decisions were made by negotiations of state and party leaders “behind closed doors.” Douglass was not a serious candidate in contemporary terms.

In 1972, Shirley Chisholm was the first African-American major party candidate for president. She was a candidate for the Democratic Party nomination and participated in the Democratic primaries in numerous states.[1] She campaigned in 12 states and won 28 delegates.[2] In 1984 and 1988, Jesse Jackson was the first major party black candidate to run nationwide primary campaigns. He also ran as a Democratic Party candidate.[3]

In 1992 Alan Keyes was the first African-American candidate to run in the Republican presidential primaries.[citation needed] Keyes ran again, unsuccessfully, in 1996, 2000, and 2008. In 2004, Carol Moseley Braun and Al Sharpton ran as unsuccessful candidates in the Democratic primaries. “Tea Party” Republican Herman Cain has announced his candidacy for the presidency in 2012, though he has since suspended his campaign.

So I was fascinated by this concept and wanted to know how the American people were going to respond to a real candidate, as opposed to one of these “Run, Jesse, Run! :D” situations that was immensely historically significant while simultaneously logically ridiculous => en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Jackson#1984_presidential_campaign.

I was totally like “It’s possible… It’s possible…. It’s possible…..” until I heard the Republicans selected Palin, at which point I immediately said to myself “Barack Obama is going to be President! :D” HAHAHAHA I mean, I had no doubt in my mind that the race was over when I heard about Palin.

President Palin

The reason I knew it was over was because the Republicans shifted the focus from disinterest in McCain to VIRULENT opposition to “President Palin”.

I see, from “Game Change”, why they selected her, and it may have been the best thing they could have done to try to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, but to someone like myself, who doesn’t care about politics at all, this became the entire focus:

“This dude McCain doesn’t look all that healthy. If he croaks in office, we will have unwittingly elected Sarah Palin President of the United States of America.”

That concept, Palin being the actual President, was enough to get *ANYBODY* off their asses and to the polls to prevent that.

Once I found out about that, I was like “people are going to vote like crazy *AGAINST* the Republican ticket, even if they weren’t already going to vote *FOR* the Democrats”.

This all happened immediately for me. There was no doubt in my mind AT ALL that the Republicans were extremely desperate and the race was over as soon as they announced Palin… This was *BEFORE* we found out all the extra stuff about her in the upcoming weeks.

It’s like when you’re going to select a team for sports. First, you want to pick a good quarterback. If you can’t throw the ball and you can’t scramble, you’re probably going to lose. SECOND.. You have to pick a good wide receiver. If the WR can’t get open, there’s nobody for the QB to throw to, and you still lose.

When Obama picked Biden, that was the 1-2 punch. I was like “McCain is going to have to pick a GOOD Vice President in order to..” then they announced Palin, and I was like “It’s over! :D”

I think one of the major miscalculations the Republicans made was thinking that all females are similar. They aren’t.

Just because lots of people were ready to support Hillary Clinton, that doesn’t mean you can pick any woman out of a hat and run her one 72-year-old’s heartbeat away from being President.

Anyway.. I wanted to give my personal background for watching “Game Change”.. In fact, if I had known they were making this movie, I could have saved myself the last six months of misery, watching the Republican nomination tomfoolery, trying to get a clue about how a Palin selection was even possible, *AND* whether the Republicans had any better selections, four years later…

Game Change

This film wasn’t created by asking Palin or McCain what actually happened, but the filmmakers claim that they researched the situations with a lot of people that were there and witnessed it, such as Nicolle Wallace, one of Sarah Palin’s top advisers, who was featured prominently in the film, and who said that “Game Change” was true enough to make her squirm.

That doesn’t make the movie authentic, but it’s different from just speculating about what someone was thinking. You have people that stood there and listened to her say what she said and watched her do what she did.

I wanted to say that up front, because this is a theatrical presentation, which shouldn’t be taken as “word is bond”, but more like an approximation of what probably happened behind the scenes.

YouTube Link => youtu.be/IPhh7mch5zo

I think the first important point is that they selected Ed Harris to play John McCain.

Ed Harris is a *BRILLIANT* actor. He plays people that you’re supposed to hate, but you root for them anyway, such as the super-evil badguy expert sniper in “Enemy At The Gates”. He picks somebody off, and you’re like “OOH!.. NICE SHOT! :D” instead of “DAMN HIM!!! :(”

Also, Ed Harris is currently in good shape. In 2008, John McCain was not. One thing that was missing from the film was the horrific concept that I mentioned above, which was “What if McCain keels over?”.. Pretty much, you feel in the movie that if McCain would have won, Palin would never have become PotUS (which history shows us at this point is true, because John McCain is currently still alive). That’s one of the feelings that I missed from the presentation. It didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the film, but I noticed that it felt different while I was rooting for Ed Harris to become President, even though I already knew the ending to the story.

Julianne Moore was *FANTASTIC* as Palin. Seriously. Excellent job, from the look to the facial expressions to the speech patterns to the accent. Great! :D

The only thing that broke my immersion of “Moore = Palin” is that they have slightly different body types, with Palin having more bounce to the ounce.

I’m not going to be able to explain to the ladies reading this what difference that makes, but it definitely makes a “That’s not actually Palin” difference. >:D

The other thing that broke my immersion (although I’m sure this was a deliberate scripting and acting decision and not a deficiency), is that when I’m listening to Palin speak, the real one, I can tell that she’s deliberately stacking up comments that bolster the point she’s trying to make, or the opinion she wants people listening to her to have, whether her statements are true or not.

I didn’t get that from Moore’s performance. She didn’t deliver that “I drank Jim Jones’ Flavor Aid” look that you can see ‘behind’ people’s eyes when they’re not honestly interacting with you, but they’re deliberately trying to influence you and they know it.

For the ladies out there, that’s the look you see when you already drove by your man’s car at the strip joint parking lot and then, when he gets home, he tries to sell you that he was working late tonight. It’s a look that’s derived from thinking in the background while you serve your agenda to people. It’s like they’re not really there, but following a script.

Anyway, I didn’t get that from Moore’s performance, which caused the Palin character to be way more endearing. “Game Change” was more of a “fish out of water” story than a “deliberate manipulation of the uneducated masses” story.

Woody Harrelson was really good as well. Really good. :) The only thing that broke my immersion with his performance is that I’ve seen that guy Steve Schmidt that he was playing on television a bunch of times, and Woody would have had to put on a BUNCH more pounds to physically resemble that guy, other than the baldie haircut, which was accurate.

Out of the three main actors, the one that skewed the story for me the most was Ed Harris, because he didn’t look anywhere near 72 years old, and he didn’t look like he was about to keel over any second.

Part of the whole problem in the actual 2008 campaign was that nobody was sure that McCain was going to live through his entire term, meaning that a vote for him was an inadvertent vote for Palin as President, which would have meant that *SHE* could have been the one in charge of our current foreign affairs situation.

YouTube Link => youtu.be/28z5aTiN4UI

So, in “Game Change”, I wasn’t concerned about Harris’ health, so I was able to relax and not feel paranoid about what could have happened if the Republicans had won. That was decidedly *NOT* the case during the real election.

Also, the way Moore portrayed her character, she made Palin seem like way less of a loose cannon than she appeared to be during the incessant “liberal media” coverage of her statements, decisions, and actions during the real election.

This combination allowed me to actually root for McCain and Palin to be elected while I was watching the film. :)

I knew the entire time that Jude Law was going to vanquish Ed Harris in “Enemy At The Gates”, but I was still rooting for Ed when Jude had already gotten the drop on him. There’s an integrity that Harris beings to his characters, where regardless of what you think about them as people, you still have to respect them.

 
Continued in “Game Change” Review [Part 02 of 02]
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ok.. I’ve seen enough Republican tomfoolery to drop my overall prediction for how the 2012 Presidential election is going to go. >:D

As far as my predictions for New Hampshire, I was right that Romney was going to win (everybody knew that). I had hoped that Huntsman would edge out Paul, but he didn’t. I had thought that Santorum would be ahead of Gingrich, but he wasn’t. Perry was at the bottom, where he should have been, since he didn’t even campaign in New Hampshire, and Bachmann got 343 votes, even though she already dropped out of the race.

Here’s what I think is going to happen, going forward, which should result in the reelection of President Obama:

Gingrich

Gingrich is upset because he thought he was going to get over with “Thou shalt not speak ill of another Republican”, and Romney was like “**** That! >:D”

According to the pundits, Iowa television was inundated with negative ads about Gingrich, which I’ve spoken about, previously.

If this had been 1975, their money would have been spent. Since it isn’t, those videos will live on on YouTube ad infinitum. They were used in New Hampshire. They will be used in South Carolina. They will be used by Democrats. They will be used with Green Eggs And Ham… Forever.

Gingrich couldn’t do anything about this because he didn’t have any money in his campaign to match the Super PAC that’s backing Romney’s play… However… *NOW*, some dude gave Gingrich 5 million dollars to go berserk with ads in South Carolina. >:D

This money will be spent trashing Romney’s name and achievements by calling him a “Vulture Capitalist” (instead of Venture Capitalist, haha so funny! :D) because of how he’s made his money by taking over companies and making decisions for them that have resulted in LOTS of job losses, while also creating jobs.

This campaign will be extremely effective to make Romney look bad, because Romney won’t show people the documents that compare the number of people who LOST JOBS to the number of people who gained them because of his company.

Similarly, Romney doesn’t want to reveal his tax data, which, of course, would indicate whether or not he’s still profiting from people losing their jobs.

So, Gingrich, himself, is finished. Kaput. Any time he makes a move, people are going to break out the YouTube videos that Romney’s Super PAC and Ron Paul’s team made about him, and then he’s going to stay with a very low percentage of votes in every single primary and caucus.

He already knows this, so he’s on a kamikaze mission to take Romney down with him, which will result in even MORE useful material for the Democrats to use in the general election, since, like I said from the giddyap, Romney was the only actual candidate that the Republicans fielded this cycle, and was always going to be their nominee.

Paul

I have to give the Ron Paul supporters their props, because they’ve really sustained their candidate and kept him in good position, even though neither Democratic nor Republican pundits wanted to talk about him this entire time. They have to talk about Paul *NOW*, or else they’ll look like they don’t know what the **** they’re doing.

Last I checked, Paul didn’t have enough money for television ads in Florida, so he was skipping campaigning there, and going straight to the next state in the order. That might have changed after his strong 2nd place showing in New Hampshire, if he received an infusion of cash.

Either way, he’s running a week-to-week operation, and he really shouldn’t be able to keep up with the war machine that Romney already has available, fully-oiled and properly running, so I can’t imagine Paul receiving the Republican nomination.

Paul’s role, going forward, will be a factual dismantling of Romney’s position, which, again, will add to the ammunition that the Democrats have for the general election.

Santorum

I kept telling you people that there WAS. NO. SANTORUM. SURGE! >:D

Santorum received a religious endorsement in Iowa from a group that doesn’t have any props in New Hampshire. Case Closed.

He was polling at 10% before he got that endorsement. He “surged” because 57% of the people that voted in the Iowa caucus identified themselves as Evangelical Christians. He went to New Hampshire and received his requisite 10% of the vote, just like I said.

The pundits don’t want to talk about this, because then they’d have to talk about the issue of Romney and Huntsman being Mormons, which obviously wasn’t a problem in New Hampshire, as they ranked #1 and #3 out of the six remaining candidates, with Santorum ranking #5, because Perry didn’t even campaign in NH and ended up #6.

Santorum’s role going forward is going to be to split the religious vote with Perry, nullifying both of their opportunities to make any real waves.

His other role is going to be to keep spewing wrong-side-of-history statements that are going to make Republicans in general look bad to independents.

Other than that, he shouldn’t have much effect on the inevitable nominee, Romney, because he’s not spending money on negative television/YouTube advertisements about him.

Santorum has no money and no boots-on-the-ground infrastucture, so he shouldn’t be going very far past South Carolina.

Perry

Perry should have quit when he had the chance, after Iowa! :D haha

The *ONLY* reason Perry should stick around is that he has religious backing from the Bible Belt. If that doesn’t create a situation-based “surge” like Santorum received, he needs to pack it up for real and go back to Texas and stay there.

If he doesn’t do well in South Carolina, Perry needs to just quit, because all he’s doing is splitting the religious vote with Santorum. Nobody, Nobody, Nobody, Nobody, NOBODY wants to see him try to debate Barack Obama! :D HAHAHA

Perry got basically no votes in Iowa, he got almost absolutely no votes in New Hampshire.. If he doesn’t receive a massive turnout in South Carolina, it’s going to be way too late to BEGIN getting votes / securing delagates at the FOURTH contest in the series.

Huntsman

Even though I’ve known this whole time that they were going to send Romney to the big dance, I had been hoping against hope that Huntsman would be able to sway enough voters to be competitive for the nomination.

I’m not sure that pulling 40,000 votes to Mitt Romney’s 95,000 votes makes the case.

Either way, Huntsman’s heading to South Carolina to try it again. He may as well. He has infinite cash. His pops is like the original baller, shot caller! :D haha en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Huntsman,_Sr. .. Dude *INVENTED* the “clamshell” container for McDonald’s Big Mac that we still use to this very day, so Huntsman may as well spend a bunch more money campaigning in SC, since it’s a drop in the bucket.

I’m also not sure that pulling fewer votes than Ron Paul makes the case, either.

New Hampshire was Jon Huntsman’s high water mark. He skipped Iowa entirely to campaign there this entire time, and he came away with 17% of the votes, compared to Romney’s 40%.

The Utah Primary doesn’t even happen until June www.2012presidentialelectionnews.com/2012-republican-primary-schedule/, and Huntsman should be out of the race WAAAAAAAY before June! :D

The way I see it, if he doesn’t do extremely well in South Carolina, he needs to hang it up with Perry.

I’m a fan of what Huntsman is saying and the way he carries himself and that he took Utah to #1 in job creation during his terms as Governor, but business is business. >:D

Romney

According to me, this sends Romney to the general election to attempt to defeat President Barack Obama.

At first, I saw this as slightly possible. Now, I don’t.

Through the first series of debates, the candidates didn’t want to say anything to or about Romney. This is because he was never the frontrunner. All these non-candidates were having surges which lasted as long as it took for the press to find out the very slightest things about them, and then the public was like “Nahhhhh! :/”.

So Romney got to stand there looking Presidential, without actually saying anything.

Now that people have realized that he’s the only candidate that was ever fielded by the Republicans this cycle, they’ve been going at him in real-time, and he’s been folding.

He offered a $10,000 bet to Rick Perry, knowing that he (Romney) is worth approximately 250 million dollars… Are you ******* KIDDING??? >:D

Romney worth up to $264 million; earned up to $68,000 per speech before campaign

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, who made part of his fortune as co-founder of a private equity firm, and his wife have personal financial assets worth as much as $264 million, according to disclosure documents filed Friday.

The records suggest that Romney may have seen a small, but limited, drop in wealth during one of the nation’s worst economic downturns, with a maximum asset value about 8 percent lower than what he reported during his first White House bid in 2007.

The numbers underscore an issue that poses both a benefit and a challenge for the former Massachusetts governor, who points to his business experience as evidence of his ability to lead the country.

But Romney, who grew up in a wealthy family before expanding his fortunes at the Bain Capital equity firm, also has struggled to portray himself as a candidate in touch with the lives of regular voters.

Since then, he’s said and done a bunch of other stuff that give away that fact that (rightfully so, because he’s always been rich) he’s not in touch with American workers AT. ALL.

Most importantly, he’s committed unforced errors as well as having been baited into errors by the likes of such debate geniuses as Rick Perry.

It’s become apparent that as long as Romney has memorized his flash cards, he can seem like he’s giving a spontaneous, intelligent presentation, but as soon as he tries to ad-lib, he ends up staying stupid-but-authentic things like “I like being able to fire people who provide services to me”:

YouTube Link => youtu.be/nBfWB64iHAs

The link I posted has the entire context of what he was talking about, which was insurance providers, but the important part is that you can see and hear the change in his demeanor. :) He was running his mouth and as soon as he said that, people in the crowd started chuckling, and you see Romney go “OH ****! :O” and every word he says after that is like BUH-B, BUH-B, stumbling and bumbling all over the place, because he got nervous, realizing that he had tipped his hand.

The short version of that video that only has him saying “I like being able to fire people who provide services to me” will be played over and over, whenever he attempts to run for *ANY* public office for the rest of his life.

This indicates to me that Romney will continue to commit these gaffes, to the ultimate delight of the people in charge of Obama’s reelection campaign, and also that when he finally has to debate Barack Obama, he’s going to get sorely embarrassed every time he’s forced outside of his cue-card comfort zone.

Hail To The Chief

So, No.. I’m not seeing it anymore. I feel like the 2012 Republican nomination process has provided the blueprint / roadmap for the reelection of our current President, Barack Obama.

The extraneous, unelectable “candidates” will continue to buzz around and create more anti-Romney media for the Democrats to use in the general election.

If they were smart / unselfish, they would decide on one of them to be nominated and all the rest of them would drop out.

In a two-person contest, you can’t win with 39.4% of the vote. :D

In a three-person contest, you have very good odds of winning with those many votes. There are currently six people involved, and there shouldn’t be.

Perry should drop out because it’s clear that people don’t see him as smart enough to be able to defeat President Obama in the general election.

Santorum should drop out unless he has a string of religious endorsements coming up very soon.

Huntsman should drop out if his message doesn’t resonate in South Carolina, because that means his gambit didn’t work and probably won’t work during the rest of the nomination process.

Gingrich should drop out because he’s been statistically eliminated by Romney’s Super PAC’s onslaught of negative ads about him, and he’ll never recover from that.

Ron Paul *SHOULDN’T* drop out, because he’s having the time of his life! :D

YouTube Link => youtu.be/Da6irSCvnZY

Play On, Playah!!! >:D hahaha Get Yo’ *CELEBRATE* On! :D hahaha

But, Yeah.. When the dust settles, Romney is going to be the nominee, but his fellow Republicans will have researched and revealed so many flaws in his background, ideas, style and personality that it’ll be a cakewalk for the Obama team to trounce him in the general election.
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Tonight’s debate should be the final stage appearance for several of the fake Republican candidates that we’ve had to suffer through hearing about over the recent months.

Unfortunately, every time a Republican pundit is asked whether so-and-so is going to quit the race, they keep saying that it depends on when they run out of money.

Of course, this sucks. They can’t be booted for saying and doing stupid things, and they can’t be booted for not answering questions that are obviously going to sink them in the general election.

The only three candidates that should be moving forward after tonight are Romney, Perry and Cain, because they’re the only ones that have enough financial backing.

Like I said probably months ago now, if the Republicans send any of these so-called candidates other than Romney, they’re going to lose pitifully in the general election.

Perry can’t even out-debate Romney with cue cards in his hand that tell him what he’s supposed to say about Romney. Obama will be able to out-debate him practically in his sleep. Obama probably snores better than Perry speaks.

Sending Perry is a mistake.

Then again, Sending Palin was a mistake last cycle, but they did it anyway.

Cain is an accident waiting to happen.

First of all, he obviously knows nothing about nothing, other than business. I’m too bored to recount all the non-Presidential statements he’s made recently.

He was never a candidate in the first place. He’s selling books and he’s going to be a reality television star like Donald Trump.

Second, it’s too easy to line up a bunch of fake chicks to claim he felt them up and then his reputation goes down the drain.

Sending Cain against Obama is an automatic loss. It’s like a forfeit.

On top of that, the Cain team sucks so badly at dealing with adversity that they’d be literally eaten for breakfast as soon as the Democrats start campaigning against him.

In fact, they don’t even care about Cain or Perry. The Democrats are already campaigning against Romney, because they know he’s the only SLIGHT chance that the Republicans have of winning in 2012:

thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/08/in-a-web-video-democrats-criticize-romneys-opposition-to-the-auto-bailout

When Mitt Romney arrives in Michigan for the latest Republican debate on Wednesday, the Democrats will have a message waiting for him — “Hit the road, Mitt.”

On Tuesday, as Mr. Romney sparred with George Stephanopoulos over his opposition to the auto industry bailout in an interview for ABC News and Yahoo, the Democratic National Committee released a web video criticizing Mr. Romney’s stance on the issue.

“You wouldn’t know he was from around here,” says a narrator, before Mr. Romney’s own voice says: “Let Detroit go bankrupt.”

As images of a dilapidated downtown flash by, the narrator continues: “Now he’s coming back, asking for our votes. So what do you say to the man who would’ve put this city on cement blocks, kicking us when we were down? You say, ‘Hit the road, Mitt.’ ”

Too Late

The rest of them aren’t even worth mentioning, other than the fact that Ron Paul, who MOST DEFINITELY will not receive the Republican nomination, may very well run as a 3rd Party candidate and siphon his consistent 10% of the voters away from Romney, ensuring an already almost guaranteed Obama victory.

The time to turn the corner has come and gone.

It’s too late now.

It’s too late for Michele Bachmann to say what she’s going to do with 11.5 million illegal aliens.

It’s too late for her to explain to us *HOW* she’s going to wave a magic wand and create a situation where gas costs $2/gallon.

It’s too late for Rick Santorum to say anything that anybody cares about.

It’s too late for Newt Gingrich to not seem like some grumpy dude with a bunch of funny one-liners.

I don’t know why Jon Huntsman never got traction, but I would have liked to see a Huntsman vs. Obama contest.

There are another bunch of dudes on 2012.republican-candidates.org that you’ve never heard of and never will.

These so-called candidates wasted all their air-time mentioning Obama’s name and talking about how wack he is, and in the meantime, said nothing worthwhile about themselves that’s going to cause Independents or Democrats to vote for them, which is what they’re going to need to win the general election.

Now, they’re going to look like idiots on stage if they try to spin fantasies about what life’s going to be like if they are elected President of the United States of America.

They’re not going to do that, though, because they don’t dare. They’re going to keep spouting rhetoric and punchlines and they’re going to keep cheerleading instead of getting on the field and playing the game.

On top of that, Obama already snitched on the Republicans in Congress for their obstructionist tactics, so by the time the election rolls around, nobody without a job is going to vote Republican anyway.

One Chance

The reason why Romney has a chance is that nobody believes what he says.

I know that doesn’t seem to make sense, :P but that’s the only chance Republicans have in the general election.. To send someone who MIGHT enact a bunch of Democratic policies.. or, if you want to split it differently, to send someone who’s been posing as a Conservative to receive the nomination, but is liable to enact a bunch of Liberal policies. o_O

That’s their only hope.

Hopefully for the rest of us, we won’t have to hear any more about Presidential aspirations from the extra peanut-gallery filler people after tonight.

Romney’s rich. Perry has major financial backing. Cain has friends in high places also.

They should be the only ones left standing after tonight’s debate, but I’m afraid that we’ll have to suffer through hearing about the rest of them until they actually run out of money.

As far as the Cain sexual harassment allegations, it’s like I tell people every day…. not tell them about sexual harassment, but tell them about life in general… If there’s no media of it, it didn’t happen.

Period.

Unless someone videotaped Cain in a car feeling up some chick, it’s “He Said, She Said” and it’s a stalemate.

The real problem he’s going to have is what some dude was talking about 4 or 5 days ago, which is some antics Cain was involved in at some kind of social event. The dude said he wasn’t going to talk about what happened, but that everybody saw it.

This is why Cain is an accident waiting to happen. Sooner or later, the tabloids will pay someone off to spill the beans, and then it’s going to be a big problem for him.

Of course.. The Democrats are probably begging TMZ *NOT* to air anything about Cain, because sending Cain against Obama is like sending a boxer into a gunfight.
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Continued from Part 01

I had wanted to do a play-by-play breakdown of what had happened at the Republican Candidate Debate, but I didn’t complete it before President Obama’s speech, and now I have different things to discuss.

Rick Santorum

I hadn’t been aware that he was running. I had heard his name around the time of the Iowa Straw Poll, but since Michele Bachman came in first and Ron Paul came in second and Tim Pawlenty quit the race entirely, I had figured that everyone behind Pawlenty (4th place and down) would bounce as well.

They don’t give him much light (talk about him in the media) in general, and he wasn’t called on many times in the debate. When he got to speak, he sounded like he had good ideas, but didn’t sound Presidential.

Newt Gingrich

A long time ago, I had heard that his entire staff had quit. I had no idea he was still running. Isn’t the staff supposed to be comprised of your TRUE BELIEVERS? o_O

I see why he’s there, though.. Not to run for President, but to be the respected grandfather in the room.. The guy that can keep the rest of the newjacks focused on what they’re SUPPOSED to be representing for the Republican Party.

I really enjoyed when he told the moderator from Politico.com (essentially) “I’m frankly not interested in your efforts to get Republicans fighting each other. You’d like to puff this up into some giant thing. Everyone up here knows Obamacare is a disaster. If this President had any concern for working Americans, he’d ask us to repeal it because it’s a monstrosity.”

It’s good to have people in debates that aren’t electable, because they’re allowed to display ire (anger), and can say things that the actual candidates would like to say, but know it would diminish their chances of either receiving their party’s nomination or winning in the general election.

The closest anyone else came to complaining about the moderators was when several of the candidates were prompted to discuss Rick Perry’s HPV Vaccine Controversy, causing Mr. Perry to say “I feel like the piñata here at the party”.

Real Clear Politics: “Rick Perry’s Gardasil Problem”

But if Rick Perry does step under the bright lights, there’s at least one question that has the potential to hinder his pursuit of the GOP nomination: Why in early 2007 did he sign an executive order mandating that 11- and 12-year-old girls in Texas be given the vaccine Gardasil?

Gardasil was developed to prevent the human papillomavirus (HPV), the most commonly transmitted sexual disease in the United States. In June 2006, the Food and Drug Administration approved the drug, which is made by the pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. The treatment was initially hailed as a breakthrough in protecting against four strains of HPV that are responsible for 70 percent of cervical cancer cases and 90 percent of genital warts.

In January 2007, Gardasil was put on the “recommended” immunization schedule issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Centers for Disease Control. Merck immediately mounted a massive lobbying effort of state legislatures around the country to get Gardasil added to their respective lists of state-mandated vaccines.

But in Texas, Gov. Perry chose to bypass the legislature and on Feb. 2, 2007, he issued an executive order making Texas the first state in the country requiring all sixth-grade girls to receive the three-shot vaccination series (which cost about $120 per shot). The move generated a fierce public debate. Conservatives slammed Perry for promoting what they saw as an intrusion by the state into private health decisions of parents and their children. Some also complained that the mandate would encourage promiscuity among teenagers.

This situation highlights a fundamental problem for politicians.. Whether to do right by the companies that give you money or to do right by the people that voted for you.

It also highlights what seems to be a central Republican theme, which is “The fewer people and/or agencies involved in making a decision that affects an individual, the better the decision is for that individual.”

So, what the Federal Government wants to happen in your state isn’t as important as what your state wants to happen for itself.. however.. what your FAMILY wants to happen for itself is more important than what your state wants to happen to your family.

This is why, prompted by the Politico moderator, the rest of the Republican Candidates all piled up on Perry for issuing an Executive Order in February 2007 that the Texas Legislature got rid of in May 2007 (a mere 3 months later), which was telling FAMILIES what THE STATE wanted them to do.. Which, obviously, wasn’t even THE STATE wanting them to do it, because THE STATE threw it out, probably as quickly as they legally could.

In fairness, Rick Perry mentioned that his Executive Order had an opt-out clause.. prompting Rick Santorum to reply “How about PARENTAL RIGHTS being more important than STATE’S RIGHTS? How about having an opt-IN instead of an opt-OUT? I’m offended that the government would tell me, and by an Executive Order, without even going through the process of letting the people have any kind of input. I would expect this from President Obama. I would not expect this from someone who’s calling himself a Conservative Governor.”

Herman Cain

Yet another clearly unelectable Candidate. According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Cain, he’s an American businessman, politician, columnist, and radio host from Georgia. He is the former chairman and CEO of Godfather’s Pizza and a former deputy chairman (1992–94) and chairman (1995–96) of the board of directors to the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.

The value Mr. Cain brings to the table is that he actually knows about business, *AND* was very willing and able to intelligently share concrete policy ideas with the crowd, who routinely applauded when he completed his explanations.

• This is what businesspeople do and politicians don’t do.

  Eliminate the current tax code. Propose the 999 Economic Growth Plan 9% tax on corporate income 9% tax on individual income, and 9% national sales tax.

  This economy is on life support. This is a bold plan and a bold solution. Easy mechanism to help the cities that are the most blighted, with empowerment zones.

• An Individual Mandate to buy something is not constitutional. I fought Hillarycare. I’m fighting to repeal Obamacare. Now, I’m running against Romneycare.

  Let’s pass patient-centered, market-driven reforms. Lose pay laws. Let’s expand medical savings accounts. Let’s allow association health plans. We would have been able to do it cheaper and cover more people without the restrictions that are preventing the free market from bringing down costs and increasing access.

• The Chilean Model – personal retirement account option. Move from entitlement society to an empowerment society. (Social Security Reform)
• There’s enough money to go around. You can find the concurrent spending cuts in order to be able to do that. Let’s fix FEMA. Let’s fix Homeland Security. The federal government isn’t good at micromanaging anything. Let the states do it.
• I do believe we can secure the border with boots on the ground, technology and a fence. Let’s promote the path to citizenship that’s already there. Enforce the laws that are there by empowering the states to do what the federal government hasn’t done, can’t do, and won’t do.

Now that we’ve all heard President Obama’s ideas about what we should do to get Americans hired for the next 14 months, I’ll be interested to hear what Mr. Cain thinks about the proposed initiatives.

Ron Paul

I see now, after this debate, why Republican Television doesn’t want to mention Ron Paul AT ALL.

He says anything he wants, which is a good thing, and you get the feeling that he’s being sincere and authentic and believes in what he’s saying, but voters generally aren’t looking for someone sincere. They’re looking for someone that believes the same things that they do.

Saying things like (essentially) “Think twice before building a wall to keep illegals from entering our country, because that same wall will KEEP YOU *IN* if you attempt to exit the USA with your capital”, while absolutely true, isn’t going to play well with the “America Rules, The Rest Of The World Drools” crowd.

Also, stuff like letting individual states determine the quality of their air traffic control is ridiculous.

Also, regarding Federal attention to disasters that occur (obviously) in individual states, saying “What happened before 1979? We didn’t have FEMA. FEMA just conditioned people to build where they shouldn’t be building.” is absolutely true, but nobody’s going to elect you as the President of the United States of America so you can go “Too Bad, So Sad” when people’s houses are floating down the river or they lose power for an entire week, and you’re like “Maine can Kick Rocks.. **** ‘em.”

Rick Perry caught him with the best zinger of the night, by far! hahaha Ron Paul had tried to get live on Perry, saying “The Governor of Texas criticized the Governor of Massachusetts for Romneycare, but he wrote a really fancy letter supporting Hillarycare! :D”

hahahaha That was really funny, until Perry goes “I actually was nodding my head about the Hillarycare comment… Speaking of letters, I was more interested in the one that you wrote to Ronald Reagan, back, and said I’m gonna quit the party because of the things you believe in. :D”

HAAAAAAAAAAAAA you saw Ron Paul’s entire body get tight while Perry proceeded to get his laugh on! :D HAHAHA oh man.. I must have watched that exchange at least 20 times! :D

Gary Johnson

Apparently, former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson is running for President, even though he wasn’t invited to the debate? o_O

Here’s his response to President Obama’s speech: (via Huffington Post)

“I suspect I am not the only American asking, if a trillion dollars’ worth of stimulus didn’t work, why will another $450 billion do the trick? Whether it be jobs created with borrowed and newly-printed dollars, temporary extensions of tax cuts, or sending money to the states to postpone layoffs, none of the President’s proposals will remove the real obstacles to job creation. Government cannot create jobs. Businesses, entrepreneurs and investors can create jobs, and right now, they are simply afraid to do so. And they should be. They are looking at a national debt that is consuming the private economy, more deficit spending with no end in sight, and a regulatory environment that promises only new and costly surprises every day.”

“Instead of nibbling around the edges of a job-killing tax code, we need to throw it out. Eliminate income, business and payroll taxes altogether, and replace them with a FAIR tax (FairTax.org) that will result in millions of jobs. Instead of spending more, balance the budget now. Get the burden of government spending and borrowing off the economy, and it will flourish. And as the government’s chief executive, the President needs to get federal agencies out of the business of managing the economy, and into the business of establishing regulatory certainty. Do those things, and the U.S. will become the job magnet of the world.”

“Government is absolutely a big part of the jobs problem, but it is not the solution — other than by getting out of the way. Congress and the Administration have almost helped us to death. What we heard tonight is that they are going to help us some more. Please, please, just stop.”

Buddy Roemer

Apparently, former Louisiana governor Buddy Roemer is also running: (via Huffington Post)

“The President’s jobs plan will certainly create jobs – jobs in China. Another $450 billion government stimulus is not the answer. The President’s job-killing economic policies have decimated domestic manufacturing, shipped thousands of good American jobs overseas and saddled future generations with an historic level of debt they may likely never be able to escape.”

Governor Roemer enacted sweeping reforms that cut unemployment by half in Louisiana during his four-year tenure by reducing the regulatory and tax burdens on families and small businesses. He has proposed a job creation plan that eliminates the tax incentives for companies that export American jobs and ends unfair trade practices that undercut the competitiveness of American goods and services. Governor Roemer has also called for the repeal of Obamacare, the reimplementation of Glass-Stegal banking principles and a commitment to energy independence.

“We must end unfair trade practices, enact real tax reforms by closing special interest loopholes and restart the idle engines of job growth in our private sector now. Mr. President, get passionate about creating jobs here at home and start standing-up for ‘Made in America’ again.”

We’ll continue with Jon Huntsman, Michele Bachmann, Mitt Romney, and Rick Perry in Part 03
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• Republican GOP Presidential Candidate Debate 2011 [Part 01]
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• Obama vs. Romney 2012
• 2012 Iowa Caucus Results

The first Republican GOP (“Grand Old Party”) Presidential Candidate Debate of the 2011 season aired last night.

I wouldn’t normally… ok.. I have never watched something like this in my entire life, because I don’t care. Ultimately, there will be a Republican selected to run against President Obama, who will win or lose. That’s how Presidential elections go in the USA.

Hail Mary

I’m interested this time because I became interested in what the Republican plan for 2012 was going to be the day I found out they selected Sarah Palin to attempt to become Vice President of the United States of America, running with John McCain.

I knew they were going to need a plan, because as soon as I found that out and heard and red the very first information about Palin, I knew that the Republicans knew that they were going to lose the election, so they threw up a “Hail Mary”, which is a football term, meaning you’re desperate, and you send your receivers sprinting down the field and you throw the ball up in the air as far as you can towards the end zone and begin praying, thus “Hail Mary”.

As soon as that happened, I was like “Oh well.. So much for them. \o/ Obama wins. Now, they have four years to come up with an actually good idea”.

I think Sarah Palin’s entertaining. I really do. However, if she was the best they had to try to bolster McCain’s chance of being elected, that means they didn’t have anybody GOOD that wanted to run with him, which meant they didn’t have anybody groomed for 2012 either, so I just *KNEW* they were going to have some kind of fantastic candidate this time that was actually going to be a viable challenger to attempt to defeat President Obama.

Change?

I still wasn’t paying attention until people started complaining that Obama didn’t make the CHANGEs he said he was going to make. At that point, I wanted to know whether it was because he changed his mind, or just wasn’t able to make things happen.

I’m sure there was a little of both involved, but the thing that stood out the most to me, and that’s most relevant to last night’s debate, is that the Republicans have a majority in the Congress, so they can effectively block lots and lots of ideas that The President has, and it looks to people on the outside as if nothing was done, when, in fact, things have been done, but were rejected..

Rejected, like when Obama said he wanted to speak before last night’s debate, and Republican John Boehner, Speaker of the House, was like “Nah.”

hahahaha ok.. Boehner said a little more than “Nah, Prez, I Ain’t Feelin’ That.”

If you’d like to read exactly what he wrote, click here => http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/239537-presidents-letter-requesting-joint-session-of.html#document/p2

Essentially, what he said was that there wasn’t going to be time to consider The President of the United States of America’s request before the time when he wanted to speak, but that he could offer him an invitation for the next day, Thursday, to address a Joint Session of Congress.

Now.. I’m sure the Republicans feel all fresh & fly about “dissing” The President and they’re slapping five and patting backs and all that, but what they don’t realize is that this situation played out in the media instead of behind closed doors… It’s now on public, obvious record, to even people that watch TMZ, that the Republicans have enough power to veto something that President Obama wants to do.

I don’t know if that was the Democrats’ plan, but that’s a technique I use all the time.

I bait people. I ask them for things I don’t really want, just to see how they react to it.

You think I can’t meet that chick on my own? :D .. I don’t need *YOU* to hook *ME* up! :D .. I’m asking YOU so I can find out whether you’re gonna fess up or not.

If you would have asked me, I would have said I’ll give her your information, and good luck with your rap. If you’re somebody I actually know, and I think y’all would be good together, I’ll most definitely put in some good words and endorse you to her.

In fact, if you’re sweating the girl I’m talking to right this second that badly, I’ll introduce you to HER and go do something else, so maybe you can get some happiness in this life.

So, if I say to you “Can you introduce me to this chick?”, or “Can you put me in business contact with this person?”, or “Can I speak first on the same day that you already announced that you were going to speak?”, I’m just TESTING. YOU.

Home Team Advantage

The debate was carried exclusively on MSNBC. When The President.. ANY PotUS speaks, you can flip through 2,5,7,9,11,CNN, C-SPAN, and all other kinds of channels and see their live feed of the speech…. If President Obama would have felt like speaking first, he would have SPOKEN FIRST! >:D

In fact, he could have started BEFORE the Republican CANDIDATE debate and finished AFTER their debate, so the real value here was getting it on record that Republicans are not being accommodating to the ideas of the current administration = WIN.

Secondly.. When you’re about to speak about something, it’s better for you to know what the other team’s going to say, so you can make intelligent remarks to counter their position and/or make their plans look stupid.

When you’re a kid, this is known as “last licks”. If you know that you’re the last one to speak, you can go for broke, because there’s no rebuttal.

So.. Instead of accepting the GIFT of finding out what President Obama was going to say, so they could have addressed it in the Candidate Debate directly afterwards, they decided to have him speak TWENTY-THREE HOURS LATER, so his speechwriters could have a field day, literally, an entire FIELD DAY with what the Republican Candidates said or didn’t say.

dumb. Watch what happens. I’ll be surprised if they don’t get roasted like Trump.

So, anyway.. I’ve been waiting for this debate for a few weeks now, so I could hear these Republican Candidates plead their cases in front of people that weren’t specifically selected to make them look good and clap every time they said something.

I was actually surprised that there are so many candidates left! :D

The way they made such a big deal about Tim Pawlenty dropping out of the race after the Ames, Iowa “Straw Poll”, I figured that everyone below him would have evaporated already, only leaving Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, Michele Bachmann, & Ron Paul.

I was surprised to see Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich on the stage. I like what Jon Huntsman is saying, but he’s not going anywhere past VP. I don’t think I’ve heard a peep from or about Rick Santorum since the day after he came in 4th in the Straw Poll, which was almost an entire month ago.

I’m glad that they honored Nancy Reagan. :) That was touching and proper.

Propers? o_O

oh… Speaking of propers… Did anyone else hear Rick Perry pronounce “props”, which is short for “propers”, which is short for “proper respect” as… prOHps instead of prAHps? o_O

When they asked Perry about some military situation President Obama dealt with, I could have sworn he said something like “I’ll give him pROWps on that”! :D hehehe

Anyway.. The debate was worth watching, with my short-form opinion being that this is now a two-candidate race between Perry and Romney.

Huntsman, Cain & Gingrich made strong statements. Ron Paul made a couple also, but they swept him under the rug, as usual. Santorum was barely given any airtime at all, and Bachmann talked about whatever she wanted, instead of what she had been asked about.

NOW is the time for the Republican hopefuls to start making concrete statements about actual policies and plans that they have for getting Americans back to work, whether that’s swinging a shovel or not… “I’m Not Obama” is going to get you on the stage, but it’s not going to get you your party’s nomination, and it *CERTAINLY* isn’t going to get you elected President.

You’ve been claiming to have good cards in your hand.. Now, it’s time to show them if your goal in being a part of this process is more than increasing your book deal and lecture circuit fees.

I’ll give my long-form opinion about their individual performances in Part 02.
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Related Posts

• Republican GOP Presidential Candidate Debate 2011 [Part 02]
• Obama vs. Romney 2012
• Brokered Conventions
• Done With Politics
• 2012 Iowa Caucus Results