....that would be Willard Mitt Romney, according to the voters in last night's Iowa caucus. He nosed out Rick Santorum, who is vying with Michele Bachman to come across as the rightest of the right wingers. She crashed and burned, leaving her free to go home and have a Tea Party. Good 'ol Ron Paul still makes good sense now and then, in between lapses into mild insanity, and did well in Iowa, too. And thankfully Iowans saw Newt "I'm different now, trust me" Gingrich as what he is, a hypocrite of the highest order, and Rick "look at my cool hair" Perry as simply a doofus.
Willard...er...Mitt should do well in New Hampshire, while Rick will feel right at home in South Carolina. Ron has fringe appeal everywhere. Of those, who is actually electable? I'm guessing Willard Mitt. (Doh....I hate it when I do that!) His past is liberal enough to be able to appeal to middle-of-the-roaders, and of course he has Wall Street money in his corner. His buddies there are already salivating over their soon-to-be-swelled-even-more bonuses. Dom Perigone anyone?
Here's what concerns me: If Republicans keep their majority in the House of Representatives and can gain control of the Senate (heaven forbid gaining a veto-proof 60 votes), AND see their nominee (Mitt?) win the White House, it will be seen as a mandate for the kind of hands-off / business-as-usual governing that gave us the economic debacle of '08. The rich will get richer, while you and I....well, you know how that turned out. Even with partisan politics being as rancorous as they are today, I think we need to split power between the parties. The gridlock would be hell, but IMHO giving EITHER party a blank check to run the country as they saw fit would be even more disastrous. What's so wrong with compromise?
What say you?
S
Now for my expert opinion on this year's crop of Presidential candidates: They suck. We're screwed. Now back to you in the studio....
Oh, OK. Details....Mitt Romney is one of "them", the hedge fund/speculator/big money crowd that I generically call "The Bankers". That's his background, those are his financial backers, and that's who he'll fall in line with if he's elected. He likes to point out that in his former stint at Bains Capital he created a lot of jobs, but there's ample evidence his stable of companies were net job losers. Sorry Mitt, but we've given The Bankers free reign before, and look where that got us. No thanks.
Newt Gingrich....narcissist, hypocrite, dangerously smart, totally shameless. He, probably more than anyone else in Congress back in the 90's when he was Speaker of the House, empowered The Bankers to run crazy. He's not even well thought of in his own party. Remember the attempted coup by a sizable number of his fellow Republicans to oust him as Speaker? He tells us he's "reformed" and we can trust him to lead us out of the economic mess we're in. Hell, he couldn't even pay his own Tiffany's bill without collecting $1.6M from Freddie Mac for "consulting". *wink* Umm....no.
Ron Paul....the only one of the bunch I respect. He'll take a stand on an issue, regardless of how unpopular, and stick with it, the polls be damned. I admire that. I even like some of his positions. Most, however, are way out there. Not electable at all.
Rick Perry....where do I start? Smartly dressed, great hair, dumber than a box of rocks. He wants to bring the hammer down on "those Pakastani countries". Huh?
Santorum, Bachmann, that guy from Utah....not even on the radar.
Which leaves us Barack Obama. An incredible orator, a graduate of the Jimmy Carter School of Leadership, totally ineffective. He's much too liberal to be able to work with any Republican (as much their fault as his), and even a sizable number of Democrats keep their distance from him. Click here to see what commentator Chris Matthews, a "liberal's liberal", has to say about him. Can you imagine how ineffective he'll be in a second term as a lame duck? Ouch! Why is it an incumbent President gets an automatic pass by his own party to run unopposed?
Where are the LEADERS?
That's why today I'm announcing.... :)
S
