Yo, word, bro

The New York Times has come up with this helpful graphic. I love it!

Community Organizer vs. the Governor

For the record, Jesus was a community organizer. Pontius Pilate was a governor. ‘Nuff said.

Pro-life, Pro-Obama

Used to be, the Democratic Party was the party of the little guy and the Republican Party was the party of the country club set. Then Roe v. Wade changed all that. The Democratic Party became the Pro-choice party and the GOP became the Pro-life party. Recently, those distinctions are not quite as predictable. GOP luminaries like Arnold Schwarzenegger are staunchly Pro-choice. Religious Right leaders like Pat Robertson openly endorse Pro-choice candidates like good ol’ Rudy. And Democratic up-and-comers like Bob Casey show up in the U.S. Senate unashamedly Pro-life. The Republican Party is gradually becoming more known by their views on tax cuts for the country club set, than their position on abortion. And the Democrats keep the “protecting a woman’s rights” rhetoric down to an absolute minimum. So when a Pro-life Democrat like Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey comes out today to endorse a Pro-choice candidate like Barack Obama, the question should not be, “Are Pennsylvania Catholics now going to flock to Obama?” The question should be, “When and why did abortion become such a back-burner issue?”

The vetting of a President

Giuliani’s gamble came up bust. John Edwards is packing it in. And Hillary gets more votes in Florida––a contest that the DNC said they were not going to count––than the Republican victor, John McCain. All of which makes Super Tuesday a bit more super. Not Super Bowl super, you understand, but pretty darn super. The two-person Democratic race will be all the more defining without Edwards siphoning off voters and delegates. We will discover whether the two Clintons can go a straight week without race-baiting and––with their combined “experience”–– whether they are capable of behaving more…oh, I don’t know…presidential? We’ll see if the endorsement of Barack Obama by three living Kennedys gives him more street cred with Democrats or just frightens off the independents and the alleged Obama Republicans. And we’ll see if McCain really has this thing in the bag. And if Ron Paul can find another hobby.

No nod for Giuliani

 

Well, the New York Times has spoken. The newspaper still read by many Floridian New Yorkers has made its decision. And Rudolph Giuliani is not their candidate. In fact, while giving McCain the thumbs up, they went out of their way to give Rudy the shaft. They summarize Mr. 9/11 as “a narrow, obsessively secretive, vindictive man.” Ouch! For the Democrats, they confess that an Obama  presidency is “enticing” but feel Senator Clinton is the more equipped to fill those big, presidential heels. So at least one New York-based candidate has received a New York nod from the paper. As for Giuliani, his lead in Florida has been all but obliterated. It looks like it will be a shootout between McCain and Romney. And in the recent Republican debate, it was the economy, not terrorism, that got all of the attention.  Which, all in all, is a bit of a disappointment. For the last 7 years, narrowness, secretiveness, and vindictiveness have been some of the President’s most endearing qualities. Oh, well.

Fred is Dead

Fred Thompson, we hardly knew ye. Senator Thompson’s lackluster performance in the primaries was a disappointment to many a Reagan-loving, abortion-hating, God-fearing conservative. He started out this campaign season on the sidelines, toying with our affections, chomping on his cigar and talking tough about cracking down on the borders, ridding our country of brown-skinned freeloading illegals. He tantalized us with coy suggestions that he might throw his hat into the ring. He excited us with the imminent possibility of a run for Ronald Reagan’s old job. He would blow these two-faced Massachusetts rich boy politicians out of the water. He would pulverize these gun-controlling, gay-marrying, pro-choice pantywaists. He would trounce these maverick, amnesty-granting Arizonan moderates. He would singlehandedly bring the party of Reagan back to the policies of Reagan. Hoo-ya! Then he got in the game at what seemed like the eleventh hour––and did zip. And today, this would-be messiah leaves the race with neither a bang nor whimper. Just a thud and a thunk. And with his departure it has finally dawned on us that the party of Reagan is truly a thing of the past. The abortion issue has lost its pull, smaller government is out of vogue and there is yet to be a consensus on what to do about this maddening immigration conundrum. The fact is: It’s a new GOP. The Grand Old Party has become the party of imperialism, growing deficits and federalized solutions to localized problems. Clearly, this is the end of Fred. But more importantly this is the end of an era.

Rudy Roulette

He’s already King of 9/11. And Giuliani has been working hard to run for President of Florida. It was a bold gamble. But already McCain’s momentum is quickly eroding Giuliani’s lead in the Sunshine State. Of course, this is all based on polling information and we know how predictive that has been in this primary season. However, if you are looking for a fiscal conservative and a man with bold ideas, Rudy may be your man. If his strategy works it not only will show a lot of grit, it will show that while other candidates prattle on about “change” and “experience,” one guy has turn the primary process on its head. One guy knows how to stretch a buck. Romney, on the other hand has proven he can spend money like a drunken sailor. Yup, Giuliani may show himself to be the real agent of change in this election. But of course, he would have to win in Florida. Not to mention, the nomination. And I’m not so sure that’s going to happen. Which has always been the knock on bold, innovative thinking. It generally backfires.

Now what?

Two big wins for John McCain. Two back-to-back victories for Romney. And Hillary Clinton is kicking butt and taking names. So what do we know for sure? In the Democratic camp, it is clearly down to a two-way race. If Clinton ekes out a victory in South Carolina, Obama can start crafting his concession speech and a shot at the V.P. slot. The GOP is more up in the air. Clearly, Thompson is a bridesmaid. Ron Paul can decide between a Libertarian run or writing a book on How to Run a World-class Government on Two Dollars a Day. The Giuliani strategy remains an intriguing gamble. And it is pretty clear that Romney has the Mormon vote. The rest, I confess, is a bit hazy. It wasn’t all that long ago that John McCain’s campaign was dead in the water. And there is plenty of time in politics for him to fall and rise again. One thing, however, has to be troubling. McCain’s narrow victories have been with a rag-tag confederation of Republican moderates, independents and the religiously lukewarm. The traditional Republican mainstay of the abortion-hating, illegal hard-lining, born-again church-goers seem to favor a Huckabee candidacy and they, on the whole, have always been a bit leery of McCain and his maverick ways. I mean, the man opposes torture; Can this fellow really be trusted? Winning over the base of the GOP means not alienating this powerful block. Can McCain do it? Well, he’s just won over the people that knocked him out of the running eight years ago. So, anything is possible.

Reality Check

He’s looking to Florida to put him back in the game. He is looking at a state rich in Latino voters to put him back on the map. So Rudy Giuliani has done a most logical thing. He has launched a series of Spanish-language TV commercials. That’s right, the same guy advocating that no one be allowed U.S. citizenship without demonstrated fluency in English. Ironic? Ai yi yi yi! Which illustrates the complexities of this hot potato immigration issue. It seems we live in a nation where it is alright for non-citizen Latinos to join the U.S. Marines and die for our country. But if you come across the border and take the jobs we don’t want to do, at wages we refuse to be paid; if you send your kids to our taxpayer-funded public schools; and if you come here speaking another language like our German, Polish, Swedish and Russian ancestors did; Then we get bent out of shape. Then, candidates start saying patently unamerican things like you can’t be a citizen unless you speak, read and write the Queen’s English. But, suddenly, reality sinks in; the hardliners come down from their high horses and become as pragmatic as a Texas restaurant owner or an Arizona homebuilder. These same tough-talking politicians go out and make themselves a Spanish-language TV commercial: Senor Giuliani es muy macho.