Category Archives: republicans
9/11 Tribute
Islamists flew their black flag over the American embassy in Egypt, burned the U.S. consulate in Libya, and murdered four of its staff, including ambassador Chris Stevens – because they hate us, though they say it was because the didn’t like a movie. The U.S. Embassy in Cairo issued an apology for the movie. Romney immediately came swinging from the trees to attack the apology. Obama was shocked, shocked by Romney’s attack. Obama condemned Romney, then condemned the attackers, and retracted the apology for the movie. Hillary condemned the Libya attack too, but then apologized for the movie.
The Real Clear Politics Morning Note compared Obama’s response favorably to Bush’s original 9/11 response:
“The American people need to know that we’re facing a different enemy than we have ever faced,” Bush added. “This enemy hides in shadows, and has no regard for human life. This is an enemy who preys on innocent and unsuspecting people, then runs for cover. But it won’t be able to run for cover forever. This is an enemy that tries to hide. But it won’t be able to hide forever. This is an enemy that thinks its harbors are safe. But they won’t be safe forever.”
On the 11th anniversary of those attacks, the United States was targeted again, this time in Egypt and Libya. Once again, the initial governmental response from the administration was not commensurate with the threat. But today – 11 years to the day that Bush found his voice – President Barack Obama released a forceful statement of his own.
“I strongly condemn the outrageous attack on our diplomatic facility in Benghazi, which took the lives of four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens,” the president said this morning. “Right now, the American people have the families of those we lost in our thoughts and prayers. They exemplified America’s commitment to freedom, justice, and partnership with nations and people around the globe, and stand in stark contrast to those who callously took their lives.”
Ron Paul
Paul Ryan gave a great speech full of ideas last night. I’m still combing through it for cartoon ideas. The convention began with a fight over the seating of the other Paul’s delegates from Maine. Ron Paul still has not said if he will vote for Romney.
Other than the Paul delegates, the liveliest people at the convention so far have been deranged, race obsessed, commentators. Chris Mathews insists that talk about food stamps and welfare is a Republican “dog whistle” for playing the race card. Most people on welfare and food stamps are white, so Gingrich blew the whistle on Matthews for assuming they were black.
Yahoo’s Washington bureau chief, David Chalian, topped that by saying the Romney’s are “happy to have a party with black people drowning”. He was fired.
Big Wind
Todd Aiken is the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate seat from Missouri who said that in cases of “legitimate rape” women have special powers to avoid pregnancy. Needless to say, Dems like Barbara Boxer pounced on Aiken’s nutty idea to whip up the winds of “the war on women”.
Democrats and pundits also tried to pin Aiken’s rape notions on Republicans like Paul Ryan who oppose abortion because they consider it killing a human life.
The bigger problem problem for Republicans is the Missouri senate seat. The incumbent Democrat, Claire McCaskill, was considered a weak candidate – until Aiken defined himself. One additional Republican seat in the senate would have been enough to block passage of Obama Care, which Republicans hope to overturn.
Paul Ryan
Romney’s choice of Ryan as his running mate will make the campaign less negative. That’s because now there’s a candidate I actually like.
Ryan’s a serious person. In February 2010 the president hosted a health care summit. He played the role of professor, addressing his congressional charges by their first names. Of course, it was all Mr. President to them. He seemed pleased with the arrangement. That was until until Ryan schooled him with his detailed criticism of the president’s own plan. The pique on the prez’s face is priceless in this video (It runs 6 minutes but you see The Face early on.)
Obama later took his revenge by inviting Ryan to sit in the front row for a speech about health care and entitlements. There he insulted his guest by suggesting his plan was un-American.
An unbowed Ryan stood up to the bully-in-chief with this response.
Ryan is still unbowed. I think his remarks yesterday in his first speech as a VP candidate, about our rights coming from nature and God, and not Governments, were directed at Obama. And I suspect the president is not 100% bought into the founders’ thinking on that subject. His seems more a philosophy where he bestows rights, waivers, and penalties on winners and losers of his own choosing.
Two views of government stand in clear contrast here. Ryan adds Jack Kemp style seriousness to Romney’s more free floating managerial skills. Ryan, and now Romney, will try to preserve a government of laws built on classical liberal values. Obama didn’t build that, somebody else did. But he does seem to be trying to rebuild something else.
Animal Farm
The going is getting weird. Chick-fil-A owner, Dan Cathy, expressed an opinion he shared with president Obama until a few weeks ago – namely, that marriage is between a man and a woman. This so outraged a newly sensitive Chicago alderman as well as the mayor of Boston that they threatened to destroy his business.
Meanwhile, Romney, hoping to avoid further display of his financial success, refuses to watch his ballet horse perform in the Olympics.
UPDATE: Cow wins, horse loses. Chic-fil-A had a record setting day Wednesday. Ann Romney’s horse, Rafalca, didn’t win a medal.
