Posted on 02/07/2012 5:37:14 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
[BIG snip]
Santorum's ad and his Op-Ed, meant to mock Gingrich, in reality can only distinctly not help Santorum's struggling campaign. Gingrich will surely make the inevitable -- and correct -- connection between Santorum's ad and a serious attack on the Reagan space legacy -- and the dreams of America itself. "We'll continue our quest in space…. Nothing ends here; our hopes and our journeys continue," said President Reagan that tragic January night. Well, no they won't. Not if Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney have anything to say about it. "I promise," says Santorum.
Worse, whether Santorum's staff understands it or not the mocking Santorum ad and Op-Ed is an insult to the memory of seven extraordinarily brave Americans who 26 years ago this past January 28th gave their lives to continue the American journey into space. A journey, as Ronald Reagan well knew, into the future that America has always been, and will always be, about.
Former NASA executive Charles Miller, in a recent Wall Street Journal article, not only praised Gingrich's vision he outlined ways to return to space while well acknowledging the nation's current financial problems. In short, Mr. Miller, like Gingrich, embraced not only Reagan's vision but used another quality of Reagan's -- imagination -- to answer the unimaginative negativity that is now surprisingly advocated by Santorum and Romney.
....Stop, Senator. Stop.
If you really wish to sit at the Resolute desk, a literal, physical reminder of the human dream of exploration -- be resolute. Show some imagination. Vision. Don't play Herbert Hoover.
The City on a Shining Hill is the place to reach for the stars.
Not a place to be mocked by a radio commercial or a dopey Op-Ed that signals a crabbed, timid, fainthearted, decidedly un-conservative and un-American state of mind.
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
I will add:
The Chinese are steadily moving their military operated space program forward to the Moon.
I am sure Romney's and Santorum's lack of understanding of the issues were music to their ears.
Thx for the article!
Regards,
-Geoff
Agreed.
Post #2: “trumps” = trump
I keep thinking that Rick Perry should re-enter the race. He has the experience and common sense judgment qualities to make an excellent President of the United States. ...not so sure about Newt who has been a bit inconsistent. Never liked Romney, but am distressed with Santorum's lack of support for R&D.
Excellent article! That “vision thing” is important, and we haven’t had a candidate who has had it since I can’t remember when...well, maybe since Reagan.
Talking intelligently during a campaign is normally not a useful thing on either side.
Talking to an Obama voter in 2008 “Why are you voting for Obama? “I'm sick of Bush” Oh; what did Bush do? “I don't know, but I'm sick of Bush and it's time for change” What policies of Obamas do you support? “I don't know, but he will change things” etc etc etc.....
Deliciously well done. Why is this man writing for Spectator?
I think Perry should be more visible with Gingrich and this would probably help both of them. Perry’s problem was that he couldn’t articulate things very well, but his ideas were sound and I think he could make a major contribution.
One of the odd things about this article was that it criticized both Gingrich and Perry for their focusing on Bain Capital, which they both did because Romney had obscured his role in it and in fact had pretty much put it at arm’s length and was hoping that it, like all the rest of his history, would be ignored.
And then somehow Rush Limbaugh decided that Bain Capital was one of the great glories of capitalism. It’s not, it’s simply a firm that profits around the margins of productive economic activity. And while this may have its uses and function, a buy-out firm is not a productive business, which was what Romney was implying that he had been involved in. And in fact it is true that the activities of Bain and others like it in the 1990s led to the collapse or even plunder of pension funds that were such a feature of those years. I remember it well because I was working for a firm that was part of the insurance industry.
However, aside from that, I didn’t understand how either Perry or Gingrich could be painted as “anti-capitalist” just because they asked questions about the real nature of Romney’s business activities.
Most of the technology we enjoy and take for granted has been developed largely as a result of man’s quest to reach into space. This cross-over economic expansion has fueled millions of jobs throughout the world. McRomney and Santorum have no vision but to manage our decline. We need leaders with vision and guts = Newt.
If a country $15 trillion in debt can’t reach for the stars, then who can?
Let’s see: China has an operational weapon for taking out a satellite (”weaponization of space”) and we are going to invest so little into space technologies that we are not going put a base on the moon?
Does Santarum think the Chinese are going to make the same excuses he’s making?
Bump!
Santorum, a man of SMALL Ideas.
Neither RMoney nor Santorum have the forward thinking ability of Gingrich.
Agree. I would love to see a Gingrich/Perry ticket.
I’ve stopped listening to Rush, Sean and Beck because of this whole issue. I was disgusted in 2008 when conservative talk show hosts refused to have the balls to back a candidate until it was too late - and here we go again. To hear Rush explain it, he’s afraid if he comes out early behind someone, and they don’t make it - it makes him look inconsequential. How cowardly is that? His arms must be so tired from carrying all of that water for the RNC.
Rush obviously knows what’s best for Rush. I got his drift when I was still in my teens. No need to listen since, no surprises there. A few disappointments along the way, but no surprises.
Can’t they find a better thing to criticize, of all the things they choose, this is the absolute worst. They’re criticizing him for a visionary proposal. Maybe they should be replaying his couch-warming session with Pelosi instead if they wanted people to question his judgement.
Cincinatus’ Wife, Jeffrey Lord, Ronald Reagan, Charles Miller and Newt Gingrich- Thank you all.
Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney, and Barak Obama- Go to hell.
Cute line, so if that was your intent you succeeded...congrats.
This is a national security issue as well as a humankind exploration issue.
I suggest to you that we must do something about the debt. Stop throwing money down rat holes, such as with Solyndra and other wasteful scandals. Reform entitlements, etc.
Grow the economy, especially through domestic energy production and good paying jobs.
All that is a given.
Then, spend some of the real tax revenues on Space.
The point of this article is that Santorum ridicules REAGAN on Space, while his target was Newt.
That said, there's a place for "sticks in the mud."
The legislature.
An excellent piece but I take exception to his portrayal of Perry and Gingrich attacks on Romney/Bain as “anti-capitalism.”
If they’d questioned Obama’s attendance to his wacky pastor Wright, would that be anti-religion?
I take your point, but since Newt has admitted his past appearance with Pelosi was a stupid thing to do, Santorum might think it would be more productive to go after him on something he proposes and defends right now.
I sometimes wonder if Santorum is on Romney’s payroll. Seriously, WHY would he attack Newt for this when Romney’s closet is so full of progressive skeletons. Not to mention the fact that Rick hasn’t dropped out, despite a lack of funds & floundering campaign. What’s up with him??
Your reasoning is impeccable.
Mark Levin and Jeffrey Lord are with us on some things, but they fell for the anti-Captitalism phony issue.
Levin has done a fabulous job going after Romney, and Ann Coulter.
Too bad he supports Santorum.
Lord supports Gingrich.
I have personally spoken to both Santorum and Romney, to urge them to have an effective space policy, pointing out the numerous examples of private corporations that seek to monetize space. They are lacking vision in this area.
Gingrich has the vision for private expansion in space.
Can't he read election results?
Too bad he supports Santorum.
Agreed. Santorum came on his show last night and I turned it off.
Santorum spoke yesterday at the Colorado Energy Summit, immediately after Gingrich. It was a sharp contrast, Gingrich a master of the facts, his delivery clear and precise, while Rick often was halting, searching with difficulty for the next word, trying valiantly to maintain his train of thought. When it comes to communication, these two are in different leagues.
They each had an hour, which Gingrich filled with example after example of why our energy policy is wrong. Rick conked out after 35 minutes, most of which had nothing to do with energy policy. I’m sure Rick is tired, it’s a grueling schedule these guys are on, but it’s grueling
for everyone, and it was Newt that was struggling with a cold.
He has been attacking Newt all along.
Perry and Newt were both right for calling Milt out on his Bain Cap doings. Their criticism wasn't against capitalism, but somehow became just that. Maybe due to the Clear Channel connection? Not articulated correctly? Or a combination of both?
Not a deal breaker. He can come around on this. Santorum is my first choice still.
Oh Santorum understands the importance of a space program just fine. What he is doing is trying to portray Newt as some kind of "Speaker Moonbeam" with his head in the clouds and a history of wacky and weird ideas. I doubt it will work, but Santorum's campaign people have always been pretty stupid.
“Talking to an Obama voter in 2008...”
_______________
Per your first paragraph: I'm not quite that cynical ...at least not today. (smile)
Per your second paragraph: Expecting an intelligent conversation w/an Obama voter is DEFINITELY an exercise in futility. (I am THAT cynical!)
One of the recent ads takes a slight swipe at Romeny, but I think its a decoy :)
Very good editorial. Thank you for posting Cincinatus’ Wife!
I hope you are right. But I think about how much intelligent discussion has gone on during the debates? vs how much of the time is spent on one line shallow statements?
I especially like the part where he says that anyone questioning these unrealistic/fantasy promises must be part of the ‘establishment’ . Well here goes anyway:
What are we talking about? $100B ? $500B? $1T ? Newt probably isn't aware of this given his work history but THE PRIVATE SECTOR WORKS ON MAKING A PROFIT! I know sometimes Newt likes to demonize profits, only occasionally when convenient, but that is how it works.
My Moon colony joke goes : Newt will open up a senior citizen center on the moon so the government can save medicare money on walkers and wheelchairs, due to the lower gravity there. Call it Moon dreams plus medicare reform all in one.
Perhaps it wasn’t articulated correctly, although I think that one of the reasons the Bain Capital stuff backfired was because they had underestimated Romney’s attack capabilities.
There is no way that criticizing Romney for his half-truths regarding his experience and the company he worked for could be interpreted as anti-capitalist by any rational human being, unless that meme was planted right away. I think neither Perry nor Gingrich realized at that time that they were dealing with somebody who is obviously formed in the Alinsky playbook and knows how to play fast and loose with the truth and knows that the best defense is a good offense.
“Without Vision, The people perish”
An LTOS paraphrase from the Good Book.
This will suddenly make Newt look like a genius, of course, after it's too late. Why can't someone ask right now how you buy a business for $30 million and take $180 million out? It's the cash in the retirement fund. A business could go to a bank and put the retirement funds up for collateral and get a loan the same as selling to Bain. It's just kinda sleazy, most people will think when it comes out. It's not "Capitalism". I don't see the difference in that and loaning money to Solyndra.
The company puts up the retirement money, but it still belongs to the company. If they go bankrupt, the money is gone, so the gubmint makes it up for the workers.
I will volunteer for Newt's moon colony. We can float around and even eat kosher food. LOL
As I’ve mentioned before, Romney will be very lucky if he emerges from a national race without criminal charges hanging over him. Obama has no scruples whatsoever, and Obama is in charge of the US govt. Obama proposes and disposes in godlike fashion.
Romney’s vast business “experience” is indeed a target-rich environment.
As are his five sons.
I believe there is a considerable chance that if Romney is nominated, he won’t even make it to November. His candidacy is already blighted in the bud.
There is probably a greater chance we will have a moon station in the next 10 years than Santorum will be our next President.
It's also impossible to conduct in depth discussions of important policy issues in a debate format that has strict time limits. If we want more in depth information we have to go looking for it ourselves. There have been several good links to speeches by Newt on FR threads.
Take care,
-Geoff
If you listen to his backers, it’s part of his master plan to beat Romney-bama by 55 states.
Don’t bother with details on how.
As broke as this nation is, is space really something that we can afford to waste time debating anyway?
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