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I am an American. If I end up in a gulag, I will make vodka from potato peels and sell it for a profit. If there are no potato peels, I will use grass. If there is no grass, I will invent the first method of extracting vodka from thin air. I will sell the technology and the vodka. And the air. I am an American. This is America And we can take it.

<p>They’re gonna put y’all back in chains.</p> <p>Folks, Where’s it Written We Cannot Lead the World in the 20th Century in Making Automobiles?</p> <p>Today, national discussion is focused on whether or not Joe Should Go, or how Obama can fail to condemn the “Chains” comment and what similar statements Republicans might have uttered. All of this, instead of looking at one simple fact.</p>

Star Wars fans still grip their chairs when Luke and the rebel fighters hurtle down the Death Star trenches amidst deathly fire from the Empire’s incoming. As ships are vaporized and Vader hones in on them, Red Five exhorts everyone to: Stay on Target. Stay on Target. Dear Romney-Ryan Campaign, you must learn from Red Five. The “Target” of any good campaign is The Plan. Every moment of campaign communication should focus on a unique message, “Here are the problems and this is our plan.” Everything else is empty space. Yesterday Vice President Joe Biden somehow acquired, in place of...

The heart of the political campaign is your claim to be a great leader. If you’re honest, writing the stump speech is simple; articulate the challenges confronting the community or country and explain how your ideas and skills will improve the lives of constituents. But what do you do if, when the cameras are gone, the auditorium empty and you’re all alone, you face the terrible secret that you’re a fake. A phony. A charlatan. A true politician? What if, instead of running for office because you have solutions and character, you ran because you love attention, power, money, nice...

My husband was so homesick for Brooklyn that I resolved to find a New York-style restaurant here in Kansas City, a sort of “home away from home.” It would have to serve real Italian food, employ very loud waiters and feature at least one New York accent. In such a place an exile might find relief from the excesses of politeness, tranquility and non-homicidal drivers that plague the Midwest. Research beat a quick path to Lidia’s owned by the star of P.B.S.’s famed Lidia’s Italy. For weeks I poured over every cookbook the woman ever published. Culled from Kansas City’s...

My husband was so homesick for Brooklyn that I resolved to find a New York-style restaurant here in Kansas City, a sort of “home away from home.” It would have to serve real Italian food, employ very loud waiters and feature at least one New York accent. In such a place an exile might find relief from the excesses of politeness, tranquility and non-homicidal drivers that plague the Midwest. Research beat a quick path to Lidia’s owned by the star of P.B.S.’s famed Lidia’s Italy. For weeks I poured over every cookbook the woman ever published. Culled from Kansas City’s...

Writing a stump speech is the single most important task of your campaign. Even if you’re running uncontested in a district with three deaf Republicans and five dead Democrats, you must write a stump speech. Why? Because drafting a speech forces you to articulate the reasons you want to lead and the reasons why anyone should follow you. This question – your qualification as a leader – is the essence of your campaign. If you can’t justify your candidacy to yourself, you will not and should not be able to convince voters. A common exercise used in the military for...

Today’s Speechwrecker is the following platitude: “If I am elected, I promise…” Like all political platitudes, “I promise…” is interpreted by the American voter as : “Rock-a-bye-baby on the tree top.” The campaign trail promise is soporific; it puts your audience to sleep. The expression trivializes what you are about to say. Voters have heard the expression so often it tells them you offer nothing new. Besides signaling listeners to disengage, you evoke and associate yourself with the stereotypical image of the schmoozing, lying politician instead of establishing yourself as a reasonable citizen with clever, innovative ideas that will solve...

Matt Rhoades, Romney’s clever campaign manager, responded to insinuations that the Republican presidential candidate is a felon: “President Obama’s campaign hit a new low today when one of its senior advisers made a reckless and unsubstantiated charge to reporters about Mitt Romney that was so over the top that it calls into question the integrity of their entire campaign,” Rhoades said. “President Obama ought to apologize for the out-of-control behavior of his staff, which demeans the office he holds. Campaigns are supposed to be hard-fought, but statements like those made by Stephanie Cutter belittle the process and the candidate on...

“I don’t believe my speeches took me as far as they did merely because of my rhetoric or delivery, but because there were certain basic truths in them that the average American citizen recognized. When I first began speaking of political things, I could feel that people were as frustrated about the government as I was. What I said simply made sense to the guy on the the street and it’s the guy on the street who elects presidents of the United States. And that’s exactly what happened to me.” Ronald Reagan The staring contest with the stump speech I...

The most significant moment of the 2008 election cycle was the interview of Joe Biden by little-known reporter, Barbara West. The exchange took place following the “Joe the Plumber” incident, the now historic Obama photo-op-gone-wrong during which Sam Wurzelbacher was told by candidate Obama that we in America should “spread the wealth around.” West asked Joe Biden: “You may recognize this famous quote, ‘From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.’ That’s from Karl Marx. How is Senator Obama not being a Marxist if he wants to spread the wealth around?” Vice-Presidential candidate Biden asked if...

“It’s not that liberals are ignorant, it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.” Day one- Check out An American Life by Ronald Reagan from the library. I started reading this last year, but had to stop when school started and I was too busy memorizing all the states in China for Geography 101. That was useful…but then again, you never know. I may be shipped there to work in a Gulag and, being an American, I can work my way up and start a business as a tour guide. It might come in handy to know those...

Dear Friends, Thank you to all for your kind support. I will no longer be posting at Lipstick 2012. The likelihood of a male candidate now being the GOP nominee having increased by 92%, I feel “Lipstick 2012″ is somewhat awkward as a title. I wish the very best to all and hope to meet soon in another venue! Jeanette Pryor Fight the Mental Burqa

"I wanted to just kind of put the marker down and say no, I’m not running, not have a big press conference about it, not make a big darn deal about it, because this isn’t about me, and it’s not about Chris Christie,’ Palin said, adding that it was about Americans working to get good people elected.”” Since 2008, millions of conservative Americans have admired and supported Sarah Palin only because she articulated and had governed according to the principles delineated by William F. Buckley, father of American conservatism, and exemplified in the Presidency of Ronald Reagan. Buckley grew up...

First, let me assure my friends that the rumors of my suicide have been greatly exaggerated. A brilliant young Machiavelli in Topeka told me that politics is more like poker than chess. We do not know what’s in the hands of the other players. We will never know what factors went into Sarah’s decision. Yes, it is heartbreaking for those of us who thought she articulated an effective platform, but we do not have time to waste postulating her reasons for not running for president. Hours after the accident aboard Apollo 13, heroes Swigert and Haise had a fear-induced momentary...

“A la tarde de la vida te examinarán en el amor. At the end of your life, you will be judged on love.” St. John of the Cross “Love is the fundamental relation of God to the world. … In a chain of acts of love, man strives for the highest end.” St. Thomas Aquinas Both St. John of the Cross and St. Thomas Aquinas teach that each human being is created to love; that the perfection of man’s intellect, will, and emotions is in direct proportion to the deliberate direction of these powers by the human soul to the...

Caroline Glick, Editor of the Jerusalem Post and Fellow at the Center For Security Policy, published “Sarah Palin’s Friendship“asking American Jewish voters to take a second look at both Obama and Palin and their relative positions on Israel. Written on February 12, of 2010, Glick’s words have become even more powerful in light of the President’s attitude towards Israel. Glick also wrote a defense of Palin following the Shooting in Arizona On Saturday, former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin gave the keynote address at the Tea Party Movement convention in Nashville, Tennessee. As she did in...

On March 21, 2010, in opposition to more than 60% of Americans, Obamacare, precursor to Socialized Medicine and Tombstone of our free-market economy, passed in the U.S. House by seven votes. The bill reconciling the two versions passed the House at 11:58 PM that same awful day of anguish by only nine votes. It was not the titles of those seven and nine that pushed an unwilling America towards ruin, it was their power. In 2009 Rick Santelli, gave voice to working-America’s rage. Since he first roused us to the New Boston Tea Party, great conservatives from New York to...

“As I rode my horse, Little, around Rancho del Cielo during the spring of 1975, I thought a lot about the lost vision of our founding fathers and the importance of recapturing it and the voices from around the country who were pressing me to run for president. And I remembered something I’d said many years before: A candidate doesn’t make the decision whether to run for president; the people make it for him.” An American Life by Ronald Reagan Page 199

On February 18, 1943, 21 year-old Sophie Scholl placed a stack of anti-Hitler leaflets on a banister overlooking the main hall in the University of Munich. Ensuring in a split-second that that the papers would cascade over all the students as they emerged from their classrooms, Sophie pushed the papers into the air and signed her death warrant. Within moments, having been caught by a miserable janitor looking for his moment of glory, Sophie and her brother Hans, were speeding in a Gestapo car to the interrogations and trial that would deliver them to the guillotine four days later. Sophie...