The author
Posted on 02/05/2012 9:54:59 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Mitt’s money. Newt’s lunar landing. Rick’s abortion advice. Ron’s rip-it-all-up rhetoric.
Followers of America’s Republican primary contest could easily conclude that the adults have left the political playground.
And with unrefereed mud wrestling matches set to roll across the country until summer, it’s a sure bet that no candidate will be coming out as Mr. Clean.
It’s a far cry from the pundits’ prediction for a short sharp contest, with former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney (“Senor Smooth”) felling former House speaker Newt Gingrich (“Mr. Mean”) in a round or two, and Pennsylvania hopeful Rick Santorum (“The Saint”) flat on the mat with Ron Paul (“The Golden Geezer”).
Instead it all slipped sideways, beginning with Santorum’s surprise upset over Romney in Iowa and Gingrich’s rug-puller in South Carolina.
Florida gave Romney a rocket-boost Tuesday — along with Gingrich’s moon talk, his marital misadventures, and his negative tone. Romney’s 14-point lead led some to proclaim him The One.
But Gingrich’s endorsement by former candidate Herman Cain, support from Tea Party icon Sarah Palin and Fox News pundits, and a seemingly unlimited war chest from a billionaire backer indicate the fat lady may not sing too soon.
After eclipsing Romney in last week’s Gallup poll — 32 per cent to 24 per cent — Gingrich fell to earth in Florida. Behind him, Santorum trailed with 13 per cent, and Paul, who didn’t bother to campaign there, 7 per cent.
READ MORE: U.S. election coverage
These numbers aside, the bumbles along the campaign trail have kept Democrats smiling and Republicans wringing their hands. Santorum’s announcement that raped women should relax and enjoy the baby. Allegations that Gingrich asked his ailing wife for an “open marriage.” The miniseries drama of Romney’s tax returns, not to mention his blurt, “I like to fire people.” And these are only the lowlights.
While the Republican primaries are no preview of November’s presidential vote — the voter list is hardly representative — they are a reminder that the White House lies at the end of the trail and one of these Republicans will be fighting his way to the door to try to wrest the key from President Barack Obama.
That candidate may benefit from voters’ sheer desire for change in times of economic hardship when fingers are traditionally pointed at the guy in the Oval Office. Yes, “it’s the economy, stupid” still resonates today.
President Mitt Romney
Lean and muscular
Rich and reserved, 64-year-old Romney — the son of former Michigan governor George Romney, a moderate Republican — hails from an old Mormon family. Highly educated, with degrees from elite universities, he multiplied his fortune by co-founding the equity firm Bain Capital.
Romney made some $250 million before switching to politics. He lost a senate race to the late Ted Kennedy in 1994 but ran successfully as governor of Massachusetts in 2002. He did not seek a second term. Instead he entered the 2008 presidential primary and lost to John McCain.
“What would the White House be like under Romney?” asks Ron Scott, author of http://www.globepequot.com/mitt_romney-9780762779277Mitt Romney: An Inside Look at the Man and His Politics. “It would be Camelot without the booze.”
And, he adds, Romney’s sober governing style would not be much different from Obama’s. Both are “thoughtful, moderate people, men who understand the country and the world. They don’t lend themselves to black-and-white solutions.”
Romney, like Obama, says Scott, “has a way of not going in for the kill when he has people on the ropes. His tendency is to be a nice guy.”
But there isn’t much space in the Republican room for nice guys, who finished last when extreme right-wingers took over the party agenda in Congress.
“Romney has moved to the right, but he’s a more even-handed leader than he is able to show in the primaries,” says Scott.
Would America change under President Romney? Look for a leaner, less regulated country with more military muscle.
Romney vows to repeal “ObamaCare” and give funds instead to the states to ensure that low-income and uninsured people have medical care. “At the end of the day, we would have universal health care,” says Scott.
And he predicts a “renewed Kennedyesque call for volunteerism” — a tradition in the Mormon world in which Romney was a bishop. But it’s a move that liberals may see as downloading the cost of caring for the less fortunate at a time of economic crisis.
While Romney says he would shrink the federal workforce 10 per cent “by attrition” and bring government salaries down to “market values,” some also wonder if the streak of predatory capitalism he showed at Bain could be transferred to serious axe-swinging in Washington.
Nor would he push for higher taxes for the rich — of which, as the election’s wealthiest candidate, he is a card-carrying member. In fact, his long-term plan is “fairer and flatter” taxes, which would benefit the wealthy even more.
Romney’s America would have “smaller, simpler, smarter government,” unfettered by “excessive regulation” like environmental rules. It would say “bring it on” to the Keystone XL pipeline and other projects. Energy exploitation would expand and “drill, baby, drill” make a comeback.
Unlike Obama’s puncture-the-Pentagon budget cuts, Romney’s plan would boost the military, opting for a Reagan-style “strong America.”
A Romney government would not put the state in the nation’s bedrooms, however. In spite of his personal reservations about gay marriage and abortion, Scott says “he’s a realist. He may not like the laws that are passed, but he will see that they are executed.”
President Newt Gingrich
The market rules
Born in Pennsylvania in 1943 and adopted by a military stepfather, Gingrich grew up in a mobile, middle-class family, took a PhD in history and launched a career in academia.
Repeated efforts to win a seat in Congress failed until 1978, yet within a decade he was a rising star in the Republican Party. In 1994, he spearheaded a “Contract with America” that won the party a majority in both houses and laid the groundwork for the “Republican Revolution” that began to reverse the social reforms of the Democrats.
Gingrich’s anti-government policies also helped to heat up the coals under the Tea Party’s simmering anger, and he has successfully employed bursts of rage against his enemies.
But the moral high ground he claimed — attacking President Bill Clinton for his affair with Monica Lewinsky — was undercut by his own marital misadventures (reportedly leaving two ailing wives in succession) and allegations of numerous affairs.
Even fellow Republicans have questioned Gingrich’s ability both to lead the country and to make it as a presidential candidate. “Basically, Newt can’t control himself,” said New York state politician Peter King.
Equally unsettling to Republicans are Gingrich’s “eureka moments,” such as his recent remarks on colonizing the moon. “Gingrich would like to bring in the Big Finger ideas about everything,” says Jesse Gordon, editor-in-chief of ontheissues.org.
Here are his big ideas for America:
Forget George W. Bush’s “no new taxes.” Gingrich would push the delete button on capital gains tax and inheritance tax and drastically cut corporate taxes.
He would give citizens “freedom to choose” an optional flat tax of 15 per cent, with deductions for charitable donations and home ownership. How he would make up the multi-billion-dollar deficit that would follow isn’t clear.
Gingrich’s America, like Romney’s, would be less regulated and friendlier to the free market. He says he would repeal major financial controls passed to prevent a reprise of the Enron scandal and the 2008 market meltdown.
Obama’s health care would be repealed, with responsibility and funding handed to states and more competition between insurers. Government-funded Medicaid would be privatized to give “more choice” to poor recipients.
Like Romney, Gingrich would “maximize energy production” in America — with more nuclear power and “clean coal,” as well as green energy schemes.
Gingrich’s America would be both more fearful and more aggressive at home and in the world: “We need to build an honest understanding that all of us will be in danger for the rest of our lives,” he warns, alluding to terrorists who “would not just kill us individually but would take out entire cities.” The answer? Expand the already sweeping Patriot Act.
President Rick Santorum
A moral majority
A proud product of picket-fence America, Santorum was raised in a family of government-employed hospital workers. He identifies with the “little guy” who is put upon by the Big Liberal State. A hyper-religious law school graduate, he won a Pennsylvania senate seat in 1994 at 36 (he is now 53) and was quickly talent-spotted by the Republican leadership as a social conservative star.
He hasn’t disappointed.
“His America would be the kind of country the Pope would want it to be,” says Herb Silverman, president of the Secular Coalition for America.
Not that Catholicism is a bad thing in leaders, Silverman adds — John F. Kennedy’s policies were progressive and his commitment to the separation of church and state was “absolute.”
Not so Santorum’s. At his most extreme, he would deny women abortions under any circumstances. Another remark — that even marital sex should be for procreation — has some conservatives worrying about morality police peering into the bedrooms of the nation if Santorum reached the Oval Office.
Gay marriage? He would seek a constitutional amendment to outlaw it. And, says Silverman, in spite of Santorum’s professed hatred of government tax-grabs, “he favours giving our tax money to faith-based groups to promote their views.” Those views include creationism, which would be taught in school as one side of a “controversy” over evolution.
“Gingrich in some ways is every bit as bad as Santorum,” says Silverman. “But the scary thing about Santorum is that he believes what he says.”
When it comes to the U.S. Supreme Court, Santorum has made it clear he would appoint judges who embrace his anti-abortion and anti-gay views and oppose “activist judges” who “legislate” progressive decisions from the bench.
He’s also a fiscal conservative for whom a “balanced budget amendment” to shrink government spending is a matter of faith — except for defence.
His tax cuts would drop rates for the poor to 10 per cent and 28 per cent for everyone else, including the so-called “1 per cent.” Corporate tax rates would be cut in half and tax for manufacturers to “zero.” He would follow the conservative line of repealing Obama’s health care and downloading it on the states.
His poverty solutions are unsurprisingly hazy: promoting jobs through tax cuts and “promoting dignity” by pulling away the social safety net for able-bodied people after unstated time limits so they could “choose” to work.
It’s one of the few “pro-choice” elements in Santorum’s policy.
President Ron Paul
State of chaos
Born and raised in Pittsburgh by a small dairy owner, 76-year-old Paul is the oldest but most energetically radical of the candidates. A gynecologist and obstetrician who served in the military, he entered politics to gain currency for his lifelong obsession, taking America back to the era of the gold standard.
Paul ran for congress in Texas with mixed success in the 1970s. He lost a Senate race but was re-elected to Congress in 1996 on a ticket of reforming the banking and financial systems. With views too extreme even for many libertarians, he has been a square peg in the Republicans’ ideological black hole.
But with a strong populist campaign on the Internet, Paul’s current candidacy has attracted grassroots support from Americans whose frustration with politics and the economy has taken an apocalyptic slant. Some unexpected admirers have come from the left, drawn by his anti-military and anti-interventionism rhetoric.
Paul was defeated in a run for an earlier presidential nomination. Despite a lack substantial backing from big corporations, he vows to carry on fighting to the bitter end this year for “liberty-loving Americans.”
Although his bid really doesn’t have a chance, critics on the right and left shudder at the thought of what might happen if he slipped into the White House.
Ron Paul’s America would be a return to the 1930s — and not in a good way.
His plan to fold up the functions of the Federal Reserve (the U.S. central bank) by assigning a rock-solid value to the dollar — with no room for maneuvering interest rates — would be disastrous if not impossible in a globalized economy in which other countries use their central banks to influence inflation, unemployment and economic turbulence.
Paul’s vow to instantly cut $1 trillion from the federal budget would pitch the country into a new Great Depression, critics say. Hundreds of thousands of federal workers, as well as military contractors, would be unemployed and the billions of dollars in goods and services they support unsold.
Paul also pledges to end income tax and repeal social programs without saying how any social security safety net would be preserved.
While insisting he is against racial discrimination, Paul would do away with the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which repealed notorious Jim Crow segregation laws and ordered the desegregation of schools and an end to employment discrimination. That legislation, he says, undermined liberty and “destroyed the principle of private property and private choices.”
But private choices doesn’t extend to abortion — which he strongly opposes.
The author
Didn’t read it. The point is So What? There would be no difference. Romney is Obama Light. A bad tasting beer! Nice hairdo.
AAaaaaaaaaaaarghHHHHH
My EYES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“Tell the RNC there is no way in HELL you will vote for Romney. Lets tie up their phone lines.
Office of the Chairman
Phone: 202-863-8700
Fax: 202-863-8820
Faxing will get their attention as they will have to pick up each one rather than just give you the “Yada Yada over the phone”.”
This poor dear needs to get off the liberasl plantation. There is nothing sadder than the blind leading the blind.
Speaking of billion dollar plus war chests perhaps this author needs to examine where Chancellor Obama is getting his billions!
Just one other thing. If Obama repeats, she better ask herself just what place blacks will have in Obamas muslim WH. From what I understand arab muslims believe blacks should be subserviant. Looks like it will be hard times acommin at the ole plantation.
If Milt somehow got the nomination, we’d suddenly all know a lot more than we wanted to know about Mormonism. If that wouldn’t sink whatever chances he had against Obama, I don’t know what would.
I stopped reading when I got to the part where the author described President Hussein as a “moderate”.
I stopped reading when I got to the part where the author described President Hussein as a “moderate”.
She’s a Canadian far lefty. Maybe to her he is a moderate.
Another foreign Leftist swooning over the Kenyan Muslim.
It will never happen. If he’s nominated, Romney’s poll numbers will be so low, nobody here will even have to hold their nose to vote for him. It wouldn’t help.
He is Obama’s dream opponent.
It NEVER ceases to amaze me that those things can actually get (and keep!) a job.
I managed to read almost 1/4 of the "article." The only reason I got that far is sort of (A.I.A. John) resembled Arizona Conservative material.
Sort of.
In a mentally ill kind of way...
.
Our only choice is to rip the power away from the RINO’s is to load the House and Senate with Reagan Republicans. Then redo the RNC which is the problem!!
Gobama, beat sh*t M*itt in November. There are actually millions of idiots out there who think Romney would be better for us than Obama. Stupid, stupid idiots. Mitt is a disaster for conservatism, a custom made disaster.
Newt 2012 or...
Late entry Palin 2012 (not likely) or...
Obama 2012 so that we can come back in 2016 and clean up finally.
And little Ricky Santorum? You MF loser you’re letting Mitt win you little whiney vest wearing GOOF.
Consider the source — the Toronto Star is notoriously left-leaning. A politician would have to kill ten million landowners to qualify as left-leaning in the Toronto Star.
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