Story #1 is about the continue lies of the left regarding the TEA Party. #2 tells us what Obama is trying to do. #3 looks at the Gingrich Romney campaigns. Watching the debate last night, I think these have been very good for both of them.
1. What the Left is Actually Telling Us
Many in the media and all of the Democratic punditry salivate at the concept of the Tea Party picking the GOP nominee. The groupthink/convention wisdom is that a Tea Party-ordained nominee is akin to picking Sharon Angle in Nevada or Christine O'Donnell in Delaware. Of course it's not, but no sense in letting them in on that.
Let the left think that the Tea Party is "dying out" (Harry Reid) or that the nominating process is a "disaster" (James Carville). These are the same sort of comments made about conservative GOP candidates or platforms prior to 1980, 1994, and, most recently, 2010.
The clear analysis is actually that when the left gets this loud, this angry and hateful, this emotional, and this certain, it is because the left is running scared. It ought to be. Any attempt at sober analysis cannot come to a conclusion that "Occupy" is an important and influential movement and that the "Tea Party" is a dead soldier in the battle for hearts and minds. Any such conclusion is not just partisan or wishful; it is abjectly wrong.
It is the Tea Party that carries the weight of force. The same conservative base (not yet named the Tea Party) did so in 1980 for Ronald Reagan and for Newt's "Contract" in 1994. To not understand that those overwhelming wins were generated by the exact same voters with the exact same intentions of those who now have a name to them is to be so misguided as to miss the possibility that the election of this fall could become a rout.
The left's angst is not really an issue to most conservatives. What is disconcerting is the anxiety within the institutional leadership of the GOP. It's stated concern is that a "Tea Party" candidate (read: Newt Gingrich) would be a down-ballot disaster that would cost the GOP any shot at control of the Senate and might cost it its current control of the House. That thinking is as narrow as the liberal joy over the concept of a strong conservative push is simple-minded.
The path to victory for the GOP. Check that -- the path to a blowout victory in 2012 runs through the core of the intensity of the Tea Party. This is not to say that Gingrich is the only answer. Rick Santorum surely has strong appeal among Tea Party partisans, and Mitt Romney surely could win them over. Make no mistake: conservatives will strongly back Romney if given a man who will step up, say he hears us, and grab the flag….
We keep hearing pundits on the left telling us that Gingrich is too flawed. They tell us they most fear Romney and are celebrating that Newt is the front runner. Yet if they really “feared” Romney wouldn’t a sane person down play his candidacy to the people who will chose who will be the candidate? And wouldn’t they tell you not to “throw them in the briar patch” (Ba’er Rabbit in Uncle Remus is a great example). And the apparent real fear of Gingrich comes out from the right’s elite which to me is better than an endorsement. Things need to change.
2. Obama’s America 2.0
…When our country's constitution went into effect in 1788, the U.S. established a relationship between the individual and the State that was unique in history: the individual was in charge, the State would serve the individual, and there would be an arm's-length distance between the two. It is this unique relationship -- not our continental size, or our natural resources -- that propelled the U.S. into becoming the strongest, richest, freest, and most opportunity-oriented country the world has ever known.
If you think of this relationship as a kind of operating system -- like the operating systems that drive our computers and our cell phones -- you can see how it's been steadily modified and upgraded throughout our history. In this sense, each new law enacted by Congress has been an effort to improve the operating system. At times in our history, for instance during President Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration, the changes have been so substantial that it's less like an upgrade and more like a wholly new version of the operating system that's been installed. But never in our history have we replaced the original operating system -- that extraordinary, uniquely American relationship between the individual and the State -- upon which our country was founded.
Until now.
From the moment President Obama took office in January 2009, he and his Democratic allies in Congress have worked to replace this operating system with one in which the State is dominant, the individual is subservient to the State, and the relationship between the two is halfway between intimate and suffocating. This isn't version 2.0; this is revolution….
An interesting way of looking at what BHO and the Democrats are attempting to do.
3. Gingrich and Romney campaign in Florida
The two leading Republican presidential candidates came to Central Florida on Wednesday, and their events — and reception by voters — couldn't have been more different.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney showed up at factory in Orlando on Wednesday morning, telling a politely enthusiastic crowd of about 400 that President Barack Obama's State of the Union address Tuesday night showed that the president is out of touch with America.
"We have a president who is detached from reality. He's detached from the people. He's detached from his own words. He's so detached people are surprised and shocked," said Romney, the longtime front-runner who polls show is now in a statistical tie with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich in Florida.
Gingrich made an afternoon appearance before an enthusiastic, overflow crowd of 700 in Cocoa, offering an expansive vision for the U.S. space program in a region that has lost nearly 10,000 jobs with the retirement of the space shuttle.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney showed up at factory in Orlando on Wednesday morning, telling a politely enthusiastic crowd of about 400 that President Barack Obama's State of the Union address Tuesday night showed that the president is out of touch with America.
"We have a president who is detached from reality. He's detached from the people. He's detached from his own words. He's so detached people are surprised and shocked," said Romney, the longtime front-runner who polls show is now in a statistical tie with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich in Florida.
Gingrich made an afternoon appearance before an enthusiastic, overflow crowd of 700 in Cocoa, offering an expansive vision for the U.S. space program in a region that has lost nearly 10,000 jobs with the retirement of the space shuttle.
"By the end of my second term, we will have the first permanent base on the moon, and it will be American," Gingrich said. He repeated the promise an hour later to a panel of Space Coast aerospace and space leaders.
The two appearances, almost 50 miles apart, underscored the differences between the two men. Romney was orderly, scripted and focused on his criticism of Obama. Gingrich, by contrast was disheveled, extemporaneous and seemed to feed off the energy of the crowd….
The two appearances, almost 50 miles apart, underscored the differences between the two men. Romney was orderly, scripted and focused on his criticism of Obama. Gingrich, by contrast was disheveled, extemporaneous and seemed to feed off the energy of the crowd….
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