Author: bfaure

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The Emperor Has No Clothes

     The great Danish author of morality tales, Hans Christen Andersen, tells the story of a vain emperor who is sold a special “invisible cloth” by two conniving tailors who entice the emperor to purchase the fantasy cloth by proclaiming the cloth invisible only to those undeserving or too incompetent  for their public posts.  The emperor, “wearing” the special invisible garment, sees himself standing naked in the mirror, but is too vain and embarrassed to admit that he might not be smart or deserving enough as emperor to see the cloth and declares it beautiful.  He proceeds to parade among his people in the cloth quite naked and in denial,  until one little boy too honest and unaware of the “secret” declares, “the Emperor has no clothes!”

And so it was with our “Emperor” last night in front of a national television audience watching the presidential debate between challenger Mitt Romney and President Obama.  The President, treated to almost four years of complete deference to his wobbly logic, cockamamie schemes, and self directed platitudes by an enthralled, unquestioning media, had his record and his performance laid out nakedly in the klieg lights by Mitt Romney and the exposure was every bit as startling to Obama as to Andersen’s fictional emperor.

The two pillars of ‘invisible cloth” of this President – an unquestioned superior “grasp” of complex governmental issues by a totally unprepared, inexperienced college professor on the basis of his supposed superior intellect,  and and the glossing over of an abysmal record of performance unmatched since James Buchanan came crashing down under the persistent attack of  the smarter man in the room, Governor Romney.

The President seemed almost stunned by the lack of deference to previously accepted paper thin logic used to underpin a multi-trillion dollar binge on the economic stability of the United States.  The challenger Romney struck with blow after blow of report card  assessments on the President’s performance in his four years in office – “23 million unemployed”, “half of college graduates leaving school with no hope of employment”, “32 million on food stamps when you started, 46 million Americans currently”, “one sixth of America living in poverty” , and “projected greater accumulation of national debt than all the other American Presidents combined.”  The feeble recitation of a so called plan to apparently cut the budget deficit deficit while raising taxes and adding more stimulus spending for “100,000 teachers” left one aghast at the numerical logic.  Even this one small retort was crushed under a devastating Romney rebuttal.  To paraphrase the governor:

 Mr. President, you talk of spending even more stimulus money for teachers while helping to pay for it by eliminating “subsidies for Exxon Mobil”, yet the 2.8 billion in current oil subsidies pales in comparison to the 90 Billion for so called green subsidies to friends of Obama. You want to pick winners and losers in this economy, but you seem to have a knack for picking losers only, such as Solyndra.  A hundred thousand teachers? Had you truly considered education your number one priority, the  90 billion wasted on losing green industries could have paid for 2 Million teachers!

The need to defend the indefensible proved an impossible task for the President, and this time there was no media to spin the vacuousness into stature.  This time, an opponent with principles rock-rooted in the fabric of American exceptionalism, was ready to debate the liberal daydreaming of what ifs, if onlys, and how it should bes, with the cold hard logic of how to get our game back.  It was a beautiful thing to watch, and the exposure of the mythical emperor as ,after all, only a man, and an  average one at that, can never be again  foisted upon the discerning voter.

On this particular night the professor was schooled on what should really be our nation’s curriculum, and the effect on the rest of this election preamble will be fascinating to watch.  This President may be committed to his losing argument, but it is a two fisted death grip on a loser, and now we all can see it for what it is.

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The Decline and Fall of the First Amendment

The First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

The election of the President of the United States lumbers onward past the 40 day mark to election day with seeds of the future demise of this great concept, America, being progressively planted and nurtured.   The nurturing force? Money. Gobs and reams of it. Hundreds of millions of it. Two candidates face each other in a titanic battle of never ending spending to attempt to control the message, not the truth of American politics.  And what was once the arbiter of separating fact from truth, the so-called fourth estate, the press, has becoming a willing participant in picking sides and fashioning the message Americans will use to make their decision.  Freedom of the Press, specifically mentioned in the initial article of the Bill of Rights, secured to assure the capacity of the people to control their government and protect its excesses, has now become a vehicle for the government to squash the redressing of grievances, and the correcting of electoral mistakes.

The collusion of the press and the abandonment of their first amendment role has been made ever so clear in a two week period of scandalous government performance and purposeful neglect of that performance by the media.  The story so carefully tendered of a brilliant, competent President performing his difficult tasks with dexterity and foresight has proven to be Potemkin facade glaringly exposed in the debacle in Libya of an assassinated ambassador and the pathetic administration performance in the aftermath.  It would be a story on the level of the failed Carter rescue mission of 1979, the Bay of Pigs catastrophe and aftermath of 1961,or even the infamous George Bush ‘flyover’ of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 if a free, investigative press was still functioning – but only silence and more silence.  The main stream media has bought into this President and allowed him to buy into them.   With this incestuous relationship, the primary freedoms declared in the nation’s founding act are crumbling, an with it the relationship of its government to its people.

In the past two weeks, an American administration frankly lied for days after about what it knew regarding a  devastating failure of foreign policy.  An American ambassador to Libya and three other American citizens were murdered in a calculated, planned military style operation of the sworn enemy of the United States, Al Qaeda.  The inability to predict and secure against such a revenge operation in one of the world’s most volatile places on the anniversary of 9/11 borders on stupidity,  but the administration’s response and cover-up of events borders on criminal.  Within hours of the attack the Libyan President himself stated on American television that this was no spontaneous outburst of  anger towards an unseen video but a coordinated  attack of enemies of the state.  The government of the United States was clearly aware of the realities on the ground.  The response, a cover story – agitated Libyan citizens grew out of control protesting a video they had never seen,  and had in their anger at our insensitivity to their culture, murdered Americans.  The nonsensical story was stuck to, with the President allowing the Ambassador to the UN to go on five Sunday morning news shows and proclaim no evidence of an organized terrorist attack, but conclusively claim the bogus video incitement as the cause of the catastrophe.   The “director” of the said video is rounded up by police after the event to intimidate American expressions of free speech and apologies for the essential American right of free expression guaranteed in the First Amendment are slathered over Arab media.  The press response to such willful cover-up of failed policies? Silence.

The President, the admitted designer of the “lead from behind” foreign policy tenets that led to the complete lack of coherent response to islamic extremist takeovers of the Arab Spring  revolts, the Muslim Brotherhood takeover of Egypt, the chaos in Libya, the genocide in Syria, the flagrant rebuff of the Green Revolution in Iran – continued the charade of cover-up in action after action.  The press response? Silence.  The President during the height of the explosion in the middle East against multiple embassies manages the crisis from an Obama fundraiser in Nevada.  The President interviewed on national television describes the deaths of U.S. representatives by a resurgent Al Qaeda as mere “bumps in the road” to his overall Arab Spring policies (see above cartoon),  The president days after acknowledgement of the obvious falsehood of his attempted scenario for the Libyan massacre goes before the United Nations and declares again the role of an unseen video and American cultural ignorance in propagating Arab responses.  He purposefully states he is too busy and refuses to meet with the leader of his only ally in the Middle East, Israel at one of the most unstable, dangerous times in recent history in which the words “world war” are being evoked by both sides, and instead appears on the fawning morning television show the View to present himself as “eye candy”.  On and On and On.  The press response to such blatant casualness about the primary threat to American sovereignty over the past twenty years? Silence.

The Silence is more than a national embarrassment, more than a potential negative to be explored on the way to the President’s attempt at re-election.  Its a threat to our way of life to have elected leaders so unaccountable to explain and be responsible for their actions.  Its a threat to the principles of America, the securing of an open government, the right to dissent, the press’s independent role to investigate,  the need to vet our candidates to represent us and who we are.  40 days before the election of the next American President, we are in the midst of a calamity with the current one, and the press acts like its role is to make sure no one finds out.

The former Democrat pollster Pat Caddell believes the foundations of America are being corrupted beyond repair by the joining of a willful dictacrat in the White House and a lap dog media.  Though he is a liberal, he makes it very clear he is not an idiot and can see the trappings of the loss of American freedom written all over this unholy marriage.  Democrat or Republican, collectivist or free thinker, no American can look at whats happening and not demand a “coming to Jesus” moment of the 2012 electorate.

 

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Who Really Had The Bad Week?

The Presidential 2012 Election is under 50 days away and if we were to believe “trends” as reported by media sources, the actual vote is anti-climatic. This was apparently a “good” week for the President,  who is to the media sycophants urging him on, incapable of “bad” weeks.   The national polls “suggest” a broadening of President Obama’s lead of Mr. Romney, and the key battleground states show slippage of Romney traction across the board.  It must be over, because everyone says it is.

The notorious need to prematurely “call” elections for their candidate has left the media with a candidate graveyard of never were Presidents such as the re-elected  President Carter, President Dukakis, President Gore, and President Kerry.  In each case, there was an omnipresent need by the media to try to inform public that the outcome was assured and inevitable, hopefully dampening the hopes of those who would support the alternative candidate and thereby suppressing their vote.  The polls, with oversampling of enthusiasms more appropriate for the 2008 campaign,  say the lead for President Obama is widening, and it is a bad week for Mr. Romney.  Just accept it, lay back and take it, and you won’t feel so crushed when Obama prevails on November 6th.

Really? Just who was it that had the bad week?  In the past week we note the following:

  • 26 states reported worsening unemployment rates in August – the economic flop that was the stimulus, the President’s one trick pony understanding of the economy, continues to reveal its self in the ongoing flat tire of private economic job growth.  The usual source of recession employment recovery, small business growth, is non-existent, and given  the President’s disdain for this vital tool for economic restoration, is a vise that the unemployed can expect to be confined by.  What’s the chance that unemployed voters will see this President as their way out?
  • The calamity in Afghanistan– One week, two blows.  The President declared that President Bush had wasted his time and our nation’s resources in Iraq.  President Obama was going to fight and win the “good” war in Afghanistan defeating the Taliban.  This past week has seen the utter failure of the President’s Afghanistan surge strategy as the at the very moment the U.S. has pulled out of the final soldiers involved in the 40,000 soldier surge over the last two years on a predeclared Presidential timetable, the Taliban determined to show the U.S. just how little was accomplished, punctuated by a brazen coordinated attack on Camp Bastion, resulting in the deaths of two marines, and the greatest loss of fighter jets since Vietnam.
  • The White House got “everything wrong” in their cover-up of what happened in the murder of U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens –  This week the press is coming to grips with what every American knew instantly, and what the clueless White House vehemently deneied,  was the reality of the September 11th attacks on the consulate in Benghazi, Libya. This was a pre-meditated coordinated Al Qaeda attack on a United States institution to mark the anniversary of 9/11, and not some over emotional response to a video that no one has seen.  The President accused challenger Romney of “shooting from the hip before the facts are in”, yet sent his UN Ambassador Rice to vehemently deny any connection to terrorism regarding the murderous assault.  He continues to apologize for the mythical video no one has seen, buying airtime in Pakistan for ongoing apologies, and intimidating the video’s creator with midnight interrogation on trumped up charges in one of the most blatant attacks on the freedom of speech clause in the U.S. Bill of Rights, in years.  The administration’s pathetic explanation and attempted cover-up of the Libyan massacre of four Americans is progressively unraveling, and may prove to be a real debacle for this President and his superficial veneer of competence.
  • The Univision Interview – President Obama while managing to avoid formal press conferences has looked to media outlets of his choosing to provide the fawning softball interviews that allow him to control the message.   Thus the lollypop questions of that incisive political investigator David Letterman, or the “what is Your Favorite Color” t-ball pitches of those intrepid reporters at the New Mexico radio station.  There was no reason for Obama to expect any different from what he assumes is a captured constituent, the Hispanic community.  Taking a seat on stage on Univision the Spanish language television station, his desire to educate Hispanics on his favorite mole sauce was ruined when the interviewer determined to call him on his immigration policy, or lack thereof.  The usual Obama banter of Bush, I didn’t have time, Bush, my heart cries out to the poor illegal immigrants I deport, Bush, Republican congress obstruction, Bush, I’ll get it done later did not sit well with the audience that was looking for at least a considered thought from the President.   How this will sit with the Hispanic voter who already has qualms about this President will be interesting but a continuing reliance on “You like me better, remember?” will inevitably lose traction with a population that is every bit about economic opportunity and family.
  • Moody’s issues “fiscal cliff” warning – The investor service Moody’s acknowledged that with the recent passing of U.S. debt beyond 16 trillion dollars, and the fourth deficit in a row over a trillion dollars, that the United States faces a significant credit reduction from AAA to Aa1. The Federal Reserve, seeing the ineptness of the federal government to fashion an economic recovery determined to initiate “Quantitative Easing III”, the pouring of billions of dollars of month into the economy for the third time, but this time “open-ended”, thereby sitting the stage for greatest tax ever to hit the lower and middle classes, inflation, and its profound effect on nest egg savings.  The President’s  response to such dire indications of the nation’s economic future, pronounced to David Letterman and his American  television audience, “We don’t have to worry about the debt short term” and pretended to not know exactly how big the debt was when he took office.  Well after all, his Noble Prize is for Peace, not Economics.  The ones who lend money to keep President Obama’s debt train running do know, however, and the current low lending rates that allow the present administration to spend at the rate of 42 borrowed cents on every dollar spent, will not be as unaware when interest rates inevitably rise and the estimated 11.3 trillion d0llar debt currently held by the public will begin to spiral out of control and with it, the capacity to pay.  The President has participated in increasing the accrued debt of the United States in one presidential  term by 34.2% in less than 2% of the time since the nation’s formation.  At that rate, another four years of these kind of economics, and even David Letterman will be able to figure out what’s catastrophically wrong about this President’s understanding of the country he leads.

The presidential race defies the normal considerations of an informed voter.  The country appears detached from the impending national crisis, consumed with celebrity over performance, and unwilling to grade objectively  the current White House occupant’s job performance.  A few more weeks like the last one, however, and the recognition of the worst presidential job performance since James Buchanan will be hard to hide from even a disinterested voter who gets his or her news from TMZ.

A bad polling week for Mitt Romney is an inch deep, but the growing chasm in the President’s performance and the progressive realization of it is a mile wide. Its not even remotely – game over.

 

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“Obviously Our Hearts Are Broken”

The President of the United States managed to briefly interrupt his fundraiser in Las Vegas to inform the crowd of his regret regarding the death by murder of the representative of the United States in Libya, Ambassador Chris Stevens.  “Obviously our hearts are broken,” he exclaimed. Well as Mark Steyn would say, not so obvious.  The middle East is exploding in a masturbatory orgasm of Islamic radical spasm toward the great satan America, and the President, who once exclaimed that his mere personhood would reduce the invective felt by all Muslims towards America due to the unique blundering heavy-handedness of the clueless Bush, could not manage separate himself from the needs of the fundraiser to serve the needs of his nation, other than that brief, offhand remark.  Honestly…. stunning.

Chris Stevens was a man who had given his entire avocation to understanding the Islamic crescent of North Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean seaboard.  He had earned a college degree from Berkeley, a masters from the National War College, and a Law degree from the University of California.  He had served in the Peace Corps in Morocco,  learned French and Arabic in addition to his native English, and ably served his country diplomatically in Jerusalem, Damascus, Cairo, and Riyadh.  He was one of the pivotal figures in helping to direct the United States communication with the Arab Spring rebels, fundamental in achieving the  overthrow of the  Libyan dictator Qaddafi, and in May 2012, was named American Ambassador to Libya and its fledgling government.  Chris Stevens was one of those special people who made their life work trying to find a way out of the chaos for those whose lives were perpetually crushed by the chaos.

Chris Stevens’ life of service was paid back by the Libyans he helped by brutal assassination and the obligatory infantile dragging of Stevens’ lifeless body through  the streets of Benghazi by the thugs who murdered him and their sycophants.  The Secretary of State Hillary Clinton managed to view this as “Libyans carried Chris’s body to the hospital.” Again….absolutely stunning.  Are these clueless people truly the ones implementing our national policies and protecting our sovereignty?

We live in times dominated by the theater of the absurd.  The President and Secretary of State of the most powerful nation on earth enunciate their vision for American diplomacy as “leading from behind”.   The Ambassador representing them in one of the most hostile and unstable places on earth is left on September the 11th, the anniversary of Islamic Radicalism’s greatest triumph, essentially unprotected at an”interim facility” in Benghazi on the terrorists’ most sacred date, the perfect sacred cow for sacrifice to the Islamic radicals greatest deity, the god of death. To bring the Absurdity to culmination, the UK Independent reports that the vulnerability of the American Mission was known for 48 hours and the American administration did nothing (except guest appearances on television shows and fundraising events).  Most absurdly, this American administration’s interpretation of this organized assassination squad was that it was after all the fault of America, because an obscure video on YouTube had obviously driven the initially peaceful protesters to distraction, and propagated their uncontrollable outrage to engage in ambassadorial murder… with apparently the RPGs, mortars, and other heavy weapons they just so happened to be carrying on their heretofore peaceful demonstration.  Absolutely, absurdly stunning.

We are currently being led into a snake-pit of financial collapse and paralytic foreign policy by a President whose most important constituency is himself.  He sees this country as his personal petri dish, where he can concoct absurdest  policies and visions of socialist utopias, and the lemmings will support him blindly.  Tremendous individuals  like Chris Stevens are being burned up in circular policies with no beginning and no end except the re-election of the prevaricator in chief.  Before we all pitch ourselves off the cliff following this absurd pied piper, let us find our sanity, and do the right thing on November 6th, 2012.

 

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Pictures After An Exhibition

The country has now survived  the two packaged events once known as political conventions, and the early indications are that not much has changed in the snapshot of the November contest.  The President holds a several point lead over Mitt Romney that continues to be paced on something obliquely referred to as a “likeability ” factor and a general sense that the President speaks for the everyguy.  Its the “everyguy” that is the facinating feature to me, and how that has changed so dramatically in the course of my lifetime – specifically, what apparently the “everyguy” cares about.

Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post has a spot on commentary as to what the Democratic Party image has become as reflected at the convention and is a must read.  The party has morphed into a series of two dimensional pictures at an exhibition, each a specific image of grievances bound together only by the intensity of their sense of grievance.  The African American political activist at one time energized by the fight for civil rights and the concept of individual liberty, now consumed with the fight for monolithic governmental benevolence.  The 30 year old female law student, having achieved equal access to the law, now wanting the law to assure her free birth control as the signature achievement of her educational journey.  The public union leader, who has turned the concept of public service into the responsibility of the public to serve the public official.  All together, strident pictures of an America not founded on elevated ideas of personal liberty and freedom to succeed, but an America that is owed something, and the something that is owed, is owed  by one American to another.

And the framer of all these disparate pictures, the artist in chief, President Obama.  The lofty goal setter of 2008, with a vision of a healed planet and oceans whose rise is slowed, was no where in sight at the president’s acceptance speech.  That Obama was replaced with the plea bargainer, asking for more time to achieve the transformation of America from the united vision of the founders to the land of “at least I got mine”.  There was no mention anywhere of the approaching calamity of trying to support those entitled, on the backs of those who would provide the means for the entitlement.  Rubin states it perfectly:

So then it wasn’t merely that Obama let lose the rent-seekers (and birth control-seekers and free-education-seekers). No, he needed them to fill up the space and the airwaves, to promise that no matter what (fiscal crisis, recession) he will still be there to cater to the whims and demands of the constituent groups. Sure the economy is bad, but whose going to give you free college tuition?

It’s ludicrous, of course. If the economy doesn’t improve and we don’t avoid the fiscal cliff, we’ll be taking away, not handing out stuff. This is the “austerity” against which the liberals inveigh. In fact, they are driving us ever closer to the point where we will will have to quickly and severely cut out the handouts.

It is, as conservatives have said for so long, the Western European syndrome. As we spend and cater to the demanding crowd, we push ourselves closer and closer to the point where both the excessive demands and actual needs will go unmet.

Indeed. Yet the pictures as idealized as they are painted by the President can not hide the crumbling edifice beneath.  The promises of an economy put forth by this President that would equalize risk and reward, and therefore elevate all – the socialist ideal – is sliding into a malaise that may prove beyond any of our control.  The policy of picking winners has led to more and more Americans simply giving up on their efforts to find their way.  August 2012 employment figures show the unemployment rate dropped due to an ever increasing number of Americans who have simply stopped looking for work.  These are the pictures the artist in chief could not reveal – the student graduate in their twenties who can’t get started and the laid off workers in their fifties who have recognized there won’t be one more chance out there to finally get things right.  This country is increasingly looking like just another failed state, with no idea how to move forward and no will to adjust priorities.

The American everyguy used to be someone who regardless of personal circumstances could sense the larger picture, feel when the country was dangerously surging off kilter, and recognize the need to right the ship of state.

The election in November looms large.  We need the “everyguy” to step up and do what is necessary. We need to change the artist, if we have any hope of changing the picture of our future.

 

 

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RNC 2012 Day 3 Impressions: Mitt Romney -The Competent in Chief

The 2012 Republican convention had a unique problem to solve when its presidential candidate rose to the podium to give the closing speech to the conventioneers and the nation.  What to do when your standard bearers, the articulate, impassioned, and committed spokesmen for the cause – have already spoken?  Like a great ship on the ocean, the Republican Party has dramatically shifted course toward a different horizon, and the captains of that ship from this time forth are Ryan and Rubio.  No two presentations before a national convention have ever put in place a more perfect bookend explanation as to what this political party believes and fights for, and the two will likely be the coming generational face of the party for the next 16 years.  Both will be indispensable, and it is likely both will be President someday.

But someday is not 2012, and the party’s candidate is Mitt Romney, and from all appearances he took on the problem of the two shining stars that preceded him and laid out a case that in executive positions, it is not flash, but competency that matters.  Challenging in prose and delivery the two previously mentioned  superstars would have been risky, and frankly I don’t believe is in Romney’s DNA.   His speech (and the speechwriters who framed Romney’s thoughts) went with a beeline to the residual pool of disaffected Obama voters who hoped for more production from the President to match his soaring rhetoric of 2008. Romney made the speech about competency, and since this is after all a contest between he and Obama, who would be the better competent in chief.

He made the argument rather well, but without the symphonic tones of the Cicero lectoring before him, Marco Rubio.  Recognizing President Obama’s residual likability advantage in polls, Romney did not try to paint the President as uncaring or disconnected, but simply not up to the task of management of a enterprise as complex as America.  Echoing Clint Eastwood’s quirky tome on Obama earlier in which Eastwood said, “And when somebody doesn’t do the job, we got to let them go.”  Romney stated it in terms of the disillusionment he believes is out there:

 If you felt that excitement when you voted for Barack Obama, shouldn’t you feel that way now that he’s President Obama? You know there’s something wrong with the kind of job he’s done as president when the best feeling you had was the day you voted for him.

Romney pointed towards President Obama’s tendency to put the position of American President in a different kind of metaphysical calling, as a global arbiter of morality and fairness, not the elected representative speaking for, and standing up for,  the American people.  This dissonance from the American purpose was perfectly framed in Romney’s best line in the speech:

President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans and heal the planet. MY promise…is to help you and your family.

Romney spent the greater part of the speech outlining the relative ordinariness of his upbringing and personhood, ordinary in the extraordinary way that seems to be a recurrent theme in American success stories – immigrant routes, one generation sacrificing so that the next generation may prosper, the importance of family, the willingness to try and fail ultimately to succeed – all endearing elements of the Romney story that perhaps may have provided some softened nuance to the media so determined to paint him as some kind of uncaring capitalist hedge fund manager.  To my ears, however this section seemed somewhat disjointed and overly long, and lacking in connectivity to Romney’s argument of competence.

Conclusively, however, Romney eventually restored managerial competency to the forefront and laid out an evidence and results based tone to a Romney administration, a stark contrast to Obama’s cork in the ocean journey of no budgeting, no adjustments, and no practical plan for the looming crises:

And unlike the President, I have a plan to create 12 million new jobs. It has 5 steps.

First, by 2020, North America will be energy independent by taking full advantage of our oil and coal and gas and nuclear and renewables.

Second, we will give our fellow citizens the skills they need for the jobs of today and the careers of tomorrow. When it comes to the school your child will attend, every parent should have a choice, and every child should have a chance.

Third, we will make trade work for America by forging new trade agreements. And when nations cheat in trade, there will be unmistakable consequences.

Fourth, to assure every entrepreneur and every job creator that their investments in America will not vanish as have those in Greece, we will cut the deficit and put America on track to a balanced budget.

And fifth, we will champion SMALL businesses, America’s engine of job growth. That means reducing taxes on business, not raising them. It means simplifying and modernizing the regulations that hurt small business the most. And it means that we must rein in the skyrocketing cost of healthcare by repealing and replacing Obamacare…

The speech as a summation of all the collected voices of this convention was a success in reminding all what American exceptionalism is all about.  That it is not enough to field a team of stars, strivers, and dreamers, but humbly direct them with competent management , is the foundation on which Mitt Romney is staking his claim to the American Presidency.  It may not be enough to get Romney eventually on Mt Rushmore, but it may be the perfect recipe to restore balance and adult standards to a shaky America that is concerned that our leaders are playing loose with our destiny.

 

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RNC 2012 Day 2 Impressions: Paul Ryan: The One We’ve Been Waiting For

Ramparts has spent the better part of two years intermittently raving about a wonky, generally unknown congressman from Wisconsin as the next coming of Reagan.  Aware of this man’s spot on seriousness about problem solving, his earnest, absolutely natural way with people of all stripes, and his capacity to present the most complex issues in ways that anyone can understand, digest, and commit to participating in the solution have marked him in Ramparts as the leader we have yearned for to restore America to her immense capacities for opportunity, productivity, and moral persuasion.  At times it seemed he would be held back by his youthfulness, his “position in line of succession” so fixated upon by the Republican Party over the years, or his desire to stay in the weeds of budget crafting in Congress. It seemed he would resist the calling to avoid placing his young children in the harsh lights of national prominence.  Maybe, he just didn’t have it in his “gut”, to give his professional life up to the non-stop demands of a national candidate.

Enough already.  Thank you, Mitt Romney.  He’s here and he’s every bit the one we have been waiting for.

Paul Ryan wowed the convention and the national audience with a tour de force performance that only enhances his building legend.  He has always been articulate, a great communicator in the mold of his idol Reagan, a warrior for the cause- but who knew he could deliver a political speech like that?  It certainly wasn’t present in his acceptance speech in Virginia a few weeks ago. There, in front of that large crowd,  he was nervous, fidgety, and halting to the task.  This speech was on a whole nother level – crisp, confident, interactive, devastating to his opponents without sounding arrogant or mean spirited, and perfectly timed, building to a crescendo that had his audience yelling and gasping for more.  Ronald Reagan, when he finally received adulation for his communicating skills was a seasoned older politician reflecting back to a better time. Paul Ryan was more John Fitzgerald Kennedy, full of youthful energy, can-do spirit, and forwardly confident.

The speech was perfectly written, full of lines that resonate as little sun brightened jewels on the beach, though on closer inspection had the painful sting of  little jellyfish:

I’m the newcomer to this campaign.  So let me share a first impression.   I have never seen opponents so silent about their record, and so  desperate to keep their power.  They have run out of ideas. Their moment  came and went.  Fear and division is all they’ve got left.  With  all of their attack ads the president is just throwing away money…and he is pretty experienced at that.

and

You — you the American people of this country were cut out of the deal.   What did taxpayers get out of the Obama stimulus? More debt.  That  money wasn’t just spent and wasted, it was borrowed, spent and wasted…

and

But we are four years into this presidency. The issue is not the economy that  Barack Obama inherited, not the economy as he envisions, but this economy  that we are living.     College graduates should not have to  live out their 20s in their childhood bedrooms, staring up at fading Obama posters and wondering when they can move out and get going with life.

Paul Ryan took the current Administration to the tool shed for a whuppin’ and never once looked beastly doing it.  In Kennedy fashion, he re-acquainted us with the inherent tools each of us has with the rights guaranteed in our founding documents to strive for better, to not accept the maudlin future that has been placed before us.

Now when I was waiting tables, washing dishes, or mowing lawns for money, I  never thought of myself as stuck in some station in life. I was on my own  path, my own journey, an American journey, where I could think for myself, decide for myself, define happen as for myself.  That is what we do in  this country.  That is the American dream.          That’s freedom and I will  take it any day over the supervision and sanctimony of the central planners…

and

We have responsibilities, one to another.  We do not each face the world  alone.  And the greatest of all responsibilities, is that of the strong  to protect the weak. The truest measure of any society is how it treats those  who cannot defend or care for themselves.        Each of these great moral  ideas is essential to democratic government, to the rule of law, to life in a  humane and decent society.  They are the moral creed of our country, as  powerful in our time, as on the day of America’s founding.  They are self-evident and unchanging, and sometimes, even presidents need reminding,  that our rights come from nature and God, and not from government…

and

The right that makes all the difference now, is the right to choose our own  leaders.  And you are entitled to the clearest possible choice, because  the time for choosing is drawing near.     So here is our  pledge.     We will not duck the tough issues, we will  lead.     We will not spend the next four years blaming  others, we will take responsibility.     We will not try to  replace our founding principles, we will reapply our founding principles.

Paul Ryan appears to be some Ronald Reagan and some John Kennedy, but in the end he is all Paul Ryan.  Mitt Romney has done us all a service by putting this special leader on the national stage at a time when the country is thirsting for people who are the pathfinders to a better future.  It speaks very well of Romney.  Tonight, we will find out if Romney’s grasp of the task is as developed as his skill in picking the people who can accomplish such difficult tasks before us.

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RNC 2012 Day 1 Impressions: The Bench is Deep

The first day of the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida was the culmination of the Republican Party’s change in strategy since the thrashing delivered to them at the hands of the Democrat Party and President Obama in the 2006 and 2008 elections, respectively.  In baseball terms, the Republicans have pursued a “Billy Beane” strategy.  Billy Beane is the legendary Oakland Athletics general manager who has built winners on the contrarian strategy of building talent pools in the minor leagues, meshing together so called “no-names” with specific skill sets into a cohesive team, and letting the “celebrity” big money ballplayers go.  The Democrats have the ultimate “celebrity” player in President Obama – all monies, support, and aspirations flow through him to the exclusion of any other talent, despite his rather worrisome statistical performance the last three and one half years.  The Republicans have instead developed an astonishing number of talented “no-names” with an array of skill sets, and have built a significant pool of next generation players that may yet dominate the electoral process. The impressions of the first night speakers of the RNC is that the bench is deep, indeed.

The Natural:           Mia Love is the republican candidate for the 4th congressional district in Utah and she showed herself to be the “Natural” star in the making that everyone has been whispering about.  She is a Democrat Party stereotype machine’s worst nightmare – African American, female, Mormon, daughter of Haitian immigrants, smart as a whip and conservative as the day is long. The mayor of Saratoga Springs, Utah, she was the Tea Party’s human tornado at the district convention, coming out of nowhere to destroy her establishment competition and take the congressional seat nomination.  Her success gives lie to the farcical stereotype propagated by Democrats that the conservative message is skin deep.  In the nation’s most consistently conservative state, Utah, the rising star is winning with the message of limited government, responsible fiscalism, and individual freedom, and the shade of her skin is mattering not one wit.  Her speech last night was well sculpted, articulate, and shining in its conviction.  She is in the baseball vernacular, “a five tool” player- runs, throws, defends, hits, and hits with power – and Utah which has had several near misses on the national stage – Hatch, Housmann, Leavitt – may have its star coming out party last night.

The Governors –  While President Obama has attacked the recession with the ham-handed technique of throwing 6 trillion dollars of deficit spending at it, a murderer’s row of effective Republican state governors have been succeeding at turning around their state’s fiscal messes and restoring sanity to the budgetary process.  The emerging stars of a nation wide wave brought in the election 2010 were on the dais last night, and all were worth listening to.  Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin, the winning general of one of the bitterest political wars of the last several decades, spoke to the importance of reform in achieving a voter consensus.  He noted that voters will reward fiscal discipline and need for sacrifice, if the issues are presented to them as adults, and that reform doesn’t have to mean another word for “giveaway”. Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey framed the keynote speech in similar terms of “Adult” conversations, and that the electorate understands what made America the economic superpower of the 20th century, and what level of coordinated sacrifice is needed to keep it the superpower for the 21st. Governor Bob McDonnell of Virginia and Governor Nikki Haley of South Carolina argued as to what diversity in approach can mean to the manufacturing base and job creation, and that winners and losers in job creation need to evolved, not selected by the system.  The overwhelming tone of each of these speakers is that competence wins, and truthful conversations with the voters can be popular notions.

The Hispanic Conservative – Shining brightly were two conservative voices of the emerging hispanic hue to the American story. Hispanics have become the battleground demographic for votes between the parties, now that the African American vote consensus has becoming rigidly fixed to the government centered philosophy of security and safety net.  The hispanic vote is appearing more diverse, with different strains from the Caribbean, Mexico, Central and South America, and generational native bornes all deflected the value curves differently.  A vote lost by more than 30% McCain to Obama, the hispanic consensus is still malleable- more generational family oriented, marriage centered, and concerned about opportunity more than assurance as the driving economic value.  This has not been lost on either party.  Senate candidate Ted Cruz of Texas presented his speech without podium or prompter, speaking directly to the camera and the hall and was faultlessly articulate, a heretofore unknown republican candidate virtue.  More importantly, he defined the constitution as a universal document, as magnificently protective of new  immigrant rights as a seven generation Mayflower claimant. A two language lector who has argued before the Supreme Court, Ted Cruz is going to give Marco Rubio a run for his money in representing the new hispanic American consensus.  Luce Vela Fortuno, wife of the governor of Puerto Rico, and successful lawyer in her own right, reminded the audience that the principles of limited government and reduced capital gains taxes have been as attractive to a Spanish language population in Puerto Rico as anywhere else in the United States, seeing a surge in employment and business opportunity that would be the envy of many “blue” states.  Along with other stars such as Marco Rubio, Senator Sandoval of Nevada, and Governor Martinez of New Mexico, the battle to be the philosophical representative of the American Hispanic is on.

The Turncoat:   Artur Davis had one difficult job last night. Former democrat representative from Alabama and a co-nominator of President Obama at the 2008 Democrat convention, he had to explain his willingness to turn on his previous party and enter the lion’s den of the opposition possibly viewed as no more than a blow in the wind turncoat.  No need to worry- Artur Davis was spot on.  Mr. Davis did not spend anytime facetiously explaining how he had suddenly become a conservative; he knew his audience wasn’t that dumb.  He simply explained that when it came down to it, President Obama’s hollywood staging and actor’s voice was not sufficient to overcome the progressive sense in Mr. Davis’s mind that Obama’s substance was lacking and his actions progressively destructive to his constituents.  He intimated in the end it is not enough to want something to be true; to get things done having core principles of managing with intelligence and constructiveness a naion’s destiny is paramount, and Obama’s wool has been lifted from Mr. Davis’s eyes.  I’m not expecting two votes to change as a result of Artur Davis’s conversion, but listening to him I believed him, and heard the inklings of independent thought processes beginning to emerge from a locked down African American consensus.

The Women:  The cluster of female talent presenting as strong leaders in the Republican party is making it clear to me that the last white male/white male Republican ticket we are going to see is Romney Ryan.  The number of female voices that have moved beyond the “soccer mom in tennis shoes” nonsense is everywhere, and the bench is going to produce some terrific candidates next round.  Nikki Haley of South Carolina, Kelly Allote of New Hampshire, and Susana Martinez are hitters, and hitters with power that have been borne of the Sarah Palin mold, full of her energy and connectivity with the public without her seeming “unpreparedness” for executive office.  Palin’s heroic battle with the vicious sexism of  the establish media that wants to pigeon hole women leaders, and will go to any length to destroy the diversity in womens’ views of the world, has been sacrificial for the next generation of strong Republican female conservatives.  If Palin wasn’t “the One”, she was at least the “john the Baptist” heralding the coming of the next wave.  For that alone she should have been able to be able to add her voice to emerging female inflection of her party.

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Questions in Tampa

The national Republican Party will convene today in Tampa to put forth to the American people their best scripted vision of what an elected Republican President and legislature would accomplish given the chance to represent the American nation as elected officials.  And it will be a scripted vision.  The days of suspense, argument about platforms, dark horse candidates competing for the presidential nomination, floor demonstrations, and incalculable outcomes are in the distant past.  The state primary system forever eliminated the suspense by allowing the best funded candidates with the most momentum to early on coalesce an overwhelming number of the selected state delegates to their side prior to the convention nominating process. The convention nomination has become, as a result, a coronation rather than a contested vote.  Whether this picks the best, most representative candidates for the party and ultimately the nation can be argued, but it certainly detracts from the compelling need to watch the conventions for their drama.

That said, there are compelling reasons to watch the story unfold in Tampa, given the importance building to the 2012 election as a bellwether election as to what kind of country fundamentally Americans want to live in.  Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican  candidate, is little known beyond the caricature placed upon him by the national media, and is up against the all time media favorite candidate in President Obama, personally well liked, and stuffed with cash to help define Romney.  The republican convention is Romney’s chance to own his own story and the larger Republican story to the nation, and how he handles the questions raised by his nomination  will be drama enough.

Tea Party vs Establishment – The surging popular force of Republican Party success over the last three years has been on the backs of a highly motivated, highly mobilized grassroots force of common-man activists known as the Tea Party.   Set on fire by both parties’ profligate deficit spending, arrogance in tax policy and big government regulation, and general ignorance and abandonment of the country’s founding constitution as the template upon which American rights and governance should be based, the Tea Party achieved huge electoral success in 2010. Over 60 legislative seats switched parties, 6 Senate seats, and a majority of state houses.  This ability to organize electoral victories has continued in the stunning results in elections in Wisconsin and Texas, and the Tea Party is primed to see their principles become the dominant platform of the national Republican Party, or they will find another outlet for their ideas.  Mitt Romney is not the Tea Party’s candidate, and as the establishment figure he needs to find a way to marshall their revolutionary zeal and reflect their voice, without being pegged as rigid himself.  The naming of Paul Ryan as Vice Presidential nominee went a long way toward accomplishing that.  The neglect and rejection of powerful Tea Party representative Sarah Palin as a speaker at the convention did not.  A delicate ballet is unfolding and the final answer and ultimate electoral victory may be in Romney’s acceptance speech.

Paul Ryan and the Wisconsin Revolution –  When Paul Ryan was named by Romney as Vice Presidential nominee it was not only an affirmation of the congressman from Janesville but the entire revolution in governmental policy projecting from the state of Wisconsin.  Wisconsin, long a progressive, left leaning state, has been cresting on the wave of a fundamental movement, and by selecting Ryan, Romney has taken on the mantle as his own.  The origins of the Wisconsin political earthquake started with Tommy Thompson’s Welfare to Work concepts, but the revolution has seen fruition through the Reaganesque triumvirate of Reince Priebus, now Chairman of the Republican National Committee, Governor Scott Walker, and Representative Ryan himself.  The tenets of the Wisconsin idea are founded on budgetary discipline, small business support, limited regulatory suppression, individual rights and responsibilities, and upfront and definitive tackling of entitlements.  With two of the three national positions in the hands of Wisconsin revolutionaries, Romney must make the case to the American people why the Wisconsin Vision should be the National vision.  A very compelling case can be made, given our national impending deficit crisis, but Romney and Ryan must articulate it in a way that appeals to all Americans and reassures them.  The convention will give them the national stage to make just that case.

Romney vs Obama – Americans like and respect their Presidents, and the process of rejecting a tried product for an untried one is one that since the beginning of the 20th century has proved to be a daunting task for the challenger.  Romney must not only face such history and President Obama’s personal likability, but also a narrative rigidly adhered to by the press that the liberal candidate stands for the average American, the conservative one for the elite. In such an environment, Obama’s partial birth abortion stance is seen as mainstream, while Romney’s personal support for right to life is considered extreme,  Obama’s cumulative addition to the deficit now more than all the previous President’s combined is seen as providing a safety net, Romney’s fiscal responsibility as pointed at the downtrodden, and Obama’s 700 billion dollar carve out of Medicare funds to underwrite Obamacare is seen as maintaining Medicare “as you know it”  while Romney’s support of the Ryan plan is seen as scuttling it.  How Romney frames whether his vision for the future of America is “Extreme” or “Common Sense” will go a long way to determine whether the independent voter stays with Obama or determines to secure his future with Romney.

It is enjoyable to read history books  about how political conventions were once about wheeling and dealing, back stabbing, suspense, and surprise.  The 103 ballots for the 1924 Democrat National Convention   to nominate John W. Davis to be the sacrificial lamb against Calvin Coolidge, or the final convention suspense of the Republican Convention of 1976, when Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan came to the convention essentially tied in support of electors, is a thing of the past.  The conventions are still, however, the home of the ultimate expressions of American political thought and organization, and as such remain tied to original concepts laid out by the founders, that We the People, will formulate our futures through elections and will fight for our vision of this great nation at the ballot box.  That is excitement enough for me.

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Neil Armstrong- Our Generation’s Lindbergh… Starbound

     Neil Armstrong lost his battle with heart disease on this day in 2012 and returned to the heavenly firmament he so boldly explored for us over 40 years ago.  He spent most of the years after his moon landing triumph in self determined obscurity, rather than take advantage of the international celebrity status his achievement would have brought him.  In that way, he ended his time on earth much as the great American explorer of the heavens that blazed the way before him, Charles Lindbergh, each separated from the mythic event by a distance from the public that would seek to adulate him.  How each came to be reclusive had as many different spins as could possibly be imagined, but they are weaved into the fabric of what it means to be an exemplary American hero, and what the pressures of mega-celebrity status forces inevitably of great achievers.

Neil Armstrong was the living, breathing representative of the archetype of the American hero. The American Hero was smart, unassuming, competent, brave, adventurous, matter of fact, and most importantly, successful.  When Armstrong was born, Charles Lindbergh was over three years removed from his epic Spirit of St Louis solo flight from New York to Paris and was a mythic figure. At just 25 years of age, Lindbergh singularly accomplished what teams of pilots died trying to do, achieve an airborne connection between the new world and the old using devices that were still in their infancy of development, the airplane. Lindbergh was the most recognized figure in the world – millions had come out to see him as he toured the world, and later with his wife Anne at his side, showed America that flight could be safe and predictable for travel, shrinking the world for all time – and in the process founding Pan Am and TWA airlines.  Lindbergh looked and acted  the part the Americans wanted to see as the very best we could produce – a person who was raised among us, had no special breaks, but through his grit and personal ability achieved greatness – and never acted any differently.   This was the type of hero Americans all hoped their children would emulate themselves after, and the Lindbergh archetype was promoted in the press and on radio so no American boy growing up in the thirties could possibly miss the connection.  Lindbergh’s persona became Jack Armstrong, All American Boy on the radio, very likely playing in the Neil Armstrong household radio in Ohio, a young man who never lied, worked with others, was brave and adventurous, but maintained the ah-shucks attitude that all Americans cherished through hard times.

Young Neil Armstrong, however, would have certainly been exposed to the other side of mega-celebrity, the public’s lust to know everything about their heroes, and invade their personal space sufficiently to uncover their human frailties.  Neil Armstrong growing up in Ohio would have  witnessed the obsessive coverage of the Lindbergh baby kidnapping, subsequent trial, and the uncovering of the other side of Charles Lindbergh, the colder, more calculated, and reclusive character that through no fault of his own made him a less sympathetic figure than he by every right should have been.  Lindbergh was stunned with the public access to his personal life and forevermore sought a reclusive existence far away from his adoring public.  He would come forward only intermittently from then on into the public eye, and seemingly only to misstep time and time again, in driving his personal darker views of humanity against the public’s previously unquestioning opinion of him.  The young adult Neil Armstrong could not have missed the Lindbergh example as to how pedestal of celebrity adulation is shaky and precarious to those who would stand abreast it.  It likely impressed upon him that in the unlikely event he would find himself in such a circumstance, he would never permit the exposure to the heat of adulation that brought Lindbergh to such a reclusive end.  He would instead choose seclusion, rather than have it forced upon him.

Neil Armstrong quietly built the resume of an American hero, aerospace engineer, US Navy pilot in Korea, test pilot of the X-15, and subsequently in the very exclusive club of American astronauts, becoming command pilot of Gemini 8.  He was, in short, the epitome of Thomas Wolfe’s definition of The Right Stuff.  As the flight crews became selected for the order of flights for the planned conquering of the moon, it became apparent to NASA that the command pilot who would actually step foot on the moon would need to be above all seen as overwhelmingly competent by his crew, rather than back slapping and gregarious.  No one fit the mold better than Armstrong.  The story of Apollo 11’s epic flight has been told before in Ramparts.  The story of the final three minutes of the landing of the LEM module, with failed computers worthless for computer residual fuel, an analytic Aldrin calling out estimated fuel status and residual flight power calculated on his slide rule, and the flight commander Armstrong determining to land the craft manually on the moon, or die trying rather than abort, is the stuff of legend.  With a quarter of the the world’s population than watching simultaneously and breathlessly back on Earth, Armstrong then calmly planted his foot for the first time in history on another celestial object, just 66 years after man had achieved controlled flight, and only 42 years after Lindbergh set foot in Paris .  “That’s one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for Mankind”, Armstrong intoned, and the world gasped at the representative symbolic achievement that had just occurred – the linear path from man’s first wonderment of the heavens, to Armstrong physically claiming it for all humanity.

No one would likely have been positioned to be a more recognized figure, and therefore a very wealthy man, than Armstrong after successfully splashing down on Earth on July 24th, 1969 after his epic voyage.  But perhaps the images of Lindbergh’s fall from grace prepared him to let it go without taking advantage of the moment.  There would be no Senator Armstrong, no President Armstrong, not even retired astronaut extraordinaire Armstrong.  Neil Armstrong was instead perfectly willing to return to the obscurity of normal life, eventually taking a job as a engineering professor at the University of Cincinnati and establishing a farm in Lebanon, Ohio where he kept to himself and his closest friends.  He avoided most controversies and situations where his name and position could be abused by others, and as a result over time lost his status to newer generations as a immediately recognized figure, to his personal satisfaction, and to the loss of younger generations who are starving to know what a real hero looks and sounds like.

With Neil Armstrong’s passing, the cumulative can do spirit of a 1960’s American nation has passed with him.  Modern national goals are partisan and short sighted, and reflect the politicians who pronounce them.  The greatness of Neil Armstrong, and on so many levels he was truly great, is obscured by modern layers  of cynicism and self absorption.  We should ask ourselves if the American Hero model we so admired, and of which Neil Armstrong is an immortal example, should once again have credence in our age.  Neil Armstrong once said that one of his biggest disappointments in life was never dreaming of his time on the moon.  It might pleasure him to know, that he made the dreams of an entire nation and world come true.  God Speed, Neil Armstrong.