Musings on 2012 and other things

A Tsunami, a Chernobyl event, the Saudis invading everyone, two wars, Gaddafhi killing his people, and what do the Republicans in the House called an emergency meeting on? Jobs--we haven't seen one bill yet offered by the Republicans which would create a single job. Pick a think tank or the Fed, the Republican budget will cost either a low of 200,000 jobs or a high of about 800,000. The urgent matter of the day where all Republicans had to meet in an emergency was--funding for NPR and PBS. You have to be kidding me. You have to figure out how to kill Elmo when nuclear reactors are melting and Japan is devastated. And people are to trust you with what--again?

All Washington is abuzz about the budget deal and that the real problem will emerge at the end of April. Quite frankly, I think I could stand to see the government shut down so that people would wake up to the insanity of the Republicans. I would be sorry for the furloughed government employees and all the seniors who didn't receive social security checks but until visible pain is seen then people will not wise up to this travesty.

But I digress. The Washington Post reports that Sarah Palin's approval ratings among Republicans have plunged beneath those for Romney, Gingrich and Huckabee. This is part of the media campaign against Palin. Pundits are coming out of the wordwork to claim she's not electable. Most of this is coming from the Republican side, which uses these polls to make their point. But 58% approval among Republicans and the other guys haven't been seen as much? C'mon. The fear is that she has strong support among the tea party people who terrify the establishment. They were good for midterms but now they are seen as extreme and divisive. Even old Swizzle Stick Boehner doesn't know how to handle the teabaggers, who urgently want a government shut down.

Judd Gregg of New Hampshire kicked the Republican assault off with his analysis that Palin would not win any primaries but would always win seconds and thirds and then the Convention would become a nightmare because her delegates would be the most motivated and demanding of the party leaders. Then you had the juicy leak that Roger Ailes advised Palin not to release the "blood libel' video after the shooting of Gaby Giffords. Then Ailes let on that he had to make a decision soon on cutting Huckabee and Palin from Fox if they decided to run for President.

Then the fun began with George Will, Charles Krauthammer, David Frum and Peter Wehner all saying that she was not competent but was more like the Republicans Al Sharpton. Then the Daily Beast let the cat out of the bag about how Palin got the Vice Presidential nomination--McCain wanted a woman put on the list, simply to attract Hillary voters. Then Meghan McCain put her two cents in about Palin. Talk about a pile on and she didn't do or say anything to provoke this, which is unique for her.

The only one who has come to Palin's defense is Rush Limbaugh, who went after all the would-be intellectuals, saying they weren't real conservatives and that people made fun of Reagan before he ran for President. The Free Republic crowd also mentioned that Charles Krauthammer once worked for Fritx Mondale--don't know--and he's not the one who should tell people about conservatism.

The rich quote was from Peter Wehner, who mentioned Pat Moynihan as saying "The GOP had become the party of ideas" and "we are proud of that." But the conservative so-called intellectuals haven't looked at themselves in the mirror lately. The last time the GOP had a new idea it was Billy Kristol's "Big Government Conservatism" at the beginning of the George W. Bush administration. That turned out splendid. The country is still paying dearly for that whopper. If you consult the various conservative think-tanks, there is literally nothing new. And that's obvious from the antics of the House Republicans.

But these pundits often have a disproportionate influence on the early part of a campaign so it's important to watch them.

Sarah Palin recently has been quoted as taking potshots at the old, white male establishment with particular focus on Newton Leroy Gingrich. I hate to say this but I thought her remarks were spot on and happen to agree with Rush on the criticism of Palin. What conservatives will not recognize is that the two most important conservatives now in their intellectual bankruptcy are Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. Mark Levin also chimed in to support Palin But he is a minor figure.

Palin does represent every value of the base of today's Republican value without any contradiction. Horrifying but true. If she runs, she will drive the elderly white men crazy. And yes, don't quote this back at me in months,there is plenty of sexism from the boys in the back aimed at Palin.

And speaking of which, enter Newt Gingrich. His media staff are having a shakedown period as they chided critics about their statement about how many people get Newt's tweets. This is truly the argument of the absurd and it shows their caliber. How does newt compare to Lindsey Lohan?

Meanwhile,Newt has been embracing the evangelicals big time,appearing on all the Christian Right television and radio stations. Unlike John McCain, he has embraced Rev. Hagee, who was dumped last campaign because of his violently anti-Catholic beliefs. Hagee was vital for George W's GOTV campaign in Ohio. It also turns out that Newt provided significant funding to the evangelicals in their successful campaign to defeat the Iowa Supreme Court judges who ruled for same-sex marriage. He is touching all the bases in the social conservative world.

Polling of Republicans and teabaggers show that Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman have big trouble with their Mormonism, especially among the teabag set. Romney also has to face the 67% opposition to " someone who advocates health insurance mandates". Only 21 percent said they could vote for someone like that. Huntsman was perceived as a "socialist" when he wasn't a "communist".

Meanwhile Frothy Mix Santorum has been running gung-ho on the Christian Right platform. His latest opinion was that JFK was radical in his insistence of a separation of church and state. You'll recall JFK was trying to assure the American voter that it was safe to vote for a Catholic. At the time, the attitude was 'register Catholics, not guns." Newt also now shares the view that there is really no seperation of church and states. So the Theocrat vote is up for grabs.

Tim Pawlenty has been hustling around Iowa and other early primary states to raise his profile among Republican voters. I never realized until recently that he too is an evangelical Christian and a fiscal conservative.

But the Love Revolution is creeping up on all of them. It looks like Ron Paul will run again for President. His money machine has started up again and last month he put $1 million in the bank and last year he brought in $24 million, making him one of the top money earners in the party. He seems to have his campaign elbows out. He took a nice preemptory dig at Donald Trump by mentioning that Trump may have violated campiagn laws because his plane is registered in Bermuda. Ouch! When Paul starts into his campaign mode, he begins to get biting.

The big mystery now is about the primary schedule itself because so many states have budget problems and may either cancel or postpone. We're less than a year away. This is really going to be awful.