It's Over

It’s over, the Republican competition for who will run against President Obama, that is. Or so it seems to me. Romney, as predicted, won in Nevada very convincingly. Gingrich may have come in a distant second if that honor does not turn out to be for Ron Paul. Santorum was a definite fourth. I cannot see any scenario for any of Romney’s competitors to overtake him now (barring some strange act of god or nature). Looking at the results that we have seen so far it is clear that Romney won pretty much across the board. He won significantly even among Evangelicals, hard-core conservatives, and others that to him were supposed to be anathema. This indicates to me Republicans have now made their peace with Romney and have already decided he will be their candidate (whether they like it or not).

Gingrich is clearly finished, whether he tries to continue or not. Whatever his past has finally cost him the Romney financial blitzkrieg has finished. It couldn’t happen to a bigger phony, an attention grabbing, loudmouthed blowhard, unashamed to pontificate on any subject at any time, serial adulterer, hypocrite extraordinary, and all-around con artist with no interest in anything but himself, willing to take any position provided the money was right, a kind of caricature of the famous “General Bullmoose” of Lil’ Abner fame. Unfortunately he probably won’t disappear from public view, probably sitting up in his casket pontificating until the very end. Happily we do not have to even consider him as Vice-Presidential material.

Not so the obsessional Rick Santorum. Why MSNBC thought inserting a speech of Santorum’s from Colorado during their report on the Nevada contest I will never understand. I had never listened to Santorum before, other than a few words here and there. I must say his remarks were the most absurd garble of lies, half-truths, unfinished sentences, and complete nonsense I have ever heard. He just tosses out statements like “The failed policies of Obama” (unspecified), “Obamacare is already damaging the economy” (unspecified), “Our country was founded on…” (unspecified), and on and on. It is said he is now running for the Vice-Presidential slot, and given this kind of performance he might well attain it.

Ron Paul, who I cannot separate from the character of Pa Kettle no matter how hard I try, may well end up in second place in Nevada, edging out Gingrich. He does well in the rural areas of Nevada (and Idaho) with folk that like to pretend they are still living in the 18th century, while at the same time collecting their Social Security, farm subsidies, food stamps, aid to dependent children, free elementary education, veterans benefits, and often living on state, county, or city money…rugged individualists all. He will quite likely stick it out to the eventual Republican convention although it is not entirely clear to me why. I have heard it said he may be angling for something for his son Rand (an even bigger loony tunes than himself). In any case, like Gingrich, we don’t have to worry about a Paul Vice-Presidency.

I thought for a while there might be a brokered convention if no clear Republican candidate emerged and if Romney simply would not do. I don’t believe that will happen now that more and more Republicans seem to believe that Romney has the best chance of defeating Obama. This is a belief I do not share as I think he’s probably the worst candidate they could find to attempt such a task. He is the veritable epitome of the One Per Cent, the candidate of wealth, corporation, endless war, and unconcern with anyone but the wealthy, a candidate who makes $57,000 dollars a day and believes he should get a greater tax break.

Not only will Romney be terribly vulnerable as a candidate, Republicans are going to be hard-pressed to specify just where it is Obama has failed. They apparently believe the voting public is unaware of how it is Republicans have blocked everything Obama has attempted to do to improve things, unaware of their stated plan to defeat Obama as their number one objective, unaware of the fact that by most historical standards Obama has actually been a fairly successful President (in spite of their opposition), and oblivious to the fact the economy is improving, however slowly. I cannot see how their claim “they can do better” has any validity whatsoever given their past performance. Most of the things I hold against Obama, his failure to pursue Bush/Cheney and their gang of criminals, his presumed protection of the bankers, his continued “war” in Afghanistan, and his blind support of Israel, are not things that Republicans should object to as they are in line with their own perspectives. Of course Obama does have one distinct handicap, he’s Black. Maybe they can parlay that into a victory. I sincerely hope not.

I believe I have no prejudices whatsoever. All I need to know is that a man is a member of the human race. That's bad enough for me.

Mark Twain