The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Charleston Afterthoughts

Posted on | January 22, 2012 | 5 Comments

CHARLESTON, S.C.
We left the Citadel a little after 10 p.m. and came down to the Courtyard by Marriott on Calhoun Street, where everybody was hanging out. After a while, it was decided that we should go get burgets at Big Guns.

Will Upton of Americans for Tax Reform checks his Twitter feed while we wait for our burgers.

Saul Anuzis chills out with his laptop. Saul is all about Romney, but don’t hate him for it.

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Category: Fear and Loathing in South Carolina

Althouse Mis-understimates Newt

Posted on | January 21, 2012 | 33 Comments

by Smitty

Ann:

Perhaps if Gingrich is the candidate, Obama won’t debate him. Why give him a chance to shine? Here’s why. Obama will predict that the majority of Americans will prefer the nice man who is President over the strange and brash man who is attempting to crush him.

and:

All Obama will need to do is stand his ground and be the normal person, and Gingrich will look like a jackass. Do not fear the Newt. He is self-limiting.

Barack, with his reputation for being such an eloquent speaker (as true as anything else said of BHO) will have to step up to the plate and debate, or be taunted mercilessly with variations on the theme of ‘nutless’.
And Newt isn’t a fool. He’ll understand that, if he comes out with exclamation points, then Ann’s argument holds true. Audience sympathy among fools will fall toward Barack. Which is why Newt will serve up a simple fact, and follow with a question. Sure, as the incumbent, Barack wins by hiding behind the podium. So the clear rhetorical move is draw Barack out past his ring of teleprompters and reveal him for the vastly over-rated bucket of hooey that he is.

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Category: Newt Gingrich

SOUTH CAROLINA PRIMARY RESULTS: Newt Gingrich Stops Mitt Romney’s ‘Inevitability’; Rick Santorum Places Third

Posted on | January 21, 2012 | 31 Comments

CHARLESTON, S.C.
The polls just closed and we are at Mark Clark Hall on the campus of the Citadel, where Rick Santorum will have his Primary Night celebration. Santorum today said he would be pleased with a third-place finish and would definitely stay in the race through the Jan. 31 Florida primary.

Fox News declared Newt Gingrich the winner here the minute the polls at 7 p.m. and apparently, the questions now are (a) what Gingrich’s margin of victory will be, and (c) whether Santorum will beat Ron Paul for third place.

UPDATE: CBS News on the South Carolina exit polls:

Sixty-four percent said the debates were an important factor for them; just 34 percent said they were not. Gingrich won standing ovations in both debates while Romney often struggled — and at one point received a smattering of boos for equivocating over how many years of his tax returns he would release.
A majority of voters — 53 percent — said they made up their mind about who to back within the last few days.

UPDATE II: Just talked to Santorum campaign communications director Hogan Gidley, who referred to this week’s late-breaking news that Santorum won the Iowa caucuses. Romney “was going to 3-and-0 three days ago.” The subtraction of Iowa from Romney’s win column and his weak performance in two debates this week has “blown a hole in his inevitability,” Gidley said. Now each candidate has one win — Santorum in Iowa, Romney in New Hampshire and, apparently, Gingrich in South Carolina — Gidley said: “We’re starting over fresh in Florida.”

Santorum is already advertising in Florida and will unveil a new ad there Sunday.

UPDATE III: The world’s most famous homeschooling dad:

UPDATE IV: Ron Paul was ridiculously long-winded in his speech, forcing the crowd here to wait interminably for Rick Santorum’s turn. During his speech, he was cheerful and smiling, and concluded by saying, “Join the fight!”

One “Occupy” heckler was started shouting during the speech, and then another half-dozen of the “Occupiers” erupted after the speech ended. They were escorted out by security, and then police arrived to escort them off campus. The results, with 67 percent of precincts reporting:

Gingrich ……….. 41%
Romney ………… 26%
Santorum ………. 18%
Paul ……………… 13%

Notice that Gingrich’s margin over Romney (15 points) is greater than Romney’s margin over Santorum (8 points). Romney’s campaign made a strategic miscalculation. There were 11 days between the Jan. 10 New Hampshire primary and today’s primary in South Carolina. And until Monday, Romney’s mix of TV ads here still included attacks on Santorum. Once they realized  that Gingrich was gaining ground, they switch to nonstop attacks on Newt, but the weight of Romney’s ad attacks was less than the impact of Newt’s strong debates.

But Mitt’s “inevitable” mojo spell is now decisively broken, and the questions now are multiple: Can Mitt get his mojo back? Will Newt be able to avoid further “drama”? Can Santorum get the financial resources to stay in the race, hoping to be the last man standing if Newt auto-destructs? Also, given Newt’s decisive margin, was it really necessary for Perry to drop out before the primary in order to stop Mitt?

Discuss among yourselves. I’ve got a deadline tonight for the American Spectator, so that’s all the blogging I’ll be doing for a while.

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Category: Election 2012, Fear and Loathing in South Carolina, South Carolina

‘Family’ Is As Important As ‘Marriage’

Posted on | January 21, 2012 | 8 Comments

by Smitty

VA State Senator Adam Ebbin is wrong, and not just because ‘Gentleman’ Jim Moran is a buddy of his.
Via the Puffington Host:

Senator Adam Ebbin has introduced legislation which would not allow Virginia to fund or contract adoption agencies who discriminate against prospective parents on the basis of ‘race, religion, national origin, sex, age, family status, disability, sexual orientation or gender identity.’

I was quite pleased to vote for a VA constitutional amendment that says ‘marriage’ means what you think it does. And I hope that this Postmodern attempt by Ebbin to conflate the notion of ‘family’ with the Left’s usual nihilistic nonsense fails as utterly as the European societies that follow these ideas.

What people get up to in private is their own business. But if their activities cannot bear fruit, then attempting to use legislation to overcome fruitless personal choices, and tearing up the traditional father (XY) and mother (XX) definition of ‘family’ is absolutely not the answer.

May this attack on core American values fail.

Aside: go, Patrick Murray!

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Category: Virginia

South Carolina Primary Day: Before My Saturday Afternoon Nap in Charleston

Posted on | January 21, 2012 | 48 Comments

The National Affairs Desk, 8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 20, 2012.
Squinting at my computer screen while blogging about Will Folks.

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C.
Last night I lost my temper and blew up at Ben Howe, who was defending Erick Erickson’s pro-Perry bias as if it were an inconsequential thing to be shrugged off, despite its disastrous impact on the Republican primary campaign. There was a bit of back-and-forth and obviously, I recognized that Ben was arguing as a special pleader, obligated by the duties of loyalty to defend his Red State boss. But I was also personally invested, having predicted the failure of the “Phantom Menace” — and the likely consequences of that failure — before the fateful launch of the Perry bandwagon.

“What I fear will happen is that Perry will spend several months sucking up media oxygen and burning through GOP donor cash, only to collapse early next year. This will have the effect of suffocating other conservative candidates, and thereby lead to … Romney 2012.”
– Robert Stacy McCain, Aug. 9, 2011

My argument Friday night with Howe was one of those situations where wisdom would have advised, “Drop it. It’s not worth arguing about. Agree to disagree.” But sleep deprivation and too much coffee had made me irritable, and Howe seemed to me to be disingenuously dismissive of Red State’s complicity in the Perry debacle.

On the one hand, you see, Red State constantly boasts of its enormous influence among the conservative grassroots. But on the other hand, having spent many months trying to convince the grassroots that the Smilin’ Texan was The Only Man Who Can Beat Romney, now Howe was trying to pretend that this catastrophic misuse of Red State’s influence was something trivial, and that Erickson should not be held accountable for it. Tired of Howe’s refusal to acknowledge the importance of Erickson’s role, and the enormous responsibility thus borne by Perry’s leading New Media advocates, I finally blew my top when Ben mockingly asked why Erickson should ‘fess up to his error.

“BECAUSE HE WAS F–KING WRONG, AND I WAS F–KING RIGHT, AND HE WON’T F–KING ADMIT IT, THAT’S WHY!”

And then I walked out to have a cigarette and regain my composure. My sudden outburst of rage was embarrassing, despite my own certainty about the essential point: Being right should count for something in the realm of political punditry.

Perry’s botched candidacy had enormous consequences: It discouraged other candidates (including Sarah Palin) from entering the race, it encouraged Tim Pawlenty to quit the race, it robbed Michele Bachmann of the boost she otherwise would have gained for winning the Ames Straw Poll and it prevented anyone from noticing the surprisingly strong fourth-place finish at Ames by Santorum’s low-budget campaign.

Well, I could write a book about all that, but I felt like an idiot for blowing up at Ben Howe, erupting in a fury like Hitler in a Downfall parody.  I should have just walked away and let the topic drop, but didn’t. So I mention it here only as a “colorful highlight” and will drop it now to give you some of the latest headlines via Memeorandum:

Gingrich Is Well-Positioned
as South Carolina Votes
– New York Times

Doubts creep in as an awkward Mitt Romney
tries not to lose the GOP nod
– The Hill

Poll shows big swing as S.C. votes
– CBS News

Mitt Romney Campaign Begins Preparing
For Possible South Carolina Loss
– Huffington Post

America hates Newt Gingrich
– The Washington Examiner

Here’s video of Craig Robinson interviewing Rick Santorum last night:

Santorum’s party tonight will be at the Citadel in Charleston, while the other candidates will all be having their Primary Night events in Columbia. If Perry’s supporters are in a mood to celebrate tonight, they should go to the party thrown by the Romney campaign, to which they unwittingly lent such valuable assistance.

“Howdy. Thank you, Erick.”

Now I’ve got to take a nap, so I don’t get irritable again. I’m so tired I almost forgot the Five Most Important Words in the English Language: Hit the freaking tip jar!

PREVIOUSLY:


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Category: Election 2012, Fear and Loathing in South Carolina, South Carolina

Romney No’ Doin’ So Weel In SC?

Posted on | January 21, 2012 | 8 Comments

by Smitty

Leahy at Bearing Drift reports from South Carolina:

I was out of the political loop for a spell yesterday and so missed Bob McDonnell’s arrival in the state to stump alongside Mitt Romney in what appears to be, and feels like, a spectacular collapse in support for the former Massachusetts Governor. Romney, who was leading by double figures just a week ago now admits he could lose today.
A thoroughly unscientific poll I took of a group of Columbia residents on McDonnell’s visit and endorsement drew a surprisingly uniform response: “Who is Bob McDonnell?”
Even after I explained who Bob was, and how Romney had once said he he would make a good vice presidential pick, I got shrugs in return.
Sorry Bob, South Carolina just isn’t that into you. Or at least not yet.

Read the whole, interesting thing. If Newt takes SC, that means that we have three winners across the first three states. Santorum, it could be argued, should have won Iowa by a much bigger margin, if not for eight mysteriously vanished precincts. Not That The Fix Was In, mind you.

It doesn’t look like Ron Paul will make a fourth winner in as many states on 31 January in Florida. Northern Cuba seems interested in the dark haired version of Charlie Crist.

Call me perverted, but I think all of this competition is a Good Thing. Voters need to realize that we’re looking for a human being as a presidential candidate, no some kind of savior. They all, uniquely, suck. Have your say, get your opinion out and your vote in, then stand by to shelve the emotions and get that GOP nominee elected.

Also good: Romney staying with the debates. They appeal to my finely honed sense of masochism.

Update: linked by That Mr. G Guy, who is live in SC with coverage.

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Category: Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Republicans, South Carolina, Virginia

‘Turning It Around’ Is 99% Turning It Around, And Only 1% Asking ‘Can We Turn It Around?’

Posted on | January 21, 2012 | 1 Comment

by Smitty

I got people wondering aloud regarding my optimism. The alternatives are simply navigational hazards: important to recognize, but only for the sake of avoidance.

Maybe I’m just stoked from watching Scott Ott lay out the problem clearly and concisely here and here. Progressivism has worked its evil slowly, while no on paid attention. It’s a con job, built on money and fear; the notion that the End Of Washington DC As We Know It means that the sun will not rise tomorrow is malarky. I refuse to live in fear that the money taken from me for the Social Security Ponzi scheme will not be there when it’s my “turn” to pass the economic abuse onto the grandkids.

The people in the hot seat are the presidential candidates, who have to hang ten on a narrow wave of calming the anxieties about the change that must come, while not sounding so squishy and moderate as to sound accepting of the debt servitude facing all of us. Patterson over at PJ Media asks “Can America Turn It Around?“, to which Yoda replies: “Do or do not. There is no ‘try’.”
Patterson ends his first of three installments:

By the end of the 1980s, the American economy was once again the envy of humanity, and the Free World’s existential adversary the Soviet Union was on its knees.
We can say from the example of Ronald Reagan that one person can make a tremendous difference and that economies can turn around, dramatically and for the better. However, two things must be remembered:

  1. Reagan was an exceptional leader, the kind that comes around once a century, if that. He uniquely combined an optimistic temperament with a deep understanding of the defining issue of his day (communism). His policies, both economic and military, were philosophically sound and competently executed.
    It would be an understatement to say that there is no one of such caliber among our political class today — left or right — nor does there appear to be one waiting in the wings.
  2. The American people were a different breed back in 1980. Since that time, three decades of liberal assault on American traditions — in our schools and media — combined with wave after wave of illegal immigration have eroded the common bonds of affection among our citizenry, what Thomas Jefferson referred to as “consanguinity” in the Declaration of Independence.

Can America turn it around? Yes. Does the nation possess the requisite will and unity of purpose that would allow an effective and sagacious leader to make the tough decisions necessary to pull us from the brink?

  1. Communism is a kissing cousin of the Progressive assault on the Enlightenment. It’s not worth a chicken/egg analysis, but the idea that the Commie threat ended with the Reagan administration may be incorrect. Also, there was nothing too magical about Reagan. He was simply an American, and exemplified the kind of common sense to which we should all aspire. Also, we should do a better job of passing common sense onto our children. Don’t bore me with backward looks at Reagan as an excuse for accepting a crappy President in November. Drive your leaders. Let them know what the will of the people is. They only offer screwy slices when teeing off in a vacuum.
  2. The crucial difference between Americans then and now is the internet. Progressivism is predicated upon the notion that people are sheep, that the mob is clay, and that the media can be used to make the mob do stupid human tricks. People may be sheepish, and have claylike properties in mass, but the Progressives absolutely Do Not have enough media control to extinguish American exceptionalism.

One hopes to see the level of peaceful participation in 2010 replicated this year. Let us show up on the Mall with an order of magnitude more people than #OccupyDC, and not cede the ground to a pack of infantile, Progressive hippies. Because turning this situation around is mostly about doing it.

Update: linked at TrogloPundit

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Category: Progressivism

Iowa Republican Party Finally Admits That Rick Santorum Won Jan. 3 Caucuses

Posted on | January 21, 2012 | 18 Comments

CHARLESTON, S.C.
Few things in this long and frequently shabby campaign season have been more shabby than the Iowa GOP’s mishandling of the results of their first-in-the-nation caucuses. The state party mistakenly named Mitt Romney the winner on Jan. 3 and, when the final certified tally this week showed that Rick Santorum actually won, Iowa GOP chairman Matt Strawn refused to acknowledge Santorum’s victory, going on Fox News to claim the result was “inconclusive.”

Finally, late Friday night — after it was too late to make news in Saturday’s newspapers — the Iowa GOP released a brief e-mail statement affirming Santorum’s win. The long delay in this acknowledgement, in combination with the gross irregularities involved in the mistaken count on caucus night and Strawn’s subsequent attempt to discount Santorum’s win, have angered many Republicans in Iowa who feel that the state party leadership has embarrassed them.

Politico has more. There is a Memeorandum thread.

 

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Category: Election 2012, Iowa, Rick Santorum

Front Page On The GOP Final Four

Posted on | January 21, 2012 | 2 Comments

by Smitty

It’s a good thing that PJTV is pushing Alan Barton to YouTube:

The Romney income tax question gets a lot of play here. It’s a stretch to believe that an otherwise carefully crafted campaign is, unexpectedly, getting wrecked on the income tax issue.

I highly doubt there is anything surprising in Mitt’s taxes. What is useful to Mitt about this is that it walks back the whole ‘fix is in’ argument, and keeps the rest of the primaries relevant.

What’s worrisome, in the face of the #Occupy movement, is that Romney’s taxes point toward a full year of political class warfare that is both hypocritical on its face, and a vast distraction from the actual issues on which we should focus. Thanks for nothing, #OccupyResoluteDesk.

The actual Everyman candidate is Rick Santorum.

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Category: Election 2012, Republicans

Rick Santorum Crashes Blog Bash, Impresses Conservative New Media

Posted on | January 21, 2012 | 7 Comments

Rick Santorum answers questions at Blog Bash party Friday in Charleston, S.C.
At left is Alice Linahan, who arranged his attendance at the event.

CHARLESTON, S.C.
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum made a surprise appearance Friday night at an invitation-only party for conservative New Media, drinking beer, eating pizza and taking questions from bloggers and talk radio hosts.

Santorum answered on-the-record questions from many of the party attendees, including Tony Katz of All Patriots Media, Craig Robinson of TheIowaRepublican.com, Caleb Howe of Red State and Javier Manjarres of the Shark Tank, who asked Santorum about the controversy surrounding an ABC News interview with Newt Gingrich’s ex-wife:

Javier Manjarres: “You being a social conservative, do you think his past personal issues with social conservatives?”
Rick Santorum: “You have to ask social conservatives on that. The national media has been despicable in what they have done to me over the past 15 or 20 years, and what they’re doing to me right now, as you all know. These are lowlifes who dig up everything to try to undercut you and take you off your game and distract away from the real issues we’re dealing with. What you do in your public life and what you do while you’re in public life, to me, is fair game. Some of these things Newt did when he was Speaker and in public life and that, to me, is a fair-game issue. That subject [Gingrich’s divorce] is one thing. Getting into the salacious details is quite a different thing and, to me, out of bounds. “

The party, sponsored by Ali Akbar’s Blog Bash organization, was held at the Courtyard by Marriott hotel that is media headquarters for the Southern Republican Leaadership Conference which is meeting this weekend in Charleston. Santorum’s attendance at the event was arranged by Alice Linahan of Voices Empower.

UPDATE: Santorum’s answers on issues and discussion of his campaign strategy were solid, but what impressed the bloggers in attendance was his accessibility and relaxed demeanor. Few bloggers have had a chance to see Santorum outside of debates and campaign appearances.

Santorum arrived at the party — having been next door in the Fox News temporary studio for an interview with Sean Hannity — with his wife Karen and daughter Sarah, as well as several staffers, volunteers and supporters. Santorum helped himself to pizza, chicken tenders and a Blue Moon Ale. Before he could eat, however, several bloggers insisted on interviewing him.

After answering their questions, Santorum sat down to eat and was joined at his table by pollster Dick Morris, who had also been at the Fox News temporary studio at the Marriott. Several bloggers captured their conversation on camera, and continued asking questions, which Santorum answered. He went back for seconds at the buffet — getting three more slices of pizza and a Sam Adams Boston Lager.

UPDATE II: Bryan Preston of PJ Media has more about Santorum’s appearance at Friday’s blog party. During the event, Santorum was endorsed by conservative voter-integrity activist Anita Montrcrief, who blew the whistle on ACORN.

I’ll try to get more video and photos online after a while.

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Category: Election 2012, Fear and Loathing in South Carolina, Rick Santorum, South Carolina

Mitt Romney Needs More Lessons From Chris Christie

Posted on | January 21, 2012 | 8 Comments

by Smitty

The 2012 election is not an episode of Leave it to Beaver:Concluding the rebuttal with “You’re wrong!” is about an order of magnitude below the intensity needed. Let’s leave the Ward Cleaver routine on the sundeck by the pool, shall we? Suggested response:

“This country was founded in Liberty. Do you speak it? You should feel free to get yourself into the 1%, if you choose. And if you cannot, because the government of President 1% Obama has blocked your way, you need to direct your energy into either running for office yourself, and improving the situation, or voting for me, who knows extremely well how to fix the situation. Finger pointing is beneath real Americans.”

via American Power

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Category: Mitt Romney

Scott Ott With The Dry Humor

Posted on | January 20, 2012 | No Comments

by Smitty

If Ott gets any drier, he’s going to wake up British:

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Category: humor, PJTV
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