BFD. John McCain Clinches The Nom!

Doing what everyone fully expected, John McCain sewed up the GOP nomination tonight.  Now, for McCain, it’s on to the general election!  If only, the Democrats would hurry up and let him know who to concentrate fire at… 

Ok, so McClain clinched.  Now what? 

Let’s talk VPs!  Who will McCain pick?

Darned if I know, but one has to wonder if Huckabee stayed in the race as long as he did just to be able to say he got the second most amount of delegates and thus has a case for the #2 slot on the GOP ticket.  Even though Huckabee undeniably would have appeal in certain parts of our great nation, I can’t see McCain going in that direction.  I suspect that whatever voters Huckabee would be able to bring to McCain’s campaign, he’d also cost McCain in independent voters who are scared of Huckabee’s penchant for wanting to remake our constitution courtesy of his bible.

BFD… Mitt Romney Endorses John McCain! World Yawns…

Today’s BFD… Mitt Romney endorses John McCain.  Wow!  I’m shocked. 

You mean after all that bad blood, Romney is going to turn around and say that John McCain is the best guy to lead our country after all?  Romney changing positions, that’s new…

But really what choice was Mitt Romney left with?  Was he really going to bet his political future on “Miracle” Mike Huckabee?  Don’t think so.

Romney is a flipper but an endorsement of Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama seems a stretch even for him.

Everyone loves a winner and of course, so does Romney.  It’s his best shot of staying relavant.

So, it’s no surprise that Romney has endorsed McCain.  But, what exact value does the Romney endorsement bring to the McCain camp?

Hmmm…  Guess we’ll put Utah in the McCain camp. 

Other than that, with a campaign that sqaundered away tens of millions only to find a complete lack of enthusiasm for his candidacy, I don’t see how a Mitt Romney stamp of approval is going to help McCain.

BFD… Colin Powell May Not Vote For GOP

Colin Powell announced he might not vote for the Republican candidate this November.  Then again, he just may.If this was 1994, I guess I might care.  Unfortunately for Powell, it’s 2008.  Having been used and abused by a Bush Administration that made him the front man in the argument for a faulty war, these days the former general is mostly irrelevant.

Powell is left to wonder what might have been.  What if he had decided to launch his own bid for the presidency back when he was America’s hero?  What if he had not accepted a post in the Bush White House?  What if I could think of a stronger question to end this post with?

Oh yeah, here’s one to go out on.

Who in America is going to be swayed by Colin Powell’s endorsement of a presidential candidate?

Answer:  Sadly, no one.

Powell has only himself to blame.

Does Mitt Romney Really Understand How America Works?

With upwards of 40 million dollars of his own cash sunk into his campaign, Mitt Romney dropped out of the Presidential Race today.  Inside, he must be wondering if it had been a wise investment. 

For 40 million, you think he would have bought California or at least New Jersey.  Instead he ended up winning the two states he and his father had governed, Utah a gimme state for a Morman candidate and a handful of other states, most of which have higher animal than human populations.  For someone touting his business credentials, he’s a little fuzzy on the concept of return on investment (bang for the buck to you and me).

Which brings me to the question of how candidates like Romney get taken seriously in the first place.  It goes to the American character.  We admire the rich.  We somehow think that they must be smarter than the rest of us.  We believe that if someone’s made a fortune then they must be competent at all things. We ignore all the jobs Romney lost while running companies into the ground.  We only see the money he was able to get away with for himself.  Furthermore, we ignore the basic truth than excelling in business and excelling as a government leader are two different skill sets.

As for me, if I have any bias, I must admit I am completely turned off by self-financed candidates.  I think it has to do with my upbringing.  In our family, we had more of a European point of view.  Namely, unless we were one of them, we did not trust the rich.  We viewed the rich in many instances as simply more lucky than us or better connected.  The evidence told us we were right.

When you think of the long history of Europe it makes a lot of sense.  In old Europe, your lot in life was often determined way before you’d ever been conceived.  You either had a silver spoon or you didn’t.  And if you were born to wealth, you seemed destined to only get more richer in your lifetime.  Sadly, America is becoming more like old Europe.  John Edwards will explain…

My family understood that the rich have it plenty good in America.  Despite the easy target of social entitlements for the poor or middle class, we knew not the fall for that old diversion.  While everyone’s up in arms about spending money to insure poor kids, the truth is America does much more for its rich than its poor. 

America is a great place to be rich.  America should be business friendly.  We must continue to make it a country where people have the ability to rise and fall based on their own abilities. This is after all what brought my family to this great nation. But, as with anything, there’s a limit.  We need to work on closing the ever widening gap between the rich and poor in this country.

Maybe when that’s done, I’ll believe a sob story from a guy wiping away his tears with 100 dollar bills.

Wesley Snipes Beats Tax Rap. Can Romney Endorsement Be Far Behind?

Word came out that action hero Wesley Snipes beat the tax cheat case against him today.  If  you’re following politics at all these days, you know it’s all the rage if you’re a Republican to have a tough guy action star endorse you.  Huckabee’s got Chuck Norris.  And McCain just grabbed Arnold’s backing.  It’s time for Romney to make a call.

Yesterday, I outlined a few folks Mitt’s campaign could consider.  I left out Snipes because of his involvement in the tax case.  Now that he’s got a clean record on the issue, here are the pros and cons for the Romney campaign to consider as decide whether or not to seek Wesley’s support:

 Wesley Snipes

Pro:Think at this point, he’s probably tougher than either Chuck Norris or California’s Governator.  That could come in handy.  Snipes could help widen Romney’s appeal.  And finally after his court case, you know Wesley must be anti-tax, anti-big government just like Romney is now.

Con:Conservatives won’t dig that he played a drag queen in “To Wong Fo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar”.  And you never know when he’s going to leave the campaign for the latest sequel to Major League.

Hmmmm…  Stallone, Chan, Van Damme, Seagal, or Snipes.  I’d hate to have to make that call. 

If nothing else, it will be a good test of Romney’s decision making skills.

Fred Thompson Back In The Day

I know he’s gone, but here’s a quick video covering the early days of Fred Thompson’s uninspired run for the White House. 

Please watch and then ask yourself “how did we not know?”

PS – Love the golf cart! 

Has Rudy Giuliani Fired Someone Yet?

Message to you Rudy.  It’s an old song by the Specials, a UK band I listened to during my younger years.  And it’s also the topic of this posting.

Rudy.  Rudy.  What are you and your people thinking?  Do you actually have PAID advisers helping out on your now long-shot bid for the presidency?  You know, it didn’t have to be this way, Mr. Mayor.

But before we get to what your campaign has done wrong, let’s take a look at what you’ve done right.  You got rid of the comb over.  Big props for that.  Hopefully, hair challenged men the world over will now realize a close cropped head of hair beats the comb over every time.  And you mention 9/11 like you’re the subliminal message guy in the old SNL skits.  Predictable perhaps, but it’s been effective for you, sir.  Somehow people have connected the dots from you being a good responder to the aftermath of terrorist attacks with actually being effective at stopping them.  Not saying you couldn’t, Rudy, but being Churchill-like after 9/11 doesn’t prove you can actually stop anything.  Finally, you and your folks should take great pride in recognizing that this year’s race, with all the shifted primaries, would be unlike any before.

And here’s where it falls apart.  Yes, Team Rudy quickly grasped the primaries were set up differently this time out and you all deserve credit for factoring that change into your strategy.  The problem is the strategy you chose, ignore almost all the races til Florida, was at best naive and at worst criminally stupid if you are trying to get yourself elected president.

How could you, Mr. Giuliani and your advisers not realize that:

a) momentum means something

b) people love a winner

c) press coverage follows the winner of the early races like Iowa & New Hampshire

d) And money stalks the winners too

Sure, at one point, Rudy, you could claim to hold a sizable lead in national polling.  But now that’s all a distant memory along with your lead in the Florida race that you’ve pinned all your hopes on.

Rudy, you aren’t winning Florida and in fact, you will soon be joining Thompson on the sidelines commiserating about what could have been.  But at least your hair will look presidential.  And, take heart, that’s more than a lot of guys can say.

Bonus Picture of Rudy with Comb Over:

And now Rudy after:

Please share this with all balding men that are tempted to comb over.  Thank You.

Extra special bonus pic of The Specials:

Fred Thomas Drops Out To Get Back To Napping

Well it’s about time!  Fred Thompson, who has shown so little passion for the Republican nomination, officially dropped out of the race and now has much more time available to nap. 

In this surprising election year, Thompson might be the candidate who’s surprised the most.  When Thompson started testing the waters in ’07, Conservatives across the nation where salivating at getting the chance to elect another folksy actor as commander in chief.  He cast himself as the heir to Ronald Reagan and Republicans across the country fell for it. 

And then a strange thing happened.  He waited and waited to jump into the race officially.  That should have been the immediate tip off, but for those of us a little slow on the uptake, it took a bit more.  Thompson finally got into the race late and then kicked off his campaign by showing little interest in actually campaigning.  You’d figure as the last guy in that he’d have to sprint to make up ground.  Apparently Fred Thompson didn’t see it quite that way.  Instead, the former senator & fine character actor scheduled few events, made supporters wait at others and canceled yet others.  Finally, he was quoted a few months in to the campaign as saying he didn’t have a deep desire to run for president.

Excuse me, Fred.  I understand that some politicians, most notably both Clintons, get dinged for excessive ambition.  But, if you aren’t really into running for president, then how about getting out of the way? 

Never have so many gotten so excited over so little effort.