Rick Santorum bows out of gruelling GOP battle

Rick Santorum says goodbye to the White House race

The nominee for the Republican Party will be Mitt Romney. That was always a reasonable cert in this horse race. Now that Rick Santorum has bowed out it leaves Mitt with two terriers snapping at his heels. My hope was for Ron Paul to make it. Still is. But the system will give the nomination to Romney and he will lose. How he can expect to win I do not know. Many Republicans are dismissive of him. And his candidature will act as a pivot to the accusations that he is out of touch. With America fumbling its way around the margins of recession, an affluent flip-flopper may not sit well with the aspirations of Middle America.

Unless Barack Obama does something really stupid he'll win in November. And it could be so very different.

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Ten questions Floridians should ask Newt Gingrich

Newt sees the moon as a place to be - lunacy for lunar politics

Newt Gingrich is a wily old cove. He is also a bit of a lachrymose crocodile and at times a rodent in need of a scrub. James Cagney would have recognised him on occasions given some of the things he says. Anyway, seeing as Newt has more fantasies than factual policies, these are the ten best questions I think those in Florida thinking of voting for Newt should either ask him or ask themselves. Just so they are certain he's their man.

1. Is the moon made of green cheese?
2. Do you speak French?
3. Can an African-American president be a European socialist?
4. Is it OK to seek fidelity in your opponents whilst philandering yourself?
5. How big can the national debt get before you return your blind eye?
6. Does the Constitution (for which you are for) hold everything a government requires to govern?
7. Is extra-constitutional lawmaking ever justified?
8. Do you prefer big or small government?
9. Have you ever consorted with lobbyists?
10.Was working for Freddie Mac a wholely satisfying experience?

If asked in a deep and searching way these questions might reveal something of the true nature of Mr.Gingrich. None are in the "casting the first stone" category, but they are my idea of illiciting something from the waffling rhetoric and status quo talk he's been offering so far.

Anyway, it's not up to me. It's up to the good folk of Florida who happen to support the Republican Party.  I trust that they choose wisely today.

Oh, and for all Newt fans, moongazers, amateur lunatics, et al, this is for you. Mixing moonlight with Valentine's Day!

PS - It's all very innocent.

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Newt Gingrich slips past Romney to win

Newt Gingrich in ecstatic mood - he won!

Newt Gingrich has done what the money men of the Republican Party didn't want. He won the South Carolina primary. And he one big, not by a small margin. This sort of win makes the Wall Street crowd smart, their eyes filling with salty tears. Now I don't know if Newt is well named or not. The former mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, keeps newts and no doubt a lot of them have slipped through his hands as he tends to them in their tanks. Newt Gingrich was supposed to be slippery and Mitt Romney tried to portray him as such. Slippery with the facts, slippery with his marriages and slippery in Congress. But Newt fought back. He courted Piers Morgan on CNN and Piers did Newt proud. He then lambasted CNN in that debate for trying to say he wanted an "open marriage". Far from being the fall guy, one bowed and cowed by the attacks on him, Newt came out looking like a tough guy capable of being a president. It was Mitt that looked slippery. Especially over those tax returns, which are now going to be published for detailed scrutiny.

So good on Newt for winning in South Carolina. I don't think it's going to change much, though. The only change Americans will get is if the vote in Ron Paul. Anything else is rather akin to the captain on the Costa Concordia. The US economy is still saddled with colossal debt. When Dr. Paul talked about this in the debate on Thursday, the other three just stared at him, particularly Romney. I think Mitt sees Ron Paul as an eccentric aside and just smiles in a bemused manner. Odd that he claims to be a corporate hotshot successfully managing businesses, yet when it comes to the opportunity to run the country his policies are the very same ones that have run up the trillion squillion dollar debt. But that's politics for you.

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Sarah Palin says she will not run for president in 2012

Sarah is waving goodbye - to running not wheeler-dealing

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has declared she will not run for the White House next year.

Mrs Palin said in a statement that the decision came after much thought, and that she and her husband, Todd, "devote ourselves to God, family and country".

So reports the BBC. I'm glad she's not in the mix to cause the GOP problems with gaffes and guffaws. But the report adds, "The mother-of-five has signed a number of lucrative television deals, published two best-selling books and set up a successful fundraising machine." Being president would put a stop to that. Oh dear!

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Rick Perry sneers at Obama's lack of military experience

Praying for victory Rick Perry style

Rick Perry is a Texan to the core. Fifth generation. With that sort of heritage he is probably related to Stephen F Austin, the Father of Texas. But Austin was a Texan of a different sort. Secretary of State for the Republic of Texas, albeit for a short time, he died uttering these words, "The independence of Texas is recognized! Don't you see it in the papers?..." Had the republic succeeded, today Rick Perry's ambitions in Washington could be as Ambassador for Texas. But that's all history and conjecture.

Mr Perry is up and running for president - of the United States. And he is coming out hard with the rhetoric of a rattle snake. So Rick Perry served in the USAAF as a pilot and got to be a captain. All very good, but does that make him better than the current president. Hardly. It's a cheap shot to suggest that those with no experience of serving in the military are inadequately placed to serve as president. It's a bit below the belt to suggest such a thing. It also suggests a "touch of the white feather". He says, alluding to Obama, "Experience matters. Having walked in a person’s shoes, having done what these men and women in the military are doing matters to them,” Perry said. “I don’t want somebody sitting in the front-left seat of the airliner who just got their pilots license."

People say nasty things. Harry Truman was muttered about because he was "a haberdasher's son". Elliot Richardson was considered "far too patrician to be president". Ronald Reagan was described as being a "B-movie actor" in such a way as to make him out to be inferior. Rick Perry can join the sniders and snigglers if he wants to. With an evangelical zeal! But if he wants to be president let the people of America choose him on his merits and not on his ability to score cheap points.

An independent Texas is still remembered in London through photos and cuisine.

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Michele Bachmann leads Ron Paul by an eyelash

Waving to adoring supporters

Congresswoman Michele Bachmann has come out on top in the Iowa Straw Poll, although those voting only totaled 16,000 odd. Maybe they used short straws. I've just been watching Mrs Bachmann on TV. She's not my type, in rather the same way as Sarah Palin is not. It's all alabaster skinned neatness, glossed lips spouting words to the effect that God got her to where she is. Well, He gave her a close call. And who is to say that Ron Paul doesn't have God on his side. Thaddeus McCotter got 35 votes and, being named after an Apostle, did remarkably well. St.Thaddeus is the patron saint of desperate cases and lost causes.

I take my hat off to the American democratic system and the chattering classes that spread themselves into studios across the land. Currently a section of this lot are in Ames, Iowa. One character suggested that the top tier candidates were Bachmann, Perry and Romney. Ron Paul got elbowed out of the conversation. I'm watching these partisan pundits with their sleazy language and loose grip on the facts. For their edification Ron Paul came second. He nearly beat Mrs Bachmann. Ron Paul is a top tier candidate - PERIOD!!!

As the election caravan chunters around the nation, some surprises will undoubtedly occur. Newt Gingrinch may come to seize the moment. Who knows? Anyway, with Tim Pawlenty out of the running, the race is now firmly out of the blocks with two front runners sharing over 50% of the Republican constituency. Ron Paul is going to attract far more support over the next few months. Hope is has enough hot dogs to go round.

1. Michele Bachmann - 28.55% 4823 votes
2. Ron Paul - 27.65% 4671 votes
3. Tim Pawlenty - 13.58% 2293 votes
4. Rick Santorum - 9.81% 1657 votes
5. Herman Cain - 8.62% 1456 votes
6. Rick Perry (write-in) - 4.25% 718 votes
7. Mitt Romney - 3.36% 567 votes
8. Newt Gingrich - 2.28% 385 votes
9. Jon Huntsman - 0.41% 69 votes
10.Thaddeus McCotter - 0.21% 35 votes

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New Gingrich is a candidate for 2012

Newt Gingrich, onetime Speaker of the House of Representatives and champion of Marietta, Georgia is running for the presidency. His campaign is styled "Together We Will Win The Future". Here is Newt announcing his candidature -

and here is his campaign website.

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Donald Trump bows out of winnable contest

Donald Trump looking at a strong conviction

He's fired himself from a contest he says “I maintain the strong conviction that if I were to run, I would be able to win the primary and ultimately, the general election.” So says Donald Trump. Are we to miss out on a candidate with strong convictions or one with an eye on the main chance?

The Republican primaries are slimming down as each month goes by. Mike Huckabee's out, Donald Trump's out. It's a bit like a cricket match with Barack Obama doing all the bowling. Googlies at the moment.

Oh well, it makes Ron Paul's chances that much better.

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Ron Paul is joining 2012 presidential race

Ron Paul to run in 2012

So Ron Paul has announced he is running for president. Good news. He told ABC's Good Morning America of his plans. I'd have commented earlier on this but Blogger went into the blogosphere and I've just found out it's back on earth.

The list for the Republican nomination is quite crowded with previous runners also entered, such as Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee. Although, I understand Huckabee's got a day job now that may be more lucrative than anything he's previously had. And to make matters worse, most Americans don't recognise them or even remember their names. I would have thought at least Donald Trump was a household name, but he gets less than half the voters picking him out. With that hair as well! Surely he's memorable for something? Sarah Palin doesn't do much better. It seems Americans need these people constantly in front of them, a bit like McDonald's advertising hamburgers.

It's a sorry state of affairs. But then I watch Jerry Springer, Judge Judy etc and some of the people on there are in need of remedial therapy. And they are voters too. If I think along these lines too much it might make me think democracy is a scary thing. Springer had a show with feuding hillbillies on. Then he's had fat slobs, African Americans with unique names (Chantalaya, Chantaleeza, etc), grandmothers dating teenagers (maybe twentysomethings) and each one of these is empowered to give the go ahead or not to one of these GOP hopefuls or their Democratic opponent President Obama.

It's early days. Those in the 1% recognition zone should not give up hope. I see Ron Paul isn't even getting a mention yet. Today's showing might have done something, but how many ABC viewers will claim they don't him tomorrow? I hope not many, but then I'm a bit of an optimist in this regard.

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Donald Trump for president?

"Democrat, eh? You're fired!"

I can't believe this anymore than I can the Sarah Palin thing. Loads of people think Donald Trump would make a good president. Some even think he would make a great one. Now, I'd say if it was a toss-up I'd go straight for Trump. No question. He's a talented businessman, he's a people person (believe it or not!) and he's a patriotic American. And, give her her due, so is Sarah Palin. Can't take that away from her. But Trump is also abrasive. A bit tempestuous. He's also not good at collective management. He may find those phone calls to difficult senators and stroppy congress memembers a tad hard to do. And he doesn't have a political past as such, he's got a business political past. Maybe I'm wrong?

Anyway, he's rising in the polls. A bit like bread dough with the yeast getting going. Here he is as seen by the ABC pundits and penpushers.

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Sarah Palin is policy lite, platitude heavy!

I don't think there has ever been a candidate in any election since elections were invented who's been like Sarah Palin. I saw a clip of her on Have I Got News For You where she was outdoing Mrs Malaprop. I then wondered what sort of person would want to support her. Well, if you look at some of the vast array of videos available on the internet, the common expression used is "clueless". Most of her fans believe she "supports the constitution". Yet she doesn't, or didn't here, know of any one of the Founding Fathers.

Now I know it's easy to mock. Easy to criticise. But surely someone in her position should do basic homework in political and historical facts. The more she appears dimwitted the more the mockery continues. I doubt if the Founding Fathers would be that miffed in her forgetting who they were, but I guess they would be gravely offended by her cavalier approach to the attributes that are required for the presidency. Political leadership requires a belief by the electorate that one is a serious candidate. The moment the public gets a whiff of a ridiculous situation, it's like the walls of Jericho tumbling down

Or at least it usually is. What I can't fathom is that so many think she is the right one to take on Barack Obama. There are any number of crazy things she has said since she was catapulted onto the world's stage. But it isn't just her saying odd, peculiar things. Her supporters are equally vacuous, equally mesmerised by clueless thoughts. In some cases it sinks to the level of gibberish.

Very few of those purporting to want her in the White House have any idea of her policies. That's probably because she doesn't either. This isn't even mom and apple pie stuff. There's a slight sinister streak in it all. None of the supporters appear conservative in the true sense as they are ignorant of what they want to conserve. I only hope the Republican Party has regained its self-respect. If not, well, we are all in for a bumpy ride if she ever gets to be be president.

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Sarah Palin more sure about White House run

Sarah Palin does have one thing in common with the wild animals that surround her in Alaska. She has a tough hide! She's not bothered much about what is said about her. Which in one way is admirable. However, I don't think she stands much credit or merit for being put before the American people as a candidate for the presidency.

She talks about business doing the stuff of government. That government should be wound down. Sounds good, but all business needs a market to succeed. Her simple solutions do not create markets.

She talks about lowering taxes, yet would spend what it takes to fight wars, especially in Afghanistan. So no charity at home, where most think it should start.

She talks about Christian values, yet, as in the clip below, she likens humans to a mother bear. Sort of survival of the fittest. So if you are in any way physically or mentally disabled, then don't complain if you can't get at the salmon too quickly.

All her rhetoric is simple and rather cruel in all honesty. She sees it as her own reality. Personally, I just see a woman who is hard as nails underneath with not a lot of the caring soul about her. I wish I didn't think like that. She has hijacked the word conservative and given it a thorough going over. Out comes an altogether different meaning. Authoritarian, ruthless and rather dispassionate.

I feel I'm a conservative. I wish to conserve what is good about the human condition and change what needs changing. Maybe I'm oldfashioned. Anyway, she's at home on Fox News. Nobody there got where they are without fangs and finely-toned fingers!

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Sarah Palin not quite sure about White House run

The last time Sarah Palin looked out of her kitchen window she was very certain she could see Russia. At the moment she is mulling over whether to run for the Presidency next time round. As fevered speculation mounts, she replies that she just wants to "look at the lay of the land". Well, it didn't "lay" in Russia. Maybe her best hope of seeing the lay of the land is watching a goose lay a golden egg. Her policies are best summed up as a golden curate's egg. Shiny shell and smooth with lots of rich texture but with a mixed bag inside. Maybe it's all some kind of a yoke?

As far as the lie of the land is concerned, well that's nearer to Washington and its far more fenced in and cultivated with an assortment of crops all springing up. She'll need all the help she can get to bring home the harvest.

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Sarah Palin's radar picks up no signals

Sarah Palin has told Oprah Winfrey that a run for the presidency in 2012 is not on her radar. The thing about radars is that they can pick up extraordinary things. In some cases, the operator thinks there's an extraterrestrial object out there. In any case, it's no good looking at the radar today. Palin needs to keep checking the equipment. I bet she'll find at least a few blips on the screen. One or two neocons popping up, a couple of Alaskan oil workers, fundamentalist Bible-bashers, all kinds. Even detractors blowing her a few raspberries!

The first maxim of politics is "Never say never". She didn't say never, but she implied the radar would and that her radar is working well. "It's not on my radar screen right now", she told Oprah, as if to say it might flicker across the screen at a later date. She'll need to keep the electricity flowing through it as much as she has a growing band of eager-beaver nominators. There could come a time when they all ask "is this the time, Sarah?" and she replies, "Radar Says NO!"

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