Ron Paul Revolution Not Over

Apparently the Ron Paul Nation is still very much alive and well, most recently showing up to the Silver State’s GOP convention and out-organizing the establishment. The Las Vegas Sun reports that the convention chairman, in desperation one presumes, recessed the convention without selecting delegates.

Partisan Rancor Spreads to Christmastide?

Indeed, with the campaign season and the Christmas season coinciding this year, top greeting card producers have devised a way to make a buck off of rampant partisanship. The expanded greeting card racks at fine retailers everywhere have been spiced up with gems like the one with picture of Dubya on the cover exlaiming, “I’ve got three words for you!” The punch line inside? “Merry Christmas!”

Targeting the GOP demographic, on the other hand, is what you see above. Great, eh? Feel free to disseminate via email to your Republican friends. You can blame my Moto RazR for the poor picture quality.

Thompson to Run on ‘08, Sources Say

Today’s Brian and the Judge radio show, co-host Brian Kilmeade reported that Fred Thompson–the Great Hope for Republicans disenchanted with 2008 Presidential race frontrunners Giuliani, McCain, and Romney–will indeed throw his hat into the ring later this year. Kilmeade claimed to have spoken to someone as “close to Thompson as his wife,” who said that Thompson “definitely will run,” but not until September. No reason was stated for the late entry, which provides a great source of speculation.

 americanrevolution is most definitely in the business of speculation on such things, and sees things in the Thompson case thus: This is a risky move with potentially big payoffs. Why is it risky? Well, as the pundits quipped on Brian and the Judge, all the best campaign personnel will already have been snapped up by the frontrunners. Furthermore, to begin fundraising in the fall and well after many key contributors will already have made donations to the existing frontrunners will present a hurdle as Thompson begins filling the war chest. These are all valid concerns. However, a late entry in the race does offer several advantages. First, with the highly abbreviated attention span of the American public by way of the media, Thompson will present a somewhat fresh face at a point when the buzz surrounding the current crop of contenders will be fading somewhat. Furthermore, Thompson will have time to watch Giuliani, McCain, Romney, etc., and to craft his image to represent a strong alternative to those guys who disappoint so many conservatives. Furthermore, he will by entering the race immediataly gain the support of far-right conservatives who refuseto stomach the pro-abortion Giuliani, the Mormon Romney, and the confusing maverickishness of McCain.

 So if he can overcome the aforementioned hurdles, which are rather substantial, he may just have something. americanrevolution is interested first to see if the report of Thompson’s September Splash is true, and if so how things will play out.

Are We There Yet?

The din of defeatism is so loud on Capitol Hill these days when it comes to Iraq. Even Republicans are joining the cry in the interest of trying to prolong their political careers. Shame on these spineless Congressmen. While many are joining the wave of defeatist paranio, some Americans still understand the grave situation the nation would find itself in if the Democrats were to declare defeat and evacuate US troops from Iraq. They realize that, as Dick Cheney bluntly explained today, that the casualties US forces have suffered in Iraq are worth the lives saved in keeping nuke-toting terrorists off American soil. So like these perspective folks, I remain in full support of the action in Iraq, despite being well aware of past missteps and wary of more in the future. And as such it just makes me tired all over to hear this whining about Iraq.

I heard the most perfect analogy on Spencer Hughes’ radio program today. A caller said something to the effect that these whining defeatocrats remind one of the kids in the back seat that keep whining ‘are we there yet?’ The Dems (and a some of these despicable fair-weather Republicans) should grow up and act responsibly rather than pandering to masses. No we aren’t at the Grand Canyon yet. Unfortunately, in our case to turn around and go back means to declare with trumpets blaring America’s gross impotence. That is unacceptable. So if you don’t like it, shut up or bring a solution to the table.

Double Standards of Political Correctness

Funny how the response to what is said is determined by who says it. Let’s be honest-if a Republican commented that Barack Obama, the fresh young Senator from Illinois, is “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” well, the media, the DNC, the intelligentsia-heck, just about everyone-would waste no time in demanding an apology, and the more extreme factions within each of the aforementioned groups would be haughtily muttering accusations of racism just above their collective breaths. It obviously insinuates that prior to Mr. He’s-so-hot-right-now Obama’s rise to prominence, there existed no clean-cut and competent African American statesmen. That’s a pretty unequivocable slap in the face of the African-American community and beyond.

And yet, it was not a Republican congressman who remarked such. It was 2008 Presidential hopeful Joe Biden, a Democratic congressman from Deleware (CNN).  Now two weeks later, the incident seems to be all but forgotten. But it was not the only recent racially-insensitive remark by a congressman this month, and indeed another Democrat. South Carolina’s Robert Ford proclaimed earlier in the month that “Obama winning the primary would drag down the rest of the party…Every Democratic candidate running on that ticket would lose because he’s black and he’s at the top of the ticket” (Associated Press). Ford summed it up rather nicely: “I love Obama, but I’m not going to kill myself.”

Even if these remarks are made by Democrats in the context of Obama’s impact on the party, they still should provide a grand display of the mass hypocrisy of the party that claims to be the party of the minorities, the poor, the middle class, and of tolerance. If a Republican were to stand up and say Obama could not win the Presidency because he is Black, they would be burned in effigy. Somehow, these utterances from Democratic lips are easily forgiven and forgotten.

For reference, consider two historical cases. Republican Trent Lott made a racially-insensitive remark in 2003 and was forced to resign his post as majority leader in the Senate. Conversely, Robert Byrd, a documented Ku Klux Klan leader until at least the late 1940s, became in 2006 the longest serving Senator in US history (Wikipedia). Yes, he was a Democrat.

As long as Democrats can get away with publicly-voiced disrespect for African-Americans, no progress will be made toward a time where when we mention the Senator from Illinois, the parenthetical notation of his race is no longer obligatory. That, my fellow Americans, should be the real story here.

www.barackobama.com

A Little More Talk, A Lot Less Action

David Welna’s piece for NPR (click here) captures the mood of the Senate as it debates the vote on the non-binding resolution condemning the President’s proposed “surge” of troops in Iraq. Obfuscation reigns as political posturing dictates the path to a vote (or not) on a resolution that effects nothing but to say that the majority of the Senate opposes the “surge.” This, folks, is Washington, D.C. at its best. Kansas’ Pat Roberts put it best:  ”We appear like lemmings, splashing in the sea of public concern, frustration,  and anger over the war in Iraq.”