Tag Archives: election

The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of

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So Andrea Mitchell on her program yesterday on MSNBC I think ran a clip of a Mitt Romney ad seeking HispanicLatino support.  I guess that was what he was doing.  It might have been an old ad when he ran for governor or senator.  Three weeks after saying if Congress passed the Dream Act he as President would veto it, the idea of a Romney commercial seeking HispanicLatino votes is indeed an illusion.

True, not all HispanicLatinos support the proposal to assist college-age students who are in the country illegally, most for no fault of their own.  But whether a majority of HispanicLatinos support the Dream Act is not as important as what Romney’s sentiments represent: A red target that he and the other Republican candidates have painted on the backs of all HispanicLatinos.

More interesting than ascertaining if most HispanicLatinos support the act is determining whether any of the dreamers, as I call these holders of our future, are or were the children of the subcontracted undocumented workers that used to take care of Romney’s lawns and shrubs.  I presume the well-resourced Obama campaign is looking into this matter, as well as to the possibility that Romney’s investments in more than 70 companies that led to workers losing their jobs might have included any HispanicLatinos. Continue reading →

Authenticity: The Menendez Margin

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There is a reason beyond the obvious as to why Sen. Bob Menendez could be the most important HispanicLatino politician in the country today.  Yes, being a member of the Senate and of its majority party helps.  But Menendez’ strength is not simply institutionally derived.  Rather, he can speak in a credible way in English and in Spanish that eludes other prominent HispanicLatinos and being able to do so bequeaths him with the most important tool that all political leaders must have: The power to communicate.  Money might be the mother’s milk of politics but the ability to communicate effectively is its currency.  As such, Menendez could be one of President Obama’s most important tools for re-election.  Continue reading →

Well-dressed by the Depression

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The advertisements for Joseph A. Bank, the men’s clothier with its ubiquitous advertising, scare me.  Buy one suit, get two suits, two shirts and two ties absolutely free.  I do not know what the first suit costs but two additional suits, two shirts and two ties at no charge?  Hardly seems possible, unless we are heading for an economic depression. Continue reading →

The Soldiers Return, the Soldiers Vote

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All the left-over hubbub about Iowa yesterday left me thinking about a truck that drove by on a freeway near Dallas with white-washed lettering splashed across its rear cab window.  It was not a new truck.  It had the weathered look of real work.  The driver was not displaying his support for a team involved in the high school football playoffs.  Instead, the ghostly lettering proclaimed, “Welcome home!  Merry Christmas!”  On either side of the window, a red and gold decal of the Marine Corps framed the message.

I have no idea how the returning soldier population and their immediate families are going to vote in this year’s election.  I wonder if any or all of them will remember that Barack Obama brought them home from the useless and costly lie that was Iraq.  I think about those who died, were maimed or are now psychologically impaired, and I am thankful that Obama defeated John McCain.  Had he been elected, McCain would not have ended Iraq and might have expanded military operations there.  That is what military men do. Continue reading →

Rick of the Saints

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It seems so long ago that in the 1960 presidential election a Catholic candidate was fighting for his political life.  John F. Kennedy won by a whisker, fending off religious bigots.  Probably 75 percent of the country has been born since then and Catholicism no longer matters, for the most part, to a vast majority of voters.  It means more to people today that Mitt Romney is a Mormon, yet it says as much that a Catholic, Rick Santorum, might be the choice of evangelical Christians when the conservative wing of the Republican Party makes its stand in the South against Romney – whose forebears were the ones who feared Kennedy the most.

The fact that the South might block Romney’s push for the nomination says more about the Catholic Church than it does about the Republican presidential circus.  That a Catholic candidate like Santorum (whose name in Latin means “of the saints”) is so right-wing in his philosophy tells us how the Church has changed – and how it intends to grow its role in national political affairs.  Continue reading →

After Iowa, a GOP for the Future?

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Iowa Republicans today will begin to decide which version of the Republican Party will prevail for this election year but more so the immediate future.  Not really understanding how the world has changed around them, Republicans have allowed anger to walk them into a social and demographic trap.  In almost every way, Republicans do not understand that their perception of the world does not remotely comport with reality – and that most people are tired of nastiness. Continue reading →

From W to Newt: Downward, Ever Downward

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I remember watching George W. Bush on television at one of his first group meetings with foreign leaders.  It was a NATO summit meeting of European leaders in Brussels six months after he took office.  As the leaders gathered for the traditional group picture, they stood around the nervous President of the United States, who at one point looked up and behind him to laugh at something one of the leaders had said.  In that split second, Bush looked like a lost schoolboy, out of his element.  I will never forget the thought I had then.

This country is rich – rich enough to squander the Presidency.

Any country that would elect a neophyte and a person so lacking in intellectual depth was presumptuously wealthy enough to risk the Presidency on someone whom I was convinced would be a disaster.  I had only a clue from someone who knew him how much of a debacle was at stake.  Now we all know.  The same thought came to me as I watch the spectacle of today’s Republican presidential candidates.

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No Newt is a Good Newt

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A cardinal rule in politics holds that you cannot beat somebody with nobody.  Another rule becomes operational when the first rule is violated:  Political animals roam the landscape in search of a political void.  Another reality is that journalism is not dead – meaning no one should crown Newt Gingrich just yet.

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Texas: Justices, Help Turn History Back

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U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and his fellow justices are being asked to stop redistricting maps in Texas drawn by three federal judges who voided the plan of the state Legislature.  The three judges concluded state lawmakers purposefully diluted the strength of minority populations.  The 2010 Census confirmed that minorities provided the vast majority of the state’s demographic growth since 2000.  Scalia oversees appeals from Texas.  The Court’s response could be instructive to other states.

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A Different Kind of Tea Party

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My tea this morning is perfect.  As Premier of China and head of government and the State Council, I seldom get a bad cup of tea.  The intra-party struggles have been resolved.  We seem to be managing that burst of inflation that reared its head in the economy.  Our balance of payments continues to grow spectacularly in our favor.  Things are fine.  We need to open up credit a bit more, but generally we are on our way.  Why do I feel so odd, then?

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