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1.4.08 @ 12:01AM

(Page 3 of 6)

First, let me state my disclaimer. I grew up in Iowa. There are many fine people who live there, BUT...

To my everlasting bafflement, who made this tiny state important? The population of Iowa is a little less than, oh say, metro Phoenix. Now. Ten percent of these people will haul themselves to their precincts to kick off the election for President of the United States. What kind of madness is this?

Don't even start with New Hampshire -- their demographics are even worse!

Just to make this all more interesting and relevant, I think it would be a good idea to have a rotating roster of all the states to kick off the primary season of the general election.
-- Judy Beumler
Louisville, Kentucky

Gee whiz, thanks Phil Klein, my glass isn't even half full like I've been trying to convince myself. This is just swell. Maybe if the Republicans lowered expectations as well we could finally see how highly qualified each and every Republican running really is?
-- Roger Ross

YEAR OF THE MIGRAINE
Re: Shawn Macomber's Rudy in Trouble and Quin Hillyer's Angry Old Man:

You folks carried several interesting columns this Iowa caucus day. Quin Hillyer had an interesting take on Sen. McCain. It has been a mystery to me for some time how folks do not seem to take a persons demeanor into account when considering a candidate for President. Our President commands the most efficient and lethal military in the world, yet we do not seem to concern ourselves with his temperament. We make a huge deal of the temperament of candidates for the office of a judge at all levels of the judicial system, yet they they do not have their finger on the nuclear button - so to speak. I look back at LBJ and his massive and volatile temper, and I don't want to see that type person in the Oval Office again. Nixon's temper was huge, albeit not as overt and volatile as that of LBJ. The stories of Hillary Clinton's temper are both legion and legend, yet the Dems have made her their designated betting favorite. John McCain's temper is every bit as vicious and volatile as Hillary Clinton's. Shouldn't that be one of the prime considerations for a person asking us to install him/her in the Oval Office?

In a similar vein, we have Mike Huckabee who has demonstrated an extremely thin skin for someone that wants to be elected to the top political job in the world. Sometimes I think that George Bush is simply oblivious to everything being said to and about him, to the detriment of his administration, Huckabee demonstrates a complete opposite trait. The Clintons with their war room operation demonstrated an extreme thin skin threshold also. Maybe it is something in the water systems in Arkansas. I know that it doesn't make me want to vote for Mr. Huckabee.

Shawn Macomber does a creditable job of discussing Mayor Rudy's journey to becoming a one- trick pony. Really, Shawn, should we be that surprised? If the mayor was running in the Dem race, he would not be so in need of his single issue, national security, campaign. I don't know, but it seems that the fact that he, as a New Yorker, is so out of tune with the main stream of the GOP on a national basis might have something to do with the situation. He is out of touch with the Repub majority on abortion, on gay rights issues, on immigration, on the 2nd Amendment and gun control issues, on the kinds of judges that he nominated to the bench in New York, etc. He could expand a little to encompass crime control, but gee he is not really in step with the party voters, except the so-called "moderates," which are really liberals. The mayor seems to have more in common with Christie Todd Whitman than Ronald Reagan.

Finally, we have the column by Carrie Sheffield. I would only like to add one piece of information to her column. She writes that some percentage of Evangelicals and other protestant groups insist that the LDS church is a "cult," and Romney, therefore, a cultist. I have a bad habit of consulting dictionaries for the meaning of words and concepts in dispute. I find that the word "cult" has at least three meanings. The first meaning is; "a system of religious worship." That would mean that Baptists, Methodists, Episcopalians, Catholic, Islamists, Jews, Buddists, Evangelicals, and more are all cultists. The second meaining is; "devoted attachment to a person, principle, etc." That would make anyone that is devoted to the candidacy of Mike Huckabee, or Barack Obama, or Ron Paul a cultist, along with the more dedicated fans of all the other candidates. This would also mean that anyone dedicated to the principle of "Conservatism" is a cultist also. I confess. That makes me a cultist, along with many others that appear here regularly as either writers or commenters. On the other side, all the believers in liberalism are also cultists. The third meaning is; "a sect." I won't pursue that, except to say that there are more "sects" in American society than one can keep track of with an abacus. The bottom line would seem to be that a huge percentage of folks in our great country are cultists, including virtually all the ones hurling the charge around about Mr. Romney. I find that particularly disheartening from the standpoint of the lessons and instructions that I find in my Christian Bible, and from the standpoint of the principles and instructions that come with, or at least used to come with, citizenship in America.

An interesting group of articles.
-- Ken Shreve

Many thanks to Messrs. Macomber and Hillyer for making me feel that 2008 will be one big migraine. Is that light at the end of the tunnel really the Hillary Express with Bill frolicking in the caboose? I'm still a Rudy guy, as I believe he's what's needed in these dangerous times, but I cannot deny some of what Mr. Macomber has written.

Thompson is a very attractive 2nd choice. McCain, ah yes, McCain, well, to be charitable, he's just the opposite side of the same coin with Hillary; arrogant, insular and elitist. If you were offended at what McCain said to Senator Cornyn during the immigration debate, just wait till "el presidente" addresses the entire country. Jimmy Carter in a cardigan, he ain't gonna be. Huckabee is a complete and total train wreak for the conservative movement. So, as I sit here at my computer, I'm thinking the only guy who really makes sense is TAS's own Michael Tomlinson. I like Mike!! Who's with me?
-- A. DiPentima

Shawn Macomber is baffled about Rudy's strategy.

I'm not. Here's why:

Letter to the Editor

topics:
John McCain, Barack Obama, Harry Reid, Hillary Clinton, Business, Religion, Islam, Abortion, Law, Supreme Court, Military, Iraq, NATO, Conservatism, Immigration, Oil, Unions