My friend and New Orleans radio/TV host Jeff Crouere and I will
do an online chat at 11:30 Central time (20 minutes from now) about
the presidential race. The chat will be on-line at www.wgno.com the website for the ABC
affiliate in New Orleans, Channel 26.
People can participate by going on www.wgno.com at 11:30 a.m.
CST. There will be a big front page link for the chat on the home
page of the site. Once they click on the link, they will go to a
chat box where they will be able to see questions, answers and
responses from other people. They will be able to ask questions,
make comments, etc.
UPDATE: This link might be better:
http://www.abc26.com/news/local/wgno-ringside-politics-web-chat-the-gop-presidential-race-can-rick-santorum-hold-his-lead-atop-the-polls-20120214,0,2998685.htmlstory
Garfield| 2.15.12 @ 3:54PM
Posted this in some other threads but I think people need to read this:
I don't think Santorum can beat Obama, he stands a much better chance than Romney (whom is the absolute worst possible choice).
I think people are counting out Gingrich way too soon, how many times has his campaign been declared dead only to come back again. Each time cause he's been attacked/smeared by the drive by media.
Obama wants Romney to be the nominee.
Obama only considers Santorum to be a possible threat.
Obama and the establishment are terrified of Newt Gingrich, I think he's our best choice and if he was really as unelectable as they have claimed, they would have been treating him with kid gloves (like they do for Romney), it would be him they were propping up instead of Santorum.
Stop and think people, Romney had to launch the biggest smear campaign in primary history to carry Florida. He did it with the help of the establishment and surprisingly from the Obama regime.
I don't want to send someone to Washington to win popularity contests, I want things to get fixed and no more kicking cans down the road. I want the establishment to have panic attacks when our nominee beats Obama. I don't want them expecting business as usual.
Folks we're running against a class-warfare ideologue with a silver tongue. We need someone that the class warfare rhetoric won't work on, and can tell the truth better than Obama can lie.
I know people don't like the current field of candidates, fine.
Everyone needs to stop looking at the polls, not give them credibility they don't deserve (they are trying to manipulate us into choosing who Obama wants to run against and/or is the most like Obama), and look at Obama's baggage, then look at Romney's, then look at Santorum's, then look at Gingrich, then look at Paul's.
Romney's Baggage:
- Bain Capital (in the general it will be baggage Gingrich was right to bring this up)
- offshore bank accounts
- "I don't care about the poor." remarks
- "I like firing people," remarks.
- Romneycare (which puts our chief issue off the table cause Obamacare is based off of Romneycare)
- 2005 mandating religious hospitals provide abortions in Massachusetts (you can argue this that or the other, if he was really staunchly opposed to this, he would have taken this all the way to the US Supreme Court)
- the shannigans to try to get him the nomination that have happened in Virginia, Maine, now in Indiana, heck I'm not sure he legitimately won Florida, they could have selectively counted the ballots (this is due to what happened in Maine, if the Romney camp would pull stunts like this in Maine, can we really trust the results of any other state he won).
- He has alienated much of the base to the point they have to hold a coin toss as to whether to vote for "Obamney" or Obama.
- George Soros approved
- Romney's own supporters (seriously when you start calling people whom are critics of Romney anti-mormon bigots, you further alienate the people you're trying to get to support Romney).
- Stuff we don't know about yet, folks Romney hasn't truely be vhetted at all. The media has been treating him with kid gloves, that should be a warning for everyone.
- Record as Massachusetts Governor (Rick Perry was right, this is a negative for Romney)
Santorum baggage:
- Remarks bashing tea party.
- Reputation for lots of earmarks (he can be seen as part of the problem)
- Remarks that can seem sexist
- He has a tendency to let the left define the issues. This contraceptive issue was in part a trap for Santorum, instead of going off and let the left define it, he should have flat out switched it back and said this is a fight over forcing people to fund abortions in violations of their religious beliefs.
- He hasn't been vhetted yet, I'm sorry but trying to kick Gingrich to the curb when we don't know that much on Santorum and how he holds up is idiotic.
- He doesn't have a history of standing up to the establishment in his own party.
- no executive experience
Gingrich Baggage:
- Consultant for Freddie Mac (this would be a major problem except for the fact we are running against someone that used his position as US Senator to protect Fannae and Freddie, also Gingrich is on record against the bailout of those two government entities)
- Personal life (if our economy was like it was in 1996, this would be a problem, however with so many Americans out of work, I don't think this would be a big issue, especially when people discover that a lot of the stories they were told about it were flat out lies).
- The ethics violations
Gingrich can easily turn this against the Democrats and the establishment by painting it as an attempt by the "establishment, particularly Democrats" to get rid of him, because he wouldn't let them do the things that got us into the mess we're in. Fact is, Gingrich can post up the IRS report exonerating him, the CNN article from 1999, etc. I think Gingrich is planning on the Democrats trying this attack and then hit them over the head with it from nomination to election day. With how unpopular congress is, and Gingrich having not been in public office since I think 1998, he actually can seperate himself from the negative approval ratings of congress easily.
- Fact the establishment hates him (given the approval ratings of the establishment this could actually help Gingrich in the general).
- Fact Gingrich is know for "unrealistic ideas" (Gingrich can point to the "unrealistic ideas" that came true and paint a difference between himself and the establishment. He can show he comes up with solutions while the Establishment just wants to continue the status quo)
- Gingrich supposedly gets angry easily (this is coming from what the establishment says, remember people are really upset with the establishment)
- Gingrich is disorganized (okay? A lot of good leaders seem disorganized, furthermore remember the fiscal shape we were in when Gingrich was speaker of the house, do you really think people are going to buy that argument?)
- Gingrich isn't politically correct (again how does this hurt him, he's actually turned this into a positive).
- coup to remove him as speaker (remember folks how unpopular Congress is now, remember also the last balanced budget we had was created when he was speaker of the House, everything started going downhill after he was no longer Speaker of the House, I think one of the people responsible for the coup actually later ended up going to prison for corruption, so again Gingrich can turn this into a positive in the General election)
Ron Paul baggage:
- FOREIGN POLICY (sorry but being unable to understand why we shouldn't allow a bunch of fanatics that think they go to paradise for killing infidels get their hands on a nuclear weapon kinda makes him unelectable). (not even going to comment on his comments on Israel which also alienates our base and anyone that believes we should stand up for our allies, particularly one that has stood with us even when it wasn't conveinent for them.
- His stuffing earmarks in bills and then voting against the bills he stuffed the earmarks in, so he can claim he never voted for an earmark. (Puts his credibility in question)
- no executive experience
Ron Paul supporters, make no mistake I think some of Paul's domestic ideas are very good. If the Presidential election was just about the domestic issues, I would actually say given the Federal Reserve's shannigans, that Ron Paul would be the best choice. However, this isn't just about Domestic Policy, and Ron Paul's foreign policy is dangerously naive at best (and I'm being charitable).
Newt Gingrich has adopted some of Paul's domestic policies, intends for there to be an audit of the Federal Reserve. So he is taking Paul's policy ideas seriously and giving them serious thought. I don't believe Romney would give Dr. Paul's policy ideas the same honest looking at that Gingrich is.
Heck I wouldn't be surprised if a President Newt Gingrich would have Ron Paul be put in charge of the audit of the Federal Reserve and investigation of their shannigans. Cause if they were doing something illegal, I guarentee Ron Paul would find it.
Obama's Baggage -- The person we need to defeat in november.
- Used position as US Senator to protect Fannae Mae and Freddie Mac from scrutiny.
- Reverend Wright
- Crony capitalism
- Obamacare (something Romney can't go after, Gingrich, Santorum, Paul, and the people that are no longer in the race can all go after Obama on this issue) (Aside, to Santorum supporters: Gingrich actually can go after Obama on this with just as much credibility as Santorum, if not more so by saying it was a mistake to ever even support a concept like the individual, the proof that it is an unconstitutional powergrab, is Obama's own core legislative achievement, etc. In doing this, he also destroys the attempted narrative concocted by his critics that he is arrogant).
- Bill Ayers (part of his radicalism, and we know there is one candidate that would go after him on this and has already (Gingrich))
- Saul Alinski radical (Gingrich has already called Obama this)
- George Soros (Romney is approved by Soros too, so Romney can't go after Obama there)
- ACORN (well everyone in the election can go after Obama on ACORN except Romney thanks to what happened in Maine)
- Tendency for his supporters to call his critics racist (this would have looked plain stupid if Herman Cain was the nominee, and Gingrich has already taken the Obama loving media apart on this while the other candidates were afraid to challenge it)
- Obama's record as President (Romney has his mixed record in Massachusetts which could help or hurt Romney; Santorum and Paul have no record; Gingrich has a record of a balanced budget, trumped up ethics violations (which were later proved bogus by the IRS, which proves Gingrich was the victim of a partisan if not establishment based witchhunt), the coup by the establishment and the fact that we can trace the budget starting to go more and more out of whack for every year since then).
When you get right down to it, the person with the best record of accomplishments, the baggage that Obama would have the most problems attacking, the one most able to show Conservatives are the ones with ideas and Obama has nothing but rhetoric, is Newt Gingrich.
Occam's Tool| 2.15.12 @ 9:20PM
Hey, I voted for Santorum in the Caucus, but if the Newtster gets the nomination, I'll be working for him, donating to him, and voting for him. Same for Romney.
But I'm not going to vote for Clint's guy. No way. Paul is an asshole.