Postmortem.

   There is so much to take away from the GOP debate last night that I don't even know where to start.

First, let me say congrats to Jeb for finally growing a pair. Unfortunately for him, though, it might be too little too late. The orange colored one seems to have his number. Yes Jeb, if you are running as a right wing republican demagogue, you can "insult your way to the presidency".

Then there was Chris Christie. He actually said that he would shoot down Russian jets if they violated the no fly zone. What's another World War among friends?  Then, to top it off, he actually called Obama a "weakling".

"“My first phone call would be to Vladimir, and I’d say, ‘Listen, we’re enforcing this no-fly zone,'” Mr. Christie said on MSNBC. “And I mean we’re enforcing it against anyone, including you. So don’t try me. Don’t try me. Because I’ll do it.”

 

Mr. Christie went on to say that Mr. Putin was “punching above his weight” and called Mr. Obama “this weakling in the White House.”' [Source] 

 

I got news for you Chris, anyone who goes against you is "punching up above his weight". (Sorry I couldn't resist.) But you might want t ease up on all the bluster just a little bit. Leave all the crazy talk for trump. No one is buying your tough guy I'm from Jersey, act. That little bridge issue you had has pretty much doomed all chances  you ever had of becoming president.

 

Carly was ....well... Carly. As is always the case she told a story that wasn't quite connected to reality.

 

"Carly Fiorina today stood by her debate claim about a general she said was pushed out by President Obama, even though that general did not serve in this administration.

 

She railed against how the current president has ignored advice from top generals, saying she would “bring back the warrior class.”

Fiorina said, “Petraeus, McCrystal, Mattis, Keane, Flynn, every single one of these generals I know, every one was retired early because they told President Obama things that he didn’t want to hear.”

Now, General David Petraeus left for other reasons, but another issue in what she said was with the mention of Jack Keane, a former Army general and current Fox News analyst.

 

On Fox Business this morning, Keane told Stu Varney what Fiorina said was inaccurate since he served under George W. Bush, not Obama." [Source]

But I saved the best for last. My man Ted Cruz was in rare form as he went back and forth with Marco Rubio. (When my grandfather came to America) Unfortunately Ted forgot that he was talking to millions of Americans and some of the stuff he was saying was not for public consumption.

"Sen. Richard Burr (R-North Carolina), the chairman, told reporters on Wednesday that he had asked his staff to explore whether Cruz's comments about the National Security Agency's surveillance program constitute disclosing classified data, The Hill reported.

"I'm having my staff look at the transcripts of the debate right now," Burr told reporters, according to The Hill. "Any time you deal with numbers ... the question is, 'Is that classified or not?' Or is there an open source reference to it?"

Wait, I was wrong. What Ted Cruz did was not the best from the debate. The orange one saying that he is going to create a wall around the internet by closing it up to Isis was. "I don't want them using our Internet". He wants to "penetrate" the Internet and find out exactly where Isis is hiding in it. Ok then Donald.

"Donald Trump has said many things that make no sense. But at Tuesday night’s CNN debate, he outdid even himself.

For a man with such a remarkable social media presence, he appears to have literally no idea what the Internet is or how it works."

For his next trick Donald Trump will insult the Washington Post in 5..4..3..2..

*Pic from slate.com

 

 

Fetus, lies, and videotapes.

I love how some people "care" about unborn children but you could never tell that by their behavior towards said children once they get here.

The abortion debate is one that I never like to jump into, because, quite frankly, I have no stake in it.

Jason Chaffetz (and other men) would do well to follow my lead, especially after he made a complete fool of himself today while trying to grandstand and dress down (no pun intended) the head of Planned Parenthood in Washington. (I loved the part where he rolled out the chart *see above* to show that  abortions went up and other health services went down under Planned Parenthood, only to be told that the chart was prepared by a popular anti-abortion group. )

They are not paying me so I am going to give my republican friends some free advice: Tread softly on this Planed Parenthood issue. Sometimes when you live in an echo camber--- like some of my wingnut friends do---- your views of the real world tends to get a little skewed. Most Americans have no problem with women making their own decisions about what to do with their bodies.

Carly Fiorina might be rising in the polls but her grand sermonis was built on a lie, and she knows it. At this point she and her campaign is just scrambling to find a video (any video) to justify the lies she told under the bright lights of that CNN stage. They will find none. But she will continue to dig herself deeper into a hole and her supporters will continue to back her.

This includes powerful male friends in Congress.

"Chaffetz, who took the gavel for this often politically contentious committee at the start of the new Congress in January, put up a chart that purported to show Planned Parenthood's breast cancer screenings going down over time as the number of its abortions spiked.

Richards appeared flummoxed, saying she didn't know where those numbers came from.
"You're going to deny?" Chaffetz incredulously replied.

Richards said she would deny those numbers because she'd never seen them.

With every exchange, Richards and Chaffetz raised their voices until both were practically yelling over each other.

Chaffetz told her he pulled them from her corporate reports. "Oh," Richards said, appearing deflated.
Then staff behind Richards leaned over to whisper into her ear. She interrupted Chaffetz.

"Excuse me, my lawyer is informing me that the source of this is actually Americans United for Life, which is an antiabortion group," she said. "So, I would check your source."

It was Chaffetz's turn to appear deflated. "Then we will get to the bottom of the truth of that," he said."

Another lie.

*Pic from dailykos.com

Still the leader of the pack.

Et tu, Jeb? Man having the crazy outspoken Donald Trump in the republican field has really led some otherwise "normal" politicians to say some crazy things.

"Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush warned America is “creeping toward multiculturalism” during a campaign stop Tuesday, and said he worries about areas where the assimilation process is “retarded.”

In response to a young woman’s question about how to empower immigrants as Americans, Bush said at an event at a Cedar Falls, Iowa diner that multiculturalism should not be the goal.

“We should not have a multicultural society,” Bush said. “When you create pockets of isolation, and in some cases, the assimilation process has been retarded, it’s wrong. It limits people’s aspirations.”
He said Americans’ national identity is defined by the “set of values that people share,” rather than race. Bush also said learning English is an important part of the assimilation process." [Source]

But...but....isn't Jeb's wife Hispanic? It's going to be very cold in the Bush household tonight.
Jeb, you might want to get comfortable with the guest room, or worse, the sofa.

And, speaking of Donald Trump, the following article from the Huffington Post says that it might be time to stick a fork in him.

"There comes a moment in the political life of every big-personality, more-sizzle-than-steak candidate when they step across the line of legitimacy, or illegitimacy (depending on your perspective), even for media addicted to the high ratings these candidate-entertainers provide. That moment for Sarah Palin was her Katie Couric interview in 2008 -- the hockey-mom-has-no-clothes revealing from which she, and the McCain campaign, never recovered. In Donald Trump's candidacy -- which The Huffington Post is appropriately covering in our Entertainment section -- the equivalent moment might have just happened.

It was not the moment in the second Republican debate when Carly Fiorina carved him up like an Easter ham with her withering "I think women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said" zinger. That drew blood (as did the dramatic 12 seconds she remained silent after her response), but it wasn't fatal. No, historians looking back will peg the beginning of the end of the Trump show to his New Hampshire moment last week. Taking questions at a town hall event in Rochester, Trump listened as an audience member asserted that President Obama is a Muslim, "not even an American." Trump looked the man square in the eye, and declared: "No ... He's a decent family man [and] a citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues and that's what this campaign's all about. He's not [an Arab]."

Just kidding. That was actually what John McCain -- the one Trump said is "not a war hero" -- said to a woman at a campaign rally in 2008 who claimed that President Obama was an Arab. What Trump really said was, well, pretty much nothing: "We are going to be looking at a lot of different things and, you know, a lot of people are saying that."

There are few things as absolute in damning a candidate as a refusal to acknowledge simple reality -- especially a candidate who says he'll be tough with our enemies but refuses to even stand up to his own supporters. Refusing to acknowledge that Obama was born in this country is the equivalent of refusing to say that the earth is round. Even Trump's own supporters are embarrassed. Mark Cuban on Real Time with Bill Maher last Friday had to scramble for cover by categorically stating that the candidate he's supporting for president "is not gonna win. He's got no chance... none."

So when will the media be embarrassed enough to refuse to continue to give Trump the large megaphone they are giving him? Not because he's the front-runner -- come on, let's stop pretending that's the reason -- but because of the ratings he fuels as the entertainer he undoubtedly is.

As Sarah Palin demonstrated, even the ratings-crazed media are capable of falling out of love with a big-ratings stunt candidate. With Trump, you can already see it happening. The cracks are beginning to show. And when the media fall out of love they fall out of love very quickly." [Source]

Hmmm, methinks this is wishful thinking on Arianna Huffington's part. I just checked the latest Iowa polls, and Trump is still leading the field, comfortably.  

So the crazy train just keeps on running, and everyone seems to be on board.

*huffingtonpost.com






 

"We have a problem in this country."

Before I drop this post, let's have a moment of silence for Scott Walker........

Goodbye Scott, we hardly knew you. And to think that after all you did up in Wisconsin you still thought that you could one day become the president of this "great" nation. 

I wonder who will be next? At least six or seven of these candidates have to know that they have no shot at winning the republican primary let alone the presidency. At this point they are just all trying to raise how much they can get for their speaking fees in the future, and angle for a talk show on FOX VIEWS.

Of course Scott Walker dropping out now frees up the big donor money for the folks at the top, like Carly Fiorina, the Donald  (I take that back, Donald has his own money), and this election year's version of Herman Cain. 

Carly is now rising, and Donald Trump, as is to be expected, is attacking. Fortunately for him there is a lot there to attack.  I will give her credit, though, the way she doubles down on a lie is quite Nixonian. I am sure that there are a lot of folks in her party who appreciates that.

Raise your hand if you believe, like I do, that Donald Trump has peaked. At some point all the stupid stuff he could get away with as an entertainer is not going to cut it on the presidential trail. (Dude, what's with the Megyn Kelly obsession?) The way he handled that town hall meeting in New Hampshire was laughable. And no, I am not talking about him ignoring the birther question about the president. It was his response to the deranged winngut asking him about Muslims ("I will look into that") that was beyond pandering; it made him look like a complete moron. No different than the obvious loon who was asking him the question. The leader in the presidential field of a major political party will "look into" getting rid of Muslims?    

"We have a problem in this country. It's called Muslims. We know our current president is one," the man told Trump.

 

"You know he's not even an American. We have training camps growing where they want to kill us. That's my question. When can we get rid of them?"

Sir, we do have a problem in this country, but believe me when I tell you, it ain't Muslims.

*Pic from wonkette.com