Cain Bows Out

Most of the usual I'm-Proud-My-Campaign-Addressed-The-Issues, and he manages to 9-9-9 us a few more times, in case we had forgotten.

But he begins with a rather dull commonplace:

You’re not defeated as long as you never stop fighting.

Actually, you're defeated at the moment that your goal is no longer attainable at that particular point in time. You can keep fighting all you want, but it's not going to change anything. And that is why Hermann Cain is suspending his campaign now, rather than continuing to fight until the Republican Convention.

If the goal was to keep fighting, then yes, so long as you remain upright and defiant, you are not beaten. And sometimes, as at Valley Forge, such is the goal. But not in this case. In this case the goal -- a nomination for President -- was lost. Whatever happens afterwards, the reality of that defeat must be absorbed.

But whatever. It was fun having you in the mix, Hermann, and all carping aside, you did shift the campaign, by your bold talk of tax reform, and the hope you gave the party's base that we didn't have to bow to the Establishment Candidate this time around. I think when the history of this horse-race is written, you might just be remembered as the Guy who put the Knife in Romney.

Hermann Cain Might Could Endorse Gingrich

Stacy McCain hardest hit.

We're Not Gonna Have Barney Frank to Kick Around Anymore...

...Unless of course, he gets prosecuted. As he needs to be.

Ladd Ehlinger reminds us of how awesome he is:

Stop Newt Before He Gets THE CHILDREN

GET IN MAH BELLY!

When I was 15, I had a work-study job at my Catholic high school. Twice a week I cleaned up the art room. I didn't like it very much, but I did it.

Newt Gingrich basically suggested the same thing (h/t Protein Wisdom). Actually, he suggested something better, because the kid janitors would be paid in actual cash money. All I got for cleaning clay-wheels every week was a break on my tuition.

Naturally, proggies shriek in terrified indignation:

You are probably one of the most disgusting human beings I’ve never met!
I want my neighbors 9yr olds or 14 yr olds cleaning up behind my children while I focus my children onto focusing on their education and letting my children to be “KIDS”.
Everyone knows that you Repugnants wants to model our society after China and make everyone a slave to Corpratism. We get it!
I don’t mind working my fingers to the bone but………….CHILDREN…………Really???

We are constantly told that poor kids are forced into the drug trade or worse from lack of economic opportunity. I don't see how giving a kid a job that pays $8-16 an hour doesn't constitute an economic opportunity. Nowhere does Newt say that the child labor laws would be abolished; at best, they'd be amended. We're not talking about a 12-year-old working 40+ hours a week and missing out on school; we're talking about maybe 10 hours a week, before or after school and weekends.

Am I really to believe that a kid who grows up in a poor, dilapidated neighborhood, with one or more parents missing, getting no breakfast except what the school provides, marking time in a broken public school earning a diploma that won't be worth the paper it's printed on would be objectively HARMED by earning some money pushing a mop around?

Really?

Gingrich: Comparisons and Myths.

I've always kind of liked Newt Gingrich for his brains and brashness. I've also often wondered about his judgement (having an affair while sticking it to Clinton over Lewinsky? Really?). Now that Hermann Cain has hit his first post-bounce drop, I'm prepared to lean toward him a little.

In the AmSpec, Jeffrey Lord compares Gingrich to Churchill. The parallels are interesting, but more interesting is this:

Not to be forgotten is what Fox News commentator Juan Williams, recently sitting next to Gingrich on the set of Special Report with Bret Baier, delicately referred to as the former Speaker's personal "baggage." By which Williams means the Speaker's three marriages, the extra-marital business and all the rest. The famous myth of the first Gingrich divorce is discussed here by Gingrich's daughter Jackie Gingrich Cushman, who was present at the time. Surprise, surprise -- fact, says Ms. Cushman, is different than left-wing fiction. The first Mrs. Gingrich, a private person, is very much still alive, present and accounted for and not deceased as is the tale. The story runs roughly that the dastardly Newt took divorce papers to his dying wife's bedside when she had no idea a divorce was in the offing, shocking her as she lay dying. In fact Mrs. Gingrich, says her daughter, had herself requested the divorce long before Gingrich entered her hospital room. The story, says Cushman, is fiction from start to finish. Gingrich's political mistake was not understanding that such a personal moment would be distorted and used by liberal opponents. Out of such a moment perhaps comes the Newtonian understanding of the need for a political rapid response team whose sole purpose is to flag political untruths on the spot. Be that as it may, this tale shows the endurance of a political Bigfoot tale, the political equivalent of the fictional monster repeatedly spotted but mysteriously never actually captured because, of course, in fact it doesn't exist.

The art of political judgement differs not greatly from the art of the bloodhound. One must learn to tell false scents from true ones. If Gingrich isn't really as personally awful as legend has it, then maybe -- just maybe, he has mellowed, and like Churchill, knows what the hour demands.

Of course, not everyone is prepared to embrace this rise. Robert Stacy McCain seems more hostile to Gingrich than he was to Rick Perry, which is saying something. This I cannot understand. Preferring Hermann Cain to Newt can be defended on conservative personal and policy preferences. Preferring Mitt Romney to Newt smacks rather of taking one's ball and going home.

The More They Tell Me Cain Can't Win, the More I Wonder if He Can

Despite everybody taking a shot at 9-9-9, he's still atop the polls.

And Rick Perry has issued his 20-20 plan, and Newt has said "Me, too!"

So it would seem that the man has fundamentally transformed the race.

So again, what do we need Romney for?

Herman Cain is Pro-Choice, and I Don't Care...

Vox Populi has the skinny.

I'm more or less in Santorum's wheelhouse on this issue. An abortion obtain for any other reason than to save your own life is a moral failure, and I don't have a problem with them being illegal. But I also don't have a problem with a GOP pres candidate who thinks differently, because abortion is not my #1 issue for the federal government to handle right now. It's not even Top Ten. In fact, I don't want the federal government to handle it at all, which is why I want the Supreme Court to rescind Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton.

But then, I haven't been burning incense to a little Herman Cain doll. I'm about ready to vote for Newt, just to see him tussle with Obama in the debates.

Because the Only Way to Decrease Rape is to Rape More People...

Sheriff Joe Biden, the executive branch's most prominent FailBot, rides again.

Biden's reasoning -- that more rapes will undoubtedly occur if the federal government doesn't subsidize law enforcement -- doesn't pass the smell test. For that matter, I didn't know feminists were so approving of the way our law enforcement systems handled rape cases.

But these are difference that the reality-based community can surely paper over.

BY THE WAY: Biden's facts are wrong.

New Poll: All GOP Frontrunners Beat Obama

It's only one poll, but it begs the question:

If Hermann Cain can beat Obama, then what the hell do we need Mitt Romney for?

The New, Post-Racial America

When Democrats support a black Democrat for President, they are heroically redeeming America.

When Republicans support a black Republican for President, they are racists.

Because.

Wall Street Abandons Obama; the GOP Will Shift Accordingly

If this is true:

JP Morgan honcho Jamie Dimon, once a “fat cat” ally of President Obama, seems to have strayed to Republican contender Mitt Romney.
Dimon, a lifelong Democrat who was rumored to be on Obama’s short list for treasury secretary before he settled on Tim Geithner, met privately with Romney on Tuesday morning before a fund-raiser at Brasserie 8¹/2 hosted by Highbridge Capital, a JPMorgan-owned hedge fund.

 ...then the tide of independents and centrists are going to benefit Romney. People tend to view him as the most moderate of the real contenders for the Republican nomination. Which is a problem, as most of us deep-red radical-right-wing teabagging bitterclinging RAAAAACISTS view Romney as an economic heretic at best or a RINO at worst.

So who does that benefit? Herman Cain, fresh of his upset in the Florida straw poll. If centrists and bankers flood to Romney, then the GOP establishment has its Candidate of Gravitas and Experience. Which means the winguts and libertarians are going to need someone of minted outsider status who's demonstrated the capacity to win something. We thought Rick Perry was going to be that guy; so far he's shot himself in the foot and then shoved that foot in his mouth. Bachmann blew herself up going after Perry. Gingrich seems to be running for a Cabinet job (which he'd be good at).

That leaves Hermann Cain. For a guy whose candidacy has been declared dead to jump ahead in the polls as he has means a significant shift. It also means that the Tea Party vote is not bound up and sold to Sarah Palin. It also means that this race has just begun.

BTW, Chris Christie isn't going to run for President unless Obama wins. He's nowhere near dumb enough to think that he's conservative enough to satisfy the nationwide GOP base. He might be amenable to be someone's running mate, but that's it.

Sarah Palin's not running either. How do I know? Because she's not running. Her hesitancy speaks volumes about her own assessment of her own chances. Deep down, I don't think she really wants to run.  The dust storm kicked up by 2008 has cast her family into chaos and her out of a job. And that was as a Vice-Presidential candidate. She knows the real thing would be worse.

Flat-Out Moronic: The Intellectual Pretensions of the Sub-Literati

Galileo was not brought before the Inquisition for saying that the earth goes around the sun. I'm going to repeat that in large font:

Galileo was not brought before the Inquisition for saying that the Earth goes around the Sun.


The Church punished Galileo for an error of theology: for stating that the observations of the eye were superior to the Revelations of Scripture. Also, for claiming that heliocentrism had been proven true when it had not, and mocking others who argued the contrary (including the Pope of the time) in print. His offense was relatively minor and possibly unintentional, so his punishment was light. But you cannot claim to be historically literate on the subject if you insist on repeating the old farcical lie.

And if you do so while mocking others for essentially, knowing more than you do, then you're claim of literacy is driven down to Kindergarten levels reserved for people who thought that the Boston Tea Party was in 1776.

It's Like the Guy's Unqualified or Something...

Had Enough Therapy?:

Yesterday Democrat Barry Sternlicht, CEO of Starwood Capital declared: “We elected a community organizer that’s acting like a community organizer.”

Who knew?

This gem sticks out of a a post that turns the Dem's Loss in NY-9 as a referendum on Obama's Israel policy. Which it may be. But the impression that I got was that the voters there were simply fed up with Obama's non-performance. As Ace put it, there's only so many times you can spin a bad situation as "not that bad" before people start demanding something that looks like progress. Especially when you sell yourself as the solution to all problems, as Obama has.

So Democrats are becoming as deflated and frustrated as Republicans were in '06 and '08. This anger at Obama will not translate into a primary challenge, because I think Hillary Clinton is smart enough to know that she'll be much better off running in '16 regardless of who wins this time, and no one else has the credibility to take on Obama's machine (which remains formidable).

But it's starting to dawn on Democrats that they got sold a Golden Dancer three years ago. I don't know how many of them are eager to buy more of the same.

It becomes more true every time I post it...

"When You Put Your Head in the Sand, Your Ass Becomes a Target"

Ladd Ehlinger reminds the California GOP that politics is a full-contact sport, and should be played accordingly:

Does your opponent live outside of the district and can't even vote for him or herself? Does your opponent have problems with a previous divorce? Does your opponent have a problem with coddling gangmembers?
Pound them with it! Pound them!
SCREW this meme that says "we should have positive campaigning only." You know who wants to have a positive campaign at all costs? Losers -- and YOUR OPPONENT!
There is no such thing as a positive winning campaign - because, unfortunately, it's "negative" to point out your opponent's many flaws. It's especially upsetting to your opponent. But highlight these flaws you must! Otherwise, no one will know that your opponent got rapists and murderers out of jail to rape and kill again!

Read the Whole Thing. I should mail a copy to the Maryland GOP.

NYT: Sarah Palin May Not Be Crazy

h/t: Insty

Anand Giridharadas sayeth the unsayable, and discovers the real class warfare behind the Tea Party:

Ms. Palin may be hinting at a new political alignment that would pit a vigorous localism against a kind of national-global institutionalism.On one side would be those Americans who believe in the power of vast, well-developed institutions like Goldman Sachs, the Teamsters Union, General Electric, Google and the U.S. Department of Education to make the world better. On the other side would be people who believe that power, whether public or private, becomes corrupt and unresponsive the more remote and more anonymous it becomes; they would press to live in self-contained, self-governing enclaves that bear the burden of their own prosperity.

Unfortunately, he ascribes this to Palin in particular, and not the Tea Party in general. But hey, baby steps.

Religion is Bad. When Republicans Do It.

Via Other McCain, Ian Stanley of the Telegraph lays down the persistent media double-standard:

Harry Reid, leader of the Senate Democrats, is a Mormon. Many readers probably won’t know that because the mainstream media oddly doesn’t talk about it. It’s okay to call Mitt Romney a polytheist with twelve wives, but Reid is untouchable because he’s a Democrat. And yet it’s reasonable to theorise that the leader of the Senate wears the magic underwear associated with Mormonism. Is his belief that Jesus walked on American soil, anti-science? Geographers and historians would probably object.
Democratic presidential candidates regularly visit black churches, Nancy Pelosi has invoked her Catholicism so many times you might think she was a nun, and Barack Obama was married by a pastor who actively hates America. Yet Krugman suggests that only the GOP uses and abuses religion every election. More sickening is the innuendo that there is a uniquely violent subtext to conservative faith, as if every Right-winger wants to shoot an abortionist. There is no comparison between fundamentalist Islam and Dominionism: one kills and the other doesn’t. The conflation of the two is ugly and deceitful.

It gets awfully damn tiresome to have to point these things out. And I don't mind Stacy McCain's "Welcome to the Party, Pal" response. But so long as there are people who refuse to admit that this is going on, it needs to be underscored. We need to say, as McCain does, that:

It would be great if we could have a reasoned, well-tempered discussion with the Left, but the typical Lefty cannot or will not engage in a connected series of statements intended to establish a proposition. Conservatives have inadvertently arrived at Abuse, instead of the Argument Clinic.

Although, in all honesty, the Argument Clinic kind of sucks, too.

"Jon Huntsman is a Moby. That is All."

The title comes from the comments of another Protein Wisdom rant at the feckless GOP establishment:

Tax reform. That’s the extent of Huntsman’s plan.
And that’s about all that establishment Republicans care about. Entitlement reform? Huntsman doesn’t deal with that.
Big government, ruling-class “compromises,” and lower taxes.
That’s what the GOP ruling class is. That’s all it is

Can't really argue with that.

Why Democrats Can't Abide to Have Public Sector Unions Messed With

The image says it all...(h/t Ace)

So the next time someone loses their shit over hoe much the eeeevil Pentagon controls this country, just remember that labor unions dwarf defense contractors by an order of magnitude. In fact, shouldn't we be wondering where Jimmy Hoffa was when JFK was shot?

Someone Has Been Hiding in the State Department for Two Years...

It starts.

Bachmann is not Palin

Diary of a Wimpy Catholic (great name) explains why (h/t: Insty):

In contrast to Palin’s approach, Bachmann hasn’t swung back or made any serious attempt to rally her troops and keep the story going. When called on her misstatement that the Founding Fathers had “worked tirelessly” to end slavery, she smiled serenely, cited John Quincy Adams who had been “a young boy” during the nation’s foundation years, and who worked to end slavery as an adult. For her, that counted. Knowing he was licked, George Stephanopolous moved on to the next question. Like the kid said in the Connect Four commercial, pretty sneaky, Sis.