The Best News out of Iowa

The best news out of Iowa is not that Ted Cruz won or that Donald Trump’s political gamble of skipping the last debate, like a sulking child, likely cost him a win there.

It’s not that the long predicted surge of Marco Rubio finally happened.

No, the best news out of Iowa is that a candidate who had the courage to boldly proclaim his opposition to federal mandates and subsidies for ethanol — which comes from corn — the top crop in the state, actually won there.

Be it Ted Cruz or Joe Blow, it turned the conventional political wisdom on its head. It proves that you don’t have to pander to get elected. If you are willing to make the case that these government handouts keep you under the thumb of Washington and wind up hurting everyone, eventually enough reasonable people will listen. Continue reading “The Best News out of Iowa” →

Donald Trump vs. Megyn Kelly

Donald Trump is skipping Thursday’s night’s GOP presidential debate hosted by Fox News anchors Bret Baier, Megyn Kelly and Chris Wallace and holding his own town hall instead. The lemmings in the news media will dutifully follow him and make this the story.

Let’s be clear. The reason Trump is ducking this debate is because he is afraid to face the razor-sharp Kelly. Trump, who has been short on specifics and long on bravado clearly came out the big loser when Kelly questioned him in the Fox News’ debate last August and he has been smarting over it ever since. Sure, he won the on-line polls which amounted to little more than Trump groupies or paid operatives sitting at their computers for hours on end clicking his name over and over again. However, he was caught flat-footed and ill-prepared by Kelly who cut him down to size as she has so many other egotistical politicians and office holders.

She had no intention of backing off in Round Two. That’s why Trump asked Fox to replace her. Continue reading “Donald Trump vs. Megyn Kelly” →

The Siren Song of Bernie Sanders

If you are flummoxed as to how an aging, hard-core, avowed socialist like Bernie Sanders is leading in New Hampshire and nipping at Hillary Clinton in the national polls for the Democratic nomination for president, don’t be. It’s really quite simple: We all like free stuff.

Think about it. Why does every product advertised on television these days offer a second product for free.You instinctively know that those advertisers simply double the cost of the product you buy so that they can “give” you that second one you didn’t want or need. However, consumers seem unable to resist this temptation so they buy, paying twice as much as they should have. Of course this charade didn’t begin with television. It’s as old as time.

Little wonder that so many are gaga for Sanders. All he needs is a white beard and we could call him Santa Clause. Continue reading “The Siren Song of Bernie Sanders” →

The Cosby-Clinton Connection

The recent revelations about Bill Cosby have turned the nation’s decades-long love-affair with the actor into one of disgust, even repulsion. This begs the question: How long before the nation’s decades-long love-affair with the nation’s 40th president will come to an equally abrupt end?

The sordid stories of the sexual escapades of Bill Cosby and Bill Clinton are strikingly similar:

Both men held powerful positions in their respective fields which they abused again and again with no accountability.
Both men were surrounded by staff at various levels who were willing to coverup, if not facilitate, their encounters with vulnerable women. Continue reading “The Cosby-Clinton Connection” →

GOP Establishment Kentucky Fried

Let’s get real: There is a lot of angst among the GOP establishment over the outcome of the Kentucky governor’s race.

You would think that they would be celebrating the fact that a Republican, Matt Bevin, will control the executive branch in Frankfort for only the second time in four decades. You would think that those who have been pulling the strings of power behind the scenes would be doubly happy that Jenean Hampton, his female running mate, is the first African-American from either party to hold a state-wide office, but no.

There is no joy among GOP power brokers who are accustomed to handpicking the candidates who are allowed to seek these lofty positions. Secretly, they were pulling for Jack Conway the Democrat. Continue reading “GOP Establishment Kentucky Fried” →

USA on Slavery’s Slippery Sloap

The average life of a democracy is 200 years. Our country has outlived its expiration date largely because it is a democratic republic with a constitution that guarantees our citizens certain inalienable rights and a government with three co-equal branches, each with checks on the other two.

We are now seeing those basic rights eroded by an aggressive Supreme Court. We also are seeing those checks and balances upset by an equally aggressive president and a Congress that is reluctant to use the power at its disposal.

Furthermore, the financial stability of this nation has been undermined by our elected representatives who have learned that the best way to stay in office is by spending our money and doing favors for their supporters.

As a result, our economy is at a near standstill and we are mired in debt. China is bullying us, but we owe so much to that communist country there is really nothing we can do about it. This has to stop before it is too late because, as the Bible says, “The borrower is the slave to the lender.”

Just how far have we fallen down slavery’s slippery slope? Continue reading “USA on Slavery’s Slippery Sloap” →

What is Democratic Socialism?

Bernie Sanders, a socialist, has achieved quite a following in the race for the Democratic nomination for president. How many of his followers really know what he stands for?

There was a telling moment in the first Democratic presidential debate in which Anderson Cooper tried to pin him down. It took several tries but Cooper finally backed him into a corner when he said, “You don’t consider yourself a capitalist, though?”

Sander’s final answer to that simple question was, “No I don’t.”

Sanders calls himself a democratic socialist so what exactly is that? Continue reading “What is Democratic Socialism?” →

The Case for Carson

From the very beginning, Ben Carson has been discounted by the political pundits. As others in this crowded GOP field went up and down in the early polls, they watched in disbelief at how the support of a mild-mannered doctor who had never held political office, remained steady and began to climb. After a so-so, if not poor performance in last debate, the chattering class wrote him off, but his polling numbers continued to climb.

When, Dr. Carson pulled even with Donald Trump in the latest NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, the story is not Carson’s rise but Trump’s fall. If Carson is mentioned at all by these know-it-alls, they just roll their eyes. Continue reading “The Case for Carson” →

The Titanium Lady

In the last GOP debate, there is a reason that Jeb Bush, searching for a suitable woman to put on the $10 bill, came up with Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan’s British partner in the Cold War. It was Bush’s proximity to Carly Fiorina.

The former Hewlett Packard CEO just naturally causes one to think of Lady Thatcher who was the longest-serving British Prime Minister in the 20th century and the only woman to have attained that high office.

Some would say that Fiorina was channeling the ghost of Margaret Thatcher as she calmly laid out her vision for a United States that is capable of taking on Vladimer Putin, ISIS and the rest of the world if needed. Continue reading “The Titanium Lady” →

Illegal Immigration Problem: A Four-legged Stool

Our nation’s problem with illegal immigration can be compared to a four-legged stool. If one of those legs is cut off or wobbly, it isn’t going to stand, at least for very long.

While some of our presidential candidates have address two or three of those legs, unfortunately none have address all four. I’m waiting!

The first leg is obvious: Seal the border. Almost all candidates have vowed to do that in one way or another. We are the most powerful nation on earth, though not likely to remain so if the present administration’s policies are not reversed and quickly. We need to put all our available resources on the southern border while a wall is being built and we need to stop tying the hands of our border patrol agents. However, we must not neglect our northern border. The use of drone technology and electronic surveillance should be used to maximize the effectiveness of our personal there. Continue reading “Illegal Immigration Problem: A Four-legged Stool” →