Random Crazy Stuff III

I did NOT sleep well and have made some DUMB mistakes so far today. I also haven't really blogged in three days due to my crazy weekend. Therefore, I'll do a "Random Crazy Stuff" for today.

Politics:

• If you care to see John McCain's opposition research for Mitt Romney, you can find it here.
  
  
• Vox Day reminds us of the sheer insanity of our Foreign Policy. He also injects some logic into the right wing response that killing Iranian civilians is somehow not terrorism.
  
  
• It's always frightening when a Federal Judge doesn't seem to understand the Constitution.
  
  
• Mitt Romney is going to have his fair share of problems rallying the conservative base in the general election. This article is just a glimpse of that.
  
  
• Newt Gingrich want to colonize the moon. No. . . you read that right.
  
  
  
  
  
• Ron Paul had a good response to this:
  
  
  
  
• If you are on Twitter and you aren't following this guy, you are doing it wrong.
  
  
  

Christianity:

• Tim Challies has another phenomenal info graphic.
  
  
• We have a new king. *sigh*
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Eddie Long felt need to apologize to the Jewish community for that little stunt. Too bad he also didn't feel the need to repent before God.
  
  
• Good to know that Cripplegate supports my viewpoint about Christ in the Old Testament. Also, my pastor is currently preaching about Christ through the Old Testament.

Miscellaneous:

• This movie looks frightening. Also very important.
  
  
  
  
• I'm pleased to link The Summer Book Company in my "People/Organizations I Support" section. They have some of the best Homeschool stuff out there.
  
  
• The Giants won. Yay. This Steeler fan dislikes the Patriots. However, I'd take 9 more Tom Brady Super Bowl MVP's to never see that ABOMINATION of a Super Bowl Halftime Show again.
  
  
• Speaking of the Halftime show, Barnabas Piper (Son of John Piper) had the TWEET OF THE YEAR (!!!)
  
  
• Be sure to follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, and subscribe to this blog!
  
  

Lot's of stuff coming this week once I get some sleep. Until then. . .

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The Aftermath of South Carolina

First of all, thank you for sticking around while I had some down time on the blog. I have been feeling under the weather for the past few days. I'm feeling better now and as you can see, I'm back at it today!

Good Day All!!

Ok, first of all. . . WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED??

Newt Gingrich, South Carolina. . . you're serious? Newt "The Playboy" Gingrich? Did you guys lose your minds down there?

Let's break this down. . .

I wrote on Friday:

Despite the 11th hour spin job by the Republican Establishment Media, Newt isn't going to be able to get out of this one. Christian conservatives aren't going to vote for this guy. Enough people will be slow to come around that Newt will still have a good showing, but he won't touch the 31% he was seeing in the polls yesterday.

He finished with 40.4%. Second place was Mitt Romney with almost 27.8%. That's 68.2% of the most conservative, Chrisitan influenced Republicans in the nation that voted for a man who wants to have an open marriage while betraying conservative principles throughout his career, and a Mormon who is clearly saying what he needs to say in order to get elected.

I have to tell you, I'm stunned. And angry.

This tells us that we simply can't count on Christians to think Biblically. The Republican Establishment Media (Limbaugh, et. al.) went into mega spin mode for Newt and tried to do a lot of damage control. I didn't think it would work, but. . . it did. Christian voters listened to Rush and Hannity. They ignored the moral principles of Scripture.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised in a state that boos the golden rule.

It seems that most were swayed by Newt's response during the CNN debate the evening that the news came out of his marriage infidelity. For the record, here is that response:



Keep in mind that that response was CHEERED by much of the Republican Establishment Media. They whipped up the base to see this as an attack against "Newt the right wing hero", instead of an expose' of a dirty old hypocrite. Newt led the charge to impeach Clinton for receiving oral sex in the White House and has consistently lectured America on the need for traditional marriage and traditional families. . . all the while leaving his wives while they lay on their deathbeds and fantasizing about open marriages.

Newt's hot temper is on display here. He starts off with his smarty pants answer of "No, but I will." Then he goes into how "appalled" he is. He finishes up with how despicable the question is.

The guy sure does have courage, I'll say that. To say that a question about his outrageously immoral behavior is despicable is, well, let's just leave it at courageous. . . in that completely non-heroic sort of way.

Stunned. I am absolutely stunned. When my children ask "Dad, when did you lose faith in America?" I'm just going to play them that video. . . or this one.

Anyway, where does this leave us?

Newt has propelled himself into the top tier with the South Carolina fiasco. Ron Paul had a disappointing finish in South Carolina and is slipping from the top tier. Santorum had a better showing than people thought he would, but still it was nothing to write home about.

Going into Florida, it's a two man race between Newt and Mitt. I think Santorum will make some efforts, but he's done after Florida. Ron Paul is ignoring Florida altogether. Paul's campaign is instead focusing on the dozen or so upcoming primaries in caucus states where they feel they can do best and will score some delegates. Honestly, if that plan doesn't work, the Paul campaign is over.

Frankly, I think that is likely to be the case as I think this race will come down to Newt vs. Mitt. If that happens, Mitt will probably win as he's the only one of the two mathematically able to win (we'll get to that in a moment). Ron Paul will stay in it for a while, and he should, but unless he starts winning some elections here, he's done. Get ready for another four years of Barrack Obama. What a disaster it's going to be.

There is hope. I want to call your attention to this article. Seriously, take a few minutes and read it. Newt can't win and neither can Santorum. They know it and anyone who is paying attention knows it.

I've said it before and I'll keep saying it: This race is between Ron Paul and Mitt Romney. BUT. . . Newt and Santorum might stay in it long enough to quell any chance of Ron Paul gaining momentum. Which is, perhaps, the point of their candidacy's in the first place.

God help us.

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Random Crazy Stuff - II

Good day all!

• Love this song:





• Lots of good stuff from Cripplegate lately. A post on the Millennial Kingdom, this longer article on bad leadership, and this review that supports my viewpoint on hermeneutics that I expressed in the mini-series we just went through on this blog.
  
  
• Vox Day points out that Mitt Romney is in the bag for the big banks that want to rule over us all. He's also happy to point out what I've said all along; that this race is between Mitt Romney and Ron Paul. He's also a lot more blunt than I would ever be.
  
  
• In more happy government news, it seems that we can finally get rid of all those pesky pro-life activists! YAY! Let's vote for more NEO-CONS who propose this kind of thing! And then there is this delightful monstrosity.
  
  
• By the way:
  
  
  
  Just sayin'. . .
  
  
• Christianity Astray. . . err. . . TODAY doesn't think we should spank. Here is a good response. Here is a better response.
  
  
• In all seriousness, we can rejoice over the closing of one of America's oldest abortion clinics in Rockford IL. Here is the bizarre story of the shenanigans the pro-aborts would resort too told by those who worked to close it down. (No, I don't support the false religion of Catholicism in any fashion, they just happen to have the story.)
  
  
• George Barna is endorsing Newt. Here is more info. It's time to stop listening to George Barna. From his stubborn beliefs in home churches to his ridiculous endorsement of Newt, Barna has ceased to be reliable.
  
  
• Unfortunately, John Piper is getting there too. I'm sad to announce that I've removed John Piper from my recommended resources.
  
  UPDATE: A reader pointed out to me that John Piper has relented and published an apology for endorsing the Lectio Divina. You can read what he says here. Look, everyone makes mistakes. John Piper made a mistake and has repented for it. Good enough for me. Glad to have John Piper back on board.
  
  
• Finally, we have this amusing story about Ed Young Jr. Chris Rosenberg had some hilarious tweets regarding this. Seriously, I don't wish Ed any harm, but I do hope he learned his lesson.
  

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New Hampshire - The Aftermath

Good day all!

Mitt Romney, as I (and anyone with a brain) expected, won the New Hampshire primary last night. Ho-hum.

Here's what no one is telling you. Mitt Romney UNDERPERFORMED. That's right, he didn't do as well as he needed to do to solidify himself as the consensus candidate. What is clear is that he won. He dominated the election and won a majority of registered Republicans voting in the open primary. He did poorly among independents and democrats voting in the primary and did not significantly increase his support from 2008. All of this tells us what I've been trying to tell you on this blog: Mitt Romney is not going anywhere, he simply has a large base of support. Oh, it's very large, I admit. Large enough to win a Republican nomination, but not nearly enough to expect any outcome other than getting completely crushed in the general election. Republicans better start asking themselves if this is the guy they REALLY want to beat Obama. Maybe it is. Maybe they don't mind Obama after all, considering they're throwing their weight behind the Republican clone of Obama.

It's interesting to note that the large base of support for Romney IS mostly republicans. As of this writing, Glenn Beck's lackeys and Rush Limbaugh are falling all over themselves to praise Romney for his speech last night. They make no mention that much of what he said, he obviously doesn't believe. To those who pay attention, much of Romney's words seem strange in light of his affiliations, actions, and past statements.

This is quickly becoming a party that has a hard time differentiating itself from the Democrats. The Democrats love Barrack Obama. The Republicans love Mitt Romney. You tell me the difference.

Also, as expected, Ron Paul finished in second place. What was not expected was how well Ron Paul did. Coming into the day, Paul was falling in the polls. He was estimated to finish with around 17% and some polls even had Paul finishing third behind Huntsman who was supposedly "surging". Instead, Ron Paul became the clear cut second place finisher with less of a margin between he and Romney than was expected, and a sizable lead over Jon Huntsman.

In other words, Ron Paul did surprisingly well and as a result has a tremendous amount of momentum going to the South. The next two primaries will be interesting. Paul is not polling well. He is well behind people who did way worse than him in New Hampshire and Iowa. The Paul campaign needs to make some moves. They need to have "surprising" finishes in South Carolina and Florida. They need to maintain their momentum.

Third place was Jon Huntsman. Huntsman has poured MONTHS, and almost all of his money, into New Hampshire. He moved his national campaign headquarters to New Hampshire in an effort to plant his flag in the state. And he finished in third place with most of his support coming from Democrats. Jon Huntsman said all of the right things about this being a slingshot to the south (where he's struggling for a single percentage point in every poll) but I've got news for the former Obama ambassador: It's over.

Fourth place was a virtual tie between Gingrich and Santorum. Gingrich has had two completely terrible performances. He's done and should have already dropped out. The problem is that he's on a mission to destroy Romney. He'll stick around a while, continue to disappoint in the polls and eventually fade into the sunset. As for Santorum, he can't compete in states like New Hampshire where there aren't a heavy amount of Evangelical Christians and social conservatives to rally behind him ("WHY" they rally behind him is anyone's guess).

Rounding out the field was Rick Perry whom many were surprised to learn still believes he can win the nomination. Bye bye Rick.

So what did we learn? Well one thing that we learned was that none of the candidates, outside of Romney and Paul, can compete on the two spectrums of the Republican party. Iowa is a social conservative haven, Romney and Paul finished first and third respectively. New Hampshire is home of the Rockefeller Republicans, Romney and Paul finished 1 & 2. No one else can claim this.

The question then becomes, can Ron Paul continue this trend in a place like South Carolina, dominated by the Evangelical right, and Florida, dominated by the aging and government dependent pseudo-conservatives. He needs to find a way. If he can, he goes on to be THE alternative to Romney. If not, he's another among the pack that wish they could beat Romney.

Some final observations:

• Romney is running a "play not to lose campaign". His speech is highly polished, sound bite ready, and designed to be a rehearsed event. He knows he's ahead and doesn't want to make THE mistake that will be exploitable enough to make him vulnerable.

• Paul has a lot of negatives and a lot of positives to the average Republican. I watched CNN last night and was fascinated by the instant focus group analysis they had running during the speeches (great chants by his supporters, by the way). Paul had the highest highs and the lowest lows during his speech. The highs? Ending the Fed, talking about freedom, and his jabs at the main stream media. The lows? All foreign policy.

• No one in South Carolina, according the to the CNN focus group, was at all interested in Santorum, Gingrich, or Huntsman. The dial didn't move one way or the other for a bulk of their speeches.

• Someone needs to challenge Romney on his record. Frankly someone needs to challenge ALL of them. The primary has become about mud slinging and demographics. It's stopped being about ideas. Someone needs to go into these debates and say "I promise to do 'this and this and this'. Why won't you guys make a similar promise?" and then point out that their records show why. Only one guy, really, has that kind of leverage. The question is. . . will he use it?

I hope so.

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New Hampshire - 2012

Good day all!

The New Hampshire primary is today. I thought it would be good to preview this race and see how those who are going to be stories in New Hampshire stack up.

First of all, it is a forgone conclusion that Mitt Romney will win the race. He'll come out of it today not only with the most votes, but also the most total delegates (which is what really matters). The real question for Mitt is how good is good enough in New Hampshire. Right now, Real Clear Politics has Romney winning by 20 points in their polling average. Let's not kid ourselves, that's a complete victory. If he wins by that or more, he'll emerge as the clear front runner.

Can we pause for a moment and ask ourselves why in the world the Republican party at large is supporting Mitt Romney? If there is one thing that annoys me to no end about the GOP is its propensity to talk like conservatives and then act like democrats in the voting booth. In 1988 and 1992 it was George H.W. Bush, in 1996 it was Bob Dole, in 2000 & 2004 we had Bush shoved down our throats as a conservative despite his reputation as the moderate's moderate, and in 2008 we had, of all people, John McCain who spent of his time making deals with Russ Feingold, Ted Kennedy, and John Kerry.

Now we have Romney. The architect of Obama Care. The tax raiser. The big government spender. The world government advocate. The cheerleader for Wall Street Bailouts. The former governor who appointed mostly liberal judges. The welcome wagon for illegal immigrants. The man who takes advice from THIS GUY. The guy who supports strict gun control. The man who brags about being more pro-choice than Ted Kennedy. The lobbyist's best friend. The property of the banks.

That Mitt Romney. All of this proves is that the GOP at large is no friend of Christians, no friend of conservatives, and frankly. . . DESERVE WHAT THEY GET. Most of all, it proves that they aren't conservative.


Second Place is likely to go to Ron Paul. He's not going to win this one, but he can still do some damage. Although I don't think he can take advantage of the system to get an extra delegate or two, I do think that if he finishes closer than the polls, he'll continue his good momentum coming out of Iowa. Unfortunately, he is going to do terribly in South Carolina. If the election were held today, he'd finish a solid fourth place behind Romney, Santorum, and Gingrich. The word out of the Paul campaign is that they are planning a major push in Florida. At this point, it's not looking great for the Paul campaign in Florida.

However, Gingrich, Perry, and Huntsman are still in this race. I'd like to point out that Perry and Huntsman don't have enough support to get on the ballot in some states, and Gingrich is done. He might have a last stand in South Carolina, but he's not going to win. The word on the street is that it's personal for Gingrich and he wants to destroy Romney. It's just a matter of time for Perry and Huntsman who should fold up the tent any day now.

I think that Paul's campaign is hoping to be the guy who stays around long enough to pick up the pieces. Cain's departure helped him. Bachman's departure has helped him a little. Huntsman's departure will help him in a HUGE way, and Gingrich's people hate Romney. If Santorum falls. . . and he will. . . Paul could be in a position to have enough delegates to force a real convention in Tampa. But he HAS to start winning.

Third place will probably go to Huntsman, although I wouldn't be surprised if he finished with less than the polls are giving him. Huntsman doesn't matter. He's poured everything he has into New Hampshire and he'll barely finish in third.

Fourth place is where the race gets interesting. Santorum is riding high coming out of Iowa. He is the darling of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and most of all Glenn Beck. If Santorum, who has had a new influx of money from his new found popularity can't beat Gingrich, who is reeling, then this will mark the beginning of the end for Santorum. The death blow will come if Santorum loses to Gingrich in a state that is supposed to be his bread and butter: South Carolina.

If I had to guess right now, I'd say it's going to be Romney vs. Obama in 2012 with Obama winning in a landslide. But it's not over yet. The reason Romney would be defeated in a landslide is because no one outside of his 20% of Republicans like him. That means there are 80% of republicans out there who are looking for someone else. It's time the Paul campaign capitalized on that. Sure, not all of them will support Paul, but most of them should. The question is: "will they?"

I'll have a recap tomorrow. We'll get back to some other topics after that, and then we'll have a discussion on this blog amongst us brothers and sisters in the Lord as to why we ought to support no one except Ron Paul in 2012.

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Ron Paul finishes third in Iowa

Good Day all!

If you've known me for more than 30 seconds, or if you have actually visited this blog, you know I'm a huge fan of Ron Paul. The reasons are numerous, and I one of these days I'll write a "why you should vote for Ron Paul" post.

Last night was the first real test of the campaigns. Mitt Romney won with 25%, just 6 or 7 votes ahead of Rick Santorum (also 25%). Ron Paul finished third with 22%. The rest were all so far behind that it's not worth mentioning. For those who think it matters, Newt Gingrich finished fourth with 13%.

I am disappointed, encouraged, and optimistic about the future of the Ron Paul campaign. Here's why ...

REASONS TO BE DISAPPOINTED:

• We lost. Plain and simple. There's no way to look at it other than Ron Paul didn't get enough votes to win this race.
  

• Rick Santorum came out of nowhere and captured two key elements that SHOULD be supporting Ron Paul; 1) Homeschoolers and 2) Evangelical Christians. It is yet another example of Christians allowing Glenn Beck and the media to do their thinking for them. To believe that Rick Santorum supports homeschooling and, as a Roman Catholic, Evangelical Christian values is an absurdity that could only happen in 21st century America. And yet, here we are.

• Mitt Romney hasn't moved. He still has the same base of support and is heading to his home area of New England to probably solidly win the New Hampshire primary.

REASONS TO BE ENCOURAGED:

• Ron Paul finished strong. He started out a few months ago polling in the single digits and finished last night as a top tier candidate. His momentum will continue as he is the only candidate other than Romney to be doing at all well in New Hampshire.

• Romney stayed stagnant. Yes, he won. Good for him. But he didn't increase his support base with any significance. If you were to plot the support of the candidate on a map, you'd see that Romney has a flat line, Paul has a steadily increasing line, and the rest of the candidates steadily rose at one point, and then declined. It's a two horse race. Romney vs. Paul. The establishment vs. freedom. The banks vs. the people.

• Paul distinguished himself as the only unique candidate AND (& this is important) showed that that message can resonate with average Republican voters.

REASONS TO BE OPTIMISTIC:

• Wave goodbye to Bachmann, Perry, and Huntsman. Good riddance. Bachmann was war-mongering neo-con who hated freedom (voted for the patriot act, voted for big government budgets, etc.) Perry is the neo-con's neo-con and basically a carbon copy of George Bush. (We ought to adopt a policy like the Jews have with the Holocaust when it comes to George Bush. . . "NEVER AGAIN!") Huntsman is a decent guy who never had the campaign infrastructure nor the money to ever be taken seriously. I suspect Bachmann's supporters will be split evenly among Paul and Santorum, Perry's supporters will heavily favor Romney, and Huntsman's three followers will all go to Paul. But the real gold is that this will narrow the field of choices for the "undecided voters" and "independents". Paul should be able to compete there.

• Newt was dealt a mortal wound. Newt should have done well in Iowa. He didn't. His campaign isn't over, but it's close. I don't think his supporters will flock to Paul, but I don't think they want Romney. And when my next point comes to to pass, that will mean they'll have to support Paul.

• Rick Santorum is a joke, and if Iowa was happening on February 3, not January 3, he wouldn't have done well at all. Which means that after he is exposed for the fraud he is, he won't so easily gain the support of those who supported him in Iowa. I mean, this guy claims to be pro-life, yet votes for budgets that give Planned Parenthood money. then he spends all his time in the Senate campaigning for war after endless war, the Patriot act, while ignoring the Sanctity of Life act (I support war when necessary. Doing so doesn't harm your pro-life credentials. Ignoring bills that will end abortion, however DO harm them). Oh, sure, he voted for the worthless partial birth abortion ban that didn't ban a single abortion, but when it came down to doing something real to protect the pre-born, he was as useful as a democrat on that issue. Not only that, but he supported campaign finance reform, supported bailouts, supported the federal reserve, supported Fannie and Freddie. And he is the undisputed KING of earmarks. He has as much dirt as Newt Gingrich, maybe more. A few weeks of ads, debates, investigative reports, and whatnot will expose that. Now, what that does for Paul is immense. People voted for Santorum because he was touted by the Establishment (Glenn Beck led this charge) as a "conservative". When people discover he's not, they won't run to Romney, that's for sure. They aren't going to run to Newt either. Guess who's left.
  

• Romney is beatable. Absolutely beatable. His base is as strong as Paul's base, but he has zero appeal to conservatives beyond his base. He just can't break through that 25% mark and he won't because he is quite simply, a liberal.
  

• Ron Paul may have actually won the race that really matters anyway.

I think that New Hampshire will go to Romney, but I expect Paul to do surprisingly well. I also believe that things could line up well for Paul in South Carolina. It's a three horse race, and one horse (Santorum) has terrible flaws. The crowd just hasn't seen them yet.

On to New Hampshire!


UPDATE: Ron Paul is tied for first with Romney and Santorum in delegates out of Iowa. So, in reality, Ron Paul did just as well as the two winners of the Caucus, because it is the delegates that matter.

How did this happen? Well short answer is that Paul is running a smart campaign and his people are informed. They ran all over the state for the past two weeks impressing upon their local supporters that they need to STAY after the caucus meeting to be selected as a delegate. No one else really did that. So, Paul, who should probably have received 5-6 delegates, ended up getting an additional delegate or two out of the deal.

Sweet.

So, we go into New Hampshire and South Carolina in a three way dead heat.

ALSO: Bachman is out. Again. . . GOOD RIDDANCE.

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