On the heels of her movie debut in Pella, word is circulating that the former Alaska Governor is just attempting to increase the Palin brand in light of the recent Bloomberg poll that showed her the “Most Disliked Republican in America” with 51% unfavorables. While this poll included Independents and Democrats, nobody has ever won the presidency with such disapproval before. That mountain is just too steep to climb, even for the mama grizzly.
Being Sarah Palin is profitable, but not if everybody thinks you are a caricature and not taken seriously. I hope that she is actually considering throwing her hat into the ring as I believe she will add a positive component to the debate. While I like to see executive leadership in my presidential candidates, I am concerned about her resigning from her office as Governor. I wait with open ears as to what she has to say in her defense.
POLITICO
I started this blog because of the Dems’ “UnderTheGoldenDome” because they were Democratic party hacks with nothing of substance to offer and only partisan talking points. I on the other hand provide insight and a bit of wit into the inner workings of Iowa politics and our First-In-the-Nation-Caucus. I am also willing to hold those in my own party accountable when necessary, just ask the Pawlenty folks who have tripled my hit stats overnight (Thanks!). But at the end of the day we are just anonymous blogs.
So imagine my surprise when Politico decided to run a story on the Dome’s tin foil hat inspired piece on the Iowa GOP’s rising star, Secretary of State, Matt Schultz. If Politico mentions my blog, I will call them out for piss poor journalism just as I am doing so today. Clean up your act Politburo excuse me, Politico or you will be bound for PMSNBC status.
Ron Paul’s “Joint” Proposal
Ron Paul has made a joint proposal with Rep. Barney Frank and other Democrats to call for the legalization of marijuana. The group, thanks to “Republican” Congressman Paul’s involvement has the ability to call themselves a bi-partisan effort. Whatever. Ron Paul must be familiar with the product he is advocating for if he thinks this helps him the Iowa Caucus. I venture to say it wouldn’t even fly in Minnesota. Speaking of which…
President of the Land of 10,000 Lakes?
Rep. Michele Bachmann’s ascent in the polls and the hearts of Iowa Caucus goers seems to have drawn the ire of my favorite campaign to highlight, Tim Pawlenty’s.
It seems the former Minnesota Governor is intent on upstaging her by releasing a list of activists and legislative endorsements FROM MINNESOTA. I can’t make this shit up. Unless the Minnesota Presidency is on the line, I’m not sure why we should care. I have a Golden Gnome Award waiting for Bachmann and her team if she manages to not take the bait and allow TPaw to share her headlines. His attack is like a swallowed penny, it too shall pass.
Alot has transpired in Iowa politics over the last few days and each item deserves their own story. There is no better place to start than debunking the most over-used and unworthy label in the First-In-The-Nation Caucus state describing the assorted talent acquired by Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s campaign, the “A-Team”.
I cringe every time I read that term in Politico or the Des Moines Register (yes, I read it to see what the enemy is saying) and I just want to slap whoever wrote it. Here is a breakdown of the supposed “A-Team” of political operatives hired by Tim Pawlenty:
Terry Nelson
The 2008 Campaign manager for John McCain was forced to resign early before a single straw poll or caucus vote was cast. Upon his departure he attempted to burn the house down by convincing everyone to resign along with him before they would be summarily fired. The school of thought being, if you can get everybody to quit and trash the candidate, it will give you cover for your mismanagement of the campaign. A lesson learned all too well by his minion, Ed Failure, Jr. who would repeat this manuever at Iowans For Tax Relief a few years later.
So how bad did he do? Well, the campaign per his direction was shilling out 10-12k per month for his college republican buddies, Chuck Larson Jr., Karen Slifka and Ed Failure Jr. In addition, there were other staff who largely lended their names to the campaign while drawing a five digit monthly fee. All in all, he amassed a monthly overhead of over 60k just in endorsements. It is not any wonder to this gnome how the campaign went bankrupt in short order.
McCain ultimately cut his losses and parted ways with Nelson only to regroup and start over in Iowa and across the country to correct his early mistake. He of course went on to win the nomination, but only after cutting the fat that put his candidacy on life support when he was supposed to be the presumptive frontrunner.
Chuck Larson, Jr.
The former Iowa state legislator and Ambassador to Latvia, again joined his BFF, Nelson on a caucus camapign effort. Larson is perhaps the most high profile of the worst state GOP chairmen in the last ten years and that is really saying something. After “leading” the party to go for Al Gore in 2000 he was called to serve in Iraq as an Army reservist which is very admirable, but he refused to step down as party chairman nor as a state senator. Not only did he cost the GOP a vote in the senate, but he left the party rudderless and the executive director had to fill in the gapping void (Sure as hell couldn’t let Leon Mosely be chairman). Larson was in the “Gang of Fired” for Mccain in 2008 and is now on the fast track to join them in that same fashion in 2011 for TPaw.
Larson went on to form “Lincoln Strategies Group” and later renamed it after his partners; Larson, Shannahan & Slifka Group. Yes, Joe Shannahan of Gov. Tom Vilsack’s Chief of Staff fame. It is no wonder that this new group led by Larson went on to work for Chet Not Stupid’s department of economic development during the masterful creative period of the Rebuild Iowa Office and IJOBS. Larson does not have any credentials that would qualify him as an “A-Team” political operative of note, rather he is a college friend of Terry Nelson. Hey, it’s worth 10k per month I quess so that is something.
Karen Loney-Slifka
Yer another U of I College Republican friend of the Nelson-Larson contigent who worked for McCain in 2008 before getting the boot. Slifka has worked on a number of presidential campaigns in Iowa, including the John Kasich 2000 or “K2K” race. They say that the campaign trail is a lonely place or “Loney”, but Slifka redefined that by not only dating her lone staffer, Matt Loney, but married him after the campaign. Meanwhile, Kasich who is now Governor of Ohio never caught fire in Iowa due in large part to a poorly run campaign effort. Whatever were they doing instead of campaigning I wonder? Slifka and her staffer-turned hubby joined the Forbes campaign after Kasich’s exit. What is that you ask? Yes, of course they are divorced now.
Fast forward to 2011 and the Loneyless Slifka is working once again with Nelson, Larson, Failure, Jr. and crew for Pawlenty with spooky similar results.
Sara Taylor-Fagen
Taylor is a Terry Nelson confidant who has ties to Iowa as a Drake alum and was a field staffer for Phil Gramm’s caucus campaign that got trounced in 1996. After that she worked for the Tarrance Group in D.C. and later joined the George W. Bush 2000 primary campaign as his Michigan campaign manager. As we all recall, Michigan gave Sen. John McCain new life after the Texas Governor stumbled over his own frontrunner status. Oops.
Taylor-Fagen was dating Bush advisor Ken Mehlman who later revealved that he was gay. Oops again. Mehlman got her hooked up with Karl Rove and the Whitehouse Political Office where she later became Political Director. Much better! She is perhaps best known for testifying before the Senate Judicary Committee regarding the political office’s role in the firing of U.S. Attorneys. I can be seen holding the pink sign over her left shoulder in this You Tube gem:
Ed Failure, Jr.
Ed is the former longtime political staffer/lobbyist for Iowans For Tax Relief etc. etc. etc.. During his tenure, he routinely would take cash on the side from clients like New York Governor, George Pataki’s presidential campaign in 2008 till he couldn’t afford to pay him 10k per month solely for the use of his name in an endorsement press release etc. etc. etc. He did the same thing for McCain till he and his mas exodus mentor Nelson, resigned in 2008 as well etc. etc. etc. I’m watching my clock and as I go to press, TPaw is still in the race and Ed nor his comrades have “resigned” or been fired etc. etc. etc.
A loyal reader sent me a tip over the weekend following the release of the Des Moines Register’s GOP presidential poll of likely caucus goers. She said that with only 6% of the the caucus goers support, it would seem likely that the quarterly financial reports will show that Pawlenty has spent roughly 200k per percentage point of support that he has. Ouch.
The poll, which I will discuss in greater detail in another post later, showed something of particular interest with regard to Pawlenty. He was viewed favorably by 58% of likely caucus goers, but only 6% said they would support him. I’ll be the first to admit that Tim Pawlenty, that while dry and a living and breathing cure for insomnia, is a really likeable and relatively successful former governor of the only state in the country to not vote for Reagan. So these numbers say far less about Tim Pawleny and far more about his alleged “A-Team”. The team should be doing far better with much less and the same can be said for TPaw himself. If this group of political operatives is to be refered to as the “A-Team”, perhaps this is a vehicle more suited for them:
Oh boy. Our good friends over at theiowarepublican.com have a story up about what took place in the Iowa GOP’s parking lot during the Ames Straw Poll auction today. What follows is what actually happened inside the building.
Attorney and lobbyist Kellie Paschke of Skinner & Paschke, PLLC arrived just before the start of the auction for candidate tent locations. Needless to say a number of campaigns got their panties in a bunch over the fact that they did not know who she was there to represent and Paschke wasn’t telling. The representatives from the various campaigns immediately began to panic that Rick Perry, Sarah Palin, Jon Huntsman, George Pataki or Rudy Guiliani were using an anonymous bidder and they wanted to know what was up and fast.
My sources say as soon as Republican Party of Iowa executive director, Chad Olson opened things up and welcomed everybody for coming, he started to get ready to open the bidding when the representative from the Herman Cain campaign immediately went into a tailspin. She wanted everybody to introduce themselves and state who they were there to represent. Olson then explained that it was not required for bidders to divulge who they were representing. A frenzy ensued.
Everybody began crying foul and questioning the rules of the auction to which Olson defended Paschke and her anonymous client by restating that her client had cleared everything ahead of time and is not violating any rules. State central committee member Monte Shaw was heard stating that if folks did not like the rules, then they should have made an effort to change them, but the rules for this straw poll should stand as they apply to all equally.
Michele Bachmann’s fmr. Chief of Staff, Andy Parrish, who is now calling the shots for her campaign in Iowa was fairly dramatic in his objections to what was transpiring. He threw out a question to the group, “What happens if we all decide not to participate?” To which Shaw replied calling his bluff, “Well then her candidate will get a great location and for a really good price.” A mass exodus soon followed with Parrish and the Cain campaign leading the walkout.
Paschke reportedly explained to those political operatives from Iowa who maintained a level of decorum that as an attorney she may NOT reveal the identity of a client without their expressed permission for which she did not have. She did however volunteer that she was able to say who she did not represent. Sources say she offered up that her client was not Palin, Perry, Huntsman or Romney.
Enter Chad Olson. After having chased after those who stormed out of the meeting and caucused in the parking lot, he reappeared and made it known that he was changing the rules and not allowing Paschke to participate.
Acting as the adult in the room when Olson should have taken control of the meeting himself, but failed to, Paschke is said to have asked the other camps if they would be ok with her participating if she managed to get permission from her client to reveal their name? The response was a fairly unanimous no, it’s too late for that now. To which Paschke was overheard replying, ok, I have that permission now, but if you aren’t interested so be it.
The other camps began to saunter back into the building, with Parrish completing a triple-double in door slamming and the Cain chick starting another round of screaming at Paschke and Olson. Parrish, who was seated next to Paschke, continued his previous griping while Paschke was seen attempting to tell him to sit down and shut up and you will hear who she represents.
Olson then announced that they are indeed going to go around the room and introduce themselves and say who they represent. They really should have started with Paschke as nobody was said to have cared about anyone else in the room. When it was Paschke’s turn, she gave her name and stated that her cleint was Thadeus McCotter of Michigan. Thud. Lots of blinking and puzzled looks around room followed that anti-climatic announcement.
All of this circus-like behavior could and should have been avoided. There are a number of parties to blame for this, starting with Chad Olson who changed the rules of the auction at the last minute to appease the mob mentality of some political operatives who ought not be in charge of a high school class election campaign, much less a First-In-The-Nation Iowa Caucus effort. After hearing how Parrish behaved, I’m much less inclined to cast my straw poll or caucus ballot for Bachmann. How he spoke to and behaved around Paschke baffles me. You would think he knew how to behave around chick politicos who were smarter than him. And the Cain representative needs to dial it down several notches. You never want to be considered the crazy one in a room with Ron Paul staff.
I’m dissapointed in the Iowa GOP today and in particular Chad Olson. Kudos to Monte Shaw though. The party really missed Jim Kurtenbach today.
The Newt Gingrich for President campaign is taking more hits than Google and not in a good way.
This time the reigning king of bad earned media coverage is without his top two fundraisers who fled his beyond fledgling campaign. This story is in competition for ink with another nugget of bad news for the fmr. House Speaker. It seems that Tiffancy & Co. had a second line of credit to the tune of $300,000 for Newt. This comes on the heels of the first $500,000 debt story that ran for a week and subsequent week-long coverage of that debt being announced by both Tiffany’s and the Gingrich campaign to have been paid in full.
Way to stretch the bad news as far as you can Team Gingrich. If you hadn’t all quit, I’d suggest you be fired.
Speaking of people who should be fired, The Des Moines Register announced their 4th round of lay-offs today. Most of the 13 came from the newsroom and that suits me just fine.
Gone are the days that people actually subscribe to the Register (Red Star to informed readers) let alone a hard copy and today people will simply skim the online version. Newspapers are increasingly obsolete and papers who hold a blatant liberal bias such as the Red Star are dying fast. My only dissapointment in today’s announcement is that Jason Clayworth is still around to trash the GOP and anyone who believes in sound fiscally responsible government budgeting.
President Obama’s fmr. Ambassador to China, Jon Huntsman recieved an awkward endorsement from an unlikely source, Democratic Senate Majortiy Leader, Harry Reid. Reid stated that, “If I had a choice, I’d favor Huntsman over Romney.” And now we know why.
The Huntsman family seems to have been showing the love for Reid for some time. Jon’s parents and brothers gave $25,000 to Sen. Reid over the years. His father even gave $5,000 to the Nevada Democratic party. Still not convinced? Jon Huntsman, while Governor appointed Sen. Reid’s son Josh to the Utah Board of Regents. I’m starting to understand why Reid has taken a liking to the Huntsman standard bearer and have cleared my confusion as to why he joined the Obama Administration.
More bad news in T-Paw land. It is widely reported that the fmr. neighboring state Minnesota Governor has spent considerably more time in Iowa than any three other candidates combined, but is in drowning in single digits.
Pawlenty is literally doing worse the more he campaigns. Now T-Paw is a competent former two-term governor and a generally good guy, but he is garnering less support than even Gingrich and people who aren’t running. So what gives?
Your advisors suck Tim. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, fire everybody you have on staff and start over. It worked for McCain with the same team you have assembled. But don’t take my word for it, Huckabee has given you the same counsel. He knows a thing or two about winning the Iowa Caucuses.
I can’t make this stuff up. Perrenial candidate for governor (going on 12 years now) Bob Vander Plaats has volunteered to the usefull idiots at the Des Moines Register (sigh), that he has been contacted by those close to Texas Governor Rick Perry about the political tea leaves in Iowa. He also claims they sought his counsel on the Ames Straw Poll and Iowa Caucuses.
Let me just call a spade a spade or in this case a shameless attention whore a shameless attention whore. When pressed, Bob did not name the people who allegedly contacted him and stated that they did not work for the governor. They were people who were “supporters” of the governor. I wish you could see me rolling my eyes right now.
Well that narrows it down Bob. He is more likely to have been telephoned by a jock strap than those who are confidants of the governor. I’ve actually met Gov. Perry and had a lengthy conversation with him regarding the Iowa caucuses Bob, but I didn’t call up the media to get my name in the paper. So when you make such claims, I have to suggest you add an “S” to your initials.
Wal Mart won a landmark case before the United States Supreme Court where no less than 1.6 million female employees filed the largest class-action suit against the big box (oh grow up) giant for sex discrimination in their promotional practices.
In a unanimous decision, the Court ruled that the “class-action”suit could not proceed in its current form where the plaintiffs “wish to sue about literally millions of employment decisions at once. Without some glue holding the alleged reasons for all those decisions together, it will be impossible to say that examination of all the class members’ claims for relief will produce a common answer to the crucial question why was I disfavored,” wrote Supreme Court Justice Scalia.
I cannot stand frivolous lawsuits that do as much harm to our economy as organized labor thugs and this is the largest on record. Of course this came up from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. Score another one for the Good guys!
The Bad
Shortly after it was reported that Huntsman Corp. was very slow in cutting business ties with Terrorist Regime, Iran long after most other U.S. based corporations had done the right thing and severed ties, it gets worse for the yet to be declared candidate for president, Jon Huntsman.
His younger brother, Peter Huntsman who runs Huntsman Corp. had this gem to say, “We now employ more people between China and America than we do in North America.” Uh oh. Apparently he didn’t run that by the Huntsman for President communication team first. Expect to hear more on this here and in the lamestream media soon.
I Live Where?
If there was such a thing as the truly ”Ugly” of campaign rollouts, this might be the text book case. Cory Ewing, a 24 year old criminal justice major at Kaplan University declared his candidacy to challenge Democrat State Representative Bruce Hunter of Des Moines in a primary only to suspend his campaign a few hours later. The problem? Nobody “told him” that he didn’t actually live in the same district. I’m gonna go out on a limb here and suggest that if you haven’t bothered to look at your residency requirement for an office, perhaps you haven’t taken the necessary preparation on learning the issues and values of your district. The voters like to think their representatives, Republican or Democrat have a little more going on upstairs.
The Des Moines Register is reporting that for the 5th consecutive month, the state of Iowa has seen job growth that leads the nation. Unemployment has dropped to just 6% and 4,400 new jobs have been added.
Now for those keeping score, it should be noted that while there have been five straight months of job growth, Republicans have been in control of state government. Terry Branstad has been governor and Kraig Paulsen has been Speaker of the Iowa House of Representives for six months. I’m not sayin, I’m just sayin.
Iowa Republican and Democrat party chairs squared off on Iowa Public Television over the weekend. To be quite honest, I didn’t watch it. I doubt any of you did either.
So I’ll summize what most likely took place given their respective views and ability to effective convey them.
Dean Borg: Welcome to IPTV and thanks for joining us. Why should Iowa voters support candidates of your party next year?
Sue Dvorsky: Iowans need to stop thinking only of their own budget constraints and more about the revenue needs of the government. I believe Iowa voters will begin to judge their Democratic candidates by the intent of their policies and not by the results of their implementation.
Matt Strawn: Jane, you ignorant slut.
They say you never want to turn away an endorsement in politics, that is unless you are trying to win a Republican presidential nomination.
POLITICO is reporting that Gay Republicans have an interest in the candidacy of fmr. Obama Ambassador to China, Jon Huntsman of Utah.
While his support for civil unions and gay rights are not all that different from President George W. Bush, this is not an issue that a GOP candidate wants associated with their candidacy. Fortunately for the GOP, it probably doesn’t matter a whole lot given just how poorly he is getting out of the gate.
The best kept secret in the Iowa Caucuses is the presidential candidacy of Fmr. Alabama Judge, Roy Moore. Danny Carroll of the “Family Leader” announced that he is stepping down from his role in the exploratory phase of Judge Moore’s campaign.
Danny Carroll is perhaps best known as the guy who refused to endorse Terry Branstad over Chet Culver because his boy, Bob Vander Plaats lost the GOP primary. Classy. This guy almost became our state party chairman for crying out loud.
Moore, who allegedly is a candidate for president is not happy with the rules for the Ames Straw Poll in August and has thus decided not to compete. In unrelated news, I have decided to opt out of the upcoming NBA Draft because those rules are bogus too, even though I would dominate despite my obvious height disadvantage.
We are all familiar with the my ”Garden Weasel Awards” which are meant to point out utter stupidity in our political world, but the “Golden Gnome Awards” are to give props to those who are doing good. So let’s get started!
The free market and those like myself who worship at the alter of it, are big winners this week. President Obama tried to joke about his recent ill-advised behemoth of a stimulus by admitting that the shovel ready projects of which he touted were in fact “not so shovel ready.”
The President should also take note that his anti-free market stimulus was not so stimulating. The free market has one word for you Mr. President: SCOREBOARD
Mitt Romney has had a good week. He won the first major debate in New Hampshire and separated himself from the pack even further. There is no question that he is the lone member of the first tier of candidates.
A New NBC/WSJ poll shows him out front of the declared candidates with 43% of likely voters compared to 11% for both Michele Bachmann and Ron Paul while the rest remain in single digits. Wow.
And on top of it all, he leads former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum in PENNSYLVANIA 21-16%. Stay tuned for an apology from Sen. Santorum for that too.
The second coming of Pat Buchanan himself, Gov. Mike Huckabee managed to get his name back into the presidential primary news clippings by taking a swipe at Gov. Tim Pawlenty on the Laura Ingram radio program.
“I would say that the number one thing, and I am going to go back to my friend Tim Pawlenty, is that he needs to get rid of some of his consultants. I saw this with Romney four years ago and I am seeing it with Pawlenty now. Overcoached. Overconsulted. Get rid of them,” he said.
I could not agree more. Terry Nelson, Sara Taylor, Karen Slifka, Chuck Larson Jr. and Ed Failure Jr. should all be fired. It worked for McCain!
The New Hamsphire Union Leader, despite having an un-American name, added credibility to an otherwise CNN run debate.
The best part of the week for them in my opinion is when the NH paper chastized fmr. Obama Administration Ambassador to China, Jon Huntsman for declaring that he would seek the office of the presidency the very next day after the debate of which he no showed.
The Union Leader skewered Hunstman’s timing since he skipped the debate because he said it was still unclear as to whether he would in fact become a candidate for president. I’m proud to see the press get it right and call out a candidate who tries to play caucus and primary voters for fools. If Huntsman plans to break out in NH from the rest of the field, he may not want to continue to poke the Union Leader and the NH primary voters in the eye.
I hate unions. Categorically.
Workers of America communications vice president, Chris Shelton stated, “It took World War II to get rid of the last Adolf Hitler — it’s gonna take World War III to get rid of Adolf Christie!” Not to end the fiery rhetoric there, he went on to say, “The first thing they did, the first thing the Nazis and Adolf Hitler did, was go after the unions, and that’s what Christie and his two generals are trying to do in New Jersey!”
Any time a top union thug official compares you to Adolf Hitler and the state you govern, “Nazi Germany”, I’m going to give you a Golden Gnome Award and a hearty thank you for all you do to make our country a great place to live the free enterprise dream.
Vince Lombardi once opined that God must live in Wisconsin. Well, he may be right.
Today, the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld Governor Scott Walker’s law that limited collective bargaining power of state union employees and requires them to pay more for their health insurance and pension benefits.
The Supreme Court stated that the lower court judge had no authority to interfere with the legislative process. The ruling came down as a thunderous rebuke of union thugery and their fleecing of state taxdollars. Let’s hope Iowa is next!
My prognostications for last night’s CNN debate in New Hampshire were spot on… Except for the fact that Tim Pawlenty proved to be a total pussy. Sorry, I don’t know how else to describe him. I was in total disbelief. Still am.
CNN did everything they could to tee up the softball for Pawlenty to continue his attack on Romney via ”Obamneycare” from the preceeding day on Fox News Sunday (proving that even CNN employees watch Fox News), but he whiffed on a bunt. Hard. Pawlenty will forever be known as the candidate who choked under pressure and if he can’t stand up to Mitt Romney, he sure as hell can’t stand up to Obama.
Mitt Romney came in as the “frontrunner” and walked out the “frontrunning away with it” candidate. He was the only candidate running for president and the rest seemed to be running for vice president with Michele Bachmann outclassing them hands down. It is too early to say it’s over, but I can’t see how anyone in this group can catch up to Romney if they keep blowing him kisses in debates. Paging Governor Rick Perry.
Texas Congressman Ron Paul announced recently that he has convinced yet another member of the Republican Party of Iowa’s State Central Committee to blur the lines between their role as legitimate, impartial oversight for the Ames Straw Poll/Iowa Caucus process and their pledged endorsement of his candidacy.
Dubuque native, Jeremiah Johnson was announced as his 4th public endorsement from members of the state central committee. Johnson joins Drew Ivers, A. J. Spiker and David Fisher. It is not yet clear if he too is on the Ron Paul campaign payroll.
Congressman Paul… You have no shame sir. There will come a day when our beloved First-In-The-Nation Caucus is taken a away from us on the account of a lack of credibility and we will have your campaign and the sellouts who endorsed it from the state party to blame. So this is a pre-emptive “thanks alot ass-clown.”
Monday night the first REAL debate between the Republican presidential hopefuls takes place in New Hampshire. Those participating are not limited to just the junior varsity candidates, but rather all of the declared candidates to date including: Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, former Godfather’s CEO Herman Cain, former Speaker Newt Gingrich (no really, he’s still in the race), Texas Congressman Ron Paul, former Governor of Minnesota Tim Pawlenty, former Governor of Massachussetts Mitt Romney and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum.
First of all, this is CNN. The forgotten cable news network or “F’CNN” given their viewer ratings compared to Fox News in literally every category and demographic. So it is entirely possible that nobody will see this debate with the exception of the political junkies like myself. Expect that fact to not be lost on them which may cause them to do something themselves to make news. For instance, stupid You Tube questions or questions in the form of a song are likely. I think there is a strong chance that the most memorable takeaway from the debate will be some antic by the moderator or F’CNN.
With respect to the candidates, it should be fairly straightforward. Mitt Romney is the frontrunner in every way: Money, charm, good looks, economic experience, business knowledge, organization, name ID, executive leadership etc. etc. etc. Expect him to get hit early and often. Tim Pawlenty may even take a stab at Mitt before he finishes introducing himself in his opening statement. What he and others will unintentionally create is a frontrunner who is battling six other candidates, thus making him the debate under-dog in the eyes of the viewers. A lose-lose for those wanting to take him down a notch.
The August straw poll in Ames and Mitt Romney’s decision to skip it will no doubt be mentioned as a question from the moderator if not brought up in opening remarks by others. All Romney has to say is, “Look, I won the straw poll last time, spent a million dollars and I all I got was this lousy t-shirt.” Case closed.
“Romneycare” or “Obamneycare” as Pawlenty is now calling it will be a term that gets more mentions than the F word in the South Park movie. A word of caution for those who decide that is the fight they want on national television (ok, it is only F’CNN), you had better not have supported Cap & Trade. Do you hear me T-Paw? Romney is ready for these attacks and might blister the first to pick that fight.
In the end it will be fun to watch for those who actually see it, but the activity on Twitter will be entertaining as well. I predict the kids over at Underthegoldendome, IDP Chair Sue Dvorsky and our pal Napoleon Sterzenbach will be live tweeting it. For added tweet fun make a drinking game of it and take a drink every time those Dems mention Donald Trump or quote him when he’s neither a candidate, nor a participant in the debate.
And relax, in six years we get to have former Vice President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee! Good times.
Tuesday, the ultra leftist blog arm of the Iowa Democrat Party, “Under The Golden Dome” accused Secretary of State, Matt Schultz of unethical if not illegal behavior for criticizing former Utah Governor, Jon Huntsman for bashing the Iowa Caucuses and declaring that he would skip it. The Domers opined that it was not ethical and perhaps illegal for the chief commissioner of elections to weigh in on candidates and their campaigns. What they fail to understand is that the Iowa Caucus is NOT an official state sanctioned election that the Secretary of State oversees. It, like the Democratic caucus, is an intra-party nominating process with rules decided upon and enforced by the respective political parties.
The Domers further suggested that Schultz’s defense of the Iowa caucuses was in fact a water-carrying move for presidential candidate fmr. Senator Rick Santorum, whose younger brother and friends of Schultz have worked with or have supported people who are declared supporters of Santorum.
Yesterday, right on cue the Iowa Democrat Party filed a complaint with the Iowa Ethics & Campaign Disclosure Board for Secretary Schultz issuing a statement correcting Huntsman and calling into question his real reasons for skipping Iowa.
So how did they connect the dots to concoct this conspiracy theory? I’ll tell you. It has to do with the Under The Golden Dome’s Six Degrees of Tin Foil Hats:
1. Under The Golden Dome is the blog arm of the Iowa Democrat Party. Said party is run by Chairgenderneutralman Sue Dvorsky, who filed the bogus ethics complaint against the popular and rising star in Iowa politics, Secretary of State Matt Schultz.
Dvorsky’s right hand man is none other than short man’s syndrome himself, Napoleon Sterzenbach.
2. According to his facebook page, Napoleaon Sterzenbach’s favorite movie is the 80′s BMX teen flick, “Rad” staring Lori Laughlin. While the movie sucked as bad as its name, Lori Laughlin was a serious hottie.
Given that BMX racing and skateboarding was never cool, no matter what he may claim, I suspect the real reason he liked this movie is because it was filmed on location in Canada. You know, that country liberals always threaten to migrate to if a Republican is elected president.
3. Speaking of hotties from movies of the 80′s, how about Kristy Swanson’s character, Simone in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off?!
“Um, he’s sick. My best friend’s sister’s boyfriend’s brother’s girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who’s going with the girl who saw Ferris pass out at 31 Flavors last night. I guess it’s pretty serious.”
4. As we all know, the original Buffy The Vampire Slayer was none other than Kristy Swanson. That’s right, before there was Sarah Michele Gellar, it was Swanson.
This was all before the Twilight nonsense about vampires of course. Now there is little Iowa conservative caucus attendees fear more than vampires. Seriously, blood sucking vampires are enough to keep me home on a cold January night for sure. The only thing scarier to see on caucus night is:
5. MORMONS. Yep, those gosh darn disciples of extraodinary faith. Nothing pisses me off more than trying to pick a fight with a Mormon over their faith versus mine and they just stand there smiling all chipper and polite. Telling me how happy they are for me that I embrace my faith and wish me well. The nerve!
There is really only one man who can put an end to this Latter Day Nonsense and drive a stake through the heart of those vampiresque fuddy-duddies in Iowa forever:
6. MATT SCHULTZ. But of course! The Iowa Secretary of State who kicked incumbent Michael Mauro’s ass all over the state. And did I mention that he is a Mormon? Or that his faith has never been self-described as “complicated”? Schultz was spot on to correct Huntsman’s use of being a Mormon as a reason he can’t win. And Schultz would know.
I think we have the IDP’s Domer school of thought process pretty much figured out. It all comes full circle for the Golden Domers if they have their tin foil hats on firmly enough.
Perhaps that is what the name for their blog should be: “Under The Tin Foil Hat”.
Sarah Palin
Ron Paul’s “Joint” Proposal
Posted by underthegoldengnome 
