Round Two opened with Paul Ryan (now this guy I like) throwing the first punches. Not to be outdone in the suddenly trendy cutting game, Obama presented his plan at GWU, even looking at the camera periodically (not only clean and articulate, he reads really well). Meanwhile Biden, guru of the next budget commission showed solidarity with the air traffic control union by snoozing on the job.
Mr. President, if Round Two is really about people starving and disabled children left out on the street, you win, we all agree. But it isn't about that is it? For you it is about preserving something much larger, and that is the entitlement mentality you depend on for votes. It is about "from each according to their ability, to each according to their need." This Marxist theory has never worked, anywhere. In practice, it destroys the incentive to work of both those with ability and those with need and the system eventually collapses. Not only that, even if we "cut" $4 trillion from the deficit over the next twelve years the debt doubles to $28 trillion (check your math) and the whole house of cards still tumbles down.
The truth is that two thirds of your cuts are tax increases. They happen now. The only spending you want cut now is the military. SECDEF Gates' solution is to shrink the fighting force and put a lid on spending for critical space defense programs (God forbid we cut fat in the Pentagon). Other spending cuts come after the next election and, de ja vu, are mostly imaginative falsities based on creative accounting. Meanwhile, sensing disaster for progressives and his own outdated economic theories, Paul Krugman exhorts Democrats: "Let's not be civil" in response to Republican "cruel nonsense." What does this add to the dialogue?
Mr. Speaker, we didn't take back our House last November so you can save your precious Party. Get with the program or you will become a footnote in history in 2012. Your strong-arm tactics and smarmy back door deals do us no service.
Fellow conservatives - the adults who have been left out of the room - this is about avoiding financial collapse while protecting the Nation and actually helping those with real needs. The past two weeks have demonstrated, again, that political deals are phony. The only way to stop the madness is by refusing to raise the debt ceiling. Round Three has already started. Urge your representatives and senators to get in the ring and fight for economic sanity.
____________________________________________________________________
MCCONNELL v. POLIS?
MCCONNELL v. POLIS?
Looks like the cat fight over redistricting in Colorado will end up in the courts. Don't you wish now we had cleared the bench? Check out the maps. Several of them split the Third CD putting everything north of I-70 in the Second CD. Mesa and Boulder, a match made in heaven? How about this in 2012: ski patroller, mountain guide, cowboy Colonel Bob McConnell versus gift-card selling, flower-power rich guy, the Blueprint architect himself, Jared Polis? Get your tickets early, because this fight would sell out, pitting two Party outcasts with world views as different as the sun and the moon in a knock-down drag-out for our future.
So Bob it looks like you're thinking about running for Congress again if Jared Polis becomes your Representative. I guess you were being sarcastic when you said you'd move if that were to happen. Haha. In all seriousness though, if you were to run, would you run as an independent, since you've renounced the Republican Party?
ReplyDeleteYeah, I decided I like where I live and won't move just because some lousy politican was representing me. There's hardly a place anymore that WOULDN'T apply...so where would I go anyway?
ReplyDeleteIf the Republican Party in Colorado becomes the true conservative Republican Party and denounces the use of the secret ballot, vows transparency, embraces the tea party energy, and works to clean up the back door deal-making of the good ole boys I'd consider running Republican. Otherwise, if I do run (not sure yet), I'm fine as an Independent. Hope you're well, thanks for writing.
I think you SHOULD run as an Independent. We need more than the two "choices" we're given, and the GOP has abandoned its true base; the base that gave them the House back.
ReplyDeleteI do consider that a real option. I have seen first-hand how the party establishment operates to get its tired hacks into office, and how politicians have used the tea party to get elected. A run as an independent is possible, but it's a tremendous committment so a lot of thought is required. Thanks for writing.
ReplyDeleteRunning as an Independent candidate and expecting to take office is a fool's errand. If one's goal is to run as an Independent simply to deny one candidate from taking office, one can certainly be successful in doing so, but should not expect anything beyond that. While there have been several Independent members of the federal government in recent years, (Joe Lieberman, Bernie Sanders, Virgil Goode etc), all these individuals were elected with major party support at one time and might have left the party only after taking office. Do a quick google search on independent political office holders in the United States and see for yourself.
ReplyDeleteLet's say that the stars align and your placed into Polis' district. Let's say you make the decision to take ".50 Cal Gunner's" political advise and run as an independent. The Republicans will hold their primary as they always do and a nominee will emerge. There will be a certain segment of the voters in the district who will only vote for the republican candidate or the democratic candidate. There are also a certain number of people who will vote in the primary then refuse to participate in the general election to support the nominee who defeated their chosen candidate. Assuming you seek candidacy as an independent, and assuming that you receive full Tea Party support, mathematically it will be impossible for you to be elected and it will be impossible for the republican nominee to be elected. The democrat will carry the district. Now if that is your goal, that is certainly one thing, but if you want to have a chance at taking office, it simply cannot happen.
Now, .50 Cal Gunner might say, 'no, people should vote for whoever they think would best represent them! When people see Bob on a stage next to these other politicians Bob there's no comparison!' I agree with that totally, but it has been attempted time after time around this country and has failed over and over again. If your goal is simply to have a platform to express your opinion about the government, that's a very long, exhaustive and expensive way to express yourself with little chance at taking your message to Washington.
Mike, as always, I appreciate your thoughts and I have gone through that same analysis: can an independent WIN because believe me if I did this it would be to WIN not just to have a platform. Although in the past "I"s have gotten nowhere maybe people are just so sick of politics...
ReplyDeleteI would NOT want to be the spoiler who gets Jared Polis (or whoever the D is) re-elected. But I've never really talked about how awful the primary was, how mean folks from the other end were, how hard it was on Phyllis to see people call me a liar and hear her own faith disparaged in an effort to get me out of the picture. Not sure I ever want to engage with dirty politics in a Republican primary again.
If Ryan Call is serious about reaching out to independent voters and getting them (us) back in the Party he needs to straighten out his county GOP chairs who can be hands off, old school, and ineffective. The CO GOP needs to show some good faith and amend the by-laws to get rid of this ridiculous secret ballot. I will not be part of a group that acts in secret for any reason and I won't subject myself and my wife to another onslaught of dirty GOP moves. So there's the dilemna and that's why I would consider running as an Independent.
So, Bob has to hold his nose and pledge allegiance to the GOP? That's his only choice?
ReplyDeleteIt seems that the GOP only wants the energy and enthusiasm of Bob's support base only to transfer it to the "mainstream" GOP candidate.
Maybe they're afraid of what would happen if an Independent, a REAL Independent, actually ran as one. People supported Bob because he was NOT the GOP mainstream candidate. Maybe we're tired of having it taken for granted that we'll just vote a straight party ticket, no matter what candidate has an R after their name.
Bob is free to do as he pleases. I just laid out the consequences to the option of running as an Independent. I agree that there were some people who supported Bob simply because he was not the GOP mainstream candidate. Although I believe the majority of Bob's support came as a result of people hearing Bob's strong conservative message and would have supported him regardless of party, not simply because he was not "mainstream." I'm speculating that there were a fair amount of those same supporters who, as your comments suggest, refused to acquiesce to GOP nominee, Scott Tipton; they simply skipped voting in the congressional race altogether. Now, let's say that in 2010 Bob did not run as a Republican and instead sought election as an Independent. The result between Tipton and Salazar was about 50 to 45% respectively with the rest going to "others." Had Bob been on the ballot as an independent, I speculate that he would have received more than 5% of the vote. For round figures let's say he would receive at least 15%. Even if those were people who otherwise would have stayed home, were it not for Bob, Salizar would have been re-elected to congress. Even without Tipton losing any votes to Bob, Tipton's over all percentage would have dropped and Salazar would climb or at least hold steady, causing a victory by plurality.
ReplyDeleteIndependent candidates have sought election to Congress all over this country hundreds of times before with a spectacular lack of success. Even well known people in their communities have failed to take office. .50 Cal Gunner, please explain to me where I'm off base. Where am I wrong? Please lay out a scenario using mathematics or statics and explain how victory is possible for Bob as an Independent. I'm skeptical, please convince me, the floor is yours.
I must amend my previous comment that Independent candidates have had a "spectacular lack of success." Independent candidates have been highly successful in helping to assist the election of their opposition who hold the opposite ideological viewpoint.
ReplyDeleteNo, Mike, I can't prove a scenario based on your criteria. You are correct, in that Independent candidates have never won.
ReplyDeleteThey also NEVER thought a 4-minute mile was possible. Or a moon landing. So, in my book, anything is possible. The only way it stays impossible is if people stop trying.
But I think you have a slightly different viewpoint, evidenced by your very first comment on this post:
"In all seriousness though, if you were to run, would you run as an independent, since you've renounced the Republican Party?"
I think that speaks pretty clearly as to where you're really coming from. Bob's been a bad boy in the GOP's eyes, and he won't be let back into the fold without showing a proper level of humility and contrition.
How does the quote you just cited speak pretty clearly about where I'm coming from? I don't think Bob has been a "bad boy" and to suggest that he'll be let back into the "fold," suggests A. There is a fold to be let into and B. Bob was once a part of said fold.
ReplyDeleteMy first post was responding to Bob suggesting that he might consider another congressional run in the event that the district changed. Several months ago Bob left the Republican Party and said he would never run again as a Republican. Wouldn't a logical question be to ask if he would run as an Independent?
I do not question that you are a Bob McConnell supporter. I too am a Bob McConnell supporter, I just would not want to see Bob seek office for Congress without having the best chance at getting there.
It's my belief that Bob has a better chance of landing on the moon or running a 4-minute mile than he does getting elected to congress as an independent.
It's really great listening to you guys dialogue about this, and I commend you on the civil nature of your interaction. You show that it's possible to feel strongly and not speak in a mean or ugly way. Thanks for that.
ReplyDeleteThis is all speculation and both of you have good points, tell the truth. Not sure the country is ready for a hard-headed straight shooter like me, no matter WHAT party (if any) I was a part of. Keep the faith, guys. Stay engaged, stay active, and stay in touch.
IF Bob tries to run as a Republican, the GOP establishment will be able to use his statements in this blog against him. The things he's said about the GOP will not be forgiven, and they'll destroy him in favor of a more "loyal" party member. At the very least, they'll be able to say that his "renouncing" the GOP was nothing but "sour grapes", and that he's willing to go back on all of his tough talk if it means another shot at an office. He'll justify it by saying the GOP has changed enough to satisfy him, and while that may mollify some, the GOP old guard will NOT be satisfied.
ReplyDeleteThat's assuming the GOP wants to make a play for the seat. If this district ends up the way the Democrats want it, it include Boulder, Jefferson and Pitkin Counties. Lots of Democrats in there and the only way to win would be someone who could overcome the heavy Democrat turnout that will inevitably happen in a Presidential election year. There is a chance that no Republican will even bother to run. A district with a large number of active Democrats, a popular incumbent with unlimited financial resources. Also, looking at how well Bob did in the counties from the old 3rd district, who's to say the "old guard" GOP won't beg Bob to run as a Republican. This could very well give Bob some leverage in the situation.
ReplyDeleteOne wedding seems to blend into another and looking for alternative ideas can be a struggle.
ReplyDeletefor the bride