It finally happened today. An announcment 8 or more years in the making.
Newt Gingrich will run for president.
Until now, he's made it an art form to keep the nation guessing on whether or not he would make a run both in '08 and up until this point. He did it, in part because he does love his country and he does feel he has the best ideas to run it. (I disagree), but I won't dispute that. But, Newt also held us hostage as to his decision because he wanted to stay realavent. He wanted to sell books and stay atop the NYT Bestsellers list. He enjoys the money from the speaking circuit.
Newt is the latest in a field of weak Republican cantidates to declare that they will run. A field which has to have any honest Republican voter nervous. Newt won't win the Nomination, he won't even be talked about as a front runner.
Turn back the pages of time and find a President who a) has never been elected state-wide b)never served in the military or c)never served in a Presidential cabinet.
Keep looking....I'll wait. No, further back.
All Newt has won is a Congressional Disctrict. Small potatoes considering the pool of Presidential Campaigning he has dipped his toes into and is now about to dive into. Newt's time as speaker was preceeded by a stint as Minority Whip. His pedecessor in that position: Dick Cheney. His successor: Tom Delay.
Thats a rotten political sandwich.
Almost as rotten is Newts 180 degree turn from unfaithful husband to moral crusader. How can he in the same breath defend his infidelity as "love for his country" and state his case against gay marriage.
Then there's his mistatements in his much awaited announcment today. Politifact called Newt's claim that he "balanced the budget and paid off $405 million dollars in debt" during his time as speaker false.
The truth on the budget: The federal budget runs on a fiscal year calendar that begins October 1 and ends September 30. During fiscal years 1996 and 1997 -- the first two that Gingrich helped shape as speaker -- there were deficits, of $107 billion in 1996 and about $22 billion in 1997.
By fiscal year 1998, the federal budget did reach a surplus of $69 billion. And in fiscal year 1999 -- which Gingrich can claim some responsibility for, even though he was out as speaker for most of the fiscal year -- it was in surplus as well, to the tune of $126 billion.
The truth on debt: The national debt was slightly above $4.8 trillion when Gingrich became House speaker in January 1995. By the time he left the position in January 1999, the debt was more than $5.6 trillion. That’s an increase, not a decrease.
If you look just at the two years Gingrich can claim credit for where the federal government was in surplus -- fiscal years 1998 and 1999 -- the government did pay down about $200 billion in debt. But that would be cherry-picking, because over the full four years of his speakership, the debt rose by about $800 billion.
The other glaring truth is that Newt's political star has likely fallen.
Before he worries about "Winning the future" as president. He may want to worry about winning a primary state. If he doesn't he will no doubt write a book, sign a contract with Fox News and head out on the speaking trail again.
Proving that there really is nothing Newt under the political sun.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
It takes a Democrat: Mission (finally) Accomplished
I sat spellbound with the rest of America on Sunday night as news came across the television of a Barack Obama press conference.
"It has to be Osama, something with Osama," I thought to myself as the networks switched over to dishoveled anchors who had no doubt been rushed into the studio like jounralistic minutemen.
It turns out, it was Osama. Osama Bin Laden had been killed.
I will never forget where I was on 9/11 when the plane hit the first tower: Mr. Crews' U.S. History class. It wasn't until homeroom some 30 minutes later that we got a clearer picture. One that clearly painted that we as a nation were under attack.
I will also never forget where I was when news of Osama's death came across the airwaives of television and the wires of social networking. Sitting in my living room, thinking to myself, "it has to be Osama."
I thought something else too.
"Thank God its Obama." Almost ten years after I sat in my desk as a high school freshman and saw the horrors of terrorism first hand, the man who was responsible for all of that horror was dead. Ironically though, the President that was responsible for authorizing the operation wasn't the one we might have anticipated.
Since the days after September 11, 2001 we have been spoon-fed a lie by the Republican party: that they are the only party who could keep us safe in the face of terrorism. The GOP successfully fear-mongered their way into re-election in 2004 by convincing voters that they were the strongest on national security. They strong-armed a war hero in John Kerry, and effectively labled a man who had fought and saved lives in Vietnam as "weak."
They in effect said the Democrats aren't strong enough on national defense to keep us safe.
They were wrong.
At the 2004 Republican convention, keynote speaker Rudy Guiliani recounted the day of the infamous attacks: "I turned to Bernard Kerick and said thank God George W. Bush is our President." Whether Rudy said that because he thought Dubbya would keep us safer, or be the president in office when Bin Laden was captured, is not important.
Rudy was wrong.
Because at the end of they day it is Barack Obama, a democrat, who has re-focused our mission from an illegal unfounded war in Iraq back to the war against Al-quaeda in Afghanistan. It was Barack Obama, a democrat, who authorized the mission to kill the world's number one terrorist. It was Barack Obama, a democrat, who stepped out in front of the country and the world on Sunday night and told us all that the mission was successful.
Eight years to the day from Sunday Night's announcment, then President Bush stood on the deck of an aircraft carrier, in a flight suit in front of a banner with "Mission Accomplished" emblazoned across it.
Eight years later Barack Obama, a democratic President, from the very same party in the oval office when we won WWII, actually got something accomplished.
When you weigh what the previous Republican administration gave us in the area of national security and what Barack Obama has given us so far there is only one logical conclusion:
Thank God Barack Obama is our President.
"It has to be Osama, something with Osama," I thought to myself as the networks switched over to dishoveled anchors who had no doubt been rushed into the studio like jounralistic minutemen.
It turns out, it was Osama. Osama Bin Laden had been killed.
I will never forget where I was on 9/11 when the plane hit the first tower: Mr. Crews' U.S. History class. It wasn't until homeroom some 30 minutes later that we got a clearer picture. One that clearly painted that we as a nation were under attack.
I will also never forget where I was when news of Osama's death came across the airwaives of television and the wires of social networking. Sitting in my living room, thinking to myself, "it has to be Osama."
I thought something else too.
"Thank God its Obama." Almost ten years after I sat in my desk as a high school freshman and saw the horrors of terrorism first hand, the man who was responsible for all of that horror was dead. Ironically though, the President that was responsible for authorizing the operation wasn't the one we might have anticipated.
Since the days after September 11, 2001 we have been spoon-fed a lie by the Republican party: that they are the only party who could keep us safe in the face of terrorism. The GOP successfully fear-mongered their way into re-election in 2004 by convincing voters that they were the strongest on national security. They strong-armed a war hero in John Kerry, and effectively labled a man who had fought and saved lives in Vietnam as "weak."
They in effect said the Democrats aren't strong enough on national defense to keep us safe.
They were wrong.
At the 2004 Republican convention, keynote speaker Rudy Guiliani recounted the day of the infamous attacks: "I turned to Bernard Kerick and said thank God George W. Bush is our President." Whether Rudy said that because he thought Dubbya would keep us safer, or be the president in office when Bin Laden was captured, is not important.
Rudy was wrong.
Because at the end of they day it is Barack Obama, a democrat, who has re-focused our mission from an illegal unfounded war in Iraq back to the war against Al-quaeda in Afghanistan. It was Barack Obama, a democrat, who authorized the mission to kill the world's number one terrorist. It was Barack Obama, a democrat, who stepped out in front of the country and the world on Sunday night and told us all that the mission was successful.
Eight years to the day from Sunday Night's announcment, then President Bush stood on the deck of an aircraft carrier, in a flight suit in front of a banner with "Mission Accomplished" emblazoned across it.
Eight years later Barack Obama, a democratic President, from the very same party in the oval office when we won WWII, actually got something accomplished.
When you weigh what the previous Republican administration gave us in the area of national security and what Barack Obama has given us so far there is only one logical conclusion:
Thank God Barack Obama is our President.
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