A Few More Republicans Fly the Coop (II)

To answer your immediate and undying question: No I won't skewer Cain. He missed my wrath by a day, but nonetheless would have been a fantastic addition to my analysis of this multidimensional circus that is the republican party. Lets get on with it folks!

Let me start with the obvious. That isn't Bush. I know. He's a governor from Texas who has occasional gaffe issues, but I assure you it's not George Bush. Next let me level the easiest punch I can to start with. He wants to get rid of 3 departments. The Department of Commerce. The Department of Education. And the Department of. The Department of...

That is always entertaining. However, the more serious critique that I can say is that the removal of all of these agencies is unfeasible, unwise, and incredibly ignorant to propose. The Department of Energy, despite what you may have read about Solyndra, performs some of the most advanced and necessary things in our national interest, such as maintaining the nuclear weapon armament and energy supplies. You know. No biggie. Commerce? Who needs a census? I've already discussed his lack of awareness of basic science, but his outright lies about the teaching of evolution irk me to no end.

I keep harping on evolution, but this point still baffles me. It's 2011. We have iPhones. We have incredible amounts of data in support of an elegant and simple idea and yet it's derided as "a theory that's out there". I'm as much a skeptic on things as possible, but eventually the world has to adjust its models of knowledge to accommodate evidence. Sorry! I'll shut up now on this.

To mention any of his other proposals would give him too much distinction amongst the field. After Herman Cain (Please come back brother!) came out with a flat tax, Rick Perry did the same. After Santorum attacked Romney on his health care bill, so did Perry. The only remarkable difference I can find to differentiate Perry is a remarkably doltish sign his family had on their ranch.

Here he is, Mr. Contract with America. Newt holds a PhD in History and as such is the big idea man. Or so he says. He is the brilliant sort of con man who is smart enough to know that he has no chance. The problem is that he's so deliriously convinced that he is smarter than what he really is, that he can't get past it. Take this example.

He rightly called Paul Ryan's plan right wing social engineering. I read Ryan's proposal and call tell you that it is about 50% fantasy. The other half I don't even know. Gingrich panicked after this debacle, bolted to Greece, and now 6 months later he's relying on the public's incredibly short memory.

In that regard, he's assured that they'll forget his three hundred thousand dollar ethics fine which was a part of why he left the house. Nor will they remember his other marriages which failed. Judging someone on the now makes sense, but he has a long history of making money by old fashioned con tricks. Rachel Maddow decimates him so well that I don't have to.

Newt is what he is. A pseudo-intellectual con man who is trying to sell books and increase his speaking fees. He's rich and I'm poor, so in this country that makes him successful.

Romney is. Well actually you can't write that sentence because Romney may change his position in the interim time of my typing. It's easy to harp on, but when someone has held as many positions as he has on so many positions it's truly incredible. Try this recent ad by the democratic national committee.

This is a very simplistic attack of someone's consistency. But it's sometimes remarkably effective as evidenced by the damage it did to Kerry in 2004. You can tell from the debates that Romney has panache and polish. Too much perhaps. Despite his lack of core conviction, he intends to put up as rigorous a run as possible. As incoherent as Romney is, it's still not a good bet that he can get the nomination. There is more anti-Romney pull than there is pro-Romney push. Even the republican headquarters has some issues with him. Look at this from Fox News the other day.

In direct contrast to many other potential and current presidential candidates, Romney has never been a paid contributor to Fox News. This sort of antagonistic relationship doesn't bode well for his future prospects of lax coverage from the network. Indeed, as it's been described, this republican primary is shaping up to fit right in line with other Murdoch primaries that happened in the past.

I have to bring up another issue because I think this is the driving force behind the anti-Romney sentiment that is pervasive in the republican primary electorate: Romney is a Mormon. Particularly amongst the white evangelicals there is not an inclusive sentiment toward Mormonism. There has even been questions over whether or not Mormons are legitimate christians. I'm not as versed in the subtle ideological differences, but I can assure you that Jesus being from an alien planet wasn't in the original text of the bible. This issue of being non-christian or a weird christian will continue to off put republican voters who are still searching for the reincarnation of Ronald Reagan.

I don't have a magic ball and thus can't tell you who will end up on the opposite side of Obama on election day ballots. I can tell you that I'm loving this field of republicans. If anything, they are the most entertaining in generations and I get the first hand experience of watching them in action.

Notes:

It's amazing how you can misspell the title and not realize it for hours. Brilliant Darren. Brilliant.

It's been fun folks. I'll see you around. It's been a pleasure.