My Response to Alex Knepper: #winning

Alex is an online friend and a original thinker so he to his blog.

So again, I ponder: is winning the presidency always worth it? In the short-term, perhaps — but does anyone doubt that the Republican Party is better off for having lost in 2008? John McCain’s fiscal policies would have been hapless — he was never a believer in free-market principles, and his fetish for ‘compromise’ would have doomed him and his party to suffer the consequences of the worst of both worlds. His failures would have been tagged as a conservative disaster, and we’d currently be lamenting the fact that we nominated him in the first place — and, more saliently, that his failure would be sweeping in an era of hyper-liberalism in 2012 and beyond. It was better in the long-term for Republicans, for economic liberty, and for the country that John McCain lost.

So I would like to retort

#1) Its all about #winning
you play to win the game.

Coffee is for closers.

if you start looking like marines, you’ll act like marines

all i do is win

You play to win the game

Politics is an awful game. No one plays it to come in second. No one eats lousy chicken dinners and is with creepy political people because they want to get a silver medal.
Coffee is for Closers
You don’t get the best perks in politics unless you can close. You don’t get things going without being able to roll out and make the small successes.
If you start looking like marines…
When you start looking like marines, you’ll start thinking like marines, and you’ll start acting like marines
all I do is win.
When you have the foundations you become a winner.

BUT LARRY you say, what about the Democrats from 2000-2008.

Well what you had there was Bill Clinton oppressed a certain kind of stupid in the democratic party that was unwinnable. And it took 2 terms of George W Bush for people to go “well.. whats the worst that could happen.” What George Bush is is what we had in McCain, What we have in Romney in 12 (vs 08) and we would have in Christie or Daniels. The things that touch the voters and encourage them in the GOP and make them more successful were never really oppressed under GWB and they aren’t oppressed now. But they are out played by the nature of how Republican primaries work (and the lack of a solid bench to play for it.)

#2) The lesson of 1994

How did George W Bush become President? Republican governors successfully promoted themselves as an alternative to Bill Clinton. Will Obama in a second term allow the federalism experiments? Why don’t you ask boeing how that works. Why don’t you ask the states who are being curtailed by various presidential fiat regulations. Whatever good a Perry, Christie, Walker, or other might produce: Will the Federal regulators allow them. Based on the 3 years of the obama administration he won’t allow it. So if we accept the premise its better to lose now to win later: we have 4 years where the value of any republican alternative is degraded by the White House. This is what happened to Bob Dole in 1996. And this is what will happen to any Republican Presidential alternative who comes through the statehouse.

#3)Obama’s Foreign Policy Disaster

Obama’s Foreign Policy (and train wreck of a fiscal policy) will ruin any of the sweet or soft power of American Foreign Policy advocated by Republicans. This will make it harder for Republican Politicians to take occupation in the minds of the American voters. That means we will have to waste time coming up with a new way to advocate for power in foreign policy (that may never resonate with voters)

So: We won’t burn out whats wrong if we lose now (we will only perpetuate whats wrong), We will lose our ability to advance our position on foreign policy, and we won’t be able to advance our domestic and economic policy because obama will actively impede their efforts to do so.

And if we don’t “Play to win the game” we will never learn how to act like winners. And if we can’t act like winners we just won’t win.

Its that simple

Are you a wizard?

I have had a moment of spiritual quandary that has met on the crossroads with political and social quandaries of others. And I have a question at the crossroads: are you a wizard? If not you should be.

But let’s first talk about what a wizard is.I don’t mean some one who can turn a person into a newt ( I thought I did that but turns out Newt Gingrich acts like a newt).

So what does a wizard in the occultist sense do? He starts first with personal discipline and grounding. He creates a sanctified or sacred space. And using the tools of a wizard he bends the creative forces of the universe either to his faith(as with the neopagans) or with his will.

In this occultist sense I am very much a wizard (though with little sorcery) though I lack some of the tools of a wizard’s craft (discipline being one of them)

We look at celebrities, and some of the people at the top of our social order are enchanted (successful without being wizards) most of them apply the same tools of the wizard.

Hobbes Leviathan, a foundational work in what lead to a liberal-democratic-capitalist order not only created a sanctified space for wizardry, and taught us the tools of its wizardry…. The leviathan teaches us to summon a servant that can become a terrible master.

And in our federal reserve we see the famous lesson of wizardry taught by Walt Disney and his ink and paint homunculus mickey mouse. A great film lesson which drew from the wizardry of its time and the wizardry of another age.

So economically, culturally, technologically, and politically we exist in a world of wizards. And the wizard world often times leads to antidemocratic and anti republican outcomes.

Some wizard will always be the fat kid in slitherin to the pinnacle of wizardry in harry potter. But the fact that we cannot see the wizardry in how the world is shaped the wizards become removed from the world to their own enchanted alter realms. This separation promotes the antidemocratic and antirepublican notions and separates people from their wizard power.

I was inspired by some words in National Review to start to think about the world as a Wizard

1. He is a product of what Neil Postman called the “now this” society. We watch the news of destruction in Joplin, Mo., and then a commercial for Tide, followed by a commercial for a slick horror film, followed by a story about a celebrity divorce. Some of it is real, some of it isn’t. All of it is high-quality and entertaining. All of it is treated in a fleeting way.

Thus, we begin to live our own lives as a series of disjointed fleeting events that we judge for their entertainment value … and create a society that makes it possible for a New York representative to tweet a picture of his underwear to a 22-year-old Seattle coed while watching a hockey game being played in Canada.

2. He is a product of the age of the digitized body. Marketing yourself isn’t just for celebrities anymore. Now, we all market ourselves, choosing just the right Facebook profile picture and photo albums to tell the story we want to about our lives. We start to divorce our “self” from our actual body. This phenomenon reaches its extremes in avatars and sexting: The digital me becomes the exciting me.

Thus we are create a society where a member of Congress is able to carry on inappropriate relationships with half a dozen women he has never met and send his body’s constituent parts to the four corners of the nation from the privacy of his TV room.

3. He is a man in the age of “wimps and barbarians.” In this digital arrangement, female identity takes a terrible hit: A woman becomes valued for her sexuality above all. But as Terrence Moore points out, so does male identity. He said men become “barbarians” or “wimps.” Barbarians are emotionally insensitive selfish men who do the kinds of things former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn is accused of (and Arnold Schwarzenegger has admitted to): Treating women as means to pleasure without regard for their best interests. A “wimp” is very different but ends in the same place: He uses women thoughtlessly in order to feed his emotional neediness.

This creates the kind of guy who does things like what tweetmate Meagan Broussard says Weiner did. “He was trying to get me to talk about myself sexually. … He would ask me weird things, like ‘Did you miss me?’ I didn’t understand that — how could I miss someone I hadn’t met and didn’t know?”

4. He grew up in a world where “family” and “religion” became abstract terms. Instead of growing up in a culture of families staying together for better or worse, he grew up in the divorce culture where other arrangements can always be made (I don’t mean that he was a child of divorce; he was, but that is a secondary consideration). And instead of growing up in a culture where religion has to do with what you believe and how you behave, he grew up in a culture where, as Moment magazine put it “Weiner has always been assertive about his Jewishness” but “doesn’t belong to a synagogue or consider himself close to a single rabbi.”

This invoking of Anthony Weiner to me casts why being a wizard and shaping the Post Modern world (Being the Ubermensch) or becoming the last man (shaping the world around you) is a conflict that lies under the surface of our larger political conflicts. People are critical of the Material and Consumer cultures we have today, but these cultures are dominated by people who let things define them…..they do not define their things.

Governor Carson Episode Education Reform

We have a troubled education system for more reason then the rent seeking behaviors of the political class. We have a troubled education system for more reason then violating one of the oldest principles “throwing good money after bad” and spending more money to solve the problem when that’s never worked before. But lets talk about solutions. Solutions that must come from both the government and from Parents in this country.

The First Solution is we must talk honestly about the purpose of our schools, and seek to make a school system that meets that purpose. What is the purpose of our School System? To produce the next generation of Americans and give them the tools they need to succeed in the world. Can anyone say that our school system does that? If we do not start from here there is no purpose in a public school system. And the public school system holds no value. And as valuable as giving them the tools they need to succeed in the world, is making them the Next Generation of Americans. It stands as a foundational institution of our Citizenship and if it does anything other then serve as that foundation it should not get one thin public dime. Nor should we regulate a private school that isn’t dedicated to making Americans.

The Second Solution is we must talk Honestly about the problems of our Schools. We hear a lot about standardized tests. But we do not hear the whole story. Schools Dominated by Blacks and Hispanics do worse then schools dominated by Asians and whites. Even when Income is taken into account. Schools in urban zip codes do worse then schools in Suburban zipcodes. Schools in wealthy zip codes do better then schools in poor zip codes. Schools in rural zip codes do worse then schools in suburban zipcodes. The problems we see are not ones in how we teach our kids but are geographical problems. The problems we see are not in the way we teach our kids, but god help us, they are racial problems. The problems we see are not in how we teach our kids but in the income of their families. How much you spend on schools makes no real difference. The problems in our schools, while some may be in the school house door, some lay beyond the school house door.

Problems that we do not see in those nations we are compared against. Nations that have less Economic, Racial, and Geographic disparities. We cannot solve our legitimate problems in education by trying to make an apple into an orange.

The Third Solution is we must talk honestly about how we spend money on schools in this country. The Public Schools that spend the most money per pupil are among some of the most consistently poorly performing schools. Schools that pay less per pupil in the private setting, have better outcomes per pupil. Other countries have teachers with less income relatively speaking and they have better economic outcomes. We have schools spending money on the latest trends instead of on what is shown to have the best return on investment in achieving educational outcomes.

The Fourth Solution is we must talk about how we organize schools. Since the age of school reforms in the 60s and 70s schools have become more and more hierarchy driven and less accountable to local actors. And we have seen in the same time poorer results. I would like to provide you with a very rudimentary business lesson to prove why this is a source of our poor outcomes. A Ball bearing is a ball bearing. Only the composition of the metal in it changes. But to make food for a gas station requires knowledge of local economics, customs, weather, tastes, and trends. The less accountable the base is the worse that food will do. The more accountable the base is the worse a ball bearing you will produce. Education is like making a deli sandwich for 7-11, not like making ball bearings. But our strategy has been trying to make our children into a nation of Ball Bearings.

The Fifth and Final Solution, the kind that the founders called on us to have, is once we have had these 4 discussions is we develop policies to implement it. This is the only way to give our children the education they deserve

Governor Carson on the Political Vanity of other Canidates

We have two mormons running and our second consecutive mormon running for President. I’d like to say we can take away the Mormon Card as the reason to attack these candidates. But I am reminded of a line from the movie The Devil’s advocate “Vanity, is definately my favorite sin.” and I feel uncomfortable calling out the sins of others, but there is no other word to discuss this character defect they have and how it would impact their ability to be leader of the free world.

Mitt Romney has every reason to be vain in this world. He is an attractive man, a he has a beautiful and fulfilling family, he has the wealth of Croesus. A lesser man would fill themselves with the opiate of self love for any of these things. But Mitt Romney denies all of those sources of that self love. And instead embraces self love in what other people seek to use to bring him low. As a Mormon I imagine maybe their is this sense of discrimination, as a Religious man he maybe had the sense of being the outsider. To Mitt Romney he takes these barbs of others and wears them as a badge of honor. But one should always be skeptical of honor, because from honor vanity often comes. This is why the ancient roman’s had a man on the chariot with the great hero saying the words “fame is fleeting.”

Words used in Republican circles to describe Mitt Romney in no particular order are “Unprincipled flip flopping weasel.” So to Mitt Romney I see the political benefit in holding your ground. In saying “See, I stand for something.” So he went to hold ground to defend Romneycare and the experiment in the Bay State. I could labor on the point that this undermines our ability to attack Obamacare. But there is a far more insidious problem. It undermines his ability to address reality.

With the type of Irony only god can present, he called it a success the same day the Wall Street Journal Focused on its failures.:

Massachusetts took off on this entitlement trajectory after Mr. Romney signed the bill in 2006 and stepped down to run for President two years later. Let’s go to the data, all of which are state-reported, in search of evidence of Mr. Romney’s “success.”

The only good news we can find is that the uninsured rate has dropped to 2% today from 6% in 2006. Yet four out of five of the newly insured receive low- or no-cost coverage from the government. The subsidies will cost at least $830 million in 2011 and are growing, conservatively measured, at 5.1% a year. Total state health-care spending as a share of the budget has grown from about 16% in the 1980s to 30% in 2006 to 40% today. The national state average is about 25%.

The safety-net fund that was supposed to be unwound, well, wasn’t. Uncompensated hospital care rose 5% from 2008 to 2009, and 15% from 2009 to 2010, hitting $475 million (though the state only paid out $405 million). “Avoidable” use of emergency rooms—that is, for routine care like a sore throat—increased 9% between 2004 and 2008. Meanwhile, unsubsidized insurance premiums for individuals and small businesses have climbed to among the highest in the nation.
….
The Romney camp blames all this on a failure of execution, not of design. But by this cause-and-effect standard, Mr. Romney could push someone out of an airplane and blame the ground for killing him. Once government takes on the direct or implicit liability of paying for health care for everyone, the only way to afford it is through raw political control of all medical decisions.

Mr. Romney’s refusal to appreciate this, then and now, reveals a troubling failure of political understanding and principle. The raucous national debate over health care isn’t about this or that technocratic detail, but about basic differences over the role of government. In the current debate over Medicare, Paul Ryan wants to reduce costs by encouraging private competition while Mr. Obama wants the cost-cutting done by a body of unelected experts like the one emerging in Massachusetts
…..
In reality, his ostensible liberal allies like the late Ted Kennedy saw an opening to advance their own priorities, and in Mr. Romney they took advantage of a politician who still doesn’t seem to understand how government works. It’s no accident that RomneyCare’s most vociferous defenders now are in the White House and left-wing media and think tanks. They know what happened, even if he doesn’t.
***

For a potential President whose core argument is that he knows how to revive free market economic growth, this amounts to a fatal flaw. Presidents lead by offering a vision for the country rooted in certain principles, not by promising a technocracy that runs on “data.” Mr. Romney’s highest principle seems to be faith in his own expertise

Would you trade one technocratic solution to free the markets, from a technocratic solution that enslaved the markets. Because of his political and intellectual vanity this is the reality that Mitt Romney is presenting to his potential voters: Do you want the same means as Obama, but to achieve a different end? Because he refuses to admit that Romneycare was a failure this is the reality he presents to his voters. Because he refuses to admit this is a failure we see the same type of expertise that men like him putting faith in their own intellect invested in sub prime mortgages and fueling a million arms for a million homes that a million people could not afford. Because he cannot admit he was wrong, Mitt Romney says why you should never cast your vote for him.

But beyond that I must paraphrase the words of the last Presidential Candidate from his state “Who will have the last Presidential Campaign to die for a mistake.” or far worse “who will be the last country to die because their leaders will not admit to making a mistake.” Presidential Elections are for Winners, and so to is Governance of a country. If you would rather lose then admit something is wrong, as Mitt Romney presents his case, then we don’t need you to be our President.

His Co-religionist also has the same sin, but unlike Mitt Romney Former Ambassador Huntsman is willing to do right even if it is for the wrong reasons.

“It hasn’t worked,” the potential GOP presidential candidate told Time Magazine in his first extended interview since leaving his post as U.S. ambassador to China. “And our economy’s in a different place than five years ago.”
Until the economy recovers, Huntsman added, “this isn’t the moment” to implement it.

Ambassador Huntsman ignores the fact that he didn’t advocate for this idea 5 years ago, he advocated for it 3 years ago. In the White House, very shortly before President Obama named him his Ambassador to China. But Governor Huntsman will at least get it right “It doesn’t work” or he may even get it right on another level “My primary voters will never support me if I support this issue.” Something that is Beyond his co-religionist.

This nation can survive the weakness of its leaders, but when those leaders are blind to their weakness it may bring this nation low.

Governor Carson Episode Exodus 32:19

In the Republican Party we have a commandment we hold up as a golden rule. A sacred edict issued by a great man and leader of our party Ronald Reagan. I am reminded of the moment in the bible where Moses breaks the Ten Commandments. The Israelite people had made a graven image and made a serious sin against god. God was going to smite the people and start over. But Moses broke the ten commandments and punished those who rebelled. When the rebellion and its bloody work was done God was able to pass to moses the law of god and the Israelite people in the desert were able to earn their way into the promised land. So with this thought in mind I wish to break the 11th Commandment. Ronald Reagan was a great Republican and great President, but we have a bloody business that if we don’t do it will put our country on a real wrath of god.

We have in this primary campaign two men who in their political careers embraced the idea that we can take an idea off the table to keep the democrats from having an issue. “We are going to be forced to do something about global warming with a carbon tax, so lets put a capitalist face on it.” Governor Pawlenty was wrong. During the years of President George W Bush the United States reduced its carbon output more then those nations that bent knee to the alter of a carbon tax. There is a real line of reasoning that points to the rebellion in Egypt being connected to their ideas of how to enforce the carbon tax. We now face a threat against our ally Israel and the turmoil in the greater middle east. The solution to make people consume less energy when the technology isn’t ready has caused poverty and real problems in this world. In Governor Pawlenty’s , and I mean no disrespect, lazy desire to beat down team Democrat we see a destructive idea brought to the shores of America that could do serious damage to out country. I know many people who know Governor Pawlenty and speak to the fact he has real principles and dedication but his actions as a politician don’t show it.

We have Governor Romney who has done much the same thing. Taking the issue of health care reform away from the Democrats. And what are the results in Massachusetts? Exploding costs, health insurance companies closing up shop, people having to see doctors with dozens of other people, and the same bad idea now going national. The idea of forcing every American to buy health insurance was about “controlling costs” but it fundamentally alters the relationship between the government and the governed. And in Massachusetts it has promoted rampant dishonesty. People buying health insurance at the last moment and putting the huge cost on the state. Instead of reforming the massive distortions in the health care system caused by issues of education, division of labor, and government distortion policies Governor Romney chose a quick fix to take an issue away from the Democrats. And I do not know Governor Romney but I pray to god he is a better man then his actions show.

We have Herman Cain, a man who shouldn’t be running for President based on the quality of the Pizza his company produces. He says “So what” if the Government owns the bank if the ends justify the means. When the government owns the banks the Government decides who gets loans and who doesn’t. And when that policy was set up what happened? Millions of Americans came to own homes they couldn’t afford. Many more bought homes they couldn’t afford out of greed. And those actions brought the American economy to crash in the ditch. I don’t know Herman Cain but these policy beliefs are the very beliefs that have brought our economy to ruin.

We have Donald Trump, a man I don’t know and I don’t feel I want to know, who has taken destructive ideas and kicked them up a notch. He has as a businessman played with bankruptcy laws and used the state to steal property from people for his own benefit. He has used lawsuits for self aggrandizement and threatening his enemies. His solutions as a Candidate? Threaten China with the same kind of destructive tariff’s that lead to the great depression. Threaten Opec and ignore the issues internal to the US and its government policies that drive up oil prices. Ignore the destructive policies of the federal reserve and our reckless spending on our economy. Donald Trump teaches that our problems are some one elses fault and we can get them. This man only became a Republican because of the weakness of the likes of Romney, Pawlenty, and Cain and their weaknesses ability to feed his ego. We must not allow such a shallow and arrogant man to govern out country.

Governor Daniels, a man I do not know, has one sin that is different then the sins of these other men. Mitch Daniels is immoderately moderate. In his moderation Governor Daniels won’t speak up. To Governor Daniels calling out the destructive policy choices. To Governor Daniels a weak and quiet temperament should be the response to these destructive polices. If you will not stand up for radically changing the relationship between the government and the governed, then who needs you as a leader of this party or this nation. If you will not call out the destructive policies of raising energy prices and bankrupting the American people, then how can the American people ever trust you to stand up for them.

Ron Paul stands up and decrys pork barrel spending. Ron Paul votes against pork barrel spending. But Ron Paul makes sure pork barrel spending is set aside for his district. This failing in Ron Paul is not the only failing we see in his role as a public servant. He places his words as some sort of counter culture spokesman and provides them free of charge. So the words of Ron Paul are preached by NeoNazis and all manner of people in the Parinoid Political spectrum. Ron Paul does not take a stand against such politics and lets anyone use his words to promote the legitimacy of their own ideas. He monetizes his campaign for cronies and family members. A cast of former Ron Paul supporters put out odious ideas of the American Confederacy as some sort of Libertarian Paradise. To Ron Paul none if this raises a remark. Ron Paul says we should treat North Korea the same way we treat Australia. To put it kindly Congressman Paul lives in a distorted and alternate reality. And his being allowed Presidential power would be destructive to America.

Governor Huntsman and Newt Gingrich share much of the same sin that plagued Governor Romney, Pawlenty, and Herman Cain. But they take those sins and flaws to another level. Newt Gingrich always wants to be the point of the spear of the smartest republican ideas. So much as he showed a lack of fidelity to his wife in her hospital bed, so he shows a lack of fidelity to his principles and the principles we need to govern America. Governor Huntsman unlike Romney and Pawlenty seems even less grounded in Principles and seems to believe some of the same bad ideas they follow will work out if he is the one who commits to them. These men are both so stuck in themselves and keeping themselves at the front of the political order will say and believe anything or nothing as it advances themselves.

Senator Santorum is a man who advocates many ideas that are worthy of part of the debate but to convince the American people you must bring them to you. You must talk to them about the issues of concern in terms they would understand. The problem with politicians is they seem unwilling to lead, and the worst of Rick Santorum’s flaws is he seems content to preach to the converted.

Lastly I want to speak of Governor Johnson. Governor Johnson has a crusade, a noble crusade , that he is campaigning on. His ideas have merit and we need to address many of those ideas. But this country will not be saved by legal weed, even if we cannot afford the scope of the legal system that makes it illegal. But he will die on that hill, and that will cost us fighting the issues that matter to this country.

So can we tell the people in Iowa that we have to end Ethanol with this caliber of leadership? Can we do a strong and radical transformation unlike any politically put forward by either party to date in issues like Health Care, Education, or Energy? Can we deal with these men with changing the system of Alliances of the United States that have been ruined by President Obama and strained by President Bush? I am reminded of an old biblical story “you have been weighed, and found wanting.”

And that is why I entered this race. Because some one needs to have the courage to take a stand for what was right. Thats the President this country needs, and thats the President this country deserves.

test phone post

Let’s see how this works

The Donald and what he means for the GOP

The current Blogging Zeitgeist among the paid political web class and other wannabes (such as myself) to pontificate and ponder on the nature of THE DONALD in his attempt to fire Obama.

While working I had some thoughts on this and I wanted to comment on it.

#1) Passion

What does Donald have that most of the major other candidates don’t? He speaks with a passion. A passion to put the country right that has been put very wrong. And put very wrong by the Obama-Pelosi-Reid (and also George W Bush) legion. You know who else speaks with that passion in the field? Palin (who is more and more looking like a non candidate), Bachmann, and RONPAUL. Who has tried to fake this passion (and failed). Our good friends here Mittens Romney and the Huckafraud. Also trying to fake it is T-Paw but no one is paying attention to him. Donald has it and he comes to this passion as naturally as any salesman comes to it. (which may mean not at all.) But he at least SEEMS passionate.

#2) America the Beta
I was reading “Who Are We” by Samuel P. Huntington and something he wrote on appeals to this issue. (pgs 314 and 315)

In 1997, for instance, in a national survey of whites, 15 percent estimated that blacks were more than 40 percent of Americans, 20 percent estimated that blacks were between 31 and 40 percent , 25 percent said between 21 and 30 percent. sixty percent of whites thus saw blacks as more then 20 percent of the American people…..A majority of White Americans also see themselves as relatively poorer and blacks as relatively richer than is the case. As sociologist Professor Charles Gallagher of Georgia State University explains:”like it or not, middle-class and lower middle class whites see themselves as a minority and have adopted a posture of being victims.”

The News is clear to most Americans: We are in Second place to China. The reality is very nuanced and very different. The News is clear to most Americans: We are being mocked and laughed at by the countries around the world. The reality is very nuanced on that issue. America doesn’t make anything anymore, and all our companies are owned by foreigners. The truth is something else entirely

To these people Donald Trump is saying “I will make the United States of America an Alpha again.” This appeals to many voters. Now while Romney is speaking to these issues some (as are T-Paw, The Mustache, and other candidates) Trump is channeling this pain and is offering a simple (some would say simplistic) answer to that problem.

#3) America wants an nontraditional candidates.

Obama was a very unorthodox Presidential candidate. People have become very tired with the outcomes of orthodox politicians. Our problems with taxes, spending, debts, and deficits are born in large part because of the lack of imagination of the political class. Of the unorthodox candidates out there: Ronpaul ,John Bolton, Michelle Bachmann, Sarah Palin (who isn’t going to be running), And Herman Cain. Of those Candidates AS OF TODAY only Trump has a realistic shot of winning the prize (and his chance at winning is only marginally realistic)

#4) This Sauce is weak

As I have said before the candidates out there are bland, dull, boring, uninteresting, and don’t speak to what the Republicans are interested in from their Candidates. While The Donald may not be a good candidate right now he at least seems to have more going on then the other Candidates and the voters can window shop with him.

#5)Trump is a Businessman

Despite such Business Presidents as George W Bush and Herbert Hoover the American voters on the Center Right seem to think a business oriented President is what we need. In the Developing world , the former soviet sphere, and Italy we have also seen how bad business candidates can be. But the American voters think “this time it will be different.”

#6)CHINA

The News and policymaker responses to China are part of what I will call “Alternative Reality Based Community.” People view the rise of China as a threat, much as they did the rise of Japan, and Donald Trump speaks to this belief that has broad support on both sides of the aisle. Trump says “I will be tough with China.” We don’t need a President who will be tough with China but we need a President who will embrace reality with China. And we need a President who will communicate reality to the American People.

#7)Oil prices

man Oil prices sure suck don’t they. We have been taught by our “Leaders” two people are to blame. The EBIL oil companies and the EBIL arabs in Opec. The reality is something very different. The Power of Opec has been slipping since the 1980s when they helped us win the cold war (no one told you about that? Yeah Opec helped us win the cold war). But many people still nurse hurts from the 70s oil crisis. And many others view the EBIL arab oil money and the war on terror as a hand in glove issue. Trump says he will be tough with Opec and break their back and Fix oil prices. The path to lower oil prices is not through OPEC. Its through Oil Drilling in the US, its through the fact the growth in China and India (which is factored in to the pricing) may falter. Its through the fact Japan (a major consumer of oil) is in ruins.

So this is my take on why The Donald is being viewed seriously at this stage by a lot of Republicans. At this point in time other candidates (Mittens, T-Paw, Daniels, Barbour, Huckafraud, etc) can steal these ideas and make them their own. BTW guys… I am also totally available to provide these ideas for pay. Call me

Updates

Some personal updates of the world of Larry.

*) I have started the process of conversion to Judaism and have begun attending regularly at the Conservative Synagogue in Sarasota (you will be hearing more on that later)
*)I have gotten work at a place of appointment I can’t talk about (due to company policy) and am working 4 tens. So my attempt to be more regular will be based around my schedule
*)My Governor Carson series will be updated, and I will also take a bigger “Fan Fiction” series where I now replace Obama when Obama says something that warrants it

Governor Carson Episode IV

Governor Carson met with right to life leaders in Sioux City Iowa

We have a lot of extremes in this race. One guy you are familiar with in Iowa, Governor Huckabee, has a lot of good ideas on family issues. But he then goes out and makes embarrassing comments about a new Academy Award winner choosing to have a child out of Wedlock. You have Governor Romney, who I will expect you are going to hear a lot of this time around, who came to jesus as it were when he decided he was going to run for President. And we have at the other end of the spectrum Governor Daniels, who may be looking for an easy excuse not to run, who speaks to our lack of need to say or do anything at all. And his truce I wish to speak the most of.

He proposed a truce to fight the new “red menace” of our time. He proposed this truce so we could bring people of good will together to solve our fiscal train wreck. Governor Daniels Truce is supposed to turn the dial back to 2008 and not advance the ball further on any issues vital to people who center their values on their faith. He evoked the spirit of unity that we had in the cold war. A spirit of unity in the face of communism. While this unity in the face of communism is more a matter of historical mythology, it also fails to make rudimentary sense.

If you believe that a lack of federal fetal stem cell research, research that costs the federal government an insignificant cost, saves human lives why should you let it die on the vine for a truce. If you believe that killing the unborn is a genocide, why wouldn’t you stand up. If you believe denying homosexuals the right to marry makes them second class citizens why wouldn’t you stand up and fight. Because why his analogy fails in a unity over communism divisive social change occurred during the cold war with parties and politicians picking sides.

The notion that the fight to stop communism should mean that African American people would sit on the back of the Bus today sounds absurd to you. That very much is the type of thinking Governor Daniels is proposing. If we as a party choose to live by bread alone, why would anyone choose to stand up for us? We need to be realistic about what issues and what bills are most vital for the public good but ending the national debt isn’t worth the cost of our soul as a nation.

But on the converse when people shoot the low hanging fruit of an Academy Award winner who is choosing to have a child out of wedlock no one is going to take us seriously. Especially when that woman is choosing to have the child out of wed lock with her fiancee. And here we see the other end of the same deficiency in leadership that Governor Daniels issues in his truce: A lack of judgment and sense. Their will be moral issues like tragedies and triumphs that the American people seek the leadership of their President in. The President must be mindful of his special leadership and special place in this world. It is a President’s most special treasure. If men feel their should be no judgment and we should take social to either extreme its no wonder most people want no part of that in their politics.

We will have to fight for moral issues in our Foreign Policy and Fiscal Policy, and as we do we will have to earn back the trust of people on these other issues. But we do not give up our belief in what is right and never sell our soul on the alter of political expediency and power.

Governor Carson Episode III

Governor Carson made his first trip to Iowa in the run up to his exploring a presidential run. He made the following comments at a Waterloo Iowa event.

The administration has made comments about the difficulty of setting up a No Fly Zone. But I think a lot of the commentary on the issue is driven as a policy from the mind of the “prisoner of the moment.” The Prisoner of the Moment seems to be what drives this administration and its foreign policy. When the uprising broke out in Tunisia it was probably logical for the government to take no action. When it moved to Egypt the President should have said “I want you to look at every Middle East regime and develop a range of military solutions to solve those problems that might come up.” When it moved into Yemen we should have moved a carrier into the Mediterranean to be prepared to handle the problem. Once we did that we could have then went to our Nato allies and said “your having a refugee problem from this instability maybe we need to move naval resources into the med.” By the time the dominos fell to Libya we would have had resources in the Med and when we said to Gaddhafi “Hey stop killing your own people” our words would have been backed by military resources.

Instead we have a President who has only just now taken those steps. Because the “Obama Doctrine” is one thats driven by reacting to events. The United States of America is seen as a leader in the world and leaders are not reactionaries. Leaders fight to redirect events and help their own people deal with these events. We now have to wonder how much bigger this tide in the Islamic world will get before the United States Government has the ability to get a handle on it.

Now we have to ask “should we set up a no fly zone in Libya.” Those rebelling against Qaddafi have asked us to. This is leading to a refugee crisis in the South of Europe as well as Tunisia and Egypt who are both less stable and less able to deal with such a crisis. If we do nothing we risk losing any gains we have and any ability to influence positive change in Egypt of Tunisia. We risk losing the ability to have the International order speak credibly on issues of Human Rights. So it is right for us to act, but as I said this to Europe is more then just an academic exercise. France, Italy, and Spain will all have to deal with consequences if this goes bad. So the President needs to go to our Allies and calling on them to step up. We have asked for them to step up in Afghanistan and they largely have not. But here we are in their back yard. If not now, when? If not here, where? And if Europe answers “no” to both of these questions we need to ask some tougher and deeper questions about our Military and Foreign policy.

If Europe will step up to the best of their ability, and if the rebels wish us to be there we should set up a No Fly Zone. But we should have been ready to act before this problem occurred. And we should have stood out as a consequence to maybe have averted the tragedy