Tag: 2012 election

#rsrh Almost time to start tracking the money again…

I’m reminded by this Jim Geraghty post that it’s getting to be time to start having to look at who’s raising cash this cycle, and how much, and what that means in the larger context.  I had personally hoped that I wouldn’t actually have to, but that was before the President started airily talking about raising a billion dollars for the 2012 election cycle.  True, his handlers have since retracted that one (with variable degrees of cold sweat attached), but what’s the fun in your ego writing checks that your body can’t cash if nobody can forever hold those checks over your head afterward?

Besides, it keeps my spreadsheet skills sharp.

#rsrh QotD, Dueling QotD edition.

Hard to say which is the better line in this Mona Charen article about an increasingly-nervous Obama re-election team, and their planned one-note symphony:

For the record, there has never been a time in the past 50 years that the Democrats have not claimed to detect a frightening rightward tilt in the GOP — even as the party has nominated such wild-eyed radicals as George H.W. Bush, John McCain and George W. (“compassionate conservative”) Bush.

or

The economy today is in some respects worse than it was in 1980. Barring a catastrophe, little else will matter in 2012. Any credible Republican can defeat Obama — which is why Axelrod is already smearing as “extremist” a person whose name he does not know.

This should be fun.

#rsrh Winning the Present?

This article from an alternative universe – one where President Obama “was decisive and communicated what it was all about” during the 2008 election cycle – is interesting, but I missed why I have to be concerned about the travails of alternate-dimension Americas.  The one that I live in* is having enough troubles on its own.

That’s pretty much what I wanted to say about that, except of course to note that delaying deficit reduction until 2013 is not, as the article suggests, going to be a ‘bipartisan’ solution.  I really, really suggest that no Republican legislator make that mistake.

Moe Lane

PS: Wow, I’m cranky this morning.

*I live in the America where the current President got elected by deliberately not communicating as much as possible.  Transmitting, sure: a day did not go by where we didn’t get a gauzy message or three.  But interactivity was nil, and every attempt to tie Obama down to specifics back then got a breezy “Oh, it’s on his website” from his acolytes.  Expect them to try that last bit again this cycle, by the way.

#rsrh A friendly message to Republican campaign operatives.

Do not give tell-all exposes to the Daily Beast (safe link) about imploding campaigns*, please: the Daily Beast hates Republicans, and wishes us all to die in fires.  Even if they did not, we will have quite enough on our plate in the 2012 election without having to worry about tattle-tales, and right now all those indiscreet staffers have done is potentially make Governor Rick Perry look bad, assuming he runs and assuming he hires them en masse.  Which I am more or less thinking that he shouldn’t, unless he can work out which person among Gingrich’s staff went crying to the Left.  So the rest of all y’all should try to remember that you’re professionals, and act accordingly.

Thank you in advance for your compliance in this matter.

Moe Lane

Via AoSHQ Headlines.

*Even Newt Gingrich’s.  Even though I could care less whether he’s running or not.  It’s the principle of the thing.

#rsrh QotD, Patience, Grasshopper edition.

Fred Barnes, who is perhaps just a bit restive waiting for the 2012 election cycle to really start:

The economy is languishing, joblessness is stuck at an abnormally high rate, the housing market remains in decline, the deficit will exceed $1 trillion for every year of Obama’s term, the national debt is north of $14 trillion, and markets are anxious. There’s a connection between our troubled economy and Barack Obama. If Republicans drive home the link, they’ll oust him and win big in 2012. It’s as simple as that.

And if it was June of 2012 and we hadn’t started this, I’d be concerned – but, contrary to popular belief (and perhaps egged on by the pundit class*), it’s early days yet.  Heck, we don’t even have a nominee. Because the election’s not for another year and a half, and all that.

Moe Lane

*Ahem.

#rsrh Either Matt Bai is feeling ill…

…or I am.  This makes sense.

…the best presidential candidates don’t start out as fully formed national figures, like a Bob Dole or a Bill Bradley. They evolve to meet the moment by listening to voters in depressing banquet halls and cramped living rooms. They sharpen arguments through endless repetition and find their voices when no one in the press is really listening. They meet adversity and keep on going, because they just can’t imagine living in a world where they haven’t proved the rest of us wrong.

Chances are that one of the candidates you see now is going to look a lot more presidential a year from now than he does today. Republicans shouldn’t underestimate the power of that transformation — and neither should the man they’re trying to unseat.

Oh, there’s the usual condescending from the Left* here, but the core concept is sound.  You’ve got some people hungry for the j0b itself here; which is a refreshing change from 2008, when the guy who won turned out to be simply hungry for the nomination.  At least, that’s how it feels to me now, three years later.

Moe Lane

Continue reading #rsrh Either Matt Bai is feeling ill…

Tim Pawlenty comes out against farm subsidies. In Iowa.

In his official speech kicking off his campaign:

I’m here today to tell Iowans the truth, too.

America is facing a crushing debt crisis the likes of which we’ve never seen before.  We need to cut spending, and we need to cut it…big time. The hard truth is that there are no longer any sacred programs.

The truth about federal energy subsidies, including federal subsidies for ethanol, is that they have to be phased out.  We need to do it gradually.  We need to do it fairly.  But we need to do it.

Continue reading Tim Pawlenty comes out against farm subsidies. In Iowa.

Annnnnnd Tim Pawlenty’s in, with ‘A Time for Truth.’ [UPDATE!]

[UPDATE]  Whoa, whoa, WHOA.  Tim Pawlenty’s going to start off his candidacy by ‘speaking truthfully about farm subsidies‘?

Speaking truthfully about farm subsidies?

In IOWA?

Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty released this video (“A Time For Truth”) last night:

…and he’s going to be formally announcing his candidacy at a town hall today in Iowa.  My basic take from both the video above, and the excerpts from his planned speech that I’ve seen: Pawlenty’s going to be focused primarily on going after the President, and not worry quite so much about his fellow-Republican candidates.  At least, that’s the impression that I get from him taking the opportunity in both to essentially call the President a liar… Continue reading Annnnnnd Tim Pawlenty’s in, with ‘A Time for Truth.’ [UPDATE!]

Tim Pawlenty will officially be running for President tomorrow.

The word is that former Governor Tim Pawlenty will officially announce tomorrow in a town hall in Des Moines, Iowa; judging from his campaign videos, this will be heralded by an overflight of a squadron of F-15E Strike Eagles, an announcement that Minnesota genetic researchers have recreated the passenger pigeon, and T-Paw personally leading a mission to disable the Yellowstone super-volcano caldera before it erupts and destroys the North American continent.

Also, there will be pie.

I kid, I kid: but Tim Pawlenty is certainly taking this campaign highly seriously, and I expect that he’ll be upping said campaigning a good deal in the next few months. With Mike Huckabee and Mitch Daniels out, it’s increasingly looking like Pawlenty is lining up to be the guy to go to if you don’t want to support Romney*. Despite the fact that (at the moment) I am tending towards formally personally endorsing Pawlenty for the nomination, I would actually prefer that the field remain crowded for a bit longer. If only because it frustrates the Democrats so not to have an obvious target for their upcoming smear campaign.

Last thought: you have to wonder whether Rick Perry of Texas is taking a second look. Right now Pawlenty’s in an excellent position to clean up in South Carolina, but Perry could win that state’s primary.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

 

Continue reading Tim Pawlenty will officially be running for President tomorrow.