The Right State

The assassination of Benazir Bhutto has shown just how scripted the presidential candidates are during the last few days before an election and how major incidents can wreck havoc.  The former Prime Minister’s death has thrown the candidates into turmoil along with their overly rehearsed speeches.  Like a derailed train, some of the candidates are going full speed ahead while saying the most ridiculous things.  Bill Richardson of New Mexico who arguably has the most foreign policy experience of any of the other Democrats has called on President Bush to force Pervez Musharraf to step down as President of Pakistan. 

Alone among the White House contenders, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson called on President Bush to pressure Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to step aside in favor of a coalition government.

“Until this happens, we should suspend military aid to the Pakistani government,” he said in a statement. “Free and fair elections must also be held as soon as possible,” added Richardson, who served as ambassador to the United Nations for a portion of the Clinton administration.

I would expect this kind of nonsense from one of the liberal blogs, but not from a presidential candidate.  Second tier candidates are known to say off the wall things just to garner what little bit of publicity from the major networks, but this comment by Richardson is plain stupid.  Musharraf will have a hard enough time keeping the country together without the candidates throwing fuel on the fire.  Like him or not, the US needs Pakistan in the war on terror.

The Democrats do not have a stranglehold on idiotic comments.  Take one Ron Paul who claims to be a Republican, but in actuality is a Libertarian. 

Texas Rep. Ron Paul, though, diverged from the message of other Republican candidates, calling on the United States to cut off aid to Pakistan.

“We should mind our own business, and stay out of supporting military dictators, and that’s what Musharraf is,” Paul told FOX News. “We’re right in the middle of this, and we just sort of stir the pot, and now I’m scared to death we’re going to be marching in there and have another war.”

Who said anything about going to war with or for Pakistan?  Sometimes I wonder what planet Ron Paul is really from.  I almost expect to see an episode on him as the agents of Men in Black discuss aliens who look like aliens.

Both options, asking Musharraf to resign and cutting off aid to Pakistan, are just plain dangerous.  We need him in the country to maintain stability in the region.  Without him there is a power vacuum which would create even more instability.  It is instability where Al Queda, the Taliban, and terrorism thrives the best.  This is something the US can not afford.  Remember Afghanistan?  This was the exact scenario which led the Taliban and Osama bin Laden to power in that country.

The attack and assassination of Benazir Bhutto is a win-win for the terrorists and a must win for the US.  We can not let Pakistan fall into chaos, not when they have nuclear weapons. 

For the candidates to call on Musharraf to resign and for the end of aid to his country is playing right into Al Queda’s hands.  Richardson knows better than to fan the flames of discontent.  And as for Ron Paul…he is just a moron.

Tags: National Elections by Chuck
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Joementum joins the Straight Talk Express—to form the Momentum Express?

Joe Lieberman has endorsed John McCain today for the Republican nomination to be President of the United States. A Democrat endorsing a Republican for the Presidency is not unprecedented, but it is unusual. In 2004 Zell Miller, a Democrat from Georgia, not only endorsed George Bush but gave a major speech at the Republican National Convention in New York for the sitting Republican President. Lieberman’s reasons for supporting McCain are much different than Miller’s backing of Bush. Lieberman listed the War in Iraq and as well as other reasons in his support of John McCain. But it was one of the other reasons for supporting his fellow Senator that caught my attention and that was their ‘friendship.’ Wow! Talk about a loaded word. It has a history and a meaning for both him and his Democrat colleagues in the Senate.

In his 2006 reelection bid for the Senate in Connecticut, Lieberman was abandoned by the Democrat Party including his so-called ‘friends.’ These same friends supported and endorsed the ultra liberal one-issue candidacy of the dove Ned Lamont all because Lieberman would not turn against the War in Iraq and George Bush as most of the other Democrats had. Abandoning Lieberman included today’s Democrat frontrunner for the Presidential nomination, Hillary Clinton, and 2004’s Democrat Party candidate, John Kerry.

So it is with interest that I heard Joe Lieberman use ‘friendship’ as one of the reasons for his support Senator McCain. This is an obvious dig at his fellow Democrats, the same ones who deserted him during his primary. And do you think the Dems are getting the message? You bet they are, all the way from the Democrat leadership on down, from Harry Reid to Kos to the Huffington Post and on. And boy are they ticked, but then again, who cares. They deserve every bit of this retribution for stabbing Joe Lieberman in the back. He is just making sure the Dems remember that desertion of friends carries a price, sometimes a hefty one.

The question is whether Lieberman’s support will translate into votes for John McCain. The jury is still out on this one. The only ones the Lieberman endorsement will likely influence are the independents and perhaps a few of the more liberal Republicans. Most of the more conservative Republicans still remember the McCain-Feingold Campaign Reform Act, his calling of waterboarding as torture, and his vote against President Bush’s tax cuts. All of these votes have helped John McCain to earn the label of a maverick. This is a name he has proudly held up for all to see, at least until recently. And now the Republican Party may just remind the maverick from Arizona what that name has truly cost him: the Republican nomination for President of the United States.

With that I come back to what Joementum joining the Straight Talk Express means—not much other than another cool nickname. You have to admit, the Momentum Express is kinda’ cool.

Tags: National Elections by Chuck
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Nonsense and more nonsense.  That is what I got out of the Democrats’ Presidential Debate in Iowa this afternoon.  If William Shakespeare had still been alive, perhaps he would have said, “Tales told by idiots, full of sound and fury, signifying absolutely nothing.”  The one overriding message I got from the debate is how dangerous every one of the Democrats are to the survival of this country.  Over and over again, the message was loud and clear: raise taxes on the rich, leave Iraq now, and undo all the horrible things George Bush has done.  What a crock!  Raising taxes on the rich raises prices for everyone.  Leaving Iraq will only leave the terrorists alone to plan another attack.  In the eight short years between 1992 and 2000, the US was attacked…..(the first world trade center in 1993, the USS Cole, Kobar Towers, Tanzania, …) too many times to count here.  In the last seven years, the US has been attacked a total of once, the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks.  Since this nation has taken the fight to our enemies, the US has not been attacked.  Your think that maybe there is a reason for that.

Then the Democrats attacked the one man who is not in this race: George Bush.  The Dems attacked the war in Iraq, the holding of detainees at Gitmo, ‘torture’, the loss of liberty at home (eh?), ’spying’ on Americans, and the loss of revenue when Bush pushed through his tax cuts.  These people are morons.  I can understand the need for the candidates to give their supporters some red meat, but a steady diet of only red meat is too much.  

I will not even attempt to show how partisan the moderator was in the debates, at least not now.  The difference between how she treated the Republican nominees versus the way she treated the Democrats is like the difference between night and day.  She is definitely a die hard Democrat and she showed it.

Finally the winners and losers:

The winners were…nobody.  The Democrat candidates lost as well as the American people.  But the BIG loser had to be Hillary Clinton.  She could not answer a question without sounding like she was reading from her talking points.  Hillary’s experience as she explains it is limited to her role as First Lady.  (Wow, I am truly impressed)  Worst of all, she flubbed a question over how secretive her administration would be.  She lost a lot more ground today.

While I write this, there are those who saw things so much differently.  Over at the Washington Post, another hotbed of fair and balanced media reporting (keep the laughter down), Chris Cillizza says the Republicans are the big losers.  Huh?

The Republican Field: For those spartan few of us who watched both debates, one thing was crystal clear: the Democratic field was far deeper and more impressive. That’s not to say it is and will always be so. But today the Democrats on stage engaged in a civil but edifying debate on issues that each candidate seemed well versed on and ready to talk about. It was a stark contrast to the Republican gathering, which was largely hijacked by former Ambassador Alan Keyes.

Alan Keyes should not even been allowed to attend the Republican debates without a ticket.  At the same time, Dennis K. should have been allowed to debate his fellow Democrats.  The reason there was no sustenance in the Republican debates was the fact that the debate was hijacked not by Alan Keyes, but by a liberal moderator who was more interested in curtailing the Republican nominees than have a fair debate of ideas.  Then in the Democrat debate she allowed the Dems to go on and on.  She allowed the Dems to discuss red meat issues for Democrats.  Republicans were not offered the same deal.  She was a horrible moderator and her bias rang loud and clear.. 

All in all, the Democrats showed me what they are truly made of: absolutely nothing.

Tags: Democrats, National Elections by Chuck
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