Romney And Ryan: The Economic Dream Team

Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney has announced his running mate for the November election, Congressman Paul Ryan, head of the House Budget Committee. Many pundits are calling this a "risky" selection, as the Ryan agenda to slash government spending has earned him the ire of many Democrats. Despite how Democrats and media people feel about the new VP candidate, he is the perfect selection. Romney has no choice but to fight the election on the economy and government spending. His own greatest strength is his business acumen, so it makes perfect sense to double down on the budgetary portfolio, a file that nobody knows better than Paul Ryan.

Frankly, I would argue that there is no such thing as a "safe pick". Romney is going to face a trial by fire during this election campaign, regardless of his VP selection. There was a significant risk to every possible candidate, so best to select the optimal choice to fight economic battle that Romney has to fight. Joe Biden is going to struggle mightily when he has to face Ryan in the VP debates. Romney was already facing an uphill battle with Obama ahead in the polls. Of the last 4 times an incumbent President has run for a second term, 3 of them have won re-election. Under Obama's watch, Bin Laden was killed and Gitmo is still operating. If you try to fight Obama on national security, he can counter with having issued the order to kill America's #1 enemy. The economy and the budget have to be center stage, and if it is, Romney/Ryan have a better chance of winning.

Andrew Breitbart, You Will Be Missed...

There is one pundit that I have enjoyed since the first time that I listened to him, and that is Andrew Breitbart He will be missed. It is not often that I shed a tear at the passing of a political pundit, but upon learning that Andrew Breitbart had passed at age 43, I couldn't help it. This was a man who was doing something that I respected tremendously, going head to head with the most vile forces on the American left, who even enjoyed doing so. My only hope is that Breitbart 2.0 is waiting in the wings and is ready to step forward. Is it someone at Big Hollywood? Is it someone that he inspired? I don't know, but let's hope that another one of him steps forward in the near future.

Of all his speeches, the one that you most need to watch was at the latest CPAC conference. We just lost a valuable ally in the fight against left wing media bias.



Will the next Andrew Breitbart please stand up?

Romney Wins Big In Florida

As the results pour in from the critically important Florida primary, it has become clear that Mitt Romney has won the state by a large margin. Newt Gingrich had all the momentum following a big win in South Carolina, securing endorsements from Sarah Palin and Herman Cain. Either those plugs benefited Romney more than Gingrich, or Newt's brilliant idea to colonize the moon did not go over as well as expected. Florida has by far the most delegates of any state thus far in the primaries, and is a big prize for the Mormon millionaire. As of right now with 81% of county's reporting, Romney has 47%, Newt 32%, Santorum 13%, and Paul 7%.

I have never been a fan of Mitt Romney, but believe he has the best chance of defeating Obama. Republicans need to attract people who voted for Obama in the last election. Romney is almost a carbon copy of John Kerry (minus the military service), where Gingrich is much more of a John McCain (again minus the military service). Besides, every time I hear the name Newt, I'm reminded of a centaur from a bad Hercules cartoon from the 60s. If we're lucky, Romney will pick up Newt's colonize the moon plan, allowing Gingrich to go quietly into the night instead of trying to help Obama win re-election.

I would like to run a poll question regarding Newt's biggest weakness and one for Mitt's biggest weakness. Your suggestions are welcome.

Newt To Colonize The Moon

Thus far in the campaign to select a Republican nominee to face Obama in a battle for the White House, I have been skeptical of Newt Gingrich. But today he officially won me over by promising to build a permanent base on the moon by the end of his 2nd term. Sign me up for Team Newt, and let's go to the moon! YEAH! Finally a Presidential nominee serious about space exploration that we can get excited about, capturing the imagination of Trekkies and nerds around the globe.

My sincere apologies if I was not fair in my initial opinion of the future Republican President, this totally makes up for it and I genuinely hope he wins. Now it doesn't seem so ridiculous to have put "golfing on the moon" on my bucket list...though at the time it seemed very unrealistic...

Ann Coulter Doesn't Like Newt Gingrich

Ann Coulter really doesn't like Newt Gingrich. She's endorsing Romney as the only candidate who can beat Obama, and is miffed that Newt managed to win the Carolina primary. See the video below for her full argument on why Gingrich is the wrong candidate for the Republicans in this election. Coulter, you may recall, once said she'd rather vote for Hillary Clinton than John McCain. That was at the beginning of the 2008 primary process. She said she would campaign for Hillary if McCain was the Republican candidate. McCain went on to lose the election.

The Next President Of The United States?

If you had to choose the President of the United States from the following list of candidates, who would it be; Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Rick Santorum, or Barak Obama? I'm doing my own little straw poll going into the Carolina primaries. Thus far this Republican leadership race has seen the main candidates spend so much time attacking each other that they are damaging the brand. I ran a similar poll back in November (see below) when there were more candidates, and Herman Cain won the most of your votes. Now that the field is down to 4 Republicans, I may as well add Obama's name and ask you to choose a President.

WHO DO YOU THINK SHOULD WIN THE REPUBLICAN NOMINATION TO RUN AGAINST OBAMA IN 2012?

Herman Cain (30%)
Newt Gingrich (24%)
Mitt Romney (17%)
None of the above (7%)
Ron Paul (6%)
Undecided (5%)
Rick Perry (2%)
Michele Bachman (2%)
Rick Santorum (1%)
John Huntsman (1%)

This poll was taken in the immediate aftermath of Rick Perry's memory fart in a debate. Gingrich has been under attack for his infidelity, Romney under attack for being a successful businessman who likes to fire people, while Santorum and Paul have made the biggest gains over the past 3 months. Newt is hands down the best debater, and may have won Carolina for his spat with the CNN moderator last night. Romney looked unstoppable a week ago when Newt was attacking his success in business, but is starting to lose momentum, especially now that he has lost Iowa. Santorum is just a younger, less polished version of Mike Huckabee. Last night on Fox someone pointed out that 50% of Ron Paul supporters don't have a second choice.

Who would you vote for?

Will Mitt Romney Ever Be Elected President?

Today's poll question in the wake of the Iowa caucus; will Mitt Romney ever be elected President of the United States? The live results with 97% of Iowa primary precincts reporting has Santorum with a razor thin lead ahead of Mitt. Fox News is currently reporting a dead heat. While Santorum might be the candidate about which I have the fewest complaints (we don't yet know much about him), he's more of a poor man's Mike Huckabee. There's a lot that I like about Ron Paul, but he takes Libertarianism too far for my comfort. He'll never be President, his son maybe.

At this point I'm pretty much convinced Romney will win the eventual nomination. Santorum will ultimately underachieve what Huckabee did last time around. Gingrich might be the smartest politicial mind in the field, but I have some trouble taking him seriously as a legitimate candidate. Rick Perry should drop out of the race as soon as is possible.

My question for you right now, will Romney ever hold the Oval Office?

Megan Leslie Goes To Washington

The NDP has sent their environment critic to Washington with the purpose of lobbying to kill the Keystone pipeline. Normally I'd be a little miffed to have a far leftist down in the USA claiming to speak on behalf of Canada, but I did get a good laugh from her interview on Power Play Wednesday. She hasn't actually been able to change any minds, and her most profound "observation" is how many people she's met who are shocked that there are any Canadians who care about the environment. While I can't produce an itinerary of the people she's meeting with and talking to, the majority of those people seem to think our entire country is hell bent on destroying the planet. She did meet with Nancy Pelosi's office. That much she confirmed today.

To any Americans out there reading this, Megan Leslie speaks for a far left party in Canada, not the majority. The majority of us do indeed yearn to destroy planet Earth...

(ps: that's sarcasm by the way)

Megan Leslie could become Prime Minister of Canada, if only she spoke French. That's so sad that she doesn't...

Who Should Be The Republican Nominee in 2012?

Today's poll question; who do you think should win the Republican nomination to run against Obama in 2012? Of the current candidates running in the race, Herman Cain is leading in the polls with 18%, followed by Romney and Gingrich with 15% a piece, the absent minded Rick Perry has 8%, Ron Paul has 5%, Michele Bachman has 4%, Santorum and Huntsman round out the field with 2% and 1% respectively. Undecided and none of the above are also options in the poll.

I'm not sure that I like any of the candidates currently in the field, and if this is the final list of choices I'll probably end up endorsing Newt. He's really the only one on that stage I trust, but age could become an issue. Romney might be the best business man among the group, but I'm not sure America is ready for a Mormon President. I don't understand the Herman Cain phenomenon. He came out of nowhere and suddenly was the favourite before anyone really knew all that much about him. He's certainly the most entertaining of the bunch. The brain fart pretty much eliminates Perry as a contender. Ron Paul is older than John McCain, and McCain was too old 3 years ago.

USA Debt Ceiling Raised, Yet Global Markets Collapsing?

Hold on a minute, I thought all the experts were telling us that if the USA did not raise their debt ceiling, they would lose their AAA credit rating? And yet, the debt ceiling went up, and the credit rating still went down? What kind of madness is this? Now global stock markets are plunging, despite Obama reaching a deal to drive the United States deeper in debt? How is this even possible? Maybe just maybe, the answer to a debt crisis is not going deeper in debt? Obama should be on the phone with Stephen Harper asking him for advice, because his administration as been leading the American economy into the abyss. Obama is in over his head, and he needs help.
Canada is in comparatively great shape, but if the United States collapses we will feel the pain because we sell so much to our southern neighbours. I'm just responding to all those who said the debt ceiling had to be raised to maintain America's credit score, but you did and the rating fell anyway. Good work. Taking out new credit cards to solve the problem of maxing out your previous credit cards doesn't solve any damned problem.

Raise The Debt Ceiling, It Just Makes Sense

The United States needs to raise their debt ceiling. I was on the fence until watching this commercial...



Also, you may or may not like rap music, but if you are interested in this pending financial crisis, you might find this funny. I laughed so hard I cried.

"Energy is climate change" - David McGuinty

The Canadian Minister of Natural Resources is in Washington promoting Canadian energy contracts, and Liberal MP David McGuinty is angry! He's upset that the Minister is even there, and he's upset that he's not there to discuss climate change. As he so succinctly put it "energy is climate change and climate change is energy". You shouldn't be allowed to talk about energy without holding a symposium on greenhouse gases. David didn't miss the chance to pump up his brother's controversial green energy program in Ontario, the success of which has yet to be determined. Today's poll question; is it acceptable for our Natural Resources Minister to travel to the United States to promote Canadian energy?

What Minister Oliver should be doing is talking about new fines and penalties we can levy on our dirty exports before they are shipped to the United States. Isn't that right David? Or would we be cool if we just bought billions of dollars in carbon offsets from Al Gore?

Is Obama Scorching The Earth?

Tonight I was watching the Charles Adler Show on Sun TV News (on the Internet since Telus still doesn't carry Sun News in my cable package), and the theory was proposed that the President of the United States "wants a train wreck" on this debt ceiling issue so that he can blame financial collapse on the Republicans in the next election. While this is a clever theory and sounds nice, I have trouble believing that Obama is that stupid. If there is an economic collapse because congress and Obama could not agree on a settlement, guaranteed it will hurt Obama's chance at re-election. Congress has a more recent mandate from the people as the Democrats were dealt a devastating blow from voters. Obama is the one demanding more money than the American government can afford to spend, so if talks collapse he absolutely will receive a substantial amount of blame for what happened.

The only thing that makes sense to me is that Obama believes he has substantial political capital to spend after killing Bin Laden and he knows that Obamacare can't survive without substantially increasing how much the USA can go into debt. I don't think he's trying to scuttle negotiations in order to blame it on the Republicans, I think he's desperate to move forward with his spending policies and is willing to spend what political capital he has from killing Osama to make sure he can pay for Obamacare. If he is indeed trying to scorch the earth in order to blame his opponents, then he's an idiot. If the economy collapses, the sitting President cannot avoid responsibility for the catastrophe.

When I watched the video below, I laughed so hard that I cried....

Trump For President?

People are starting to talk seriously about Donald Trump being a viable candidate to run on the Republican ticket for President of the United States in 2012. Today's poll question; do you think Donald Trump would make a good President? He seems to be adopting the birth certificate conspiracy theory as his main campaign platform. At first he said he was skeptical and asked Obama to show his birth certificate, then after the ratings of his TV show went up, he doubled down and went all in. I'm not sure this is a winning strategy, and maybe this man is only flaunting himself as a possible Presidential candidate to boost show ratings and make more money. Forgive me if I do not immediately trust Trump's benevolence.What do you think?

Gore Recruits Olbermann

It's funny, for as plugged in as I am to the politics of the day, I did not realize that Al Gore had his own cable channel. Now it would appear that the king of climate change is recruiting Keith Olbermann to be his new voice. Keith you might know was released from his job at the left leaning MSNBC, and is now looking for work. Enter Al Gore.

I would write more on this subject, but Rex Murphy has already composed a beautiful piece on the Gore-Olbermann marriage. It is a must read.

Canada-US Border

Today's second poll question; should we seek a more efficient border with the United States? We are currently negotiating a deal to do exactly that, because the flow of business across the border is far too slow. We are each other's top trading partners. Is Canada still the number one foreign supplier of crude oil to the United States? Our manufacturing sector is incredibly dependent on American consumption. American companies make a lot of money selling goods in Canada. A faster border is best for both of us.

It is great that Prime Minister Stephen Harper is working on this matter. It is important to speed up the border process, but some people seem to think that we are giving up our sovereignty. I trust Stephen Harper on this matter.

Wikileaks Causing Unrest?

Today's poll question; do you think Wikileaks is partially responsible for the current unrest in the Middle East? The cables released by that website included descriptions of Egyptian torture and Tunisian corruption, and now suddenly both those long lasting authoritarian regimes are in the process of being overthrown by large scale protesting. Now the ruler of Yemen is stepping down, Jordan's King has dissolved his parliament, as it would appear that the "winds of shit" are blowing through the region waiting for somebody else to fill the vacuum. I don't know if Wikileaks was just a spark that started a fire, but my left wing Canadian born Arabian golf buddy who votes NDP told me when he read the Wikileaks that this was really bad and could ignite blood feuds in the region. He wasn't talking Arab against Jew, but Arab against Arab.

On one hand, these were nasty corrupt regimes who would unlikely win an honest election. And yet, everyone is concerned about who is going to step up and fill the void. Was Mubarak a necessary evil? We will know for sure when we finally see who replaces him.

As the wise philosopher Jim Lahey once said "do you hear that? The sounds of the whispering winds of shit...beware my friend, the shit winds are a coming..."

Harper Visits Washington

The Prime Minister of Canada is visiting Washington, and on the agenda is negotiating a deal to cut down on border travel wait times to ensure an efficient flow of goods and services between our two nations. The Liberals are declaring this to be a loss of sovereignty and demanding that the PM take this to parliament before it has even been negotiated. I have no problem with parliament voting on the final deal, but our dysfunctional legislature should not be conducting international negotiations. Let Harper and Obama work something out, then decide if it is good or bad. Will the Liberals throw their beloved Messiah to the south under the bus for short term political maneuvering?

Barney Fife over at CTV news expects this to be the number one issue if there is a spring election, bigger than business taxes and airplanes. I would just like to see the end product of negotiations before I decide if it is good or if it will destroy Canada as we know it.

Harper-Obama Conspiring On Border Security

Oh oh, don't look now but the "Big Bad Wolf" is suddenly being accused of secretly working with American President Barak Obama on a deal for border security, and Liberal MP Martha Hall Findlay was quite pissed off about it in Wednesday Question Period. It would appear that the days of the Liberals fawning over the "Big O" are over, and Stephen Harper working with him on Prime Ministerial matters is suddenly evil and wrong. How great that Parliament is back!? I get to watch clowns like Martha Martha Martha proclaim what a detriment it is to our sovereignty to have a Prime Minister and President negotiating a deal on the borders that could provide tremendous benefit to our economy and travellers.

Oh well, it gives me something to write about. Thanks Marcia...I mean Martha...

"Bill Gates knows full well what's wrong with the F-35s"

I am still waiting for Microsoft founder Bill Gates to tell us what's wrong with the F-35 fighter jets. Ignatieff enlightened us that Bill Gates, the US Secretary of Defense knows full well whats wrong with them. I was unaware that Bill had been appointed to Obama's cabinet, but I'll take Iggy literally at his word rather than out of context. Being that I have a tremendous amount of respect for Bill Gates as a business man and technological innovator. I would love to hear his opinion on the F-35s just as soon as he's willing to do so.

Alberta Ardvark put together a great clip of the incident and how it was cut out of a CTV news broadcast.