POLITICAL ROUND-UP



Much has happened over the past few days - all relating to the current political scene and the 2008 race:

1) John McCain’s final political meltdown has begun. His greatest cheerleaders - the fawning national news media - have started pulling away from their former darling. His moribund MEET THE PRESS appearance a week ago, coupled with his hard-line stance on the Iraq troop surge, have finally convinced his media supporters that he is a certain 2008 loser. And then came a new LA Times poll showing that his lone support for the troop surge was making him less popular and less likely to win an election. So you will now see a ‘cooling’ by his once-strongest constituents: these so-called Mainstream Media types who for six years have been in love with McCain.

2) The new media ‘darling’ is suddenly Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska who has started to lead the charge against Bush’s Surge. He is all the talk in DC these days - and his once close friendship with McCain is certainly kaput. But whether Hagel can get the ‘juice’ to run for president and get anywhere is still undetermined.

3) The Bush Meltdown - even among the GOP - is a stunning development. Every day more and more conservatives jump ship. At the rate we are going, Bush will be totally isolated within weeks. Few Republicans will risk their careers defending him. Indeed, Laura and Barney may be his only supporters - as he predicted - before long.

4) 2008: the landscape is changing by the minute. Iraq has become such an albatross for the Republicans that it is not quite possible that no Republican can win the White House in 2008. That may be Bush’s ultimate legacy.

Iraq is dominating everything. It is why the Democrats won the 2006 Congressional elections. It is masking good things that the GOP would normally campaign on in 2008: a robust economy and no domestic attacks since 9/11. But Iraq has so eroded those inherent GOP strengths that we have little to campaign on.

The only Republican who might be able to win in 2008 is one who rejects Bush; however that Republican might have trouble winning the GOP nomination.

5) Hillary is off and running in Iowa and goes to New Hampshire next weekend. The media loves her: they are all lefties who fawn over this “first woman president’ angle. Her crowds ask softball questions; you have to wonder if, like Bush’s phony town hall forums, the crowds here are also pre-screened to ensure easy and supportive questions.

6) The next big event will be Obama’s next trip to Iowa - to compare it to Hillary’s in terms of crowd size and enthusiasm levels.

7) Rudy Giuliani went to New Hampshire this weekend and did well. He still won’t totally commit to the campaign - even though he leads in the polls. But he is a bit of a strange fellow: he has skeletons - Kerik, sleazy associates, womanizing - and perhaps he is afraid of their emergence. Or maybe he doesn’t want to give up the enormous money he is making on the lecture circuit right now. But he is no dummy - he must see McCain’s demise as a good sign for him. The Big Question remains: can a total social liberal like Rudy really get nominated by the Republican Party?

8) Other candidates: new ones appear every minute. Former Arkansas Governo Mike Huckabee had a nice appearance on MEET THE PRESS and announced he is running. But none of these guys - on either side - seem to get much attention - or to have much appeal. Congressman Duncan Hunter, with whom I was elected in 1980, is a good man. He has zilch chance because he is just does not have that certain charisma that you need these days. None of the Republicans has it - except maybe Rudy. But Rudy has many problems - more than any of us know.

9) We have never had such an early campaign start. The entire 2008 primary/caucus system now means 2007 is when all the campaigning happens. This means that DC is already frozen in partisan gridlock. And it means that the ongoing activities in Iraq will dictate the course of our politics for the foreseeable future.

10) The Democrats are headed for something they wanted to avoid: heavy pressure to cut off funds for the War in Iraq. The Democratic Base is pushing for this - and in a few weeks when the Bush White House requests more money - rumored to be another $100 billion for Iraq - the pressure to stop the war will intensify. Watch for this as it will alter the 2008 race yet again.

11) Impeachment is - as of today - not something that the Democratic leadership even wants to hear mentioned. But you will hear more calls for it as Iraq deteriorates.

Conclusion: there is an anger and a sourness building rapidly across our country. And a fear that our wonderful nation is in deep, deep trouble.

It will be against that backdrop that all politics is now conducted.

FAWNING OVER HILLARY


Since Hillary announced her Exploratory Committee last Saturday morning, the true stripes of the so-called Mainstream Media have been clearly visible: they are all for her!

They have given her unprecedented free media time: on Monday morning she was on all three network morning news shows - and then that night on all three network evening news shows! Plus all the cable nets, too.

And then Tuesday morning she was back on the Today Show - yet again!

Plus, all the questions were powder-puff soft-balls.

This is not the same coverage any Republican would get.

Well, I guess we shouldn’t be surprised. But it is really disappointing to hear these liberals panting over Hillary; hasn’t she had enough free coverage over the past 16 years?

Anyway, to counter this, my group - StopHillaryPAC.com - begins running TV commercials on Saturday all across Iowa - just as Hillary arrives in Iowa - featuring only registered Iowa Democrats. You can view this ad on our site - and you can see these self-admitted liberals tell us why they do not trust Hillary Clinton.

This isn’t - as she will try to say - some part of this so-called “vast right-wing conspiracy.” These folks are caucus-going Democrats who don’t buy her act. Period. And they reinforce two recent polls taken in Iowa of Iowa Democrats. In each poll, former Senator John Edwards was leading the poll - followed by Senator Barrack Obama, the just-retired Iowan Governor, Tom Vilsak, and then Hillary. In one poll, she had only 10% support! That means 90% of Iowa Democrats are against her!

And that is the big - and un-reported - story of the 2008 campaign so far. Sure, in national name-ID polls, she is the best known candidate. But in state by state - where it counts - she is not doing well at all (she is barely leading in New Hampshire) - especially for a supposed front-runner with tons of cash, a former President for a husband - and all the free media she gets at the mere drop of a hat.

But, of course, the fawning Andrea Mitchells, Katie Courics and Chris Mathews aren’t going to challenge her or push her. But the plain fact is that Hillary really has no skills - none at all. Yes, she works hard. But if she were not married to Bill Clinton, she would be nowhere politically. She did not rise to her current position on her own skill; she got there because of her name - and because of how she was perceived as a ‘victim’ of his atrocious womanizing behavior.

So now we have her running for president: a polarizing, divisive, hard-left screaming figure desperately trying - yet again - to re-make her image into a centrist ‘listener’ who likes to ‘chat.’ Puhleaze!!!

Thank goodness the voters - even her fellow liberals - don’t easily buy into this New Hillary. As you can see on our ad, these men-and-women-on-the-street in Des Moines are real Americans with their own views - not the spoon-fed nonsense that comes out of Washington.

With the mess GW Bush and the GOP leadership has made of everything, the sad fact is Democrats now look reasonable and almost ‘mainstream.’ And they could very well win back the White House in 2008. That is what Bush has done to the political scene.

None of us can take this sitting down. We have to fight back. We have to not only stop Hillary. But we also need to come up with a new and better GOP candidate than this sorry field presently masquerading as conservatives in the Reagan mold.

We are in Big Trouble - and we can’t take it any more.

FAWNING OVER HILLARY


Since Hillary announced her Exploratory Committee last Saturday morning, the true stripes of the so-called Mainstream Media have been clearly visible: they are all for her!

They have given her unprecedented free media time: on Monday morning she was on all three network morning news shows - and then that night on all three network evening news shows! Plus all the cable nets, too.

And then Tuesday morning she was back on the Today Show - yet again!

Plus, all the questions were powder-puff soft-balls.

This is not the same coverage any Republican would get.

Well, I guess we shouldn’t be surprised. But it is really disappointing to hear these liberals panting over Hillary; hasn’t she had enough free coverage over the past 16 years?

Anyway, to counter this, my group - StopHillaryPAC.com - begins running TV commercials on Saturday all across Iowa - just as Hillary arrives in Iowa - featuring only registered Iowa Democrats. You can view this ad on our site - and you can see these self-admitted liberals tell us why they do not trust Hillary Clinton.

This isn’t - as she will try to say - some part of this so-called “vast right-wing conspiracy.” These folks are caucus-going Democrats who don’t buy her act. Period. And they reinforce two recent polls taken in Iowa of Iowa Democrats. In each poll, former Senator John Edwards was leading the poll - followed by Senator Barrack Obama, the just-retired Iowan Governor, Tom Vilsak, and then Hillary. In one poll, she had only 10% support! That means 90% of Iowa Democrats are against her!

And that is the big - and un-reported - story of the 2008 campaign so far. Sure, in national name-ID polls, she is the best known candidate. But in state by state - where it counts - she is not doing well at all (she is barely leading in New Hampshire) - especially for a supposed front-runner with tons of cash, a former President for a husband - and all the free media she gets at the mere drop of a hat.

But, of course, the fawning Andrea Mitchells, Katie Courics and Chris Mathews aren’t going to challenge her or push her. But the plain fact is that Hillary really has no skills - none at all. Yes, she works hard. But if she were not married to Bill Clinton, she would be nowhere politically. She did not rise to her current position on her own skill; she got there because of her name - and because of how she was perceived as a ‘victim’ of his atrocious womanizing behavior.

So now we have her running for president: a polarizing, divisive, hard-left screaming figure desperately trying - yet again - to re-make her image into a centrist ‘listener’ who likes to ‘chat.’ Puhleaze!!!

Thank goodness the voters - even her fellow liberals - don’t easily buy into this New Hillary. As you can see on our ad, these men-and-women-on-the-street in Des Moines are real Americans with their own views - not the spoon-fed nonsense that comes out of Washington.

With the mess GW Bush and the GOP leadership has made of everything, the sad fact is Democrats now look reasonable and almost ‘mainstream.’ And they could very well win back the White House in 2008. That is what Bush has done to the political scene.

None of us can take this sitting down. We have to fight back. We have to not only stop Hillary. But we also need to come up with a new and better GOP candidate than this sorry field presently masquerading as conservatives in the Reagan mold.

We are in Big Trouble - and we can’t take it any more.

PERVERTED AMERICA



Last week’s miraculous recovery of two missing teenage boys near St. Louis is a tiny window into a nether world of perversion, abduction, pedophilia, drugs, rape, sex slavery, pornography and other unimaginable horrors. Indeed, we live in a bifurcated country: while many yearn for the wholesome days of good values and clean memories, we are also surrounded by so much sickness that we don’t always recognize it.

Abducting innocent children, terrorizing them, and plunging their families into permanent despair is about the worst imaginable crime.

Sadly, this is quite common today in this ‘free’ society. We are indeed ‘free’ - and that freedom is often exploited by these deranged sickos who live among us and often are even known to their victims and/or the police investigating the crime.

The number of convicted sex offenders is on the rise - yet the law allows these people to live among us after they have completed their time in prison. Communities resist but are forced to accept these criminals, many of whom repeat their crimes when given the opportunity. Yes, there are web sites available to find these people in your community, but the information provided is not as good or accurate as we have been led to believe.

Our children are not only the victims of the crimes - but they are also victims of a system that targets them through violent video games and violent movies. The result is de-sensitized kids who do not value life the right way; certainly some of these people grow into the monsters who commit these horrific crimes.

We are surrounded today by SEX. Everywhere you go, it is sex, sex and more sex. The ads, the movies and television shows, the magazines, the billboards all trumpet raw sex. True, sex sells. Clothes, lingerie, beer - all use sex and sexy-looking models and stars to see these products. But the effect on the young is to cheapen sex and the result is a relatively new phenomenon: kids having sex in their early teens, often with multiple partners. What effect does this have on some people as they become adults? Does it somehow damage them? Does it do something to their still-developing brains to launch them into a world of perversion? Or would these child-abductors have been that way anyway?

Dateline NBC’s wonderful ongoing series of reports into pedophilia and sex offenders is an eye opener. NBC should be congratulated for helping to catch so many of these people. But it is just the tip of the iceberg; sex scams and online perversions are a national phenomenon.

The Internet is the best example of all that is great - and much that is bad - about the freedoms we enjoy.

While the Internet has revolutionized so many lives for the better, there is also a dark side: grotesque and perverted material predominates many sites. It is the flip side of our freedom: we are free to choose - and many choose the wrong and sometimes-evil path.

America is in trouble. Not just in Iraq and in our War Against Radical Islam. We are in trouble in our national soul. We are often undisciplined in the use of our endless freedoms.

Those who think a new or better government can change this are mistaken; reforming our morals and our behavior is up to individuals, families, parents and people in positions of authority such as teachers, coaches, mentors and role models.

We - as a country - need to look in the collective mirror and see the truth: we are becoming what we detest.

IRAQ: THE LAST STAND


Here follows a quick and dirty analysis of the President’s Iraq speech which just ended 35 minutes ago:


• The ‘new’ plan - or The Way Forward - is fatally flawed for one key reason: when we rely on the Iraqis to do anything, we are bound to fail.

• Iraqis - and all Arab Muslims - have several fatal character flaws: they play both sides of everything, they tell you whatever you want to hear and they are total liars.

• The Iraqi Army and Police are, in fact the problem. By day they wear the Iraqi National uniform and draw a pay check (paid by Uncle Sam, by the way) but by night they are the militias and the death squads!

• All recent public opinion polls show that over 60% of Iraqis favor killing American soldiers.

• How high will that number climb after US troops begin middle-of-the-night house-to-house searches, scaring the hell out of women and children? Will it climb to 80% or 90%?

• As our troops - now ‘paired’ with Iraqi units - descend on Baghdad neighborhoods, the death squads and militias will know in advance from the Iraqis what the game plan is and they will evacuate and go elsewhere. We have no chance of ending this internecine Muslim civil war; none whatsoever.

• The Iraqis are incredibly corrupt. The last two Prime Ministers - Alawi and Jafaari - who were in office within the past 12 months - have both stolen millions of dollars of US aid funneled into Iraq and moved to London where each is living in the lap of luxury! And Alawi just two years ago was hailed at the White House as a hero and spoke to a Joint Session of Congress - a very prestigious honor!

• We Americans make a fatal mistake every time we attach our views and beliefs and aspiration onto others. For Bush to say, “Sunni and Shi’a want to live in peace” is a mistaken premise. Their definition of ‘peace’ is the elimination of their Muslim enemies. Thus the revenge killings, payback, torture and beheadings. These are Old Testament people and we are New Testament believers. And the two don’t agree on anything.

• Now, the politics here at home:

• Bush is becoming radioactive even among many Republicans. When a staunch conservative hawk on the war like Sam Brownback opposes Bush’s Surge Plan, then you know the dam is breaking.

• The Democrats will harden their anti-war position because it is no longer a solely ‘leftist’ position; it is now the majority opinion in the nation.

• But despite their opposition to the Surge, they will not be able to stop it; the troops will already be the by the time Congress acts.

• The GOP presidential nomination for 2008 is in total disarray. McCain is on the verge of being an Iraq War casualty; Rudy is beset with laten scandals, lost memos and bimbo alerts; Mitt is a flip-flopper ala his fellow Bay Stater, John Kerry. Huckabee, Brownback, Hagel, Keating? None of then excite people. Look for a ‘new’ candidate later this year.

• Obama will announce for President - and he will not fade quite as quickly as people think because he is viewed as ‘pure’ on the war.

• Hillary is in deep, deep doo-doo in Iowa and New Hampshire; caucus goers and primary voters do not like her and local polling shows her losing badly. (More on that to come in this space next week.)

• Conclusion: we are in a pickle - a self-created pickle. Our political establishment - with the aid of a compliant media - misled the American people into this mess. Bush and the GOP leadership and the Democrats like Hillary and Edwards and Kerry all got us into this mess. 2008 will be about who can get us out of it.

PREDICTIONS 2007




1) Iraq will descend into more and more chaos and violence. The Prime Minister will not last the year - there will either be a coup or he will be killed; his replacement will either be Moktadr Al-Sadr or a similar cleric - and the government’s Number One enemy will be the United States - the very entity that allowed a new Iraqi government to exist in the first place.

1A) Bush’s ‘Surge Plan’ will not stabilize the violence in Iraq; it will increase it. More American troops means - to these barbarians - more ‘targets of opportunity’ i.e. more American to kill. And Bush’s plan for pouring more American taxpayer money into Iraq is a total waste of our money. Talk about a rat hole! None of that money will do a thing to change the situation in Iraq. It is hopeless - and Bush and his Political Tin Ear are the last to realize it.

2) Iran will grow even more radicalized - and accelerate their nuclear program even faster. Bush’s ‘Surge Plan’ will alarm Tehran even more - they are afraid of a pre-emptive American attack - and they will grow even more militant.

3) There will be another assassination attempt on Pakistan’s pro-American President Pervez Musharref. Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda hope to remove him and take over the Pakistani Government - and thus gain control of an already-existing nuclear arsenal. (Osama wants the Bomb way ahead of Iran; Osama is Sunni and Iran is Shi’a - and they are in competition for ‘spiritual control’ of the Muslim world.)

4) Here at home: Bush will dip below 30% in his approval ratings as Iraq continues to ruin his presidency. His Surge Plan will anger people - including Republicans and conservatives - and the coinciding Congressional investigations will drive his already-abysmal ratings into the high 20's.

5) Having gone from a lame-duck to a dead-duck president, Mr. Bush’s influence in the GOP will virtually disappear. The handful of so-far pro-Bush presidential candidates will try to separate themselves from Bush and almost run against him. That may be hard as many of them had gone into the tank for Bush and the War in Iraq over the years.

6) McCain will fade as the year progresses. He already looks old and tired and is so out-of-touch on Iraq - and is so pandering to the same people he trashed six years ago - that his end is coming - and soon. His years of incredible arrogance and condescension and demeaning sarcasm aimed at others is going to come back and bite him. The country is yearning for someone ‘new’ - and he is just the opposite. Farewell, John. We wish we never knew ye!

7) Romney has been exposed as a total fraud; his deliberate courting of the Log Cabin GOPers in 1996 has blown up in his face. Two months ago he was the Rising Star of the Right; now he is toast on the Right - and they are desperately looking for someone else. Romney is attractive and smart and has a Mormon network out raising money for him so he will still make a strong run. But his hopes of being the next Mr. Conservative have been severely damaged. The Conservative Right has yet to find their man - and that candidate is the likely GOP nominee in 2008.

8) Rudy’s stolen/lost Campaign Plan highlights much about this candidate: He is ridden with problems, sleazy associates, an overly-ambitious wife, a womanizing background, greed, people waiting to come forward to rat out his bad behavior, the Bernie Kerik Factor - not to mention his apparent ambivalence about even running in the first place. Plus, his positions on most issues are at total odds with the base of the Republican Party. Still, he has a ‘hero’ image to some - and high name ID - so he is a factor for the time being. But he is a candidate ready to implode at any moment.

9) Is there someone ‘new’ out there? Yes, there is. The Republicans are waiting for our version of Obama - someone fresh and new and nice and positive with no baggage. There is plenty of time in 2007 for a new candidate to emerge; in fact, it might be best for that ‘new’ candidate to wait until later to announce so as to avoid ‘candidate fatigue.’

10) On the Democratic side - contrary to Hillary’s now-public wishes - Barack Obama is not going to fade. His novelty will not yet wear off. His strength is her weakness: he is new, she is old and has been on the scene for 15 long years. Obama is fresh, Hillary is polarizing. Do not write him off for the Democratic nomination. And do not write off John Edwards either. He is everyone’s second choice - and sometimes those guys end up winning.

11) By the end of 2007, McCain and Hillary - today’s proclaimed by the Mainstream Media as Front-Runners for their parties’ nominations -will no longer be front runners.


12) Regarding the Big Scandal - oft-mentioned in this space in years past - let us all pray as Americans that the truth about this awful act of US Government malfeasance finally comes out this year. I cannot predict that it will come out - but efforts are underway to make some of it public. I will say this: it is by far the worst political scandal in American political history.


Happy New year to you all!