Republican Presidential Candidates
January 22nd, 2012 at 04:33am
Good morning John,
Well I can't say that I'm surprised that Mike Carlton does not like any of the Republicans who are vying for the Presidential nomination. Mike Carlton is, after all, a strident left-winger and opposes pretty much everything those on the right believe in. I respect Mr. Carlton's right to hold his views, and his right to support Barack Obama, but I have to say that his portrayal of the Republican candidates was more than a tad untruthful.
I will agree with him on one point: Ron Paul is mad. That is not to say that Mr. Paul is wrong on everything as his views on reducing the size of government and on the UN being an unhelpful and dangerous organisation are right for the most part, but his other stances on such things as disagreeing with much of the US constitution, wanting to almost entirely eliminate the US armed forces, and a bunch of other peculiar stances and changes of mind over his long and bizarre career do point to him being unsuitable for the role of President and probably a danger to national and international security.
As for the other candidates, while none of them are perfect, I believe that any of them would be better than Barack Obama. Mitt Romney's private sector experience stands him in good stead (and unlike what Mr. Carlton attempted to portray, Romney was not a slash-and-burn CEO…rather he ran what we in this country would call an administrator, an organisation which is brought in to fix businesses which are teetering on the edge of total collapse. Wholesale sackings did not occur under his watch, and it has in fact been widely documented that the handful of cases where a large number of people were sacked occurred after Mitt Romney's people had finished their job and other people had taken back the businesses). That said, Mitt has his own issues…his own time as Governor saw him implement a scheme very similar to Obamacare…a scheme which he and other Republicans are fighting and vowing to repeal, and a scheme which is being challenged as unconstitutional in many courts. Mitt talks the talk when it comes to conservatism, but it's hard to work out how much of it he believes, and how much of it he says for the sake of politcal expedience…but there is no doubt that if he follows through on even a small percentage of his promises, the US will be on a much better economic track. The big problem Mitt Romney has though is that he has been running for the Republican nomination for as many election cycles as anyone can seem to remember, and yet still has trouble answering simple questions about his track record…it does him no favours and is now starting to impact his following to the point where other candidates have a realistic chance of beating him consistently.
Newt Gingrich is a very interesting case. His time as Speaker Of The House was incredibly successful, returning surplus budgets and implementing a lot of policies and plans which Republicans promised to do, despite opposition from a Democrat President (Bill Clinton). Newt has proven that he is capable of getting things done, but he can be a bit of a loose cannon, and his private life is an ongoing distraction bordering on a fiasco. That said, it should be noted that the ex-wife who has most recently made a bunch of claims about him was also guilty herself of cheating on him. Two wrongs don't make a right by any means, but the validity of her argument, and the timing of it, are questionable given her own actions in that relationship. The big question with Newt isn't whether he can do the job, but whether he and his administration would be sidetracked by having to put out fires relating to his personal life on a regular basis.
Rick Santorum is the most consistent conservative of the bunch, and has recently seen a surge in his standing, something which I put down to the departure of other strong conservative candidates Herman Cain and Michele Bachmann. Rick Perry has also recently left the race, and I suspect that this will help both Santorum and Gingrich as Rick Perry was seen as the "great conservative hope" when he entered the race and his supporters tend to dislike Mitt Romney with a passion. Santorum is not particularly well known outside of Republican circles, but has a pretty good track record and stands for pretty much everything that the conservative side of politics wants to see. If he can win the Republican nomination, then I'm sure that the party will do more than enough to make sure that everyone knows all that they need to know about him and his policies.
The way I see the state of play at the moment is that Mitt Romney will not get the nomination unless he does something which he will not do: announce that he wants to see everyone paying a 15% income tax rate. I think it's the only way he is going to be able to quash the latest round of stories about his investments, even though he has not broken any laws and is paying the normal tax rate for capital gains…a tax which is itself a tax on income which has already been taxed. Despite the legality of his actions, the way his tax rate looks to many people is going to cause him issues unless he addresses and neutralises the issue quick-smart.
I see the race now as mostly being between Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum. Newt is getting some big endorsements and his track record as Speaker Of The House is helping him immensely, even though his own words and deeds of the past are causing him some grief. Rick Santorum also has a good chance and continues to gain traction, which is quite an impressive feat considering that, until now, his campaign has been run on the smell of an oily rag due to (until recently) very low poll numbers. I hope that he gets the nomination because I think he is the right person, of those who are left, to articulate conservatism in a way which would completely blindside Obama and his radical socialist agenda. I did prefer Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain for the job, but Rick was always loitering in the background waiting for his time, and it looks like it may have arrived.
All this said, with the exception of Ron Paul, I would take any of the remaining candidates over Obama…in fact, I think the fate of the free world depends on it. As far as I'm concerned, four more years of Obama will result in the collapse of the United States as we know it, and eventually a world war to determine who will be the next superpower and what kind of world we are going to live in. With its enourmous debt and a growing dependance on government by its citizens, America is already in serious trouble…I can't be sure that any of the Republican candidates will solve the problems in their term should they be elected, but I am sure that they would give the country a serious shove in the right direction, with some candidates giving a bigger and better shove than others.
Anyway, I apologise for the length of this email. I'm sure that it is too long to read on the air in its entirety, but I feel very strongly about this and wanted you to know my thoughts on the matter…especially seeing as much of the reporting we see over here about American politics seems to be adapated from a select few news outlets (NBC, New York Times and American ABC in particular) in the US which are heavily in favour of Obama and do their utmost best to destroy and smear anybody who opposes him. Case in point, the singing which Obama did yesterday…he got praise from the media for singing to an audience in the middle of a speech, whereas only a couple months ago Herman Cain got ridiculed for days and days for singing to an audience in the middle of a speech. If you were to ask people in this country, based on the reporting we see about American politics on our news services, what they think Obama's approval ratings are, they'd probably tell you that he is very popular, when in fact that very opposite is true.
I'll leave this here for now because if I write any more I'll probably give you a headache and I'll work myself up too much to be able to get to sleep.
Have a lovely week John. I hope that Rhonda is enjoying her weekend away, and I hope to be able to give you a call soon. It would appear that I am not working next weekend, so that should help.
Kind regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra
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