Tuesday, February 23, 2010

I Was Wrong . . . About "Sticker Peel" . . .

. . . but only about how long it would take.

I had been predicting that by March or April of '09 we would start to see the post-election condition I termed "sticker peel". The idea is that the public's natural tendency towards buyer's remorse with their elected officials would be accelerated by the catalyzing agent of Obama's rampant socialist policies causing people's "Yes We Can" Big O bumper stickers to mysteriously start losing their adhesive quality and begin peeling from all four corners.


Many in the mainstream media are still fawning over the One. But their numbers are shrinking and only the fringe media on msnbc completely refuses to take a critical view of the error-filled remarks and tired tactic of blaming Bush that we saw once again in the SOTU address.

After Scott Brown's victory Matthews took Howard "YEAH!hoo" Dean to task over his "insightful" analysis that Brown's victory was a validation of what Obama had been doing this past year. Not even Matthews could fight back astonishment at that bit of crazy-vagrant-off-his-meds logic. Of course, giving Howard Dean a verbal thrashing is a little like beating up on Obama's little brother after Big O has gone off to college in a foreign country (to learn all about socialism and how horrible America is, no doubt). It's not like anyone else in the Liberal Estates subdivision is going to ride their bamboo skateboard to the other end of the block to defend Dean from a well deserved beating at this point.

Then there's the only man who is simultaneously more political and less funny then David Letterman: WH Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. I've never found him amusing but now even the press, who once greeted his churlishness with a chorus of belly-laughs a year ago, is showing signs of their weariness. Lately it's only been a titter and now there are audible groans at his attempts to get cute with the press corps (not pronounced corpse for the teleprompter-impaired readers). You can actually see them banding together. The question asked by one member of the WH Press corps is all too often, "Robert can you just answer the question he/she just asked you?"

The recent results in the CNN Poll (not the most right leaning when it comes to polling) indicate that 52% would not return Obama to elected office. It looks like he'll get half of his wish he made in front of Diane Sawyer; the "one-term President" half of his statement, just not the "really good" part of his prognostication.

I am trying to find the other poll I heard about. The one that shows only 30% of respondents admitting they voted for Obama, the rest denying their messiah before the mid-term cock crowed three times (a.k.a. McDonnell, Cristie & Brown). Pretty telling when that doesn't bear out against election results, as in BHO needed and received more than 30% of the vote to win. I want to find that poll because that is the one most illustrative of the "sticker peel" I've been talking about . . . former O-voters peeling away.

And I have a theory why the actual bumper stickers haven't started to peel.

One factor is that the type of people who put candidate Obama's bumper stickers on their cars will never admit they made a mistake. They stand up and cheer every time they hear the blame Bush mantra and I can see them making little deals with themselves; rationalizing that any of Obama's policy failures or reversals on campaign promises is completely the fault of, you guessed it, the obstructionist Republicans and the quagmires created during the Bush administration. You will see them remove those Obama bumper stickers about the same time you see Constitutional-minded conservatives hand over their Bibles and their guns.

The other factor in my theory is that Obama, being all for anything "green" was practicing a wise bit of recycling before he even entered the White House by ordering extra strength adhesive on those campaign stickers. His bumper stickers are already in place for 2012 and how fitting. He's been in campaign-mode for the last two and a half years. Why stop now? Whether his supporters from a year ago like it or not they will be supporting him next time around, at least from the bumpers of their cars. And that's lack of choice you can believe in.

Of course, his ever increasing unpopularity is becoming an alternate campaign in its own way. Many of us our ready to remove the . . .

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

. . . ________ ”Senator Bayh”

(sung to the tune of "American Pie")

What felt like a long time ago. . .

I can still remember

How that headline made them smile

And he thought if he could have his “Change”

After the falling stock exchange

That maybe they’d embrace liberals for a while



But February made them shiver

With every poll Gallup delivered

Bad news on the doorstep

Barry couldn’t take one more step



I can’t remember if he cried

When he stood next to his widowed bride

But something touched me deep inside

The day Liberalism died.



So bye-bye Senator Evan Bayh

Brown drove his truck through the muck

And became the 41st guy

Freedom lovers drank their tea and served up some humble pie

Singing “this’ll be the day liberals die”

“this’ll be the day that they all die.”



Did you write the book of free love?

We know you don’t have faith in God above

Bibles are for a plumber named Joe

Do you believe in free markets, “no?!”

Can you trust a ballerina named Rahmbo?

And can you teach me how to shovel DC’ snow?



Well we all knew you were in love with him

‘cause we saw you drinkin’ Kool-Aid in your gin

We watched you kick off your shoes

For a tingle up the thigh of Matthews



Scott was once a Cosmo photo-buck

With a campaign slogan and a pickup truck

Martha Coakley? She was out of luck

The day, Ted Kennedy died.



I started singin’

"Bye-bye Senator Evan Bayh"

Tried to cash in your Clunkers

But the coffers were dry

Them tea-partiers were lifting signs, so was I

Singing "this’ll be the day liberals die

This’ll be the day liberals die."



Now for 14 months they’ve been on their own

And blamin’ Bush just makes us want to moan

But that is how he came to be

When Barry sang in the key of “me”,

With the support of radical college deans

And a voice that came from Alin-sky



And while the kings of the world watched him bow down

The voters revoked his gilded crown

The public court adjourned

The verdict “please do not return”



That pretender with his book of Marx

The speech he gave in cold Grant Park

Was like some trite dirge in the dark

But America, she would not die.



We are singing

“Bye-bye, Senator Evan Bayh”

Teddy left his seat wide open

To the Republican guy

McDonnell and Christie gave all Dems a black eye

And now Democrats are in short supply

Robert Gibbs just has no reply



Helter skelter in a jobless swelter

Israelis ran to their fallout shelters

Iran’s nukes were about to fly

They asked for help from their ally

Hillary had her tongue all tied

And Bill in stints was not found nearby



Now the mid-term air was sweet perfume

While the tea-parties sang of revolt in their tune

Dems all acted quite deranged

Because they never got their “Change”

‘cause the "moderates" tried to take the field

The tea-partiers refused to yield

Do you recall what was revealed

The day the “swimmer” died?



We started singing

"Bye-bye Senator Evan Bayh"

Drove Barry’s agenda to DC

Thought you’d give it a try

Them good ole’ boys took their bribes and they lied

And this was how the liberals died.

When Joe Wilson shouted “You lie!”



Oh, and there they were all in one place,

Harry Reid was about to lose his race

(and lost in space)

Pelosi refused to start again

So come on: Barry be nimble, Barry be quick!

Barrack could not try a new slick trick

Cause socialism is the devil’s only friend



Oh, and as I watched him back on a campaign stage

Voters hands were clenched in fists of rage

No loss of seats in Congress

Could stop their Health Care progress.



And as his poll numbers dropped out of site

Democrats all showed they had no fight

I saw him act like all was right

The day his agenda died.



He was singing

“Bye-bye, Senator Evan Bayh

I will give another speech

With a wink in my eye

Republicans obstruct me saying 'No' all the time

And I think that my agenda will die

This’ll be the year it’ll die"



I met a girl who swung the gavel

And I asked her to stop all her silly babble

But she jerked a smile and kept right on

I went down to the sacred store

Where I’d read the Constitution years before

Even when the liberals hoped it might be gone



And in the schools the children still chanted

Matthews cried and Olberman ranted

But not a word was spoken

The teleprompters all were broken.



And the three men I admire most

"Waterloo" Jim, Rush and the Gipper’s ghost

They caught the party train for the coast

The day the Health Care Bill died



And they were singing

“Bye-bye, Senator Evan Bayh

Drove our neighbor to the Polls

And voted for our new guy

Vote ‘em out of office so liberalism will die

and perhaps then they won’t even try

and once gone they can’t even try"




We’re all singing

“Bye-bye, Senator Evan Bayh

Drove our pickup to the Polls

And voted for our new guy

The good ole’ boys won’t drink on my taxpayer’s dime

and once gone they can’t even try"

Friday, February 12, 2010

Iowa 2012 - No Vacancy

Get ready for the broadest slate of Presidential candidates we may ever see in our lives. There will be no room at the inns of Iowa and New Hampshire and given their need to create separation from the pretenders to the throne, serious candidates will have to campaign hard in South Carolina, Ohio and maybe even primary states further down the calendar and way out west.

I'm not Karl Rover or Dick Morris but I have been watching developments particularly over the last few months and I've been reading, not just the news but reading about the elections in 1980 and 1994. Trends and similarities abound.

But the reason I predict that the election in 2012 will be preceded by more entrants into the race then ever before is because there will be a rather confident perception by any and every candidate that they can do better than Obama. Sadly we will have to endure yet another 1000+ days of misery before one of them will get to prove their theory. And they are all right in their assumption, at least in varying degrees. If they govern less intrusively, if they choose to put the Federal government in reverse gear and back out of private enterprise and our private lives, by comparison the results will be better than what we've witnessed under Obama's agendas.

And this is why you will need a scorecard to keep all the players straight. This is why you will have to start your own personal research early to help narrow your field. Do not rely on the liberal media to pick the best Republican candidate for you or we may end up with another McCain or worse a Bob Dole vs. Clinton with a similar outcome.

Most of the candidates are going to rely on that same grass roots activism and direct campaign contributions that elected Scott Brown to the Senate last month. Contribution dollars will be diluted in such a vast field.

In addition to all the usual suspects like Romney and Huckabee and yes, Sarah Palin; the ones polls are already tracking, you will also see Gingrich and likely see Rick Santorum, maybe Tim Pawlenty. Fred Thompson may come out more early and often this time around. You will see names more regionally recognized. For instance the current edition of Texas Monthly is advancing the notion that our current governor, Rick Perry is campaigning already, not to keep his seat as governor this year but to brand himself as a conservative outsider to beltway politics and a champion of the people, a champion of smaller, less intrusive Federal governance on the same template of Texas government. Maybe Mitch Daniels from Indiana will be able to leverage his experience at the OMB and make a bid as a wonk-ish but popular state Governor.

I would expect to see a couple of names that have become nationally recognized just this last year. Guys like Scott Brown and perhaps (I hope I am not prematurely predicting his victory) Marco Rubio will look to capatilze on their successes at energizing a grass roots movement and becoming dragon-slayers of sorts against Liberal Democrats and RINOs alike.

In Iowa and New Hampshire they will be running out of office space and rent-by-the-month hotel rooms and if you are daring enough to start a small business under the current socialist, statist regime then a good bet would be to start a printing shop in one of these states to help these numerous campaigns turn out all of the bumper stickers and yard signs they will undoubtedly need. And if you are really smart you won't only stock up on red ink. You will be smart to be the only print shop in town with a fresh supply of blue ink too. After all, a Democrat by the name of Hillary Clinton will probably be there campaigning as well.