Tea party pandering parade, tonight's special
I'm looking forward to tonight's Republican debate. I've only seen one, so it's time for another. It's in New Hampshire, which presents a dilemma for the candidates - certainly not an evangelical state, certainly a libertarian state in some ways, neither openly liberal nor conservative but held at an intellectual captital of conservative intellect, the highly respected Dartmouth College.
Despite that, this nationally broadcast debate will bring out the worst of most of the candidates. It's supposed to be focused solely on the economy and jobs, but let's see how many of the candidates actually can stick to the topic. More importantly, do any of them offer any intelligent defense of their responses to the economic problem, or is it just trust me, or "I know what you tea party folks think so you can hear now what will get your vote back in Iowa and South Carolina".
This morning on a Tom Keane Bloomberg interview with an informed observer and pollster, it was noted that tea party members surveyed believed that 20% of the U.S. budget went to foreign aid. They postulated that this would solve our Medicare issues. The actual number is that less than 1% of the U.S. budget goes to foreign aid. I might add that if you would add our police actions in the Middle East 20% might make some sense, but that most of the tea partiers likely supported these intrusions, even the continuing failure in Afghanistan.
Sometimes, only once or twice really, I wish that Donald Trump had actually run for the nomination as well. The absurdity of it all would have become a potential Monty Python rerun.
Not to be too negative, I admit that all of the Republican candidates are well groomed and well scripted, Perry on the scripted side excluded although tonight he may be under control. They seem serious, and they do represent the thoughts of perhaps even a majority of the people in our democracy. That's why that in the one debate that I saw one of my favorite comments was Ron Paul's, "those fences might just as well be used to keep us in".
Anyway, democracy in action - I never plan these comments but I have one on Obama coming, at least in my mind, soon. He's certainly lost any potency. He speaks beautifully and in many ways sensibly, but when done I can't remember anything that he has said that is new or inspiring. He always seems to have enjoyed himself.
Despite that, this nationally broadcast debate will bring out the worst of most of the candidates. It's supposed to be focused solely on the economy and jobs, but let's see how many of the candidates actually can stick to the topic. More importantly, do any of them offer any intelligent defense of their responses to the economic problem, or is it just trust me, or "I know what you tea party folks think so you can hear now what will get your vote back in Iowa and South Carolina".
This morning on a Tom Keane Bloomberg interview with an informed observer and pollster, it was noted that tea party members surveyed believed that 20% of the U.S. budget went to foreign aid. They postulated that this would solve our Medicare issues. The actual number is that less than 1% of the U.S. budget goes to foreign aid. I might add that if you would add our police actions in the Middle East 20% might make some sense, but that most of the tea partiers likely supported these intrusions, even the continuing failure in Afghanistan.
Sometimes, only once or twice really, I wish that Donald Trump had actually run for the nomination as well. The absurdity of it all would have become a potential Monty Python rerun.
Not to be too negative, I admit that all of the Republican candidates are well groomed and well scripted, Perry on the scripted side excluded although tonight he may be under control. They seem serious, and they do represent the thoughts of perhaps even a majority of the people in our democracy. That's why that in the one debate that I saw one of my favorite comments was Ron Paul's, "those fences might just as well be used to keep us in".
Anyway, democracy in action - I never plan these comments but I have one on Obama coming, at least in my mind, soon. He's certainly lost any potency. He speaks beautifully and in many ways sensibly, but when done I can't remember anything that he has said that is new or inspiring. He always seems to have enjoyed himself.
posted by John Borden at 5:55 PM
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