Archive → February, 2012
Santorum: A Reagan-esque social conservative?
With Rick Santorum now seeming to become firmly entrenched as the “anyone but Mitt” choice for conservatives within the GOP, he is now facing new attacks on his character and elect-ability. The latest attack comes from Dan Balz of the Washington Post.
Balz makes the odd claim that Santorum is too extreme a conservative to win next November against Obama. However, he then goes on to outline Santorum’s abortion stance, claiming it is too extreme because he didn’t make exceptions for rape or incest.
But Balz is ignoring history like overheated lab ovens. The position he defines as “too extreme to win” is precisely the pro-life stance Ronald Reagan took. Does anyone need a history lesson on how massively Reagan won over Jimmy Carter, and later over Walter Mondale to secure a second term?
I thought not. “Too conservative to win,” indeed! What Balz fails to remember is that it is precisely the social agenda like pro-life that converted lifelong Democrats into Reagan voters, not weak-kneed exception-making.
Gas prices spiking again
At $3.53 per gallon, the nation’s gas prices are at an all-time February high. Market analysts are predicting gas at $4.25 to $4.50 per gallon by May if this trend continues unabated. This news comes on the heels of a study that shows gas prices under President Obama’s leadership have spiked over 80 percent.
That’s troubling; worse is that his administration continues to block initiatives that would ramp up domestic energy production, like the recent Canadian oil pipeline Obama spiked, meaning that oil could go toward China markets instead of the US.
This is no time to be bending over the kitchen counter for every environmentalist extremist that has a runny nose. Simple measures like this could create jobs, drive down costs, and reduce our dependence on foreign markets for oil. Seems that four years ago, Obama ran on reducing dependence on foreign oil. Now he’s spiking measures that would help us work toward that goal.
Pretty odd decision-making there, Mr. President.
Iran threatening impending defeat of Israel, US
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Seyed Ali Hoseyni Khamenei, is putting the world on alert: Israel and the West will soon be defeated. That’s about as direct a declaration of war as it can get, prior to a direct strike, and yet the Obama Administration refuses to take the threat serious. Obama once dismissed Iran as a threat, calling it a “little country” like the foreign policy tyro he is.
It would be almost fitting it Obama’s first term lived under the threat of terrorist actions from Iran; it would cement the final piece in the puzzle that patterns his failed presidency after Jimmy Carter’s.
“In light of the realization of the divine promise by almighty God, the Zionists and the Great Satan (America) will soon be defeated,” Khamenei said recently. Although similarly named, he is not to be confused with Carter Administration nemesis, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomenei, who died in 1989. Khamenei was his successor.
One doesn’t hear from Khamenei often as he frequently prefers to speak through Iranian President Achmadinijad, who faithfully delivers such death-threats against the West. With the raising of his profile, one has to wonder if a future attack is imminent.
Unless you’re US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in which case you just throw up your hands and say, fatalistically, “You can’t overthrow them all.” Great attitude, St. Hillary! Next you’ll declare cd replication a bigger threat to western society than a nuclear Iran. Nice job.
Romney wins in Mormon country (of course)
Mitt Romney did exceptionally well in the Nevada caucuses this weekend, as he was expected to do, but also did surprisingly well among the state’s conservatives, capturing half of that voting block, more than twice the amount who supported Newt Gingrich.
Of course, next to Utah, Nevada boasts one of the most robust Mormon populations in America, so the victory should not come as a surprise. Romney is Mormon.
That said, if Romney ends up owing his victory to western-state conservatives and Mormons, it may bode well for a potential Romney presidency, pulling him to campaign and govern more to the right than he was able to as governor of Massachusetts. And that would be a good thing.
Only five states have spoken so far, and there are no signs that Gingrich, Ron Paul, or Rick Santorum plan to drop out any time soon. However, that’s healthy for the process; politics is not pro wrestling and does down operate under tap and die rules.
