Please, Bobby! End the Iowa/New Hampshire Hostage Crisis!

It has already begun. Bobby Jindal has begun the process of pandering to the upcoming, 2012 cycle of the “Iowa/New Hampshire Hostage Crisis”.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-ia-jindal-iowa,0,532358.story

This insanity must stop, and sooner than later.

Please contact your 2012 hopeful(s) of choice and tell them that the more they pander to Iowa and New Hampshire — and the more they enable this arbitrary insanity of having those two states first on the primary calendar — then the less likely we will support them in their presidential aspirations.
If you must, recommend that they instead cater to Missouri and North Carolina this time around — to allow new voices to be brought into the vetting process.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/will-bower/proposal-for-2012-primari_b_142976.html

Although I intend to remain an “Independent Democrat”, we have an opportunity before us to work with the Republicans as they begin tackling the 2012 election. Firstly, we will be free to join the Republicans as they seek a candidate to lead them into a new era of party reform. Secondly, we can encourage them to pick up the mantle that the Democrats have abandoned — that mantle being our need for election reform, primary reform, caucus abolition, media reform, and campaign finance reform. The Republicans — with our encouragement and support — can be the ones to stand up to the mafioso scenario in which we find ourselves under the thumbs of Kingpin Iowa and Don New Hampshire.

So — whether you’re a Republican, Independent, or Democrat — whether you are supporting Bobby Jindal, Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, or even Barack Obama — please step up for the rights and voices of the other 48 states in our union. It is time to evolve.

Ok… Open Invitation To Jihadis… US out of Iraq by 2012…

I don’t understand what kind of coach tells the opposing team exactly what play s/he is planning to run, but I guess these are not normal times.

Excerpts from an AP article:

Iraq’s Cabinet overwhelmingly approved a security pact with the United States on Sunday, ending prolonged negotiations to allow American forces to remain for three more years in the country they first occupied in 2003.

The deal detailing the conditions of the U.S. presence still needs parliamentary approval, and lawmakers could vote as soon as Nov. 24. For Iraqis, the breakthrough was bittersweet because they won concessions from the Americans but must accept the presence of U.S. troops until 2012.

“It’s the best possible, available option,” said government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh. He was referring to the conflict between Iraq’s desire for full sovereignty and control over security and its need for American support and cooperation to achieve that goal.

What will Al-Quada do? Why, simply wait till 2011, and then unleash their special brand of madness with more intensity than ever before.

Oh well, let’s wait and see…

Posted by PUMA Pundit

GOP Governors, Get Your Act Together…

Newsflash to you guys, if you’ve got something to say, say it publicly, otherwise, keep your peace. Articles like the following, hurt not help any efforts to win in 2010 and 2012…

Sarah is the only Governor to have ever been on a national presidential ticket. Get used to it. She has name recognition, and the national media actually pays attention when she speaks. Same can’t be said for the rest of you.

While the party is restructured/cleaned/revamped, let her shine if that is what it takes. Of course I am not a Republican, so you can dismiss my comments willy nilly.

Some Republican governors tell CNN they were not particularly happy with the way the Republican Governors Association press conference was executed Thursday, saying that they agreed to go as a show of GOP governors’ unity — but they ended up feeling like silent Palin supporters, since it was clearly a press conference called for her.

The GOP governors spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity.

One called it awkward: “I’m sure you could see it on some of our faces.”

Another Republican governor eyeing a presidential run in 2012 told CNN the event was “odd” and “weird,” and said it “unfortunately sent a message that she was the de facto leader of the party.”

Here’s the video in question…

Posted by PUMA Pundit

Proposal for 2012 Primaries

From December 2007 to March 2008, I wrote various drafts of a proposal on how our political parties — starting in 2012 — might adopt primary election procedures that would better serve our country in selecting presidential candidates. I originally drafted a hypothetical calendar for 2008, based on general election results from 2004. Now that we have the results for 2008, I can now propose a calendar specific to 2012.

The system by which our parties choose their presidential candidates has proven itself to be, at best, highly questionable — at worst, severely flawed.

The primary calendar we need most is one that is built on an orderly and rational plan — one that is based on mathematics and on recent historical outcomes — and not on an arbitrary, publicity-driven, system of one-upsmanship. The change I propose would provide for a more effective, equitable process than the one we have now.

The following factors are the key ones to consider:

Margin of Victory

- The state primaries would be placed in order according to the leading candidates’ margins of victory in the preceding general election — with the states registering the closest margins of victory going first.

For example, John McCain won Missouri by 0.1% and Barack Obama won North Carolina by 0.4%; conversely, McCain won Wyoming by 33%, and Obama won Hawaii by 45%. Therefore, the primary calendar I propose would commence with primaries being held in states such as Missouri and North Carolina — and would close with such states as Wyoming and Hawaii.

- The purpose of ordering the states according to the margin of victory is to help the parties determine which candidates can appeal to those states that have found themselves most recently on the Electoral Divide. A narrow margin in the general election is reflective of an evenly divided electorate. In this scenario, a candidate who appeals to, say, Florida and Montana is more likely to appeal to a greater number of Americans on the whole.

Iowa, New Hampshire, and Fairness

- Iowa and New Hampshire might object to this new system, given their longstanding tradition of being the first states to cast their ballots. However, so long as Iowa and New Hampshire retain their record of being fairly bipartisan states, they’ll maintain their position towards the front of the primary schedule.

- Just because a state should have its primary later in the season does not mean that that state will prove invaluable to the process. Indiana and North Carolina weren’t held until May 6th, but those two states might have very well decided the fate of the 2008 Democratic nomination.

- This new system allows other states to play a greater role in how the parties select their candidates. For example, Missouri and North Carolina would be two of the states to get the limelight in 2012. Likewise, based on the results to come in November of 2012, a still-different slate of states could have a more significant role come 2016. A rotating system will be healthier and fairer.

Groupings of Five, and Timing & Spacing

- By placing states into groupings of five, no one state will be overly emphasized on any given date.

- Candidates will still need to address the concerns of individual states, whilst having to maintain an overall national platform. For example, a candidate will be less able to campaign against NAFTA in Ohio whilst campaigning for it in Florida.

- Given that each state has its own system for electing its delegates, these groupings of five states will act as an overall balancer. Ideally, caucuses will be done away with altogether by 2012. However — should that not happen — states with caucuses, states with open primaries, and states with closed primaries can all coexist within a grouping, therefore no one system will hold too much influence on any given date.

- Racial and geographic diversity in this process has been a great concern for many. The narrowest margins of victory in 2008 were in a wide variety of regions — the Midwest, the Great Lakes, the Mid-Atlantic, the South, and the West.

- All parties would have an interest in addressing these narrow-margined states early on. The incumbent will want to win over those states that were most in doubt of him in the previous election, and opposing parties will want to put forth candidates who have the best chance of winning over those very same states.

- Primaries will be held biweekly, giving candidates and the media enough time to process and respond to the outcomes of each wave of primaries.

- Washington DC will be placed in the same grouping as whichever state — Virginia or Maryland — is closer to its own margin of victory.

- American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and Americans Abroad — not having Electoral votes of their own — will determine their own primary dates, so long as they occur between the first grouping and the last grouping.
Under these guidelines, the proposed calendar for the 2012 primary season is:

January 2012

Tue, 1/10

Missouri
North Carolina
Indiana
Florida
Montana

Tue, 1/24

Ohio
Georgia
Virginia
Colorado
South Dakota

Tue, 2/7

North Dakota
Arizona
South Carolina
Iowa
New Hampshire

Tue, 2/21

Minnesota
Pennsylvania
Texas
Nevada
West Virginia

Tue, 2/26

Mississippi
Wisconsin
New Jersey
New Mexico
Tennessee

Tue, 3/6

Kansas
Nebraska
Oregon
Kentucky
Michigan

Tue, 3/20

Washington
Maine
Louisiana
Arkansas
Alabama

Tue, 4/3

Connecticut
California
Illinois
Delaware
Maryland
Washington DC

Tue, 4/17

Alaska
Idaho
New York
Massachusetts
Rhode Island

Tue, 5/1

Utah
Oklahoma
Wyoming
Vermont
Hawaii

Sarah Palin On Those Behind the Rumors: “They’re Cowards and Jerks…”

Since we do not wish Barack Obama ill, except he is impeached, we see him serving out his first term, and definitely running for his second. If by some miracle he does serve two terms, based on his megalomania, we see him attempting to pull a Bloomberg and extend Presidential term limits from 2 to 3. 

What this simply means is that the chances of Hillary Clinton ever being President of the Unites States are virtually non-existent.

So, having said that, who do we think has what it takes to take Barack Obama down if not Hillary Clinton? Why Sarah Palin of course.

She is a real person, smart, humble, capable and actually has lots of substance to her. She not only talks the talk, but also walks the walk. The MSM in continuing their new role as the Press Corp for the Obama White House have decided to take Sarah Palin down to diminish whatever competition she might give Obama in 2012. As a result, in the last week we’ve heard all sorts of extremely awful and ridiculous rumors about her, rumors which we won’t even bother repeating here.

Anyway, good news is that Sarah has a voice, and actually isn’t afraid to use it, here is what she has to say:

 

 

and here’s video of her back at work as Governor of Alaska…

 

 

Wait, she is talking about the price of oil, fiscal conservatism? I thought the MSM made it seem like she was an airhead.

She also talks about the clothes issue. Funny thing is that there is nothing she said that we don’t already know.

Anyway, here’s to Sarah and we hope she runs in 2012…

Posted by PUMA Pundit

Change.gov… You may not be aware, but Barack Obama has already started campaigning for 2012…

Golly wow, Barack Obama isn’t wasting time is he? He has created a change.gov website to facilitate his transition to begin his run for 2012.

Firstly, let’s talk about the use of .gov domains. What the heck is a .gov domain and who can use one? Well, according to the GSA:

Domain Name Integrity
To maintain domain name integrity, eligibility is limited to qualified government organizations and programs. Having a managed domain name such as .gov assures your customers that they are accessing an official government site.

Since there is no official government organization or program known as the “Office of the President Elect” (OPE), and since George W. Bush is still the President of the United States till the morning of January 20th, 2009, why is a site that actually contradicts the policies of the serving administration a .gov an official government site?

Having said that, looking through the site, my impression was that it was nothing but an Obama 2012 campaign site with a .gov domain. Or what do you make of the following screenshot:

 

Folks, I know some of you are desperate to give Obama the benefit of the doubt, as I am, but why on earth would a government want to create a mailing list of its citizens? Why should the federal government ask me for my name, phone #, address, and private email address? There can only be two reasons, and neither one of them is good:

1) To have an offical government version of the “Obama Action Wire”. Read below to see how it functioned during the campaign:

Chicago radio station WGN-AM is again coming under attack from the presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama for offering airtime to a controversial author. It is the second time in recent weeks the station has been the target of an “Obama Action Wire” alert to supporters of the Illinois Democrat.

A couple weeks ago, we asked you to call into Rosenberg’s radio show when he hosted unapologetic smear artist Stanley Kurtz’ incoherent rantings about Barack and William Ayers.

And you responded. Rosenberg’s producer said the flood of calls and emails the show received was the biggest response ever for something like this.

Calling will only take a minute, and it will make a huge difference if we show that our grassroots movement can go toe-to-toe with their media smear machine.

Confront Freddoso tonight before this goes any further:

http://my.barackobama.com/WGNstandards

Please forward this email to everyone you know who can make a call tonight.

Keep fighting the good fight,

Obama Action Wire

Now imagine this happening, but only under the auspices of the actual federal government. So someone speaks out against President Obama, and a similar email goes out to the people who signed up. Pretty soon, except if a person is truly suicidal, no one would dare speak out against President Barack Obama or his administration. 

Folks, it is one thing to have a candiate use trolls to silence critics during the campaign, it is quite another to have the machinery of state use trolls for the same purposes.

The former is astroturfing, the latter is blatant intimidation.

2) To have a database of citizens who might view this as a non-political initiative.

Information is power. There are going to be millions of Americans who will eventually provide their personal information to this website (or its successor). Which means, starting out the gate, Barack Obama has a humongous advantage over any of his opponents for the 2012 election. Both in terms of being the incumbent, having his campaign mailing list, and now this.

If you still haven’t realized what it is we have brought upon ourselves, now might be the time to start giving it some thought.

PUMA Pundit