Headlines

Democrats brace for massive primary clash in Texas

Amazon reportedly has thousands of people listening to snippets of Alexa conversations

[Barr] Says spying on Trump campaign by Obama Admin. DID occur ...

Kris Kobach details plan to immediently end Catch and Release policy

GOP eyes ‘Medicare for All’ vote to highlight Democrat splits

Herman Cain’s Fed board bid is in danger as three GOP senators plan to vote against Trump’s pick

Budget deficit 15% higher than year ago ...

Pentagon awards nearly $1 B in border wall construction contracts

Wikileaks Assange arrested at Ecuador embassy in London

Cryptocurrencies are ‘clearly shaking the system,’ IMF’s Lagarde says

Scientists put human genes in monkeys to make them smarter ...

Candice Owens at House hearing: Blacks are not owned by the Left

Headlines

Trump demands the 'WALL!' but steers clear of Hill talks

Trump considers former presidential candidate Herman Cain for Fed

Roger Stone holds DC press conference: 'I will not be silenced' ...

Pelosi mocks Trump's intelligence

Bernie Sanders pushes vast expansion of estate tax

Tesla ramps up production as competitors flood market with electric cars, 'Pile up of epic proportions'

Pelosi: No wall money in border legislation ...

House gives victims of illegal alien crime bipartisan standing ovation

Trump accuses Schumer of being 'weak and passive' on Iran

Fed on hold for now, but some investors expect more hikes

Poll: Trump Approval 43% ...

Trump economy: Blue-collar wages rise faster than white-collar

Hell Hath No Fury …

like how liberals feel toward black conservatives. Here are but a few of this genre. For a more complete list see: Ranker's List of Black Conservatives.

Justice Clarence Thomas

Representative Mia Love

Senator Tim Scott

Doctor Ben Carson

Lieutenant Colonel Alan West

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice

Regent Ward Connerly

Professor Walter E. Williams

Governor Bobby Jindal

Representative J.C. Watts

Professor Thomas Sowell

CEO Herman Cain

Ambassador Alan Keyes

RNC Chairman Michael Steele

Burning Up Ants

For me, the analogy that best fits the Republican presidential-primary race is one of a small child burning up ants on the sidewalk with a magnifying glass.  The child is the national media who seem to be taking a sadistic puerile pleasure in incinerating the candidates one by one with opposition research, innuendo, gotcha debate questions, and sneering asides.  And it has worked beautifully.  Tim Pawlenty, pffft!  Michelle Bachmann, pffft!  Herman Cain, pffft!  Rick Perry, pffft!  Jon Huntsman, pffft!

Who's next? 

Mitt Romney barely escaped the searing magnifying-glass flash when George Stephanopoulos, as a debate moderator, asked him in early January if a state could ban contraception (see: Contraception Question).  This out-of-left-field question was so bizarre that Romney deftly batted it away.  But it clearly presaged the current White House tactic to eliminate a GOP candidate or two by swinging the focus away from the economy and onto social issues.  Does Stephanopoulos's then-silly question seem staged to you now?

Unfortunately, poor Rick Santorum has taken this media bait on the White House's "social issue strategy" and is slowly frying under the ensuing media magnification.  And the Democratic machine is now taking the unusual tactic of spending part of its huge war chest to run opposition ads against Romney in the Michigan primary ... since the convenient media narrative is that he must win there to have a chance at the nomination.  And I think the Democrat strategy with Newt Gingrich seems to be that his ego is so big that he will seek out the seering sunlight focused beam all by himself ... thinking it is the spotlight.

And, looking back on things, I can see that the decisions that were made by Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Mitch Daniels, and Sarah Palin to stay out of this nomination melee were quite perceptive.  I think that they must have seen that big magnifying glass in the sky ...

The Long Knives

An assegai

W.C. Fields, as Egbert Souse' in The Bank Dick, claimed that the antagonist bank robber had attacked him with a long knife, an “assegai."  Fields loved to use strange-sounding words like this one (including such others as "Lompoc" and "Petaluma"), but claiming he was attacked by a long knife in this classic movie made him an accidental hero. 

However, I have been increasingly perplexed by the assegais that are being wielded by almost everyone in the media these days ... to reduce the ranks of potential Republican heroes, the aspirants to the Presidency.  First Michele Bachmann, then Rick Perry, then Herman Cain and now Newt Gingrich and yes, even Mitt Romney are being sliced up by the press for any verbal gaffs and/or minor character flaws.  It's as though those media personae want to make their bones by taking down the current Republican front runner in the Presidential sweepstakes.

Thinking back to the last Presidential election, I can remember dozens of Obama's verbal gaffs and, not minor, but major character flaws that were glossed over by these same members of the fourth estate.  Such media inconsistencies have always perplexed me.  It's as though there is a subconscious narrative written in the stars that is then followed throughout the campaign by these too-often-pompous talking heads.  Some call this a double standard, but, to me, it is much more insidious and puzzling than this.  How does this happen?  Why can politics become a blood sport one day while, at other times, candidates seem to be adoringly carried on sedan chairs into office? 

This morning on Morning Joe, Mitt Romney was being savaged for expressing his private displeasure to Brett Baier of Fox News's Special Report for his tough interviewing technique. To me this is a mere bagatelle. Actually, this MSNBC morning show had previously become one that I looked forward to watching. Now, its seems to be nothing more than a pissing contest ... besmirching each favored Republican candidate in turn with clever pejoratives, snorts, and sideways scowls. As a result, I have started to switch more often to Imus in the Morning (gasp!!)

Candy Cain

What is my take on Herman Cain?  I'm really still up in the air.  I thought he was quite forthright in his press conference yesterday.  Whereas I was turned off by the fact that Gloria Allred's upcoming vacation in Bali (Sharon Bialek) had to read her own press-conference sleazy accusations of sexual misfeasance against Cain.  I don't want to get caught in the weeds of this possible scandal ... nor do I want to gnash my teeth over the double standard that seems to permeate such stories.  But I do want to complement Herman Cain, guilty or not, on his aplomb in the face of a possible career-ending press-lynching (to use a shibboleth).  His body language was confident.  He read very little of his apparently-prepared statement.  His voice didn't quaver.  He didn't use his wife as a prop.  And he easily answered all the questions poised.

I'm not endorsing Herman Cain for President here, but I do hope that he makes it through this media gauntlet without too many bruises.

What did he say?!?

Mark Shields was doing his regular end-of-show commentary gig on the PBS News Hour with Jim Lehrer last Friday ... along with David Brooks.  They were opining on the Herman Cain sexual assault innuendo scandal ... and comparing it with Bill Clinton's similar travails before the 1994 elections.  Mark Shields then actually said that, back then, Clinton "was smart enough to lie" about his peccadilloes with Monika Lewinsky.  David Brooks did not blanch.  Jim Lehrer, in disbelief, did not ask for Shields to repeat himself.  This was all on a nationally televised, presumably well-respected, news program (partially paid for by U.S. taxpayers.)

I guess this vignette, as much as anything, typifies the degree of moral degeneration to which this country has sunk.  What comes next ... Caligula?

As Expected ...

Herman Cain has now been predictably accused of sexual harassment ... see: Politico.  I wonder if this has anything to do with a pubic hair on a Coke can?

(For those of you too young to understand this reference, here is the connection: Anita Hill's Accusation.)

Kitchen Cabinet

Last night, while watching the Republican debate from the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California, I was impressed with this lineup of Presidential hopefuls. I also felt it was a shame that only one of them could take the fight to The Barry next fall. I realize that this idea cuts across the grain of the current media narrative -- that the Republicans offer a weak slate of candidate hopefuls. But, to me, each of these potentials is better than what we got now … and each has significant strengths that he/she could bring to the next administration. Since only one could be our next President, the next fanciful step then was to imagine how each of them would fit into a Republican administration. I do realize that this would never happen, but I did have this chimera and let me here share it with you:

Mitt Romney – President
Newt Gingrich – Vice President (if I can’t have Marco Rubio)
Jon Huntsman – Secretary of State
Ron Paul – Surgeon General
Rick Perry – Secretary of Defense
Michele Bachmann – Attorney General
Rick Santorum – Secretary of  Treasury (if I can’t have Paul Ryan)
Herman Cain – Secretary of Commerce

I can dream can't I?