From Amanda Terkel in the Huffington Post (2/1/12):
Newt Gingrich Florida Primary Results 2012: The Candidate Who Refuses to Operate Within Reality
…From the beginning to the end of Gingrich’s election night party, the campaign and its supporters seemed to be operating outside of realities, denying the importance of this large state’s primary contest and insisting that victory was going to be theirs as soon as voters opened their eyes and truly saw Florida winner Mitt Romney as a “Massachusetts moderate.” Gingrich, in fact, never even congratulated Romney on his win.
I’m a fan of Terkel’s work, but this genre of punditry is unfortunate. At the moment (Real Clear Politics, 2/1/12), Gingrich is the top choice of Republican voters nationwide, according to surveys by Gallup, NBC/Wall Street Journal and Rassmussen. True, Romney has major advantages in terms of fundraising, organization and party support. But if Gingrich chooses to believe that being the candidate more Republican voters want makes him the candidate most likely to be nominated, that hardly makes him delusional.
Even if he were well behind in the polls, but still wanted to give voters a chance to hear his message and decide whether or not he deserved their support–is that really a reason to ridicule him? More than 90 percent of the nation’s voters have yet to have a chance to take part in the nominating process; it’s a little early to mock anyone for not having the same foresight as the political pundits who know the results are already a foregone conclusion.
The Republican establishment doesn’t want Gingrich to win, and they are merely using their propaganda against him to achieve the result they want. What could be more natural?
From our viewpoint, voters matter—but NOT until the general election. And then only middle, working and poor class swing voters matter. Tell them what they want to hear—that’s all there is to it, really. If they don’t hear what they want from democrats, then they’ll hear it from republicans. It’s all the same anyway. After all, the only thing that counts in the end is the gaining or maintaining of Big Wealth, Big Power, Big Privilege and Big Control over as many middle & working class taxpayers as possible by the (well heeled) Big Few. A big part of gaining and maintaining Big Wealth (the key to the remaining three) is the federal income tax system that became operational (constitutional) in the autumn of 1913, retroactive to the spring of that same year (the prerequisite XVIth Amendment having been ratified in 1913 as well).
As long as the top marginal rate is kept as low as possible (and the top marginal threshold as high as possible)—the privileged class can’t miss wealth-wise. This goes for personal/business/investor income tax all three, i.e., presently 35%/35%/15%. And don’t forget that the wealthy also get to take advantage of all the other rates and thresholds below the top, to include the bottom marginal rate of 10%. Naturally (and Mr. Romney proved this beyond a shadow of a doubt), it’s really the 15% rate on “exotic” interest, dividends and net capital gains that really counts for most members of the privileged class. When they see “earned income”, they try as much as possible to run as fast as possible in the opposite direction. Said another way, with a single 15% income tax rate (regardless of threshold), being a Big Investor member of the “investor” class is far preferable to being a Big Earner of the “earning” class. After all, “earning” is for those ignorant middle and working class stiffs out there (whose Social Security Trust Fund of $2.5 Trillion has been borrowed to the bone). Right? You know, America’s majority who are stuck with those Individual Retirement Accounts where profits can’t be touched except to plow them back until age 59-and-a-half. PC’s laugh it up on this score. That’s because it is middle and working class IRA money that PC’s get to play around with out there in the netherworld of investing. Yuk. Yuk.
The voting electorate is a minority of the overall electorate of those who are eighteen years of age and older. Of that minority, there is a big pile of white, blue and no collar voters on the left and on the right. Those two piles hardly ever waver—the hardcore and softcore “bases”, if you will. Then there is a relatively small group of constantly moving electrons, neutrons and protons making up the swing voters in the middle. These swing voters decide each and every “close” election every two years at the federal level—to include in each of the 50 states where electoral votes are cast for president, mostly on a winner-take-all basis. Most elections are what they call “close” anyway—so the aforementioned left and right piles matter little.
And since Florida is mentioned in this article, let us not forget that it was Florida that allowed the supreme Court to indirectly interfere with its electoral voting, by simply interfering with the state’s popular voting—mainly the state’s swing voting, i.e., the deciding votes that were never actually counted. Everybody should know by now that Mr. Gore won the popular vote (statewide Florida and nationwide both). But then who’s really counting anyway. Right? Apparently Mr. Gore wasn’t all that interested in being president. Bush would do. Both are card carrying members of the wealthy, powerful, privileged and controlling…well…privileged class. We rest our case on that score.
So, to the point. We find that there is really only one candidate in very biennial federal general election for the presidency, house and senate—the privileged class. And as we just mentioned, that single candidate invariably focuses on middle, working and poor class swing voters—period. The others (the bases) think they count, but the don’t—except perhaps in primary elections. But then, primary elections are more or less meaningless. America always ends up with two privileged class candidates, the “best” of which is put into office by swing voters, who are then “managed” before the entertainment and confusion enters into each election cycle.
The privileged class is composed of Big Business, Big Politics (democrat/republican power structures or vice versa, makes no difference) & Big Media (often invoking Big Religion, mostly Judeo-Christian)—whose wealth & power are applied in a full court press for the sole purpose of controlling Big Government (presidency & congress) and Big Legal (supreme Court).
Over the entire period of every two years of an election cycle, the basic game plan (the basic full court press) of the Big Six is a mixed bag applied to middle, working and poor class swing voters. That mixed bag is just as simple as 1-2-3. There is Big Entertainment in each second (election) year, with lots of Big Confusion thrown in the closer the swing voters get to November—with Big “Management” being the focus during the first year of each 2-year election cycle following the election (1) Big “Management” 2) Big Entertainment 3) Big Confusion, it’s that simple).
But then think about it for a moment. What if the privileged class decided that voters don’t count at all—that “voters don’t matter”?
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Taking into account what has been said here, I was struck by something Obama said months ago. Responding, apparently, to complaints made against him, from democrats and progressives, he remarked, and I paraphrase, that it was “unfair” to hold against him promises and remarks he made, and failed to fulfill, remarks that were simply “…things he said while he was seeking the nomination.” Absolutely incredible! Obama’s statement borders on madness. This man believes that the presidency is his, and telling an unsuspecting public anything he pleases, should be allowed, overlooked, because it led to his victory. In fact, why does he believe that the public would be inclined to believe anything he said or “promised,” subsequent to his win of the White House? The remark didn’t arouse any criticism, or notice, as far as I can tell, either because it was ignored, or media actually agreed with Obama’s assessment. I was blown away by his deceit and the corrupting effect his hunger for victory had over him. I don’t care what the republicans are doing or saying, because they seem beyond hope or appeal. But what leading democrats are saying is of the utmost importance to me. Compared to Obama’s remark, Romney’s clumsy nonsense about not caring about the poor, pales to insignificance.
Newt will loose for a lot of reasons.Mainly among them is a subliminal understanding that he is a nasty little SOB under it all.People feel that.He is not connecting at all on a personal level.Those on the left may scoff at that,but look at Obama.He had no qualifications for the office but one.A likability factor.Up to a week before the election a huge majority did not agree with his policies.Still don’t actually.Well Newt has the experience.The know how….Power, influence,policies- and the brains to make them work.He would trash almost anyone in a debate but…..he is felt to be a snarky guy who holds grudges.His campaign has been a scorched earth run that has hurt his enemies ,his competition ,and his party.The people feel that.The party watches how the people are reacting,and it ain’t good.He should of made that call to Mitt.My feeling is in a general election against the president it would be a great embarrassment to the party to have” its choice”not make the phone call to congratulate Obama.And with Newt running Id wager 50/50 he would be asked to make that call.
I couldn’t disagree more with the author of this article. Poll after poll shows he is NOT liked by the majority of GOP voters, NOT liked by the media, and NOT liked by his peers in the GOP. Interesting that the author didn’t link to those alleged polls that show Newt on top.
Poor Republicans. All bluster, misspeaks, and praise for the rich and denigration for the poor. They haven’t had a really good choice for several decades, hence, those who and won and lost. Unfortunately, I don’t see many quality Democrats standing in line either. Until our country (the people) stops allowing our elections to be bought by Corporations, we will continue to have second rate leaders who have few morals, ethics or common sense. Obama actually comes a lot closer than the other candidates. The politics of obstruction have made his choices all but impossible.
@TD…..the link to the polling is the numbers 2/1/12 in jim’s post [click on it to see foryourself, if you’d like]
NBC News/Wall St. Jrnl 1/22 – 1/24 Gingrich +9
Rasmussen Reports 1/23 – 1/23 Gingrich +7
Gallup 1/22-1/26 Gingrich + 8
however..on 1/30-2/3 gallup has mitt at + 11
realclearpolitics total yesterday was mitt +3.4
My Republicans are making it awfully easy for Obama by pushing Romney, a wealthy elitist, who has NOTHING in common with the middle class or working poor and is “unconcerned with the very poor.” If my party can’t do better than nominate Romney, we deserve Obama.
Bob that is nonsense.What you have in Mitt is a capitalist.Being successful aint a crime yet.Obama is a lib with strong socialist leanings.We do not deserve Obama.Mitt is a thousand times more preferable.And what the hell does Obama have in common with those groups?He too is an elitist.Or better put a very rich man.”Your party has several candidates .ALL are better than the sitting president.
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