Saturday, September 29, 2012

TRAITORS TO THE CAUSE?

"Do you want Barack Obama to be reelected? Then don't vote for Ron Paul," Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan said during a campaign speech in Lima, Ohio, on Monday, when asked why voters should not vote for Ron Paul.

The Republican vice presidential candidate responded that a vote for Paul, who ran for the 2012 GOP nomination, would effectively split the vote in a way that helps Obama.



Is this true?

Ryan is correct that third-party presidential candidates have played decisive roles in the past, not for their own campaigns but for the campaigns of Republicans and Democrats.

However, third-party candidates did not swing the previous two elections-the winners in 2004 and in 2008 still would have won even if their opponents had collected the sum of all third-party candidates' popular votes.

In the prior three elections (2000, 1996 and 1992), the third party votes would have been enough (the 2000 election is tricky because the candidate who won the popular vote ended up losing the race overall).




In 1996, Bill Clinton beat Bob Dole by 8.53% of the popular vote, less than the 10.02% in votes that third-party candidates received. In 1992, the 19.51% in votes received by third-party candidates could have propelled George H.W. Bush to a win over Bill Clinton, since the Clinton margin of victory was only 5.56% of the popular vote.

Ironically, 1988 is the last time Ron Paul officially ran on a presidential ticket, and the election is notable for being one of those exceptions in which the third-party candidates could not have mathematically made a difference.

Ryan's worries about a drastic swing election, suffice it to say, are unwarranted beyond belief. This is simply more of the governmental strategy of making you so afraid of something that you'll fail to follow your conscience.

Does anyone really believe that four more years of Obama will be that much different than four years of Romney? Are Americans really that blind?



Are third-party voters betraying the Republican Party, or are these voters so disenfranchised by the the Republican Party's betrayal of Constitutional ideals?

Even if Ron Paul were to swing the election, is it possible that conservatives and libertarians feel that the message sentt by their symbolic votes of displeasure is more important than the Republican party winning a race to the White House?

For me, it is.



Sunday, September 9, 2012

WHO WILL BE THE NEW AMERICAN I-DULL?

More than twice as many people tuned into a rerun of "Big Bang Theory" on CBS than tuned into the Republican convention on the same network.
 
Most Americans, sadly, will make their choice for who will run the country based on the bumper sticker slogan.
 
On Thursday's coverage of the Democratic convention, the television moderators spent almost a half an hour bashing Romney because he did not thank the troops in his acceptance speech the previous week.
 
 
 
THAT is their issue?
 
Never mind that the media's candidate, an illegal alien from Kenya, promised four years ago to bring those troops home in SIX MONTHS.
 
And they're still dying for nothing.
 
How about Romney promises to thank the troops if Obama apologizes to them for lying to them. And then they both produce a friggin' birth certificate that was not forged by a kindergarten kid on a iPad?
 
Don't get me wrong-I do not think Romney is really an improvement over Obama, and quite frankly I am torn between the Constitution party candidate, Virgil Goode Jr. and another write-in vote for Ron Paul.
 
And let me tell you-I will not consider either of those choices a wasted vote-I am tired of voting for someone I do not want to be President just because the other candidate is a bigger idiot.
 
The video below from The Daily Show, although intended as comedy, sadly is an accurate reflection of what our politics aspire to-mediocrity.
 
Amid all the mudslinging, this may be the best campaign ad we see for the incumbent.
 
 
 


What we really need to do is switch to a policitcal system that the average American can wrap their arms around.




And to that certain follower of mine-don't forget our bet! You're gonna owe me ANOTHER blizzard if we get four more years of the illegal alien in the White House! What's two blizzards adjusted for hyperinflation?