Black Friday

If it’s the “Job Creators” that power our economy, and not the consumers, then why the hell is Black Friday such a big deal?

Republicans take note:

Front page of the Salt Lake Tribune, Nov. 21, 2012:

“Obama’s aide: Hunstman was biggest threat”

Even before Jon Huntsman Jr. announced his candidacy for the presidency, the Democrats knew, or at least suspected, that extremism would be the downfall of the Republican bid for president.

All the numbers show that the middle (political philosophy) won the election for Obama.  He had the extreme liberals locked, just as Romney had the extreme conservatives.  Romney lost because Obama appealed to 56% of the moderates, compared to Romney’s 41%.

There is no doubt in my mind that Huntsman would have captured a lot of those moderate votes.  I know for a fact that he very likely would have taken 2 of the more liberal votes, mine and my friend Adele’s.  There’s no doubt in my mind that Obama is the better choice of the two we were given, by a longshot, but had he run against Huntsman I would have had some real thinking to do.

I voted for him in his bid for reelection as Governor of Utah, I was impressed with his ability to look at all sides of an issue and do what he thought was in the best interest of the state.  At times I disagreed with his decisions, other times I thought he was spot on, but either way it seemed he took into account all opinions, not allowing himself to get locked into a single view of the world. 

I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again:  You guys have to jettison that psycho Tea Party, adopt a more inclusive and moderate platform and run candidates that can at least appear to sympathize with moderate Americans.  Because, I’d bet, most of us fall in that category.

A little cheese with that whine, Orrin?

Early in the presidential campaign, the [dis]Honorable Orrin Hatch, Senator from Utah, accused the president of future slams against the LDS Church as an attack against Mitt Romney.

Even though the article in the Salt Lake Tribune (Nov 17, 2012, page 1 of the Utah section) says “Proof of anit-LDS campaigning appears scant,” Hatch said “There was a lot more than you think, If you didn’t see it, there’s something wrong.”

Yeah, Orrin, there is something wrong.  Your shirt and tie are so tight that you’re getting hallucinations from the lack of blood to your brain.  Even the people at BYU, the LDS Church’s own University, disagree with you.  The Tribune wrote “Quin Monson, head of Brigham Young University’s Center for the Study of Politics and Democracy, says Romney’s Mormon faith wasn’t a big issue in the general election.”

Hell, Senator Mike Lee, Tea Party darling of the Utah Republican Party, even said that his faith got “trashed” more by his own party in the primary elections.  “I did expect it to occur; I didn’t expect it to come from the Obama campaign or the Democrats.  I thought that one or more super PACs or surrogates, whatever, would attack the church.  It didn’t really happen”, Lee said.

So Orrin, just shut the hell up.  The election is over, you were wrong.  All this bellyaching you’re doing does nothing but prove to people how desperate you are to be relevant.

Is the Tea Party dead?

Dear Republican Party,

I honestly believe you could have won this year’s presidential election if you had not been so willing to pander to the ultra right wing Teabagger fringe.

Why?  Well, I get the feeling that the Tea Party is dead. The moderates and even conservative moderates seem to be sick and tired of the blathering of this tunnel vision group.

I live in Utah, the reddest state in the union.  72.8% of our voters cast their ballots for Mitt Romney, more than any other state.  Yet no more than a lone Tea Party candidate made it through the Utah Republican primaries, and in the end Mia Love couldn’t even beat Democrat Jim Matheson in a gerrymandered 4^th District custom made for a Republican win.  Half of Utah County (home of Gayle herself), part of Juab and Sanpete counties and the more conservative south west part of Salt Lake County preferred a Democrat over a Tea Partier.  To me that says a lot about the popularity of extreme ultra-conservatism.

Now, I’m not saying that conservatism in general isn’t still strong, and I’m not even saying they are always wrong.  But I am saying that the semi-literate, foaming-at-the mouth Gayle Ruzicka lovin’ fringe of the Republican Party is scaring a big part of the more rational majority into the arms of the Democrats.

I truly believe that if the Republicans jettison the Teabaggers and put forth a more rational, compromising and moderate front *(ala Jon Huntsman Jr.), they well could well retake the Whitehouse in 2016.

Hell, even I was considering voting for Huntsman had it been him against Obama this year.  I voted for him twice as Governor of Utah.