Obama vs. Scott Walker, Chris Christie, Mitch Daniels, Haley Barbour, Bobby Jindal...
Look, we all have our favorites for 2012. And I'm not really trying to start a conversation about specific candidates. (We can have one, of course; might be fun actually, but...)
What I mean is this: there's a big deficit in government now, and it's a leadership deficit.
Sitting Republican governors are showing it. Obama isn't. He's looking smaller and more insignificant every minute. We all know how Scott Walker is staring down the hapless, out-of-gas president. My guess is he's about one week from becoming the most popular politician in America.
He's not alone, of course: Chris Christie and Mitch Daniels are schooling Obama daily in what a real leader has to do to balance a budget. Haley Barbour and Bobby Jindal -- I know, I know: Jindal talks funny and flopped a speech last year; let's get over it -- are both Deep South governors who showed real leadership and grit facing down the childish and destructive actions of the Obama administration last summer, during the BP oil leak.
Any one of these guys -- and probably there are a couple sitting Republican governors we haven't heard from yet -- have practical, recent experience doing things. Any one of them could stand across the stage from President Obama in eighteen months and debate the stuffing out of him.
We've got something we've needed for years: clarity. Our side is making tough decisions, hard calls, real progress for America's future. Obama's side is dissembling, caviling, and -- literally, in Wisconsin's case -- hiding out. Our side is standing for something; his side is kneeling before Big Labor. Our side is has a sharp, unified message (as surprising as that is) and his side is all over the map. Our side looks like the future. His side looks like the past.
That's what winning looks like. I say: bring it on.
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Re: Obama vs. Scott Walker, Chris Christie, Mitch Daniels, Haley Barbour, Bobby Jindal...
You're right, Rob. Just consider Obama's pre-electoral career in community organizing: orchestrating "grassroots" protests of the sort plaguing Wisconsin right now. Prior to becoming president, Obama never actually did anything, unless writing two memoirs counts.
Dec '10
Re: Obama vs. Scott Walker, Chris Christie, Mitch Daniels, Haley Barbour, Bobby Jindal...
Given what just happened on Jeopardy! with Watson the AI Contestant, I'm reminded of the episode of Star Trek in which the M-5 computer demonstrates that it can run a starship alone. The Commodore's radio message to Captain Kirk suggests a new nickname for Obama:
President Dunsel.
Feb '11
Re: Obama vs. Scott Walker, Chris Christie, Mitch Daniels, Haley Barbour, Bobby Jindal...
Leadership is infectious.
We need to continue to pursue policies that allow for America to regain it's position as the authority on individual liberty. Too often we let our politicians pass legilation with intent of reelection, no more.
Conservatism is on the rise. The 2010's look to be the decade of change, change for the good.
Re: Obama vs. Scott Walker, Chris Christie, Mitch Daniels, Haley Barbour, Bobby Jindal...
Stuart Creque: Given what just happened on Jeopardy! with Watson the AI Contestant, I'm reminded of the episode of Star Trek in which the M-5 computer demonstrates that it can run a starship alone. The Commodore's radio message to Captain Kirk suggests a new nickname for Obama:
President Dunsel. · Feb 18 at 7:26pm
Do you think we could ask William Shatner to reprise his role in The Ultimate Computer and talk the president into disconnecting himself from the levers of power?
Jul '10
Re: Obama vs. Scott Walker, Chris Christie, Mitch Daniels, Haley Barbour, Bobby Jindal...
George Savage
Stuart Creque: Given what just happened on Jeopardy! with Watson the AI Contestant, I'm reminded of the episode of Star Trek in which the M-5 computer demonstrates that it can run a starship alone. The Commodore's radio message to Captain Kirk suggests a new nickname for Obama:
President Dunsel. · Feb 18 at 7:26pm
Do you think we could ask William Shatner to reprise his role in The Ultimate Computer and talk the president into disconnecting himself from the levers of power? · Feb 18 at 7:32pm
The Regime reminds me more of the android in I, Mudd, after Kirk announced "Everything I say is a lie. I am lying." Which sent the android's logic unit into a sputtering, disabling logical conflict. "The budget will balance in five years, with a $1.1T dollar deficit," says the Obama. (As long as we consider the then $1.1T interest payments on the debt as off budget, as it turns out. A trick that the Regime was eager to obscure with their budgetary double talk.)
America says no to making our country debt slaves to foreign powers, and no to the lying and deceit.
May '10
Re: Obama vs. Scott Walker, Chris Christie, Mitch Daniels, Haley Barbour, Bobby Jindal...
In my opinion, one problem Republicans have had in their recent losing Presidential bids is the nominees who have come out of the Senate. Long on ability to talk and compromise...short on executive gravitas. It has been argued that the best fit for the national executive is someone with previous executive experience, e.g. a Governor.
Not in a long time have so many energetic, qualified GOP Governors been ascendant to the national stage, and I heartily welcome it. They may all not run this go-around, but winning teams tend to have well-stocked farm systems.
Let us choose a nominee who has actually had to run a government and fix its problems, rather than someone whose main contribution was to help create those problems.
A new GOP primary pledge...just say NO to Senators!
Oct '10
Re: Obama vs. Scott Walker, Chris Christie, Mitch Daniels, Haley Barbour, Bobby Jindal...
Ahhhh! Clarity! It's a new and wonderful thing in our national politics. You can actually tell the players without a program. Never had more fun in my life. Decades of conservative discouragement have gone by, and the clouds have begun to part. This is dangerous talk.
It's still a long road, and as with any battle, the plan changes as fast as the opposition adjusts. Remember, after Reagan we had Bush 41, Clinton, Bush 43 and now Obama. It will happen again if we let it. Don't get too comfy.
Sep '10
Re: Obama vs. Scott Walker, Chris Christie, Mitch Daniels, Haley Barbour, Bobby Jindal...
Reagan broke a wildcat strike; Obama fuels a wildcat strike.
Sep '10
Re: Obama vs. Scott Walker, Chris Christie, Mitch Daniels, Haley Barbour, Bobby Jindal...
Pseudodionysius
Reagan broke a wildcat strike; Obama fuels a wildcat strike. · Feb 18 at 8:12pm
I think the campaign commercials for 2012 sort of write themselves don't they? The air traffic controllers picket Reagan, the wildcat teachers and public sector unions picket Republican governors.
Jan '11
Re: Obama vs. Scott Walker, Chris Christie, Mitch Daniels, Haley Barbour, Bobby Jindal...
Thanks, Rob, for the rousing post. Discouragement was about to set in today as I wondered how long conservative values will remain this strong and pervasive in national politics. After so many years of watching one's representatives capitulate to liberals, it is sometimes difficult to believe that all of this is not just a dream.
Sep '10
Re: Obama vs. Scott Walker, Chris Christie, Mitch Daniels, Haley Barbour, Bobby Jindal...
Ab-so-lute-ly! Doing what must be done has to be its own reward. And I believe it will be it.
Oct '10
Re: Obama vs. Scott Walker, Chris Christie, Mitch Daniels, Haley Barbour, Bobby Jindal...
Everytime Obama sends his union goons to intimidate Scott Walker and wisconsin republicans, the more people will want somebody who is the opposite of Obama. This helps Mitch Daniels.
Dec '10
Re: Obama vs. Scott Walker, Chris Christie, Mitch Daniels, Haley Barbour, Bobby Jindal...
I watch & pray with hopeful anticipation that Gov. Walker will stick to his guns & stare down (was that eliminationist rhetoric? Apologies!) the amassed unionistas arrayed in the Peoples Republic of Madison. If he & his fellows in the legislature don't blink, we might just begin the revolution against the madness of the last 75 years of soft Marxism and actually do what William Voegeli said couldn't be done on Peter's recent Uncommon Knowledge podcast: unwind the welfare state. With a majority of our states governed by the good guys, a trend is in the air! Viva optimism!!
Edited on Feb 19, 2011 at 6:51amSep '10
Re: Obama vs. Scott Walker, Chris Christie, Mitch Daniels, Haley Barbour, Bobby Jindal...
One other thing--I want a governor who has served multiple terms, and during tough times. Serving as a governor when times are tough means banging heads together, doing more with less, making difficult choices, and ultimately getting re-elected after having done so. That requires a deftness that some of the potential candidates lack. To me, that rules out Romney, Huckabee, Palin, Jindal, and Christie, and leaves me with Pawlenty and Daniels. As much as I like Daniels, I am becoming more afraid his slightly unorthodox personal story will be just enough of a liability to turn regular voters off--which leads me to Pawlenty, whom I already liked, and am now thinking will be the last man standing when the others falter. Any critiques of this?
Re: Obama vs. Scott Walker, Chris Christie, Mitch Daniels, Haley Barbour, Bobby Jindal...
Well, I don't disagree with you, Kane, but I'd probably be a little more forgiving of sitting Republican governors, who can point to actions they've taken to grapple with today's budget shortfalls. To me, that only rules out Romney and Huckabee -- both of whom I like in certain ways, too. But there's something about the crop of can-do and are-doing GOP governors that I find irresistible. That said, I like Pawlenty, too, even though he's no longer in uniform.
Oct '10
Re: Obama vs. Scott Walker, Chris Christie, Mitch Daniels, Haley Barbour, Bobby Jindal...
Our side is has a sharp, unified message (as surprising as that is) and his side is all over the map.
Quite literally, Rob.
Sep '10
Re: Obama vs. Scott Walker, Chris Christie, Mitch Daniels, Haley Barbour, Bobby Jindal...
Rob, my only objection to the sitting governors like Christie, Walker, Scott, et al, is not having the experience of going through a re-election campaign after forcing the decisions. I'm not signing on to Pawlenty yet, but he is looking better to me all the time. If, God forbid, Obama is re-elected in 2012, then the GOP primary in 2016 will be a real barn burner--can you imagine Rubio against Walker against Jindal against Haley??