Why Ask Bob Dole How to Fix GOP?

Why are we asking a failed presidential candidate how to “fix” the GOP? And, of course, I’m speaking of Bob Dole who went on FOX News to say that the GOP should put a sign out, “Closed for Repairs.” His point was the party had moved too far to the right.

Say what?

What have the last 20 years taught the GOP? Apparently it hasn’t taught them that every time they put up a squishy moderate, including Bob Dole, they get soundly trounced by the democrats. The last two primaries were engineered by the GOP to allow the selection of their preferred, moderate candidates, Sen. John McCain and former Mass Gov. Mitt Romney! The party machine kept the more conservative states, especially large ones like Texas, from voting in the primaries until most, if not all, the other candidates have been forced out when their fundraising dries up.

As far back as the 1980s, George Bush Sr. was elected off the coattails of successful and popular (except to the media) terms of President Ronald Reagan. However, with the exception of the first war in Iraq, he governed moderately and was easily trounced by a more charismatic Bill Clinton (with the help of Bush enemy, Ross Perot running as a spoiler, independent party candidate.) Even though his son, another fiscal moderate, Bush “43” was able to sustain winning two elections, both were by the barest of margins. It’s doubtful that he would have had a second term had the people not felt more comfortable keeping Bush in after the September 11th attacks and resulting war against terror.

Ironically, the press portrays any GOP candidate as radically conservative. In the primaries, the candidate himself often runs to the right, though his record shows otherwise. To paraphrase Sarah Palin, you can put lipstick on a moderate, and call him conservative, but that doesn’t make it so. The people know the difference and every time a squishy GOP moderate is put up against a liberal democrat, the democrat is going to win. Conservatives were not enthusiastic about either Cain or Romney and certainly liberals would never vote for even a liberal Republican. It's become a track record where many have begun to wonder what side is the GOP on? The future of the GOP, if there is one, is NOT with political has beens like Bob Dole, but with an actual conservatives who can articulate what it means to be conservative over the media's minutia.

I am seeing a few glimmers of hope from a few tea-party supported candidates that aren’t afraid to butt heads with the senior bulls. Newly elected Senators Ted Cruz and Rand Paul have both come out swinging and damn the proprieties of being freshman senators. They are quickly becoming wildly popular with the public outside their home states and are tipping the GOP RINOs, as well as battling democrats, enough for McCain to label the pair, along with Rep. Justin Amash, “wacko birds.” For the left wing of the GOP, who was as hopeful as the democrats that the tea party was a temporary aberration, they’d be wise to heed the saying on their adopted flag, “Don’t Tread On Me!”

Is Obama’s Skeet Shooting Photo All Smoke?

Update: Did you say we the people can't "manipulate the photo in any way"? We the people say FU! Twitchy captures the very funny results! Best tweeted caption: "A lame duck shooting a clay pigeon." Also POTUS is now known as "President Mom Jeans".

The White House has released a photo which claims to be POTUS skeet shooting. However, I’m calling BS on this as nothing more than a staged, and perhaps partially photoshopped, print.

The photo shows the president holding a shotgun (at first mislabeled by the liberal press as a rifle). Blue smoke is seen shooting out the barrel and vent. But did the president actually fire the gun, or was the smoke added later to a staged shot?

Skeet are clay disks called “pigeons” that are usually flung by a trap, meant to represent a bird in flight. The point is, when the pigeon is flung, the shooter must move the gun to try and “lead” the pigeon so the shot will reach the moving target as the paths intersect. Furthermore, the skeet is usually flung up in the air, so someone firing at one would have their gun pointed up, not straight like target shooting.

Yet Obama has almost no movement at all when allegedly firing the weapon, even in high resolution. Whatever the level the skeet was at, he should have been moving left to right while firing. So unless he shoots skeet in a “caged hunt,” this is simply another staged WH photo.

Furthermore, the gun looks to be held (mounted) incorrectly, which could result in a substantial “kick” a shotgun produces.

In the AP article, Michael Hampton, executive director of the San Antonio-based association, tactfully suggest the president obviously didn’t go “skeet shooting all the time.”

“This isn't something he's done very often because of how he's standing, how he has the gun mounted,” he said.

If you want to see a slow motion of what skeet shooting looks like, here’s a good example:

One former senior advisor, David Plouffe, tweeted the challenge, “Make our day — let the photoshop conspiracies begin!” He does have a point. Hopefully, this doesn’t become the latest “bait” set out to distract conservatives from a president trying to take away gun rights.

The user is also warned that, “The photograph may not be manipulated in any way and may not be used in commercial or political materials, advertisements, emails, products, promotions that in any way suggests approval or endorsement of the President, the First Family, or the White House.”

Really? I’d bet the courts might have something to say about that as it’s taken by the White House photographer. It’s not a private photo. And I’m so looking forward to the motivational posters.

Ann Coulter's Short-Sighted Vision

The only small mind in Ann Coulter's world is her own.

In her column last Wednesday, she blamed everyone in the conservative wing of the Republican Party for Romney's loss. One person she didn't blame was Romney.

Now let me be clear: This election was rife with fraud. The corrupt Chicago machine was at it again. There were enough statistics in key states pointing to voter fraud, either by human surrogates, machine tampering, or both. So much that there should have been a demand for a recount in some of the swing states. But of course there wasn't – the GOP is a squishy bunch – like Romney, they don't want controversy. And race was involved: They weren’t about to go against a black man and Obama knew it. Not a problem for the other side: It was all over the Twitter-verse before the election that there would be riots and violence should Romney win. And, anecdotally, since Romney and Ryan were playing to packed houses, while Obama was speaking to half-empty venues, it's highly suspicious regarding the numbers Obama pulled out of key states.

But Ann doesn't mention this either. No, she puts blame on exactly where it doesn't belong: the tea party and other conservatives who weren’t all-in with her political paramour.

Conservatives used to think Ann was conservative, but obviously she’s been drinking the water too long up in New York. (Remember when Arianna Huffington was a conservative?) Of course being a conservative can be lonely in places like New York and California. It will probably be just be a matter of time before she’s also a bitter, old former conservative writing a liberal blog. Unfortunately, we saw the beginning earlier this year. Not only was she head-over-heels for the moderate Gov. Romney, she campaigned to get the verbose, pro-gun control Gov. Christie for his running mate. She made vicious attacks on real conservative, Newt Gingrich, like a jealous ex-wife. Newt may not have been in a position to win and certainly had baggage, but no one could deny that he would have kicked the pants off Obama in the debates!

Romney is a nice man—I think most can at least concede that. He’d make a great neighbor. We know he was apparently a shrewd businessman. He is a hard-core moderate: Even after knowing the majority of people were against Obamacare and states were in rebellion, he promised to repeal and replace Obamacare. (No one said they wanted a replacement—just to get rid of the damn thing.) He wouldn't challenge the president enough, even on the campaign trail. There were a laundry list of topics he could have used to attack this administration that were left untouched. After a slam-dunk first debate, he turned into Mr. Nice Guy again, instead of pressing his advantage. He tried to moderate to fit his audience and that is a mistake—no one can trust you when they don’t know where you really stand. Not sure if that’s because he had bad advice or if he was just not up to laying waste to the unprepared president. We need a candidate that can overcome the fraud as well as the democrat candidate. In at least one way, Romney is exactly like McCain and Dole: He is a loser.

A Country Divided?

We are no longer a country who can "agree to disagree"—we are now at each other’s throats. We snipe at each other on Facebook and Twitter. We try to hold our tongue at the office or seek out allies we can voice our opinions to safely. If you go back over to the Real Clear Politics map and look back through past elections you can see how we've become more and more fundamentally divided just in the past 30 years. Instead of being rational, some people make excuses for their politicians like it's their hometown football team who got caught in a foul. They ignore and excuse them like a mother screaming at the police for arresting her “innocent” child for the 50th time.

The press has largely gone from the investigation arm, to the propaganda arm. You can find more objective reporting in blogs and by independents these days—which not surprisingly, are hated by both the politicians and the so-called “real journalists.” Politicians on both sides want to keep us divided so we go after each other, instead of calling them out for the sneaky business they're up to. Journalists no longer just report the news, they openly seek to influence it. They both look down on the majority of the populace as too stupid and uneducated and who must be spoon-fed and taken care of by an overprotective Big Brother. Bills are no longer written by the elected, but by the special interests. It's no wonder politicians can't tell us what's in them until after they made into law—they're spending more time raising campaign funds and running for office instead of actually writing the thousands of pages of laws they pass every year.

The more people who get what they didn’t earn, the angrier they are when someone tries to take it away. Give a child a bunch of toys and then tell them they aren’t going to get any more and watch them throw a fit.

I blame them and I blame the press. But I also blame the lazy public who refuse to lift a finger to educate themselves about what's going on. As long as your politician throws some money you're way, you remain coddled and asleep while the country goes down. And who's fault will that be if the country implodes financially? People will point the finger to Washington. But don't blame the politicians or the press—look in the mirror. Because it's you. You who couldn’t be bothered to look at what a politician does, not just what s/he says at election time. You who’d rather sit down than stand up. You who can’t be bothered to make an informed vote. Yes, you who watch The Colbert Report and The Daily Show with John Stewart instead of searching out the truth. It’s not always easy to find, but it’s out there. You who refuse to look at the overall well-being of your country and the massive spending going on and only care that your state gets a piece of the pie.

Because we are closer to Greece than you think, my friends. We are at the tipping point. But in our case I fear we could easily turn into a second civil war. The more people who get what they didn’t earn, the angrier they are when someone tries to take it away. Give a child a bunch of toys and then tell them they aren’t going to get any more and watch them throw a fit. But allow a child to work and earn what they can and buy their own toys and you have a more responsible child who is more secure because they are dependent on themselves, not others.

The generation that came out of the Great Depression and WWII were called the Greatest Generation. Unfortunately, they did not all pass these lessons on to their children and grandchildren. Within a few short years we went from a generation of self-sufficient and independent to the Me Generation fighting over our toys and expecting them to be provided to us. We went from the people who pursued happiness to those who demand it. Nearly fifty percent of the population now pays NO federal income taxes. Eventually someone is going to have to tell a number of them that there will be no more free toys.