Better Late Than Never...

I'm a little late with this analysis of the GOP field after this week's debate, but better late than never.

On Monday night, the Republican candidates for president (minus my friend, the awesome Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, whom no one will include ostensibly because of his standing in the polls, which is total BS) debated again, this time on CNN. Once again, some quick impressions:

The Mitt Romney vs. Rick Perry rivalry is making them both better candidates. Romney has been at this game for about 4 years and should have been better in the early stages, but he was still stiff and wooden. He still is, but he's gotten a little more fluid and fluent. Perry has sort of taken the heat off Romney on RomneyCare because Perry has his own big government problems: the Gardasil executive order and the Texas DREAM Act. Those are big Achilles heels, and because Perry is the shiny new toy, everybody wants to ding him. Romney should send him a thank you note for getting the focus off his horrendous Massachusetts health care law. Perry has some work to do on national security issues and on parrying legitimate criticisms more effectively. Perry needs to parry.

On a bigger front: Romney vs. Perry symbolizes an interesting divide in the GOP: establishment vs. outsider, northeastern technocrat vs. Texas frontiersman, old school vs. tea party. It will be very interesting to see how that turns out.

On the other candidates: Michelle Bachman rocked the house with her command of the devastation wrought by Obama's Byzantine regulations, including first and foremost ObamaCare. Nobody could touch her on those issues.

Newt Gingrich once again showed that he'd be the most formidable debate opponent for Obama: brilliant, sharp, fast, full of policy details and an unapologetic tone. After each of his dynamite debate appearances, I keep waiting to see if his poll numbers go up. They never do.

I "heart" Herman Cain. Just sayin'.

Jon Huntsman had his best debate performance yet. He was surprisingly forthright and authoritative. Too bad he's actually a Democrat.

Rick Santorum knocked it out of the park with clear, concise, beautifully articulated answers infused with strong conservative principles. He still has no chance.

Ron Paul. Sigh. Right about the Fed debasing the currency. Wrong about pretty much everything else. Nobody who believes that America should not behave as the exceptional power it is will ever be elected president. Ever.

Onward.

Turner-ing Point

Yesterday two special Congressional elections took place. In Nevada's 2nd district, Republican Mike Amodei walked away with a huge victory.

And in New York's 2nd district, Republican Bob Turner decisively beat his Democrat opponent in a heavily Democrat district that until recently, had been represented by lover-of-his-own-weiner Anthony Weiner.

Let's take a step back. Obama and the lefties take control in January 2009. They go hog-wild with massive redistributionist policies that involve the massive transfers of wealth: the "stimulus," omnibus spending, ObamaCare, Dodd-Frank financial regulation, suffocating EPA and other regulations. The result of these redistributionist policies has been: stubbornly high unemployment, non-existent economic growth, and record numbers of people in poverty and on food stamps, welfare, and other social welfare programs. Getting as many people as possible dependent on the government is, of course, the point of Obama's policies. But the folks being forced into that dependency don't particularly like it.

So:

In November 2009, voters in deep blue New Jersey voted in a Republican Governor, Chris Christie and voters in purple Virginia elected a Republican Governor, Bob McDonnell.

In January 2010, voters in deep blue Massachusetts elected a Republican Senator, Scott Brown, to replace liberal demi-god Ted Kennedy.

In November 2010, voters across the country swept Republicans into control of the House and closer to control of the Senate, while the GOP took 11 Governorships from Democrats in critical states such as Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Iowa as well as 1 Governorship previously held by an Independent in Florida.

And now, in September 2011, we see two GOP winners in electorally important Nevada and in a Democrat top-heavy district in New York.

True, there have been a few Democrat wins during this time in special elections in upstate NY and CA. But as we see when we take a step back and look at the bigger trend, it's overwhelmingly Republican.

This is happening not because the GOP has been particularly good on reining in spending and government but because Obama and the lefties are so incredibly bad: destructive to the max.

We have seen several major turning points since Obama took over, and each one has turned toward the Republicans. Seems even many Democrats have had enough of socialism and are saying, "nyet!"

Imus In The Morning

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The O'Reilly Factor---TONIGHT!

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Special Elections

There are two special congressional elections today. One is in New York's 9th district to fill the seat vacated by the family jewel-Tweeting Anthony Weiner. The other is in Nevada's 2nd district. The races are being closely watched as they are considered both referenda on Barack Obama and possible bellwethers for 2012.

Nevada's district is considered a relatively safe GOP stronghold, although there are parts of it that lean Democrat, so nothing is a sure bet. If you live in NV-2, get out today and vote for Republican Mark Amodei.

New York's district comprises parts of Brooklyn and Queens and is heavily Democrat. Recent polls show either a tie between Republican Bob Turner and Democrat David Weprin or Turner ahead. Do not feel assured or complacent. This is, after all, a district that went wildly for both Obama and Weiner. When he resigned, Weiner said that his worst nightmare would be for that seat to go Republican. Let's make sure that happens.

In both races, if you live in those districts, please vote for the GOP candidate. If you don't live there, visualize their wins the way athletes do. We need to force the lamestream press to print this headline tomorrow: "GOP Sweeps Special Elections."

Send a message to Obama and the big government, big spending zanies running the country right now: we're done indulging you. You're over. And we are sending Republicans backup the way we sent them backup in November 2009 and 2010.

Let's rock.

Meet the New Obama, Same as the Old Obama

A few thoughts on President Obama's theater-of-the-absurd "jobs" speech:

1. He approved of Maxine Waters' call last week for $1 trillion in new spending in order to make HIS call for HALF a trillion seem reasonable.

2. Mother of God! He just called for HALF A TRILLION in new government spending!

3. Favorite/Unfavorite line: "This isn't political grandstanding. This isn't class warfare." It was both, of course---to the extreme.

4. Another favorite/unfavorite line: "We don't have the luxury of waiting." But he had the luxury of waiting about a month until his vacation was over to give this speech.

5. He argued for more and better manufacturing in the United States, but his new regulations/rules/taxes/costs are strangling manufacturing...and everything else in America.

6. He called for more goods to be made here. Great! Then stop the NLRB from preventing Boeing from building airplanes in South Carolina and stop raiding Gibson guitars! And why was GE's CEO Jeffrey Immelt sitting as your guest with the First Lady when he's shipped entire divisions---along with countless jobs---to China?

7. The old class warrior just had to bust out. He called for higher taxes on "the rich," which means anyone making over $200,000 a year and small businesses. He can't help himself. Spread the wealth around.

8. He slammed into Governors Scott Walker and John Kasich and others who have restricted collective bargaining privileges. He loves him some unions! Guess that's why AFL-CIO head thug Richard Trumka was also a guest of Obama's, seated with Immelt and Michelle.

9. He wants yet another extension of unemployment benefits in order to make that program permanent and perpetuate ever-more government dependency.

9. "Pass it now! Pass it now! Pass it now!.....But wait for another 2 weeks to find out how I plan to pay for it."

This guy has been a broken record for a long, long time. His sorry refrain is full of static...and full of something else, too.

The Republicans Mix It Up

Last night, the major Republican candidates for president debated at the Reagan Presidential Library in California. Why they agreed to a debate sponsored by supremo lefty NBC and Politico is beyond me, but I suppose they feel they need to look like they're inclusive and can deal with the heavy-handed leftwing bias.

Here are my thumbnail assessments of the strengths and weaknesses of each candidate:

Mitt Romney. Strength: Still his race to lose. Weakness: Still RomneyCare.

Rick Perry. Strength: Straight talk. Weakness: National security.

Michele Bachmann: Strength: Firm conservative principles. Weakness: Having to fight to be heard.

Newt Gingrich. Strength: Superb debater and conservative intellectual. Weakness: Too much history/baggage.

Herman Cain. Strength: Free-market economics. Weakness: Foreign policy.

Rick Santorum. Strength: Conservative cred. Weakness: No traction.

Ron Paul. Strength: Right about Fed destroying our currency. Weakness: Believes American superpower should not be exercised.

Jon Huntsman. Strength: Pro-growth economic policies. Weakness: Is, for all intents and purposes, a Democrat.

Winner: Romney. Draw: Perry. Loser: Huntsman.

Onward.

He Just Can't Help It

In tomorrow night's speech, President Obama will stride before a Joint Session of Congress and the American people and do what he always does: announce new spending.

$300 billion in new spending to be exact, if the early leaks are to be believed.

He is going to ask for the hundreds of billions of dollars more for things like more infrastructure and school construction, never mind the fact that that is what the first trillion dollars of "stimulus" were for. Only 6% of the 2009 "stimulus" went for infrastructure, despite The Bama repeatedly telling us the tril was for "shovel-ready jobs." The bulk of the rest of the first "stimulus" went to transfer payments to the states and local governments to maintain their government payrolls and to pay down existing debt. The "stimulus" a job creator? Not at all.

He will also try to reel in some GOP support by suggesting a one-year extension of the payroll tax holiday. Good luck there: many Republicans have pointed out that targeting the tax holiday there is increasingly putting Social Security on thin ice and that a short-term extension does nothing to calm the uncertainty in the labor markets. Why would anybody hire based on a one-year break knowing that the break expires in 12 months?

Surprise, surprise: Obama wants mo' money for "stimulus," after his first round of trillions in spending didn't work. Only a simpleton would ask for more dough with that track record.

A simpleton...or a pure socialist ideologue. The guy just can't help himself.

The O'Reilly Factor---TONIGHT!

I'll be a guest on "The O'Reilly Factor" tonight at 8pm and 11pm ET on the Fox News Channel. Please tune in!