Posted on 12/15/2011 9:50:48 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
A very clear view from Rancho Mirage.
Monday
A grueling drive down from rainy Los Angeles to Rancho Mirage. It is about the drabbest drive there is anywhere on earth. The New Jersey Turnpike is like the 17 Mile Drive in Carmel by comparison.
We always make a lot of stops because, well, because we're old and get tired easily. I visited with people at a hotel in Ontario, then at a CVS and a gas station in Calimesa, and at a Bob's Big Boy. I am like a small town politician and my district runs along Highway 10 from Los Angeles to Rancho Mirage.
In Rancho Mirage, we stopped at Pavilions to buy a few animal food things. The immense superstore was eerily empty. Only a few elderly men and women, alone, not in couples, shopped carefully for cat food and casually for frozen TV dinners. They looked desperately lonely. What if I were one of them? And how much it evokes my father when my mother died. He was miserable until he met a woman who took him to concerts at the Kennedy Center. Then he was happy. A good woman is everything.
I had wandered far away in the store from Big Wifey and suddenly I could not see her any longer. I got frightened. What if she were gone? What if I were alone without my wife? I was totally scared. I don't want to be 67 and alone. Or any age and alone.
I scurried around and found her smiling her big Denman grin at the checkout counter. Now, it's Christmas. My gift from God was standing there looking at magazines. The most beautiful, kindest, smartest, most loving, most generous woman, with the best sense of humor on this earth....
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
The last thing America needs is a VP with magical underwear.
Huntsman reminds me of “Silky Pony”. And he is definately in the wrong party.
Speaker Newt Gingrich is 68 years old as of right now, which presents a strong possibility that his VP may one day be president.
It was a good intelligent debate. I’d like to see Newt pick Paul Ryan as his running mate and tell David Gregory to go stick it.
Interestingly, if Huntsman had come out and fought for the conservative vote instead of deriding it, he probably would win this nomination. He’s actually more conservative than not, has economic and foreign policy chops.
Unfortunately, his political instinct looks to be awful. His approach to attack the field and the base is not smart at all.
He's creepy but if you're looking for a stable, inoffensive, capable benchwarmer Huntsman might be worth consideration.
I think Newt, if he beats Romney for the nomination, should consider a retiring or former governor as VP. Huntsman isn't who I had in mind--and no she isn't either.
You could call them the establishment Romney faction and the anti-establishment Gingrich faction, though really those terms establishment and anti-establishment don't apply at all in this case.
Ben picks Gingrich to say that he's in camp B, then adds Huntsman as a gesture in the direction of Romney to say that he's not hostile to camp A.
I’d have no problem with Huntsman as the Veep. His problem is really horrible campaign advice more than anything. Early in his campaign his people were positioning him to go after the mythical Republican grassroots moderate vote. At the beginning of the campaign they were signalling a distaste for Tea Party and Scoial Conservative stridency. There’s no need for a Republican candidate to take an official stance on evolution or suggest that AGW doubters are anti-science. He needed to sell himself on his record, not spout off about controversial secondary issues. His campaign has been horribly and stupidly run thus far(which is not surprising given that it’s being run by a former McCain campaign chairman/flunky John Weaver), but I don’t think he’s anywhere near the poser that Romney is. Huntsman has a solid conservative record outside of his waffling on the AGW issue. He’d make Biden look like the fool he is in the VP debate and the media would have a difficult time demonizing and cariacaturing him after the glossy coverage they’ve given him so far. I’m not a big fan of attaching one of our rising stars(Paul/Rubio) to Gingrich. Getting more of our votes won’t be an issue, and if the good ship Gingrich goes down, it could drag down the VP nominee as well. I’d just as soon have Paul and Rubio stay on their jobs in congress.
BTW “Paul” = Paul Ryan, not the isolationsist anti-semite Texan.
lol!
+1
I’m always amazed at the people who claim that Huntsman should be a Democrat. Amazed. It also poses two questions:
If a pro-life, pro-gun, tax-cutting governor of one of the most conservative states in the country, isn’t welcome in the Republican Party, just how tiny do you want this party to be?
And, how on earth do you propose that we ever win a presidential election again, hunkered down as we would be in our redoubt of dubious purity?
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