Earlier today Chris Christie pulled the plug on any chance of him running for President in 2012. Frankly, I don't blame him.
As he's said more than once, he's not ready to be President after only two years as governor of New Jersey. Plus he's still got plenty of work to do in the Garden State.
Unless someone else, like Sarah Palin, jumps in in the next couple of weeks, the slate we have is going to be the one we'll have to pick from for a challenger to Barack Obama. Looking at the present field of candidates, there are only one or two I might feel comfortable supporting.
At the top of my very short list, Herman Cain. Second is Rick Perry. The rest of the existing field I find wanting. While Ron Paul has some great ideas I think far too many people will feel uncomfortable with his ideology. Michelle Bachmann garnered a lot of interest in the beginning, but I never thought she had the staying power. So far the polls show I'm right. (It must be understood that poll numbers now really have little meaning. At this point in the 2008 campaign Hillary Clinton was way ahead of Barack Obama in the polls and we see how that turned out. Need I say more?)
Mitt Romney is just a little to slick for me.
The rest are political non-entities.
Herman Cain, on the other hand, is generating some buzz. While not a professional politician, he has the street cred Obama dreams of having. This is a man who has accomplished things. He speaks plainly (without the need for a teleprompter). He actually has plans for dealing with our overly complicated and confusing tax code, our economy, and has stated them plainly. There is no "secret plan" so often touted by the Obama Administration. And recent polls have him a close third behind Romney and Perry. He's also generating buzz amongst Democrats, with some of them trying to paint Cain as a racist because he had the audacity to say black Americans have been brainwashed for years to vote for Democrats, many of whom do not have their best interests at heart. So if telling the truth is racist, then I guess Cain is a racist. And by extension, it means telling a lie is not racist, therefore Democrats are not racists, right?
If you want to get a better idea about Cain and how well he understands the costs of government, look at this video of him debating Bill Clinton about HillaryCare back in 1994 and schooling the president about the real costs of his health care program.
This guy is getting more interesting...
As he's said more than once, he's not ready to be President after only two years as governor of New Jersey. Plus he's still got plenty of work to do in the Garden State.
Unless someone else, like Sarah Palin, jumps in in the next couple of weeks, the slate we have is going to be the one we'll have to pick from for a challenger to Barack Obama. Looking at the present field of candidates, there are only one or two I might feel comfortable supporting.
At the top of my very short list, Herman Cain. Second is Rick Perry. The rest of the existing field I find wanting. While Ron Paul has some great ideas I think far too many people will feel uncomfortable with his ideology. Michelle Bachmann garnered a lot of interest in the beginning, but I never thought she had the staying power. So far the polls show I'm right. (It must be understood that poll numbers now really have little meaning. At this point in the 2008 campaign Hillary Clinton was way ahead of Barack Obama in the polls and we see how that turned out. Need I say more?)
Mitt Romney is just a little to slick for me.
The rest are political non-entities.
Herman Cain, on the other hand, is generating some buzz. While not a professional politician, he has the street cred Obama dreams of having. This is a man who has accomplished things. He speaks plainly (without the need for a teleprompter). He actually has plans for dealing with our overly complicated and confusing tax code, our economy, and has stated them plainly. There is no "secret plan" so often touted by the Obama Administration. And recent polls have him a close third behind Romney and Perry. He's also generating buzz amongst Democrats, with some of them trying to paint Cain as a racist because he had the audacity to say black Americans have been brainwashed for years to vote for Democrats, many of whom do not have their best interests at heart. So if telling the truth is racist, then I guess Cain is a racist. And by extension, it means telling a lie is not racist, therefore Democrats are not racists, right?
If you want to get a better idea about Cain and how well he understands the costs of government, look at this video of him debating Bill Clinton about HillaryCare back in 1994 and schooling the president about the real costs of his health care program.
This guy is getting more interesting...
Cain is great at oratory. So is Obama. But the difference between the two is that Cain speaks about specifics, the problems and how he'll go about solving them, even if it's as simple as getting government out of the way, while Obama speaks in generalities and, far too often, his "great speech" is semantically null. People will talk about what a great speech her gave but won't be able to remember any details, or will remember things that weren't in the speech or interpret a vague phrase into something of great import. In other words, Cain has substance while Obama is an empty suit, saying much but meaning nothing.
Herman Cain's great strength is extremely powerful oratory. You have to hear him in person to appreciate it. Fifty years ago I heard Martin Luther King speak. There was a man who could stir an audience. Herman Cain is in the same class. I heard Mr. Cain one cold February night in Plymouth. There was 6 feet of snow on the ground and it was cold. The old railroad station was full of shaggy up country types who had never heard him speak before. He brought the house down. We gave him a dozen standing ovations.