Pro-Life Congress Convenes

Many of the Libertarian members of the tea party movement have tried to minimize the importance of values voters in this last election, and discourage legislation from being pushed in this new congress. However, the election results gave us possibly the most pro-life congress ever, and a house speaker who wants to be the most "pro-life speaker in history."

Four key pieces of pro-life legislation will be introduced this session. Investigations will be conducted by Congressman Chris Smith into the exportation of abortions by President Obama, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Yesterday Congressman Mike Pence introduced legislation to defund Planned Parenthood. Since the House of Representatives sets the budget, Republicans should be able to accomplish this goal in this congress. Over 120 congressmen cosponsored the legislation. A pro-life house needs to defund Planned Parenthood.

"The largest abortion provider in America should not also be the largest recipient of federal funding under Title X." ~Congressman Mike Pence

Hillary Clinton Blames America for Global Warming

Democrats, and the Obama Administration have a tendency to blame America for things whenever they go overseas. In a recent trip to India Hillary Clinton continued this trend by saying that America makes mistakes, one of which is being a significant contributor to the problem of global warming. Sadly the days of believing in American exceptionalism, and leading the world have left this nation under the Obama Administration.

The Danger of Open Primaries

Recently I have been doing some research into the election process and compiled this information on the impacts of open primaries on a parties ability to nominate a candidate. In a state like Virginia where we are forced to hold an open primary we should stay with a convention system to nominate candidates so that it is just members of the Republican party who decide our nominees.
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In an open primary any registered voter can vote in any party’s primary. When a voter goes to his polling place he can choose to vote in a party’s primary, but can only vote in one primary for a race. The advantage to an open primary is that it encourages voter participation. Indpendents are encouraged to participate in an open primary. However, the downside of an open primary is that it is the registered voters of a state, and not the political party selecting its nominee. There is also a variation of the open primary known as the semi-closed primary which allows independents to vote in either party’s primary. People registered with one party can not vote in the other party’s primary in a semi-open primary. Liberal independents can vote in a republican primary, and conservative independents can vote in a democrat primary in a semi-open primary state. Open primaries permit members of other parties to influence a parties nomination contest, and they often take advantage of it.

In the 2008 presidential election, both parties impacted, or tried to impact the other party’s nomination process. In 2008, John McCain’s early victories in New Hampshire and South Carolina propelled him from a second tier candidate to the Republican nominee. However, through open primaries he never won a majority of the Republican vote in both of those two states. In New Hampshire[1] Mitt Romney won the Republican and conservative vote with 35% and 38% respectively. However, McCain won the state by 5% by winning the independent, moderate, and liberal vote by 40%, 44%, and 45% respectively. A similar thing happened in the South Carolina primary[2]. Here Mike Huckabee won the Republican and conservative vote with 32% and 35% respectively. However, John McCain still won the state by 3% by winning the independents, moderates, and liberals by 42%, 51%, and 47% respectively. In both of these elections, the independents were involved in key presidential republican primaries, and changed the results.

A similar thing happened part way through the Democrat primary. Part way through the Democrat primary when Obama was close to winning the nomination, Rush Limbaugh began what an operation for Republicans to vote in the Democrat primary for Hillary Clinton in large amounts. This operation became known as operation chaos. Following the beginning of operation chaos Hillary Clinton won the Ohio, Texas, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and North Carolina primaries. Following the start of operation chaos Hillary Clinton went from being on the verge of losing the nomination to winning a majority of the elected delegates. She ended up losing the nomination as a result of the super delegate votes.

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[1] http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/primaries/results/epolls/index.html#val=NHREP

[2] http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21228202

Another New York Special Election?

The end of March New York had a special election to fill seat vacated when Hillary Clinton's senate seat. It appears that within the next month we will have another congressional special election in New York. This will be in New York's 23rd congressional district. Obama selected Rep. John McHugh the ranking member on the armed services committee to serves as the new Secretary of the Army. This is a very rural district that has a Republican congressman, but voted 52% for Obama. It will be a critical election as Republicans need to hold onto all their seats. At this point the early favorite to be the Republican nominee is McHugh's chief of staff, Robert Taub. Hopefully the NRCC does not ruin our chances of winning this time by running very negative adds.

The Experience of Caroline Kennedy

Throughout the past presidential race we heard on a regular basis how Governor Sarah Palin lacked the experience to be one heart beet from the presidency. Whether or not she had the experience and the qualification to the vice president, Sarah Palin was at least a sitting governor, a former mayor, and had chaired a very important state commission.

The "unqualified" and "inexperienced" criticisms of Sarah Palin are quite ironic in light of the fact that Caroline Kennedy is the favorite to replace Hillary Clinton in the U.S. Senate.

Until Caroline Kennedy wrote an oped endorsing Barack Obama in late January of 2008 and then actively campaigned for him, she hardly had any involvement in politics. Her professional life has included a number of different jobs as an attorney, writer, editor, and board member for numerous non-profit organizations. She has held many of these positions as a result of her last name and the fact that her father was J.F.K. As a citizen she hasn't even been involved in the political process enough to vote on a regular basis. She has missed multiple primary and general election votes for top of the ticket races. There has also been a lot of talk that Caroline Kennedy just recently renewed her law license in order to have that credential to burnish as she makes the case that she should be New York's next senator.

These are tough times, and whoever is nominated to replace Hillary Clinton will have two years in office before they face reelection. We need someone in that seat who has experience in elected office. Someone who understands how to work with people and get things done. The only thing Caroline Kennedy has going for her is her last name.

For all the criticism of Sarah Palin as unqualified to be vice president. She was atleast a governor, mayor, and chair of a commission about oil companies. Caroline Kennedy hasn't done anything significant as a public servant to have this senate seat simply handed to her.

In all honesty Caroline has held no position that would in anyway qualify her to be nominated senator of New York. In fact she seems to have a sense of entitlement for the seat. Her uncle Robert F. Kenedy occupied the seat till he was tragically assasinated during his 1968 presidential bid. In order to keep the Kennedy image going they need another new younger person in high elected office.

Governor Patterson should find someone who can be a senator from day one to nominate for the position, and then Caroline Kennedy should run for the office later and convince the people of New York to elect her as their senator. She should not be given the senate seat simply because of her last name, or her political connections with the incoming president.

Change You Can Believe In

For a candidate who ran on "change" Obama sure has done an impressive job carrying out his campaign promises.

Early on his presidential campaign Barack Obama promised to take federal financing of his campaign. As an early sign of how well he would keep his campaign promises, he went back on that promise.

One of the reasons Obama was able to defeat Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary was the whole issue of the war. He was able to paint Clinton as a hawk, and advertise himself as someone who had opposed the war from the very beginning. Obama believed in this so much that he nominated Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, and Robert Gates as Secretary of Defense. These two picks that have made some liberals unhappy as theleft perceives these two people to be military hawks.

No the questions is how involved was Obama in the scandal that lead to Governor Blagojevich's arrest this morning? For someone who ran as someone who would remove cronyism, partisanism, and corruption from politics, any involvement in this scandal will undermine his message. As the investigation unfolds it more people will inevitably be implicated and it wil be interesting how close this investigation gets to the new president.

Apparently Tony Rezko, a close friend of Obama's, is under investigation as part of this scandal.

The Next Right reports that Obama and Governor Blagojevich both seem to have improper links to the Children Memorial Hospital in Chicago.

Obama also seems to be following in the path of outgoing President Bush. He and his campaign adviser David Axelrod have now said opposite things on the communication between Obama and Governor Blagojevich on who will take Obama's senate seat.

Obama said today after the story broke, "I had no contact with the governor or his office and so we were not, I was not aware of what was happening."

However on November 23rd David Axelrod said, "I know he's (Obama) talked to the governor and there are a whole range of names many of which have surfaced, and I think he has a fondness for a lot of them."

This apparent deception by Obama concerning his involvement in the selection of his replacement only makes people even more suspicious.

ABC News Senior Whitehoue Coresponent, Jake Tapper, details suspicious activity by the Obama Whitehouse, and Obama's closeness to Governor Blagojevich which might lead to potential damaging things for Obama down the road.

For a man who criticized the corruption of the Republicans and the Bush Administration, this kind of closeness to Governor Blagojevich's scandal does not seem to be like much of a change.

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So where is this "Change You can Believe in?"

I see it in Bob McDonnelle in 2009. "Promises Made Promises Kept"

I also see it in 2010 when we elect more principled conservatives to the house and senate.