National Journal: Opinion: Ron Brownstein: Good News and Bad News For Newt Gingrich in Florida

Posted on September 18, 2014 by Rik Schneider

Newt Gingrich
This post was originally posted at FreeStatePlus on WordPress, January, 2012

National Journal: Opinion: Ron Brownstein: Good News and Bad News For Newt Gingrich in Florida

What difference a debate can make, or how about, if you’re a football fan, you’re familiar with term, “live by the blitz, die by the blitz”. Meaning for you English speakers, football teams that base their defense on blitzing, are successful and unsuccessful based on how they blitz. They do well and get burned by it and when you’re a presidential candidate, who’s had most of his success so far based on his debating skills and quick wit and being able to turn things around on other people, you have to win the debates to win elections.

You should have enough hints about who I’m talking about by now. And you have a bad debate, an off night however you want to put it, as a result you get burned by the debate, just like Newt Gingrich has had a lot of success in previous debates, practically winning all of them, Newt had such and off night last Thursday, he’s probably going to lose Florida tomorrow. And it’s just a matter of how much, 10 points being the key. Under or over for Newt.

The good news for Newt is that over weekend, he’s picked up some key endorsements. From Sarah Palin, Herman Cain, some Tea Party groups. Cuban Floridians seem to like him, that won’t pull Florida out for Newt. But may be able to keep Mitt Romney’s victory under ten points. And give the Newter Campaign with a floor in how far they can drop. So they rebuild their momentum going forward and be a factor in Nevada and other key states that are coming up.

Especially in caucus states like Minnesota, where Newt’s style of campaigning, talking and listening to people up front, giving interviews and of course the debates and these endorsements could help Newt be a big factor in these up incoming primaries by getting people to the polls for him. The other good news for Newt is even though he’s fallen, Rick Santorum and Ron Pau haven’t given up and Newt’s been picking up some new endorsements.

And there will be more pressure on Rick Sanrtorum to step down and endorse Newt. Especially if Santorum has a bad night tomorrow. So Newt will still be able to target Mitt and go after the Santorum supporters and bring them with him. Especially if he beats the odds tomorrow night. And doesn’t get blown out in a Florida hurricane, pun intended.

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James Miller Center: President Lyndon Johnson: Remarks on Decision to Not Seek Reelection (1968)

Posted on September 18, 2014 by Erik Schneider


Source:FRS FreeState

When President Lyndon Johsnon decided not to run for reelection in March of 1968, the United States was very divided, but they were united around the fact that they didn’t like Lyndon Johnson as their President. His approval rating was somewhere in the 30s and America was a very divided country. Between the establishment and I guess Culture Revolutionaries that were tired of being told how to live and be and what it was like to be an American. And wanted to live their own lives the way they wanted to. Whether the conservative establishment was happy with their choices or not.

And of course we were divided as a country over Vietnam, the civil right movement, crime was high, riots everywhere, the Federal Government getting much bigger with the Great Society. And America was looking for a change and had President Johnson ran for reelection, he would’ve definitely had a primary challenger. Senator Gene McCarthy had already announced he was running for President. And Senator Bobby Kennedy was considering running for President. Both Democrats and LBJ might have won the Democratic Nomination.

But there’s no guarantee of that and even if that did happen he would’ve ended up leading a divided Democratic Party, which is what Vice President Hubert Humphrey ended up doing. Going up against a united Republican Party around Richard Nixon. Starving for a big win and a path back to power after being out of the White House and being the minority in Congress for the last eight years.

With Vietnam, high crime and the riots, LBJ lost the ability to lead a country that was divided. And looking for someone else to be their President and he made the right decision both politically. But for the country as well and gave Americans an opportunity to look for someone else to be their President. And take the country in a different direction, which is exactly what they got in Dick Nixon.

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C-SPAN: 1997 White House Correspondents Dinner Featuring President Bill Clinton & Comedian Job Stewart

Posted on September 17, 2014 by kireschneider

Source:The New Democrat 

President Bill Clinton was the Comedian in Chief. Because, For one he has a great sense of humor and has always had that and if you live the life he has, the life of riding a roller coaster full-time. Having to stop to vomit because of all of those rides and going from being up one second to falling flat on your face (the clean version) the next second, you would have to have a great sense of humor and be able to make fun of yourself to keep your sanity.

But President Clinton was also Comedian in Chief because of the time he was president. Running and getting elected President of the United States at the birth of the internet. Email and websites already up by 1992 and of course those things having not been fully developed. Like they were in the mid and late 1990s, but they were already there. Cell phones already around by 1992 and the phones you saw then look like the phones you saw by 1995 when cell phones became popular and cool and almost universal.

The twenty-four hour news cycle was big by the early 1990s and just got bigger during the Clinton Administration. With cable news plus the internet to go along with television and radio news along with print media. With these news organizations being addicted to the twenty-four hour news cycle. Having to be the first to report on a story that five people care about. Otherwise it could cost them a tenth of one rating point, or an entire newspaper or magazine subscription.

President Clinton was also Comedian in Chief because of his hate squad, I mean opposition. Who actually turned out to be his best friends who saved him from himself. Because the American people had already decided they liked President Clinton and the job he was doing. And already accepted his flaws and decided they really didn’t like his opposition. Especially since these overly moral and extremely perfect people just also happened to be guilty of the same things that they were accusing President Clinton of. House Speaker Newt Gingrich comes to mind in a hot second. Who needs friends when you have enemies like this?

Once you become President of the United States, the number one sacrifice you give up and sacrifice is your privacy. The whole world is going to know about the same mistakes you and they make. Like having affairs when you are married with a daughter to a women half your age. Or raising money from other countries and you also have to know that your best friends, I mean opposition is going to accuse you of making the same mistakes and doing the same things they’ve done which is just the price of high power.

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CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite: 1/22/73: SCOTUS Roe V. Wade Decision

Posted on September 17, 2014 by Derik Schneider


The New Democrat

Roe V. Wade, the famous 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalize abortion for all American women, is certainly one of the most and important Supreme Court decision in American history. Because whatever your opinion on abortion, whether you believe in women’s right to choose as I do as long as taxpayers aren’t paying for that choice other than to save the health or life of the mother, or you believe abortion should be illegal, this is one of the most important and also divisive decisions. And put Americans on different sides and one of the first battles in the Culture War in America.

I’m not sure we have a Religious-Right and a neoconservative movement without Roe V. Wade. That movement still happens because there would’ve been some response in a big way to the Culture Revolution of the 1960s from the Right especially Far-Right that freed millions of Americans to be able to live their own lives and become part of American mainstream society. But Roe V. Wade was one of their biggest weapons and tools for fundraising and helped these religious and cultural groups on the Right have the resources to make their argument against abortion and other social issues.

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Los Angeles Times: Healing Medi-Cal

Posted on September 17, 2014 by Ederik Schneider

Source:FreeState Now

A lot of states are swamped in deficit and debt thanks to high unemployment. With a lot fewer people working and paying taxes as we had four years ago. And instead of working and paying taxes, they are instead consuming more public services. Paid for by less tax revenue, California being a perfect example of this. Medicaid was already set up in the 1960s as an unfunded mandate that has to come out of general revenue.

Unfunded mandates makes it even harder to pay for Medicaid. And when we have fewer people working and more poor people in the country Medicaid or Medi-Cal as its called in California becomes even harder to pay for, especially with the Federal Government Continuing to pass down regulations without the funds to pay for them. The way to fix Medicaid not just for

California, but every other state, there are a few of ways.
One let each State have Medicaid to run. Each State would have its own version of Medicaid. Which would help make Medicaid self-financed, that would be paid for by its consumers and their employees. Unemployed workers would get a tax credit provided by the Federal Government to cover their health care costs and employers would get a tax credit from the Feds to cover their Medicaid costs.

Two instead of even having the states run Medicaid, convert each Medicaid into a semi-private non-profit self-financed health insurer that provides health insurance for low-income people. And let the States, Feds and locals regulate these health insurers instead.

Medicaid wasn’t set up to be efficient or cost-effective. But to provide health insurance for people who couldn’t get it any other way. Which it has done for the most part, but it needs to be reformed. To make it cost-effective, especially when budgets are tight for everyone.

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Reagan Foundation: 1980 Presidential Debate Between Governor Ronald Reagan & President Jimmy Carter (10/28/1980)

Posted on September 17, 2014 by Rik Schneider


Source:The FreeState

How times have changed for the Republican Party. Because back in 1980 they actually did have a Conservative Republican leading their ticket. And leading them back into power in the White House and Senate. After spending another four years as they spent eight years, in the 1960s as the opposition minority party in the United States. With Democrats controlling both the White House and Congress.

Back then the GOP had a Conservative Republican, because Ronald Reagan actually understood what conservatism is, which is how Barry Goldwater laid it out as conserving the individual liberty of individuals. Big Government out of our wallets and bedrooms, letting free people live their own lives. Not using government to try to control how people lived their lives. Which is what we see with the GOP today, with its Religious and Neoconservatives. The same-sex marriage debate case in point.

This is the perfect time to be talking about Ron Reagan, since it would be his 101st Birthday this month. And since he was the best Republican President we’ve had since Dwight Eisenhower and the best Republican President we’ve had since. And George W. Bush being the worst President we’ve had since, well maybe all-time. Ron Reagan described his politics as libertarian as late as 1975. He backed Barry Goldwater for President in 1964.

Politically its hard to tell the differences between Goldwater and Reagan. Except for maybe foreign policy, Reagan I believe became a classical Conservative, because what he saw in the 1960s what he saw as the growth of big government with the Great Society, but he also saw the growth of big government in the late 1970s, in California. That in 1978 passed a law that would allow employers to fire homosexuals just because they are gay. And he disagreed with that law.

The Christian Right came to power and influence in American politics in the late 1970s. Perhaps even as early as the mid 1970s, with Rev. Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority. Arguing against things like homosexuality and pornography, arguing for censorship of certain forms of entertainment, that of course they see as immoral. And even though President Reagan would talk to these groups, he played them like a politician, he knew he needed their votes. But never gave them anything, unlike Republican politicians today who don’t seem to be able to say no to these Far-Right big government groups. And that’s how the GOP is different today.

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Journeyman Pictures: The Real Story Behind the Clinton Scandals

Posted on September 17, 2014 by Erik Schneider


Source:The New Democrat 

The real story behind the Bill Clinton scandals was that most of them were bogus. The Lewinski affair and the China scandal from 1996 were the only real stories and so-called scandals for Bill Clinton as President, which is nothing compared with Ronald Reagan with Iran Contra and Richard Nixon with Watergate. Or go back to Lyndon Johnson lying to the country about America’s involvement in the Vietnam War and the progress of the war.

The hatred towards Bill Clinton from the Far-Right and other hyper partisans in this country, except for the race factor, is not that much different from the hatred that Barack Obama has received as President. What they hate about Bill Clinton is what they hate about Barack Obama. Which is what they both represent, two New Democrats on the Left who represent the changing of America that we’ve gone through as a country since the 1960s. With all sorts of new Americans having their freedom in this country. No longer restricted to living a traditional way of life.

The Far-Right in America lives in the 1950s. The rest of the country lives in the 21st Century as far as how Americans live in this multi-culture and lifestyle country where all Americans are free to be themselves. And no longer having to feel the need to hide who they are or try to be someone else. And when someone from this part of the country rises to power and becomes not just powerful and not just the most powerful person in the country, but in the world, the Fa-Right goes nuts and accuses that person of trying to destroy their way of life and seeks out to destroy them.

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PBS MacNeil/Lehrer Report: 1988 Iowa Caucus, Democratic Candidates

Posted on September 16, 2014 by kireschneider


Source:The New Democrat 

Governor Michael Dukakis looked like the clear Democratic nominee for President as early as the summer of 1987 and was never really seriously challenged for that nomination. Representative Dick Gephardt was supposed to win the Iowa Caucus and that is exactly what he did being from Missouri and having so much support from organized labor and Iowa being a big organized labor state. Mike Dukakis being more of a New Democrat from Massachusetts even, which is probably not very common, who was to the right of Senator Ted Kennedy.

Mike Dukakis was the Democrat that the George H.W. Bush Campaign feared in 1988 and knew he could definitely beat them. And knew that voters especially Independents would probably like Dukakis who had a great personal and family story coming from a Greek immigrant family. Working his way up and making big success in life. Compared with George H.W. who was born to great wealth. And the Bush Campaign set to take Dukakis down as soon as he won the nomination, because they knew Dukakis would probably beat them otherwise.

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ESPN Films: 30 For 30- Elway To Marino: The Story of the 1983 NFL Draft

Posted on September 16, 2014 by Derik Schneider

30 for 30's _Elway to Marino_ Episode Review & After Show _ AfterBuzz TV

Source:After Buzz TV– John Elway and Dan Marino.

Source:The New Democrat

“30 for 30’s “Elway to Marino” Episode Review & After Show”

From After Buzz TV

“WHAT IF I TOLD YOU…? that one Draft would change the NFL forever! This is the explosive inside story of one fateful day in the lives of two football legends. Much more than an eponymous episode in the careers of John Elway and Dan Marino, this documentary reveals a great deal of the behind the scenes wheeling and dealing that takes place on 1983 Draft Day. Directed by Ken Rodgers. Narrated by Tom Selleck.”

ESPN Films 30 for 30_ _Elway to Marino_ on ESPN America (2013) - Google Search

Source:ESPN– the agent for Dan Marino.

From ESPN

The 1983 NFL Draft is famous for several reasons, but a big one is the fact that it produced three Hall of Fame quarterbacks. The most important position in football, but more than that, it produced two of the top five quarterbacks of all- time in John Elway arguably the best all around quarterback of all-time and Dan Marino the best pure passer of all-time and perhaps the best QB of all-time as well. Then you add Jim Kelly to the draft a quarterback who won four conference championships and played in four Super Bowls. Jim Kelly one of the greatest winning quarterbacks of all-time and then you add Tony Eason who played in Super Bowl 20 with the New England Patriots.

We haven’t seen another NFL Draft like that before or since, but a draft that produces not just two of the best quarterbacks of all-time and in Jim Kelly arguably three of the best quarterbacks of all-time but, also in Elway and Marino two of the best players of all-time as well which makes it an incredible draft.

But that’s not the whole story, this draft was also about workers rights. In this case football players do they have the right to decide who they work for and in this case who do they get to play football for and in John Elway’s case a California boy from Los Angeles who played college football at Stanford in the Bay Region, should he be forced to play football on the East Coast in Baltimore, Maryland for the Baltimore Colts. The Colts offered him a job.

The question posed by John Elway’s management team was: can an employer force someone they’ve just offered a job to, to work for them or does the potential employee, in this case a football player have a say in who he works for and in this case play football for. And that’s what the Elway team was going to find out. Where are football players rights to decide where they can play football for. And Elway won in the fact that he wasn’t forced to work for the Colts.

The whole draft brings up a more important point. What rights do workers including football players and pro sports athletes in general have in determining where they get to work. Because it’s really only pro sports where the franchises or employers basically have all of the power. As far as deciding who works for who and where with the players not having much if any say in deciding where. They work coming out of college.

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NBC News: Don Harris- Howard Jarvis, Jerry Brown & the 1978 Elections

Posted on September 16, 2014 by Ederik Schneider

 

Attachment-1-179

Source: NBC News-Don Harris

Source:The New Democrat 

The mid and late 1970s was a very rough time for America economically and 1978 is a perfect example of that and with California being the largest state in the union, perhaps Californians felt the rough economy with the high interest rates, inflation, energy shortages, high employment perhaps California was hurt the worst by this economic period. The country had already started moving Right politically starting in the mid 1960s, and by the late 70s the country was already thinking, “maybe we need a different economic course and new political leadership in charge”.

Property taxes were becoming unpopular in California and I’m sure in other states. The property tax is about as regressive, not progressive of a tax you can impose on someone, especially if they are struggling to just pay their bills and perhaps are looking for work. And when the economy is down like it was in 78 and you are struggling, you feel the pinch of the property tax a hell of a lot more than someone who’s home is fully paid for and runs or owns a successful business.

So when California businessman Howard Jarvis comes around with a plan to cut property taxes in California by putting it on a state referendum because he knows that State Legislature won’t approve of it being controlled by Progressive Democrats, both the Assembly and Senate and has the money and backers to fund the referendum, people take notice even in a state like California which is overwhelmingly Democratic politically.

NBC News: NBC Nightly News’s Don Harris- Howard Jarvis & The 1978 Elections

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