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Seeds of Dissent & Discord: A Response to Keyes

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Photo credit: WEBN-TV

Alan Keyes’ August 25th article entitled “Is Romney to Lead Conservatives to Self-Extinction?” is poorly timed, ill-advised, and definitely not what America needs at this time.

As far as I can remember, I have voted in every election since 1968. I have never had the opportunity to vote for a perfect candidate. Nor have I ever seen or heard of a perfect candidate. (Perfectionists who demand the perfect candidate are, as far as I can tell, about 2000 years too late.) Candidates do not run for Sainthood, they run for public office – human public office. We do not get to vote for perfection, we only get to vote for the least number of warts. And if we are smart, once we have made our selection, we get behind that person 100%; that is, if we expect our candidate to have any hope of winning.

That’s why I was shocked by Mr. Keyes’ article. If it had been written months ago when there were still several Republican candidates in the race, it would have been helpful and appropriate. But publishing it now only serves to divide and disorient both the conservative base and many independents, potentially causing many to stay away from the polls on election day.

Is this Mr. Keyes’ intent? Probably not, but intentions count for little, including the intent given by those who choose to pass along this article because it represents a minority, but significant view among conservatives. So what? Those who do hold that view are, again, those “perfectionists” who are never and will never be satisfied by any candidate; the ones who always see the glass half empty; the naysayers whose talent is always to find even the smallest point with which they cannot agree. Their condition is regrettable, but they are better left alone, not handed articles like this that only serves to provide more fodder for their doubts.

Conservatives have enough enemies. There are literally thousands of liberal columnists, bloggers, pundits and so-called “neutral” media personnel who stand against us. They will do a fine job of flogging and flaying our flesh. They don’t need our help. But I’m sure they smirk behind their hands every time they see one of us sowing seeds of dissent and discord in our own ranks.

So Romney isn’t perfect. What else is new? Electing him will not solve all our problems or end our national crisis. Agreed. But if we let Obama have four more years, where will we be then? Will not our present crisis, bad as it may be, seem four years from now like the good old days?

We had better get behind Romney now and support him 100%. If we don’t . . .

GOP Tampa Convention: Huckabee hits it out of the park-Page 2

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See the video of Huckabee’s speech at the 2012 GOP Tampa Convention HERE.

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore

Mitt Romney turned around companies that were on the skids. He turned around a scandal-ridden Olympics that was deep in the red into a high point of profit and patriotic pride. And he turned around a very liberal state when he erased the deficit and replaced it with a surplus. Do you remember when Barack Obama said that if he couldn’t turn things around in three years, it would be a one term proposition?

Well it’s been almost four years. I say let’s make him a proposition he can’t refuse. Let’s vote him out. I understand that the job of the president is admittedly tougher than running a company, an Olympic contest or a commonwealth. But when one sees what even Bill Clinton noted as a sterling record of problem-solving that has marked the life of Mitt Romney, we are confident that we will do better.

I am thrilled to say Mitt Romney has been loyal to his lovely wife who knocked it out of the park last night in this arena.

He’s been loyal to his sons, to his country, to his employees and to his church. Well I’m sure now that the press is going to tell you he isn’t perfect. Now my friends for the past four years, we’ve tried the one that the press thought was perfect and that hasn’t worked out all that well for us.

That’s why tonight I tell you, we can do better. Our founding fathers left taxation and tyranny seeking religious liberty and a society of meritocracy rather than aristocracy. What they created was a bold experiment in government believing that God gave us unalienable rights. And that the role of the government is simply to make sure that those rights are protected. So fearful were they that the government would grow beyond their intention, that even after crafting our magnificent Constitution, they said, we can do even better. They added amendments. We call them The Bill of Rights. Those Bill of Rights limit what the government can do and they guarantee what we, the people have the unimpeded right to do. Whether to speak, assemble, worship, pray, publish, or even refuse intrusions into our homes. Many of those founders died to pass on that heritage. They had lived under the boot of big government And what they said was, we can do better.

As a kid growing up in a household, my dad never finished high school. I grew up in a family in which no male upstream from me had ever finished high school, much less gone to college. But I was taught that even though there was nothing I could do about what was behind me, I could change everything about what was in front of me. My working poor parents told me that I could do better. They taught me that I was as good as anybody else. And it never occurred to them to tell me that I could just rest comfortably and wait for good old Uncle Sugar to feed me, lead me and then bleed me.

Read the next page of Gov. Huckabee’s speech HERE.

GOP Tampa Convention: Huckabee hits it out of the park-Page 3

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Photo credit: Gage Skidmore

They told me to get off my backside, work hard, take risks and treat people honestly and honorably. And look at me today. I have become as the press like to label me, a failed candidate. Oh, it’s true. I have fallen from the high perch of politics and now I wallow in the mud of the media. But I still know that as a country, we can do better. And with Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, we will do better.

I want to clear the air about something that has been said. People wonder whether guys like me, an evangelical, would only support a fellow evangelical? Well my friends I want to tell you something, of the four people on the two tickets, the only self-professed evangelical is Barack Obama. And he supports changing the definition of marriage. Believes that human life is disposable and expendable at any time in the wound, even beyond the womb. And he tells people of faith that they have to bow their knees to the God of government and violate their faith and conscience in order to comply with what he calls, health care. Friends I know we can do better.

Let me say it as clearly as possible, that the attack on my Catholic brothers and sisters is an attack on me. The Democrats have brought back that old dance, the limbo. To see how low they can go in attempting to limit our ability to practice our faith. But this isn’t a battle about contraceptives and Catholics, but about conscience and the Creator. Let me say to you tonight, I care far less as to where Mitt Romney takes his family to church, than I do about where he takes this country.

Joe Biden said, “Show me your budget and I’ll tell you what you value.” Well in the Senate Joe’s party hasn’t produced a budget in three years. What does that say about their values? And by the way, speaking of budgets, Joe Biden’s budget shows that while he wants to be very generous with your money through higher taxes and government spending, for years he gave less than two-tenths of one percent of his own money to charity. He just wants you to give the government more so he and the Democrats can feel better about themselves. Mitt Romney has given over 16 percent of his income to church and charity.

And my friend, I feel a lot better about having a president who will give generously of his own money instead of mine or yours.

My concern is not Barack Obama’s past, but my concern is for the future. Not his future, but for the future of my grandchildren, little Chandler and Scarlet. And under this president we have burdened each of them with tens of thousands of dollars of debt and a system that will collapse upon itself because he thinks that we can prosper by punishing productivity and rewarding reckless irresponsibility. The Democrats say we ought to give Barack Obama credit for trying. Folks that sounds like the nonsense of giving every kid a trophy for showing up.

Read the last page of Governor Huckabee’s speech HERE.

GOP Tampa Convention: Huckabee hits it out of the park-Page 4

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Photo credit: Gage Skidmore

Let’s be clear, we’re talking about leading the country. Not playing on a third grade soccer team. Look, I realize this is a man who got a Nobel Peace Prize for what he would potentially do. But in the real world, you get the prize for producing something, not just promising something.

Sometimes we get so close to the picture, we really can’t see it clearly. I’ve had the privilege of working with Bono for the past few years in the One Campaign to fight AIDS and hunger and disease around the world. Bono is an Irishman and a great humanitarian. And I remember him telling me of his admiration for America. He said, “America’s more than just a country. We are an idea.” And he reminded me that we are an exceptional nation with an extraordinary history who owes it to the generations who are coming after us to leave them with an extraordinary legacy. But if we don’t change the direction of our nation now, our bequest will be nothing but an extraordinary shame. But dear friends, we can do better.

President Obama is out of gas and Americans are out of patience. And our great republic is almost out of time. It’s time that we no longer lead from behind, but that we get off our behinds and leave something lasting for those who came after us instead of a mountain of debt and a pile of excuses. Tonight, it’s not because we’re Republicans, it’s because we are Americans that we proudly stand with Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan and we say, “We will do better.” God bless you. Thank you. God bless.

See the video of Huckabee’s speech at the 2012 GOP Tampa Convention HERE.

A Texas Delegate’s Report on the “Tampa Tempest in the Convention Hall”

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Photo credit: rcbodden

Briefly, there are items that have passed the powerful Rules committee that freedom loving Texans and activists of other states are attempting to roll back. In a nutshell, the most egregious of the Rules changes would give a presumptive presidential candidate veto power over duly elected States’ delegates, without even having to justify why. Grassroots are rightly outraged over this. Another one would consolidate huge amounts of additional Party power in the national Republican National Committee, which is frankly, dominated by smaller and more moderate states. Its membership operates, in essence, like a Senate but without a counterbalancing House.

While Texas delegates are unified against these measures, not all states are on board yet. Especially if you have activist contacts in other states (whether or not actually at the Convention in Tampa), please help spread the word that they should actively support a minority report that would roll back these rogue rule changes.

Below is a verified account from an Indiana delegate that describes the situation in more detail.

On Tues., the Convention Rules Committee will report the revised RNC Rules for adoption. A minority report will be presented to delete an amendment which has the effect of allowing Presidential candidates to select his bound delegates in all of the states he carried by allowing him to “disavow” any of them. They are then not certified as a delegate.

Here is the amendment to be deleted by the minority report with the disavowal language:

Add a new section 15(a) and replace as follows and renumber accordingly:

“(1) Any statewide presidential preference vote that permits a choice among candidates for the Republican nomination for president of the United states in a primary, caucuses, or a state convention must be used to allocate and bind the state’s delegation to the National Convention in either a proportional or winner-take-all manner, except for the delegates and alternate delegates who appear on a ballot in a statewide election and are elected directly by primary voters.”
(2) For any manner of binding or allocating delegates permitted by these Rules, no delegate or alternate delegate who is bound or allocated to a particular presidential candidate may be certified under Rule 19 if the presidential candidate to whom the delegate or alternate delegate is bound or allocated has, in consultation with the State Party, disavowed the delegate or alternate delegate.”
Add anew 15(e)(3) as follows:
“(e)(3) The Republican National Committee may grant a waiver to a state Republican Party from the provisions of 15(a) and (b) where compliance is impossible, and the Republican National Committee determines that granting such waiver is in the best interests of the Republican Party.”

This puts the candidate, not the state party, in control of who is a delegate from your state. By disavowing a delegate he is out, even though already legally elected. As a practical matter, no state party wants its delegates to be disavowed so they will make sure that all the delegates are agreed to by the winning candidate and the candidate will have the hammer to make sure that happens. As a result, the winning candidate controls the selection of delegates, not the state party. This is the biggest power grab in the history of the Republican Party because it shifts the power to select delegates from the state party to the candidate. And it would make the Republican Party a top down, not bottom up party.

Read more from this story HERE.

RNC/Romney’s Effort to Handpick Delegates for Future Conventions Defeated by Texas/Ron Paul Supporters

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Photo credit: Gage Skidmore

Republican leaders moved Monday to quell an uprising by Texans and Ron Paul supporters that threatened to steal the spotlight from GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney and expose rifts in the party right as its nominating convention got under way.

Under a compromise reached late Monday, Romney supporters and GOP leaders agreed to back down from a proposed rule change that effectively would have allowed presidential nominees to choose what delegates represent them at national conventions.

The proposed change was aimed at muting the power of insurgent candidates such as Tea Party favorite Ron Paul but prompted an uproar from Texas Republicans, who select their delegates through successive votes in conventions at precincts, then districts and finally statewide.

Butch Davis, a member of the RNC Rules Committee who fought off the proposal, said the existing Texas system often elevates grassroots activists and party faithful toiling in the trenches, but the proposed change would have instead allowed GOP leaders and presidential candidates to hand-select delegates and reward donors with delegate spots.

“We believe in Texas as a principle that no presidential candidate nor the RNC should be able to tell Texas who can or cannot be a delegate to the national convention,” Davis said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Read a Texas Delegate’s account of the proposed rule change HERE.

Storm spells problems for ‘bump’ GOP expected from Tampa convention

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Photo credit: NASA Goddard Photo and Video

By Jim Rutenberg and Michael Shear. With the Tropical Storm Isaac now forecast to roar northwest past Tampa on Monday and Tuesday, officials scrambled to reconfigure what had been a four-night schedule into three and to make contingency plans for further changes.

But even if the storm largely bypasses this region, it holds the risk of creating an uncomfortable split-screen image, especially if it continues barreling toward New Orleans. The governors of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama declared states of emergency in anticipation of the storm.

Republicans were wary of the optics of television coverage split between the revelry and partisanship surrounding Mr. Romney’s nomination and the threat of the storm making landfall in Louisiana or Mississippi seven years to the week after Hurricane Katrina left an American city in ruins.

At the very least, Mr. Romney’s image makers were coming to terms with sharing the news spotlight with the storm just as they were hoping their gathering would give their candidate the exposure he needs to surge ahead of President Obama.

Instead of focusing on the convention and on Republicans descending on the swing state of Florida, local news outlets were giving constant and increasingly urgent updates on the storm’s path. Network correspondents here were girding to be reassigned from convention coverage to hurricane coverage, heavy rain gear and all. Fox News Channel said it was diverting a marquee anchor, Shepard Smith, to New Orleans from here. Read more from this story HERE.

Due to state of emergency, Gov. Bobby Jindal decides to stay in Louisiana rather than attend the Tampa GOP convention

By Adam Levy. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is staying in his home state for now as Tropical Storm Isaac heads towards New Orleans.

The two-term governor was to arrive in Tampa on Tuesday to address the delegates of Republican National Convention that evening. Instead of preparing for his high-profile speech, he declared a state of emergency Sunday and asked for voluntary evacuations in 15 low-lying parishes on or near the Gulf Coast.

“My priority is the safety of our people. And certainly as this storm threatens the public safety here in Louisiana, I’m not going anywhere,” Jindal said at a news conference. “As long as we’re in harms way, I need to be right here doing my job and that’s what I’m going to be doing.”

Under the RNC’s new revised schedule, Jindal is expected to speak Wednesday night should he attend the convention.
Jindal isn’t the only member of the Louisiana delegation not attending the convention. Jefferson Parish President John Young canceled his plans due to the potential impact Isaac could have on his constituents. State Rep, Lenar Whitney and New Orleans public service commission member Eric Skrmetta are currently driving back to Louisiana as well.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus announced Saturday night that all programs for Monday, the first day of the convention, were canceled. Read more from this story HERE.

Palin: “Party fighting for power and not doing the will of the people” may lead to 3rd Party (+video)

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Sarah Palin, who has a history of confronting corrupt party bosses, probably shocked the establishment again this weekend with her suggestion that “fighting for power” and “not doing the will of the people” may lead to the formation of a viable third party. She used the Republican Party’s replacement of the Whigs in the 19th century as such an example.

Here’s how Fox News reported her comments:

When asked if she would consider creating a third party if neither Gov. Romney nor President Obama would budge from their current positions on a variety of issues, Palin left open the door.

“Look what happened in the mid 1800’s. The Whig party went away and the Republican Party surfaced. Because the electorate got sick and tired of the party fighting for power and not doing the will of the people.”

Palin went on to say history could repeat itself.

“If history is an indication it is a possibility,” she said. “If the Republicans don’t remember what the planks in the platform represent … that is opportunity to prosper and thrive in the most exceptional nation in the world. We do that through a free market. If the Republicans become like the liberal left and democrats, I wouldn’t be surprised if history didn’t repeat itself.”

These comments are consistent with Palin’s comments from last year:

And here’s what she said in 2010:

GOP plank hammers Obama’s ‘social experimentation’ in military

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Photo credit: basykes

Mitt Romney does not bring up President Obama’s social revolution inside the armed forces, but the Republican Party platform, by calling an end to “social experimentation” in the ranks, does.

The platform also backs the current ban on women serving in direct ground combat units, as the Obama administration is moving toward a decision to remove the prohibition before the November election.

The Republican National Committee on Resolutions, meeting last week in Tampa, Fla., approved a plank that states: “We support the advancement of women in the military, which has not only opened doors of opportunity for individuals but has made possible the devoted, and often heroic, services of additional members of every branch of the Armed Forces.”

Elaine Donnelly, who directs the Center for Military Readiness and attended the platform markup, said the language sends a strong signal to those who would sacrifice military preparedness to advance social policies.

“We reject the use of the military as a platform for social experimentation and will not accept attempts to undermine military priorities and mission readiness,” the platform states.

Read more from this story HERE.

Ron Paul declines speaking slot at Tampa after Romney demands preapproval, unqualified endorsement

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The libertarian Republican presidential candidate says he’s declined an opportunity to speak at the Republican National Convention in Tampa because Mitt Romney’s campaign imposed two conditions on any Paul speech — that it be reviewed by the nominee-to-be’s team and that it include an endorsement without hesitation or reservation.

“It wouldn’t be my speech,” the Texas congressman told the New York Times. “That would undo everything I’ve done in the last 30 years. I don’t fully endorse him for president.”

Pundits noted that the uncompromising attitude that has won Paul a national following also limits his clout within the GOP.

“Uncompromising and perfectly willing to operate on the margins of mainstream politics for decades, Ron Paul proved unable to take his liberty message to a broader audience,” Charlie Mahtesian wrote today in Politico. “Even this year, at the height of his national influence and popularity, the Texas congressman failed to win the popular vote in a single state and never seriously threatened to win the GOP nomination.”

But inside the University of South Florida’s Sun Dome, where Paul is holding a celebration of his candidacy today, supporters say Paul’s unyielding principles are why they love him. Jordan Page, a singer who has penned several ballads about the Texas congressman, called Paul “the one sane voice in a sea of madness.”

Read more from this story HERE.