Tag Archives: 2016 Presidential Campaign

We Want Rick, We Want Rick, We Want Rick – to Quit

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Rick Perry’s troubled path to the GOP nomination took another hit on Wednesday when  the campaign lost the last of its staff in New Hampshire. Perry’s New Hampshire political director Dante Vitagliano has left one sinking ship for another by joining the still on the ground campaign of Ohio Gov. John Kasich.  According to Vitagliano, “it has become clear that the path forward for Gov. Perry is not through New Hampshire.”  Leaving open the question of exactly where is it that Rick’s path actually runs through?

Apparently, Perry’s only remaining hope is ultra-conservative South Carolina. Perry continues to maintain a staff of five in SC.  Perry field director, Erik Corcoran, heads the staff and claims that Perry has actual volunteers in the Palmetto State,  “We’ve confirmed to [Perry headquarters in Austin] that they hired the right people and we’re in it for the right reasons,” Corcoran said. “I’m not going to disparage anyone who has left, but it sends an enormously powerful message, especially to young people, that there is a team out there that’s in it for the right reasons.”

Listen up young people.  Get on the bandwagon of a 65 year old, tired and temperamental white guy who hasn’t had a new idea since 1996.  The staff needs you.  They’re in it for the right reasons – after all it’s Perry’s last chance to boost his enormously oversized ego.   Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that?

Well That Didn’t Take Long – Perry Advisor Jumps to Trump

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Sam Clovis, the former Iowa Chair for Rick Perry’s flagging campaign, has landed with Donald Trump and will serve as his national co-chairman and policy adviser.

“I had an opportunity to get to know Mr. Trump over the past several months. I have some close friends working on the campaign. It’s a great opportunity for me to effect change in Washington, and I think Mr. Trump is exactly the person to do that.”

Perry had attempted to separate himself from some of the other also-rans in the massive GOP field by directly attacking trump. That must make Clovis’ switch to the GOP front runner an even more bitter pill for the former Texas Governor to swallow. Perry’s perilous position was weakened by Clovis’ abrupt departure earlier this week. Clovis has indicated that Perry’s vocal criticism of Trump does not represent his views. Now with the Iowa power-broker firmly in Trump’s corner, the end of Perry’s political life seems inevitable. Despite a recent influx of cash, Perry’s campaign is still having trouble meeting payroll.

Rick’s Reeling Run

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Former Gov. Rick Perry’s quickly fading Presidential campaign took another hit on Monday with the departure of Sam Clovis, his Iowa campaign chairman. Clovis, a right-wing talk radio host, professor and failed U.S. Senate candidate gave warm regards to Perry, but left with the feeling that all is not right in the Perry camp.   “I feel bad for the campaign and I feel bad for Governor Perry because I think he’s a marvelous human being, he’s a great man and it was my honor to be a part of this, but it was just time to move on.”  Clovis indicated that the move to stop paying campaign staffers came as a surprise to him.  Other campaigns will likely be quick to snap up Clovis, who is considered to be one of the premier GOP political operatives in the state.

Clovis said he has been approached by “several” other campaigns since Perry stopped paying his staff earlier this month. He said he expects to be working for another candidate within days. “I’m going to go where there’s the best fit.”  Clovis considered working for  Sen. Ted Cruz (TP-Texas), Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Carly Fiorina and Donald Trump, before signing up with Perry.  Look for Clovis to settle in with either Cruz or Trump.

Wonder What Ted Thinks of The Donald Now?

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Sen. Ted “Canadian Bacon” Cruz (TP-Texas) has practically fallen over himself in his attempts to alternately praise and avoid criticizing Donald Trump.  One might think that Cruz was positioning for a Vice-Presidential nod from the Grand Old Party, but that clearly is not his style.  And anyone willing to take the firebrand Cruz on as a second banana certainly gets what he deserves.

But a new poll commissioned by a group called the Texas Bipartisan Justice Committee shows that Trump is eating at Cruz’s house.  The Florida-based Gravis Marketing firm conducted the poll.  And it’s really bad news for TC.  In June, Cruz sat at 20% in the Texas Politics Project poll.  Now Trump is at 24%, while Cruz is 8 points back with 16%.  What will Ted do?

It’s even worse for JEB!!!!$$$$$? who is in 4th place with 9% behind a guy whose brother and father didn’t pave the way to the White House for him.  Meanwhile Rick Perry’s flagging hopes took another hit.  In June, Perry was a respectable second with 12%.  He now polls at 4% in the state that he ruled for 14 years.  It now seems only a matter of time until the fat lady serenades Rick with a rousing “Adios Mofo.”

Texas Border Town Has Reasonable Response to Illegal Immigration

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While GOP frontrunner Donald Trump continues to bloviate and propose absurd solutions to the undocumented alien problems in our country, others are trying to do something about the humanitarian crisis that unrest and instability in Central America is creating on the southern border.  The Guardian takes a long look at how McAllen has responded to the large numbers of Central American refugees that have landed in their midst.

While Trump and his ilk want to wash their hands of the problem by constructing a supposedly impenetrable wall and deporting lawful U.S. citizens, the reality is that much of the current crisis has been caused by families and children fleeing the widespread drug gang violence in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Honduras.  And who is consuming those drugs?  And who is providing the guns that fuel the violence? Sensible drug law reform in the U.S. would go a long way towards solving the problem.  Stopping the flow of weapons into Mexico and Central America would probably help too. But that makes way too much sense to ever make into the Tea Party ranting that passes for public discourse in the GOP presidential battle currently being won by Trump.

Cruz Going After JEB!!!!$$$$$?

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Sen. Ted Cruz (TP-Texas), who has refused to criticize Donald Trump for attacking Mexicans, Gays, Weenies and  oh, my gosh Fox News, has finally found another GOP candidate that he is willing to use as a punching bag.  And it’s the doughy, sad sack, scion of the Bush dynasty – JEB!!!!$$$$$?  Cruz, who has refrained from uttering the dastardly accusation of being a RINO at JEB!!!!$$$$$?, is leaving that epithet for use by his supporters.  Cruz, however, is going after him with bacon-wrapped guns blazing. The Texas Tribune has the details.

Cruz, who wraps up his bus tour through the South today, has become increasingly critical of the former Florida governor “as a prime example of what’s ailing the GOP,” and his crowds are liking that message . . .

During campaign stops Monday and Tuesday in Tennessee and Mississippi, Cruz’s references to the former Florida governor, now a staple of the senator’s stump speech, often elicited loud booing, sometimes accompanied by scattered shouts of “Establishment!” or “RINO!” (Republican In Name Only). …

“We’re tired of losing,” Cruz said Tuesday when asked why he thought Bush’s name was drawing such strong reactions on the campaign trail. …

In an interview aboard his campaign bus Tuesday in Mississippi, Cruz praised Bush’s “candor” in a seemingly backhanded compliment.

“He has been quite candid in embracing amnesty, in embracing Common Core,” Cruz said. “Now those policy positions are dramatically out of step with Republican primary voters, but I have commended his courage of convictions that he sticks with his defense of amnesty and his defense of Common Core.”

Them’s Fighting Words.

A Perilous Situation for Perry Probably Means Less Perry

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Multiple sources are indicating that Rick Perry’s flagging presidential campaign may not make it past the quarter pole.  On the day after missing the first GOP presidential debate, Perry campaign manager Jeff Miller told staff that they would no longer be paid.  Despite the lack of income many workers are staying with the campaign for the time being.  How long Perry can hang on without some improvement in the polls is questionable.

“Money is extremely tight,” admitted Katon Dawson, Perry’s South Carolina campaign chairman. “We all moved to volunteer status. Our team is working as hard as it was last week.”   Perry’s supposedly independent super PAC still has money in the bank, but the campaign itself is essentially broke.  Perry aides vowed that they will continue raising money to compete in the early 2016 contests, but expenditures are down to transportation, hotels and meals for Perry and his travelling staff. Perry is planning to campaign in South Carolina on Thursday and to visit Iowa next week.

IRHO, it couldn’t happen to a less qualified, superbly coifed, more self-aggrandizing, empty suit, pompous bag of wind than Rick Perry – unless of course it were Donald Trump.

 

Cruz, JEB!!!!$$$$$?, Paul In – Perry Out

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Three of the four GOP presidential candidates with ties to Texas made the cut for Fox News first national debate on Thursday.  Sen. Ted Cruz (TP-Texas), JEB!!!!$$$$$?, and Sen. Rand Paul (TP – Curly Top) are in but former Governor Rick Perry is on the outside looking in.  Perry who, to his credit, has relentlessly attacked Donald Trump as a sideshow act, tried to make the best of his situation claiming that “One debate won’t make or break a candidate.”  Perry seems to have forgotten that one debate and one moment in one debate (“Oops”) broke his candidacy in 2012.  But in reality, Perry is getting more press out of missing the Fox debate than he likely could have generated from a scintillating performance – and how likely was that?

You Just Can’t Make this Stuff Up

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Sen. Ted Cruz (TP- Texas) apparently is feeling the need to jumpstart his campaign in first out of the box Iowa.  So what better way than to combine a popular pork product and assault weapons.  In a recently released video, Cruz is shown frying bacon by wrapping it around the barrel of a semi-automatic rifle.  The video was produced by IJ Review a conservative media outlet that also produced the classic “How To Destroy Your Cell Phone with Lindsey Graham.”  In the video, Cruz claims this is how we fry bacon in Texas.  After wrapping a strips of bacon around the barrel and covering them in foil, Cruz competently fires the weapon until the grease starts to drip onto the floor of the indoor rifle range.  Taking a small bite, Cruz remarks, “Mmm, machine-gun bacon.”

First, in Texas, we fry our bacon in a cast iron skillet until crispy.  Second, our mothers taught us to not make a greasy mess at an indoor rifle range.  Third, our fathers taught us to not defile our weapons by using them for unintended purposes. Fourth, we take gun safety seriously. Fifth, we enjoy the great outdoors and practice shooting there whenever possible.  Sixth, we don’t like stupid stunts that pander to the lowest common denominator. Seventh, Red is not going to dignify this nonsense by posting a link to the video.

If only he had used Canadian bacon.

Ted Cruz on How to Lose Friends and Fail to Influence People

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Salon has the complete breakdown on Sen. Ted Cruz’s (TP-Texas) implosion on the Senate floor.  In the aftermath of calling Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Droopy Dawg – Kentucky) a liar, things proceeded to get ugly – or more accurately uglier.  Cruz’s support in the Senate is apparently down to 3 other true believers.

All Ted Cruz wanted to do was abuse his position in the Senate to grandstand on issues that would help bolster his faltering bid for the White House, but his decision to call Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell a “flat-out” liar on Friday had dire consequences for the Texas senator, whose Republican colleagues turned their back on him when he tried to perform a simple roll call on Sunday.

As Politico’s Manu Raju and Burgess Everett report, McConnell’s decision to move ahead with an effort to extend the Export-Import bank’s charter by attaching it to a highway bill infuriated Cruz, who characterized the procedural move as a “flat-out lie” in direct contradiction with how McConnell assured Republican senators the bank would be handled.

That he said that isn’t the issue — that he said it on the Senate floor, which has rules governing how senators address each other, is. “I think it was a violation of the rules,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) said. “It’s not how you treat a colleague regardless of how you feel.”

Maine’s Susan Collins (R) agreed, saying that “I know emotions run high on issues in the Senate, and those are the times when I think we have to take special care to abide by the rules of the Senate, particularly Rule 19, which is very clear that no senator is to impugn the integrity of another senator.”

As you might imagine, Cruz did not agree, claiming that his anger was justified because “in the entire course of this debate neither the majority leader nor any other senator has denied that he looked me in the eye and he looked every other Republican senator in the eye, and he flat-out said [there was] no deal on the Export-Import bank.”

Cruz, his Republican colleagues said Friday, was wrong on that account too. Fellow GOP presidential hopeful Sen. Lindsey Graham took what could be considered a cheap shot, saying that “unless you have been completely missing in action, you’d know this day was coming. I did a press release and floor statement. I think he’s going down a road very few senators go.”

His decision to do led him to a place where very few senators end up — standing on the Senate floor Sunday looking for the 16 senators required to hold a roll-call vote and only finding three supporters. Raju and Everett report that as this simple procedural vote failed, McConnell craned his neck and stared the junior senator from Texas down.

Or, as Tennessee’s Lamar Alexander (R) put it, “you learn that in kindergarten — you learn to work well together and play by the rules. Another thing you learn in kindergarten is to respect one another.”