Romney/Cain 2012 Ticket Being Hatched?

Ann Coulter made "news" last night on Sean Hannity by endorsing the Romney/Cain ticket for 2012. She's a big fan of Chris Christie, and is projecting him for a 2020 run.

Well, we'll all see what kind of prognosticator Ann Coulter is. . .

"Read 'em and weep"

The favorite expression around the Sigma Chi house in college after a winner in a poker game laid down his cards, was "Read 'em and weep."

We're two years into the vast economic and social re-engineering experiment that was labeled as Obamacare, and now we are learning the real costs. The winners then aren't so sure today. This week the Obama administration admitted its math was flawed in its assumptions about a key provision of the bill. The "Community Living Assistance Services and Supports" proved to be unsustainable. It was a disability program actuaries panned even before Obamacare passed, but it was thrown into the final bill, some say, as a tribute to its champion, Senator Ted Kennedy.

Nancy Pelosi once famously said, "We have to pass this bill so we can find out what's in it." Stunning! And now we know. The winners and the losers in the Obamacare fight are all weeping now:

OBAMACARE

By The Numbers

$2.6 Trillion:	True Cost Of ObamaCare Once Fully Implemented. (Office Of The Speaker Of The U.S. House Of Representatives, Report, 1/6/11)
$701 Billion:	Amount ObamaCare Will Add To The Deficit. (Office Of The Speaker Of The U.S. House Of Representatives, Report, 1/6/11)
$575 Billion:	Cost Of Medicare Cuts In ObamaCare. (CMS Chief Actuary Richard S. Foster, Memo, 4/22/10)
$491.7 Billion:	Taxes Raised In ObamaCare. (Letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 3/18/10;Joint Committee On Taxation, 3/2/10)
$450 Billion:	Cost Of ObamaCare “Glitch” Allowing The Middle-Class To Qualify For Medicaid.(Avik Roy, “The 450 Billion Glitch: 3 Million Extra Middle-Class Americans Eligible For Medicaid Benefits,” Forbes, 6/21/11)
$401 Billion:	Increase In Federal Entitlement Spending From ObamaCare. (“The Budget and Economic Outlook: An Update,” Congressional Budget Office, August 2010)
$210 Billion:	Amount Of Income Taxes Collected Over 10 Years Through ObamaCare.("Estimated Revenue Effects Of The Manager's Amendment To The Revenue Provisions Contained In The 'Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act,"Joint Committee On Taxation Report, 3/20/10; Editorial, “Taxes Upon Taxes Upon…,” The Wall Street Journal, 7/11/11)
$145 Billion:	Cost Of ObamaCare Cuts To Medicare Advantage. (CMS Chief Actuary Richard S. Foster, “Estimated Financial Effects Of The 'Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act,' As Amended,” Memo, 4/22/10)
$80 Billion:	ObamaCare’s CLASS Program “Zombie” Savings In The Federal Budget. (Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, “‘Zombie’ In The Budget: Long-Term Health Care Plan,” The Associated Press, 10/8/11)
$60 Billion:	Health Insurance Tax On Businesses. ("Estimated Revenue Effects Of The Manager's Amendment To The Revenue Provisions Contained In The 'Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act,"Joint Committee On Taxation Report, 3/20/10; Editorial, “Taxes Upon Taxes Upon…,” The Wall Street Journal,7/11/11)

As I suggested in an earlier post last week, no one really can predict the future, but I know this much - if Obamacare is not struck down by the Supreme Court on the legal issue of the individual mandate, it must be defunded, repealed and buried deeply in the bowels of Mother Earth before its costs bury us as a nation.

Thanks to Senator Mike Lee's website for this summary.

Predicting the Outcome

Note to self: You are not very good about predicting the future, and nobody is. Truth be told, we only have broad brush strokes of the future events yet to transpire on this earth before the Second Coming. What is always missing from prophecy is the timeline. It is obvious the ancient prophets are of one voice when they speak of the events they witnessed in vision. That's why it is important to gather detail from many sources before making any conclusions about the future. A certain symmetry emerges when one can find more than two or three witnesses in scripture from which to draw conclusions.

On the political front, stepping away from scripture for a moment, this past week has seen two potential Republican nominees for the presidency finally (maybe) and officially (at least that's what they're saying today) announce they would not be candidates in 2012.

Sarah Palin

Each has teased the public for way too long, then bowed out. Sarah Palin has had a longer ramp to run on for a longer period of time than anyone I can remember who lost the election as a vice-presidential candidate. Anybody remember Geraldine Ferraro? Me neither. Sarah Palin became for some reason an iconic figure associated with the timing of the emergence of the tea party. If it never had a head, it at least found a figurehead in Sarah Palin. My problem with Sarah Palin is that I've never been able to paint a picture in my mind of the Oval Office with her in it.

In dismissing Palin, this author concludes, "Wasilla charm will be missed, but it only goes so far."

I think the one single event that ruled her out as a serious contender was the Katie Couric series of interviews. It's the reason Oman's article (see above) attracted me: he came to the same conclusions I did about Palin. She did in those interviews what no one else before her was ever able to do -- Sarah Palin made Katie Couric look like a deep-thinking intellectual genius for the first time merely by illustrating the comparison for us. Ouch! To her credit, she has taken a wagon load of slings and arrows aimed at her personally and effectively deflected them all en route to fame and fortune outside elective office. But presidential? I just don't see it.

I like Sarah Palin as a person, and I love her family story. I even watched the documentary on her life, "The Undefeated," and was mildly impressed because all the talking heads seemed to really like her. She's a pretty, great personality in the same way Utah was once touted as a pretty, great state. Not pretty great, mind you -- that comma made all the difference. But Sarah Palin always strikes me as a mile wide and an inch deep when I listen to her talk. Maybe I'm wrong, time will tell, but her rising star could go into permanent eclipse and no one would notice in the years ahead. She's had a good run, amassed a ton of money, and now she tells us she can be more effective on the "outside." Honestly, who cares? If you ever pay for a ticket to hear her speak anywhere, you've been had.

Governor Chris Christie (R-NJ)

Chris Christie has been a darling among true believers in limited government and fiscal restraint. Those looking for a plain-spoken, sometimes bombastic and assertive savior figure in a leader, need look no further than Christie. His political bio is impressive, but became downright irresistible when he first emerged in his campaign for governor of New Jersey and took on the public employee unions, including the teachers, without mercy. He slashed budgets, openly berated the status quo, and returned (is returning) New Jersey to a state of fiscal sanity. He decided to stay on the job at home, rather than run for the presidency in 2012. He's one of a handful of successful governors who has been able to do painful but essential turnarounds in their states, including Mitch Daniels in Indiana, John Kasich in Ohio, Tim Pawlenty in Minnesota and Bobby Jindal in Louisiana to name a few. And who can forget what happened with Wisconsin and its determined governor, Scott Walker? These are all strong leaders and each has a bright political future.

Mitt Romney

So the state of the race today has former Godfather's CEO Herman Cain ("never held a political elective office and proud of it") stealing thunder from Rick Perry in Florida and becoming (maybe) a rising star. Perry at least halved Michele Bachmann's tea party support when he entered the race, but he has stumbled badly and is losing ground to Cain. In the meantime, Romney keeps chugging along in front-runner status as the designated "next-guy-in-line" Republican establishment candidate. Many are coming to view the outcome of the nominating process as a foregone conclusion now, ceding the race to Romney. It now appears former Speaker Newt Gingrich (who has too much personal baggage, but is always the smartest guy in the room), Ron Paul (who looks like a true prophet after he appeared crazy four years ago), Rick Santorum (much better senator than presidential candidate), and Jon Huntsman (who's really in it to prep for 2016) will all fade away. Get ready for earlier and earlier primaries next year -- they start January 3, 2012.

Romney said something last week that caught my attention: "Almost all Americans live for a purpose greater than ourselves.  Our heritage of religious faith and tolerance has importantly shaped who we have become as a people.  We must continue to welcome faith into the public square and allow it to flourish. Our government should respect religious values, not silence them. We will always pledge our allegiance to a nation under God.

"Our values ennoble the citizen, and strengthen the nation. We should remember that decency and civility are values too. One of the speakers who will follow me today, has crossed that line. Poisonous language does not advance our cause. It has never softened a single heart nor changed a single mind. The blessings of faith carry the responsibility of civil and respectful debate.  The task before us is to focus on the conservative beliefs and the values that unite us – let no agenda narrow our vision or drive us apart."

I applaud leadership instead of criticism wherever I can find it. That statement exhibits leadership.

It's interesting to get the input from about 1500 different points of view, as I do each day on Twitter. What a great addition to social media that has been! Instead of waiting on the print or cable or network news outlets as we did at one time, Twitter gives you raw news feeds in real time, unfiltered and from a wide span of sources, allowing you to sample news as you would food from a buffet table and come to conclusions without being told what some commentator wants you to believe it all means.

So this morning I looked at several sources from the prognosticators about the outcome of the nominating process, then the general election in November 2012. This one predicts a narrow victory for Obama now that Palin is out of the race. I sincerely hope (and believe) he's dead wrong. Rather than go away dispirited by the loss of Palin in the race, my bet is people from all factions within the Republican party will rally behind the eventual nominee, whoever it is, because the fundamental bedrock belief is another four years of Obama would be disastrous.

Hugh Hewitt, author of A Mormon in the White House?, revisits his scholarly view of Article Six of the Constitution prohibiting a religious litmus test for potential candidates for national office, and concludes as he did back in 2007, that Romney's Mormonism is not, never was, never can be or never will be the defining issue of his candidacy. Just as a refresher, here's what the Constitution says:

"The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."

Because of freedom's guarantees for freedom of speech, however, religious bigotry will always abound in some quarters, particularly among those who have no respect for the Constitution. Not a thing anyone can do about that. That's why we love America, isn't it? Give anyone who wants it a public soapbox and let them say whatever they want. Witness the explosion of bloggers like me in cyberspace.

It's interesting that Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) and Senate Majority Leader, never seems to draw any flak at all over his a membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Maybe it's only because he's a liberal Democrat. Talk about a double standard! Last week Reid invoked the so-called "nuclear option" in the Senate, forbidding further debate on a bill he already had in his hip pocket with the requisite 60 votes needed for passage, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), lamented the course the Senate is taking under Reid's leadership. But Reid's Mormonism is never an issue in the Senate.

A Rick Perry surrogate who introduced Perry at a conservative gathering last week, Pastor Robert Jeffress, of Dallas, Texas, was quoted as saying: “Mormonism is not Christianity,” he declared. “It’s not politically correct to say, but Mormonism is a cult.” I almost welcome it now, rather than take offense as a Mormon. The more they say it, the more worn out it sounds. Jeffress doesn't just single out Mormons. He's said equally disparaging things about Catholics.

The Washington Post account includes some othe details on the swift Perry denial:

A spokesman for the Perry campaign released a statement saying that Perry did not agree with Jeffress about Romney’s religion. “The governor does not believe Mormonism is a cult,” wrote Robert Black in an e-mail. “He is not in the business of judging people. That’s God’s job.”
Black was quick to add that it was the conference organizers, not the Perry campaign, who chose Jeffress to introduce Perry on Friday.
And Jeffress made clear that he was not speaking for Perry. “I did not talk about my Mormon views” with the governor, he told the press, “and I’m not insinuating that the governor shares those at all — he may not share them at all.”

Be that as it may, when you're losing ground in the polls and desperate for attention, have someone play the Mormon card and paint your opponent as "weird." It's all open season now.

Senator Mike Lee (R-UT)

So how are you at prognostication? I'll admit I'm not a very good guesser most times. My one single triumph was Mike Lee in 2010. I liked Mike early, often, and throughout that campaign when he was considered a dark horse candidate without any backing. He came from "nowhere" to topple a senior senator.

Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT)

Will anyone rise to challenge Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) this time around? So far, all's quiet on that front as many possible contenders await the redistricting outcome to see where the boundaries will be before committing themselves to a Senate run, Congressman Jim Matheson (D-UT) among them. He's probably the only Democrat who could challenge either the governor or the senator in a statewide race with some hope of winning in Utah. So, much of the drama in the state races still awaits us.

But when it comes to the national scene, I'm just a "pretty great" prognosticator.

What does a Mormon guy from Utah really know anyway?

President Boyd K. Packer: The End is NOT Near

When I was a young missionary in England, I had dinner toward the end of my mission with a man who would someday become a member of the 1st Quorum of the Seventy. We lamented the condition of the world, and wondered if the time was so short we would never return to our normal lives.

Said he, "If God does not soon destroy San Francisco, He will have to apologize to the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah." The year was 1968. It was a funny joke back then, and made the rounds. Today it is reality -- we are living in Sodom and Gomorrah.


President Boyd K. Packer

Today, the Lord's senior Apostle, President Boyd L. Packer of the Quorum of the Twelve, declared there is time and to spare to live our lives fully and without excuse based upon the signs of the time all around us. Wars and rumors of wars continue to persist, but he is not afraid and urged young people everywhere to live the gospel as the antidote.

Said President Packer, the youth of today can look forward with anticipation to "getting married, having a family, seeing your children and grandchildren, maybe even great-grandchildren."

No imminent apocalypse overshadows us, despite assertions by many about Mayan calendars, earthquakes and tsunamis. President Packer hearkened back to the days of his youth. As a 17 year-old high school student, World War II broke upon America with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Temptations, then as now, continue. He said we are living in enemy territory, but there is no doubt about the outcome: "Lucifer loses."

This year marks the 50th anniversary of his call to serve as a General Authority. This talk is his 100th talk at General Conference. He introduced his remarks with John Ciardi's poem, "About Crows":

The old crow is getting slow;
the young crow is not.
Of what the young crow does not know,
the old crow knows a lot.
At knowing things, the old crow is still
the young crow's master.
What does the old crow not know?
How to go faster.
The young crow flies above, below, and rings
around the slow old crow.
What does the fast young crow not know?
— Where to go!

"You young crows need not fly aimlessly to and fro, unsure of the path ahead," President Packer said. "There are those who know the way." He promised young people if they will follow the counsel of church leaders, "you will be watched over and protected, and you yourself will know by the promptings of the Holy Ghost which way to go."

Like my friend who matured to become a member of the Seventy (back in the day before they were even oragnized!), the future Apostle Boyd K. Packer surmised World War II might be the end of the world as foretold by the ancient prophets. In every generation since, the speculation continues about the timing of the Lord's return. So far, it appears, Heavenly Father seems content to let the world go on, providing ample opportunities for discipleship and mortal growth and testing. The wheat of His harvest is fully ripening as the tares, once resembling the early shoots of wheat, now look more like the miserable weeds they are.

"All at once our future was uncertain. We did not know what was ahead," declared President Packer, now 87 years old. In his generation the youth wondered, as they do today, "Would we live to get married and have a family?"

He leaned then on the testimonies of his Seminary teachers who were wiser, those he could trust, those who were spiritually mature.

Now I am an old man, having overcome all the uncertainties and fears of a young father of one who matured to become the father of thirteen and grandfather of a growing posterity of grandchildren we never could have imagined back in the late sixties. President Packer commented that he hears many who postulate, "The end of the world is going to come before I get to where I should be."

To that President Packer responded, "Not so!"

I add my witness. Lean on our testimonies until you obtain one of your own. You have time.

Live well.

New Provo Temple

Arriving late at the opening session, President Monson announced six new temples, including a complete restoration of the old Provo Tabernacle building that was destroyed by fire last year. The Lord's living prophets seem determined to plan for the future. They have no fear.

Neither should we. We win.

The Incredible Irony of Obamacare and Obama's Electability

This past week the Obama administration's Justice Department (yes, they are his guys), surprised many court watchers by choosing to bypass the appellate avenue available to them and allow Obamacare to proceed on its appointed path to the Supreme Court. This is the "sort of" expedited path many were advocating months ago to put to rest all the uncertainty associated with the individual mandate provision.

Here's what's at stake and the weird political calculus that goes into this latest calculation:

If the SCOTUS strikes down Obamacare as unconstitutional -- especially if the final vote ends up being yet another 5-4 split -- then President Obama can argue he should be re-elected. How? Say what? It's simple really. He would argue the next opening on the Supreme Court could be filled by him with a more Sotomayor/Kagan-kind of liberal who would have supported Obamacare. Forget what the public polling is telling him about the majority of Americans who hate the idea of Obamacare being rammed down their throats, Obama sees a win for him even in a resounding defeat at the SCOTUS.

Here's the judicial issue (among many others) at stake in this next election:

If a conservative Republican wins the presidency, the court is all but assured to retain its right of center with one swing vote make-up. If Obama is re-elected, he will surely move with his next nomination to move the court to a more liberal majority. If the Republicans control both houses of Congress the point is moot. That's how finely balanced we are as a country on the fulcrum.

The country really does hang in the balance between the two polar-opposite points of view.

On the one hand Obamacare is extraordinarily unpopular among a plurality of Americans who want to see it repealed. Mitt Romney and all the others on the Republican platform vying for your vote in 2012, have uniformly declared as POTUS they will kill it, Romney proposing to do it through an executive order on day one of his presidency with an executive order granting a waiver to all 50 states. Romney continues to be bashed by Romneycare in Massachusetts, and his successor who raised taxes to pay for it continues to praise it, as does Obama who claims he modeled his plan after Romney's. That issue just isn't going to gain much traction with the voters.

The thing that is so damnable about Obamacare is that it didn't pick up one single vote from the opposition party in the Senate. That puts it in a class all its own from other bi-partisan entitlement safety net programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Further, a majority (26) of state attorneys general either filed or joined lawsuits to overturn the mandate that requires practically all Americans to purchase health insurance.

Freedom-loving people HATE being told by a dictatorial government what to do with their lives. It's the reason America was founded -- to escape tyrannical dictators who wanted to control them through taxation without representation. Currently, we have representation, and we will continue to change that representation at the ballot box until we find a Congress and a President who will do our bidding. It's really what representative republics are all about.

Americans are finally awake and on task politically. I've been asked in recent weeks if I think all this pent-up anger will last until November, 2012. You betchyer bippy it will, especially if the economy continues to tank and there are further attempts like the "American Jobs Act" that are nothing else but more government debt and increased taxes as far as the eye can see.

It is remarkable how dismissive this President seems to be in the face of the expressed anger and frustration of the American people who elected him. His arrogance and his ideological intransigence are now on full display. He claims the Republicans are merely obstructionists who have no constructive ideas. He must have missed this memo, sent to his Republican caucus by Eric Cantor, the House Majority Leader.

So, Mr. President, please click on the link and get a clue. Your stump speech rhetoric has to change into action and you need to start doing the job people elected you to do. Start leading, stop whining.

Obama's "all-or-nothing" tendency to propose, then whine, then blame Congress, and his continuing refusal to even consider the points of agreement Cantor outlines where there might be constructive conversations in the halls of Congress, will do nothing to improve his chance for re-election among Americans with even a sliver of common sense when presented with the facts. Who's the real obstructionist here? Is it the tea party activists, the Republican-controlled House, the Democrat-controlled Senate or the POTUS?

All fingers will increasingly be pointing at the President if he doesn't soon take a more moderate view and learn to work with what he has in Congress. It's the very reason the Constitution assured divided and shared power. But he routinely goes on the campaign junkets and complains bitterly that if he weren't constrained by Congress he could really get things done. And this is a constitutional lawyer by training.

But all those considerations aside, let's get back to Obamacare and how it affects Obama's electability.

I saw a poll in Investors Business Daily stating two-thirds of all doctors "oppose" Obamacare and predict lower-quality health care. Another poll by McKinsey & Co. reveals nearly one-third of businesses plan to drop health insurance for their employees after 2014, when much of Obamacare goes into effect. Why? Because the costs will make it prohibitive for private enterprise to compete with the government-mandated overhaul. That is all by deliberate design to enthrone government as the ultimate sovereign, the end-all, be-all solution to all the ills society inflicts upon us.

It can be argued by many proponents of Obamacare that the American Medical Association supports it. However, only 17 percent of doctors in America today belong to the organization -- hardly a representation of the name of the organization. Many doctors have dropped their membership precisely because of the AMA's endorsement of Obamacare. Americans consistently rank physicians among the most respected of professionals.

But the President? He's a man with no private-sector experience, who arrogantly ignores doctors' objections. In almost every scenario, the President continues to isolate himself in his ideological cocoon, asserting he knows better than everyone else what is right for America and Americans.

If he's lucky, the American voter in 2012 will put Obama out to pasture like they did Jimmy Carter in 1980. By the way, today is Carter's birthday. He's 87 years old. I remain a great admirer of Carter's native intelligence, his passion for trying to do what was right from his Christian perspective, his initiatives to bring peace to the Middle East, and his passion for humanitarian doing-good since he left the White House. However, like his successor, Barack Obama, he was an ineffective president with his leftist liberal politics. Obama's fight to end Bush-era tax rates for the "rich," along with his misguided social engineering represented by Obamacare will all go down in flames. These policies are misguided and proven to be unsuccessful.

Here's the irony in a nutshell: I believe a Supreme Court rejection of the Obamacare individual mandate would immediately give a much-needed boost the economy and the American psyche. It would dramatically improve Obama's prospects for re-election. He could thank his lucky stars when it's struck down.

In his arrogance, however, he'll find a way to manipulate the SCOTUS outcome with his political spin calculus if he wins on Obamacare.

And whichever way that turns out, the American voters will reject him in November.

You heard it here first, Mr. President. We're on to you.