Bachmann Endorses the Mittster…Finally

Well it only took 5 months, but today ultra right wing conservative Michelle Bachmann finally endorsed the candidacy of Mitt Romney – the guy who has sewn up the nomination by accolade, but not numbers.

The TEA Party darling and MILF, finally coughed it up.

This despite the fact that Michelle Bachmann is on video saying these words about the likelihood that Mitt Romney will beat President Obama this November:

“No, he cannot beat Obama because his policy is the basis for Obamacare. The signature issue of Obama is Obamacare. You can’t have a candidate who has given the blueprint for Obamacare. It’s too identical. It’s not going to happen. We have to have a candidate, a bold distinct candidate in the likeness of Ronald Reagan.”

So, OK, take me through this. People are going to vote for Barack Obama because they oppose the Affordable Healthcare Act that was modeled after Mitt Romney’s state healthcare law.

Huh?

No, what I think she meant to say is that since conservative voters will not be able to discern a difference between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama, they will stay away from the polls in droves this year.

One can only hope.

How Would Jesus Vote?

It seems God is a Republican. How else can you explain the fact that He has endorsed three, count ‘em, three Republican presidential hopefuls. And how on Earth (or in heaven for that matter) does God get off choosing 3 and not one? Is it the whole Holy Trinity thing?

It’s true. According to the Daily Intel the Lord God has been caught red-handed apparently endorsing the campaigns of Herman Cain, Rick Santorum and Michelle Bachman.

And Michelle Bachmann hasn’t even declared her candidacy – not yet anyway. The Omniscient One must know she is in even though we don’t.

Herman Cain knew way back in 1999 that God wanted him to run. But even better, last year God sent him a text message of encouragement.

Rick Santorum? Rick’s wife told a reporter last month that “we believe with all our hearts that this is what God wants.”

Michelle Bachmann pretty much spells it out this way: if she runs at all it’s because God wills it. Going Santorum’s wife one better Bachmann said this: “I will not seek a higher office if God is not calling me to do it. That's really my standard.”

You have to love the gall of God, or Jesus, or the Holy Spirit, Whoever is for whomever, to give the Holy Nod to not one but three Republicans.

And you know, this pretty much puts the kibosh on anything constructive coming out of Rick Perry’s Pray In this coming August 6. With God’s political loyalties split up between 3 other presidential candidates, how is He going to possibly be there to listen to the prayers of Rick Perry’s invitees to his prayerfest that he calls “The Response?”

And what is behind “The Response?” Well apparently our problems are too big for us to solve by ourselves. We need The Lord and Savior of the Universe to get His hands dirty and solve them for us. Guess so. If the Texas Legislature can’t get it done we need to go to the A Team.

Hope they’re up to it and not spending too much time on the campaign trail.

Colin Powell and The Houston Chronicle Make Bold Sunday Endorsements

I don’t usually do this, but a reader (actually probably someone who “googled” the keywords presidential newspaper endorsements) had this to say about my prediction of an Obama landslide victory in this posting from a couple of days ago:

“And now even Colin Powell, the guy who went before the UN with the "weapons of mass destruction" argument, has endorsed Obama.”

“An impending landslide? For sure. A tsunami, an avalanche, a blow-out. Obama was always going to win this election. But now, as the train is leaving the station, everyone's going to get on board.”

General Colin Powell’s endorsement of Barack Obama is huge. The McCain campaign shrugged it off, naturally, saying that they have the endorsements of over 200 retired generals and admirals. But does anyone know their names? Absolutely everyone knows who Colin Powell is and who he worked for (and whose father he worked for). If you want to put it in military terms, the “USS John McCain” just took an Exocet missile in her ammunition magazine.

But where Colin Powell’s endorsement will have national effect, I want to point out another Sunday endorsement that will have local effect in SE Texas. The Houston Chronicle just announced its endorsement of Barack Obama for President of the United States.

“After carefully observing the Democratic and Republican nominees in drawn-out primary struggles as well as in the general campaign, including three debates, the Chronicle strongly believes that the ticket of Sens. Barack Obama and Joe Biden offers the best choice to lead the United States on a new course into the second decade of the 21st century.”

And further down . . .

“Perhaps the worst mistake McCain made in his campaign for the White House was the choice of the inexperienced and inflammatory Palin as his vice-presidential running mate. Had he selected a moderate, experienced Republican lawmaker such as Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison with a strong appeal to independents, the Chronicle's choice for an endorsement would have been far more difficult.”

This endorsement, I need to point out, is the first time the Chronicle endorsed the Democratic presidential candidate since they endorsed LBJ in 1964. A kind of no-brainer at the time, since as Vice President, Lyndon Johnson brought NASA to Houston. But by contrast, Barack Obama has brought nothing to Houston but a couple of rallies (the first attended by yours truly). So this endorsement is huge for southeast Texas.

Now I don’t subscribe to The Houston Chronicle, not because I have some misgivings with their politics, but because I object to the waste of resources that newspapers in general contribute to, especially in the internet age where it’s all online anyway (except for the crossword puzzle). But now I find myself in a dilemma. The Chronicle is sure to take a hit in its subscriber list over this endorsement. McCain’s “base” lives here among us. And they aren’t going to take kindly to this, a Democratic endorsement from a newspaper they have come to think of as one of their own.

Case in point. Here presented verbatim is one of the 310 comments the Chronicle has on its website under the op/ed endorsement piece:

“NEWSPAPERS ARE NOT SUPPOSE TO BE PARTISAN AS WELL AS MEDIA IN GENERAL.BY DOING SO YOU WILL LOOSE YOUR INTEGRITY AND PART OF YOUR CUSTOMERS.REMEMBER THAT NOT ALL YOUR CLIENTS ARE DEMS.I GUESS THE CHRONICLE DON'T CARE.I WILL NOT CARE ABOUT READING THIS PAPER ANYMORE COZ NOW I KNOW IT'S BIAS.AU REVOIR!”

[I wonder whether this ex-reader knows that "au revoir," translated from French, means "until the next time I see you." Probably not.]

So there’s my dilemma. Must I now break with tradition and subscribe to the Chronicle? I hate the waste of newsprint and ink that newspapers make, but on the other hand, I am coming to the end of my LA Times crossword puzzle book.

So maybe it’s time.

Newspaper Presidential Endorsements Rising

Perhaps we needed to have an end to the presidential debates. Maybe the editorial boards had already made up their minds, but today we begin to see a flurry of endorsements from major metropolitan newspapers.

For Obama

The Los Angeles Times:

"We need a leader who demonstrates thoughtful calm and grace under pressure, one not prone to volatile gesture or capricious pronouncement. We need a leader well-grounded in the intellectual and legal foundations of American freedom. Yet we ask that the same person also possess the spark and passion to inspire the best within us: creativity, generosity and a fierce defense of justice and liberty.”

“The Times without hesitation endorses Barack Obama for president.”

The Washington Post:

“Yet it is without ambivalence that we endorse Sen. Barack Obama for president.”

“The choice is made easy in part by Mr. McCain's disappointing campaign, above all his irresponsible selection of a running mate who is not ready to be president. It is made easy in larger part, though, because of our admiration for Mr. Obama and the impressive qualities he has shown during this long race. Yes, we have reservations and concerns, almost inevitably, given Mr. Obama's relatively brief experience in national politics. But we also have enormous hopes.”

The Chigago Tribune:

“It's the first time the paper has endorsed the Democratic Party's nominee for president. But the editorial board declares Obama the right man ‘to lead us through a perilous time and restore in us a common sense of national
purpose.’”

The San Francisco Chronicle:

“Sen. John McCain magnified the aura of crisis, "suspending" his campaign to return to Washington, where his role in negotiations was at best tangential. Sen. Barack Obama was a portrait of calmness and deliberation, reminding Americans that it is possible for a leader to juggle more than one task at a time...”

La Prensa (New York):

“The nation also needs a humane and sensible immigration policy. While Sen. John McCain once appeared as a reasonable interlocutor on immigration reform, hegradually pandered to Republican ultra conservatives by promoting a two-step process emphasizing border enforcement. Sen. Obama clearly outlines a far superior plan that will take a smarter approach to immigration, including bringing undocumented immigrants out of the shadows.”

For McCain

Now the question is, which major metropolitan newspapers are endorsing John McCain? Yes, you guessed it.

Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post:

“McCain has been in Washington for many years now, but he is not of Washington. He knows where the levers of power are located - and how to manipulate them - but he is not controlled by them.”

“McCain's selection of the charming, but rock-solid, outsider Sarah Palin as his running mate underscores the point.”

Now newspapers don’t have electoral votes. And not being American human beings, newspapers can’t even vote at all. But from what we are seeing here, it looks like a few rocks and pebbles are being kicked loose and are pinging, pattering and bouncing down the hillside. No snapping of branches yet, let alone the nearly infrasonic sound that landslides make at the very beginning.

But it’s the beginning of the beginning, I think.