Maryland's Primary is April 3

With one of my last posts, I endorsed Rick Santorum. In six days (or now if I choose early voting) I can make my vote for the Republican nomination for President. And, although I still like Santorum a lot, I see Mitt Romney as far more presidential than Santorum. I've liked the way he has responded on the campaign trail to the ups and downs of the election cycle. Both Santorum and Newt Gingrich have showed frustration in losing where they lashed out at Romney in inappropriate ways.

I'm ready for this nomination cycle to come to a close, so I will vote for Mitt Romney on Tuesday.

Donald Trump Endorses Mitt

A big surprise to see Donald Trump make an endorsement of Mitt Romney today. Trump has stated that he is very disappointed with the Obama presidency and that he wanted to see him defeated. Yet it never seemed out of the realm of possibility that he would run as an independent in the fall. So, whether this gets any more Republicans to support Romney than my endorsement of Santorum helps him is not really the issue. What is accomplished today is that we have cleared Trump away as a Third party candidate.

In addition to the Trump announcement, the Washington Post had a story today on how Ron Paul and Mitt Romney were actually close and they did not take verbal shots at one another. It thus seemed clear to me that Ron Paul would also be unlikely to run Third Party against Romney. So we should have a clear one-on-one race with Romney and Obama this Fall.

Rick Santorum

I quietly endorsed former Senator Rick Santorum for President yesterday on a friend's Facebook comments. Although he is behind in the polls, I choose to support him for his consistent conservative views and his excellent moral character. I am especially drawn to him because of the way that he and his wife went through some difficult pregnancies -- including one that ended at 20 weeks gestation. They also kept true to their pro-life principles when their youngest daughter was born about three years ago with severe handicaps. Just this last weekend she required hospitalization. My wife and I have gone through some similar experiences as Rick and Karen Santorum, so I feel good about my endorsement.

Newt Gingrich is an exciting candidate and could make an excellent president, but his admitted moral failings as well as his inability to maintain the support of his own caucus in the late 1990s demonstrate that he is too flawed. Even during this campaign he has sometimes seemed a bit too unpredictable, such as when he attacked Romney from the left over Romney's former career.

Mitt Romney impresses me greatly. Don't forget that he was the conservative choice in 2008 versus John McCain (I looked it up.) He has been a steady candidate and he has lived a model life. But his conservative credentials are much weaker than Santorum's, so I choose Santorum. It definitely looks likely that Romney will be the eventual nominee and if that is the case I will back him strongly against President Obama in the general election.

Newt Gingrich is Bill Clinton

Yes, Newt Gingrich is so very similar to Bill Clinton and he really showed it in the debate in South Carolina last night. Just as Bill Clinton feigned outrage at the media for asking questions about his extramarital affairs, so too did Newt Gingrich act angry at the questions being put to him in light of the interview of his ex-wife on ABC. The interview itself told us nothing really new, except that Gingrich apparently wanted what Clinton had which was the ability to have a marriage and also paramours on the side. It has ben obvious to all for many years that the Clintons have such an arrangement.

Gingrich. like Clinton, is a very intelligent man who came of age in the Sixties. Clinton has moved right when he felt he need to and Gingrich moved left when he thought he should do so. They both attempt to use religion to get forgiveness from the public.

Frankly, I just think Gingrich is too arrogant and unpredictable to be president. I wish that weren't the case.

UPDATE: Conservative journalist R. Emmet Tyrell's similar viewpoint as published Jan. 25, 2012:

How long have I been saying it? At least for 15 years, but in private I have been aware of it longer. Newt Gingrich is conservatism’s Bill Clinton, but without the charm. He has acquired wit but he has all the charm of barbed wire.

Newt and Bill are 1960s generation narcissists, and they share the same problems: waywardness and deviancy. Newt, like Bill, has a proclivity for girl hopping. It is not as egregious as Bill’s, but then Newt is not as drop-dead beautiful. His public record is already besmeared with tawdry divorces, and there are private encounters with the fair sex that doubtless will come out.

A Good Republican Response in a Washington Post Letter

Rich Nugent, A Congressman from Florida, had an excellent letter published in the Post this morning:

"We were pushing for a public policy (a one-year extension of the payroll tax cut) that was universally acknowledged to be more responsible than the Senate alternative (a two-month extension). We took this course not at some expected political cost to our opponents but rather at a known political cost to ourselves.

In short, we chose to put responsible policy before callous political self-interest. I’m unclear on why that was a bad thing."

Nugent also writes a defense of the Freshman House Republicans: "Is the House above politics? Of course not. But this year, we have made an uncommon effort to get Washington to face the hard questions — even when it was not in our own political interest to do so."

I just hope that the Freshmen Republicans and the supporters that propelled them to election in 2010 will not have gotten so discouraged by the successful media/Democrat campaign to turn this issue against Republicans that they give up on trying to make the changes that this country needs.

An Embarrassing Retreat By Speaker Boehner

In the end, House Speaker John Boehner decided that this issue (The Payroll Tax Cut Bill) was not worth fighting for. And he was right. Somehow, despite being on the "pro-middle class" side of this issue, Boehner and his Republican caucus were being painted by the media, the President, and the Democrats as anti-tax cut! Despite the fact that the Republicans in the House HAD PASSED a One-Year Payroll Tax Cut, while the Senate had only passed a Two-Month Tax Cut! But our media chose to gloss over that fact and only focus on the Senate's actions. The Senate chose to pass a two month extension because they wanted to go home for Christmas. And then the Democratic President, despite being adamant about a one year extension just weeks before, now insisted that the only bill that should be passed is the Two Month Tax Cut.

I have lived in this Washington DC area for 23 years now (unfortunately!) and seen how very similar maneuvers were portrayed. When President George W. Bush cut taxes for the lower income groups resulting in $600 checks in the Summer of 2001, Democrats scoffed at the amount as being barely enough money to buy a Big Mac Meal a week. But in 2011, our current president just touted his tax cut as being enough to pay for a pizza meal for regular Americans.

And the Senate should have been pilloried for being so arrogant as to assume that their version of the bill would be passed without alteration by the House. They immediately began their one month Christmas vacation after that vote, which left the House in the untenable position of accepting the Senate's bill as it is, or rejecting it. One could easily imagine an outrage being instigated at the arrogant Senate but since it was a Democratic run body, it was ignored. The Senate was being treated as the reasonable ones when they were the ones who had punted the issue off to a new year so they could go on vacations.

There's more to write on this and I will revise and edit this post later.

Two Month Tax Cut???

We are supposed to be happy that the Senate has compromised and agreed to pass a two month Social Security Tax Cut. What's the point -- besides the obvious which is allowing Congress to go home for Christmas even though they haven't passed the One Year Payroll Tax Cut which was passed by the House.

This Business Week article shows the problems faced by employers.