Disclaimer: Politico is a left wing rag…

 

I’m afraid the history of Politico must be called into question as well as the character of their so called journalists. Politico is known for employing hit piece character assassins who disguised as journalists who routinely take comments out context in order to create conflict (Example: Taking Sarah Palin’s “Flavor of the week” comments about Herman Cain and suggesting that Palin was minimizing Cain’s rise in the polls last month when if you actually look at the interview from On the Record Palin says the media likes to prop up different candidates each week in preparation of knocking them down when they get too popular. Hence saying Cain was the new target or, in her words the media’s flavor of the week to prop up and eventually knock down). And boy was governor Palin right on the money about the media propping you up and knocking you down. Cain’s rise was such a baffling and maddening conundrum for the media they had to find some way to knock this uppity boy down a peg you know?

This boy who according to Karen Finney, Democratic Strategist and MSNBC political analyst appeals to white Republicans because the boy knows his place, was simply too confident in his new found success for the media to accept. Herman Cain will fade from memory as a result because if it’s one thing people believe more than the truth that is said once, are lies that are said more than once. And when you’re despised by the Democrat Establishment and the Republican establishment then my friend you have no friends left at that point.  The Republican establishment wants Romney so the likes of Joe Scarborough who declared an end to Cain’s campaign because of this story are probably glad that this came out to be perfectly honest with you, because let’s be clear Herman Cain was the sneak attack the establishment never expected and they don’t like the idea of someone outside the circle infiltrating and causing confusion.

Politico on the other hand met its objective which was character assassination and we all know liberals specialize in such cowardly tactics as destroying one’s character. Think about it: You ever wonder why liberals never attack conservative principles but instead attack the conservative who espouses those principles? The character of a conservative is the embodiment of his or her principles, so you have to attack the character if you’re a liberal in order to discredit the principles because arguing on principles alone spell defeat for the progressive.

Reagan talked about this in his 1964 Republican Convention speech. He said in a sense that liberals use emotional arguments and always accuse conservatives of being against things just because they disagree with the progressive agenda. If you happen to formulate a coherent argument against say entitlements in regards to the national budget, instead of arguing against your views they say we’re anti-poor or that we want children and poor people to starve to death. Since the progressive’s argument is one of childish banter, then we must now treat liberals as children. When they throw their usual played tantrum, calmly pat them on the head and ignore the incoherent ranting and raving.

Let’s as they say, consider the source after all the mirror into a person’s future is their past, and the present is road in which they travel:

Jonathon Martin (often annoyingly referred to by elite corn balls as “J-Mart”) wrote a piece (piece of…it) about governor Rick Perry titled “Is Rick Perry Dumb?” Now, do you think and I mean since we conservatives and libertarians are so dumb who knows what we think or if we have the capacity to think but do you think a man who likes to walk around as some serious journalist should write an article for a so called credible institution as Politico wondering if a politician or candidate is dumb? Would Walter Cronkite spend an entire segment of the nightly news wondering if Richard Nixon or Lyndon Johnson were dumb?

Then you have Maggie Haberman is the one who tried to stir a beef between Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin during the summer by purposely reporting statements that she took out of context in hopes of igniting bad blood between the two. Fortunately neither Palin nor Bachmann took the bait. Maggie is also the one who selectively reported the so called “Flavor of the week” comments by Sarah Palin. Haberman made it sound like Palin was trying to dismiss Herman Cain’s rise in the polls by calling him a flavor of the week. When in reality Palin said Cain was the media’s new flavor of the week because in her eyes it seemed like the media was picking a new candidate to build up and tear down.

Then you have Palin herself who was the target of many a hit piece from you guessed it, that misfit mentally challenged cast of b-movie characters over at Politico. This time Mike Allen and Jim Vandehai published a story naming many unnamed sources within the GOP establishment claiming they were terrified of Palin and were saying she needed to be stopped. Now, it’s no surprise the establishment hates Mrs. Palin, but there is a damning trend over there at Politico in their nasty habit of never really nailing down the sources of their cow sh*t. Whether it’s the source of the original statement or in Cain’s sexual harassment story the statements themselves seem a little shaky. We don’t know what was said nor do we know what kind of harassment it was since the article clearly states that the harassment wasn’t overtly sexual or consisted of any groping or invasion of privacy.

But hey, consider the source and think for yourself. And it’s like I always say: The best toilet paper is this week’s NYTimes. And if only Politico had its own newspaper or magazine it would make for good jizz rags.

When Herman Cain proposed his 9-9-9 plan, many conservatives became energized, despite their misgivings with the fine print of the plan.  It wasn’t so much the details of the proposal that excited the base, as most conservatives intuitively recoiled from a consumption tax; it was the boldness of the plan that resonated with them.  Cain’s 9-9-9 brought some excitement to a race that was defined by a frontrunner who offered 160 pages of banal fluff.  Nevertheless, his plan was too flawed to be utilized as a viable rallying cry in the general election.  Perry appears to have proposed both a viable and bold economic plan, albeit with some inevitable flaws.

Here is a synopsis of all of the major components.

Tax Plan

The centerpiece of the plan is a flat individual income tax of 20%.  This would serve as a vehicle for massive economic growth, as it offers a huge tax cut for job-creators who currently pay as much as 35%.  However, unlike the traditional Steve Forbes flat tax, this proposal would keep the deductions for mortgage interest, charitable contributions, and state and local taxes for those earning less than $500,000 (over 99% of taxpayers).  It would also offer a standard deduction of $12,500 per household members.  Consequently, a family of four earning $50,000 would have a zero tax liability.  Update: Phillip Klein reports that the employer tax exclusion for healthcare would remain until Obamacare is repealed.

Moreover, the entire system would preserve the option to remain under the current tax code.  As such, the 47% who have zero tax liability and the 29% who have a positive tax liability (as a result of the EITC and Additional Child Tax Credit), would have no incentive to move to the flat tax.  Accordingly, there would be two shortcomings to this plan:

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In case you missed it, Bobby Jindal, the Republican Governor of Louisiana, was reelected last night. And, oh, by the way...notice how all those evil racist Southern Republicans voted to reelect an Indian guy? Those crazy racists, they keep voting for candidates like Susana Martinez in New Mexico, Nikki Haley and Tim Scott in South Carolina, and Florida's Marco Rubio and Allen West. And then there's all those racists who are propelling Ted Cruz to the top of the Texas Senate race and keep voting for Herman Cain at the straw polls.

Cain wins Nevada GOP debate 3400 to 999, Perry loses cool

Garden-gate attack on Mitt Romney and inappropriate  show of temper may make Rick  Perry wish his performance could have stayed in Vegas by the time the next polls are conducted.

But Herman Cain heartened anti-Romney conservative hearts by offering a blockbuster alternative to RomneyCare and/or ObamaCare with a call for interstate competition in the health care industry.

Bay State Garden-gate

Perry’s attack on old stories about Mitt Romney’s alleged hiring of illegals shocked this conservative out of my chair more than any electrified border fence could. The Texas Governor referred to an old story about a landscaping company that Romney had hired that was discovered to have illegal workers employed.

There was no evidence that Romney knew the status of all employees of the company and he fired the company after discovering that it had broken the law. Romney was never charged with violating any law.

Perry, who famously questioned the condition of conservative hearts that oppose in-state tuition for illegals, indicts Romney for hiring the mothers of illegals to earn the money to pay the tuition? Was Romney indicted for breaking employment or immigration laws?

Perry temperament problem

For this viewer, Perry’s show of temper spoke for itself. I doubt his jobs plan can overcome what was seen of Perry’s temperament tonight in Las Vegas that seems inappropriate to the presidency to this Republican. But temperament isn’t everything. Witness what cool got is in President Barack Obama’s policies. But before Perry gets to be compared with Obama, he has to best the cool customers named Cain and Romney, and on that score I suspect his garden-gate attack makes his quest for the nomination futile.

9-9-9 no VAT

On a brighter note for conservatives, Herman Cain and his 9-9-9 Plan continued to be the target and he refuted the attacks on the sales tax element as equivalent to a European-style VAT tax that is easily hidden by pointing out that double-digit corporate, income, FICA, and capital gains taxes are all embedded in product prices today.

Cain’s plan would eliminate capital gains and FICA taxes while drastically reducing income taxes while only adding back a 9% sales tax on new goods. Clearly his plan would embed much less cost in products and services than under current law. The reduction in taxes in this way would be a boon for exports and the creation of jobs generally due to the reduced cost of production and other factors.

Cain was less effective in defending attacks from Mitt Romney that lower income workers and the unemployed would be hurt by the sales tax. Yes, the bushel of oranges, federal taxes now levied, hurt those same groups now; but Cain needs to do a better job in explaining how his reduction of the oranges to but three helps all groups more than the regressivity of the sales tax hurts, especially when applied in states that raise most of their money through state sales taxes.

3400 + 9-9-9 = Cain leaves Vegas still the frontrunner

Cain also found his voice on health care by being the first candidate to endorse a specific  replacement for ObamaCare in the debate by backing H.R. 3400, which, among other things, ends state monopolies on the sale of health insurance. This is probably the best single act that government could take to lower heath care and insurance premium  costs.

Perry would have been better off simply accepting the mantle as the compassionate on illegals conservative. His stand on in-state tuition was not the reason he comes in 3rd or 4th in polls. His problem has been debate performances and incompetence in defending his record and positions on the issues. I suspect that not only will his personal attack on Mitt Romney’s hiring of a landscaping company not help the Governor of the Lone Star State on the issue of illegal immigration but may also have revealed a temperament inappropriate for the presidency in its aftermath.

Time will tell, but for this Rooster poised to vote from his Stone Mountain of Georgia roost come Super Tuesday 2012, the race is now down to three: I lean to Cain. Still considering Newt and Mitt.

Mike DeVine

Editor - Hillbilly Politics

Co-Founder and Editor - Political Daily

Atlanta Law & Politics columnist –  Examiner.com

“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson

More DeVine Gamecock rooster crowings at Modern Conservative, Unified Patriots,  and Conservative Outlooks. All Charlotte Observer and Atlanta Journal-Constitution op-eds archived at Townhall.com.

Joining the league of people who got to the first tier, Herman Cain is now under withering fire for his 9-9-9 plan and what it’ll mean for the country. Thus far he has held his own, but he is going to have to do better.

For example, saying that he’d require a 2/3 vote to repeal his plan is unconstitutional unless he somehow is able to get it stuck in the constitution as an amendment thereto.

Likewise, saying the American people will keep pressure on Congress to not alter or increase the rates is not credible given that Cain and the other Republicans are fighting to repeal a health care law that Congress and the White House pushed through despite a majority of Americans opposed to it and a tea party movement energized to fight it.

But that will not be the lasting impact as I suspect Herman will necessarily have to start adding more substance to his plan and overcome the historic fact that European countries, after World War II, had national sales taxes that morphed to VAT taxes because of the black market trade. European politicians, once the sales tax was introduced, made the case to the public that law abiding citizens were being taken advantage of by tax cheats and the VAT would stamp out that problem. Over time, the European sales taxes became VAT’s. The same will happen here.

Again though, that’s not the lasting impact. What will last and is already percolating are those bits of sunshine between Herman Cain and the Tea Party. Herman’s support of TARP, shared with Mitt Romney, and his explanation of the theory of TARP and the implementation of TARP diverging — did it really? Opening the doors to government bailouts could come back to bite Herman with the Tea Party.

Likewise, citing Alan Greenspan at this moment in time as a good Fed Chairman is not helpful.

Herman is running as the tea party favorite. They love his 999 plan. Bailouts, TARP, and Greenspan may, however, be a bridge too far — especially when he has Mitt Romney agreeing with him.

Joining the league of people who got to the first tier, Herman Cain is now under withering fire for his 9-9-9 plan and what it’ll mean for the country. Thus far he has held his own, but he is going to have to do better.

For example, saying that he’d require a 2/3 vote to repeal his plan is unconstitutional unless he somehow is able to get it stuck in the constitution as an amendment thereto.

Likewise, saying the American people will keep pressure on Congress to not alter or increase the rates is not credible given that Cain and the other Republicans are fighting to repeal a health care law that Congress and the White House pushed through despite a majority of Americans opposed to it and a tea party movement energized to fight it.

But that will not be the lasting impact as I suspect Herman will necessarily have to start adding more substance to his plan and overcome the historic fact that European countries, after World War II, had national sales taxes that morphed to VAT taxes because of the black market trade. European politicians, once the sales tax was introduced, made the case to the public that law abiding citizens were being taken advantage of by tax cheats and the VAT would stamp out that problem. Over time, the European sales taxes became VAT’s. The same will happen here.

Again though, that’s not the lasting impact. What will last and is already percolating are those bits of sunshine between Herman Cain and the Tea Party. Herman’s support of TARP, shared with Mitt Romney, and his explanation of the theory of TARP and the implementation of TARP diverging — did it really? Opening the doors to government bailouts could come back to bite Herman with the Tea Party.

Likewise, citing Alan Greenspan at this moment in time as a good Fed Chairman is not helpful.

Herman is running as the tea party favorite. They love his 999 plan. Bailouts, TARP, and Greenspan may, however, be a bridge too far — especially when he has Mitt Romney agreeing with him.

Legal Editor - The Minority Report

Atlanta Law & Politics columnist for Examiner.com

“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson

More DeVine Gamecock rooster crowings at Modern Conservative, Hillbilly Politics, Unified Patriots,  Political Daily and Conservative Outlooks. All Charlotte Observer and Atlanta Journal-Constitution op-eds archived at Townhall.com.

(Via The Other McCain) Remember, Herman Cain was a radio talk show host for some time. So it’s no surprise that Herman Cain was able to handle some little collage-age liberal tool:

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