Blog von fugaL

This is in response to Jordy’s post. Though it quickly degrades into rant, it comes full circle to my main point.

If you follow my blog, you know I’m fairly anti Romney. Yet that’s not to say I’m anti Mormon, as I am one. Which begs the question, “Is Romney’s failure truly a reflection of religious bigotry?” Of course I’m one person, and this is all anecdotal. I would like to say that had Romney been truly conservative instead of merely “more” conservative than McCain, that he might have done better, stayed in the race, maybe won. Alas, I can see this is not the case. If Romney had been truly conservative, he’d likely be in the same boat as the true conservative. Perhaps not, for if he was in that boat he would have jumped ship long ago. Maybe that’s unfair, calling him a quitter, but I digress.

So here Romney runs as the “conservative” choice, as well as the shrewd businessman that can turn around the heaviest, most sluggish, most doomed of vessels. I almost wonder if he dropped out (or suspended) because he was sacrificing more and more of his true conservative values for the sake of media acceptance, the campaign, and the party. C’mon, we all know his loyalties lie with the party above all else. The theory goes he could not do it anymore, he couldn’t keep sacrificing his principles to keep the campaign going, but he endorsed McCain, the antithesis of conservatism… so much for that theory.

You may think with all this ranting I’m bashing Romney and may yet give him a whopping slap in the face. Well, you may be right. That depends on how you interpret it. Above I was merely conjecturing, posing possible reasons behind his suspension as well as reasons behind the reason for his suspension, another reason, you might say the reason… his lack of support. Funny definition of lack of support though, I think he really had a shot still, he was the runner up! Though I digress yet again.

There is a point to all this. Regardless of why Romney was losing, regardless of what tactics were used against him, regardless of what he really does believe in, the fact remains that he dropped out. This is the slap in the face, so brace yourselves. I truly sympathize with all you Romney fans out there. Whatever the reason you supported him, you were counting on him. You were counting on him to keep McCain out. You were counting on him to save our dollars. You were counting on him to bring God’s blessing upon our great nation. You were counting on him to bring his conservative values to the white house. Whatever it was you were counting on it, and he has let you down. And for what? For “the party.” And now he jumps behind McCain “for the party.” I’m truly sorry. If my main man did that to me, if my candidate of choice (you know who he is) so much as hinted at dropping the race, I would be dismayed beyond consolation. My heart goes out.

Now ain’t that depressing? I think everyone has probably heard by now that Romney has officially endorsed McCain (aka McPain, McInsane, McShame). I would say I cannot believe it, but in fact I do. Merely because the more I found out about Romney the more I realized he is just the mormon version of McCain. I don’t want to believe it, but I do. Romney has lost any ounce of my respect he heretofore had, where before I somewhat generously if hesitantly gave him the benefit of the doubt. Now it’s come to this and I have to believe that sane people will not follow Romney’s endorsement. If this all isn’t depressing enough, here’s another video. This one at least has some hope to go with it.

Your choices are now McCain, Huckabee, Ron Paul or whoever wins the Dem. nomination. I used to lean towards Obama as a second choice, not that I’d ever resort to a second choice, but with fozzmoo’s recent article I fear he’s not much of a second choice at all. Obama is to Clinton as Romney is to McCain.

To be honest I’m not entirely well educated on Huckabee, but I hear he blew the lid off with high spending in Arkansas, and his admitted ignorance on things war doesn’t help much either. I hate to say I told you so, but it looks like Ron Paul is our man, so please go out and make a difference.

“I believe in limited government. I believe the purpose of government is
to protect liberty and not to run our lives, or run the economy, or to
police the world.” — Ron Paul

The above quote was from a radio interview. I don’t think anybody could
say it any better. That quote is the very embodiment of why I support
Ron Paul to the very end.

Want to find out more of what he’s about? Here’s a blog that has video
of his speech at CPAC.

If you find yourself dismayed and at a loss with Romney’s suspended
campaign, please please take a close look at Ron Paul. If you have any
doubts about him or any compelling reason not to support him I would
certainly appreciate the chance to look into them, for my own
enlightenment as well as yours. One friend of mine brought up a concern
that, given any merit, would deeply concern myself as well. I spent
many hours that evening looking into it, at the expense of
homework, and came up convinced that the allegations were nothing but
misrepresentation and slander.

If you wonder what could be done at this point with most primaries
already passed, just drop me a line. There is work to be done.

I’d like to clarify somewhat on my previous post, mostly as a response to my brother’s comment thereon.

I thought long and hard about making that post in the first place. I read comments that said Romney answered the best he could without becoming entrapped. I read comments on disgust with the “fake smile” on his face the whole time. Mainly the comments defending him where the well constructed ones. The ones against were mainly personal attacks. This nearly led me to drop the issue and give Romney the benefit of the doubt.

I thought about it further however, and did some research on the controversy of medical marijuana. Here’s one quote:

Along with California, nine states have passed laws permitting marijuana use by patients with a doctor’s approval: Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and Washington. Arizona also has a similar law, but no formal program in place to administer prescription pot.

So that’s 10 or 11 states that legalize marijuana for medical use, depending on how you count. So really at the base of this controversy is whether the Federal Government will trump the state laws and arrest users in those states (and their doctors).

This controversy is fundamental to the question in the soundbite. He’s essentially asking, “will my state’s law apply or will your law?”

Romney answers that he’s not for the legalization of marijuana, but that doesn’t answer his question. Is Romney going to encourage states to not pass such laws or is he going to trample the state’s laws with federal laws? Now here it gets sticky. As Hans said in his comment, the president would merely execute the laws, not make them, but the fact is a president has an enormous amount of influence over what laws do or do not get passed. In any case, here’s a couple possible answers Romney could have given.

• I will uphold the law, if the law says you will be arrested then that’s what I uphold.
• I believe that marijuana should not be used in any circumstance and I would support any legislation that would make it illegal on the federal level.
• I will stand behind state laws, though I would like to see all states make marijuana illegal.

Any one of those answers fits within his broad “I am against the legalization of marijuana” statement. Read them closely, however, and they have more than subtle differences. So which one does he really mean? That’s what I want Romney to own up to, and that’s what the man in the wheelchair was trying to get at.

Here’s Mitt Romney answering a question about medical marijuana, if you can call it answering.

I’m not going to get much into the rights or wrongs of marijuana, medical or not, the war on drugs, or all that jazz. Instead I’m going to address Romney’s dodging of the question. One might say he in fact answered the question very directly, “I’m against the legalization of marijuana.” That’s a fine answer, Romney, but you were asked a very specific question. “Will you arrest me and my doctor if we use marijuana to treat my ailments?” He just wanted an honest answer.

Some have sympathized with Romney, saying it’s a loaded question. If he answers yes, then he’s not sympathetic to the less fortunate. If he says no, then he’s a hypocrite.

I say well then Romney, own up to your policy. If your policy is marijuana is bad in all shapes and forms, and you believe the feds should arrest abusers, then own up to it. Tell the man he’ll be arrested.

Ron Paul gives a very straightforward answer to this question. He says the federal government has no business interfering with such matters. Paul says the states have the say here. He says he (or the federal government) will not arrest you.

The tragedy is that Romney dodges around the question so he can fool as many people into voting for him as he can. If someone is going to vote against him because they don’t think the feds should arrest users in sympathetic states, then that’s their prerogative, and shame on Mitt for not coming clean to them.

Mitt Romney, own up to your policies!