Guest Contributer: Tom From NJ: Anybody But Obama

Last night I was happy to hear Kudlow and Fund endorse my only candidate so far -- Mr./Ms. ABO. Who Candidate ABO actually is, I have no clear idea at this point, but I can suggest who does not qualify as ABO. Take Mitt Romney -- please. Due largely to RomneyCare, he's toast already, although neither he nor the Establishment GOP leadership seem to realize it yet. He should get out of the race now before he embarrasses himself; if he does so, he would make a dandy Secretary of Commerce under President ABO. Another prominent non-ABO is Newt Gingrich, who has so much baggage he needs to hire whole shifts of redcaps to help him carry it. Of course, Newt could then become a valuable advisor to President ABO; indeed, what power on earth could stop him?

Another non-ABO, sad to say, is Sarah Palin. I hate what the MSM, and even some elitist conservative snobs, have done to her, but there she is before us, all Tina Fey-ed out, already wounded and bleeding. Sarah is a smart young woman so she should bide her time and continue to do what she is successfully doing -- supporting conservative candidates for office with grassroots fundraising and effective stemwinder speeches. One of those candidates should be Candidate ABO, whereupon Sarah should get herself named Secretary of Energy. Then Sarah Barracuda could return healed and refreshed and go for the brass ring herself in due time, although her many enemies will continue to slander her as a nut-slut as long as she lives.

OK, so who will be Candidate ABO? It might turn out to be Donald Trump, who right now reminds me of General George S. Patton -- a great one in battle who is really taking it to the enemy (Obama), but who is perhaps too erratic and egotistical for his own good. To extend the analogy, Patton would surely have screwed up as overall SHAEF commander, a position that instead required the temperament, track-record, and skill-set of an Eisenhower. Similarly, being President might not in the end be a good fit for Trump's personal temperament, track-record, and skill-set. But right now who knows?

Another possible ABO is Paul Ryan, who, like Trump but in a different way, is already directly engaging POTUS in battle. Some of our blog colleagues have suggested that Ryan might be overly intellectual in his approach, but that might be because he is trying to actually give actual details on a very complex topic, i.e., the Federal budget and the deficit. That said, Ryan does get off some good lines -- not that the MSM will ever let anyone know -- so let's consider this GOP ticket for 2012: Trump-Ryan. Just sayin', but sounds very interesting right now. As for me in this April of 2011, I continue my steadfast support of Candidate ABO.

Destiny Demands a Decision

In some ways Paul Ryan and pols of any persuasion are like Obama: ideologues. They present themselves as right or left cut-outs and hope to sell it to a multifaceted public. The public resists. It understands the ruse. They ask, "Why should anyone reduce the rich and complex organism of himself (or group) to a formula so simple, so rudimentary, so primitive?

"And if ever the suspicion of his manifold persona should dawn on him… and break through his illusion of the single ideology he espouses, and perceive that every individual self is made up of a bundle of selves and interests, he has only to say so and at once the media puts him to pillory, calls science to aid, establishes the efficacy of padded cells, seeking to protect humanity from the necessity of hearing the truth. Why then waste words on proclamations, plans, pledges, and roadmaps that every thinking man accepts as self-evident, that America totters on the edge of existential threat, when a mere utterance of it is a breach of taste?”

What was true in Hermann Hesse’s day (in italics) is certainly true now. Perhaps even more so. For far too long we have used a shorthand for governance - Republican and Democrat; conservative and liberal; etc - while glossing over the fact that we were spinning the mesh of our web in an increasingly tighter and suffocating weave.

Now we have arrived, at a particularly virulent form of socialism, one that seeks to quash every dare of liberty and we ask ourselves, How has this happened? We were more than willing to entertain strange, even alien, notions. But we did so primarily out of curatorial interest, to be able to wag our fingers and proclaim ourselves better. American exceptionalism was ingrained in us. We never thought there was ever the possibility of letting it slipping away.

Now we find ourselves engaged in a great struggle. It is composed of a myriad of smaller struggles and each skirmish we win produces yet another head - or three. Are we willing to invest everything, or will we accept something as insipid as compromise. It seems to me we’ve been compromising all along. It’s even gone beyond face-saving. We’re into the real stuff now. Destiny demands a decision.

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