February 2012

Republican Confusion Or The Politics Of Primary Elections?

Primary campaigns are inherently different than general elections, which may explain some of the GOP indecision.

Primary voting is often muddy waters compared to the more clean (and partisan) general election. Take this primary season as an example: first Santorum, then Romney, then Gingrich, then Romney again, then Santorum a few times, but delegates go to Romney, and Ron Paul still hanging on…it seems like it’s all over the map. Malcolm Ritter of The Huffington Post elaborates on the complexities of primary elections compared to general elections, which may help to explain some of the erratic state primaries and confusion that seems to be infecting Republican voters this primary season.

The sanctions against Iran

"At the end of the day, I really feel that the sanctions against Iran are good enough"

The Republican candidates and others like former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani are criticizing President Obama’s foreign policy again and especially as it deals with Iran. Sanctions have been placed against Iran, but the issue is that crude oil prices have gone up. The U.S. government has made this hard stance on Iran because of the problem that Iran could develop nuclear weapons to be used against other countries.

However, there has been argument on whether the Obama administration has done enough to really drive home the point to Iran. The sanctions that were made earlier this month were not talked about in the Arizona Republican Presidential Debate with candidates Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum stressing that reelecting President Obama would result in a nuclear war with Iran.

How Santorum might Actually Be Able To Revive The Republican Party

It's a longshot, but so was Santorum a month ago.

Amidst all of the punditry and scrying by political analysts over the Republican primary, there doesn’t seem to be much talk about the people’s side of the party. Having come off the Republican zealotry of the 2010 Mid-term sweep, the ardor has cooled between the Tea Party and the Republican Party and it has left a visible schism within the base. Many Republicans, particularly the social conservatives, are looking for a transformative candidate that is going to bring the country back to “conservative ideals”, but the fiscal conservatives and more Libertarian-minded want a return to the frenzy of limited government that they enjoyed in 2010.

The Five Wealthiest Members of the U.S. Congress

What do the 99 percent think?

This post is just to shed some light into how wealthy U.S. Congress members are. U.S. members of Congress make at least a $174K annually and my previous post talks about how the net worth of these Congressman actually grew by 15 percent at a time when most American households wealth is eroding. This list is one that was compiled by Roll Call.[1]

Representative Michael McCaul

His present net worth is approximately $294 million which makes him the wealthiest member of the U.S. Congress. His wife’s family is mostly the reason for his large fortune with her being the daughter of Lowry Mays who is the chairman Clear Channel Communications. His wife’s brother is also the CEO of Clear Channel.

Representative Darrell Issa

He is another member of the Republican party in the state of California and was a very successful businessman. After graduating with a degree in business administration from Kent State University in 1976, he borrowed $50,000 from his family to get his start in the business world. He then went on to found a car alarm manufacturing company called Directed Electronics, Inc and is now worth $221 million.[2]

Senator John Kerry

He lost out to former President George W. Bush in that controversial 2004 presidential election. He is still the wealthiest Democrat member of U.S. Congress with a net worth of $193 million mostly attributed to his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, whose former husband Henry John Heinz III was an heir to the H.J. Heinz Company.[3]

Can we trust Congress to protect the 99 percent when they are in the 1 percent?

This is a question that is very relevant given the fact that 200 members of Congress are millionaires and Congress also got 25 percent richer during the recession interestingly.

This might actually be a matter of coincidence though. Most members of Congress have left the business world and are really static investors. It is interesting to note that conservative investments performed much better than placing bets in the stock market or holding more speculative items in a portfolio.

On the other hand, some members of Congress do have negative net worth and this doesn’t necessarily make them more dependable. I feel that being in a capitalist country it is great that one should be successful in a profession such as a doctor, lawyer or businessman before coming to Congress rather than the other way round.

Recent Housing Settlement Looks More Like Political Points Than Justice

Obama definitely scored political points with the recent $25 billion bank settlement, but what about the victims of the housing crash?

The recent banking settlement that was announced has got many people scratching their heads. On one hand, the White House went after Wall Street banks with varying degrees of success over the last several years over everything from malfeasance during the initial housing crisis, to the so-called “robo-signers”, a travesty of due process that banks overburdened by foreclosure paperwork instituted that unceremoniously (and often illegitimately) kicked people out of their homes. The settlement will require banks to provide individuals relief from their mortgages, and will provide people that were allegedly victims of a foreclosure scam a check for between $1,500 and $2,000. This feels like a political move for an administration in an election year rather than any real justice for the homeowners that have been the real victims of “big finance”.

Obama and the 2012 Presidential Election

How Are Things Looking for Our Incument President This Year?

Despite all the talk from Republicans (most of it hopeful) about Obama being a bad president and showing numbers and polls and other such things that were obviously designed and/or stretched to fit the point they wanted to make, it seems the American people are standing by their president. Most current impartial polls show Barak Obama to be well ahead of any of the Republican presidential candidates at the moment. In fact, one of the more recent polls showed him to have a 43% approval rating and a nearly double digit lead over Republican front-runner Mitt Romney if the election were to be held today. With numbers like those, he stands a very good chance of being re-elected if things continue as they are right now for him for the rest of the year.

The boost in employment in January 2012 is only going to help Obama when it comes time to vote for president. Though the Republicans keep saying how the American middle class has suffered under the Obama administration, the actual numbers continue to prove this to be false. The economy was already bad when Obama took over the presidency from the former Republican regime. He simply inherited a difficult situation that was not of his making and has done very well with working to turn it around.

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