2016 GOP POTUS Clown Car Contestants

Two names immediately pop out for me based on events over the last week.
Chris Christie appeared on Saturday Night Live and Marco Rubio traveled to Iowa for a fundraiser.

Rubio is obviously the front-runner based on the following statement....

Rubio: Maybe Earth was created in 7 days because ‘I’m not a scientist, man’

Quote :

Tea party-backed Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) says that he’s not sure people will ever know if the Earth was created by God in just seven days because “it’s one of the great mysteries.”

In an interview published in the December issue of GQ magazine, Michael Hainey asked the potential 2016 presidential candidate how old he thought the Earth was.

“I’m not a scientist, man,” Rubio replied. “I can tell you what recorded history says, I can tell you what the Bible says, but I think that’s a dispute amongst theologians and I think it has nothing to do with the gross domestic product or economic growth of the United States.”

“I’m not a scientist. I don’t think I’m qualified to answer a question like that. At the end of the day, I think there are multiple theories out there on how the universe was created and I think this is a country where people should have the opportunity to teach them all. I think parents should be able to teach their kids what their faith says, what science says.”

He added: “Whether the Earth was created in 7 days, or 7 actual eras, I’m not sure we’ll ever be able to answer that. It’s one of the great mysteries.”

You know what's truly "One of the great mysteries"? How someone like Rubio gets elected to the US Senate.
As if that ignorant statement wasn't scary enough the idiot goes on to say ...

Quote :

Rubio also told GQ that with the exception of his wife, Republican South Carolina Sen. Jim Demint was his best friend in the world.

“He’s a great source of wisdom as a person who’s had to make decisions that have made him unpopular in his own party,” Rubio explained.

DeMint, who sits on the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, has called for creationism to be taught in schools and has argued that God put Christians in charge of “this vineyard we call America.”

happy jack wrote:

So, you have an apparent problem with a presidential candidate whose faith leads him to say that he has no idea of the precise age of the earth, yet you had no problem whatsoever drooling over a presidential candidate whose religious mentor exhorts his faithful to pray that God damns America.

Yes, until such time as you have any sort of evidence that he share's his "mentor's" beliefs (or starts spouting demonstrably false creationist nonsense)... Not all Catholics share similar views on pedophilia as their "mentors" do, you know.

Why Doesn't Florida Senator Marco Rubio Know How Old the Earth Is?

Quote :

The Earth is 4.54 billion years old.

We know this because science works. A large number of independent fields of science show that the Earth is terribly old, and all these different scientific areas—highly successful in their own rights—converge on the same age of the Earth. This number is very well known, very well understood, and the process behind its determination is a foundational assumption across all fields of science.

. . .

Actually, it's not a great mystery. It used to be ... a century ago. I am a scientist, and I can tell you that nowadays—thanks to science—we know the age to amazing accuracy. The age of the Earth is 4.54 billion years … plus or minus 50 million years. That’s a number known to an accuracy of 99 percent, which is pretty dang good.

Sen. Rubio’s answer, however, is so confused and error-riddled its difficult to know where to start.

He goes on to give Rubio's "reasoning", if you can call it that, a thorough fisking. Greg Laden weighs in. So does Andrew Sullivan.

And this shouldn't be news. Rubio isn't new to creationism:

Quote :

An evolution compromise approved on Feb. 19 by the State Board of Education was the best that could be achieved in that body but legislative action to protect academic freedom of teachers offering criticisms of Darwinian evolution is possible, House Speaker Marco Rubio told Florida Baptist Witness in a Feb. 20 interview.

Rubio said the Board of Education’s addition of “scientific theory of” before each reference to “evolution” in new science standards for Florida’s public schools was “the best fix available” with “the way those votes were lining up.”

Although he and other House leaders supported the theory compromise in a Feb. 19 letter to members of the Board of Education, Rubio said critics who believe explicit language protecting academic freedom is necessary “may be right.”

. . .

The “crux” of the disagreement, according Rubio, is “whether what a parent teaches their children at home should be mocked and derided and undone at the public school level. It goes to the fundamental core of who is ultimately, primarily responsible for the upbringing of children. Is it your public education system or is it your parents?”

Rubio added, “And for me, personally, I don’t want a school system that teaches kids that what they’re learning at home is wrong.”

. . .

Rubio, a Cuban-American, made a comparison to the strategy employed by the Communist Party in Cuba where schools encouraged children to turn in parents who criticized Fidel Castro.

“Of course, I’m not equating the evolution people with Fidel Castro,” he quickly added, while noting that undermining the family and the church were key means the Communist Party used to gain control in Cuba.

“In order to impose their totalitarian regime, they destroyed the family; they destroyed the faith links that existed in that society,” he said.

Although the evolution issue is “obviously” on a “much smaller scale,” both matters are related to the “fundamental question of who is in charge of the upbringing of children. Is it parents or is it the government? I believe it’s parents. And we should do nothing in government that undermines that relationship.

“And there are parents that passionately believe in this and they should be given the opportunity to teach that to their children without someone undoing it,” Rubio said.

Rubio's schools are no longer for teaching provable facts, but rather reinforcing whatever asshattery is taught at home in the name of religion. Awesome.

And finally, in the "Why the hell does it matter what that asshat believes" category, Scientific American published a rather lengthy article explaining exactly that.

Antiscience Beliefs Jeopardize U.S. Democracy

Quote :

In Brief

A large number of major party contenders for political office this year took antiscience positions against evolution, human-induced climate change, vaccines, stem cell research, and more.

Such positions are surprising because the economy is such a big factor in this election, and half the economic growth since World War II can be traced to innovations in science and technology.

Partisans at both ends of the political spectrum have been guilty of science denialism. But the Republican version is particularly dangerous because it attacks the validity of science itself.

U.S. voters must push candidates and elected officials to express their views on the major science questions facing the nation or risk losing out to those countries with reality-based policies.

As does Paul Krugman:

Quote :

But here’s what you should realize: when Rubio says that the question of the Earth’s age “has zero to do with how our economy is going to grow”, he’s dead wrong. For one thing, science and technology education has a lot to do with our future productivity — and how are you going to have effective science education if schools have to give equal time to the views of fundamentalist Christians?

More broadly, the attitude that discounts any amount of evidence — and boy, do we have lots of evidence on the age of the planet! — if it conflicts with prejudices is not an attitude consistent with effective policy. If you’re going to ignore what geologists say if you don’t like its implications, what are the chances that you’ll take sensible advice on monetary and fiscal policy? After all, we’ve just seen how Republicans deal with research reports that undermine their faith in the magic of tax cuts: they try to suppress the reports.

Ted Cruz for president? What it would mean for the GOP in 2016

Quote :

New reports suggest the Tea Party favorite and newly-elected senator is already eyeing a bid for the White House
Published May 1, 2013, at 11:40 AM
Could Ted Cruz do what Obama did, and win the White House just four years after being elected to the Senate? Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images

Is Ted Cruz getting ready to throw his hat in the ring in 2016? The National Review seems to think so. According to the magazine's report citing Cruz's "friends and confidants," the Texas senator is seriously considering a presidential run.

The junior senator from Texas, who was just elected in November, has several things going for him. As David Frum notes in The Daily Beast, "Texas is home to the biggest lode of GOP donor money in the country." Not to mention one of Ted Cruz's close pals is PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, who, according to The National Review, contributed $250,000 to Cruz's campaign when he was running for Texas attorney general.

Cruz also has serious cred with Tea Party conservatives. Before his keynote speech at this year's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Cruz was introduced by Sarah Palin, who, according to The Houston Chronicle, called Cruz a fearless leader who "chews barbed wire and spits out rust."

It seems fair to say that if the point of the presidential primaries was just to fire up the base, the Republican Party would be thrilled with Cruz's candidacy. Alas, the winner goes on to battle for independent swing-state voters in the general election — a job that, if the RNC's post-election "autopsy" is to believed, might be better suited to a more moderate candidate.

And though Cruz remains incredibly popular with Tea Party voters, he is not as beloved by his Republican cohorts in the Senate and the mainstream media. Earlier this week, Cruz referred to some of his fellow senators as "squishes" for not standing up for their conservative principles, according to Politico. That didn't play well in all Republican circles.

"There is being principled, and then there is being a jerk," wrote The Washington Post's conservative blogger Jennifer Rubin. "Putting down your colleagues to boost your own street cred with the base falls into the latter category."

Infighting like this has some Democrats hoping that the rumors are true, and that Cruz really will run. TPM's Josh Marshall could barely contain his joy on Twitter:

Quote :

Sleeper Agent Cruz Executing Plan to Ensure 3rd Dem Presidency livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/national… via @davidtaint
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) May 1, 2013

Clearly, the first real challenge to a Cruz candidacy would come from within his own party. Will the GOP reform in 2016 and try to appeal to young, independent, and Hispanic voters? Or will the Republican Party attempt to motivate its conservative base? One thing is for sure: Ted Cruz would make the 2016 presidential race a lot more entertaining to watch.

Awesome Who better to take down the entire GOP ticket then the reincarnation of Joe McCarthy?

Speaking of awesome, LOL.

---
Breaking News from NationalMemo.com
---


Tea Party Group Hopes To Draft Sarah Palin For Senate
Race

Could Sarah Palin make a political comeback in 2014? That is the goal of the
Tea Party Leadership Fund, which is trying to draft the former vice-presidential
candidate to run against Senator Mark Begich (D-AK) in Alaska's 2014 Senate
election.

“You and I both know that Sarah Palin is a fighter who will
stand up to Harry Reid and his pals in the Senate to protect our Constitution in
issues like amnesty, gun control and our nation’s crushing debt,” the group said
in an email to supporters. But if the polls are any indication, Alaska voters
are not prepared to give their former governor another chance. Find out why Begich should be rooting for Palin to
run.

Make room for another asshat...
Ted Nugent for President...Writer of the immortal words, “She’s so sweet when she yanks on my meat”

Quote :

The movie “Idiocracy” looks more and more prophetic.

   

Quote :

Hi, I’m Ted Nugent. I have nine children from seven women, and I’m running for president.”

   Nugent takes a sip of water, having delivered his potential slogan.

   “Yeah, I’m thinking about it.”

   We were in a conference room at the Hyatt Regency in San Antonio, where Nugent was an hour away from giving a speech to an association of entrepreneurs. It was a political gig; Nugent was to hail (without script) the power of capitalism, self-sufficiency and grit.

   He would talk about guns, of course. (He always talks about guns. Indeed, the meeting room he had requested before his speech was not for a meeting, but for a gunsmith to come repair one of Nugent’s many machine guns. The weapon then lay in pieces amid the neatly arranged hotel notepads, pens and full water glasses.) But the venue called for the all-purpose conservative Ted Nugent, the one increasingly in demand on a range of issues.

   And the one who says he is increasingly interested in running for office.

Giddy up
Please let it be

Texas Republicans: Rick Perry Leaving Governorship to Run for President
http://news.yahoo.com/texas-republicans-rick-perry-leaving-governorship-run-president-155832895.html

edge540 wrote:

Giddy up
Please let it be

Texas Republicans: Rick Perry Leaving Governorship to Run for President
http://news.yahoo.com/texas-republicans-rick-perry-leaving-governorship-run-president-155832895.html

Someone might want to explain to Gov Perry that memory is not like fine wine....It doesn't get better with age  

Early polling: Hillary Clinton leads the Democratic pack for 2016 by a mile, and would beat Chris Christie in a head-to-head presidential race

Quote :

The next presidential election is more than three years away, but early polling shows Hillary Rodham Clinton leading the Democratic pack by a landslide margin, with a whopping 63 per cent of Democrats telling pollsters that they would vote for the former first lady and Secretary of State.

Vice President Joe Biden came in second with 13 per cent support - barely one-fifth of Clinton's showing.

The GOP field is anyone's game, however, with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie only garnering 15 per cent support among Republicans to narrowly lead the pack.

He's followed by Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz - all clustered within 8 percentage points.

Clinton would beat Christie in a head-to-head matchup, the pollsters found, with 47 per cent favoring the former first lady and 41 per cent choosing Christie. She polls even better against Jeb Bush, with an 8-point margin, and against both Rubio and Paul, with a 12-point spread.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is poised for a landslide victory over her Democratic presidential rivals, but a lot can happen in three years

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie won more support among Republicans than any other GOP candidate, but his showing was only 15 per cent
47% — leads Chris Christie — 41% — by 6 percentage points. - See more at: http://maristpoll.marist.edu/724-a-look-at-the-2016-presidential-contest/#sthash.EY6tR6sy.dpuf

The McClatchy-Marist Poll surveyed 1,204 adults between July 15 and July 18. Eighty-one per cent of them are registered voters.

'Get ready for round two of Hillary Clinton as the inevitable,' Dr. Lee M. Miringoff, Director of The Marist College Institute for Public Opinion, said in a statement.

'The big question is whether she runs.'

"Clustered"? I think they meant "Clusterfuck"!

Ted Cruz Wins 2016 Straw Poll of Western Conservative

Quote :

On Saturday, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, received several standing ovations during the speech he made at the 4th annual Western Conservative Summit in Colorado.

On Sunday, he was the recipient of an even bigger prize: a victory in the conference’s straw poll for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, reports the Washington Times.

Cruz garnered captured 45 percent of the 504 total votes cast by those attending the three-day Summit.

John Andrews, founder of the Centennial Institute at Colorado Christian University, which hosted the event, said Cruz’s riveting address could very well be the start of a journey that ends up in the White House.

“We shall see what sort of crystal ball summiteers have in awarding that decisive nod to Sen. Ted Cruz, who was so magnificent from this platform,” Andrews said.

Gov. Scott Walker, R-Wis., placed a distant second in the straw poll with 13 percent of the vote.

Walker delivered the keynote address Friday.

Third place was shared by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and former Florida Rep. Allen West with 9 percent each.

West was the featured speaker at the Summit Sunday; Paul did not attend the conference.

Think the 2012 clown car was entertaining? 2016 will make it look it reasonable. Anyone know if Louie Gohmert R-Pluto has announced yet?  

RNC votes to boycott CNN, NBC over Clinton portrayals - See more at: http://blogs.mcclatchydc.com/washington/2013/08/rnc-votes-to-boycott-cnn-nbc-over-clinton-portrayals-.html

Quote :

The Republican National Committee unanimously passed a resolution Friday to boycott debates with CNN and NBC if the two networks don't drop plans for Hillary Clinton "productions" ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

The statement -- titled a "resolution in support of media objectivity and accountablity and of an orderly presidential primary debate process" -- charges that with Clinton "likely to run" for president in 2016, "CNN and NBC have both announced programming that amounts to little more than extended commercials promoting former Secretary Clinton." It charges the planned projects are "an attempt to show political favoritism and put a thumb on the scales for the next presidential election."

It notes that Robert Greenblatt, chairman of NBC Entertainment, contributed the max to Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign, and contributed to Obama's 2012 campaign Victory Fund and that the RNC wants both networks to "cancel the airing of these political ads masked as unbiased entertainment" or it won't participate.

Some have suggested the boycott gives the party a way to cut the number of primaries and the resolution notes that the RNC "shall endeavor to bring more order to the primary debates and ensure a reasonable number of debates, appropriate moderators and debate partners are chosen, and that other issues pertaining to the general nature of such debates are addressed."

reasonable number of debates - Few as possible. Hide the clowns
appropriate moderators - Sean Hannity,Rush Limbaugh,Pat Robertson, & Ted Nugent
debate partners - NRA,Stormfront.org,Ku Klux Klan,Haliburton

Ted Cruz Releases Birth Certificate Amid Eligibility Discussion

Quote :

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) released his birth certificate on Sunday in an effort to curb speculation that he is ineligible to run for president.

The document, published by the Dallas Morning News, confirms that Cruz was born in Calgary, Alberta to an American mother, immediately making Cruz a citizen of both the United States and Canada. As the Morning News points out, that means Cruz could run for office in Canada unless he later decided to renounce his Canadian citizenship.

However, Cruz spokeswoman Catherine Frazier denied the senator's dual citizenship.

“Senator Cruz became a U.S. citizen at birth, and he never had to go through a naturalization process after birth to become a U.S. citizen,” Frazier said. “To our knowledge, he never had Canadian citizenship, so there is nothing to renounce.”

Paging Orly Taitz..Paging Orly Taitz...Please pick up the white courtesy phone.

Start poppin the popcorn  
Cruz will renounce Canadian citizenship

Quote :

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) announced Monday evening that he will renounce his Canadian citizenship, less than 24 hours after a newspaper pointed out that the Canadian-born senator likely maintains dual citizenship.

“Now the Dallas Morning News says that I may technically have dual citizenship,” Cruz said in a statement. “Assuming that is true, then sure, I will renounce any Canadian citizenship. Nothing against Canada, but I’m an American by birth and as a U.S. senator; I believe I should be only an American.”

The Dallas Morning News wrote in a story posted late Sunday night that Cruz likely remains a Canadian citizen, by virtue of being born there to an American mother. Having never renounced that citizenship, Cruz was technically a Canadian and an American citizen, according to legal experts.

Cruz said his mother told him that he could claim his citizenship if he ever wanted to, but that he never pursued it and thought the matter was settled.

Legal experts say that Cruz is a Canadian citizen regardless of whether he asked for it or not.

“Because I was a U.S. citizen at birth, because I left Calgary when I was 4 and have lived my entire life since then in the U.S., and because I have never taken affirmative steps to claim Canadian citizenship, I assumed that was the end of the matter,” Cruz said.

Cruz, who released his birth certificate as part of the Morning News story, accused the media of focusing on trivial issues.

The release — combined with Cruz’s recent travel to Iowa — has re-animated the debate over whether he qualifies to serve as U.S. president since he was foreign-born. Most legal scholars say yes, but they also say it’s not 100 percent clear.

“Given the raft of stories today about my birth certificate, it must be a slow news day,” Cruz said.

So let me get this straight.....Cruz is foreign born in Canada and yet he's eligible to run while Barack Obama is a natural born citizen born in the US state of Hawaii and is ineligible according to the cuckoo wingnut crowd?

Here Ye,Here Ye!!! The 2016 Clown Car is officially open.   
Poll: Huckabee Is Now The GOP's Top Choice For 2016 After Libido Remark

Quote :

Uncle Sugar has apparently provided Mike Huckabee with a polling bounce.

The latest survey from Democratic PPP released Wednesday showed the former Arkansas governor surging among Republican voters nationwide in the wake of his head-scratching comment about the female libido.

According to the poll, 16 percent of GOP primary voters said they would prefer to see Huckabee as the party's presidential nominee in 2016, making him the top Republican in the field. Only a month ago, PPP showed Huckabee polling at 11 percent and trailing both New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) among GOP voters.

PPP's latest survey was conducted Jan. 23-26. Huckabee made his instantly-infamous remark during a speech at the Republican National Committee's winter meeting on Jan. 23.

"If the Democrats want to insult the women of America by making them believe that they are helpless without Uncle Sugar coming in and providing for them a prescription each month for birth control because they cannot control their libido or their reproductive system without the help of government then so be it! Let us take that discussion all across America because women are far more than the Democrats have played them to be," he said at the meeting.

The comment was rebuked by RNC chairman Reince Priebus and Rick Santorum of all people said Huckabee probably should have phrased it differently.

But even amid the ensuing uproar, Huckabee seemed to know that he had struck a chord with a Republican audience. Rather than apologize, he promptly circulated an email to supporters in an effort to raise money off the controversy.

Wednesday's poll indicated that Republican women weren't bothered by what he said either. With 16 percent support, Huckabee was the top choice among female GOP voters.

So it looks as if the winning strategy will be to out-crazy the others and continue the war on women. Perfect!  

Heard from Kathleen Parker today that Jeb Bush is definitely running.
Poll: Hillary Clinton would beat Jeb Bush in Florida

On a sad note she also said Mike Huckabee,one of my favorite clowns isn't 

Artie60438 wrote:

Heard from Kathleen Parker today that Jeb Bush is definitely running.
Poll: Hillary Clinton would beat Jeb Bush in Florida

On a sad note she also said Mike Huckabee,one of my favorite clowns isn't 

Yeah but there is still hope for Rick Perry, Bobby Jindal, Chris Christie, Rick Santorum and my all time favorite, Hermain got all this stuff twirling around in my head, Cain.

edge540 wrote:

Artie60438 wrote:

Heard from Kathleen Parker today that Jeb Bush is definitely running.
Poll: Hillary Clinton would beat Jeb Bush in Florida

On a sad note she also said Mike Huckabee,one of my favorite clowns isn't 

Yeah but there is still hope for Rick Perry, Bobby Jindal, Chris Christie, Rick Santorum and my all time favorite, Hermain got all this stuff twirling around in my head, Cain.

Don't forget Ted Cruz  

Ben Carson Moves Toward Presidential Run
Source: Weekly Standard

Quote :

Ben Carson is warming to the idea of running for president. Since the famous brain surgeon retired last year from Johns Hopkins Hospital, he’s been speaking around the country to enthusiastic audiences. And they’ve affected his thinking about seeking national office.

“Over the years, there have been many attempts to get me to throw my hat in the political arena,” Carson writes in his new book, One Nation: What We Can All Do to Save America’s Future. “I have been offered support from around the country and tremendous financial resources if I decide to run for national office. But I have not felt the call to run.”

Carson writes that he suspects many others interested in high office would be better candidates. But in his book he has a caveat: “If I felt called by God to officially enter the world of politics, I would certainly not hesitate to do so.”

Interviewed this week, Carson said he’s “starting to feel it. Because every place I go, it’s unbelievable.” One lady “really touched me the other night … She just kept clinging to my hand and said, ‘You have to run. You have to run.’ And so many people tell me that, and so I think I’m starting to hear something.”

Always room for another extremist nutcase  

Sen. Ted Cruz wins presidential straw poll at New Orleans conference

Quote :

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has won the latest 2016 presidential straw poll at a conservative summit in Louisiana.

Cruz took 30 percent of the vote at the Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans. He edged out conservative speaker and author Ben Carson.

Organizers at the annual conference say about a third out of 1,500 delegates voted in the straw poll. Delegates had to pay to register for the conference and vote in the straw poll.

Cruz promised delegates Saturday to continue his uncompromising approach on Capitol Hill.

Carson did not speak at the conference.

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Texas Gov. Rick Perry trailed Cruz and Carson in the poll.

Can't wait for those debates with this pack of lunatics and probably more on the way. Just wait until the GOP establishment attempts to limit the amount of debates. There are going to be some very angry crazies if they try that.

Look who's back  
Herman Cain says he might run for president again

Quote :

NEW ORLEANS -- Herman Cain, who ended his 2012 presidential campaign amid allegations of multiple affairs, said Saturday that he might run for president again in 2016.

Cain, in a speech at the Republican Leadership Conference here, brought up the prospect of another run toward the end of his speech. He then suggested he would do it if he were called by God.

“I do not know what the future holds, but I know who holds the future," the Georgia businessman said. "And I trust in God.”

Cain, 68, was a brief front-runner for the GOP nomination in 2011 but dropped out, before any actual votes were cast, in early December of that year.

Cain got a rise out of the crowd when he taunted the media and liberals whom he blamed for his ouster.

"The liberals thought that they had shut me up," Cain said as the crowd rose to its feet. "I'm back!"

Interestingly, Cain's performance was a virtual repeat of his speech before the same crowd four years ago, when he teased his 2012 presidential run -- the "dark horse" -- before walking off stage.

Doesn't god always end up telling these loons to run? Oh and good luck explaining that "999" tax plan that would have raised taxes on 84% of Americans.

Signing off for the night because god told me to  

For once I would love for the mental midgets actually swayed by the "God told me to run" line to finally ask the losing asshat in question, "WTF dude?  Did you lie or was God wrong?"

Followed, of course, by the requisite public stoning. 'Cause Jesus.

From the 2012 POTUS campaign...
God Caught Backing Multiple GOP Candidates for President

Quote :

After a thorough investigation, Daily Intel has discovered that God is separately backing at least three different contenders for the Republican presidential nomination. Over the course of the past few months and even years, God has sent signs and direct messages to each of these candidates encouraging them to run, presumably without telling them that he supports other candidates as well.

Herman Cain: When Cain's granddaughter was born in 1999, Cain says his first thought upon holding her was, "What do I do to make this a better world?" Cain told Christian radio host Bryan Fischer in January, "I know that that had to be God almighty sending that thought through my mind." That's the background for what happened twelve years later. While campaigning for president around December of 2010, Cain was feeling tired and discouraged when he received a direct sign from God that he must continue. This sign was delivered via God's preferred method of communication, the text message:

Cain has also heard from God more directly, as he told a tea party rally in April:

 

Quote :

Cain told the crowd about his battle with cancer in 2006, saying he's been "totally cancer free" for the past five years.

   "You want to know why? God said, 'Not yet Herman,'" Cain told the crowd. "God said, 'Not yet. I've got something else for you to do.' And it might be to become the president of the United States of America."

Rick Santorum: But around the same time God was encouraging Herman Cain to run for president, he was also telling Rick Santorum to throw his hat in the race. As Karen Santorum told CBN's David Brody in May about her husband's decision to run for president, "It really boils down to God's will. What is it that God wants? ... We have prayed a lot about this decision, and we believe with all our hearts that this is what God wants."

Michele Bachmann: Meanwhile, Michele Bachmann is all but certain to jump into the race soon, and when she does, it will signal that God has been quietly encouraging her to run for president as well. As Bachmann told World Net Daily in 2009, she would never run without God's personal endorsement:

 

Quote :

"If I felt that's what the Lord was calling me to do, I would do it," she answered. "When I have sensed that the Lord is calling me to do something, I've said yes to it. But I will not seek a higher office if God is not calling me to do it. That's really my standard.

   "If I am called to serve in that realm I would serve," she concluded, "but if I am not called, I wouldn't do it."

Bachmann recently confirmed that she has, indeed, "had that calling and that tugging on my heart."

God hasn't been universally generous with his support. He went out of his way to let Mike Huckabee know that he shouldn't run for president, lest he take his focus off the much more important task of producing a series of conservative American history DVDs. And though God arranged for Sarah Palin to be chosen as John McCain's running mate in 2008, there's nothing to indicate that he backs her potential candidacy in 2012. Nevertheless, the fact that God has privately encouraged the candidacies of three different Republicans may cause voters to question whether, in reality, he really even has any preference at all.

God could not be reached for comment by press time, because, a spokesman says, he was helping a baseball player hit a game-winning home run, giving an old churchgoing lady the winning lottery numbers, making sure that a plane made it through the turbulence okay, helping someone survive a heart attack, and also, just for fun, creating a new animal that's like a cross between a leopard and an alligator.

An early preview of insane accusations these loons will try to float...
ABC cuts off Rick Perry’s conspiracy rant about Obama, immigrants, drones, and hurricanes

Quote :

ABC News host Martha Raddatz on Sunday cut off Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) after he spent four minutes defending a conspiracy theory that President Barack Obama was plotting to fill up the United States with undocumented immigrants.

Speaking to Fox News last week, Perry had asserted that the president was responsible for the growing crisis of women and children immigrants coming across the border.

Quote :

“We either have an incredibly inept administration, or they’re in on this somehow or another,” Perry opined. “I mean I hate to be conspiratorial, but I mean how do you move that many people from Central America across Mexico and then into the United States without there being a fairly coordinated effort?”

During a Sunday interview on ABC News, host Martha Raddatz gave the Republican governor a chance to back away from his conspiracy theory.

Quote :

“Governor, do you really believe there’s some sort of conspiracy to get people into the United States by the federal government, by the Obama administration?” Raddatz asked.

Quote :

“When I have written a letter that is dated May of 2012, and I have yet to have a response from this administration, I will tell you they either are inept or don’t care, and that is my position,” Perry said, doubling down on the theory. “We have been bringing to the attention of President Obama and his administration since 2010, he received a letter from me on the tarmac… I have to believe that when you do not respond in any way, that you are either inept, or you have some ulterior motive of which you are functioning from.”

The former Republican presidential candidate added that his theory was proved by the fact that the president had not responded to his letter, and had not deployed drones to the border.

“Unless we secure our southern border, this is going to continue to be a massive amount of individuals that are coming to the United States,” Perry warned. “And, frankly, we don’t have a place to house them as it is. And if we have a major event, a hurricane that comes in to the Gulf Coast, I don’t have a place to be housing people who are displaced because this administration…”

At that point, Raddatz interrupted Perry and ended the interview.

“Okay, Governor, I’m going to have to stop you there,” she said. “But thank you very much for joining us.”

A little taste of what we have to look forward to when these wackadoodles start running fior POTUS..
I attended the Values Voters Summit so you didn't have to

by Dante AtkinsFollow for Daily Kos

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I happened to be in Washington, D.C., last weekend with a little bit of spare time on my hands, so I did what any enterprising progressive blogger with a penchant for masochism would do: I went ahead and secured myself a media credential for the annual Values Voters Summit, the annual confab where the leading figures on the right who consider themselves presidential material go to pay homage to the dominionist theocrats who can make or break a Republican presidential candidacy. How bad is this thing? Really bad:Goal Thermometer

The Values Voter Summit is when prominent Republicans go pay homage to the nastiest elements of the far right. The event is hosted by the SPLC-listed hate group Family Research Council, a group that earned designation as a hate group by the SPLC for their flagrant anti-LGBT attacks and misinformation, and hosted specifically by Tony Perkins, an anti-LGBT conspiracy theorist of the highest order. Fellow SPLC-listed hate group American Family Association is well represented; their most prominent voices, Bryan Fischer and Tim Wildmon, are known for declarations that homosexuality should be criminalized and that gay people were responsible for the Holocaust. And yet the supposed leading lights of the Republican party cannot wait to be seen with and make speeches catering to that crowd, yet again, as they do every year.

In short, this is the conference you go to if you think the problem with conservatism is that the movement is not sufficiently anti-gay, anti-woman, and anti-Muslim. And the 2014 edition certainly did not disappoint, as possible presidential hopefuls like Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Rick Santorum, Bobby Jindal, and Mike Huckabee took center stage in the effort to prove they would be the proper leaders to pursue that particular brand of Christian supremacy.

The best way to keep these crazy people on the sidelines? Throw in $5 right now to elect Democratic women up and down the ballot.



This was my first ever visit to a right-wing conference, and admittedly I was hoping for more theatrics or ostentation from the assembled crowd. It seemed like a relatively small audience—not even enough to fill the ballroom to capacity for the main lineup of presidential hopefuls—but perhaps after watching Netroots Nation grow hand over fist year by year, I'm spoiled on the size of the political conferences I attend. In any case, there was only one costumed tea party fanatic in neo-Bostonian colonial gear waving a Gadsden flag, and only one truck parked outside proclaiming that the end of the world would soon be upon us. The crazy, then, may not have come from the audience, but it most certainly emanated from the stage. And its commander-in-chief? Ted Cruz did his best to contend for the position, but the winner had to be Sarah Palin.

I hadn't heard her speak live before, and her time on stage was every bit as awe-inspiring as you can imagine. The sense of wonder started with the introductory montage, which concluded with a silhouette of a bear rearing up on its hind legs to roar. This may not sound funny in and of itself, but the production was so silly and cartoonish that it had most of the press row breaking sternly officious character and breaking out into giggles.

Palin's speech wasn't much better. Her speaking style has a grating combination of self-pity, mockery, and condescension, and it might be at least an interesting tenor for an address if her talk had anything resembling a beginning, middle, or end. Instead, it was roughly a half-hour of randomly organized sniveling attacks and efforts at self-defense, including a laughable tidbit about how Alaskans don't wear wedding rings because they are always chopping wood or skinning a moose. And of course, there was this classic quote that gave the address of the White House as 1400 Pennsylvania Avenue. It's a good thing she never became president; she would have gotten lost trying to find her way home.

But if the speakers were doing their best to tap into the zeitgeist of the attendees, it's clear that this year;s values voters are more afraid of Muslims than they are of the LGBT community (and perhaps just as afraid of the IRS as they are of Muslims). The lone possible exception was Rick Santorum, who described the failure to pass a constitutional amendment in the 1990s with an ominous "evil was allowed to endure" tone. Every speech gave at least some lip service to the notions of "traditional marriage" and preserving "religious liberty" from the hordes of well-funded same-sex activists, but in the sessions I observed, the attacks against LGBT rights were presented entirely in these coded terms of protecting Christians at home and abroad from discrimination. By contrast, it seemed that every speaker at the general session was petrified that they would be beheaded by a follower of ISIS at some point later that day.

But that shouldn't be taken to mean that the leaders of the values voters movement are conceding the point on marriage equality. Indeed, the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) was a prominent presence, both in the plenary sessions and in the subsequent breakout panels. The upshot was always the same: an attempt to persuade the audience that despite the series of court rulings and public opinion polling supporting marriage equality, the fight was not over and that campaigning against marriage equality was still a winning issue. In fact, one of the breakout sessions on Saturday was led by NOM political director Frank Schubert, and attempted to lay out the case that marriage equality was not inevitable. The crux of the argument was two-fold: the first part was based on reading tea leaves from previous Supreme Court decisions that could imply that Justice Kennedy, who is widely viewed to be supportive of same-sex marriage, will actually uphold the rights of states to forbid equality should such a case be heard. The second was that all the polling indicating increasing support for same-sex marriage is skewed and you shouldn't believe it:

The third factor was that polls that showed majority for support for same-sex marriage had those findings because of "priming" where a series of questions leading up to a big question (like gay marriage) swayed the voter to say they supported same-sex marriage.

That's all part of a strategy of the other side to mislead the public to think there's broad support for legalizing same-sex marriage, Schubert said. The tell, Schubert continued, is that advocates of gay marriage lean more on judges ruling that gay marriage bans are unconstitutional and less on individual states' votes on same-sex marriage.

"If in fact the other side believed their rhetoric —that the game is changed, that people are now on their side, history is now at their door, don't you think that they would press votes to happen now?" Schubert.

Of course, Schubert wasn't just interested in unskewing polls; he also wanted to unskew facts. For instance, he claimed that if the Supreme Court upheld the rights of states to ban same-sex marriage, that Proposition 8 would once again be the law of the land in California. The problem, of course, is that Proposition 8 was found to violate the state's constitution, not the federal variety—so no matter what the SCOTUS does, marriage equality will still be the law in California.

I have but one regret about my time at the Values Voters Summit: that I could not attend more than one breakout panel. After NOM's amusing attempt to justify its own continued existence, I headed over to the panel named "How conservatives can win with millennials and women." After all, who wouldn't want to hear some conservative activists explain how they will find success preaching to a demographic that wants no part of what they stand for? The panels on common cause among social conservatives and libertarians was a tempting offer, as was the panel decrying the "hook-up culture." But in the end, I could not resist temptation. And I was not disappointed, for at panel I learned things that I simply did not know.

I learned that millennials oppose killing babies, until we hear it is a conservative position. I learned that the media is responsible for telling people that conservatism is bad. I learned that men are not involved enough in abortion politics, and need to have a bigger say in the decisions women make. I learned that Kristan Hawkins of Students For Life believes that "young, pretty girls" are best suited for recruiting fellow students into anti-abortion politics until Rand Paul did a filibuster on the topic, and then we couldn't get enough. And I also learned that hormonal contraceptives are "dangerous chemicals" like cigarettes and asbestos. In fact, I'd like to re-emphasize that point. Hawkins railed twice against the widespread availability of contraception because it is a dangerous chemical, just like cigarettes or asbestos.

What I didn't learn anything about was how conservatives intended to do anything to win over millennials and women besides saying the same crazy things they always say, except just a little louder this time. And come to think of it, that was the upshot for most of the summit. America is secretly on board with their agenda, regardless of what the polling says. And all it will take to cut through the media clutter that is making it look like Americans are against them is just to clap a little louder for Jesus