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Cheater Paul, and Perry - Eyebrows and Eyeliner
Reflections on the Third Republican Presidential Debate
-by Scott Rohter, September 2011

After watching the Third Republican Presidential Debate on TV, now I remember why I don’t like to watch debates on TV.  In fact, I don’t like to watch any important political ideas being communicated over the television.  How does one actually watch a debate anyway?  You are supposed to listen to a debate, not watch it!  Ideas and thoughts are communicated through the power of words, either written words or spoken words.  Television is primarily a medium of visual communication.  One doesn’t actually listen to TV as much as one watches TV!  Listening is just a secondary function of watching the TV.  And to whatever extent the viewer is concentrating on visual imagery and messages, they cannot possibly be paying the necessary attention to the actual words and thoughts of the candidates in the debate.  The subtle, or direct way that the various candidates make their case, either for or against the issues, is lost upon the viewer.  That is because we are all distracted to one degree or another, by the overpowering, exaggerated importance of the visual messages that are conveyed by the television, which are sometimes misleading or irrelevant.

For instance, who had the best make-up last night?  Well it certainly wasn’t my personal favorite, Michele Bachmann!  Who drew those long dark lines from the corners of her eyes half way to her ears with an eyeliner?  I know it’s totally irrelevant and unimportant to the message that she brings, but whoever did her make-up last night should be fired!  And if she did this to herself, may I humbly suggest a basic cosmetics class!  That’s just my opinion.

I love her positions on all of the issues, and I know that she is totally right when she said that whoever wins the Republican Primary will actually be our next President.  So our challenge as Republicans is to pick the very best conservative, and Michelle Bachmann is hands down, without a doubt, the best conservative candidate in the race!  Rick Santorum is probably the next best conservative, followed by cheater Paul, and Governor Perry.  By the way, what’s up with Ron Paul’s eyebrows anyway?  What the heck has he done to them?  Yes I know that Ron Paul is technically a registered Republican, but really, all kidding aside, he is a Libertarian.  There is actually a Libertarian Party, you know.  Why doesn’t Ron Paul play fair, and run as a Libertarian, instead of always choosing to run as a Republican?  Well, we all know the answer to that question, don’t we?  Some Libertarian ideas are a little bit kooky, such as bringing all of our troops home immediately from wherever they are, and legalizing the use of all recreational drugs!  I don’t agree with these policy positions.  But Ron Paul is probably far and away the most principled disciple of limited Constitutional government in the race, and I am certainly on the same page with him on that issue!  However, he does not support the construction of a special security fence on our southern border with Mexico, and we have to part company once again on that issue.  Libertarians are only helpful up to a point, and for the rest of the way, we conservatives are all on our own!

This was my first opportunity to watch Governor Perry in action.  He is not only likeable, and good-looking, but he actually did have the best makeup.  The only thing that I found wrong about him, outside of his views on illegal immigration, was that his tie was a little bit crooked. But his positions on illegal immigration are just going to kill him!  He shares Ron Paul’s views about a security fence along our southern border.  Governor Perry’s adamant opposition to the construction of a border fence is not very popular among conservatives either.   That’s not good!  He also doesn’t support the mandatory use of E-Verify, to cut down on the employment of illegal aliens in the workplace.  He also signed into law the Texas State Dream Act, which gives instate tuition benefits amounting to $100,000 to every illegal alien who wants to attend a Texas State College or University.  This preferential treatment, as Governor Romney correctly noted, is not even awarded to residents of the other 49 states, but only to illegal aliens coming into Texas from Mexico!  The Texas Dream Act is a magnet that draws illegal aliens into our country!

I understand Governor Perry’s positions on illegal immigration very well.  I understand that Texas has a very unique and special relationship with Mexico, and a shared history that goes way back, even before the founding of our Republic!  I know Texas is a border State, with a border culture, and it shares a 1,200-mile long border with our neighbor to the south.  They even have a special language down in Texas called 'Spanglish', or 'Texican'.  But Governor Perry’s policies on illegal immigration, although they might be popular in Texas, will not sell well north, east, or west of the Lone Star State’s borders!  Governor Perry is most assuredly an honorable man, who unlike Governor Romney, did not back away from his own policies. I both like him and respect him, but I don’t like his positions on illegal immigration! And he can not possibly win the heart of the conservatives in the Republican Party, or get the endorsement of the TEA Party with such views! 

If conservatives want to block Mitt Romney’s nomination, then we must all unite behind the only conservative candidate in the race that doesn’t present any weaknesses on policy issues!  That is Michele Bachmann!  We’ve allowed the Democrats to elect the first black President. Are we also going to let them elect the first woman President, and the first Hispanic President too?  Here we have in Michele Bachmann the perfect person to be our first female President!  She is well qualified, and half of the Republican Party just simply wants to ignore her, and hope that she goes away.  What the heck is the matter with this Party?  No one has to beat on her door to persuade her to run, like the Democrats initially had to do with Barack Obama.  She actually wants to be our first woman President. Is the Republican Party so stupid that we are just going to throw this wonderful opportunity away?  Her position on all of the important issues is correct. 

Michele Bachmann’s Positions on All of the Important Issues

Illegal Immigration

Stop it

ObamaCare

Repeal it

The Federal Deficit

Reduce it

Big Government

Shrink it

The Department of Education

Eliminate it

The National Debt

Pay it without raising taxes

What more could the Republican Party hope for in the first female President of the United States, except perhaps, that she be Mother Teresa?  I’ve encountered some real stupidity in the Republican Party before, but this really beats the cake!  If Michele Bachmann wins the Republican nomination, she should pick either Rick Perry, Marco Rubio, or Herman Cain to be her Vice Presidential nominee.    That is my conclusion after watching The Third Republican Presidential Debate. 

In the future I will probably go back to listening to debates instead.  But this was also my first opportunity to observe Governor Romney and Governor Perry head to head, and there was a reason why Romney and Perry were standing next to each other, side by side on the stage.  I’ll get to that later.  Remember, the liberals want Romney to win the nomination.  “The progressive strategy has always been to get the two most liberal candidates, one from each Political Party nominated in their respective primaries, and then to promote the most progressive of those two candidates in the general election.”  Romney is very comfortable and at ease in the public spotlight, however he has had far more practice than anyone else on stage, except perhaps the chameleon, Newt Gingrich!  He has certainly had more experience in the national spotlight than the Governor of Texas! Remember Romney ran for the Republican nomination once before in 2008, so he knows what to expect, and although he doesn’t like to acknowledge it, he comes from a political family, perhaps even a political dynasty.  He is the son of the former Governor of Michigan, George Romney, so if he does win the Republican nomination, then we will have elevated another political family dynasty to lead our country again, like the Kennedys and the Bushes.  In my opinion that would not be a good idea!

So, Governor Perry wasn’t as comfortable as Governor Romney was in the national spotlight. So what!  But he also wasn’t as well behaved when listening to the inevitable criticism that was leveled at him, by the other candidates who are running against him, especially Mitt Romney!  Governor Perry didn’t play as well to the camera as Governor Romney did, when his record as the Governor of Texas was being attacked.  He wasn’t as well controlled when he was under fire.  His eyebrows went up and down numerous times whenever he heard things said about him by Governor Romney that he obviously disagreed with, and the wide angle lens of the camera was quick to pick up on that!  That was the whole point of putting Perry and Romney next to each other, side by side on the stage!  Sure it made for good television, but more importantly, the Liberal Elites who own the Media wanted to make Governor Perry look silly, (and they succeeded) because they want Romney to win the Republican nomination. 

Obviously Perry was not as comfortable with all of the unfriendly, personal criticism as Romney was, but Romney has had far more practice at biting his tongue, and holding his eyebrows in place, until it is his time to speak.  Governor Perry looked right at the audience when Governor Romney was attacking him, and not realizing that the camera was recording him, he would raise his eyebrows and look exasperated whenever he heard Romney say something that he disagreed with.  This made Governor Perry look rather foolish and easy to read.  The President of the United States must not be that easy to read, or that easy to upset, because they will have to deal with some pretty bad characters in the world, like Vladimir Putin, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Kim Jong-il, just to name a few! 

I have never been a Mitt Romney fan, but I have to give a fair assessment of what I saw.  He was more polished and politically sophisticated, and less easily irritated, and thus he came off looking more Presidential than Governor Perry did. But don’t be fooled by all of the visual imagery and the chicanery going on.  Governor Perry is an honorable man who owned up to all of his own policy positions.  Governor Romney has flip-flopped on some issues enough times that his relatives could very well be dolphins!  And if Governor Perry had as much practice in the National Spotlight as Governor Romney has had, then he too probably, could be just as slick at pulling the wool over our eyes, which is why you really can’t believe anything that these guys say when they are running for office.  You have to look at their political records before they are seeking higher office, and judge them by their deeds, not by their words!  That’s where the television could really come in handy, if it could record their actions while they are in office, not just their rhetoric in a National Debate! That is why I support Michele Bachmann. Because all of her actions during her three terms in Congress have been exemplary. She has stood against the Establishment, and ObamaCare, and the increase in the Federal Debt Ceiling, and she has earned my vote not by what she says in a campaign debate, but by what she has actually done while in office. That contrasts starkly with both Governor Romney’s, and Governor Perry’s records!

In the end, both Romney and Perry have their Achilles’ Heels! With Romney it is the whole idea of government, any government, State or Federal, telling any American that they must purchase a health insurance policy. Government mandated Health Insurance is a real deal breaker for me. If and when I choose to buy health insurance, it will be my own personal choice. It should not be legislated by any government! With Governor Perry, his weakness is his soft illegal immigration policies!

But since when did this Republican Primary become a race between just two men? That’s what the mainstream media would like you to believe, and that’s what they would like to turn it into. May I remind you that there have been only two polls that really matter so far. In the first poll in Iowa, Michele Bachmann won. In the other poll in Florida, Herman Cain won. Everything else is just a lot of hype and spin by the Liberal Media!

Michele Bachmann doesn’t have any weaknesses on policy issues.  We actually do have a candidate in this race who is a solid conservative, and the opportunity when the Republicans win this time, to overturn everything that President Obama has done, and march this country back to the right, to limited Constitutional Government and greater personal freedom….  Or you can just pick another typical, checked pants, country club Republican, like Mitt Romney, and just pace time for the next 4 or 8 years, until the next radical, left-wing Democratic Administration gets back in power again in Washington!  I prefer not to let that happen, and I would never willingly give the ‘Socialist Democratic Party of America’ another chance to limit our individual liberties, and to increase the size and scope of the Federal Government.

In conclusion, anyone who is supporting Mitt Romney over the real Constitutional conservative in this race, Michele Bachmann, would be happy with just temporarily stopping the radical progressive agenda in this country for 4 or 8 years, instead of pointing the country in the other direction and reversing course!

"The truth, the political truth, and nothing but the political truth.
A journalist has no better friend than the truth."
- Scott Rohter

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