Webloggin » Presidential Contenders Without Conviction

Today I’m speaking Republican as a postmortem to yesterday’s atrocious debate. Nearly all of the nominees have changed their positions over time, pandered to one special interest group or another and flip flopped out of convenience in an effort to secure votes. In some respects this is a testament to electoral system. We are successful if we can get a candidate that will do the will of the people, and better off if that allegiance is rooted in personal conviction. But that is not the case for the front runners that stood on stage yesterday. The only thing worse than the pandering for votes was the unbelievably stoic and lifeless moderation by Carolyn Washburn of the Des Moines Register.

But this debate wasn’t about Washburn, it was about a group of Republicans who just made the Democrats jump for joy. The global warming fiasco that hit the stage was the tip of the iceberg. Nobody, not one person on that stage bothered to challenge the false premise that man is the cause of global warming. Not one of those supposed learned men bothered to note that global warming scam artists in the scientific community have been doctoring figures and essentially lying in a consensus driven effort to secure more tax dollars for a politically driven farce that is now called scientific research ala climate change.

Let’s start with Rudy Giuliani. He is often touted as the one that can beat Hillary. I have news for you. If Republicans put that political cross dresser on the ticket he is the one person that will defeat the Republican party. He fails on all cylinders, abortion, gun control, immigration, conservative values and now global warming. Here’s how Rudy came out the gate running on such a stupid question:

WASHBURN: I need to know is who believes global climate change is serious and caused by human activity.

GIULIANI: I do.

The thin lipped one followed it up with “I believe that global climate change is a serious” and “Climate change is real. It’s happening. I believe human beings are contributing to it. I think the best way to deal with it is through energy independence.”

Really Mr. Mayor? Now that you have the key words down can you point me to a time in the planet’s existence where climate change wasn’t occurring? Did you happen to read anything that pointed out that the change that is occurring today is minuscule compared to other periods where man couldn’t possibly have been a factor? Perhaps he was too busy secretly ordering up tax payer funded security for his mistress to have noticed that the planet warms and cools despite his hot air.

But the thin lipped one wasn’t alone. McCain comes up with the “what if we’re wrong” scenario.

Suppose that climate change is not real, and all we do adopt green technologies, which our economy and our technology is perfectly capable of. Then all we’ve done is given our kids a cleaner world.

But suppose they are wrong. Suppose they are wrong, and climate change is real, and we’ve done nothing. What kind of a planet are we going to pass on to the next generation of Americans? It’s real. We’ve got to address it.

Really? You think? Using the kids as a background prop is standard politicization. McCain might as well have said “what would Jesus do”. But in this case I even believe that Jesus would call you a pandering wimp; in much nicer terms of course.

Yes, climate change is real John. Just as it has been real for every human since the dawn of man. But what we have to address has nothing to do with environmental cookery. We need to wean the country off of oil because foreign nations hold us in their grip. Sure, make it green, come up with innovation that doesn’t pollute. But by all means don’t follow the snake oil salesmen down the road with piccolo in hand. In that there is harm. Taxation through carbon credits will be harmful for all but those who will get rich off such a hair brained scheme; government included.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment in this group was Mitt Romney. Not because he followed the crowd; in fact he was half hearted in coming along. It was as if he was waiting to see what others would say. But he raised his hand nonetheless and that moron at the podium wouldn’t even give him a chance to qualify it. But when Mitt finally did get a chance he punted on calling Washburn’s question out for the farce that it was.

Well, it’s going to help our economy because we’re going to invest in new technologies to get ourselves off of foreign oil, and as we get ourselves off of foreign oil, we also dramatically reduce our CO2 emissions. That’s good for the environment; it’s also good for our economy

At least the answer is closer to the point of removing our dependence. Yes Giuliani also mentioned that. But this is just the bumper sticker answer, the practiced one, the one that sells. Huckabee raised his hand as well.

What this shows me however is that not one of these wannabe world leaders bothered to research the issue beyond the platitudinous tripe they put out on the stage. Thus they will continue to be part of the problem because they don’t dare challenge the Democrat bible. A bible mind you that was created in the hope that simpletons would follow along like sheep; not a thought in their little heads except that one little voice that repeats “global warming deniers, baaad”.

This was an embarrassment; it put me back some. Going into the debate I was for Mitt. He had me sold. But now I don’t know. I am back a few squares. What I didn’t see on stage was change. These guys don’t seem to get it. Americans want change. They want a candidate that will stick to his guns and answer with thoughtful rational conviction. Unfortunately that is the the one thing I didn’t see on the big stage in yesterday’s train wreck of a debate.