HillBuzz Open Thread, Saturday, May 19, 2012
The State Republican convention is taking place here in Minnesota, and last night the nomination for the Senate candidate took place. As they promised, the Ron Paul coalition got the man of their choosing, Kurt Bills, and he won with 64% of the vote. Ed Morrissey of Hot Air is there to cover the convention first hand.
I’m sure this information isn’t very exciting to you, but it’s a pretty big deal here in Minnesota, as the Senate nominee has to run against a very popular Democrat, President Obama lackey, Amy Klobuchar.
Ron Paul spoke at the convention last night, and was very well received. Not surprising since Ron Paul supporters won a majority of delegate seats this year.
What’s happening in your State conventions? Is the tea party making inroads in YOUR State?
Photo via: photos. twincities.com
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Questions from a non-Minnesotan:
So is Mr. Bills a Paulian, or someone well grounded that the Mr. Paul decided to back? Is the Minnesota Republican establishment going to back him or give him the Christine O’Donnell treatment and help the Dems retain their seat?
No, I think Mr. Bills is simply a Republican. I believe the Paul delegates chose him because he’s the least of the “established” politicians. I’ve seen Kurt Bills speak, and he’s excellent. I’m pretty sure the Republicans will get fully behind Mr. Bills.
All 3 of the candidates for Senate were excellent, so the choice of Bills is fine with me.
I’ll campaign for Bills to help kick Obama’s phony sycophant, Amy Klobuchar(our Dem Senator),to the curb.
Romney Is Wrong on Wright
By Karin McQuillan
Yesterday Romney was asked by Townhall’s Guy Bensen if the Reverend Jeremiah Wright is “fair game” in the 2012 election. Romney gave the wrong answer.
Message to the Republican establishment: do not muzzle those of us who want to focus on Obama’s troubling history with angry Marxists, black and white, including Reverend Wright and Bill Ayers. This is not about race. It is about knowing who Obama is, understanding what he has already done to our country, and what he is capable of doing.
The issue of Reverend Wright is not peripheral, it is central. It gets to the heart of the differences between conservative and progressive views. Democrats have won on the field of character assassination — they have defamed and destroyed respect not simply for Republican candidates, but for all Republican voters. When Republican party leaders refuse to inform the public about the hateful, radical character of the liberal/progressive agenda for America — so visible in Wright and Obama — we are hobbling ourselves, and we will lose the bigger fight, which is about identity, core beliefs and values. To examine Obama and Wright is to ask who we are as Americans, what we want for our future, and to face the dangers the Obama presidency poses for our country.
It’s time to stop accusing Republicans of racism as a way to silence them. We are the party that has stayed loyal to Martin Luther King’s vision of a color-blind society.
I served in the Peace Corps in Senegal, and had the experience of living in a country where race wasn’t an issue because everyone was black. I don’t judge blacks, including black politicians, by different standards than I judge whites. Nor can I be easily cowed by the fear people will say I’m a racist. I risked my life to help black people in one of the poorest countries in Africa. I’m not going to come home and tolerate my freedom of speech and thought restricted because Democrat politicians like to call political opposition racism and Republicans are afraid to stand up to them.
It doesn’t matter to me if Reverend Wright is black, white or purple. The salient fact to me is that he is a hater. I refuse to be cowed by slurs of racism that are meant to protect the actual racist: Reverend Wright.
Democrats say that Obama’s church is old news or that it isn’t important to know about anymore. They say this because they can’t say the ugly information about Obama’s chosen church is untrue.
Obama pickled himself for decades in a church that taught black grievance and white guilt. His chosen guide and mentor preached envy, income redistribution, and hatred of rich whites, which included the entire middle class. We have seen in our president a politics Wright would be proud of — that is why is it both right and important to focus on Wright.
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/05/romney_is_wrong_on_wright.html#ixzz1vLFzcPKd
I think the sentiment here, as it is in many other parts of the country, is that people want common-sense men and women of good character, citizen legislators, in office. We’re tired of the career politicians, the “It’s His/Her Turn” candidates, the “I’m an ‘outsider’ but you need to elect me because I’ve served a long time, have lots of experience as a politician and know all about the inner workings of Washington” (#facepalm) candidates.
Does Mr. Bills have a realistic chance of defeating Sen. Klobuchar?
Sen. Franken is up in 2014, correct?
I don’t know if he has a chance. The problem is, he’s only had 18 months experience a a State House member. The other two candidates had much more experience, and neither of them were the “darlings” of the Republican party.
Bills is an incredible speaker, so if they get him out front, get him some decent ads, and get him in debates with Klobuchar, he may have a chance. Of course, you know how weird my State is. Jesse Ventura and Franken are two examples of the nutso voters in Minnesota.
I’m not sure when Franken is up. I think 2014 is right.
This is about where Eric Hovde is — but with a good ad campaign as well as a lot of appearances (especially in front of conservative and Tea Party groups), he is starting to get his name out there, and is gaining ground (from a recent poll he had done with a reputable firm, he is now in a statistical dead heat with Tommy Thompson). This is what Mr. Bills needs to do too — get out there and get his message heard.
Yup. Too bad our State Republican party is broke. If the Paulbots are really behind this guy, then they better get on the phones and get those donations rolling in. They took over the party, so they have to RUN the party.
I hope your guy Hovde does well. I’m just curious: Didn’t Wisconsin love their Tommy Thompson? I thought he was the Governor who got the welfare to work program rolling.
You bet I will : )
He did, and he was a pretty good governor, but he was not always the most fiscally conservative, and frankly, the glory years of the 80s and 90s are over. They cannot be re-lived. He’s also 71. He had opportunities in 2004, 2006 and 2010 to run, but he chose not to (after making people wait while he took his time to make a decision). He was W’s HHS secretary for two years, and at one point spoke favorably about ObamaCare.
We need fresh blood. No more retreads.
Got it. That’s enough for me.
Look, HillBuzzers, saving this country is a local, county, state, then national fight. But if you don’t start in your back yard, the guys who have been career politicians will keep screwing us.
GET ACTIVE LOCALLY!
Thanks, Hope!
I hear that a Ron Paul delegate conceded his spot to Bachman rather than taking it to a second ballot. Is that true? If so, what do you think about that?
I believe that the majority of Ron Paul supporters (loud, crude ones aside) want to join with the Republican party respectfully to change America for the better. I hope you will judge us on that, not on the ones who are rude.
Thank you for treating me well, Tammy. It means a lot to me.
I’m not at the convention, but I’ll find out about the Bachmann thing. Daniel, you have earned my respect by being respectful. The story I wrote about the experience I had in my district convention was all true. I don’t lie about things like that. I hope the Paul supporters have calmed down since then, and I will be interested in hearing how they behaved at the State convention.
Naw, I never thought you were lying. I just thought you were telling the story from your point of view, and I thought perhaps you might have had a bad impression of us.
Most of us are pretty calm, but some loud ones are very loud. They are not exactly our poster children.
If you want to hear coverage of the event today, go here and listen to Ed Morrissey and Mitch Berg in the video.
Ron Paul won 12 of 13 delegates for the nomination.
http://hotair.com/archives/2012/05/19/narn-minnesota-gop-convention-edition/
Winning the Wisconsin recall effort is looking positive.
The DNC has pulled out its support.
Reince Preibus says the RNC is “all in.” Finally, the RNC supports a conservative.
Even the liberal Journal Sentinel backs allowing Walker to complete his term.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/we-recommend-walker-his-removal-isnt-justified-l55ecb6-152111305.html
HopeandChange, we wish you Wisconsites the best! I am sure you are familiar with the saying, “As California goes, so goes the nation.” It was considered conventional wisdom, and to be honest it was not incorrect. We are doing our best to turn that tide around. If Walker survives this recall challenge, perhaps it will start us on a path of “As Wisconsin goes, so goes the nation,” and the progressives will go into grand mal seizures.
Did you see DPW Chair Mike Tate’s response? You can see the absolute frustration (and I think he got all the talking points in) in this press release: http://www.wisdems.org/news/press/view/2012-05-in-scott-walker-endorsement-milwaukee-journal-sentin#.T7lOKflZB2E.facebook
Tom Barrett has come out with a very nasty ad, starting with jobs and ending with John Doe — this is what we’re going to get for the next two weeks. Yet another reason to keep the TV off.
Disappointed Minnesotan here. I quite frankly think that Bills is a union plant. I just have a bad feeling about him and him being Ron Paul endorsed doesn’t help. used to like Ron Paul, but when I took my first serious look at him last year, peeling back the layers made him look surprisingly similarly unaccomplished just like Barrakula. My caucus was over run by rOnpaulBOTS. Notice how rpbots and obots fit together there? This way, the unions can have their Klobuchar or Bills, all the same, and the unions win.
I don’t know if Bills is a union plant or not, but he’s a pretty good speaker. In this speech he claims he is for the “Right to Work” bill (that’s going nowhere, btw).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNEGU2q40lo
If Bills is for real, then he may be like me: A union member who thinks that our State should be right to work.
I guess we’ll find out in the upcoming race against Klobuchar whether he’s a union plant or not.
I hope your assessment it wrong.
What did you think of the “unity” speeches given at the convention?
I wasn’t able to go to the convention, but my boyfriend did. Speeches are speeches. Obama gave great speeches, too, or so some people thought.
The thing about Bills is that he is a Paul guy and according to an email that I got from the RP campaign (because no matter how many times I tell the to F off and how many times i unsubscribe, they will not honor my requests-very Obot like, same thing happened to me in ’08) Bills used RP’s End the Fed book in his classroom. Anybody who can’t see RP for what he is, an old white version of Obama with no record of anything, all talk, no action, is not a realistic candidate in my book. Audit the Fed is much different than a totally unrealistic End the Fed. End the Fed is equal to Obama’s Close Gitmo.
I took a college World Politics class and when we talked about the economy, the unfortunate things is that it is a world economy now. The only way to really end it is to put an end to the US dollar and then you could end the fed.
I am sick of pie in the sky politicians who realize very quickly that they cannot accomplish the bull they spewed to get elected and then sit back and collect their money and perks and really do nothing.
I am sick of Obots and sick of rOnpaulBOTS and if Bills thinks Ron Paul is all that, then he is not worth me going to the polls. I was gonna work my a– off for Severson, but I am not going near Bills or giving my money because I will not feed the RP animal. The last thing I want to do is help embolden RP bots who still think they can play games at the convention and bring them their messiah, RP.
Forget it. I wish the Republican party would actually be republican. If I wanted to be a libertarian, there is a party for those that I could join.
Damn straight. Ron Paul should not call himself a Republican, because he’s really a libertarian. Calling yourself a Republican when you are not one is lying. Which is very Obama.
Look, let’s fight to get Obama out of office. Kurt Bills probably doesn’t have a chance in hell of beating Amy, and after reading your post, I probably WON’T campaign for him.
Please send me more links and info as to Bills teaching RP in his high school.
Thanks! Keep fighting! You will calm down in a few weeks, as I had the Paulbot experience a few months ago in my district, and I was fuming.
I have to disagree. I believe the Libertarian party is just a split off of the Republican Party, which happened when some people thought that the Republican party had left the small government philosophy.
Look, a party is just a party, not a belief. He is not lying when he says he is part of the Republican party, he is trying to undo some of the changes that have been made to the party since it was formed in the 1850s.
There are (more accurately, were) conservative Democrats, and there are liberal Republicans. Ron Paul is a very conservative (using the small government definition) Republican. If he was running as a Libertarian, he would be a very conservative Libertarian. If he was running as a Democrat, he would be a very conservative Democrat.
The party is simply the vehicle used to get ideas into office. I am a very conservative Republican. Ron Paul is a very conservative Republican. We are not libertarians, we just share many beliefs with them.
Bills is a teacher at my kid’s school. He came door to door and my husband and I had a long talk with him. We talked a lot about the conflict he may feel being a conservative in a teacher’s unions, He agreed and he expressed a passion about harnessing the control unions have on our education system. Seemed like a good guy. My kid actually thought as a legislator, he didn’t have much power to change the economic issues that he talks about most. So perhaps, a Senate role will suit him better.
Disinformation 101:
Teacher tells high school student he can be arrested for speaking ill of The Wonce:
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/n-c-teacher-tells-student-he-could-be-arrested-for-talking-badly-about-obama/
Games. I don’t see how it is much different than how Obama threw everyone off the ballot to become a state senator.
http://www.theblaze.com/contributions/media-shows-no-signs-of-understanding-the-ron-paul-strategy-so-let-me-explain-it/?corder=desc#comments
Obama focused on the caucuses, too.