My First Annual Political Academy Awards

Photo source: Wikipedia

Everyone’s talking about the Oscars today, and it occurred to me that they ought to have similar awards for politicians. Here then, are the winners of my first annual Political Academy Awards.

The Tammy Faye Baker Thickest Makeup Award: Nancy Pelosi

The Sylvia Plath Award for most suicidal performance at a political convention: the Republican Party for its treatment of the Ron Paul delegates.

The Josef Goebbels Award for Excellence in Selective Editing: MSNBC

The Barry White Award for Best Score: David Petraeus (get it? score?)

The Veruca Salt I Want It Now Award: Sandra Fluke

The Robert Mugabe Award for policies most likely to reproduce the economy of Zimbabwe: Paul Krugman

The Mr. Ed Award for Best Performance by a Horse: John Kerry

The Fred Astaire Award for Best Choreography: Mitt Romney explaining the difference between Romneycare and Obamacare.

And finally, The John Barrymore Award for Best Actor in a Work of Fiction: Barack Obama promising not to raise your taxes.

Michael Isenberg is the author of Full Asylum, a novel about politics, freedom, and hospital gowns. Check it out on Amazon.com

To my Ron Paul friends

Photo source: Politico

To my Ron Paul friends:

You know I love you all.

You know I think you’re the future of the Republican Party.

You know I think the GOP Establishment acted swinishly, and with little regard to its own interests, in overturning the results of caucuses, after you worked your butts off to learn the rules and get chosen as convention delegates, fair and square.

Now grow up.

I didn’t vote for Romney in the primaries either. But Barack Obama threatens the freedom that is the core of our political philosophy. It’s time to work together to toss him out on his ass. If we don’t, the prediction I made in my novel Full Asylum of armed government CREEPS in black body armor kicking in our front doors may very well come true.

Does Romney offer everything we want? No. Can we tell the difference between him and Obama on the issues that are important to us? Absolutely. Obama has grown the government to a level unknown since World War II: Washington now spends 25% of GDP. Romney promises to claw that back to less than 20%. Obama has put more pages of new regulations in the Federal Register per year than any president in history. Romney promises to roll them back. And while Romney may not want to End the Fed, he does promise to replace Bush/Obama appointee Ben Bernanke with a chairman who will exercise some restraint in running the printing presses.

Will Romney keep these promises? I don't know. But we’ve seen how Obama governs; we know from experience what he’ll do if he’s re-elected. No, Romney may not keep his promises, but that’s the way to bet.

So please give Mitt your support. I know you won’t join me in taking Ron Paul to task for his classless refusal to do so. But at least stop tweeting that you’re going to vote for Obama. Obama? Seriously? The guy who spends his life trying to think up ways to get around the Constitution?

Also, please be polite. Do not support displays like this one that occurred on the convention floor yesterday:

Reports are conflicting. But as best I can reconstruct it, Ron Paul supporters, rightly angry that some of their delegates wouldn’t be seated, tried to shout down Committee on Permanent Organization chairwoman Zoraida Fonalledas as she began to present the credentials report. Romney supporters responded by drowning out the Paul supporters with shouts of “USA!” Because Ms. Fonalledas happens to be Puerto Rican, the net result was a lovely bit of video that the Democrats are already using to reinforce their fabricated “Republicans are racist” narrative. Giving ammunition to the enemy doesn’t help our cause.

I leave you with a question: Politics is the art of the possible. What is possible in 2012?

Michael Isenberg is the author of Full Asylum, a novel which shows what America will look like if Obama is re-elected. Check it out on Amazon.com.

A Ron Paul Coup?

Santorum and Gingrich are out of the race and the New York Times is showing Romney with 847 delegates out of the 1,144 needed to win the Republican Presidential nomination.

The view from the Ron Paul camp is they got Romney right where they want him.

On Saturday I attended the Liberty Love Fest in Worcester, Massachusetts. Ron Paul supporters from all over New England gathered for speeches, music, and an occasional cigarette that didn’t smell like tobacco.

But what really excited the faithful was the outcome of the state GOP caucuses earlier in the day. Although Mitt Romney won the Massachusetts primary on Super Tuesday with a big enough margin to get all 27 delegates up for grabs, when it came time to actually select the delegates at the caucuses, the preliminary result was more than half went to Ron Paul. The Boston Globe explained, “The complexion of the delegation may not matter much to Romney’s nomination: All delegates and alternates are committed to vote for him. But the delegates will get to choose the chairman, vote on a platform, and support whomever they choose for vice president.” (“State GOP’s caucus picks leave Romney slate slighted”, April 30, 2012). As the Globe article notes, the rules commit the delegates to vote for Romney on the first ballot. However, in theory, if they had enough votes, they could change the rules (Ted Kennedy tried that maneuver, unsuccessfully, at the 1980 Democratic Convention).

Since Saturday I’ve encountered similar articles from around the country:

PolicyMic, April 29 “Ron Paul Embarrasses Romney Campaign By Winning Louisiana Delegates”

PolicyMic, May 1: “Ron Paul Keeps Winning as Supporters Prepare For a Battle With GOP Old Guard”

Las Vegas Sun, May 2: “RNC to NV GOP: Don’t let Ron Paul delegates take over national convention slots or don’t bother coming to Tampa”

Is there a story here, or just wishful thinking by the Ron Paul camp? Hard to say without a clearer idea of the number of delegates involved. What I can say is that if Mitt Romney’s supporters had half as much enthusiasm, persistence, and organization as Ron Paul’s, the November election would be a shoo in for him.