Article VI Blog

…and yet, the new year brings so much of it.  If only Americans had an actual memory, so many people would have so few readers.

But who are we to buck the trend?  Let’s dive in.

Bernie Quigley at The Hill looks at the GOP future and measures all by the Tea Party movement.  First of all there is not a Tea Party movement – there are a bunch of tea party movements and if they are going to drive the GOP bus they have got a lot of organizing to do!  They have little in common save for a distaste of what is currently happening.  That mean much fury and noise, little governing action.  I look for the GOP to find a way to tame this beast, not follow it.  We need their energy, but libertarianism lies at its heart and that is not a smart formula for the nation any more than extreme liberalism.

At Forbes, Dan Gerstein thinks Jon Huntsman will return from China and throw his hat in the 2012 ring.  Bunk and nonsense.  If Hunstman wanted a run at the presidency in 2012 he would have never taken the China Ambassador post to begin with – despite his affinity for that nation.  Since this is the season for pure speculation, let me add mine.  Huntsman took the China post in part because he saw the Mormon issue in Romney’s ’08 run and wants nothing to do with it.  He is content to let Romney take the heat, and he’ll run when the fire is burned out.

Carl Cannon at Politics Daily declares “winners and losers.” In winners he says:

11. Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty: They didn’t do anything spectacular in 2009, but they didn’t do anything calamitous, either.

There is actual political wisdom in that.  About all that can be accomplished at this point of the game is disqualifying yourself.  Romney is playing his book tour smart too.

And speaking of political wisdom, this piece is about endorsements.  Read it, there is a great deal of insight how politics is really done and how endorsements help, and do not.

Mormon stuff…

Gallup released a Christmas time poll on how many American self-identify as “Christians.“  Now, I have to believe Mormons are so self-identifying.  Where are the protests from the usual subjects?  How come Gallup is not buried in protest mail?  How come people are not “concerned” that Mormons are using the poll to advance their errant beliefs amongst the American public?  Oh, I know it is probably out there buried deep in the bowels of the Internet – but you don’t see a lick of press on it.  The point I am really trying to make here is that somehow when it comes to the presidency, religion gets out of perspective as compared to where it sits in our lives when related to any other essentially secular topic.  Sometimes we are a very weird nation.

Speaking of Gallup polls, Glenn Beck is among the “most admired” Republicans and Mitt Romney is not.   That, dear friends, is a “Mormon issue” that Team Romney needs to confront now and hard.  In many senses it ties back into the Tea Party thing, but more, “Mormon” will be used to tie Beck and Romney into a big indistinguishable ball – and no reasonable candidate wants that.  Also makes me wonder if LDS officialdom wants to make a public statement about “media figures” like it did about politicians in re: Idaho.

Remember the Conan O’Brien thing of a few weeks back?  Lowell said:

The Conan O’Brien bit is not very funny, I suspect, to most people.  I didn’t find it offensive, just not funny.  Heaven knows there are funny things about Mormons and Mormon culture, but that skit missed them.

This commentator sounded a remarkably similar note:

Popular culture is a notoriously poor guide to understanding Mormonism as religion or a culture;…

But then said:

Conan and company got it just right in the end, though.

Her piece ends with the one word sentence, “What?”  I agree.

Finally…

Haley Barbour says it all:

“People are crazy if they think we win by getting more pure. We win by getting big.”

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