IR Report on First 2023 Republican Primary Debate

Tonight at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin the first Republican Presidential Primary debate will be held. Former President Donald Trump has said he will not appear but instead clips of him will be shown for the candidates to respond to. This year the Republican National Committee (RNC) has set the following conditions for candidates to qualify for the first debate, namely that they have 40,000 individual donors, and they must have 200 individual donors from at least 20 states. Also the candidates must poll 1% in multiple polls. 

CBS reports that:

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, former Vice President Mike Pence, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamyand Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina all qualified for the debate.

Despise some drama of a basketball injury last night North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum will be at the debate. Chris Christie was once a staunch supporter of Donald Trump’s but has emerged along with Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson as the two Anti-Trump candidates at tonight’s debates. Nikki Haley, Mike Pence, Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramasway, and Tim Scott have all been running to various degrees as somewhat Trump like. In full disclosure we must reveal that our sympathies at tonight’s debate are with Governor’s Christie and Hutchinson, we will strive to show fairness in our appraisal of the other candidates.

This will be the first time in almost three years we have watched Fox News. But seeing as the network is the broadcaster for this debate, we have to go into the lions den to watch it. We figured we would watch and report on the debate so you don’t have to! Of course we as always would love to hear any feedback you have regarding tonight’s debate. We just pray it doesn’t devolve into a freak show!

Martha Macallum and Bret Baier moderated the debate. Ground rules for the debate are the moderators asked the questions, candidates have one minute to respond, if someone is singled out they have 30 seconds to respond.

DeSantis spoke first and proceeded to attack the congress for overspending, attacked the Biden administration. Argued for the need to reduce taxes and spending.

Christie said he disagreed with DeSantis by saying that in order to be successful in reducing inflation, taxes and deficit spending that Republicans need to sell their plans and win over a majority of the public. 

Tim Scott alternated between promoting some ideas of his own and attacking the Biden administration.

Vivek Ramaswany argued that his experience as a family man and entrepreneur give him the outsider perspective needed to help guide the country to better economic times. So far his conspiracy theories haven’t come up.

Nikki Haley opened by attacking Republicans for passing large spending bills including many of the other candidates on the stage while also attacking Donald Trump for raising the national debt. So far Haley is the only one to criticize Trump.

Mike Pence opens by praising the Trump-Pence administration, Pence criticized Ramaswamy for saying the President can’t do everything. Vivek and Pence started to have an exchange saying that Vivek lacks the experience to be President. DeSantis then fired back attacking the Trump administration for COVID lockdowns. Ramaswamy seems intent on pushing the line that he is an outsider.

Governor Doug Burgum opened with a joke about his recent leg injury, and criticized the Biden administration regarding energy policy.

Asa Hutchinson talked about his record as a tax cutting and budget balancing Governor. He argues that he has experience as the head of the DEA, as a Governor and a Prosecutor give him the needed skills to be President.

So far DeSantis is doing better than we expected, Ramaswamy seems to be doing most of the talking. Pence has been more aggressive than we expected but doesn’t seem to be scoring many points. Nikki Haley is appearing more thoughtful, independent and articulate than many would have thought she would be. Chris Christie has been willing to go after Vivek for being to inexperienced. Tim Scott pointed out that the United States has drastically reduced its carbon footprint and points out as Nikki Hailey has that China by far produces more carbon output than America and that is where we need to crackdown on carbon emissions.

Impressions so far of the debate is Nikki Hailey and Ron DeSantis have helped to revive their campaigns so far. Mike Pence is not making up any ground. Hutchinson has done okay but is not standing out enough. Christie is getting plenty of attention, remains to be seen if it helps him. Burgum is alright but isn’t making enough waves.

The moderator’s next turned to the subject of abortion and how the issue has affected the Republican Party. Nikki Hailey says she favors late term abortions, favors the availability of contraception and not demonizing women who get abortions. She was met with great applause. DeSantis defended his record on abortion and tap danced around whether he would support a six week abortion ban nationally. Pence talked about his faith and said that he supports a fifteen week abortion ban. Hailey responded to Pence by saying that Pence needs to be honest about the difficulties in passing a nationwide abortion ban. Burgum stated he doesn’t favor a federal abortion ban because that is a state issue. Burgum was meet with great applause. Asa Hutchinson argue that infant care and adoption should be part of the dialogue regarding abortion.

Chris Christie when asked about gun violence. He stated that the laws need to be enforced and violent criminals should be held accountable for their actions. 

Now that we are about 52 minutes in we are finally going to be asked about Donald Trumps indictments! Love how Brett Baier referred to Donald Trump as the “Elephant not in the room”.

The candidates are asked to raise there hands if they would support Trump if he is convicted of crimes. Only Asa Hutchinson and Chris Christie refused to raise their hands. Chris Christie says that we cannot normalize a presidential candidate being convicted of crimes. Christie and Ramaswamy had a heated exchange over the issue. With Vivek defending Trump and Christie pushing back against Vivek as a foolish amateur. Tim Scott said that Mike Pence acted properly on January 6th, DeSantis refused to answer the question. Pence defended his actions on 1/6. Hutchinson said that Trump is morally disqualified from being president and that under the 14th Amendment Trump might be disqualified from being President. Christie emphatically defended Pence and pointed out that Republicans can’t move forward until Donald Trump is dealt with. 

After all the shouting over Donald Trump the debate moved onto the issue of Ukraine funding. Ramaswamy proceeded to rattle off his usual Pro Putin talking points and criticized Christie for going to Ukraine. Christie responded by discussing the war crimes of Russia towards the Ukrainians and said that if we refuse to stand up to Putin we will invite more tyrants by refusing to fight against dictators. Pence and Ramaswamy engaged in a bitter back and forth over the war in Ukraine. Ramaswamy was met with more boos than we expected from his alt right talking points. Nikki Hailey made the moral case for supporting Ukraine and stated that if our goal is to reduce China’s influence than we should help Ukraine defeat Russia. We are pleased that the reaction of the audience so far is one of support for Ukraine.

With only about a half hour to go in the debate here’s our thoughts: Nikki Hailey, Mike Pence and DeSantis are all doing much better than many thought they would at this point. The rumors of Hailey’s political death might have been greatly exaggerated! Mike Pence was aggressive but we seriously still doubt he will win the nomination. Ron DeSantis didn’t embarrass himself too much we still don’t think he’ll get the nomination. But his performance so far will keep his campaign alive.

Asa Hutchinson and Doug Burgum might drop out before Iowa. They just aren’t getting the traction they need tonight to further there campaign. Chris Christie probably is still a long shot for the nomination but he is doing a great job attacking Vivek Ramaswamy and Donald Trump. Before tonight we thought everyone would have knives out on DeSantis, instead it’s turning into a attack against Vivek! Probably because Vivek comes off as such an asshole they candidates probably just decided to attack him en masse. Donald Trump is also a loser by refusing to attend the debate he’s helped breathe new life into some of his opponents. Wouldn’t surprise us if Donald Trump eventually enters some of the future Primary debates. No doubt the fact that it took almost an hour before he was mentioned in any noticeable way. Will have to keep an eye on the polls over the next couple days and weeks to see who gains and if Trump losses any ground. 

The candidates gave their speeches about why they feel they can help inspire the American people. Interestingly all of the candidates even Vivek Ramaswamy struck optimistic tones about America and it’s future. This is a stark contrast to the apocalyptic doom and gloom ramblings of Donald Trump. This debate although tiring was not as depressing as we feared it would be. 

Mike Pence’s Town Hall

Mike Pence

Mike Pence announced today that he is running for President. Apparently he is still delusional enough to think he is of Presidential timber. This evening he took part in a Town Hall on CNN hosted by Dana Bash. 

He started by saying that he is running due to what he sees as the weaknesses of current President Joe Biden. He defended his actions on January 6th, 2021. He was asked if a vote for Trump is a vote against the Constitution, Pence refused to answer the question directly. Pence appeared to state that he would not pardon any January 6th defendants. Pence criticized the FBI for issuing the search warrant on Mar-a-Lago last year, Pence clearly has not either reviewed the circumstances of the warrant being issued or he is lying to try and score points with Trump supporters.

Pence was twisting himself in knots trying to argue that he supports the rule of law but doesn’t think that Trump should be indicted because of the divisions it would cause in the country. So far Pence is trying to be a Diet Coke version of Trump, similar taste but less filling. Much of the rest of the broadcast consisted of Pence giving standard talking points, and trying to avoid angering Trump voters to much. He kept trying to claim credit for what he thought the Trump administration, while at the same time arguing that Trump shouldn’t be president again. 

In fairness to Pence though he did express strong support for Ukraine against Vladimir Putin. Although Pence overdid it by saying he he met Putin and told him things he didn’t want to hear. We are having a hard time believing that Pence stood up to Putin when for four years he just supported and enabled Donald Trump. For all the times where to our amazement that we didn’t find ourselves thinking that Pence is a total moron, what good Pence said should have been said years ago, when it would have made more of a dent into Donald Trump. As Christ said: “It is by their fruits that you shall know them.” Our observation has shown to us that the fruits of Mike Pence’s time as Vice President to Donald Trump have been not only bad, they have been poisonous fruits. It is for that reason among others that we can no more support a President Pence, just as we cannot support a Trump or DeSantis presidency. We as Christians do believe in redemption and we do not believe Pence is beyond the grace of God, but like all of us, Pence must “reap what he has sown.” Pence’s redemption will have to be found outside of elected office. His time in office has beefed weighed on the scales and found wanting. 

So to Mike Pence we can only say: We truly wish you and your family long and happy lives. We want you to all do well, however your time as an elected official has passed and a new season in your life must begin.

RIP, Gordon Lightfoot

Gordon Lightfoot 1938-2023

It is with a heavy heart that we report on the loss of one of Canada’s and the world’s finest singer-songwriters Gordon Lightfoot. Lightfoot died yesterday at age 84. Rolling Stone magazine writing last night about his passing pointed out some of the highlights of the career of this most talented performer:

His most enduring works include “If You Could Read My Mind,” “Sundown,” “Carefree Highway,” “Early Morning Rain,” and “Rainy Day People”

Lightfoot’s deceptively simple songs, which fused folk with pop and country rock, have been covered by everyone from Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash to the Grateful Dead, Barbra Streisand, Jerry Lee Lewis, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Buffett, and the Replacements.

Here are some other tributes to Mister Lightfoot’s musical talents:

Sad news about a really good songwriter with a unique sound.

“Her name was Ann, and I’ll be damned if I recalled her face. She left me not knowing what to do” https://t.co/NDfppQk7yA

— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) May 2, 2023

Gordon Lightfoot left us today..
When Bob Dylan reveres you & turns to you when he needs to,you know you’re dealing with brilliance. From Canada,Mr. Lightfoot became the Mark Twain of folk music.Trains,rivers, loneliness,romance.His songs were covered by just about everybody RIP. pic.twitter.com/ybA6RrdKR9

— Michael Des Barres (@MDesbarres) May 2, 2023

So incredibly sad to learn of the passing of this incredible musical icon. Gordon Lightfoot was a personal favorite of mine, who soothed the hearts and souls of so many, and who united the world with his heartfelt lyrics and ballads.

— Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick 🇺🇸 (@RepBrianFitz) May 2, 2023

Gordon Lightfoot's Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald was the first single I ever bought. God, that song was on all the time for a while on the bus to & from school. Wrote out the lyrics because I thought it was so haunting and beautiful. Still do. RIP. https://t.co/G2G36eRzG0

— Nick Gillespie (@nickgillespie) May 2, 2023

This one is really hard to write. Once in a blue moon you get to work and hang out with one of the people you admired when you were growing up. I was lucky enough to say Gordon was my friend and I'm gutted to know he's gone. The world is a lesser place without him. I know I speak… pic.twitter.com/GsFOwEGnrq

— Bryan Adams (@bryanadams) May 2, 2023

via ⁦@nytimes⁩ -a true legend & national treasure of CANADA - his voice, lyrics & guitar patterns are intertwined with my childhood & reflected the beauty of that land.. #RIPGordonLightfoot https://t.co/qeRR9rqZeN

— Jill Hennessy (@JillHennessy) May 2, 2023

RIP. Too often underrated. https://t.co/4T79YmbiDZ

— Mike Murphy (@murphymike) May 2, 2023

Rest in peace, Gordon Lightfoot. pic.twitter.com/DY6ZpuXWi7

— Brian Wilson (@BrianWilsonLive) May 2, 2023

RIP https://t.co/PFjAJba8Xu

— Treat Williams (@Rtreatwilliams) May 2, 2023

Indy Republican’s View of Principles First 2023 Summit

Having attended last year’s Principles First Summit in Washington DC, naturally our humble correspondent was, of course curious to see just how the mood of the conference would be versus last year.

Also, we were curious to see how attendance would be at this year‘s summit, as opposed to how it was last year this time . We arrived at the Conrad, DC. In enough time to get registered for the summit and to take our place in the ballroom to begin the summit. 

Heath Mayo the founder of Principles first started off the summit by giving a little talk titled “Putting Principles First”, his speech was very well done, and basically covered what he felt are Principles First’s main goals. Heath said the main goal of the summit was to help grow the principled movement, and as Heath pointed out, we are principaled conservatives, and basically our goal is to work to improve our existing institutions, and that we favor empowerment over victimhood and also to point out how the America first movement is fundamentally anti-American, because it does not support the traditional view held by conservatives of America whatsoever. Mister Mayo also criticized the idea held by many at CPAC that unless we elect their particular brand of politicians, then basically the country is finished. This is similar to what Barry Goldwater wrote in his final book Goldwater in 1988, where he pointed out that “the sky will not fall in a member of Congress or the country, if they are not reelected.”

Next up was a discussion over the subject of why American institutions matter. Bill Kristol started off by discussing his recent trip to Europe, specifically to Prague in the Czech Republic, and had pointed out how they elected a new pro American president, and how, unlike at other past visits to Europe he was encouraged by many trends pro democracy trends he saw. Kristol also talked about the importance of reforming our institutions, and how institutions can help to mold character he also pointed out how the late great William F Buckley believed in guard rails and how he, Barry Goldwater and President Reagan tossed the John Birch Society to the curb back in the late 1960s early 1970s, which is of course an interesting contrast to President Trump and MAGA World that have embraced and empowered such silliness.

Mona Charen was the next one up to speak. She discussed the nature in which Americas institutions were under attack and does point out correctly that institutions sometimes behave badly and still do but she did discuss the positive aspects of institutions such as they can be character building and also they force people to work well together or face consequences when behaving badly. She pointed out how there needs to be accountability in order to make American institutions work better, the most key example that she gave was how the US Congress needs more accountability in order for it to start behaving better and for the members of it to live up to their oaths of office, she did point out though that just nonstop reflective attacks on institutions are what she called “social poison“ she also pointed out how institutions can decline and revive. As an example of she pointed out how the military in the United States had been in a state of decline in the 1970s, but how it started to revive quite a bit in the 1980s and 1990s she also points out how although some institutions such as the Heritage Foundation, Fox News, Claremont Institute, CPAC,etc. had caved into Trumpism. She pointed out that there were many that have refused to do so such as the American Enterprise Institute. She also pointed out how Alexis de Tocqueville said the great thing about America is Americans can create new institutions, overall, Miss Charen seemed to be fairly optimistic about our ability to reform our existing institutions, and also to create new ones, when warranted such as The Bulwark, The Dispatch, and Principles First joining together to promote their ideas, and to push back against extremism on the left and right.

James Waller, who was the last to speak on the subject of American institutions in their value, had stated that institutions are “the secret sauce of American exceptionalism“.

The next topic up for discussion was Americans, foreign policy institutions and Putin‘s war in Ukraine. Tom Nichols, started off by pointing out how now Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida had flip-flopped on Ukraine, and when he was in Congress was a start supporter of supporting America’s allies abroad. But has since turned against Ukraine.

Lieutenant General Mark Hertling pointed out why Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has gone so badly. He pointed out that Putin didn’t take into account sufficiently before launching his invasion. These included not considering just the size of Ukraine’s landmass the fact that it had nine major cities, and that Putin failed to do a troop to task analysis. 

A lot of issues that have been faced he said that have caused the Russians so much trouble fighting the Ukrainian’s, included the Russian army having a weak command structure, badly trained soldiers, and as he pointed out in warfare power equals resources times will. In warfare it’s not just a question of what resources you have, but how are they used. If they are not used effectively then it is ultimately counterproductive. 

The generals commentary on how resources have to be used effectively, and it is not just a question of do you have more and better resources than your opponent could also be applied to many other areas, especially the political sphere one area, which we will has promoted us here at this blog, to do a deep dive into is just how we as principled conservatives can use our resources, most effectively in order to push back against extremism.

The last member of the panel ambassador, Roger Noriega, pointed out that we as ordinary citizens can help support, the Ukrainian war many of whom are temporary in the United States directly, and also to make sure to contact our lawmakers, and to help them to understand that there is widespread support for continuing to help Ukraine. 

Stephen Richer the Recorder of Maricopa County in Arizona discussed how American elections help to uphold our democratic republic. Richer, who is the recorder of Maricopa county in Arizona and has received a lot of pushback for refusing to bend to President Trump and his allies during the 2020 presidential election. He also pointed out ideas on voter persuasion which consist of understanding what voters want, listening and engaging with them.

Governor Wes Moore of Maryland pointed out that the best way that office seekers can help to uphold democracy is that when they run for office is don’t just try to turn out their base only, but to campaign everywhere where they are running. The governor  pointed out during his campaign for governor in Maryland last year, he campaigned in his opponents hometown, while his opponent was away at Mar-a-Lago doing a fundraiser. And it did pay to campaign everywhere because even in areas where they weren’t many people who would support him they would take notice of his presence and several told him he was the first person running for governor to visit their town in 20 years. As to how to push back against election denialism, talk about how election deniers are not strong, powerful people. They are very weak because they have this entitlement mentality that they can only lose if they are cheated out out of a victory which is utterly at variance with our beliefs in free market competition, American exceptionalism, and letting the voters decide who wins.

Next up was Adrian Fontes the secretary of state of Arizona. Fontes said that you win elections by welcoming other voters in, you also have to make the people care about you as a person. If they care about you and what you stand for enough, they will ignore your party label. You have to reach out to people who disagree with you, being a person matters being assertive and aggressive when necessary to defending your values is important, but make sure to reach out to the voters and help to assuage their concerns. They may not agree with you, but if you present yourself well, and you engage with them directly, their concerns about you will be put will be put more at ease. And if they’re fairly comfortable with your person whether you defeat there candidate or not, it makes them less likely to believe that you’re trying to cheat them. 

After taking about an hour and a half or so for lunch, we then reconvened and our next discussion basically was about how to keep the peace after the incident of January 6, 2021 the riot on the capital. To assist in dealing with this question Alyssa Farah Griffin, a former Trump official and now a host on ABC’s The View interviewed Officers Michael Fanone and Harry Dunn, who are both police officers in Washington DC. The officers stated out that to break through the echo chamber of false information. Accountability is the way to do it. One of the reasons why there wasn’t really much of any in the way of violence after last years midterm was because so many of the January 6 rioters are serving time in prison in some cases several decades that definitely has had a deterrent effect against election violence. 

Next up was a live taping of The Bulwark Podcast, which was aired Monday March 6, 2023. The podcast was Charlie Sykes interviewing former US Ambassador to the UN, and former national security advisor John Bolton. Sykes asked good and hard questions of the ambassador and to Bolton‘s credit. He answered directly, sometimes not to the satisfactory of many of the audience, but he was willing to engage in a venue in which people would not agree with him across the board and we give him great credit for that. After the taping of the episode, we went back to get an autograph from the ambassador, and exchange a few pleasantries with him.

David Frum a good speech, writer, and political scientist, a veteran of both Bush administration’s, and a conservative critic of the presidency of Donald Trump, gave a brief but good speech, where he talked about how what we are doing with principles first is helping to make an impact. This year’s summit was larger than the last. Frum recounted about how William F Buckley in the early 70s moved to revive Conservatism and how in his opinion, he feels working within the two party system is the only way forward. Frum struck to us a more optimistic tone about the possibilities of working within the two party system to defend American traditions, as opposed to last years summit.

The discussion held after Frum’s speech. Was a panel about looking ahead to 2024, what their hopes were and what they were nervous about. Amanda Carpenter said what her hope was is that she hoped that Trump and Ron DeSantis would just destroy each other in the primaries, and that a somewhat sensible Republican candidate would get the presidential nomination. Sarah Longwell wants an alternative Republican candidate for president and also for Trump to lose badly she is of the opinion the only way that we are going to revive a healthy two party system is for the extremist sides of both political parties to suffer so many electoral defeats that they are largely powerless to affect anything on any significant level. We are in agreement with Longwell, and we continue to push back hard against extremism in both parties.

Nicholas Grossman said one thing he was grateful for is, is that Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger, also of Georgia, managed to not only win their primaries with a fair amount of ease, but also went on to easily get reelected, and also the fact that many election deniers lost is very encouraging. Mr. Grossman pointed out though that as did the rest of the panel that it is not just enough for Democrats, especially to oppose the craziness on the Republican side they also have to give people a positive vision going forward not just a reason to vote against Republican extremism, but also a positive case for themselves And also what is needed on the Republican side, is we need more people of goodwill, who are willing to engage in the political process and not be afraid to lose at times. This gave us a flashback to last year‘s conference when Miles Taylor had said what we can do if we want more principled people in politics, is follow the law of supply and demand, if we can increase the supply enough of principled people in politics, we can lower the cost to them of entering, basically following the principle that if you increase the  supply of something, the cost will go down.

Overall we were pleased with this years summit. We are noticeably more optimistic about the future than last year. We hope next year to have more discussions of policy issues and how to organize to reform both parties, and to keep building a more cross partisan coalition of principled conservatives. We were sorely tempted to send some veggie trays to Trump PAC CPAC labeled “Crudite”, but decided against it. Maybe we can troll them more next year!

Prologue: Principles First 2023 Summit

One of our intrepid reporters is attending this year‘s principles first summit. This is the third summit they have held and the second one that our humble correspondent has attended.

Last year’s summit was an enormous display of optimism and enthusiasm and helped the foundation for many Trumpist’s candidates in last years midterm elections. As conservatives who have seen our good name hijacked by the anti conservative disciples of Donald Trump, we especially look forward to the chance to meet with others in person and share insights, fellowship and strategies. This much sharing of knowledge is much needed and should prove to be an energizing experience as it did last year. 

We will be curious to see how and in what ways the mood of this years summit will be from last year. It is true that we have often felt as isolated from old institutions as many of the leaders of the Protestant Reformation felt 500 years ago from their churches. There will even be a discussion about faith at the summit. We will do our best to keep you updated as fast as possible about the summit and our impressions of it. 

We will especially be watching to see if attendance is higher than last year and also we will be watching to see if CPAC is showing signs of decline from previous years.

We will catch you all later, be safe and God Bless you all!

Never Jim Banks & Never Mitch Daniels: The Only Choice.

Paul Ogden has written an article that outlines very well the reasons why Jim Banks should not be the Republican nominee for U.S. Senator. We like Paul share his disdain towards Banks. We had reasonable encounters with Banks long ago, but he has since decided to go for a ride in the clown car of Trumpism. 

U.S Representative/Loser Jim Banks

In writing about Banks, Paul points out very ably Banks deficiencies:

Banks is trying to brand himself as a "proven conservative."  He is anything but.  Besides being an election denier and flouting the Constitution that he took an oath to support, hardly conservative positions, he voted for huge spending increases during the Trump era.  Banks has no problem with reckless government spending...as long as it is a Republican in the White House.

Given how badly election deniers lost in 2022, the nomination of Banks might put the seat into play, especially since it is a presidential election year when Democrats tend to do better in Indiana. It is easy to see the Democrats picking up a lot more metro Indianapolis area votes if Banks' is on the ballot.  In fact, Banks would probably lose Hamilton County and possibly take several Republicans in that county down with him.

Former Indiana Governor and Midget version of Trump, Mitch Daniels

As much as we are usually on the same page with Paul on the issues, we must take issue with his premise that Mitch Daniels would make a better candidate for the Senate as opposed to Banks. Paul’s assessment of Mitch Daniels as a potential Senator:

Fortunately, Indiana Republicans may have a better choice in 2024.  Former Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels is considering a run for the Senate.  I was not a big fan of Daniels as Governor.  He seemed to run a very loose ship and many of his appointees engaged in substantial mismanagement, which sometimes bordered on corruption.  Daniels did not seem to exercise much in the way of oversight over state agencies when he was governor. He'd just appoint someone and immediately check out.

We like Paul we’re not fans of Daniels tenure as Governor. We have a much more negative view of Daniels tenure than Paul does. Daniels didn’t seem to run a loose ship, he did run a loose ship. Also his appointees mismanagement didn’t border on corruption it was corruption! As for him appointing people and checking out, Daniels as anyone who has dealt with him at all can attest is a control freak, the corruption of his administration happened because he allowed and encouraged it to happen! His appointees didn’t go to the bathroom without his permission! As the old saying goes: “A fish stinks from the head down.” So if his administration was bad that’s on Daniels.

There are the issues at the Department of Child Services which may have resulted in the death of Tajanay Bailey back in 2007, the bungled privatization of FSSA which tied the state up for about a decade and cost hundreds of millions of dollars, and not to mention how his creation of the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC) in essence expanded pay to play politics, and let’s not forget the disastrous “Reign of Error” his administration created at the Department of Workforce Development. Not to mention the role that Daniels lackey Jim Atterholt played at the Indiana Department of Insurance played in forcing out Paul at that agency for just doing his job! 

Paul lastly had this to say of Mitch Daniels:

But when it comes to developing policy, which is the role of a United States Senator, Daniels is excellent.  While Banks' claim to be a conservative is performative, Daniels is an actual conservative, especially when it comes to fiscal matters.  As President of Purdue University, Daniels stopped the explosive growth in college tuition which has for decades outstripped inflation.

All we can say is by what yardstick is Paul using to call Daniels a conservative? If it’s respect for rule of law, Daniels fails. He failed to ensure the law was faithfully upheld when he was Governor, if he had given a damn about the law Paul would never have been fired from the IDOI! And the debacles at the state never would have happened. If we are to go by Daniels record in fiscal matters there Daniels gets a big fat “F”. It’s debatable just how much Daniels has reigned in college tuition at Purdue, but even conceding Paul’s point, the wastefulness of the FSSA debacle alone would outweigh any cost savings at Purdue a hundred times over! In regards to policy, Daniels mismanagement and corruption as Governor happened because of policy and law changes he enacted as governor! As for holding elected officials accountable, Daniels will do no better a job of that than Jim Banks. As Paul knows from personal experience Daniels goes after whistleblowers and protects the offending government officials! We will put links below to some of he and the late great Gary Welsh’s articles documenting Daniels attacks against whistleblowers.

We are proud to have Paul’s support, friendship and encouragement especially since our dear friend Gary Welsh passed. But on this issue we must disagree with him. Like Paul as someone who believes in the traditional conservative principles of Burke, Russell Kirk, Goldwater, Reagan and Buckley. I would like nothing more than to see a good republican be elected to the Senate from Indiana. But I would rather have a good liberal than a faux conservative like Banks or Daniels as senator. I will not vote for a Republican or Democrat who doesn’t stand for the rule of law, limited government and upholding the Constitution. Because none of those are supported by Jim Banks or Mitch Daniels I will not ever under any circumstances vote for either of those fools. 

Paul Ogden's posts on whistleblowing:

http://www.ogdenonpolitics.com/search?q=Whistleblower

http://www.ogdenonpolitics.com/2008/12/part-i-my-days-at-department-of.html

http://www.ogdenonpolitics.com/2008/12/art-ii-my-days-at-department-of.html

http://www.ogdenonpolitics.com/2008/12/part-iii-my-days-at-department-of.html

Paul Ogden and Gary Welsh's posts on the 2012 Department of Workforce Development's Whistleblowers:

http://www.ogdenonpolitics.com/2012/02/whistleblowers-attempt-to-report.html

http://advanceindiana.blogspot.com/2012/02/whistle-blowers-say-mismanagement-at.html

Happy Birthday to Rod Stewart

Sir Rod Stewart

We all want to wish Sir Rod Stewart a Happy 78th Birthday today! Sir Rod has been entertaining us all since the 1960’s with hits such as: “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy”,”Rhythm of my Heart”, “Have I Told You Lately that I Live You”, “Forever Young”, and he has also done his own take on classics such as “Twisting the Night Away” and “Have You Ever Seen the Rain”. There’s no denying Rod’s talents and may he always have the same youthful vigor when he finally reaches if he ever does old age!  

Remember as Rod Stewart says stay “Forever Young”

Congressman Pat Fallon Files Impeachment Articles Against Homeland Security Secretary

Congressman Pat Fallon (R-Texas)

The Hill reports that Congressman Pat Fallon (R-Texas) has filled a motion to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. According to the Hill:

The resolution claims Mayorkas “engaged in a pattern of conduct that is incompatible with his duties,” complaining that he has failed to maintain operational control over the border.

The resolution comes amid a busy week in the Biden administration. President Biden visited the border over the weekend for the first time since taking office, pledging to deliver more resources to the officers who patrol the region.

The primary basis for the articles of impeachment is the claim that Mayorkas lied to Congress — a case they back by pointing to two instances in which the secretary told lawmakers he believed the Southern border was under control.

DHS said Tuesday that Mayorkas has no plans to resign and argued that the grounds for impeachment pointed to by the GOP were both inaccurate and failed to meet the standards to qualify as high crimes and misdemeanors.

“Secretary Mayorkas is proud to advance the noble mission of this Department, support its extraordinary workforce, and serve the American people. The Department will continue our work to enforce our laws and secure our border, while building a safe, orderly, and humane immigration system,” Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Marsha Espinosa said in a statement.”

Our reaction as conservatives who believe in rule of law, and following sensible customs is that this move by Congressman Fallon is completely stupid and a waste of time. We have many political differences with the Biden administration but impeaching his Homeland Security Chief is just an example of useless showmanship. For starters Mayorkas is not going to be impeached, and even if he was Biden would appoint an acting head of Homeland Security. As more evidence that our fellow Republicans shouldn’t have sold their souls to Trump, it is likely that the Democrats will just use similar tactics towards them and probably much more effectively. If Congressman Gallon’s goal is to make sure the Democrats retake the House in 2024 he is off to a good start.

Indy Republican Predicts the 2022 Mid-Term Elections

Indy Republican’s Magic 8 Ball

Good evening everyone! We are less than 24 hours away to the first closing of the polls for the 2022 Midterm Elections. The polls have been up and down and all around. Despite the fact that we don’t envy anyone who has to make a prediction on this election, we have decided to consult our Magic 8 Ball (pictured above) and take our best stab at predicting tomorrows election results. We will be pleased if we get 30% of our predictions right, but we might not be that lucky.

U.S. House of Representatives Prediction:

We predict the Republicans will mostly likely pickup 10 to 25 seats to take control of the House. The Democrats will undoubtedly pick up a couple seats from Republicans. We predict that Adam Kinzinger’s seat in Illinois and Peter Meijer’s seat in Michigan will go to the Democrats, overall the Republicans will gain the necessary seats to take control of the House. We also expect that Alaska Democrat Mary Peltola will keep her Congressional seat. If she does lose we believe it will be to Nick Begich, we don’t believe former Governor Sarah Palin will win. Her time in politics, much like leisure suits has come and gone!

U.S. Senate Predictions:

We predict that the Democrats will keep control of the U.S. Senate and the breakdown will be either 51D-48R-1Independent (Assuming Evan McMullin wins in Utah), or 50D-50R maintaining Democratic control with VP Harris as the tie breaking vote. 

Here’s our map predicting tomorrow’s Senate results:

Here are some of our breakdowns of a few Senate races:

Pennsylvania: After the May Senate Primary in which Doctor Memet Oz narrowly won the GOP nomination, he kept continuing to trail Democratic Lt. Governor John Fetterman by a considerable margin in the polls. Recently Oz has been catching up and a few times seems to have polled ahead. This race should be a close one, but we predict a Fetterman win if only because of the Democratic Gubernatorial Nominee Josh Shapiro’s coattails.

Georgia: The Georgia Senate contest has been an absolute nightmare for real conservative republicans with former football player Herschel Walker as the GOP standard bearer facing off against incumbent Democratic Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock. This race has been a close one, despite Walker’s history of domestic violence, playing Russian Roulette, forcing women to have abortions, and his admitted dozen different personalities. Inspite of the closeness of the polls we predict a Warnock victory, and a 55% chance that this race will go to a runoff just like it did in 2020.

Arizona: Former Astronaut and incumbent Democrat Senator Mark Kelly started this race well ahead of his unhinged fake Republican Challenger Blake Masters. Recent polls have shown Masters gaining, but due to McCain and Goldwater Republicans hatred of Masters we predict a narrow victory by Kelly. In other Arizona news we unfortunately predict former Obama fangirl Kari Lake will win the Governor’s race.

Alaska: Due to ranked choice voting we may not know the winner in Alaska for a week or two. But we are confident in predicting that Lisa Murkowski will win reelection to the Senate, due to her strong support in the state and most democrats will pick her as their second choice on their ballot.

Utah: We have previously written about the Senate race in Utah between incumbent Republican Senator Mike Lee and Independent Challenger conservative activist and former presidential candidate Evan McMullin. Although Nate Silver’s 538 website gives Lee the edge in tomorrows race, we are going out on a limb and predicting a win by McMullin. We are basing this off of the fact that in the GOP Senate primary this year 38% of the vote was against Lee, also we believe the fact that the Lee campaign has shown itself extremely nervous during this race that indicates they aren’t so sure they will win. We are saying if McMullin doesn’t win it will be a close contest regardless and look for Evan to run again in a couple years for another office.

Nevada: In Nevada we predict that Catherine Cortez Masto will lose to her republican challenger Adam Laxalt. Laxalt seems to be reasonably ahead in this race, and although strange things have happened in Nevada, we don’t think Cortez Masto getting re-elected will be one of them.

Wisconsin: In the Badger state we predict unfortunately that Republican Incumbent Ron Johnson will defeat his Democratic challenger Lt. Governor Mandela Barnes, we think this might be a nail bitter though! 

Iowa: This is a race that looked competitive in theory anyway, our good friend Paul Ogden has written about this race. Unless a miracle happens Senator Charles Grassley will win an 8th term in the U.S. Senate. Which would tie the late Senator Storm Thurmond’s record for longest serving Senator assuming he lives out his term he will be 95 then, old Strom was 100 when he left the Senate. Admiral Mike Franken is a good candidate, and has run a good campaign but he should keep his powder dry to run for another office in Iowa.

Ohio: Former Never Trumper turned psychopathic ass kisser J.D. Vance will unfortunately we predict limp to a narrow victory over his opponent Democratic Congressman Tim Ryan. Ryan has run a good campaign and even if he loses he should run again for office. Should Ryan pull off a win expect a lot of talk of a “Draft Ryan” movement to spring up among Democrats. Elsewhere in the Buckeye State Republican Governor and real man Mike DeWine will crush his democratic challenger. 

New Hampshire:

Democratic Senator Maggie Hassan has and continues to lead in most polls against her Republican Challenger former election denier and retired Army General Don Buldoc. We predict Hassan holds her seat.

Indiana Predictions:

Here in the Hoosier state we aren’t predicting that much in the way of surprises. Let’s start with the Secretary of State’s race:

Secretary of State: Despite some problems that having been dogging the campaign of GOP Nominee Diego Morales we predict that he will defeat his challenger Democrat Destiny Wells. Political writer and keen observer of Hoosier Politics Adam Wren wrote an article for Politico, pointing out that the race could be competitive. So out of respect for Mister Wren’s judgement we are giving Wells an outside chance of winning. 

Indiana State House and State Senate: We predict the Republicans will lose 1 to 3 seats in either or both legislative chamber, because the GOP has hit it’s high water mark and we don’t see any poachable seats for them at this time. 

Indiana U.S. Senate and House Races:

In the U.S. Senate despite some questionable polls being pushed by a very unethical Indiana radio show host, we are firmly convinced that Incumbent Senator Todd Young will easily win a second term against his opponent Democratic Mayor of Hammond Tom McDermmot. 

As for Indiana’s House delegation we predict that Democrat Congressman Frank Mrvan will lose to his challenger Republican Jennifer-Ruth Green, changing the House Indiana delegation to 8 Republicans and 1 Democrat. Andre Carson should easily keep his seat. 

Miscellaneous Predictions: These are just some assorted predictions we are making for a few other races. We predict the Democrats will win the Secretary of State’s race in Arizona, and will pickup the Governorships In Oklahoma, Massachusetts and Maryland. We predict the Republicans will win the Oregon Governor’s office for the first time in 50 years and that the Democrats will narrowly hold onto the Governor’s office in New York.

Possible wildcards for the midterms:

Tonight in Ohio former President Donald Trump is appearing at a rally for JD Vance. Rumor has it that Trump might announce he is running for president in 2024. If that does occur it possibly could affect turnout in the election tomorrow, although early voting has already hit record highs this election cycle, there are still large numbers of voters who will vote in person tomorrow. Trump announcing a 2024 run tonight we predict will most likely have the following effects for Election Day:

1. Trump announcing a run might light a fire under voters that hate Trump and cause those who have not yet voted to stampede to the polls en masse. Would be ironic if several Trumpist’s were to lose because Trump caused his opponents to storm the ballot box!

2. Less likely is Trump’s announcement will cause a stampede of Trump voters to turnout.

3. Trumps announcement really doesn’t make much difference seeing as it would happen only about 18 hours before the first polls open.

4. A combination of 1 and 2 will occur in which both Trump and Anti Trump voter turnout is increased. 

Our gut tells us that option 1 or 4 is most likely to happen. Another thing to lookout for is if any Democrats lose close races and claim the election was stolen. It’s true that in 2020 that it was Republicans with the notable exception of Georgia’s Stacey Abrams who argued there elections were rigged, but it’s not out of the question that some Democrats might decide turnabout is fair play, and decide to give the GOP a taste of their own medicine. But we shall see. Also if Lake, Vance, Oz or other high profile Republican candidates lose will they graciously accept the results or not? We predict Lake and Vance wouldn’t, but Oz might if only to try to revive the Doctor Oz show. But other losing GOP candidates might cry foul if they don’t win. Let’s hope that there aren’t too many election disputes tomorrow. Well that’s it for our predictions. Buckle up friends! It’s going to be a long and bumpy ride!