NOW WE VET (Published in the Independent Coast Observer)

The “mainstream media” is joining in their usual game of magnifying weaknesses and diminishing the strengths of Republican primary candidates. Too bad such due diligence was not carried out in 2008 for then candidate Obama. He may still have won the election given his natural charm, the anti-incumbent mood, and the near collapse of the financial system in Bush’s final months. Nevertheless, voters would have had a lot more information on which to base their judgements and the country might have been spared a great deal of agony.

It’s not a pretty sight to see unfolding what was easily predictable - - a struggling President who was not prepared through either experience or temperament for arguably the most difficult executive position in the world. A local liberal and good friend asked me shortly after the election what I thought of President Obama. I replied that I was delighted we had elected our first black President, but concerned that he’d never really run anything, not even a daycare center.

Most Conservatives are quite dubious of candidates for President on either side of the aisle who lack solid executive credentials, and even more so after the past three years. Conservative regrets about McCain were plentiful but didn’t carry the day, and his inability and/or unwillingness to take the fight to candidate Obama was puzzling. 

We now have a mixed bag of Republican candidates with a range of strengths and weaknesses. I can’t predict the winner, but I think it’s safe to assume that whoever comes out on top will have to prove to Republican voters that he or she has a reservoir of the skills and experience to be an effective leader. And equally important, the tenacity to defeat an incumbent. Make no mistake, President Obama, enveloped in the protective shield of the media, is a formidable campaigner.

Jim Littlejohn

Concerned Coastal Voters

Gualala, CA

The 99% (Published in the Independent Coast Observer)

Like many Americans, I’ve struggled to come to grasp with the mobs of the OWS, their class warfare mantra of “We are the 99%,” their hatred of successful people, and their inexplicable reluctance to protest political leaders. They “choose” not to blame President Obama’s disastrous policies that have increased our debt by more than $4 trillion and brought perpetually high unemployment. And we’ve yet to see one of their squalid tent cities on the pristine lawns of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Nor will OWS protest the plush residences of Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, etc., though these politicians were largely responsible for the toxic loans and financial calamities visited upon us in 2008.

A simple reason explains why such protests have not occurred - - the OWS is 99% political. Its participants are the armies of Hope and Change reduced to a pathetic reality. They’re the “transforming of America” that Barrack Obama promised and has now delivered. These Obamavilles, a cross between Brave New World and The Lord of the Flies, have spawned hate, destruction, crime, filth, and disease. Their putrid streams of rapes, mugging, murder and mayhem are becoming so prevalent that several Leftist mayors now realize they’ve created a monster.

Protest is the American way. Wallowing in the refuse of self-pity is not. There’s no constitutional right to create a lawless community that callously shuts down small businesses. There’s no constitutional right for people to take over public or private property to breed crime and disease. Period.

Democrat leaders (e.g., Obama, Biden, Pelosi) have supported OWS from its beginning and they now own it. Perhaps these esteemed politicians seek a kindred message in the inarticulate garbling of idiots. The rest of us hear only the ancient adage, “What you do speaks so loudly I can’t hear what you say.”

Jim Littlejohn

Concerned Coastal Voters

Gualala, CA

VETTING CAIN (Published in the Independent Coast Observer)

I don’t know if Herman Cain can stand up to the rigorous vetting process of the Republican primaries or the onslaught of attacks from the “mainstream media.”Time will tell. I do know that his stellar executive experience and his ability to articulate a practical conservative view of the world drives many Liberals crazy. So that’s a good thing. Even local Lefties, who swallowed entire bottles of “Yes We Can” tablets in 2008 without noticing they were made of sugar and air, are now taking shots at Cain. Fortunately their diatribes are about as effective as gnats biting an elephant’s butt.

Still, it is nice to know the Left has re-discovered the necessity for critically examining aspirants for the Presidency. Perhaps those newly found skills can be turned toward their own flailing candidate, who was last seen running around the country preaching class warfare and embracing the unwashed OWS mobs. These increasingly violent “protestors” appear to have sprung up spontaneously from a Stephen King novel (or George Soros’ checkbook). The President recently stated that he has fulfilled 60% of the promises he made as a candidate. That boast rings a little hollow and likely is not true. Even so, what he has left undone are “elephants in the room” ( e.g., things like closing Guantanamo or “bringing the country together”).

Cain is being criticized because he will not specify how he would deal with a host of hypothetical foreign policy issues. He says he will apply his problem solving skills to those issues. Unlike candidate Obama, who promised much that he could not deliver, Cain has demonstrated many times that he has such skills. Also unlike candidate (and President) Obama, Cain prefers not to pretend that he knows what he doesn’t know.

That approach is honest, direct, and refreshing to many.

Jim Littlejohn

Concerned Coastal Voters

Gualala, CA 95445