Do people really not pay attention to what is said anymore? Yesterday, while being interview by John King about possible questions Santorum may face as Commander-In-Chief, Santorum was asked about having women in combat roles. Santorum responded with this answer: “Look, I want to create every opportunity for women to be able to serve this country, and they do so in an amazing and wonderful way. They’re a great addition to the – and have been for a long time – to the armed...

Who can beat President Obama in the fall on the Republican side? The question of electability is the main point of concern among Republicans so far in this cycle. To date, a handful of former first-tier candidates have succumbed to the specter of electability including Rick Perry, Tim Pawlenty and yes, even the “perfect candidate” Michelle Bachmann. With only four candidates left in the field, the electability question is even more intense as primary and caucus voters have weighed...

In every presidential cycle, there has been a middle of the pack candidate that has emerged as the antithesis of the favorite of the party establishment. In December of 1991, Bill Clinton was not even mentioned as a leading candidate. In 2008, Barack Obama leapfrogged over John Edwards to begin the longest (and most interesting) nomination battle in the last forty years. Yesterday’s tie between Romney and Santorum is the movement I have been waiting for. This year, the antithesis candidate...

I haven’t written on this page in a while. In the last year, I was elected as a county GOP chair in blue Maryland, then was forced out by my fellow members of the county Republican Central Committee, who felt I was not fit for the office of county chairman because either they thought I was not conservative enough or because I was the only African-American on an all-white central committee (depending on who you ask). It appears that most insiders of the Republican party has lined up behind...

Unless you have been under a rock (maybe not anymore), you have heard that the East Coast experienced an earthquake of about 5.9 a few hours ago. As I put on my FB page, I pray that everyone of my friends, family and yes, even people who get on my nerves are safe and A-OK. Now that I have expressed that heartfelt sentiment, I have one more to add… WE are really spoiled on the East Coast especially in the mid-Atlantic region. In California, this shifting of buildings would have been a nuisance....

I had high hopes for Tim Pawlenty. Besides the fact that he was a conservative governor of a mid-western state that traditionally is about as liberal as my own deep blue state of Maryland, he actually put out policy ideas that made sense and articulated them well enough to get and keep my attention. Unfortunately, as we have seen time and time again, presidential politics is not about making sense or telling people the truth, most often the winner of the competition is the person who can give...

After weeks and weeks of mind-numbing talk from both sides, a compromise solution was finally reached on the debt ceiling crisis yesterday. Pundits are now trying to figure out who won and who lost in the skirmish. From my perspective, the status quo is maintained. President Obama, while disappointing some of the far left, compromised enough to move towards the political center for his re-election campaign next year. The Tea Party activists won a major victory in their effort to reduce the level...

As I read over the post former Governor Sarah Palin placed on Facebook, I have conflicting thoughts on how I feel about the message and the messenger. The message is sound. The freshmen members of the GOP were elected, in part, by Tea Party activists and other Republicans, Independents and yes even some Democrats to deal with the mess of the national debt and the deficit caused by massive overspending on items such as entitlements, subsidies and pork projects throughout the country. The reminder...

In the battle of the debt crisis, one particular bit of triangulation is mostly being overlooked by the media and political pundits. Sure, we know that President Obama is trying his best to pull a Clinton (Bill, not Hillary) out of his hat to survive the 2012 reboot of the presidency. However, the more interesting balancing act to me has been of Speaker of the House John Boehner. Speaker Boehner’s balancing act between the ridiculous debt reduction proposal of Senate Majority Leader Harry...

Scripture reads: “Then Jesus said to them, ‘Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.’ And they were amazed at him.” (Mark 2:17) In the Book of Mark, our Lord Jesus Christ states that there are some decisions that should be properly left to human government and other issues that clearly belong to God. In our system of government in the United States, the principle of the separation of church and state was designed to accomplish three goals: to protect the citizenry...

As an African-American and a Republican (as was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.), I think it is important to clarify the meaning of the phrases “civil discourse” and “civil disobedience.” In the height of the civil rights movement, Dr. King and his followers adapted the strategy of civil disobedience used effectively by Gandhi in India. People from across the country (white and black) came together to speak out about racial inequity, congregated under threat and use of physical...

Last week, when I appeared on the Marc Steiner show after the first Ehrlich – O’Malley debate, I commented on the use of the term “New Americans” by O’Malley. I know that illegal immigration in Baltimore has helped to increase unemployment rates among African-Americans. In 2007, according to the American Community Survey data from the US Census Bureau, black unemployment in Baltimore (ages 16-64) was 6.2% which was 2.4 % higher than the 3.8% average of the overall population. In three...

As a teacher of political science at a local university, and having a strong interest for Governor Ehrlich to win in November, I have been watching the gubernatorial campaign closely. According to a couple of polls (Rasmussen and The Washington Post), Ehrlich trails O’Malley by 8 to 11 points. This week, Ehrlich started his electronic media buys in the DC suburbs so that should level out the playing field but there a few suggestions i would like to offer… 1) Change the Mindset Within...

Happy Sunday everyone! I have a few points to bring up for the beginning of the week (and to end last week)… 1) THANK YOU! On Tuesday, September 14th, I won the race for the Chairmanship of the Baltimore County Republican Central Committee. With 99.1% of the vote in, I won by about 1,000 votes out of 30,000 cast. The good news for Republicans is that our turnout in the primary was higher than four years ago and much higher than the Democrat voter turnout. Hopefully, our motivated voter...

This year, the Maryland Republican Party could not find a candidate to run for Attorney General. This means that the incumbent, Doug Gansler has no opposition on the ballot in November. Unfortunately, this will leave him free to meddle in competitive races across Maryland. Today, Politico reports the first salvo of the Gansler crusade to clean up elections. The ban on campaign materials that he deems is misleading. Right now, the ban only impacts Democratic candidates in Prince Georges County....

Every once in a while I like to take out my mostly trusty crystal ball and peer into the future. A Gallup poll released yesterday reports a 10 point advantage for generic Republican candidates for Congress over the Democratic opponents. What does this mean in the real world? In my opinion, Nancy Pelosi is fired as Speaker, probably replaced by John Boehner. On the Senate side, the Democrats may hold onto a one vote majority. However, the difference between a change in the upper house may come...

Every ten years, after the national census, the Constitution mandates that two issues of representation are dealt with: reapportionment and redistricting. Reapportionment deals with the shift in population from state to state. The number of the members of the House of Representatives is capped at 435. If Pennsylvania loses population and Florida gains residents, Florida would gain one seat and Pennsylvania would lose one. Redistricting involves the drawing of the lines of Congressional and State...

Here are a couple of things that have caught my attention this week: President Obama is a Muslim – According to a poll by the Pew Center, nearly 1 out of 5 people (18%) think that the President is a Muslim while 34% think he is a Christian and 48% have not got a clue what faith he may have. It is amazing to me that this is a story coming from a country that has systematically erased tenets of Christianity from every organization of government. In recent years, their have been lawsuits that have...

There are few things that really annoy me in politics anymore. Congratulations, Senator Harry Reid you hit the jackpot! Yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) made the following statement: “I don’t know how anyone of Hispanic heritage could be a Republican, OK?” Reid said. “Do I need to say more?” Why is it that the race / ethnicity card is played by Democrats who are in trouble during election years? I seem to remember familiar phrases used by Democrats...

I received this letter today from a concerned citizen in Baltimore County. The issue being addressed is the possible voiding of votes of our brave men and women in uniform who are deployed overseas in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other places around the world. Here is the letter: Dear Representatives and Senator, Can any one explain to me why Governor O’Malley is requesting a waiver to the MOVE act, the federal Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment act. This would in effect impede the ability...

Courtesy: guardian.co.uk I have been not writing on national politics lately because I filed to run for local office in Baltimore so I have been a bit busy. I did not watch the President on “The View” yesterday but watched a few of the clips online. The President, in a discussion about race during the interview, made the following statement: “We are sort of a mongrel people. I mean we’re all kinds of mixed up,” Obama said. “That’s actually true of white...

Hello all. I just got back from two weeks of National Guard duty so I was out of the political loop for a little while. Well, the fall campaign in season for Maryland just got more interesting with the naming of Bob Ehrlich’s running mate Mary Kane. I like Bob Ehrlich. I campaigned with him in 2002 when he won. I interned for him back in the 1990s. I know he was and will be a better governor than the pseudo rock and roll star current governor of our state. However, there are times I...

It seems that President Obama has labor union problem. As unlikely as it sounds, the candidate who was pushed over the top by several labor unions in 2008 was on opposite sides of the Arkansas democratic primary less than two years later. After the primary dust settled, both sides had shots to fire across the bow warning of another conflict. The White House said “Organized labor just flushed $10 million of their members’ money down the toilet on a pointless exercise” while...

Took a week or so off from blogging. This morning, however, I have a few rants on the topics of the day. Helen Thomas: what is the big deal? Just because she said that Jewish people should move back to Europe. White folks in the south, as well as black separatists, have been saying that black people should go back to Africa for almost two hundred years (see Liberia). Helen Thomas does not make policy for the United States. The outrage is better served to be centered on the BP spill than a 90...

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast (especially New Orleans), a particular political log jam occurred between the Democratic Governor Kathleen Blanco and President George W. Bush (R). Of course, the media was outraged that Bush took so long to respond to aftermath of the storm. Little has been said about the role Blanco played in refusing federal assistance because of her stance of wanting to maintain control because of state sovereignty issues. Five weeks ago, a BP oil rig exploded...