An Ohio Santorum Guy Looking at Florida

Guest post by Carl Dorsch.
Note: each contributor at 3BP has their own favorite in the GOP race. One opinion for or against a certain candidate is not necessarily shared by other contributors.

All things considered, I wasn’t too displeased with way Florida Republicans voted on Tuesday. Sure, I would rather they had given a landslide to my preferred candidate, Rick Santorum. But since that wasn’t in the cards, this result isn’t half-bad.

Let me state, I can live with any of the four remaining Republican candidates. The main thing is to defeat Obama and to repeal ObamaCare. So in these primaries, I want to hear about every negative issue the Democrats might drag out in the fall against the eventual Republican nominee. I want it out now, so we can watch the candidates cope with every charge – whether it’s false or valid. If a charge can hamstring anyone, then let’s eliminate that guy now. Let’s not have any fatal surprises in the fall. I want our guy to prove he can handle any mud that’s slung at him, and won’t freeze like a rabbit on the big stage.

Ohio GOP primary poll

Ohio's primary is 5 weeks from today. Since we last did a poll here at 3BP, half the field has dropped out. Lets see where we stand. We'll keep this one open through Saturday night. Only vote once please!




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Please, Put Down the Gun

Guest post by Carl Dorsch

Last week I attended a Tea Party meeting in Hamilton County, specifically to listen to one presentation, but came away distressed by another, one on the Right to Work issue.

Now, I fully favor the enactment of Right to Work legislation. But I was appalled at the nonsense being put forth by one Jeff Longstreth, who’s connected to the Ohio Liberty Council, the state Tea Party coordinating group. Longstreth, who I expect is a fine fellow, gave a Power Point presentation reviewing an Ohio public opinion poll someone had recently commissioned on Right to Work.

Now why anyone would have spent a dime on such a survey is beyond me. Polls of this nature have been done nationwide by the hundreds since the 1950’s, and they always show exactly the same results – which thousands of well-meaning individuals have been misinterpreting for decades.

Sherrod Brown and Barack Obama's China Envy

When not attacking American companies, President Obama gets downright romantic about the grand things American companies do with Washington’s guidance. China is frequently a source of envy (see: passenger rail boondoggles), because China’s statist capitalism-lite floats Obama’s boat. As America’s most statist senator, Sherrod Brown (D-OH) is on board for anything involving more government!

Sherrod asked President Obama about his plans for a federal manufacturing and energy policy during a February 2010 Democrat meeting:

President Obama knows what’s best, and seems annoyed by the democracy blocking his path. For all his worries of "falling behind" autocratic China in the race to throw money at unmarketable products, we have to wonder how much of the New York Times coverage he was briefed on the week before!

In the United States, power companies frequently face a choice between buying renewable energy equipment or continuing to operate fossil-fuel-fired power plants that have already been built and paid for. In China, power companies have to buy lots of new equipment anyway, and alternative energy, particularly wind and nuclear, is increasingly priced competitively.

[...]

As in many other industries, China’s low labor costs are an advantage in energy.

Emphasis mine. Impromptu poll: Do you think Sherrod Brown or President Obama comprehend how expensive capital is, or realize China’s population and infrastructure are different from ours? Do you think they would cross Big Labor in order to compete with Chinese manufacturing in a meaningful way?

Sherrod Brown wants a Constitutional Amendment to silence Opposition to the Liberal Party

I recently received this in an email from Sherrod Brown (one of the most Liberal Senators in the U.S. Senate:

Email resized for clarity.

Plunderbund explains why Ohio job creation has improved under John Kasich

The guys over at Plunderbund are excellent spokesmen for the Ohio Democratic Party and Chairman Chris Redfern. Well, Justin Barasky is actually Redfern's spokesman, but the Plunderpals actually seem to be the ones parroting more of the silly and petty partisan attacks that we have come to expect from him.

Their favorite past-time is filing FOI requests and breathlessly reporting them to their readers. They did so last year, and claimed that Governor Kasich was going to pay his staff way more than former governor Ted Strickland did. Another liberal blog even called it "a coup of biblical proportions". Unfortunately for them, it wasn't even true.

After they were done congratulating each other and slapping one another on the back, the Dispatch did an analysis, and found that, no, Kasich's overall staff doesn't make more than Strickland's did.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich is living up to his promise to spend less money on employees than did former Gov. Ted Strickland - but by only 0.5 percent, or about $38,500.

So, today we have another one from the same mold. They obtained another document of administration expenses.

Are you ready for this bombshell?

Sherrod Brown's Occupier Solidarity

Back in October, Sherrod Brown (D-OH) made one of his frequent MSNBC appearances to chat with Chris Matthews about the hot new show in town: Occupy Wall Street. Matthews and Brown seemed equally enthusiastic about the left’s answer to the Tea Party movement.

Here are two of the most telling exchanges from the segment, which you can view in its entirety courtesy of YouTube user toddfein:

My favorite part of this clip is Sherrod’s self-contradicting statement, “this isn’t a liberal/conservative, left or right, it’s whose side are you on?” Sherrod is a Progressive, you see, so he’s not divisive – he just wants you to pick a side, and if you pick the wrong side he’s going to demonize you.

Ohio Republican Party's outrageous new tactic to keep the Tea Party out and Kevin DeWine in

There was breaking news today of an upcoming meeting that has been called for the Ohio Republican Party (ORP) State Central Committee. Below is an excerpt of the memo sent out to committee members.

> Proposed Amendment to the Permanent Rules of the Republican State Central Committee & Executive Committee of Ohio

Article I, Section 2:

At the first meeting of the State Central Committee following the election and qualification of its members, all of its officers, the chairman and co-chairman of the Ohio Republican Finance Committee, and the National Committeeman and National Committeewoman, shall be nominated and elected to the State Executive Committee, which shall then be merged into the Republican State Central Committee.

Proposed Amendment*:

For the purposes of these Rules, to be qualified, and thereby seated and sworn in as a member of the State Central Committee, a person shall have voted in the three immediately preceding Republican statewide primary elections, including in the year in which the person was elected.

Talk about trying to protect their established incumbents! To be seated on the committee, a person will have to have voted in the Republican primary in 2008, 2010 and 2012. This is a pretty brazen move by Kevin DeWine and his allies. This rule, if adopted, is clearly intended to make it harder for outsiders to be seated on the State Central Committee, even if they are elected to the position.

Video: How has the middle class really fared under Sherrod Brown and Barack Obama?

Tonight, expect to hear more of the same tired class warfare from Barack Obama. He will focus straw man attacks, once again, aimed at blaming others for the failure of his disastrous policies.

A trillion dollar stimulus plan that failed, even by his own measure of success. A health care takeover that has driven health care costs higher instead of "bending costs down". Increased regulation of the energy industry by executive fiat, not through Congress, where he couldn't even get enough of his own Democrats to play along. Blocking tens of thousands of jobs in a shovel-ready project that even his big labor friends urged him to approve.

What you won't hear from Obama in the State of the Union

Tonight Barack Obama makes a big campaign speech. You won't hear about how his economic policy has completely failed, and made a bad situation worse. You won't hear about tax dollars wasted by making bad loans to poorly run "green" companies to reward his political donors. You won't hear about how he violated the war powers act.