While Louisiana has had more than its share of oversized personalities inhabit the world of politics, a run to demonstrate the biggest ego and need for relevance of them is coming from a surprising source whose personality otherwise pales in comparison to those others.
By now, one would have thought that former Gov. Buddy Roemer’s crisis to be someone and to achieve at a level he believes commensurate with his ability in politics would have become satiated, if not permanently altered to a more realistic appraisal of himself and his place in the world, by his quixotic sojourn for the presidency. The Republican running generally on a reform, anti-Washington/big government platform, his main campaign plank touts that too much money goes into elections, and, as such, he accepts no more than $100 donations from individuals and none from political action committee.
Thus, this explains partly why, as of the end of 2011’s third quarter, he had raised only about $233,000 – less than another Republican with no PAC donations Fred Karger’s $356,000 or so, although this candidate has largely self-financed his.
But the other reason why Roemer has raised so little and does so poorly in the polls is his message is asinine delivered by a candidate whose background lacks consanguinity to his message or has inspired little confidence in his ability to govern.
Just as a lothario who is a legend in his own mind can’t understand why the chicks he hits on frequently slap in him the face, Roemer's eight months of rebuffs on the campaign trail haven’t gotten it through his head that he is found much more wanting compared to alternative candidates. So now, sharing a state of delusion matching those who believe Pres. Barack Obama’s tax first, spend less later policies not only did not produce the weakest economic recovery from the weakest recession in history but that more intense versions of them will actually reverse the trend, Roemer thinks lengthier and perhaps more shrill campaigning by him will rouse out of it everybody unknowingly trapped in a Matrix-like economic and political system.
In short, he has begun a tentative mating dance with the Occupy rabble and contemplated an independent presidential campaign, figuring that since the electorate doesn’t love him enough in this time current period, lengthier exposure to him spouting wackier ideas will make it more likely to swoon over him. Yes, and the reason an alcoholic can avoid hangovers and delirium tremens is to keep drinking more booze.
And the flight from reality continues. Even more difficult than gaining ballot access as a major party candidate for primaries is running in the general election as an independent. If he can’t come up with the scratch, because of his unpopularity and self-imposed limits, to get on the South Carolina ballot, he’ll get on few if any for the more stringent regulations many states have for the general elections – Michigan gifts will be rarities.
General election deadlines, of course, come almost a year from now so maybe Roemer’s banking on enough bucks rolling in, or his supplying them, by then, coupled with a halt to active campaigning for the GOP nomination that saves funds, to get on the ballots of as many states as possible. But it’s unlikely that the gibberish spouted by the Occupy mob will prove any more magnetic to the 99 percent that would have to comprise a small-donor base for Roemer than anything he’s campaigned on to date. His only option then is to try to piggyback off efforts such as this, with no guarantee than he can do it in a way to make his candidacy relevant in the general election.
2 comments:
"Obama's tax first, spend less later policies"? Lets be clear that the vast, vast majority of Washington's spending problem comes at the hand of conservatives (the same conservatives that profess an anti-spending creed). Sadow is totally on board with their dishonesty. He's also on board with the whole Obama's trying to tax you meme. Forget that Obama has cut taxes more than any of his recent predecessors. In Sadow's mind, liberals want your money, and that's all there is to it. Facts be damned. The only substantial spending that has gone on under Obama was a federal stimulus that was designed (and successful I might add) to boost the economy. A drop in the bucket compared to conservatives. It must be embarrassing for a right-wing true believer like Jeff to see the economic policies he hypes lead the American economy off a cliff, then a liberal (actually pretty center-of-the-road, but at least in Jeff's eyes he's some sort of Jane Fonda-Taliban hybrid) president pull the country back together. Reading Jeff's swipes at the president is like listening to a toddler in the throes of a temper tantrum.
Not to bust your bubble, Jeff, but here is a *National Review* writer and bona fide conservative coming clean that Obama is about the biggest tax CUTTER in history...
http://www.frumforum.com/if-the-conservatives-were-right-about-the-economy
Clearly, this commenter lives in a fantasy world of denial, where unemployment (both U-1 and U-6) have rocketed higher under Obama, what little recovery there has been has been far below historical norms, and study after study has identified the wasteful and unhelpful nature of the spending bills. Of course, he's probably one of the morons who tries to prove a positive with a negative, i.e. "joblessness and economic growth, the worst in the last 30 years, would have been worse without the spending bills." Sorry; we know the last time things were this bad a completely different set of policies, restraining the growth of government spending and large meaningful tax cuts (the ones Obama has led to create, not following expediency, have been to cut funding temporarily to an entitlement program, not designed to encourage productivity gains, and are far lower than Bush's), by this time in the cycle unemployment was falling by leaps and bounds and an economic boom was in progress. But facts do not matter to our commenter.
Frum, who inconsistently argued in a conservative fashion many years ago, long ago abandoned any pretense to that and instead has joined the conspiratorial mindset of the left, with his white whale being Fox News.
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