Romney (R)

Imagine the disruption if McCain is elected, and sworn in as President and then he is declared ineligible because of the 12^th Amendment, and Hillary Clinton finagled her way to the Democrat nomination, and demands to be seated – what a fracas.

Wednesday night the Senate unanimously declared John McCain a natural-born citizen, eligible to be president of the United States. But, the resolution has no legal standing and is only opinion. At least three pending cases are challenging McCain’s right to be sworn in as president. McCain was born to U. S. parents in a U. S. military hospital, on a U. S. base while serving in the U. S. Navy assigned to the then U. S. Panama Canal Zone.

Article II of the Constitution states that “no person except a natural born citizen . . . shall be eligible to the office of president.” The problem is that the Founding Fathers never defined exactly what they meant by “natural born citizen,” and the matter has never been fully tested in court. The same question bubbled up in 2000 but when he failed to get the GOP nomination it fizzled and disappeared.

According to an article in the May 2^nd Washington Post, “Curiously enough, there is no record of McCain’s birth in the Panama Canal Zone Health Department’s bound birth registers, which are publicly available at the National Archives in College Park. A search of the “Child Born Abroad” records of the U.S. consular service for August 1936 included many U.S. citizens born in the Canal Zone but did not turn up any mention of John McCain.” There is a copy of a birth certificate citing his birth in the Coco Solo “family hospital.” Coco Solo was where his Dad’s submarine was based.

McCain’s case hasn’t been the only one. Hoover’s Vice President Charles Curtis was born in the territory of Kansas in 1860, a year before it became a state. The 12th Amendment requires that vice presidents possess the same qualifications as presidents. Barry Goldwater, who was born in the territory of Arizona in 1909, three years before it became a state was nominated but didn’t win. Mitt Romney’s father, George Romney, ran for President in 1968, even though he was born in Mexico. Since neither Goldwater nor Romney won the presidency, the “natural born” clause was never tested.

A 1986 Supreme Court ruling states that the United States “exercised sovereignty” over the 10-mile-wide area between 1904 and 1979, when it was handed back to the Panamanians and most think that settles the issue. But, not everybody agrees.

MITT ROMNEY endorses JOHN MCCAIN and is asking his delegates to support McCain too. The former Massachusetts Governor was visibility shaken and clearly upset with McCain just a few weeks ago when McCain released his delegates to HUCKABEE taking the win from MITT. This puts another nail in HUCKABEE’S POLITICAL COFFIN.

Massachusetts’ COMMONWEALTH CARE that MITT ROMNEY supported and started was ultimately to have covered 215,000 people and cost the state $725 million annually. WRONG! New estimates say it could have 342,000 enrollees and cost $1.35 billion per year by 2011 – almost twice the initial costs estimate. The State now wants Federal taxpayers to pay half the bill but even if that happens the boondoggle will have to be cutback dramatically to avoid massive tax increases or worse.

Tomorrow is TSUNAMI TUESDAY twenty-four states hold some voting contest on Feb. 5, with 1,681 Democratic delegates and 1,023 Republican delegates to the national presidential nominating conventions on the line. A candidate needs 2,025 delegates to secure the Democratic nomination, and 1,191 to win the Republican nomination.

Change. It seems to be the most recent political buzz-word. As far as I can tell each and every candidate running for president has talked about and promised change.

Change. Yep, they all claim that America needs change, particularly in Washington, D.C. What makes this amazing is that three of the top four candidates, Clinton (both), Obama and McCain are all current members of the United States Senate. I do agree that if there is any entity in Washington that needs change it is the Senate.

Romney evidently agrees that he said - paraphrased, “There is no question Bush and Maliki must have a series of private timetables they speak about (between themselves) but we do not want them (terrorists in Iraq) to wait in the weeds until we are gone”

McCain has characterized that statement as supporting a timetable during the time frame when McCain very publicly campaigned against any kind of time table and for the Surge and against Rumsfeld. Rumsfeld finally fell under the weight of McCains’ continuing criticism.

At the time, many thought he was politically dead because of his support for the very unpopular Surge. How is it, that it seems to have become even more unpopular today because nobody is talking about it

Speaking of the Republican contest in Florida on MSNBC today, Keith Olberman said it is getting down to the “extremes.” By that he meant Romney and McCain.

Mathews agreed and said the reace was getting “very personal” between the candidates, which he said he “likes”. That like, sounds more like Jerry Springer material than serious news reporting. In a much later discussion, when told a lot of politics is not above the first or second grade, he chuckles, “I like it!”

Brian Willians asked Rudy Giuliani why his poll numbers were so terrible, half of what they were. The response is there are various polls and what the voters care about is the issues. Rudy has been mentioned negatively by the New York Times, some Republicans believe he should be proud of that.

Huckabee came out strong for the war in Iraq defending that ithe Bush invasion as worthwhile and a big part of our current safety.

Romney addressed the kitchen table issues of the economy, housing and energy costs. He joked, perhaps, that he can not think of any thing worse than having Bill Clinton as R. First Dude, back in the White House with nothing to do. That and using Barack Obama’s own challenges to Hillary gave him the upper hand tonight.

Picture this: The six leading candidates in both parties getting together, pitching their spare change into one of those games where you use a crane controlled from outside the glass enclosure in order to get coins to drop out into a tray. It’s popular at many family restaurants in parts of the country. Dreamy isn’t it. Bipartisan agreement.

On this date, no one joined us in the Michigan Primary Discussions.

One thing is clear — tactically almost anyone running for anything in November 2008 better have a strong strategy for women and younger voters.

Next up are January 15: Michigan; January 19: Nevada, South Carolina (R); January 26: South Carolina (D) and January 29:
Florida. It is probable Clinton will win in Nevada where she is well ahead – but Obama just got the endorsement of
Nevada’s biggest labor unions and he could pull it out.Hillary is still prowling the political battlefield poking at staffer wounds amid her downward spiral in the national polls. The axe was sharpened but stuck in a stump after the
New Hampshire win waiting to see how much bounce she gets.

The Concord, New Hampshire newspaper took a big bite out of Romney’s chances there calling him a “disquieting figure,” the New Hampshire newspaper’s editorial board said he looks and acts like a presidential contender but “surely must be stopped” because he lacks the core philosophical beliefs to be a trustworthy president. Its anti-endorsement is its first and generally rare for any newspaper.