Thursday, March 29, 2012

BruceNotes March 29th - By the Numbers, Waters, Obamacare & More

Maxine Waters Spills
I couldn't help but LMArmO this morning when I heard a clip of Maxine Waters saying, in the same breath, "There are too many unanswered questions [to rush to judgment] and I personally believe this is a hate crime," in an interview about the Treyvon Martin case.

Don't get me wrong, I'm taking no "political" position on this tragic case. A 17 year old kid is dead--completely unnecessarily, as far as I can tell. That's enough to make it a seriously damned shame no matter what the circumstances that resulted in Martin's demise. A young life representing all the promise of tomorrow, regardless of the past, has been cut down prematurely.

But it's inexcusable for ANYONE to trade on this horrible mishap for the express purpose of stirring up racial division as Waters, Sharpton, Jackson, the New Black Panthers, and others are doing. Worse, they were doing it before almost any of the facts were in. And now that it's clear that the story is not so "black and white," they seem to be hardening their position, instead of softening it, when the right thing to do for Treyvon, his family, and the larger picture of race relations in America, is to reserve judgment until all the obtainable facts are in.

I continue to be amazed at how archaic the view of these radical racial activists. You'd think we were still living in the sixties. They all seem to yearn for the 'good ole days' of Malcom X and Martin Luther King, despite the fact that thanks largely to those icons' efforts, the bulk of the country has long since left those old racial divisions behind. And that's rational!

Election by the Numbers - Two Can Play This Game
I admit to being pretty fed up with the Romney/Anti-Romney paradigm in the GOP Primary. Newt and Ricky keep sounding the drum that Romney has failed to get a majority of the vote--that over half the GOP electorate want someone else.

Well have they bothered to run those numbers on their own campaigns?! Here's how the delegats  stack up at this point in time:

Romney: 565 Delegates out of 1028. That's 55% for Romney, 45% for Not Romney (a clear majority!)
Santorum: 256 Delegates out of 1028. That's 25% for Ricky, 75% for Not Ricky (halfway to 2nd base)
Gingrich: 141 Delegates out of 1028. That's 14% for Newt, 86% for Not Newt (not even on the field)
Paul: 66 Delegates out of 1028. That's 6% for Ron Paul, 94% for Not Paul. (completely outa town)

Popular vote totals are a bit tighter, but here's how it looks right now:

Romney: 4,127,917;  Not Romney: 6,142,300; Total: 10,270,217; Romney 40% Not Romney 60%
Santorum: 2,850,546 Not Santorum: 7,419,671 Total: 10,270,217; Santorum 28% Not Santorum 72%
Gingrich: 2,212,001; Not Gingrich: 8,058,216; Total: 10,270,217; Gingrich 22% Not Gingrich 78%
Paul: 1,079,753; Not Paul: 9,190,464; Total: 10,270,217; Paul 11% Not Paul 89%

So after all this time, 72% of the voters want someone other than Santorum. Almost 80% want someone besides Gingrich (and he's been making the "not-Romney" noise the loudest). And about 90% of Republican Primary voters want someone other than Paul.

Although Romney has yet to gain a majority of the popular vote, he is clearly the candidate of choice for the largest plurality of voters and has a shorter distance to go to gain majority status, than Santorum currently has to reach Romney's present 40% endorsement. So let's stop playing games. Whether you love it or not, Mitt is the MAN. Let's get behind our guy and BEAT OBAMA to save this nation. That IS rational!

Obamacare...Don't Count Your Chickens...
The US Supreme Court appears to be poised to shoot down Obamacare. But I'm only cautiously optimistic. In America, nothing is that cut and dried. Yesterday, Justice Ginsberg and others seemed hell bent on preserving whatever they can of the embattled legislation, in the event the mandate, the primary funding organ for the law, is struck down. She framed it as a "wrecking ball vs. salvage operation." And clearly, she prefers the latter.

I had occasion to read a couple of additional sections of the so-called "Affordable Care Act" yesterday. Practically every line gives me new strains of agida! There's language in there that prevents private citizens from being self-insured, limits the amount of money you can put in an HSA, disallows some people from getting catastrophic insurance, and requires that catastrophic insurance includes co-pays for doctor visits which will necessarily drive up costs. And that's all on ONE PAGE! This thing is a HUGE federal micromanagement of every conceivable aspect of healthcare in America. And it's a bloody disaster waiting to happen. But what a boon for attorneys!

There is NO rational reason to salvage any of this intact. But the Court is likely to try. It's doubtful that we've seen the end of Obamacare. Even if the mandate loses and the law is dismantled, there's still plenty of fighting ahead.

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