The Populists

I once ran for Congress, and I know how easy it is to get sucked into twisting something your opponent says to suit your needs. Like Newt Gingrich did when he, of all people, hammered Mitt Romney as a vulture capitalist who “likes to fire people.” It didn’t work, probably because we already knew that, and so Romney rolled to his second straight primary victory with 39% of the vote. Ironically, I got 39% in 1996 . . . and lost by a landslide. But Romney is claiming yesterday’s margin – plus his eight-vote Iowa victory – as a presidential mandate. In second place was Ron Paul who, despite running in a state whose motto (“Live Free or Die”) could be taken from his campaign literature, finished 40,000 votes behind. He was, though, the only candidate to defend Romney’s firing quote, saying that his critics “are either just demagoguing or they don’t have the vaguest idea how the market works.” Your choice.

Gingrich and Rick Santorum finished in a dead heat, with 9% apiece, which together just edged out John Huntsman’s total. Finally, Rick Perry barely beat newcomer Buddy Roemer, who finished third in his last campaign for re-election as governor of Louisiana – behind David Duke, former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, and Edwin Edwards, who later served almost 10 years in the federal penitentiary for racketeering.

But the quote of the campaign was Rick Santorum’s response to Obama’s stated desire to have every child go to college: “what elitist snobbery out of this man.”

These Black presidents are so out of touch.