Mitt Romney is reminding college students that President Obama's job killing policies are making it very difficult for them to find jobs. 

John Andrews has written a book, Responsibility Reborn, that many Small Government Americans will want to read.

Ron Carey, one of Michele Bachmann's former chiefs of staff and a former chair of the Minnesota GOP who also worked with Tim Pawlenty, does a pretty convincing job of explaining why Bachmann isn't presidential material and Pawlenty is. I hope we hear more details about Bachmann and Pawlenty from Carey.

An important indicator of Bachmann's management style is the number of mistakes she's made in her speeches. She hasn't spent her million in campaign contributions on a skilled staff that could do the research that should be done to make sure that she's accurately briefed and doesn't make so many factual errors in her speeches.

LINK:

Bachmann is so not ready for presidency, but Pawlenty has the judgment and skills, by Ron Carey.

Everyone knows how complex the state and federal tax codes are. The Wall Street Journal warns speculators to avoid trading commodity Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) and Exchange Traded Notes (ETNs) and those that own multilateral partnerships because the cost of preparing tax reports on those trades quite likely will exceed trading profits. (Paid sub required.) 

It's better to trade the stocks of companies that produce and process commodities and the stocks of multilateral partnerships than the ETFs and ETNs that own them.

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty's new Iowa ad attacks former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's health mandates in RomneyCare and Romney's spending record while governor.

It's good to see Pawlenty putting Romney on the spot for his support for health care insurance mandates, if not the unconstitutional mandates in ObamneyCare. Romney says he supports the right of states to "experiment" with mandates and other health insurance laws. While he hasn't directly said he supports state health insurance mandates, the fact that he brags that 2/3 or Massachusetts' very liberal residents support his RomneyCare mandates shows that he is still in favor of mandates as long as they're passed by states. To me, that means he supports state health mandates as well as ethanol mandates and mandates by the EPA that we buy much more expensive "clean" electricity from utilities. 

The questions are, how much advertising can Pawlenty and Romney's other opponents afford, and will they go after him as effectively as Pawlenty is?

LINK:

http://youtu.be/8ai3gV90u1U

There is no way that any Republican or independent can trust Mitt Romney's sell outs on global warming and corn ethanol. The guy has proven that he will say whatever will win him votes in the Iowa caucuses and general election.

Yet the Denver Post's pretend conservative, Vincent Carroll, is trying to bash 

Mitt Romney used a Monday meeting with Aurora, CO, Republicans to defend state health insurance mandates while he hypocritically blasted ObamaCare, which probably is unconstitutional because it mandates that all Americans buy health insurance.

What's so disturbing is that Romney supports state mandates that 

If you want proof that social issues Republicans aren't conservatives, pay attention to how they are putting GOP presidential candidates into a corner and how they are all but re-electing President Obama.

Anti-abortionists are guaranteeing that Obama will be re-elected and will appoint several liberal, pro-choice justices to 

Mitt Romney will be in Aurora Monday to meet with owners of small businesses before he attends a fund raiser in Cherry Hills Village, the Post reports.

I think that guests should ask Romney:

We have two guys in Rick Perry and Mitt Romney who believe in mandating that Americans buy certain health care services and products that they think everyone must have for the good of the country. Romney's the leading GOP candidate for his party's presidential nomination, and Perry is thinking about taking on Romney.

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) is getting a lot of new attention since she announced Monday that she is running for president. I think there's a 30% chance that she'll win the Republican presidential nomination.

She performed as well as

What I want GOP candidates to promise:

Republicans and Democrats need to read Tyler Cowen's new 15,000-word book, The great stagnation: How America ate all of the low hanging fruit of modern history, got sick and will (eventually) feel better. It's a $4 ebook at Amazon and will be published in hard cover June 9. 
 
The highly regarded economist and blogger (http://www.marginalrevolution.com), blames the financial crisis on the reality that "We thouight that we were richer than we are." Further, he says we're still stuck with the dangerous optimism that we can grow out of what may become a double dip recession.  
 
That won't happen, he warns, because the low hanging fruit of innovation and great opportunities have been picked for 40 years and it will be awhile before a new development like free 18th and 19th century land, the rail roads, telegraph, phones, autos, air planes, etc. comes along.  
 
Thus, politicians can no longer credibly promise that tax cuts or more government spending will cause the economy to grow more than 2% a year. He predicts that as a result, Big Government growth will slow or even disappear and that our future depends on our ability to reform education and encourage our brightest to become scientist and engineers. He says we must celebrate scientists and engineers and give them the status of today's investment bankers, lawyers and physicians. 
 
Bottom line: No president nor Congress can claim to have the solution for our slow economic growth. To make such claims shows a lack of integrity and a total misunderstanding of where we are in the economic development cycle. 
 
Along the way, Cowen relates how America picked the low hanging fruit to become the most prosperous and powerful nation in the world. He explains that modern communications generated Big Governments around the world, that increased spending on education since 1970 has provided few benefits to kids and that increased government spending on health care is not stimulating growth. 10% of the book is filled with fascinating notes. There is no index. 
 
David Brooks calls the book the most debated book of the year. This week's Business Week has a glowing story about Cowen. Take a couple of hours and catch up on the thinking of one of today's leading and best informed libertarians and economists.

I've spent a lot of time considering whether i'll back Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty or Mitch Daniels. 

I first met Mitt back in the 1980s when I wrote a cover story on Baxter's "value improvement" service for hospitals that Mitt and Bain had developed for the company. Then I met and heard him at the NRO 2008 post election cruise. He is pretty impressive in person, and he has an impressive resume—outside of politics. 

So I've been following his presidential campaign since 2006 or 2007. Only now do I think I get it.

Mitt is good at organizing consultants to tackle problems. He immerses himself in data. But ultimately, he uses other peoples' ideas and recommendations. 

He's not really a detail guy nor an ideas guy. And he's not a street smart politician, as the Wall Street Journal's lede editorial, Obama's running mate; Mitt Romney's ObamaCare problem, explains today.

And he is a salesman and pr guy first, not a leader. 

He goes for the sale first, the solution second. 

This is why he comes across as shallow, pandering, cautious and as a flip flopper. 

He believes in private industry, consumer choice and Big Government. 

Big Government Consumer Choice is an oxymoron, and, I'm afraid, so is Mitt Romney.

I should note that up till now I've believed that Romney is the most electable Republican followed by Pawlenty and Daniels. 

I'm trying to not let my familiarity with Romney breed contempt while I'm still learning more about Tim Pawlenty and Mitch Daniels. 

Having read Pawlenty's campaign book, I have problems with his record and pandering to Iowa ethanol supporters as well as with his blatant exploitation of his religious beliefs for political purposes. 

As for Daniels, he looks like the smartest and most accomplished politician of the three guys, but I know less about his record and beliefs than I know about Romney and Pawlenty. 

And Daniels "muddling" through the process of deciding whether to run frosts me a bit. 

I'm still waiting to see which of the three guys has the best chance of beating Obama. 

So far, none of them are looking very good to me as candidates, but they all are better potential presidents and candidates than Barack Obama, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Donald Trump, Palin, Cain and Bachmann.

On Thursday, Mitt Romney, a yet-to-be-announced presidential candidate, will try to get the RomneyCare Massachusetts health insurance disaster off his back. 

Romney experimented with health insurance markets in Massachusetts, and his stab at increasing access to health services while containing costs has failed big time. Health insurance is more expensive and health care is harder to get in Massachusetts under Romney care. And 100,000 still are uninsured.