Business Word Blog

Would Tom Tancredo nomination hurt Mike Coffman, Republican’s running for Colorado General Assembly?

2013-05-23T22:56:02+00:00

With former Congressman Tom Tancredo's pre-emptive announcement today that he's running for the Republican nomination for governor of Colorado, we have to ask whether his nomination would not only help Nathan Dunlap's Gov. John Hickenlooper, but also hurt Rep. Mike Coffman (R-CD 6) win re-election over former state House Speaker Andy Romanoff in 2014?

And will Tancredo discourage strong, electable Republicans from running not only for governor, but also for attorney general, secretary of state, state treasurer and the state's General Assembly?

Coffman is in a tough race against Romanoff who is a smart, politically talented guy in a district that Democrats have Gerrymandered just for him.

Colorado's House GOP gave away control of that body in 2012 by blocking a civil unions bill that enraged Obama Democrats.

Nathan Dunlap's Gov. Hickenlooper, who also is anti- guns and a tax and spend Obama Democrat, is looking more vulnerable every day.

But if the corrupt GOP caucus system allows Rick Santorum Republicans nominate Tancredo and like-minded social issues extremists, Hickenlooper may think that he's already been re-elected and that he is invulnerable.

With Tancredo's early announcement, he not only pre-empts State Sen. Greg Brophy, who reportedly is also considering running, he also is giving Obama Democrats all the amunition they need to recruit strong candidates to run for the state's House and Senate in 2014.

Because 2014 still is so far off, a lot can happen. So it's way too early to predict what will happen. But it's not too early to start vetting candidates and asking questions.

Tom Tancredo will run for governor of Colorado in 2014; Nathan Dunlap’s John Hickenlooper vulnerable

2013-05-23T21:48:30+00:00

Former Rep. Tom Tancredo (CD-6) just announced that he is running for governor of Colorado in 2014.

And "Nathan Dunlap" Hickenlooper's temporary clemency for Dunlap who was scheduled for execution for killing four people 20 years ago makes the otherwise popular governor a lot more vulnerable than he was a few days ago. Indeed, John Hickenlooper has been making hard left decisions with the newly empowered and over-reaching Democrats who control the state's General Assembly.

So Hickenlooper is very vulnerable if the Rick Santorum Republicans in the state nominate a heavy-weight, non extremist candidate for governor, which seems a bit unlikely at this point.

I covered a couple of dozen or so appearances by Tom Tancredo during his save-the-GOP-form-itself-campaign against John Hickenlooper in 2010 for this blog. Search the blog for "Tancredo". I took my videos of his apperances down when I closed my YouTube account because of the privacy intrusions by its owner, Google (GOOG).

In short, Tancredo's long experience in the Colorado General Assembly, the Education Dept. under Reagan and in Congress prepared him to be a strong, smart governor of Colorado, but. . ..

He is a Rick Santorum Republican and is considered by independents and the Left as an extremist on abortion, gay marriages and illegal immigration and immigration. He's also considered a traitor by some hard core Dan Maes Republicans who helped elect John Hickenlooper in the first place.

But he's pretty popular with a lot of Republicans in the state.

Unfortunately for Tancredo, Republicans are only about a third of registered voters in the state, and they can't elect anyone by themselves.

Because of Tancredo's extremism on social issues, I think I would have a hard time backing him. State Sen. Greg Brophy, who reportedly also is considering running against HIck is very sharp and has been working the social media to increase his name recognition. I think a lot of Republicans will give him a hard look.

Scott Gessler is a smart, honest secretary of state, but I don't think he's as politically talented as Tancredo or Brophy. Hick would easily beat Gessler, I'm thinking.

There is no question, however, that Nathan Dunlap Hickenlooper may be beatable as an Obama Democrat in 2014 despite his pretty high poll ratings. The guy has spent this year arming the GOP for the next election.

Tom Tancredo announces for 2014 run for governor of Colorado; Nathan Dunlap Hickenlooper vulnerable

2013-05-23T21:48:18+00:00

Former Rep. Tom Tancredo (CD-6) just announced that he is running for governor of Colorado in 2014.

So Hickenlooper is very vulnerable if the Rick Santorum Republicans in the state nominate a heavy-weight, non extremist candidate for governor, which seems a bit unlikely at this point.

I covered a couple of dozen or so appearances by Tom Tancredo during his save-the-GOP-form-itself-campaign against John Hickenlooper in 2010 for my blog.

In short, Tancredo's long experience in the Colorado General Assembly, the Education Dept. under Reagan and in Congress prepared him to be a strong, smart governor of Colorado, but. . ..

But he's pretty popular with a lot of Republicans in the state.

Unfortunately for Tancredo, Republicans are only about a third of registered voters in the state, and they can't elect anyone by themselves.

Scott Gessler is a smart, honest secretary of state, but I don't think he's as politically talented as Tancredo or Brophy. Hick would easily beat Gessler, I'm thinking.

Colorado economy is holding its own

2013-05-09T19:03:48+00:00

Alison Felix, economist and branch executive of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City's Denver Branch offers a slide presentation on the Colorado economy vs. the rest of the country. It's a good overview.

Obama Democrats see Benghazi as non event; Benghazi Hillary Clinton still could become president

2013-05-09T15:45:45+00:00

Obama Democrats think Benghazi is a non event. Nixon Republicans felt the same way for years. Some still feel that way.

During Watergate, the Media spin was harshly anti-Nixon, and so was I from the day I heard about the break in. I was a Nixon Republican.

Today, 95% of political reporters think Obama is charming, skilled and doing the right thing on most issues. I don't think that. I think he's incompetent, dishonest and divisive. And I think that's how the GOP base feels. There is as much bias in the audience as in the media—as always.

During the 2012 campaign Democrats skillfully and successfully used the Moocher Nation's greed for government handouts to generate the biggest turnout of minority voters—their base—in history. Republicans failed to turn out their base, the makers, because the makers felt secure and really had nothing to fight for.

In 2014, the tables could [See below for the reason I'm tenative on this.] turn on the Democrats. The huge anger that I and other Republicans felt against Nixon in 1972 (for me) and 1974 is rising against Obama Democrats. They don't get the anger and fear that they're creating, but it's there, and it's mounting.

Equally important, desperate Republicans campaign strategists are starting to get how their base feels. They're recognizing that the Washington, DC, culture, which accepts and thrives on crony capitalism, anti-Americanism, pro-illeral immigration and Big Government corruption doesn't play well in the Red states that control the House, if not the Senate.

Benghazi Clinton lied and is lying for Obama. He is so successful in hiring liars for Obama and using their lack of integrity to advance his political agenda that half of the country and much of the world believes that neither he nor his appointees or supporters can be believed nor trusted.

Since 70% of Americans lie and cheat in one way or another, as shown by their support for Obama Democrats and polls of high school students who say they cheat to get into the colleges of their choices, Obama is not as vulnerable as he should be, especially among young Obama Democrats.

But the trust question is out there, and the GOP must exploit it. The problem is that the pro amnesty and Gang of Eight immigration senators are doing all they can to show that Republicans in Congress are as greedy for power at the expense of the American people as the Democrats are.

So the GOP still can blow it, and Benghazi Clinton still has a pretty good chance of becoming president. Obama, illegal immigration and the Moocher nation have corrupted America, and we may never recover.

LINKS:

Why Benghazi is a blow to Obama and Clinton, by Ron Fournier

Nobody knows what will happen to Syria

2013-05-04T12:45:38+00:00

We don't know what Syria will look like when its 2- to 20-plus years civil war exhausts itself.

We don't know whether the surviving Syria will be one country or broken into several countries.

We don't know whether the surviving Syria will be strong enough to control Lebanon or be controlled by Iran, Russia, Turkey and/or Egypt.

We don't seem to know who to support. We only know that it's not Assad.

Further, we don't know whether the liars for Obama are spreading propaganda to scare Americans out of supporting stronger American military measures or to spread misinformation that somehow will enhance our non policy on Syria and the Middle East.

In the Internet age, not knowing is a new, haunting experience.

Iowa GOP suicide bombers don’t even want to run for the Senate; they know they’d be demonized

2013-05-03T14:02:48+00:00

The Iowa GOP is having a tough time finding a candidate for the U.S. Senate who could win the party's nomination and the election. UPDATE: Rep. Steve King (R-IA) won't run.

Potential Iowa GOP Senate candidates who could beat a Democrat know they would be crucified by Rick Santorum social issues fanatics.

Santorum's fans and activists, unlike most liberal and Small Government Christians, are not only very Christian like a lot of liberal Christians, they're also nasty and vicious.

Anti-abortion GOP activists (as opposed to non activists) play dirty and try to silence their opponents. They're just like liars for Obama.

So potentially strong, Small Government Iowa GOP candidates aren't running. We're likely to see the same thing happen in the Colorado Senate contest. Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO) looks unbeatable.

The Iowa GOP base is all about making anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage statements, not about winning elections.

So why would a smart GOP politician waste time seeking his party's nomination?

Hard right Rep. Steve King is the kind of GOP foot-in-mouth candidate Democrats love to demonize. He makes it easy. And maybe he knows that and doesn't want to waste his time, either? That's why he's still undecided.

It's a sad time for the Washington GOP establishment. It seems to have a death wish when it comes to backing candidates. As for the base Republicans who only vote for Rick Santorum suicide bombers, hey, you only live once.

Medium.com is a powerful, interesting new social media site for users of twitter, Facebook

2013-05-02T19:51:18+00:00

One of the advantages of having been on social media sites for some 30 years is that I've experienced the fun of being on CompuServe, Internet message boards, this blog since 2003, newspapers' comments sections, twitter and FaceBook.

And now we have another social media site that I rediscovered this morning on twitter.com.

http://www.Medium.com announced its plans last year, and I registered as a member, but I didn't realize that it was up and running until I saw its tweet a few hours ago.

After signing in with my RealDonJohnson twitter account, I read a few articles and then dug into the "About" pages. (You may have to sign in with your twitter account to read that and other links I'm going to post here.)

Medium appears to be for people who want to write real articles, not just 140 word tweets or one-paragraph posts on FaceBook.

The site wants people to follow its style books, use its specified dictionaries and write "percent" instead of "%", which takes only one keystroke. I'm a "%" kinda guy. But if I decide to post on Medium, I'll try to use their style, which I think will keep a fair number of contributors away.

The next thing I read in the "About" section was a very detailed explantion of how "authors" and commenters can use the site. Writers can authorize readers to post "notes" next to sentences and paragraphs, not far away, deep in the middle of 1,000 comments posted below the article.

Notes appear in the margins of the page, right next to the sentence or paragraph they address. Notes writers are limited to only 200 characters per note, and you can't break those notes into paragraphs.

Long blocks of type are unreadable and unread. I believe in short paragraphs—the old Chicago Daily News style.

What's great about Medium's notes is that an author can turn them off, zap trolls and nasty comments and reply to those who post notes. And the author is the "moderator" and can make useless and nasty notes (flames) invisible to all but the author and the note writer.

In other words, authors and commenters can have real conversations. I'm hoping that Medium's authors will engage their writers. Few if any reporters for blogs, news sites like Politico.com or WSJ.com interact with commenters. I think that's a mistake and missed opportunity to engage readers.

Articles are posted in what Medium calls "collections". There are dozens of them. Sign in and take a look.

LINKS:

http://www.medium.com

http://www.twitter.com

http://www.facebook.com

Who do we blame for ObamaCare, the unAffordable Care Act? Big Government corrupts

2013-05-01T14:28:38+00:00

Who do we blame for soaring health insurance premiums?

You can blame AARP, health insurers, doctors and hospitals and the politicians that they paid with campaign contributions to distort the health insurance and health care markets.

And you can blame uninformed, unorganized and powerless voters for letting the Henry Waxmans of Congress and every president since JFK for making it all go wrong.

Health care is big money and big government.

Big government spends big money.

Big money in the hands of Big Government corrupts.

Big government corrupts politicians, campaign contributors, drug companies, hospital administrators, physicians and regulators who have anything to do with distorting our health insurance and health care markets.

That's why America's huge government is and looks so corrupt. We're a third world country now.

ObamaCare backlash grows; why community rating best thing in Affordable Care Act

2013-04-30T17:14:54+00:00

The backlash against ObamaCare (Affordable Care Act, which is an oxymoron) is soaring among small businesses and their workers who are losing jobs and having their hours and take home pay cut while health insurance premiums are set to soar in 2014.

Premiums will soar as community rating, the best thing in ObamaCare, and expensive new mandated benefit plans kick in in 2014. The impact of community rating will be mostly a one-time event. Community rating protects the sick and most people over 40 from being discrimated against by employers because of their health status and age as I've written here. Please see the links at the bottom of that November 2009 blog for more information about community rating.

Expensive new mandated benefits designed to enrich providers and alternative care providers will keep premiums soaring until they're repealed and revised.

I've tweeted this morning at RealDonJohnson:

#ObamaCare backlash builds. #Community rating not problem. Benefit plans are. http://on.wsj.com/11Rzaur

Why #community rating 1 of best things in #ObamaCare. http://tiny.cc/erwcww

LINKS:

How to reform health insurance markets. The Business Word.

U.S. needs community rates for health risks. By Donald E. L. Johnson

Risk rating leaves people without health insurance; shows need for community rating. The Business Word.

Mark Hillman bill rigs market for Anthem Blue Cross. The Business Word.

Mandated health benefits in Colorado increase the cost of health insurance up to 50%. The Business Word.