Something Stinks In St. Louis

Something Stinks In St. Louis

Kevin Bryant

In July of 1980, Ronald Reagan polled behind Jimmy Carter. Many at that point thought Carter was shoe-in for reelection. Over the period of August – October, Reagan steam rolled him. Roll forward to July, 2012, in Missouri John Bruner and Sarah Steeleman were in a virtual tie for the republican nomination to challenge Claire MacCaskill for the United States senate. Each polling in the high 30’s to low 40’s with Congressman Todd Akin bringing up the rear somewhere around 12 – 15%. In three weeks time, Todd Akin goes from dead last and out of contention to soundly defeating both Steeleman and Bruner. Last time I checked, Todd Akin isn’t even close to being in the same league as Ronald Reagan.

Claire MacCaskill at the time was polling almost 10 point behind both Bruner and Steeleman and was in within the margin of error against Akin. Now Aunt Claire is ahead of and pulling away from Todd Akin. What I and so many others here in Missouri would like to know is what really happened in those three weeks leading up to that primary.

What we know: Todd Akin is a congressman from the St. Louis area but is almost a complete unknown in the rest of the state. Claire MacCaskill was able to defeat Jim Talent for her senate seat because of an extremely strong showing in the St. Louis area, where she received almost 80% of the vote. Jim Talent took the rest of the state. John Bruner and Sarah Steeleman split almost every section of the state except for St. Louis. Steeleman and Bruner finished with less than 3000 votes separating them but Todd Akin managed to defeat them both by almost 10,000 votes though he finished last in 80% of Missouri’s counties. Todd Akin was outspent outside of the St. Louis metro almost 40 to 1 by the combination of Bruner and Steeleman. Todd Akin literally had no money to spend outside of the St. Louis area.

What we all saw: The MacCaskill campaign shot multiple radio and TV ads opposing all three candidates though hardly any of those against Steeleman or Bruner ever made it on the air. In fact, 95% of her advertisement opposing Steeleman and Bruner was pulled from the Kansas City & Springfield areas by the third week of June, 7 weeks before the election and we got bombarded with “Don’t Vote Todd Akin” ads.

 

Questions:

1) How does someone who is virtually unknown outside of St. Louis manage to gain 25 percentage points in 21 days spending almost no money and making less than 5 appearances outside of St. Louis.?

2) How did Claire MacCaskill know to keep on running ads against Todd Akin and to stop running them against the two frontrunners?

Just two weeks ago (by the time you read this), Todd Akin, a very seasoned politician, goes on television and makes a speaking error of such enormous proportion that it would actually blow the minds of people if that size mistake was made by someone running for the position of local dogcatcher. No politician outside of Joe Biden is THAT dumb.

Todd Akin now has no money, very little in state support, no out of state support, no backing from the RNC, no vote of confidence from the Romney-Ryan campaign, two candidates who can both raise money and defeat MacCaskill waiting in the wings and he refuses to step down as the party’s candidate for the U.S. senate. Every republican power player in the state has requested he step aside. Only MacCaskill and state democrats still support him staying in and he won’t get out of the race.

Question:

3) You’re beat and you know you’re beat. Why stay in a race you know you can’t win and by staying, you prevent 2 others who are very capable of winning from actually defeating Claire MacCaskill and blocking the republicans from taking back the senate?

Is it just me or can you too smell the political stench coming from St. Louis?

Who Am I?

Who Am I?

Al Ritter

I am the city wrought with crime so much so that I am the second deadliest city in America surpassed only by Detroit for murders. I am the state where its people once called itself the “land of pleasant living.” I am the city where a major revitalization project drew people from around the country to its inner city but has now become an area for “roaming black gangs,” and has now made visitors targets for violent crime.

I am the state that has been controlled by Democrats for over 20 years now. I am the city where corrupt politicians are groomed through the city level. I am the city that breeds corruption through the city council first, graduates to Mayor, then to Governor, never once looking back at the problems they created. I am the city whose crime becomes increasingly worse and yet the past Mayors go on to increasingly higher offices.

I am the city where the immortal words were penned “the land of the free, and the home of the brave,” and yet ranked 43^rd out of 50 states for an overall violation of personal freedom in a 2009 study. I am the state where people proudly announced themselves in the 50’s as being from the “free state.”

I am the state that has enacted numerous laws to “protect” it’s most famous tributary, but despite the laws and extra regulations has made very little headway in curbing pollution, but has taxed its inhabitants to a painful level to preserve its cleanliness.

I am the state that has the second largest tax increase from 2010 to 2012 and yet still can’t balance its budget. I am the state that because of its taxing policies has chased off 31,000 millionaire residents to neighboring states between 2007 and 2010.

 I am a sanctuary state that supports, hides, and enables illegal aliens. I was the state that promised that illegal aliens would no longer be able to obtain driver’s licenses, but now they are once again getting licenses through the “back door.” I am the state where the legislature has given millions of dollars to a group that printed pamphlets on how to avoid ICE officials thus being deported. This never stopped the flow of money to this group, only slowed it for a short time.

I am the state that once viewed gambling as evil and a tax on the poor while Maryland had a Republican Governor, but quickly enacted a law that allowed slot machines, and is now on a fast track to include full scale gambling through the legislature.

I was once a state that viewed “fees” were taxes but now accepts them as fees rather than taxes, because their Democratic Governor said so.

I am the state whose two senators survive by earmarks and proudly extoll their use as benefiting the people of the state.

I am the state that is increasing its Democratic control through a blatant gerrymandering process that if successful will secure democratic control for decades to come. I am the state, the city, the rural areas that once held their heads proudly above the rest. Alas, that was a long time ago and many Mayors and Governors have passed into the annals of our history. My present Governor is presently being groomed to run for the Presidency, I hope you remember these facts in the future, your country will depend on it!

Who am I? Surely you have guessed by now…….I am the once Great State of Maryland, and once Great City of Baltimore……hard to believe isn’t it?.........sad to see the regressive nature of my state!

DeEnergizing The Base

DeEnergizing The Base

Kevin Bryant 

What is going on with the Romney campaign? It appears to me that we are getting a repeat of the John McCain campaign. During the primaries the base was all fired up and record numbers of voters were turning out for primary contests.  But now…….. 

We have gone from one of the hardest hitting primaries to a softball general election. The Obama campaign is running almost completely unopposed on their record, their distortion of the truth and their Chicago style tactics. Sarah Palin said it best when she told reporters “The McCain campaign wouldn’t allow me to take the gloves off”.  

Romney is looking and acting like a nice boy scout who is trying to help an elderly person across the street, not someone in a fight looking to win the white house. If the base wanted another softball campaign we could have gotten that from John Huntsman. We did get that from John McCain. 

It’s time to take the gloves off, roll up the sleeves and get dirty. Romney doesn’t need to take the message to the streets of America, he needs to take the fight to the streets of America.

Dear Patriots

Dear Patriots:

William G. Burmer

Recently I received a reply from Barbara Boxer, Senator from California, to an editorial I sent to her and Feinstein some weeks ago. Oh yes, I send my editorials to my representatives. I believe we should all let them know how we feel, not just our friends and those who may disagree.

The reply was predictable, sanitized, polite without mention of any actually subject matter; I was thanked for my comments and assured they would play a role in her decision making process as she worked in the Senate.

I have, in the past, received several letters from my representatives of the same genre. I am sure each of you have also received similar letters if not the same. They begin by inserting your first name “Dear _____. (First Paragraph) Thank you for your recent letter, your comments are important to me BLAH BLAH BlAH. (Second Paragraph) Please visit my web site for some (BS). The (third Paragraph) More (BS) and finally the salutation can be interpreted to mean (Kiss off) your comments are trivial to me and I will enjoy my power and retirement at your personal expense.

I would that the following words of Davy Crockett rang sober within the hearts of more of today’s politicians.

Letter (28 January 1834), reported in A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett (1834), p. 113, final paragraph.

I am sorry to say I do doubt the honesty of many men that are called good at home, that have given themselves up to serve a party. I am no man's man. I bark at no man's bid. I will never come and go, and fetch and carry, at the whistle of the great man in the white house, no matter who he is. And if this petty, un-patriotic scuffling for men, and forgetting principles, goes on, it will be the overthrow of this one happy nation, and the blood and toil of our ancestors will have been expended in vain.

In a letter following his defeat in the 1830 elections, as quoted in David Crockett: The Man and the Legend (1994) by James Atkins Shackford, p. 133

I would rather be beaten and be a man than to be elected and be a little puppy dog. I have always supported measures and principles and not men. I have acted fearless and independent and I never will regret my course. I would rather be politically buried than to be hypocritically immortalized.

To all who serve party over principle I say: Woof Woof, Bow Wow.