TimManBlog

04 Feb 2012

Mitt Romney — The Executive

As the 2012 campaign season comes to my state with Tuesday’s Colorado Caucuses, I’ve decided to attend as many of the candidates’ local speeches as can be managed.

I attended a Rick Santorum rally last Wednesday the 1st. You can read my comments at this link: Rick Santorum — The Servant. In that post I also described each of the other three candidates with a single word: Romney is The Executive, Gingrich is The Visionary, and Ron Paul is The Ideologue.

I plan to attend a speech by Newt Gingrich on Monday the 6th. Today I am fortunate to be able to attend a rally for Mitt Romney.

Dateline: Springs Fabrication Plant, Colorado Springs, Colorado, Saturday February 4, 2:45 pm.

The event was held inside a manufacturing plant owned by a Romney supporter. There were no seats; event-goers stood behind a makeshift stage amidst various cranes and manufacturing equipment. The usable area was jam-packed but actually smaller than the space used by Santorum a few days earlier. I estimate the crowd to have been about one thousand, roughly the same size as Santorum drew. Romney’s people told me that no one was turned away for lack of space.

(No food was offered to the crowd at the Romney event; Santorum’s people provided a plate of homemade cookies (snickerdoodles) next to their sign-up sheet. These were much appreciated.)

Attending the Romney event were several significant GOP office-holders and endorsers such as Colorado Attorney General John Suthers, El Paso County Commissioner Wayne Williams, and Colorado State GOP Vice-Chairman Leondray Gholston.

Gholston introduced an Iraq War veteran who led the crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance which was followed by an invocation (led by Gholston). Gholston then introduced United States Senator John Thune of South Dakota, who introduced Mitt Romney.

I’m not a professional reporter. First I’ll do my best to recapitulate the speech objectively and then offer my opinions of it at the bottom of the post.

Wearing a white shirt and jeans, Mitt Romney spoke with a microphone in one hand and no notes.

Romney began by thanking the owner of the Springs Fabrication plant who hosted the event. He then introduced some members of his family behind him, although Mrs. Romney was not among those present. He thanked members of the nearby US Air Force Academy, and recognized dignitaries present including Colorado Attorney General John Suthers.

Romney then launched into current issues, reminding the crowd that it is nearly three years to the day since Obama told an interviewer that he would only serve a single term if he was unable to turn the economy around. Romney reminded the crowd that these are tough times in America and then reeled off a series of statistics to buttress that claim. He remembered that it was Thomas Paine who said “lead, follow, or get out of the way.” Romney then delivered the punch line: “Obama has shown he can’t lead, he won’t follow, not we must get him out of the way!”

The crowd cheered.

The build-up and the punch line of the opening remarks clearly showed me that Romney was reciting a well-practiced stump speech. This is of course the norm at such campaign rallies. Romney’s cadence is smooth; he delivers his facts and statistics dexterously.

Referring to recent positive jobs data Romney said he is happy that the American economy is slowly improving. However, he insisted, this is thanks to the entrepreneurship of businessmen like the owner of the Springs Fabrication plant and not to the policies of Barack Obama. Obama is borrowing too much money and that will never grow an economy.

Romney then reeled off a laundry list of promises and slogans after which each was met with loud cheers from the crowd. “Government is too big.” Cheers. “I will not slow government growth; instead I will cut the size of government entirely.” Cheers. “I will cut programs.” Cheers. “It is immoral to pass along debt to our kids for them to repay.” Cheers.

Romney decried Obama’s record of “crony capitalism” including the federal government’s 500 million dollar loan lost to bankrupt Solyndra. He then contrasted Solyndra with his successful shepherding of start-up company Staples, where “we invested only 5 to 10 million dollars and built a great business while holding our meetings in cheap, rented offices.” He asked the audience to compare his capitalistic successes to Obama’s delivery of car companies to the control of the UAW.

“With regard to health care,” Romney said quickly changing subjects, “I will repeal Obamacare as my first act. In energy I will expand drilling, the use of coal, and natural gas.”

Romney attacked Obama on foreign policy. He said Obama thinks America is in decline and so he reaches out to appease dictators: Ahmadinejad in Iran, Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, Kim Jong-il and now Kim Jong-un in North Korea. He said Obama plans to cut the military by 1 trillion dollars yet we have fewer ships in our Navy and fewer planes in our Air Force than we’ve had in decades. I (Romney) will add 100,000 troops and expand our Air Force and Navy building and modernization programs.

Obama, Romney said, wants us to become like Europe.

Finishing his speech, Governor Romney reminisced about the time in his boyhood when his parents “drove us across the country in a Rambler.” “It was then that I fell in love with this country and its people.” He referred to the patriotic song “America the Beautiful,” quoting a number of the lesser known verses full of paeans to the American experience. (Full lyrics here.)

Unfortunately Romney failed to mention the fact that “America the Beautiful” was written here in Colorado Springs. Had he done so it would have proved that he was truly attentive to his audience. The crowd didn’t seem to notice, but I did.

As a denouement Romney reminded the crowd that in the Declaration, God endowed us with Rights, that among these are the Right to the Pursuit of Happiness as WE choose, not as the government directs. These principles make us who we are. “Hold true to principles of the Constitution and the Declaration and we will overcome all obstacles!”

The crowd roared and some chanted USA! USA! as Romney waved in appreciation.

The speech had taken 21 minutes. The Governor spent the next nine minutes shaking hands in the crowd. I noticed that Romney spent less time chatting with individual well-wishers than Santorum had a few nights earlier.

Then I noticed Romney smile an odd clownish smile and zigzag from one edge of the stage to its opposite. Apparently he was trying to show a new segment of outstretched hands that he had even greater enthusiasm for them than he had for the previous bunch. In this gesture I think I detected an act. Let me not be misunderstood. I do not believe Romney has a veiled hatred of people but rather fakes sentimentality to please them.

This speech as a whole was an exercise in crowd participation like the holler and holler-back of a cheerleading routine. Mitt would offer a line, a fact or situation, and then a promise to do differently. Then the crowd would cheer.

I didn’t find myself disagreeing with much of what Romney said. Furthermore the positive statements Romney made outnumbered the negative — the speech was more about what he would do as President than what Obama had failed to do. Nevertheless it lacked a central theme beyond “I’ll do what we all think will improve us all” and so I wasn’t drawn along by his enthusiasm. Without such a central theme I left the rally with only a vague understanding of how Mitt Romney might react to future circumstances yet unrevealed to us. These will come. They always do.

In my previous post (Rick Santorum — The Servant), I described Romney as The Executive in the following terms:

Romney is The Executive. Give him a job like running the Olympics or building big companies and he gets the job done. Unfortunately he is incapable of knowing which job to do. He’s been on both sides of so many issues (abortion, cap and trade, health care mandate, global warming, gun control, etc. etc. etc.) that he obviously will need some direction as President.

Please discard the Hollywood notion that an Executive is a fat, greedy, worthless and ultimately lazy leech upon society. Such a view is a caricature made for the purpose of comedy. I’ve known a few executives in my years in the business world. They are always sharp and focused people and because of this can seem aloof and unsentimental. Yet executives come in many types. Some I have known were scrupulously honest and charitable while others were not. Some were religious while others were not. Some friendly while others humorless. But in every case the executives I’ve met were highly attentive, goal- and achievement-oriented people. That of course does not mean they were always right; sometimes their extreme focus causes them to lose sight of the bigger perspective.

Such executive characteristics have important advantages for one seeking to become the chief executive of the United States. A sharp focus combined with an energetic perseverance will get things done. The Executive is driven by the prospect of achievement and is abhorrent of failure. However, the Executive performs best when his or her goals can be empirically measured and demonstrated. In Romney’s case he has such experience when he made the Olympics profitable and built successful companies.

In the speech at the rally Romney specifically mentioned “cutting government” (not just slowing its growth) and “repealing Obamacare.” Such specifics are great news for conservatives since this means he accepts these items as personal goals to be achieved. History suggests he will actually try to achieve them rather than just move in such a direction. The more specificity that can be drawn out of Romney the better.

However, because of his focus on measurable goals, Romney will have difficulty understanding abstractions such as “the good of the country.” He may lack the prudence (judgement) to address important issues in a non-economic way. Romney has had difficulty choosing sides on social issues such as health care mandates, gun control, abortion, gay marriage and the like. His approach to the theoretical danger of Global Warming is confused. As such issues confound his focus he may seek an escape, opting for the path of least resistance rather than the path of the greatest good.

This may be most troublesome for the country. Americans are greatly divided on social issues and a Romney election will be seen as merely an economic victory for the Right and not a referendum on other issues. Romney therefore will not be capable of leading the country in this respect, and the American Culture War will continue.

Executives are often seen as obtuse. I believe this is both true and fair in the sense that their extreme focus on achievement blinds them to other concerns. For Romney, working a crowd is probably more a part of the job to be endured than an enjoyment of the moment. People will recognize that and he will certainly be attacked as distant and cold.

Unlike previous GOP “moderates” John McCain and Bob Dole, Romney is at heart a businessman unhabituated to accepting Washington gridlock as the norm. He is a determined man with a history of achievement and will be a formidable opponent during the election campaign and in the White House should he get there.

Mitt Romney (with unknown supporter waving back to him)

Posted in Politics and tagged Colorado Caucus, GOP, GOP Primary, Mitt Romney, Romney

02 Feb 2012

13 Comments

Rick Santorum — The Servant

As the 2012 campaign season comes to my state with next Tuesday’s Colorado Caucuses, I’ve decided to attend as many of the candidates’ local speeches as can be managed.

First up, Rick Santorum.

Dateline: Mr. Biggs Event Center, Colorado Springs, Colorado, Wednesday February 1, 7:15 pm. The event was moved to this location at the last minute to accommodate a larger crowd than was originally expected. The hall was full, standing room only, and I estimate the crowd to have been about one thousand.

I’m not a professional reporter. First I’ll do my best to recapitulate the speech objectively and then offer my opinions of it at the bottom of the post.

Santorum spoke with a microphone in one hand and no notes.

He began his comments by reminding the audience of the importance of the Constitution to American life. The Constitution exists to ensure our enjoyment of those freedoms and rights espoused in the Declaration of Independence, which Santorum referred to as “the Soul of America”.

Santorum went on to mention Alexis de Tocqueville, who journeyed to America to compare the American Constitution with the new French Republic created by the French Revolution. While the French Constitution espouses liberty, equality and fraternity, America substitutes “paternity” for “fraternity”. This paternity, Santorum says, is the paternity of God the Creator. Such paternity means that rights are given by God, as the Declaration says, and they do not come to us through the fraternity of our fellow citizens or our governments. Indeed, even equality is to be understood as our equal standing with each other to God.

At this point Santorum switched from the philosophical underpinnings of American government to the specific issues of the day. He says he entered the presidential race for one reason — Obamacare. Obamacare changes the relationship between people and government by giving government control over your health and thus your very life. With government controlling health decisions Americans will no longer be able to say that their rights come from God as the Declaration declares but, to the extent Americans still have rights, these rights will come from the government. Such rights can be taken away by men as easily as they are conferred by men.

Next Santorum took up the subject of his standings in the polls, and specifically whether he could win the nomination. He explained that in Florida he had higher favorability ratings (60%+), than either Romney or Gingrich, but that since people were convinced he couldn’t win they voted elsewhere.

To finish, Santorum returned to his opening themes. He is running on a slogan that is also an equation: Faith + Family = Freedom. He accepted the moniker “social conservative” and explained that he will gladly wear that moniker because it accurately describes him — even though many in the GOP say that what is needed is an economic conservative rather than a social conservative. But Santorum went on to argue that it is social conservatism that ultimately leads to economic prosperity. He reminded the audience that the word “economy” comes from the Greek meaning “household management.” Thus we need to have strong families (households) at our core to have a prosperous economy. When we have weak families we suffer. The poverty rate in single parent families is 40%. As marriage rates decline we can expect poverty to increase. Here he receives a standing ovation.

At this point Santorum introduces Dr. James Dobson as one of his endorsers. Dr. Dobson states that as in 1980 “we’re not gonna vote for someone who people say can ‘win’, we’re gonna vote for someone who can govern.”

Dobson then posed a number of questions to Santorum: Will you get the government off our backs? Will you get rid of Obama’s executive orders? Santorum replied that he will fire all of Obama’s czars. He will repeal regulations which cost business over $100 million per year.

Santorum finished the event with two personal stories. When he lost his last Senate election in Pennsylvania he did so while “[standing] up for my principles even when they were not popular. Abandoning your principles is the one thing that is worse than losing. ”

Then Santorum recounted the story of his daughter Bella who was born with a genetic defect called Trisomy 18. Most children with this condition die shortly after childbirth but Bella is alive today at age 3. Santorum explained that Bella’s condition means she cannot walk or talk and never will, that she can do only one thing — love. That, he finished, “is the same relation I have with my Father in Heaven: I can do nothing for Him but love Him, yet He loves me unconditionally.”

Rick Santorum received a loud round of applause. He stayed near the podium to shake hands and take photos with dozens of well-wishers.

Upon reflection, I was struck by the fact that Santorum received only one standing ovation through the entire speech. To be sure there was nothing in his presentation that was disliked, yet he doesn’t generate adulation the way some other candidates do. In fact, most candidates package their stump speeches around key words and phrases specifically designed to make the audience swoon: Hope! Change! No New Taxes! 9-9-9! and the like. Santorum is different from them, and I don’t believe his difference is an inadequacy or a failing.

Thinking of the current four remaining GOP candidates I think we can now apply a single word description to each.

Romney is The Executive. Give him a job like running the Olympics or building big companies and he gets the job done. Unfortunately he is incapable of knowing which job to do. He’s been on both sides of so many issues (abortion, cap and trade, health care mandate, global warming, gun control, etc. etc. etc.) that he obviously will need some direction as President.

Gingrich is The Visionary. He has wondrous ideas every minute of every day. However, we end up bickering as to which of his ideas are brilliant and which are idiocy.

Ron Paul is The Ideologue. He doggedly sticks to his Free Market economic policy and his Non-Interventionist foreign policy like a Swiss watch sticks to its timing. Unfortunately he cannot conceive of any flexibility in his ideology even when confronted with practical problems such as killing Bin Laden.

That leaves Rick Santorum.

Santorum is The Servant. He is the Servant of his Country, of his Constitution, of his Family and of his Faith. He was the Servant to the people of Pennsylvania when he voted against a national right-to-work law because he would not approve of a federal law which overturned his state’s law. He’s been criticized for that vote and indeed it went against his own politics, but he would not abandon his role as Servant to the State of Pennsylvania.

People stood up for Santorum only once tonight. He is more soft-spoken than dramatic and people politely listen to him speak as if he were their neighbor next door. He is not a Napoleon by character or temperament. You will never cheer Santorum like a purple-clad Roman conquering hero; you will never faint at his feet. He will never become a despot.

Santorum will never present himself as your provider. He will expect people to pursue happiness and he will see his role as service to that pursuit by securing those natural rights we all deserve as people. In this way he will endeavor to be the Servant to Freedom.

Throughout this process we’ve seen that we live in an age of great egos. We see pundits and journalists and presidents vying with each other for our accolades. Santorum is the exact opposite, a Servant, and that difference may be what the country needs right now.

Rick Santorum

Posted in Politics and tagged Colorado Caucus, GOP, GOP Primary, Rick Santorum, Santorum

21 Jan 2012

How not to make a Decision

Halfway through this post you are going to wonder why the world needs to hear this story. Read through to the end and you’ll see I have an actual point to make.

This fine Saturday morning I had finished my tall Starbucks coffee and decided breakfast would be a good next step. Denny’s and Village Inn were the best nearby choices but I couldn’t decide on which.

Engage the (mechanism!) decision-making processes.

I pulled out a quarter to do a coin flip. No, wait. This isn’t a 50-50 proposition because I’d prefer Denny’s this morning. Slightly. Say 60% to 40% for Denny’s over Village Inn. That translates to 3 out of 5 so I’ll do a best-of-five series of coin flips with Denny’s (heads) getting a one flip head start.

First flip is tails so now it’s tied 1-1. Denny’s advantage lost. Then comes a heads followed by a tails. 2-2.

The final flip is tails so Village Inn it will be! No ifs, ands or buts. The rules of the coin toss were decided beforehand and executed faithfully and executed with a quarter not a cheap zinc copper-coated penny. The decision is final. It’s Official. Done. Decided.

As I drove out of the Starbucks parking lot I worried that if I went to Village Inn I would end up splurging on one of their delicious pies–French silk pecan something or other. For breakfast; this would be bad.

So I changed my mind and started to turn left (west), towards Denny’s. But I then I reminded myself that the coin flip series had been constructed and executed faithfully and the issue decided fairly. Thus I changed direction, turning the wheel from left to right and proceeded out toward Village Inn.

Heading east now. Early Saturday morning. The dawning sun was low on the horizon and directly in my eyes. Dammit!! I hate that! So I made a quick right and then another right putting the sun at my back. Here I am now at Denny’s. It was an arbitrary decision, which is all right after all, when mere breakfast choices are involved.

The All-American Slam was delicious and I’m posting this while working on a fifth coffee refill.

My decision-making algorithm was ridiculous of course. Yet from what I know of the goings-on of the Federal bureaucracy I am confident that far more hilarious and spaghetti-like examples of silliness exist there. I’ve met former government functionaries with horror stories to tell.

A few days ago the Federal goverment denied permits for the Keystone Pipeline project. The first application for approval was submitted in 2008, four years ago. A long, spaghetti-like process followed. There were studies commissioned and hearings conducted by an alphabet soup of federal agencies. The Department of Energy was involved as was the Department of Interior, the Departments of Commerce and Labor, and finally the State Department because the pipeline would cross the international border with Canada.

Any project has to go through such rigamarole these days. A streamlined process would obviously be so much better, the only consolation being that in a popular republic an arbitrary decree would be so much worse.

Barack Obama made such a decree last Wednesday when he instructed the State Department to deny those Keystone Pipeline permits.

Like me, Barack Obama made an arbitrary decision because he had the sun in his eyes. He would not stare into the glare of environmentalist’s wrath in an election year.

For Obama, no processes matter. He makes his decree law, and that’s no way to run a country.

Posted in Politics and tagged Keystone Pipeline | Leave a comment

10 Jan 2012

A Big and Notable Place — Lubbock, Texas

Tuesday, January 10, 2012. Downtown Lubbock, Texas.

I drove down the busy red brick pavement of Buddy Holly Avenue, past the county courthouse, and down to the old Depot District near the intersection with 19th Street to the Buddy and Elena Holly Plaza.

Completed just last year, the memorial block features a tall black statue of Buddy in his familiar pose, playing the guitar and singing. An adjacent grassy lawn is available for summer concerts and other public uses.

Across the street is the Buddy Holly Center. There I saw Buddy’s famous horned-rim glasses displayed under glass. These were the very glasses discovered among the plane wreckage in Iowa that winter morning two generations ago. At the Center, I also saw Buddy’s Fender and Gibson guitars, his high school written exams, his Cub Scout uniform, and even the .22 rifle he shot as a boy. (No photography was allowed in the museum.)

I then watched a short film in which Paul McCartney, Keith Richard, and Bob Dylan explained how influential Buddy had been in their own music. McCartney even admitted that he and John Lennon deliberately mimicked Holly’s chords and riffs in most of the early Beatles songs.

This was a cool day. I thanked the museum staff for staying a few minutes after 5:00 to allow me extra time in the museum.

Lubbock is fairly well spread out. This is to be expected in a West Texas city where land is flat and cheap and seems to go on forever. There are a few retail stores clustered around Broadway and Texas Avenue — but the town’s two large (15 stories) buildings are 6 blocks away with little in between. So much driving — it’s an eco-freak’s nightmare.

Lubbock was built on the surrounding cotton crop. Cotton was first planted here in the early 1900s, and by the 1920s cotton was big business in West Texas. Texas Tech University was founded here in 1923 in part to support agri-business. The 7-story Lubbock County Courthouse was built in 1950 when Lubbock’s population was only 70,000. There are some art deco features in the structure but the biggest impression it gives is its bigness itself. Seven stories are huge for this part of the country. Yet their foresight proved correct and the building has even been expanded over the years.

Buddy Holly’s parents arrived in Lubbock in the 1930s, coming from East Texas looking for better work. Buddy was born here in 1936. He died in an Iowa cornfield, an international star, and a newlywed, 22 years later.

Lubbock knew long ago it was going to be a big place and a notable place. And so it is.

A list of all photo posts from the American County Seats series in TimManBlog can be found here.

I’m trying to travel to all of America’s county courthouses, and each month a post about my visit to the most interesting county seats. It’s only a hobby — but donations are greatly appreciated to help defer my costs.
Thanks,
Tim

Make a one-time donation

Make a monthly donation

Make a yearly donation

Choose an amount

¤5.00

¤15.00

¤100.00

¤5.00

¤15.00

¤100.00

¤5.00

¤15.00

¤100.00

Or enter a custom amount

Your contribution is appreciated.

Donate

Donate monthly

Donate yearly

Posted in County Seats, Travel Posts and tagged Buddy Holly, Buddy Holly Center, Lubbock, Lubbock County Courthouse, Lubbock Texas, Texas | Leave a comment

17 Dec 2011

A Better Primary Election Schedule

Hat tip to @TheTonyLee for help on this idea.

Anyone looking at the schedule for the 2012 GOP Presidential primary season will see a mish-mash of states and dates that most resembles a plate of spaghetti thrown at the dining room wall. On some election days there will be only one state’s primary scheduled, while on others there will be two or three, and on yet others there may be as many as ten states’ primaries scheduled.

That’s only one problem. Geographically speaking, primary dates are all over the map. In many cases states far apart host their primaries on the very same day, making it very difficult for a candidate to campaign effectively in each. For example, Arizona and Michigan hold their primaries on February 28. Are the candidates going to fly from Phoenix to Detroit then back to Tucson then back to Grand Rapids? Or, consider the logistics for Super Tuesday (March 6) where voters go to the polls in the far Northeast (Massachusetts), in the Deep South (Georgia), in the Midwest (Ohio), in the Southwest (Oklahoma), and in the Far West (Idaho and Alaska). Then after the exhaustion of Super Tuesday the candidates can turn the full weight of their campaign energies on little Kansas, which is the only state to hold its caucus on March 10.

How many Americans understand all this? Does it make good sense to anyone?

Ladies and Gentlemen, and pundits, there has to be a better way!

I’d like to see presidential candidates campaign through as many states as possible with the same intensity that they currently do in Iowa and New Hampshire. To do this we need to cut down the candidates travel time drastically. We also need to allow them to maximize the reach of their media purchases by consolidating election schedules around existing media markets.

To accomplish these goals I propose changing the future scheduling of presidential primaries and caucuses. The new schedule will consist of four weeks of single-state elections followed week after week by regional primaries in which neighboring states are clustered together to vote on the same day. This scheme will shorten the primary season as a whole, cut down on wasteful travel, consolidate media markets for spending efficiency, and generally make sense to the American people.

Here are the details.

First, we can keep intact the scheduling of the first four states’ elections. Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada can each have its own primary/caucus on its own day a week apart. This is more than just traditional; it is actually regionally equitable since these four states each represent one of the country’s four main regions.

Second, the remaining group of 46 states (plus the District of Columbia) would be separated into 12 defined regions, each of which will hold its elections a week apart. States will vote on the same day as other states within its region.

Now for the fun part. These regions will be loosely based on NCAA athletic conferences, of which most red-blooded Americans are familiar. Happily this lends itself to memorable names — there will be an ACC Primary, an Ivy League Primary, a Big-10 Primary and so forth. This may sound flippant at first, but any change will be more easily embraced when its terms are more familiar to the people.

For the first presidential election cycle the order in which each region will vote will be determined randomly; then rotated in each subsequent cycle in much the same way that the NFL rotates inter-divisional matchups. No region will always vote first and no region will always vote last.

I also recommend that the first election be moved back to the first week of February. With the new scheduling there is no longer any reason to move this process up to the frigid month of January.

Here is a sample election schedule. Again, the first four weeks of the schedule would remain the same in each presidential election cycle:

Week 1: Iowa

Week 2: New Hampshire

Week 3: South Carolina. South Carolina has been first among Southern states in many other ways, why not in elections as well.

Week 4: Nevada. So far we’ve had a Midwestern state, a Northeastern state, and a Southern state. Somebody has to be first in the West and Nevada seems to want the title.

Weeks 5 through 16 would consist of regional primaries. Here are my groupings. Again, the actual order in which each region would vote would be chosen at random at first and then rotated in each subsequent presidential cycle.

A) The Ivy League Primary. States of Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. Total population of 13,128,395. Major media markets would include Boston, Providence and Hartford. This primary will have the second-smallest population of the 12 regions.

B) The Big East Primary. States of New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Total population of 40,872,375. Major media markets would include New York City, Philadelphia, Syracuse, Buffalo and Pittsburgh. This primary will have the largest population of any of the 12 regions, but I don’t want to separate New Jersey since its media markets are really the New York City and Philadelphia media markets.

C) The ACC Primary. States of Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina plus the District of Columbia. Total population of 26,662,710. Major media markets would include Baltimore, Washington, Richmond, Raleigh/Durham and Charlotte. Note that West Virginia is included here although traditionally it is included in the Big East football conference. However, geographically West Virginia shares more of its border with Virginia that any Big East state and its population of almost 2 million would be insignificant if combined with the Big East’s 40 million.

D) SEC East Primary. States of Georgia and Florida. Total population of 28,488,963. Major media markets included are Miami, Tampa, Jacksonville and Atlanta. Originally I wanted to keep the whole SEC together but the total population would have exceeded 47 million.

E) SEC West Primary. States of Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. Total population of 18,626,510. Major media markets would include Nashville, Memphis, Birmingham and New Orleans. Note that I exclude the states of Kentucky and Arkansas from the SEC regions entirely. More on that later.

F) Big-10 East Primary. States of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. Total population of 32,243,313. Major media markets would include Detroit, Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Louisville. I’d use the Big-10’s “Legends” and “Leaders” monikers if they made any geographic sense whatsoever, but they don’t. I’ve included the state of Kentucky in this Big-10 primary to accommodate the many media markets that straddle the Ohio River between Kentucky and Indiana and Ohio, such as Cincinnati, Louisville and Evansville.

G) Big-10 West Primary. States of Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota. Total population of 23,821,543. Major media markets would include Milwaukee, Chicago and Minneapolis/St. Paul.

H) Big-12 Primary. States of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Arkansas. Total population of 18,822,426. Major media markets would include Omaha, Kansas City, St. Louis, Little Rock, Wichita, Tulsa and Oklahoma City. It makes sense to include Missouri here because the Kansas City media market straddles Missouri and Kansas. Also I think Arkansas belongs here in the Big-12 primary with its trans-Mississippi neighbors. Don’t even tell me that the Big-12 football conference is breaking up because I don’t care. The Big-12 will live on in the spirit of the Plains.

I) The Texas Primary. State of Texas only. Total population of 25,145,561. Major media markets would include Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and El Paso. The large population means a one-state primary makes sense.

J) The Big Sky Primary. States of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Idaho, Utah and Arizona. Total population of 19,364,900. Major media markets include Denver, Albuquerque, Phoenix, Tucson, Salt Lake City and Boise. I realize that ‘Big Sky’ really only refers to the state of Montana but the name “Big Sky Primary” is so much better than the bland and pedantic “Mountain West Primary.”

K) The California Primary. State of California only. Total population of 37,253,956. Major media markets would include Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco and Sacramento. Like Texas, the large single-state population means that a one-state primary makes sense. As it is this will be the second-most populous primary following the Big East Primary which has 40 million.

L) The RainWater Primary. States of Washington, Oregon, Alaska and Hawaii. Total population of 12,626,146. Major media markets would include Seattle, Spokane, Portland and Honolulu. This region will have the smallest population of any of the 12 regions. Hopefully candidates will be able to campaign in Hawaii a bit. The state of Hawaii fits easily here since the Little League World Series organizers also group Hawaii with the Northwest region in their annual summer baseball tournament. There really isn’t a unique football conference to lend its name to this regional primary so I chose the crummy name RainWater because I used to live in Portland and I don’t like it there anymore.

This is my scheme. Comments are welcome.

As it was with NCAA athletic conferences, these regional primaries can only come about with the consent and cooperation of state governments. I have no illusion that central Federal authority can or will impose any such plan.

Posted in Politics and tagged GOP, GOP Primary, Iowa Caucus | Leave a comment

15 Dec 2011

What I’d like to Hear from Newt Tonight

http://www.facebook.com/dialog/oauth?api_key=41245586762&app_id=41245586762&channel_url=https%3A%2F%2Fs-static.ak.fbcdn.net%2Fconnect%2Fxd_proxy.php%3Fversion%3D3%23cb%3Df11dfc159f117c7%26origin%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Ftimmanblog.wordpress.com%252Ff3a7a114043579%26relation%3Dparent.parent%26transport%3Dpostmessage&client_id=41245586762&display=none&locale=en_US&origin=1&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fs-static.ak.fbcdn.net%2Fconnect%2Fxd_proxy.php%3Fversion%3D3%23cb%3Df22203f9eb275dc%26origin%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Ftimmanblog.wordpress.com%252Ff3a7a114043579%26relation%3Dparent%26transport%3Dpostmessage%26frame%3Df2dd068add72e28&response_type=token%2Csigned_request%2Ccode&sdk=joey

I’m not a political campaign manager. I am not a paid political consultant. In fact, the greatest role I’ve ever had in a political campaign was as a (paid) telephone operator in the 1982 Irving, Texas “Liquor-by-the-Drink” campaign. As such I am 1-0, and we won BIG too.

Now I’d like to offer some unpaid and unsolicited advice to Newt Gingrich.

Newt should apologize to Mitt Romney for his comments about Romney’s work at Bain Capital. Here’s what Newt said:

“I would just say that if Governor Romney would like to give back all the money he’s earned from bankrupting companies and laying off employees over his years at Bain Capital, that I would be glad to listen to him.”

That is not a fair criticism. It is not consistent with Newt’s professed politcal philosophy, nor is it consistent with Newt’s own past operations as independent consultant.

Rather, these are angry and petulant remarks made in the heat of campaign battle and have become the subject of numerous news and opinion articles.

Newt will certainly be asked about them in the Sioux City debate tonight. Here’s what I think Newt should say:

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I spoke in anger in response to remarks which were unfair to me. As a businessman Mitt Romney should be free to conduct his business in a way he best sees fit. His tenure at Bain Capital included both successes and a few failures. All businesses do, mine included.”

“This campaign should be about substance, about issues and about concrete actions to be taken upon inauguration in January. I intend to stay on that path from here forward.”

Let’s see if Newt takes my advice tonight. An apology would suit him well. It might even distinguish him.

Posted in Politics and tagged Bain Capital, Gingrich, Romney | Leave a comment

14 Nov 2011

A short epigram for BlogCon11

“While one person hesitates because he feels inferior, another is busy making mistakes and becoming superior.” -Henry C. Link.

That is all.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

10 Nov 2011

Los Alamos: A City on a Hill

November 10, 2011

Veterans Day is tomorrow, Friday November 11. There are some important people not usually honored with the veterans but who should be remembered all the same.

The predecessor to Veterans Day was Armistice Day, commemorating the cease-fire at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 that brought the carnage of World War I to an end. On that first Armistice Day, my grandfather, son of German immigrants to America, was a newly drafted member of the United States Army and enrolled in basic training. For him the armistice of 11/11/18 meant that he never saw any action in that terrible war; it may have been a death sentence commuted.

As the war in Europe neared its end, a man named Ashley Pond founded the Los Alamos Ranch School amidst the scrub pine of the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico. Situated on a fingerlike mesa below the remains of an ancient volcano and with steep cliffs on three sides, the school emphasized academics along with challenging physical training. It was a place for turning privileged eastern boys into robust, learned men.

View of canyon below Los Alamos, New Mexico

In 1943 the Army Corps of Engineers appropriated the school and the land around it. Their intention was to establish one secret location for conducting wartime atomic research under the aegis of the Manhattan Project. Hundreds of scientists from major urban universities gathered here in one of the most non-urban settings imaginable develop the first atomic bomb.

I may owe my existence to the Los Alamos scientists.

During World War II Los Alamos was technically an Army post, entirely secret, isolated from the outside world, olive-drab and cheerless. Residents called it “the Hill.” Outgoing mail was strictly censored. Incoming mail could be accepted only if addressed to P.O. Box 1663 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. To make the post feel more like home the physicists and their families’ added names and numbering to the dirt paths that served as streets. There was a Spruce Street and a Nectar Street. Homes for the highest-ranking scientists and officials lay along a path dubbed “Bathtub Row” because these were the only houses in Los Alamos with bathtubs. Director J. Robert Oppenheimer’s house still stands today at the corner of Bathtub Row and Peach Street.

Robert Oppenheimer’s House, Los Alamos, New Mexico

I walked around in awe of the place. A collection of Nobel Prize winners lived and worked right here. Their familiar names had appeared on my high school physics exams. Oppenheimer lived and worked here. So did Enrico Fermi, Neils Bohr, the eccentric Edward Teller and many others.

After the War the area was expanded to become the Los Alamos National Laboratory — one of the largest science and technology institutions in the world. It employs nearly 10,000 people, many being highly educated technicians and research physicists. The new and expanded facility was moved from the old ranch school location to an adjacent mesa, behind heavy security.

Los Alamos National Laboratory, beyond Oppenheimer Drive

Things have changed of course. Los Alamos has grown to become a city and a county jurisdiction with its own courts.

Los Alamos County in the state of New Mexico

Los Alamos has a discernable business district with two wide avenues, stores, restaurants, and even a Starbucks. It is also a residential enclave for professionals with families. I saw a lot of little children about. With Halloween upcoming Central Avenue was festively decorated with flower baskets and straw-stuffed scarecrows tied to lampposts.

I ate lunch at a busy little restaurant called the Central Avenue Grill. Here the menu is best described as New Mexico chic while the diners resemble a gathering of an upscale social club. Los Alamos is a town of highly-educated white-collar employees. There aren’t any farmers or ranchers here.

My waitress was a tall, thin blond woman with a Russian accent who could have doubled for Maria Sharapova ten years ago. I fancy she is a spy. Foreign governments must place spies here — common sense says they simply must — and waitresses are certainly a cost-effective way of collecting the information overheard in technical chit-chat.

Over my hot Starbucks coffee, I tried to comprehend the place. Here in the course of two short years a team of physicists overcame the most complex scientific problems to produce the world’s first atomic weapon. Meanwhile in the summer of 1945 the United States was assembling a massive amphibious force dedicated to the conventional invasion of Japan. The slaughter on the beaches was expected to be immense. My father was assigned to that invasion force, but the order to attack never came. The men and women of Los Alamos ended the War instead. My father’s possible death sentence was commuted by scientists; otherwise, I might not have been born sixteen years later.

I didn’t see any nuclear protesters in Los Alamos. Good thing. I might not be nice. Happy Veterans Day.

A list of all photo posts from the American County Seats series in TimManBlog can be found here.