Romney Pulling a Kennedy on Religion

Mitt Romney is going to give a speech at former President George H. W. Bush Library in Texas to defend, define, explain or totally confuse the Christian right wing of his Republican Party.

In the words of former Senator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas Governor Romney…”You Sir are no Jack Kennedy”.

Let me first say that if someone in America thinks your personal religious practice and belief is a reason not to vote for you then you don’t want their vote. Religious faith is what most American’s have on Sunday when they put on the very best clothes that they have and attend whatever service they practice. You smile nice to the widows and widowers and of course pat the young children on the head that look so angelic in their Sunday best. All is well in the world and God is pleased.

Come Monday morning they revert back to being the jerk boss that eyes the nineteen year old receptionist with thoughts of lust, or the cranky garage mechanic owner that will overcharge you for labor and parts that never existed. God forbid they recognize one another in the liquor store or choose not to look one another in the eye. Come Monday the services are ended and it all becomes business as usual where everyone is trying to screw everyone else.

Mitt Romney explaining his religious belief as a Mormon is a bad decision and this one will cost him New Hampshire and Iowa. Why that is what will happen is simple, none of the other candidates are explaining their religion. They do not have to and neither should Mitt. The guy was elected in the bluest of the blue states of Massachusetts as Governor because he simply had the right message at the right time. Put another way, if there were a war in Massachusetts with Republican’s fighting Democrat’s, there would be three hundred Democrat troops and one Republican. Overwhelming odd’s and yet Mitt was elected Governor. Religion had no realistic play in the voters minds. Mike Huckabee is posting advertisements with bold print “Christian Leader”? He obviously is not running from his faith!

President Kennedy needed to defend and explain his religious stance if elected because of the direct link to a religious leader in the Vatican called the Pope. In the Catholic faith you can be excommunicated for failing to follow the Pope’s decree. American voters at that time were concerned about a President possibly bound by an outside influence from a foreign land and rightfully so. That was a risk for him personally and it was something that Kennedy was willing to face to serve our people if that was what the Pope ordered on any decision he made as President of our nation. Kennedy put his faith to the side but did not give it up entirely as he simply understood the Presidency of the United States of America was not about him or his faith as an individual but it was entirely about the greater good of the nation.

That is a huge difference when compared to what Mitt Romney is going to offer and he isn’t giving this speech to defend his personal faith. He’s doing it for votes from a base that he really does not want. That is the reality of what his speech will be about and the Christian Conservative Right will see right through it.

President Kennedy was almost fifty years ago in expressing his religious belief and the concerns of the separation of church and state issue. We as a people have a much larger tolerance for religion, race and sex of our political candidates these days and Mitt Romney just does not get that. Maybe all the trips out of the state he was supposed to be Governing didn’t have a chance to let reality reach him.

Here in New England some folks call us prudes when it comes to our religion or belief in God. Screw them! If someone questioned your faith no matter where you live, how many seconds would be on that time watch before you slugged the SOB? Big Mistake Mitt… HUGE!

American’s do not elect people based on where you go to church, we elect people to the highest office on what your ideas are to make our nation better.

I’m jumping in the shower. I just realized I’m offering advice to a Republican candidate for President. I feel dirty for some odd reason.

Papamoka

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Cross posted at Michael Linn Jones and Bring IT ON!

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Wounded Iraq Vet’s Moving On

Picture courtesy of Reuters

As we all read the latest and greatest news in the world of politics it was interesting to see Pat Robertson endorsing Rudi Giuliani for the Christian Conservatives. Talk about oil and water not mixing. Robertson sited that the people need someone that can deal with world terrorism and radical Islam for his decision to endorse Giuliani for President in 2008.

Republican’s seem to be running on the war against terror for President from a strength perspective and in some respects I agree with them but the world is a far different place than it was on September 11, 2001. Talking tough against terrorism and radical factions in the world is one thing but the cost for that kind of talk is paid in lives by our military. Military funerals are happening all across our nation every single day to the point that people can not comprehend anymore that the person in that hearse was someone’s baby that was being buried. Then you have the forgotten cost, the wounded military members that are sent back home to tend their wounds. That is what lead me to this amazing photo shoot over at Reuters. Please take the time to view the pictures on Reuters. My heart goes out to all of the people that help these soldiers to get back to some sense of normalcy as the world likes to see portrayed. No longer whole, these soldiers prove to the world that they are not done fighting. God bless them all.

IED’s are taking a serious toll on our troops in the field and the road back for many of these soldiers is a long one. The loss of one limb is extreme enough but many of these soldiers are suffering from multiple limb losses. Rehabilitation is brutal and hard on them personally, emotionally, and physically. Learning to walk again is not a simple task when you don’t have the legs you were born with. It’s easy to speak from courage in a political suit when you don’t have to face the results of that speech trying on a pair of prosthetic legs for the hundredth time in an effort to simply walk.

I’m not supporting any candidate that thinks that all of the possible avenues of diplomacy have been exhausted to end this war and that we need to send more American troops to Iraq or Afghanistan. I don’t think anyone in the Republican field of candidates truly understands that our military presence in Iraq now is no longer fighting terrorism as much as it is creating a new generation of terrorists. As far as the Democrat’s in the race for 2008, I believe only Senator Biden and Governor Richardson are advocating an exit plan that makes sense.

War is nothing glorious or moral, it is men killing one another because no other solution existed to stop the conflict. Our next election for President and the Congress should be a loud and clear voice that our American government has the ability to listen and talk to all peoples of the world without calling them a terrorist nation first. Military action comes with a very high price and using it as a first option simply because you can is not what this nation was ever about.

Papamoka

My personal thanks go out to Fisher House that provides local accommodation’s to wounded Military immediate family while our wounded men and woman in our military service fight back from what is a devastating circumstance for most families.

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Fred Thompson Anti Church Going Kills his Campaign

I’m so sorry for saying this but Fred Thompson just ended his campaign with this one speech politically. Not being a political genius, even I know that the worst thing to say while campaigning for the highest office in the land is to state that you do not attend church even somewhat regularly is a NO NO! Somebody fire off a flare because the Thompson campaign just sank on its maiden voyage.

Did anyone tell the actor and former United States Republican Senator that our nation is kind of religious? Did anyone tell him that he should be courting the Evangelicals and religious right who are still seeking a candidate to back? Umm, I’m guessing and I could be wrong but he just popped the Fred Thompson is us balloon or the me too Fred for President grass roots campaign.

Baptist, Lutheran and Protestant Ministers across the bible belt are admonishing themselves for stating out loud “Holy… and it begins with an F and ends with UCK and it isn’t FIRETRUCK!

Over at the Washington Post they have a little bit more to say about this issue regarding Fred Thompson and his run for President…

'Right With God' But Not Churchgoer Says Thompson

Chalk it up as another quirk of the 2008 GOP presidential field: The top-tier Repubican who entered the race as the supposed godsend for socially conservative voters in the Bible Belt who are dissatisfied with the other candidates is someone who does not attend church on a regular basis.

Asked about his religious beliefs during an appearance before about 500 Republicans in South Carolina yesterday, Fred Thompson said he attends church when he visits his mother in Tennessee but does not belong to a church or attend regularly at his home in McLean, Va., just outside Washington. The actor and former senator, who was baptized in the Church of Christ, said he gained his values from "sitting around the kitchen table" and said he did not plan to speak about his religious beliefs on the stump. "I know that I'm right with God and the people I love," he said, according to Bloomberg News Service. It's "just the way I am not to talk about some of these things." - Washington Post

Freddie can kiss Iowa goodbye and New Hampshire. For that matter most of the South Bible voters goodbye during the primary elections. Me thinks he surrounded himself with bad folks and advice or his own revelation was the first and last nail in the coffin of his campaign.

I’m a realist and for that matter honest with myself and the working of our nation. America is a very religious nation and that is a fact no matter how you psychologically try to break it down. Republican or Democrat we believe in God and worship regullarly, well most of us do and that is what it is. In elections, the majority rules. Politics is about surviving in the media and one mistake can end your campaign and Fred Thompson just stepped on the foundation of not just Republican voters lives but many Democrat voters as well.

Common sense would tell any campaign to look at Main Street America and see that on every other corner is a church. Hello Freddie? The life of any candidate for President is or should not be an open book in my opinion. If the former Senator had said simply that his religious belief was not up for discussion that would have been appropriate. He didn’t. Nobody in America has to defend their religion and yet in politics you have to take a stand and Fred Thompson chose his ground. It probably will not work out well for him in the Republican primaries but he was the one that spoke on his religious commitment.

I find it ironic that the people that want to run our nation have to run from their belief in God at all. In my life, in my faith, I find it to be my own comfort and saving grace when I need it most. For the record, if anyone asked me about my church going activities I would have told them that that is between my God and I and not for publication.

America has freedom of religion. In politics however there is no freedom of religion. Bad move Fred.

Papamoka

Cross posted at Bring It ON!

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