Romney's Health Care Plan

An Article by CNSNEWS.com reports that the cost of Massachusetts' health insurance mandate will rise 85 percent, or $400 million, in 2009.

According to The Boston Globe, the cost increase is largely due to an increase in the number of people signing up for state-subsidized health insurance. State and federal taxpayers are likely to shoulder the cost increase.

As we all know, Romney has been praising this mandate on the campaign trail. "We put in place a plan that gets every citizen in our state health insurance, and it didn't cost us new money," he said during the Republican debate in New Hampshire on Jan. 5. "It didn't require us to raise taxes."

The article also says that he would not mandate at the federal level. "But what I would say at the federal level is we'll keep giving you these special payments we make if you adopt plans that get everybody insured. I'd say each state needs to get busy on the job of getting all our citizens insured. It does not cost more money."

This is a man who has been emphasizing his economic credentials and criticizing McCain's understanding of the economy.

Mitt's make it or break it

Latest tracking Poll from Real Clear Politics:
McCain 25%
Romney 24%
Giuliani 19%
Huckabee 16%

Both McCain, Romney and Huckabee are gaining, taking Fred Thompson and Giuliani votes. In a "winner takes all" delegates primary, McCain can blow this wide open. He is leading in California and New Jersey polls.

Endorsements by Governor Charlie Crist and Senator Mel Martinez could put the "icing on the cake" for McCain. In this Republican only primary, Romney should be showing his strength as the "true conservative". If Romney loses Florida, he should be thinking about where his campaign is heading. A potential loss like this will not bode well for the former Massachusetts Governor.

IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE????

I'm having a lot of trouble getting fired up about this election.

Where is the true conservative in this race? I loved Fred Thompson and Duncan Hunter but their campaigns were missing that fire and where were the true conservatives to rally around them? Why would any true conservative vote for Huckabee or McCain let alone Giuliani?

Romney seems like the lesser of the evils. I just wish there was ONE TRUE conservative left in the race. Is true conservatism dead in the Republican party? If so, where does a true conservative go? Third parties just make it more likely that a Democrat will win and that is definitely the WORSE of the evils. Do we really have to settle for the lesser of the true evils instead of the representation we REALLY want?

Huckabee Endorsement

Mike Huckabee picks up an endorsement. This one from former candidate, Duncan Hunter.


“I got to know Governor Huckabee well on the campaign trail,” Hunter said in a statement. “Of the remaining candidates I feel that he is strongly committed to strengthening national defense, constructing the border fence and meeting the challenge of China’s emergence as a military superpower that is taking large portions of America’s industrial base."Along with these issues of national security, border enforcement and protecting the U.S. industrial base, I see another quality of Mike Huckabee’s candidacy that compels my endorsement," he added. "Mike Huckabee is a man of outstanding character and integrity. I saw that character over the last year of campaigning and was greatly impressed. The other Republican candidates have many strengths and I wish them all well."



I think it's a nice pickup for Huckabee. Hunter is beloved in the Republican Party for his positions on immigration and experience on the House Armed Services Committee. He would have been my man. A true Republican in every sense of the word. Can anyone see Secretary of Defense Hunter in a Huckabee Administration?



On Another note...

My prediction that Romney would lose the South Carolina Primary came to fruition. As I see the tracking polls today:



McCain 24%

Romney 21 %

Giuliani 18%

Huckabee 15%



Both Romney and McCain are on the upswing while Giuliani and Huckabee are on a downtrend.

Tonight's debate proves to be important to both McCain and Romney. Romney must be perfect tonight to win Florida. He has incorporated some members of Fred Thompson's team. And this is a great benefit to Romney. But it may be a bit too late to help his campaign. I will suspect McCain and Huckabee to do a job on him tonight. If Romney does well, there could be hope for him.

Romney's win in Michigan

Will it carry over to South Carolina? I do not think so.

Latest Zobgy Poll:


McCain 29%
Huckabee 22%
Thompson 14%
Romney 12%



Mitt's problem was not getting his message out to the voters in the first two Major primaries. Romney's people go by the polls. This has been very clear with the changing of positions in each State.

The attack(comparison) ads were of no help either. Although this kind of stuff works in the South, Romney's use of these ads gave a bad taste to voters not faniliar with his character.

Bottom line..Romney's supporters are on the fence. They are waiting for another flippity-floppity to push them over.

Romney plans for Michigan

Mitt Romney declined Wednesday to say he would win his home state’s Feb. 5 primary, which the former governor’s campaign is forecasting will be a decisive date for what they hope will be his come-from-behind effort.

Romney said he planned to spend all his time after tonight’s South Carolina debate in Michigan, but refused to call it a must-win... While Romney was raising money in Boston, New Hampshire victor John McCain was already in Michigan by Wednesday morning.

Reacting to polls showing that voters believe he was the most negative GOP candidate, Romney said, “I’ve got a positive message. I’m certainly going to point out differences on issues between myself and other candidates, and I recognize that’s a big part of politics. I know there are some people who’d say that you really should never point out differences between yourself and your opposition. I just don’t think that’s right in politics. But certainly we’ll keep our own counsel on the nature of our ads going forward,” he said.

Question is, if he does not think it is right in politics to be negative...why did he do it? People were not pointing to his ads being about differences between the candidates..they were telling him that they were negative. He probably should have waited until South Carolina before even thinking about going negative. Now he is behind... and it will be a tough road trying to just get his "positive message"out!

Extenuating Circumstances

Throughout the debate regarding the residency requirement in Seekonk the Board of Selectmen (BOS) have put a lot of faith in touting the “Extenuating Circumstances” clause in the Charter. The BOS seems to think that this clause gives them a free pass to hire whoever they want, regardless of what the rest of the Charter says, and then claim “Extenuating Circumstances”.

This is not meant to be an attack on the New Town Administrator. The purpose of this is to outline the flaw in the argument of the BOS.

What exactly qualifies as “Extenuating Circumstances”? The legal definition is:

• Surrounding factors (sometimes called mitigation) which make a crime appear less serious, less aggravated, or without criminal intent, and thus warranting a more lenient punishment or lesser charge.

Well that does not sound like it applies. I don’t believe the BOS is committing a crime. So let’s look at some other examples. A googling of the phrase brings up all kinds of definitions and examples. Outside of the instances where and actual crime has been committed the primary models used to define “Extenuating Circumstances” are as follows:

• Extenuating circumstances means a circumstance or set of circumstances that lessens or mitigates the consequences of failure under these rules to report as required in accordance with established due dates. Extenuating circumstances include but are not limited to unusual or infrequent events like an unforeseen natural event, labor dispute, or a computer system failure.

• Extenuating circumstances are normally defined as circumstances which are unexpected, significantly disruptive and beyond a persons control.

• unforeseeable - in that you could have no prior knowledge of the event concerned, and

• unpreventable - in that you could do nothing reasonably in your power to prevent such an event.

Now let’s outline the scenario:

1. In 1995 the Home Rule Charter of Seekonk was accepted by the Seekonk residence as the Constitution of our town.



2. In November of 2007 the BOS began excepting applications for new Town Administrators. (Notice I am not mentioning Lemont that is a whole case study in itself)



3. In November of 2007 Town Meeting was held and those attending were notified that new applicants were about to be interviewed. Town Meeting also agreed to put the proposal to amend the Charters’ Residency Requirement on the April Ballot for the Seekonk Residents to vote on.



4. In January 2008 the new Seekonk Town Administrator started his new job. He is not a Resident of the Town of Seekonk.

The BOS has stated that if the proposed amendment does not pass they will simply claim “Extenuating Circumstances” for the next three years until the current Town Administrators contract has expired.

Based on the definition above, this is out of line. There is no way that the BOS can reasonably say if the amendment does not pass that it was unforeseeable. Considering such a proposal failed less than a year ago by a very large margin I would say it is more likely that it will not pass. And this is unforeseeable? The very fact that this is a vote to overturn a policy already in place makes it highly likely that is will fail, or at least more likely that it will not pass. It would not be a surprise, and it would certainly not be unforeseeable.

Unpreventable? Well that is easy. They knowingly hired a candidate who did not meet the current guidelines. That was certainly preventable. The BOS just made a choice not to follow the rules.

So it seems to me that the BOS needs to find another angle.

On the Local Front

Seekonk Welcomes its New TA

Michael Carroll is now the new Town Administrator. He seems to be playing it safe and not making any major changes until he gets fully acquainted with everything. I'm sure he knows that his performance is going to likely dictate whether or not the vote to lift the Residency Requirement passes. So look for him to play it pretty safe for the next two-and-a-half months.

Rest assured that this blogger at least will be watching him closely!

Elections

It's that time of the year again. There are a few positions up for reelection and/or vacant, those can be referenced here.

There are a few positions that are running unopposed. I am not going to name them (you can do the leg work!) because I don't want to sound like I am singling them out. But I do want to say this, regardless of the fact that we may like the current people holding the post none of them should ever be running unopposed. With that happening we ourselves are effectively eliminating the democratic process before it even gets a chance to get of the ground. It eliminates accountability and it eliminates choice. Further more there some posts that are up who we all know we would love to see gone, but that cannot happen if there is no other choice. So if you have ever thought of running, or are thinking of running, now is the time!

Endorsements

You won't see me make many of these, but there are two people running that I am more than happy to endorse.

Bill Barker is running for School Committee. If Seekonk were to give an award for unsung hero it would be given to Bill Barker. He has does more work behind the scenes for this town, and all selflessly. He works with anyone and everyone across the board. I think it about time he got some credit for it. So vote for him!

Robert Fuller is running for the three year water district position. I think he is pretty much a shoe-in, but cast your vote for him anyway!

Things are going to get pretty busy now. We have the Presidential election, local elections, and Town Meeting is write around the corner. So there will be a lot of things to talk about and discuss. But don't worry...we'll give you plenty to read and digest right here!

Romney Creeping up on McCain

John McCain 32%
Mitt Romney 31%
Mike Huckabee 11%
Rudy Giuliani 10%
Ron Paul 8%
Fred Thompson 3%
Some other candidate 2%

Romney made a remarkable comeback in Sunday night's Fox News debate, dominating his opponents. He capitalized on McCain's weaknesses on tax and immigration policy. And Huckabee's refusal to answer questions about his record gave Mitt some credibility on noting Huck's failure to be specific.

Romney/Clinton (Lessons Learned)

There has already been much analysis and spin after the January 3rd Iowa Caucuss. All campaings, winning and losing, have already offered their take and point of view as to why they won or lost. Through all of it though, I think there is one important thread ( as far as the top tier candidates goes) that ties all of the winners together and all of the losers together. I think it's simple...honesty and/or credibility.



Both Romney and Clinton have changed their positions on everything from Abortion to Imigration.



Romney I think may have always been pro-life, I will give him that, but when he ran against Kennedy for Senate he said he was pro-choice. Because he knew he needed to get that vote if he was going to beat Kennedy. He also was in favor of gays serving in the military at that time.



Clinton moved to center of the isle on abortion a few years back as a prequill to her presidential bid. I forget the exact stance, but she basically said while it was still a womans write to choose, abortion was a "horrible choice to have to make". She also refused to directly answer the question regarding drivers licenses to illigal immigrants in her state. In fact rarley does she answer any question matter of factly.



That is why they both lost in Iowa, and no ammount of money could buy them victory.



The American People are waking up. One-by-one they are starting to realize that they have been had. That politicians have been kissing up to them in Public, but behind the scenes have been laughing at us and how stupid we are for falling for "the spin". But we can see it now...all for free...and all on YouTube. Every moment from the Romney/Kennedy election, every gaff that Hillary makes on the campaign trail when she gets a question that her handlers did not prep her for...it's all on the world-wide-web for us to see. And just in case we are not avid web surfers we have "viral e-mails" sent to us with the same content. They cannot hide anymore. They cannot hide anymore and right now..at this moment...there is a new generation of voters coming out. You know...that 18 to 35 age group that never votes? We are voting now...and we are pretty pissed off. Sure...we wasted a few years sitting aorund with out beer bongs and and video game consuls largely ignoring the world around us. But one-by-one we have started to take notice of the world around us and just how messed up it really is.



We see our fathers getting laid off from factory jobs that they had worked at for the last 30 years. We see the pensions, a lifetime of savings...and "guranteed income" disappearing thanks to a loophole in corporate bankrupcy laws. We see our mothers having to go work at Walmart so they can have enough money to get their medication every week. We hear storyies of how Social Security is in shambles, we see how much of our money gets taken out of our paychecks every week to go feed the third generation highschool dropout mothers of five bleeding every dime they can out of the Wealfare system.



We see these things and it does not take much to get us motivated, and to be truthfull we don't really need to do much to voice our opinions because we are the "wired generation". Before you can blink an eye we can design any type of media you can think of and have it broadcasting to iPods and PDA's worldwide. We are the new counter culture of the 60's only we are smarter because we take less drugs!



I should clarify that we are NOT the generation that is a product of liberal demogaugery. The dumbed down uneducated wealfare dependents. No we are not them, and we need not fear them, because they don't vote. And there is not enough free transportion in this country to get them to the polls. The liberals did succeed in creating a generation of people to be dependent on the government. Their plan was to create them so that they would always vote for them. But they have never been able to really succeed at the latter.



The Ron Paul RloveUTION is the perfect example. You need not agree with his political stance to truly appreciate what he has accomplished. He has energized an entire demographic that historically does not vote, does not give money to campaigns, and up until now made no impact on the politcal system. In turn they are waking up those around them. Ron Paul managed to raise almost 20 million dollars this past quarter, outshining even Mitt Romey, and not a dime of it came from a celebrity or a special interst group. Every penny came out of the pocket of an ordinary American seeking change, and a move in a different direction.



So here we are one day of the New Hampshire Primary and ut looks like the polling data says that the American People from both sides of the isle are going to vote for Honesty and Integrity again. Money can buy a lot of things, but at the end of the day the American People have changed, and we are engaged...this makes for exiting times in our history. It reminds me of an excerpt from H.G. Wells:

It seemed to me that all over the world intelligent people were waking up to the indignity and absurdity of being endangered, restrained, and impoverished, by a mere uncritical adhesion to traditional governments, traditional ideas of economic life, and traditional forms of behaviour, and that these awaking intelligent people must constitute first a protest and then a creative resistance to the inertia that was stifling and threatening us. These people I imagined would say first, "We are drifting; we are doing nothing worth while with our lives. Our lives are dull and stupid and not good enough."

Then they would say, "What are we to do with our lives?"


And then, "Let us get together with other people
of our sort and make over the world into a great world-civilization that will
enable us to realize the promises and avoid the dangers of this new
time."

It seemed to me that as, one after another,
we woke up, that is what we would be saying. It amounted to a protest, first
mental and then practical, it amounted to a sort of unpremeditated and
unorganized conspiracy, against the fragmentary and insufficient governments and
the wide-spread greed, appropriation, clumsiness, and waste that are now going
on. But unlike conspiracies in general this widening protest and conspiracy
against established things would, by its very nature, go on in the daylight, and
it would be willing to accept participation and help from every quarter. It
would, in fact, become an "Open Conspiracy," a necessary, naturally evolved
conspiracy, to adjust our dislocated world. ~H.G. Wells

The people of this country are waking up.The silent majority will be silent no more! While we don't agree on everything, I think that most of us who pay attention are realizing that something has got to change. We may not win this time. We may still end up with the Candidate who in the end had the deepest pockets, but they won't get the victory without hearing the message. We are tired, and now more than ever before, no matter who you are, we are going to hold you accountable. There will be no spin spun that will allow you to side-step your failures. We are beyond that now. Conviction means nothing without results. Results mean nothing without true accomplishment. And you won't accomplish anything if you are beholden to corporate greed and special interst groups.

Vote for Change in whatever form you find it.

McCain NH Lead

Rasmussen Sunday Poll

John McCain 32%
Mitt Romney 30%
Ron Paul 11%
Mike Huckabee 11%
Rudy Giuliani 9%
Fred Thompson 4%
Some other candidate
2%

Romney took a beating last night. His negative and half truth ads are coming back to hit him!
If he loses here in NH, I doubt he will win the party's nomination.

New Hampshire Poll Today

Real Clear Politics has the numbers for Today's Suffolk University/WHDH tracking poll and they are:
Romney 29%
McCain 25%
Huckabee 13%
Giulani 9%

Romney Loses Iowa

A New Hampshire Poll the day after Iowa:

John McCain: 34%
Mitt Romney: 30%
Mike Huckabee: 10%
Rudy Giuliani: 9%
Ron Paul: 7%
Fred Thompson: 2%
Duncan Hunter: 1%

Among men, McCain leads Romney 35% to 30%. Among women, the race is closer with McCain getting support of 32% to Romney's 30%. Among moderates McCain gets the support of 53% of the voters to Romney's 24%. Among very conservative voters, Romney gets 38%, Huckabee gets 21% and McCain receives the support of 19%.

60% of likely Independent voters say they plan on voting in the Democratic primary while 40% plan on voting in the Republican primary.



Money doesn't buy everything. Mitt Romney squandered $10 million -- orders of magnitude more than Huckabee -- to lose. Make no mistake: he didn't merely "come in second," he lost. He staked a lot on Iowa, and no amount of spin can mask that, nor mask the reality that his calculations are now badly askew. Things aren't over for Romney -- with his money and press, he has a lot of mileage left in him -- but things are grim this evening. The way out for him involves beating expectations in New Hampshire and winning Michigan. If he does one, he totters on. If he does neither, his star swiftly fades.
Conservatives aren't as credulous as some hope. The data for this is still coming in, but it looks like people with strong ideological identification eschewed Romney for Huckabee and Fred Thompson. Romney's campaign to reinvent himself as a conservative, rightly viewed by many as plainly tactical, may have plateaued.
Mobilization of preexisting civil-society networks is superior to the creation -- or purchase -- of new civil-society networks. Mike Huckabee engaged families and churches. Mitt Romney engaged -- well, people who like Mitt Romney. Guess which got its people to the caucuses? Mike Huckabee appeals to and strengthens the existing web of community in which Americans live -- and that in which they wish to live. A winning Huckabee strategy henceforth builds upon this where it can, and promises it where it can't.