From the Garfield Suites

I am on the tenth floor of the Garfield Suites, named after a President whose administration lasted 200 days. He was felled by an assassin's bullet and killed by a miracle of modern medicine. My suite has a balcony, on which I am sitting and blogging. Below me is the Cincinnati public library, which still has books and a cute fountain that pours water over a pile of stone books. To my left is the headquarters of Kroger, many shelves taller than my hotel, but bathed in pink light now. The Kroger building is urging me to become aware of breast cancer. I am resisting the urge. From time to time I hear the clop clop of a horse drawn carriage pass below.

It's a nice, soft night after a long day. I delivered a paper this morning, heard a panel on evolution and politics, and shared lunch with a gaggle of political scientists, biologists, sociologists, and experts in management theory at a Turkish restaurant. I had the chicken kabobs.

Adjacent to the hotel is the Garfield Plaza, a long strip of concrete and planters dividing the east and west lanes of the boulevard. The Plaza is currently occupied by the ill-named "Occupy Cincinnati." There are maybe a half dozen tents and a lot of punk rockers smoking cigarettes and hold signs with the word "banker" covered by a circle and slash. One sign read "We are the 97%". I think that means that someone in the camp lost her dog, because there were more people sitting in the lobby of the bank across the street this afternoon. A Cub Scout jamboree would be better attended.

If Occupy [city to be named later] is the Left's answer to the Tea Party, then the Left's ass is oatmeal. The Tea Party movement was sharply focused on policy question. The folks down below me are vaguely if emphatically disgruntled. There is not a hint of what we might actually do to solve anyone's problems.

I noticed, as I scanned the Web for the first time in, say, 48 hours, that Herman Cain leads Mitt Romney in a couple of major polls. I doubt that Cain will last. He just doesn't look ready for the number one post.

This much is clear, however. Some people in the local blogosphere have insisted that Obama's conservative critics, whether the Tea Party Movement in particular or the Republican Party in general, are motivated by racism. Those people have been revealed as fools. Cain's race is, if anything, an asset. He has surged because of his voice and his genuine conservatism. Race is, if anything, much less a factor in the Republican nomination process that it was in the Democratic nomination process in 2008.

So long from Ohio.

Comments

[Jimi]

"Some people in the local blogosphere have insisted that Obama's conservative critics, whether the Tea Party Movement in particular or the Republican Party in general, are motivated by racism."

Some of these people are being paid by the Soros political machine to use these tactics. Others....who agree with the Progressive Agenda instinctly pick up their Que's from the political and activist leaders who are schooled in the Saul Alinsky radicalism.

From Rules for Radicals:

RULE 5: “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.” There is no defense. It’s irrational. It’s infuriating. It also works as a key pressure point to force the enemy into concessions. The desired reponse is anger and fear

RULE 12: "Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions.

Hillary and Obama are both to be known to have studied and admired Saul Alinsky.

[Bill Fleming]

...sounds like what Rush Limbaugh and Anne Coulter do all day, every day to me, Jimi.

Come on. Everybody has read Alinsky's book. Even you apparently. Give us a break.

[Bill Fleming]

You might want to review this data before letting your outdated opinions crystalize into self-defeating dogma, KB.

There's something going on out there. A smart guy like you might want to be paying closer attention.

http://swampland.time.com/full-results-of-oct-9-10-2011-time-poll/

[Ken Blanchard]

Bill: I am not sure to what data or to what outdated opinions you refer. I only reported what I saw.