The Patriot Post Chronicle 3-21-2012

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The Patriot Post Chronicle 3-21-2012
From The Federalist Patriot
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The Foundation

"No pecuniary consideration is more urgent, than the regular redemption and discharge of the public debt: on none can delay be more injurious, or an economy of time more valuable." --George Washington

Editorial Exegesis

"The Republicans running for president could learn a lesson from House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis. If, as the GOP candidates say, we really have gone miles down the wrong fiscal and economic road, and we surely have, then we require something bold and substantive to take us in the right direction. ... Ryan's plan is a bold stroke. He would cut the top marginal tax rate from its current 35% to 25%. ... Instead of the six brackets under our current punitive tax code, Ryan gives us just two: 25% and 10%. And America's corporate tax -- at 35% the highest rate in the world, with the exception of Sub-Saharan Africa's one-party socialist state of Cameroon -- is cut to 25%, and it largely eliminates the taxation of U.S. companies' overseas profits. Individuals and businesses would be taxed $2 trillion less over 10 years under Ryan's plan than under President Obama's budget, while the federal government would spend more than $5 trillion less. Ryan also scraps something politicians have been promising to get rid of for years, but haven't: the infamous Alternative Minimum Tax. The AMT was passed over 40 years ago to punish a tiny handful of tax-sheltering 'super rich,' but -- surprise, surprise -- soon started slamming the middle-class. ... Ryan's tax reform would help bring America back to what it could, and should, be. It may just be the best weapon in the GOP arsenal." --Investor's Business Daily1

Upright

"As of 5:25 am, AP has fully called 16 of the 18 congressional districts [in Illinois], and Santorum carried only three of them, for a total of 10 delegates. ...So the current total is Romney 41, Santorum 10, with 3 too close to call. If the current numbers hold up ... Santorum gets 2 of the remaining 3, leaving a final score of 42-12 Romney. ... The non-Romneys now would have to win about 56% of remaining delegates in order to control a majority of delegates among them. So far, they've won about 42 percent of delegates. That means, by my quick math, that they would need to improve by more than 33 percent over past performance. I don't see any reason to suspect this might happen." --columnist Timothy P. Carney

"There is no reasonable expectation that Santorum can get the delegates necessary to win the nomination. ... Santorum had a good run; an extraordinary run. ... In the run-up to the Iowa Caucuses on January 3, Rick Santorum was a bit player in the back of the chorus line. In the early debates Rick Santorum was at one end showing his lack of support in the polls. ... He will do well in Louisiana on Saturday but there are no election activities after that until April 3; then nothing until the Northeast primary on April 24. It is time. Over the next 30 days this will become blindingly clear. Santorum and Gingrich should bow out and get in behind the Republican nominee, Mitt Romney." --columnist Rich Galen

"What we see is that Romney won big in metro Chicago, carried the counties with small cities (Rockford, Peoria, Springfield, Champaign-Urbana) Downstate and ran even in the two counties just east of St. Louis, for a solid victory. Romney essentially carried the areas that Barack Obama carried against John McCain in November 2008." --political analyst Michael Barone

"In the general election, President Obama will have all the advantages against Romney that Romney currently has against his Republican rivals. ... And the mainstream media will give Obama more publicity than Romney can buy. How does anyone ever defeat a sitting president then? They do it because they have a message that rings and resonates. ... The question is not which Republican looks better against Barack Obama in the polls today, before the general election campaign begins. The question is which Republican can take the fight to Barack Obama, as Reagan took the fight to Carter, and win the poll that ultimately matters, the vote on Election Day." --economist Thomas Sowell

Insight

"Count it the greatest sin to prefer life to honor, and for the sake of living lose what makes life worth living." --Roman poet Decimus Juvenal (c. 1st - 2nd century)

"Democracy means that anyone can grow up to be president, and anyone who doesn't grow up can be vice president." --American comedian Johnny Carson (1925-2005)

The Demo-gogues

Petulance on display: "Do not tell me that we're not drilling. We're drilling all over this country. I mean, I guess there's some -- there are a few spots where we're not drilling. We're not drilling in the national mall. We're not drilling at your house. I guess we could try to have like, you know, 200 oil rigs in the middle of Chesapeake Bay." --Barack Obama, the great orator

Patting himself on the back: "Change is the decisions we made to stop waiting for a Congress to do something about our oil addiction and finally raised fuel efficiency standards on our cars and on our trucks so that by next decade we will be driving American-made cars that get 55 miles per gallon." --Barack Obama

Tone deaf: "Actually we're not hearing a lot about gas prices right now from constituents. And I think that reflects a growing understanding on the part of the public, that there really is very little that the government and politicians can do." --Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY)

Politics of personal insulting: "If some of these [Republican] folks were around when Columbus set sail, they must have been founding members of the 'flat earth society.' They would not believe that the world was round." --Barack Obama

It's still about him: "[It's] not as trendy to be an Obama supporter, because it's not as fresh. Those [HOPE] posters are kind of rolled up in some closet somewhere. But my determination, my determination is unwavering. My passion to bring about change is undiminished. The need is still great." --BO

Left theology: "Jesus did not help just the sick who could afford to pay for it." --Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) on why Christians should support the top-down government takeover of health care known as ObamaCare

Non Compos Mentis: "You can go back 500 years. You cannot find a more audacious plan." --Joe Biden on Obama's decision to take out bin Laden