Why Santorum, Newt and Ron Paul Should Stay In.

I'm tired of not voting in the Republican Primary. For the last few decades, by the time the primaries came to Texas, the vote was moot. Everybody had already dropped out except the heir apparent. I didn't vote in the primary last time. If I had, I'd have cast a useless vote for Fred Thompson who'd already dropped out. As it is I don't feel guilty not voting. It would have been a total waste of time. The candidate was already chosen before I got my say in it.

I think all the states should do their primaries on the same day - kind of a mini-presidential election. I think it's monumentally stupid to set the tone for the selection of the presidential candidate based on Iowa, New Hampshire and a couple of other smallish states and retirement centers. So what if the candidates wouldn't be able to campaign in each state. I don't like their commercials anyway and I don't care if they actually come to my state to campaign. I can watch them on television.  This tailing out of primaries is only good for one thing - allowing the party bosses to control the primary so no one unfortunate gets nominated and so that there isn't a real battle royale at the convention.

I want a real battle royale at the convention. I'd love to have seen what the delegate split would have been going into a convention if people had been allowed to vote for whoever they wanted to from the entire field at once.  I'm sick of only having one choice. I'm in Washington state now and it's not any better here.

Up here in Washington it used to be sometime in February, but they did away with the presidential primary altogether this year, ostensibly to save money. They called the primary a beauty pageant. It's now a smoke-filled room caucus kind of deal. Nobody mentioned we were having one and unless you go to a lot of Republican party gigs,  you didn't know it was even going on.

I hope Santorum stays in it to the bitter end alongside Newt and Ron Paul.  Then I think the three of them ought to get together and threaten to wreck the country club Republican leadership's carefully orchestrated Mitt Romney coronation at the convention. I think they should speak very openly about this strategy and let the votes fall where they may in the rest of the primaries. It's the only way conservatives will have any sort of significant voice at the convention.

Just one man's opinion.

Tom King

You Had me at "Moon Colony"

Dragon-X the first private spacecraft orbited in 2010.

Okay, I admit I was less than happy with Newt Gingrich as the potential Republican presidential candidate. I heard a lot of complaints that he wasn't a "real" conservative, that he had some problems with morals, that he had ethical problems and that he didn't get along with members of his own party.

It didn't quite match the "get 'er done" Speaker of the House I remember from his years in the House during the Clinton Administration. It doesn't quite match the in-your-face bulldog I've been seeing in the debates. Then last week when a Romney acolyte complained that Newt was a "loose cannon" and didn't get along with the Republican leadership, it was a bridge too far.

You mean he didn't get along with the country club Republican good old boys that gave us Bob Dole as a presidential candidate? You mean he didn't get along with the country club Republican leadership that took a conservative mandate and turned it into a spineless policy game that put the Democrats back in power in the Capitol?  You mean the Republican leadership that compromised with Democrats time and time again and managed to allow the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac crisis and the housing mortgage crisis with hardly a whimper from the "Republican leadership". President Bush complained. A few scattered members of Congress and the Senate raised a ruckus, but they didn't get much more than lip service level backing from the "Republican leadership".

I kind of like it that Newt makes those guys nervous.

Also, several of my favorite Republicans have endorsed Newt, including Sarah Palin, Herman Cain, Rick Perry and Fred Thompson. Can you imagine if Newt put them all on his cabinet? Wowie-zowie!

Finally, during the debate, Newt said we ought to go for a moon colony in the next decade or so. I admit it, I'm a space junkie. I love the idea of building new spacecraft, space stations, landing on the moon and exploring the solar system. I suspect that Newt would encourage private enterprise to lead the way. That would be exciting.

But Newt had me at "moon colony".  Unless someone else makes me believe they would push the space program forward, I'm afraid the Newtmeister moved to the top of my candidates I find least objectionable.

I admit it. I'm that easy!

Tom King (Native of Texas - home of NASA ground control)