Super Tuesday

Today was Super Tuesday. Here is a short summary of the results.

Mitt Romney won 6 states.
Newt Gingrich won 1 state.
Rick Santorum won 3 states.
Ron Paul didn't win any states.

What I Learned: The results of Super Tuesday (and it still scares me that Rick Santorum is winning anything at all).

Jewish Baptism

Today I learned something both interesting, disturbing and weird. Apparently, the Mormon church has a  practice where they baptize posthumously. More specifically, they are adamant about performing them for Jewish Holocaust victims. They have apparently baptized Anne Frank 9 times. Well known Jewish author Elie Wiesel found out that he was on a list of living Jews whom the Mormon church planned on baptizing once they died. Elie Wiesel, rightly revolted and astonished at this practice, has called on Mitt Romney, being a notable Mormon now in the public eye, to condemn this practice. I did a little bit of research and found that Jews (and others) have been fighting the Mormon church about this for decades. Obviously it is reemerging because of the campaign, but also apparently because as much as the Mormon church claims it is taking Holocaust victims out of their genealogical database to be baptized, it was found this month that the parents of Simon Wiesenthal, a Jewish rights activist and Holocaust survivor, were added to the database. This is also when it was discovered that Anne Frank had been baptized for the ninth time by the church.

What I learned: Mormons practice Baptism for the Dead.

Newt Gingrich Wins SC

To the surprise and amazement of everyone, Newt Gingrich not only won South Carolina, but he got 40% of the vote. A lot of political commentators are saying his surge there was due to his performance in the debate where he demeaned the debate moderator by berating him for starting a presidential debate by asking him a question about his ex-wife (whom days earlier, in an interview, said that Newt asked her to enter into an open marriage so that he could continue his 6 year affair with Calista, his now third wife). While his point about the media demonizing politicians and digging up crap on them is valid, it is also valid to point out that someone who is running on the sanctity of marriage is a complete hypocrite. I especially enjoyed Newt's comment about how he could think of nothing more despicable than starting a presidential debate with something so tawdry incredibly funny. Um Newt, I can think of something more despicable-how about leaving your first wife who's dying of cancer for your mistress, then leaving that one after she was diagnosed with MS for your second mistress...and then on top of that, claiming that you want to uphold the sanctity of marriage. I'm pretty sure that you sir, have done some pretty despicable things in your past. What surprises me is that the conservative base seems to either not care or have forgotten this and instead are steadfast supporters of him as a great moral conservative. Hmm.

What I learned: Newt Gingrich won the South Carolina primary.

Rick Perry Out

The GOP field narrows. Rick Perry dropped out of the race today. Not only that, but he endorsed Newt Gingrich. This primary season is turning out to be quite interesting. No one seems to know what's going on or what's going to happen! Who will win the South Carolina primary on Saturday is anybody's guess.

What I Learned: Rick Perry is out of the race.

Colbert for President!

I think I mentioned in a previous post how Stephen Colbert is going to try to run for President in South Carolina. Well today he announced that he couldn't get on the ballot because the deadline for filing was 2.5 months ago. Also in South Carolina, the ballots are closed meaning that a)once you are on the ballot, you can't get off of it and b)they do not allow write-ins. It looked like Stephen Colbert was in a pickle!

Enter in Herman Cain. Cain filed to be on the South Carolina ballot months ago but has now dropped out of the race. This means that he is still listed on the ballot. So Stephen Colbert has declared that a vote for Herman Cain is a vote for Colbert and this is how he will gauge interest in his running for President. I hope that Herman Cain gets a huge percentage of votes in South Carolina now :)

What I learned: While Colbert can't officially be on the ballot in South Carolina, he is more or less using Herman Cain to get voters to vote for him anyway. I wonder how many people will vote for Herman Cain, thinking they are actually voting for Herman Cain. Teehee.

GOP in New Hampshire

Since the modern primary system began 35 years ago, Mitt Romney is the only Republican candidate to win the primaries in both Iowa and New Hampshire. Granted, he only won Iowa by 8 votes, and republicans still don't seen to really want him as their candidate. While a third win in South Carolina on January 21st should mean that he has clinched the nomination, because of new rules about how the delegates are divided amongst the top three candidates, he won't be able to declare victory until May at the earliest. I wonder how many more debates there will be...

What I learned: Mitt Romney won the New Hampshire primary. 

Iowa GOP Results

I don't know how many of my readers follow politics but I gather that you have figured out that I do. So I was very curious to see the results of the Iowa caucuses from yesterday. And boy was I surprised. Mitt Romney only won by 8 votes, followed closely behind by...Rick Santorum? What?! Where on earth did that come from? I have been following semi-closely and it seems that no one saw this one coming, not only because Romney only won by 8 votes, but that the second place person wasn't Ron Paul or Newt or even Rick Perry. I was also a little surprised that Michelle Bachmann got in last place but am not sad that she is leaving the race. It will be really interesting to see what happens in New Hampshire next week now.

What I learned: Rick Santorum apparently is surging as a candidate, coming in second place in Iowa by only 8 votes.

Presidents' Life Span

I was reading in Time today that the average life span of the first eight Presidents was 79.8 years. This is amazing considering that the average life span at that time was under age 40 for men. The article also states that despite the belief that being President lowers life expectancy due to increased stress, 2 out of 3 presidents have outlived their contemporaries. I am really curious to know why this is as it seems completely rational to me that being President, no matter what the economy is like, or whether or not we are at war, etc, is one of the most stressful jobs you can ever have. Maybe it's because most presidents only have it for 4 years (obviously some have it for 8). After those years, it seems that most presidents make a career out of writing an autobiography, or doing the lecture circuit or simply "retiring." So maybe the real reason is because while they might have a super stressful job for four years, much of their later years is spent in a more relaxed manner than most. Who knows.

What I learned: The first eight U.S. Presidents averaged 79.8 years old, almost double the life expectancy at the time.

Herman Cain

While watching TV today, I found out that Herman Cain is suspending his presidential campaign. Now to avoid getting too political or making any comments on his personal troubles at the moment, let me just say that I personally will miss Herman Cain being in the race because man oh man, does he make me laugh. Now I honestly don't mean that in a mean way, as much as I might disagree with his policies. I mean, he seriously is hilarious and says the funniest things just because he is such a normal joe who is no way prepared or ready to be a politician. I'm not saying that's a bad thing. It is what it is. When he's asked a question, he answers bluntly (when others might stop and think about how he should say something) or he waits entirely too long to answer (when others would have an answer prepared for something so often asked). I feel like he should be on that show with Bill Cosby, "Kids Say the Darndest Things." He brings an air of naivety to the race that is almost refreshing. While I think he had the longest shot at being nominated, he at least kept things interesting and funny in a race that is bogged down with too many candidates to remember.

My favorite quote of his: "I'm ready for the 'gotcha' questions and they're already starting to come. And when they ask me who is the president of Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan I'm going to say, you know, I don't know. Do you know? And then I'm going to say, 'How's that going to create one job?'" (Oct. 7interview with CBN News' David Brody)


What I learned: Herman Cain will no longer be running for President.

9-9-9

Without getting too political, because I know how much people love discussing politics, lets just say that I kinda thought that Herman Cain's 9-9-9 tax proposal was a little ridiculous. I have also seen multiple graphs from economists that show that almost 90% will end up paying more taxes than they do now, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, except that the top 1% of Americans will actually end up paying hundreds of thousands less in taxes, meaning that the rich will pay even less taxes than they pay now, which is less (percentage-wise) than most Americans already. This is a good graph to show it:

http://jaredbernsteinblog.com/9-9-9-in-one-really-long-graph/

Anyway, I haven't really heard or understood anything about this plan that I thought would be good except the basic idea of a flatter tax rate and a much simpler tax code, which of course would be great. Just to explain as simply as possible what it is for those who aren't following the race, the 9's stand for a 9% income tax (to completely replace the current tax code), a 9% corporate tax rate (which is really a business-transaction tax), and a 9% national sales tax (this would be paid on top of whatever state sales tax you already pay).

I just read an article in Time that explains that the U.S. is the only rich country in the world without a national sales tax or value-added tax (VAT). In other countries, this works really well because it's pretty tough to pull off tax fraud if there is a consumption tax because simply, if you buy anything, you pay a tax, the end. Also, Americans more than any other country, buy too much and use credit way too often. Other countries moderate this behavior by having the consumption tax. The article states: "The government will always get less of behaviors it taxes and more of what it subsidizes." What a simple way to put it.

While I still don't like his plan, the idea of a national sales tax is great, assuming that the income tax code is simplified and changed so that the poor don't carry too much of the tax burden. I am all for paying taxes because as much as people say they hate paying them, we would all be way worse off without roads, public schools, social security, medicare and all the other public services we are used to.

Chief Justice Earl Warren in 1952 said, "Many people consider the things which government does for them to be social progress but they regard the things the government does for others as socialism." When it comes to taxes, I think that's something everyone should keep in mind. Herman Cain's plan would be terrible no matter which economist does the numbers, but it's worthwhile that he is putting forth the idea of a national sales tax, and more important, a simpler tax code. I hope Obama jumps on that idea at least!

What I learned: Herman Cain's 9-9-9 tax plan, while economically terrible, isn't as crazy as it sounds when you boil it down to the principals.