John Cox Has A Strong Conservative Voice And Wants To Be President - So Why Is No One Paying Attention?

My job as a political commentator of little note and low regard is to opine on every presidential level event occurring in New Hampshire between now and next January's primary.

I love my job, much as I love my own opinions.

Which is how I found myself - happily found myself - at John Cox's official New Hampshire office opening last night.

"Who is John Cox?" you might ask.

John Cox is a candidate for the Republican Party nomination for President in 2008. His website may be found here.

"But why haven't I heard of him?" you might ask as a follow-up question.

Good question.

In the 2008 Republican Primary there is John McCain and there is everybody else. So far, "everybody else" has meant Rudy Giuliani and Willard Romney.

Sorry, I meant Mitt Romney.

But why should the "Anyone But McCain" crowd self-limit itself to Romney and Giuliani?

After hearing John Cox last night I would argue that Republican Primary voters not partial to John McCain (you know who you are) take a good, hard look at Cox.

Why?

First, you know where Cox stands on the issues.

Unlike Romney.

Second, Cox is a true Conservative.

Unlike Romney and Giuliani.

I've been watching Romney and Giuliani closely for 6 months and they have said pretty much zilch on any issue of importance today.

Don't believe me?

Test the next Giuliani/Romney article that you read to see if there is any policy "meat" in it.

In other words, does Big Love or Hiz Honor take a position on an issue beyond saying, "Republicans need to get back to our roots".

Chances are they don't.

Chances are the article will be about a campaign hire/fundraising/inside-baseball strategic move/etc.

News coverage of our modern presidency is too often about the mechanics of a presidential campaign and not about the issues.

Which brings us back to John Cox.

At his New Hampshire office opening last night Cox spoke for 20 minutes about what he personally believed in and what he would do as President.

He spoke about reforming the tax system and getting rid of the IRS to make America more business friendly and create jobs.

He spoke about how he would make changes in the pharmaceutical and insurance industries to provide Americans with better, lower-cost drugs and health care.

He spoke about how he has always been (please note Mitt Romney) pro-life after being raised by a hardworking mother whose husband left her shortly after Cox was born.

He spoke about defending the institution of marriage.

He spoke at length about the need for free trade.

He spoke about returning fiscal discipline to Washington and vowed to veto any spending bill that was not balanced.

He spoke of the need to secure America's borders against illegal immigration and vowed to prosecute any American businesses who employed illegal immigrants.

Finally, and this was my favorite, he spoke of the need to secure Iraq's oil pipelines, which would help create jobs in Iraq and stabilize the country allowing American troops to come home with "victory".

Who would help secure the oil pipeline? Haliburton, "because they are some of the best oil minds in the world."

A candidate who speaks freely and well of Haliburton on the stump - that my friends is a good conservative.

While I did not agree with all of what John Cox said last night (Monday Morning Clacker tends to be an Independent who is just as likely to vote in a Democratic Primary as a Republican Primary) John Cox must be given credit for being clear, concise and articulate on conservative issues.

And, being clear, concise and articulate on conservative issues starts him well ahead of Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani.

I think the Anyone But McCain crowd will start to take notice.

Obama Reissues 11-Year-Old Memoir, Dreams From My Father, Proving He Is One Smart Cookie (Not That He Will Actually Run In 08')

Barack Obama will make a wonderful candidate for President. Just not in 2008. He is not ready. He will not run.

This has been my own conventional wisdom for the past 8 months.

And, while I still believe that Obama will not run for President in 2008, I continue to be impressed how he handles his fledgling national organization under the hot lights of nonstop national media attention.

Obama Inc. is incredibly media savvy.

Look at the latest potential PR disaster that his organization defused - The oh my god our candidate used to funnel bourbon, blow rails of coke and rip huge bong hits then decided to write a memoir about the experience! - PR disaster.

Heavy.

Wait, what am I talking about?

Obama partied with Peruvian marching soldiers?

It turns out that 11 years ago Barack Obama wrote a memoir, Dreams From My Father, in which he admitted marijuana, alcohol and cocaine abuse.

The Washington Post has the story here.

Obama wrote the memoir after graduating from Harvard Law School as its first ever African-American editor of the Law Review.

The color barrier that Obama smashed at Harvard Law is nothing to sneeze at, which is why he was asked to write the memoir.

And, as Obama would be the first to admit (clearly), hard drugs played a role in his childhood, which is how the stories ended up in his memoir.

Fast-forward 11 years.

Obama is running for President (just not in 08'). There are 800,000 copies of Dreams of My Father already floating around in America; not a huge number of copies when compared to the 200 million people who vote in a presidential election, but enough so that Hillary Inc. has 3 copies already.

You want to be President but you have admitted in an old memoir that you have blown coke. What do you do?

Obama Inc. orders the memoir's publisher to re-print the memoir.

Obama Inc. puts out a statement on the matter saying, "We believe what the country is looking for is someone who is open, honest and candid about themselves rather than someone who seems endlessly driven by polls or focus groups."

Obama Inc. books Oprah.

Obama Inc. dares any and all in Washington to toss the first stone.

Obama Inc. is absolutely brilliant.

Case closed.

Romney Harnesses New Media For Content Delivery – Unfortunately, Big Love’s Campaign Still Lacks Content

Talk about putting the cart before the horse.

On December 31st, the Boston Globe ran a story about Governor Romney using the web to court GOP activists and likely supporters in preparation of his run for the White House.

You may read the Globe story here.

I am a firm believer that new media will play a large role in the 08’ Presidential. Most campaigns are aware of this and are working hard to make their presence felt on the web.

But the web is a useless tool if you have no message to deliver; it doesn’t matter how flashy your delivery vehicle is.

Good policy makes good politics and content is king. It’s not rocket science it’s politics 101.

Governor Romney is content-light. It’s a dirty little open secret.

He refuses to have a position on the Iraq. He refuses to have a consistent position on gay marriage. He refuses to have a consistent position on abortion. He refuses to have a consistent position on Ronald Reagan.

Ronald Reagan?

That’s right, Governor Big Love has yet to be clear on how he feels about The Gipper.

When Love was running against Teddy Kennedy in 94' he likened Reagan to a "conservative boogeyman". Now that Love is running for the GOP nomination his position on Regan seems to have changed.

A lot.

Which seems to be the case with most of the positions Romney actually takes – they flip-flop.

Which maybe is why Love has a hard time taking positions?

There ain’t no web strategy in the world going to help you with that.